Always Use Protection – Ep. 131

[00:00:00] Odd Trails is a true paranormal podcast. If you have a story to share, send it to stories

[00:00:05] at oddtrails.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:00:57] Territorial House by Carina

[00:01:01] My story is about a place and not a specific event, but several.

[00:01:07] The house that my sister and I mainly grew up in was only two houses down from a giant cemetery.

[00:01:14] Of course, the house came with an eerie energy when my dad bought it. Right off the bat,

[00:01:20] the house felt like it had something lurking there or someone was always watching. Back then,

[00:01:27] we kids didn't know how to put into words that we felt like we were being watched.

[00:01:31] Number 1. Unwanted Dinner Guest

[00:01:36] I've heard that negative energy can attract negative spirits, and our dysfunctional family

[00:01:41] had a lot of bad energy. To make a long story short, our family was the classic Cinderella

[00:01:48] story. Our stepmom was awful to my sister and me because we weren't her biological kids.

[00:01:56] About a year or so into living in the new house, my stepmom and half-sister moved out and into

[00:02:02] another country. However, before they left, my half-sister told us about an experience that she

[00:02:09] had. Most of the house's hardwood creaky floors were original to the house and it was hidden under

[00:02:17] the carpet before we moved in. One night, my half-sister got up to use the bathroom

[00:02:23] and she heard the floorboards creaking in the dining room. It was like something was headed

[00:02:29] in one direction. She went to check on it. As she rounded the corner to the dining room,

[00:02:35] she saw one of the chairs being slid out from the dining room table. Having been caught,

[00:02:41] the chair stopped the same second that she came around the corner.

[00:02:45] She booked it back to her room and shut the door until morning.

[00:02:51] 2. The Suitcase

[00:02:53] As a teenager, my room was in the basement, my sister's room was upstairs, and my dad's

[00:02:59] across from hers. When you reach the bottom of the stairs to the right would be my room

[00:03:05] and to the left, which we called the other side, would be a little bar area that used to be an

[00:03:11] office and the rest of the basement was used for storage, laundry, and whatever else.

[00:03:18] Because my room was in the basement, I could hear anything moving upstairs, like noises that you

[00:03:24] would consider the house settling. But I could tell the difference between the quick creak of

[00:03:30] the house settling versus weight bearing down on the floors moving from one room to another,

[00:03:38] even if nobody else was home or awake or moving around. It would happen often, especially at night.

[00:03:45] 3. The Bar Area

[00:03:46] The bar area had a doorway that connected to my room. When I turned 15, my dad let me get a rabbit.

[00:03:54] Sorry, but here comes the layout of the basement. Sometimes I would let my bunny out of her cage to

[00:04:01] stretch her legs or whatnot. When I did this, I would block off all doorways as best as I could,

[00:04:07] but she would still sometimes jump over the blockades.

[00:04:10] The bar also had two crawl spaces, one of which I didn't know about until my bunny crawled behind

[00:04:16] it. I was peeking into the crawl space where I saw her hop into, and I found my bunny sitting

[00:04:23] next to a suitcase. Although this space was technically a crawl space, I couldn't fit into it,

[00:04:30] just my arm, shoulder, and head, so it was more of a space between walls. I grabbed my bunny,

[00:04:38] but I didn't dare touch that suitcase. I stacked a few small boxes over the hole and haven't looked

[00:04:45] at it since. I'm 24 now, and I've just recently told my husband about this suitcase. We've been

[00:04:53] together for almost 10 years, and I have no idea why I never brought this up before when we were

[00:04:59] teenagers hanging out in my room with the suitcase so close. My dad leaves for a month out of the

[00:05:05] year, and we check on his house, sometimes together, sometimes separately. My husband says

[00:05:12] that he's always felt an unwelcoming atmosphere even just pulling up the driveway, knowing that

[00:05:18] he has to go inside. It's oddly quiet, with an awkward feeling hanging in the air because of how

[00:05:25] out of place he feels, a feeling I often had in my own home, especially in that basement.

[00:05:33] Before my dad sells the house, I want to have enough courage to look inside that suitcase,

[00:05:38] or maybe I should continue to leave well enough alone. Curiosity just might get the better of me.

[00:05:45] The lights on the other side would be off most of the time, and I could constantly feel angry

[00:05:51] eyes burning into my skin, staying laser-focused on me as I would go about in my room. When I

[00:06:00] would turn off the lights to go to sleep and face the wall, I could feel the angry eyes moving in

[00:06:06] to stand what felt like directly next to me, almost like it could only move in the dark.

[00:06:15] I always chalked this up to normal fears of a dark basement. That is until I moved out,

[00:06:22] and I haven't felt those angry eyes following me to the new house, even in the dark basement.

[00:06:29] When we visit and I go into that basement, for whatever reason,

[00:06:32] I can still feel these eyes longing to pull me into the darkness.

[00:06:39] Number 3. Dirty feet.

[00:06:43] My sister has had demons her whole life, mentally, and I believe spiritually as well.

[00:06:50] She had a bit of a rebellious period during her teenage years, as we all do,

[00:06:55] but where I'm from it's bad luck to smoke and get high in a cemetery.

[00:06:59] I did this just once, and what followed was a couple of months of the worst luck of my life,

[00:07:06] and I'm so incredibly lucky that it makes my unlucky husband jealous. My sister did this

[00:07:13] a couple hundred times, so of course the next couple of years of her life were difficult.

[00:07:19] I think after one of her sessions, something clung to her with determination to leave.

[00:07:25] She said that one day she was in her bedroom, just relaxing on the floor with her door shut,

[00:07:32] when she heard footsteps walking up the hallway. Because she was on the floor and there was about

[00:07:38] an inch of a gap between the bottom of the door and the floor, she had a decent view of the hallway

[00:07:43] in front of her. The feet walked right up in between her door and my dad's door, but it didn't

[00:07:52] try to get into her room. It just faced the wall between the bedrooms. She said they just stood

[00:07:59] there in dirty white socks like their feet had been through the mud before coming into the house.

[00:08:06] She saw the bottom of a white dress that reached just above the ankles, also dirty with mud.

[00:08:13] She blinked and the feet were gone. I had already moved out. My stepmom and half-sister

[00:08:21] weren't visiting. Only my dad and sister lived in the house, so there was no reason or explanation

[00:08:28] for anyone of this description to be in the house. Number four. Shadow person and it's familiar.

[00:08:39] Because of life's downfalls, my sister, her boyfriend, and my niece had to move into our

[00:08:45] basement. She brought so much bad energy with her that it tainted the entire house. The peace

[00:08:52] and love that we had worked hard to build were replaced with the awkward air and those lingering

[00:09:00] eyes. Even if she and her family weren't home, it hung around. Anyway, one day I was in their living

[00:09:09] room area with their baby while my sister was going up and down the stairs for errands.

[00:09:15] She gets to the bottom of the basement steps and rounds the corner towards the laundry area

[00:09:20] that was cut off from their living space in the basement. I saw a shadow figure following her

[00:09:27] right on her heels, at least a foot taller than her. There were no lights on her that would cast

[00:09:34] a shadow. So I thought maybe it was her boyfriend, so I asked if he was with her just now and she

[00:09:41] said, no, he's in the basement taking a nap. We mentioned this to her boyfriend later on

[00:09:48] and he said that he has also seen a shadow figure following my sister once before and he assumed it

[00:09:54] was me. When he realized I wasn't with her, he didn't bring it up because he figured he had

[00:10:01] just imagined it. A few weeks later, she and I were in the living room with her baby. We both saw an

[00:10:09] adult black cat bolt towards the laundry area. My sister and I looked at each other confused but

[00:10:16] feeling validated that we both saw the same thing. About a week before, my husband and I

[00:10:21] adopted a black kitten. We named it Hades. We usually had him in the spare room for the time

[00:10:29] being so he and our other cat could get acquainted through the door. I called up to my husband and

[00:10:35] asked him if Hades was out and about or in the spare room. He says, Hades has been in the spare

[00:10:42] room for the past hour. The cat that we saw was too big to be Hades anyway but that was the only

[00:10:51] thing that we could think of that would make sense. They moved out not long after. Literally,

[00:10:57] the day after all their stuff was packed and out of the house, the air was light and the basement

[00:11:02] had no lingering feelings to it. Any negative energy that was in the house was gone and I

[00:11:09] haven't seen any shadow people or shadow cats since they moved out.

[00:11:38] Haunted Horse Farm by Shelly

[00:11:42] Two years ago, my husband and I bought our two-acre dream farm in the Netherlands.

[00:11:48] It's an absolutely idyllic place, perfect for our horses and an ideal location for my business.

[00:11:56] My husband works in a different country and I'm away from home four to five days a week due to

[00:12:01] my work. Since we're gone so much, our stable worker lives with us and looks after our animals

[00:12:08] while we're away. My sister who was 18 years old at the time also lived with us while she went to

[00:12:15] school to learn more about the equestrian business. Naturally, she wanted to live with us with her

[00:12:22] pony to learn the ropes. I should mention that both my sister and our stable worker were going

[00:12:28] through troubled periods in their lives and they both admitted that they felt this attracted some

[00:12:34] of the insane things that happened. During this time, we started to notice a few weird things

[00:12:41] happening in and around the house. Even the animals started acting strange, especially the cats and

[00:12:49] our doberman. It all started with weird recordings on our cameras. I was looking at the cameras to

[00:12:57] see how the horses were doing and noticed my stable worker had already taken them in.

[00:13:03] When I opened the camera, I heard voices at the paddocks which were empty at the time.

[00:13:10] The horse paddocks are situated on the west side of the property,

[00:13:14] the stables on the other side, and we live in a rural area with neighbors far away.

[00:13:20] During the evening it's dead silent apart from the crickets and other noises that you're used

[00:13:26] to hearing at a stable, so it was weird to me that I heard voices speaking. After that,

[00:13:33] it spiraled into multiple impossible things happening, such as doors opening and slamming

[00:13:40] closed and hearing heavy footsteps on the stairs, all of which were noticed by several guests we've

[00:13:47] had over. Books have even gone flying off the shelves. The activity increased massively when

[00:13:55] I talked about hiring a paranormal investigator to check things out. I was lying on the sofa with

[00:14:02] my dog when I heard someone running up the stairs. I was startled and my dog growled at the living

[00:14:10] room door. I texted my stable worker, asking if she forgot something and why she was running

[00:14:17] up instead of down as her living area was downstairs. My heart sank when she texted me

[00:14:25] a picture of her and her dog out in the woods about 500 meters away from our house.

[00:14:32] I didn't immediately assume it was something paranormal, so I went to check it out,

[00:14:38] finding my three cats sitting at the bottom of the stairs, looking up. This was weird as they are

[00:14:45] almost never together. When I tried to pet one of them, something started loudly running down the

[00:14:53] stairs right in front of me, but I didn't see anything. I almost lost it. My cats, dog and I

[00:15:02] all ran out of the house and we camped in the stables that night.

[00:15:08] When the investigator arrived the next day, this was the first thing I told him.

[00:15:12] Arriving in the hallway, he immediately felt the pressing feeling of being unwanted.

[00:15:19] He had done some prior research on our property. Turns out it's situated on the exact location

[00:15:26] of a World War II battleground, which took place in 1944. Apparently, the creek next to our house

[00:15:35] is called the Blood Creek because of the many injured soldiers and families who didn't survive

[00:15:42] the war. We also live 100 meters away from a cemetery, which is just great.

[00:15:50] I gave him a quick tour of the place, showing him the areas that had the most activity.

[00:15:56] We closed all the windows and doors upstairs and locked the cats in their cat room.

[00:16:02] When we sat down to discuss things in more detail, we heard a door slam upstairs.

[00:16:08] I got chills all over my body and did not want to go up and check. It gave me the feeling that

[00:16:15] we had upset someone or something, but we went upstairs and discovered that the door of a closet

[00:16:23] I had shut was now open. There aren't any cracks or openings for drafts to come through.

[00:16:31] My stable worker and I were invited to join him on the investigation,

[00:16:36] so I put on my big girl pants and we tagged along.

[00:16:40] During the investigation, the EVP meter picked up on a lot of activity,

[00:16:46] and the spirit box actually gave us intelligent responses to our questions, which was insane to me.

[00:16:55] The investigator told us that this was the most paranormal activity he had ever encountered in

[00:17:02] an investigation. I don't know if that makes me proud or gives me the heebie-jeebies.

[00:17:09] Afterward, we obviously invited a medium, which was not an easy task, because the first four

[00:17:17] people I reached out to refused to come onto my property after I explained everything.

[00:17:23] I didn't know what to do. I just wanted to make our home livable again and give my animals some

[00:17:29] peace. However, the fifth medium I wrote responded with an urgency to cleanse our house.

[00:17:37] Yeah, not scary at all. She made sure she cleansed every area of the house and put mineral stones

[00:17:46] and Himalayan salt in every corner to protect it from becoming a meeting point for the afterlife.

[00:17:52] She stated that she discovered 27 entities in our home, three of which were malevolent.

[00:18:00] This explained the dreadful feeling I had whenever I went upstairs

[00:18:05] and all the aggressive activity as if they were telling us to get out.

[00:18:11] I'm happy to report that after that, everything went back to normal.

[00:18:16] No more activity and our animals have calmed down.

[00:18:20] It's strange to say that I live in a formerly haunted house,

[00:18:24] but we are still alive and finally living in peace.

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[00:21:00] Hide and Go Seek by Xavier. This happened to me about four years ago at my friend Sean's house.

[00:21:08] Sean had invited me and some other friends over for the night.

[00:21:12] Sean lived in a huge, very old house in a historic neighborhood. As we all arrived,

[00:21:19] we waited in his living room. One of my friend's gin had the terrible idea of playing hide and seek.

[00:21:26] We all agreed and my friend Livy was the one picked to be the seeker. As time passed,

[00:21:33] she began to find more and more people, including myself. Sean, Livy, and I were all searching the

[00:21:39] first floor when we heard a blood-curdling scream come from the basement. We figured it was just one

[00:21:45] of our friends trying to scare us and we ran down to see who it was. After five minutes of searching,

[00:21:52] we didn't find anyone and figured that eventually they would come out when the game was over.

[00:21:58] Once the game had ended and everybody was found, we all decided to sit down and watch a movie.

[00:22:05] A few minutes into the movie, Sean asked,

[00:22:08] Hey, who was in the basement earlier? They all looked at each other, confused, and said,

[00:22:14] Nobody was in the basement. I wish this was the end but unfortunately it's not.

[00:22:20] A few days later, I was getting ice cream with gin and we started talking about how

[00:22:24] creepy that night had been. She then told me something that still scares me to this day.

[00:22:31] She told me that while she was hiding in Sean's sister's room, she heard Livy walk into the room

[00:22:38] and start calling out Gin's name. As Livy started to get closer and closer to Gin's hiding spot,

[00:22:45] she heard the distinct voice of Livy on the first floor. Gin burst out of her hiding spot and ran

[00:22:52] down the stairs. Livy was standing in the living room having a conversation with her boyfriend.

[00:22:58] To this day, I still hesitate to visit Sean's house.

[00:23:23] Haunted Flat by Joe

[00:23:27] I have never told these stories to anyone. I'm not even sure why, but probably because I felt

[00:23:34] like no one would believe me. It all started when I moved cities when I was quite young,

[00:23:41] about 7 or 8, and ended up with my parents in a little city by the sea.

[00:23:47] My parents moved into the house about two months before me. I stayed with family in

[00:23:52] another part of the country so they could prepare everything in the house and have it ready for me.

[00:23:58] To give you a bit of background, before moving to that house, I never saw anything weird or

[00:24:04] sensed anything off. The only thing I experienced was sleepwalking, which happened until I was 7.

[00:24:14] I moved into this flat and a few days went by. Sometimes my parents would go to the shop and

[00:24:21] I would be home alone. Every time I was alone, I could hear voices, but I usually discarded them as

[00:24:29] being the neighbors. However, it all changed one day. I was in my room watching TV and my mom was

[00:24:38] somewhere in the flat. I heard her call out my name, to which I replied, yeah? Mind you,

[00:24:47] the walls are thin. My mom didn't reply, so I was a little confused and shouted, what? But nothing.

[00:24:58] Then a few seconds later, I heard my mom call for me again. I got up, fuming, and stormed out to

[00:25:07] the living room. I asked her why she was shouting for me but wasn't answering. I remember the way

[00:25:15] she looked at me when she said that she hadn't said anything. She suggested that it might have

[00:25:21] been the TV. I know for sure it wasn't the TV. I know my mother's voice and she calls out my name

[00:25:30] every day. Plus, she had the TV at such a low volume, I definitely couldn't have heard it from my room.

[00:25:38] I then asked her if she heard me replying back to her. She said no and thought I was sleeping.

[00:25:46] This was the first time I experienced something in that house.

[00:25:51] Fast forward a few months, I started having some vivid dreams, too vivid to even separate

[00:25:57] them from reality. I would be asleep and wake up because someone was whispering in my ear.

[00:26:06] Being a child, I would wake up scared and scream for my parents.

[00:26:10] One night, I woke up after hearing those whispers and sat straight up.

[00:26:16] I saw an old woman I had never seen before at the end of my bed. I screamed even more

[00:26:24] and she started laughing at me. When my parents came in to check on me, she simply wasn't there

[00:26:31] anymore. This happened nearly every night. I would sit up in bed and see that woman

[00:26:39] laughing at me. She had long white hair and was dressed in an all black dress.

[00:26:49] Somehow I knew she was a witch and I would scream at my parents,

[00:26:54] she's here, the witch is back. But they still could never see her. I know what I saw though.

[00:27:03] It started to get more aggressive. Along with her, I would see a man with no head.

[00:27:10] He was wearing a t-shirt and jeans but his clothes were bloodied. This got to the point

[00:27:17] where I couldn't sleep alone at night or wouldn't sleep at all because I was so afraid of them.

[00:27:24] My parents took me to the pediatrician and he said that this was due to my age and having night

[00:27:30] terrors. But my question is, how could it be night terrors or nightmares if I was awake?

[00:27:38] And even now, nearly 30 years later, I still remember it clear as day.

[00:27:46] My last story from this house took place in the evening some years later. I was probably

[00:27:52] around 12 years old. I was in my room watching TV and my parents had finally gotten home.

[00:28:00] My mom was sleeping on the bed and the door to my room was closed. All of a sudden,

[00:28:09] my dog jumped up and let out a soft bark, looking at the closed door.

[00:28:16] The following all happened in a matter of seconds. I snapped my neck to look at the door.

[00:28:23] As soon as I looked, my light went off. Then my TV turned off. My dog let out a massive

[00:28:31] bark and a growl and my light turned back on, followed by my TV.

[00:28:39] My heart was going 100 miles per hour. I jumped out of the bed and ran to the kitchen

[00:28:45] to ask if the electricity went out. My family looked at me and said no.

[00:28:51] My grandma then turned to me and said I looked as pale as a wall.

[00:28:57] I told them what happened and my parents just brushed it off.

[00:29:02] My grandma, however, went to my room and started to pray. I'm grateful for that.

[00:29:08] To this day, I have no explanation for what happened. I have since moved out and haven't

[00:29:15] had any more visions or experienced anything like that again.

[00:29:20] Don't mess with Witchcraft by Shelby

[00:29:42] Let's rewind a bit to the summer of 2010. I was 19 and dumb. I watched way too many horror movies.

[00:29:52] So when Trevor broke up with my best friend Lauren, I did what the typical BFF did.

[00:29:58] I went to her house with snacks, movies, and some beer that I stole from my dad to cheer her up.

[00:30:04] It wasn't until I got there that Lauren shared with me that she had some other ideas.

[00:30:10] A love spell to bring Trevor back to her.

[00:30:14] We were both horror aficionados so we knew exactly what we were doing, right?

[00:30:19] Well, no, obviously we did not.

[00:30:22] Now, present day me looks back on young me and shakes my head.

[00:30:27] I didn't know how to cast a circle to protect myself at all.

[00:30:31] But I was still so gung-ho about doing this spell.

[00:30:36] I was so gung-ho, in fact, that we googled how to do the spell.

[00:30:41] And that right there should have been our red flag.

[00:30:44] But it wasn't.

[00:30:46] Her dad caught us googling and flipped out saying that we should not be doing this.

[00:30:50] That we should not be doing this in his house.

[00:30:54] Red flag again, but no, we did not stop.

[00:30:57] It was a Friday night so Lauren's dad and brothers were going out.

[00:31:02] So doing the spell was just a waiting game.

[00:31:05] Waiting for them to leave so that we could get to work.

[00:31:09] We walked to the store to gather supplies, candles and spices, things like that.

[00:31:14] We even picked roses out of her neighbor's yard.

[00:31:17] And then we watched The Craft because you know, witch stuff.

[00:31:21] Finally, it's 10pm and everyone is gone.

[00:31:24] Time to start our spell.

[00:31:27] Now we did respect her dad in some ways by deciding to do it on the back patio

[00:31:32] and not inside the house but I feel like this made things even worse.

[00:31:37] We got out to the patio, then put out a circle of rose petals.

[00:31:41] Put out our candles on the patio,

[00:31:44] sprinkled them with our cinnamon and other spices, and then lit the candles.

[00:31:48] We sat there for a good hour speaking about Lauren and Trevor's relationship,

[00:31:53] how she wanted her future with him to go,

[00:31:55] and how she wanted him to be obsessed with her forever.

[00:31:59] This conversation like any other that you'd have with a friend

[00:32:02] flowed into spiritual experiences and ghosts that we had seen, things of that nature.

[00:32:10] That's when we heard it.

[00:32:12] A deep male voice from her back fence.

[00:32:16] It said,

[00:32:17] Girls.

[00:32:19] We froze and went silent.

[00:32:22] Hey girls, come here.

[00:32:25] Trying to make ourselves less scared,

[00:32:28] we agreed that it was a neighbor and that we should get up and go look.

[00:32:32] So we did.

[00:32:33] There weren't any neighbors out at this hour.

[00:32:36] It was nearly 1am.

[00:32:38] We also checked the bushes thinking that her brothers would be hiding there trying to scare us.

[00:32:43] But they weren't there either.

[00:32:45] Then we heard a voice again, but this time it came from the patio.

[00:32:49] Girls!

[00:32:51] Over here!

[00:32:54] Before we could move, a large gust of wind picked up.

[00:32:58] Now this was summer in California and even at night.

[00:33:02] It's like 90 degrees with no breeze or wind, so we didn't know what this really was.

[00:33:08] We just took off running up to her patio and put the quote unquote special blanket over her head.

[00:33:15] We didn't care though, we just ran inside Lauren's house and into her bedroom.

[00:33:20] We climbed into her bed leaving the light on,

[00:33:22] put the blankets over our heads, and we lay there until morning.

[00:33:27] We couldn't sleep.

[00:33:28] All night we heard tapping on her window, on her walls,

[00:33:33] and that same male voice saying,

[00:33:36] Girls, let me in.

[00:33:39] We didn't know what to do.

[00:33:41] We were scared and when her dad got home we broke down and told him everything.

[00:33:46] Needless to say he was upset, but he did help us.

[00:33:51] He walked with us out back and helped us clean up the spell

[00:33:55] while we all prayed and blessed the area that we had been at as well as the house.

[00:34:01] I think that the spell might have worked, but not on its intended target, Trevor.

[00:34:06] Whatever we did definitely attracted something.

[00:34:09] What it was or who it was, we are still unsure of.

[00:34:14] But we never did that again.

[00:34:17] Well, it happens to the best of us.

[00:34:19] I guess we should acknowledge the apparently super popular campfire story

[00:34:48] that slipped under our noses and made it onto the last episode.

[00:34:52] Whoopsie.

[00:34:53] Yeah, to be fair, I've been a fan of the campfire story for a while now.

[00:34:58] To be fair, I've never really cared for or consumed too many urban legends

[00:35:04] or any fiction for that matter.

[00:35:06] So this one easily slipped past me.

[00:35:09] It was also an emailed submission from like years ago

[00:35:12] that I just happened to randomly dig up.

[00:35:14] I think it was even sent to the Let's Not Meet email.

[00:35:16] But also as an adult, I pretty much just stick to movies or documentaries

[00:35:21] for any kind of fictional paranormal fix.

[00:35:24] So yeah, I had no idea that that story from the last episode

[00:35:28] was an old internet urban legend.

[00:35:30] I mean, in all fairness, I didn't catch it either.

[00:35:33] Goosebumps was pretty much it for me too when it came to scary fiction.

[00:35:37] After that, it was, yeah, movies and documentaries

[00:35:40] and then seeking out true experiences if I'm going to take the time to read something.

[00:35:46] I've read like two stories from the No Sleep subreddit

[00:35:49] because they were recommended to me and they were cool.

[00:35:52] But I just prefer searching for answers when it comes to this stuff.

[00:35:56] I guess we should read that book, Scary Stories That Tell in the Dark,

[00:36:00] so we can at least have a better idea of what to look out for.

[00:36:03] Yeah, I've seen that book.

[00:36:05] I guess I just don't have too much interest in reading fiction,

[00:36:08] especially now with all of the reading I have to do for both podcasts.

[00:36:12] Nonfiction horror and supernatural stories are just far more interesting to me.

[00:36:16] I like my fictional stories to be told in the form of a good horror movie or show

[00:36:21] or even like a radio play, like an old time radio.

[00:36:24] I also like the No Sleep podcast.

[00:36:27] That's actually entertaining to listen to.

[00:36:29] I know that it's fiction and it's presented in a very cinematic form,

[00:36:33] but when it comes to just like reading fiction,

[00:36:37] it just never did it for me.

[00:36:38] I guess I'm just boring.

[00:36:40] Me either, me either.

[00:36:41] I totally get it.

[00:36:42] I will say that Animal Farm in 1984 really won me over

[00:36:46] and convinced me to try to read more of the classics someday.

[00:36:50] But yeah, I'm the same.

[00:36:52] I feel like I just get more value with my time from nonfiction.

[00:36:55] Absolutely.

[00:36:56] I feel like I'm enriching my life in one way or another,

[00:36:58] even if I'm reading garbage nonfiction.

[00:37:01] If it's real, I just feel like I'm absorbing more,

[00:37:05] I don't know, experience and knowledge.

[00:37:08] Yeah, it could be about the upgrades to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania's stormwater drains in 1976.

[00:37:16] And it'd still be interesting because it's knowledge.

[00:37:20] Yeah, you're right.

[00:37:22] I was kind of intrigued when you brought that up.

[00:37:23] Like, oh, do you have a story to tell?

[00:37:26] Not yet.

[00:37:28] It would probably be a good story to read that scary stories book or something like it.

[00:37:32] We could at least get some kind of exposure to all of the quote unquote heavy hitters.

[00:37:36] Yeah.

[00:37:37] That, you know, everybody else seems to know about.

[00:37:40] And we can avoid that happening again.

[00:37:42] Yeah, we got quite the scandal on our hands.

[00:37:45] Remember the movie The Squid and the Whale

[00:37:47] where Jesse Eisenberg covers Hey You by Pink Floyd,

[00:37:50] the talent show and tries to pass it off as his own song.

[00:37:53] Yeah, yeah, I love that one.

[00:37:55] That's one of my favorite movies.

[00:37:57] He just like flips through the music book and pick something that he thinks is obscure.

[00:38:04] But it's whatever.

[00:38:05] Accidents happen.

[00:38:06] I'm over it.

[00:38:06] Let's move on.

[00:38:08] Yeah, we have to.

[00:38:09] Just a quick side note, though.

[00:38:10] If you're going to send us stories, please only send them if they are personal accounts

[00:38:16] of events in your life.

[00:38:17] No rehashed urban legends, no creative fiction.

[00:38:20] I don't know if it was sent intentionally to try to trick us or if the person just

[00:38:26] thought, oh, it's a scary story podcast.

[00:38:28] I don't know.

[00:38:28] Either way, you didn't write that.

[00:38:30] So don't do that.

[00:38:31] Yeah, exactly.

[00:38:32] You didn't write that.

[00:38:33] So don't do that.

[00:38:34] Yeah.

[00:38:36] So moving on to Shelby's story, the more I read about magic and witchcraft,

[00:38:41] the more I understand why people are so scared of it.

[00:38:45] Yeah, even in Joe's story, she described the scary woman she saw as a witch.

[00:38:50] But I don't know what Shelby was thinking, though.

[00:38:53] Yeah, she and her friend, they didn't do it right.

[00:38:57] They didn't follow Wiccan proto and they didn't have any kind of protection.

[00:39:02] Always use protection.

[00:39:05] We definitely grew up with a lot of misconceptions about witchcraft, though.

[00:39:09] We've talked about how witches are portrayed before, but even just the pentagram.

[00:39:14] It represents the elements and it's meant to be protective, but it ended up being this

[00:39:19] horror pop stereotype that got lumped in with the satanic panic stuff.

[00:39:24] Yeah, probably because people got their wires crossed with the whole inverted pentagram.

[00:39:29] Yeah, yeah.

[00:39:30] And then there's the false idea that most Satanists literally worship the devil and

[00:39:35] that gets misattributed to witchcraft.

[00:39:38] Yeah, exactly.

[00:39:39] But man, do I love some good satanic or witchcraft themed horror films,

[00:39:46] especially those hammer horror movies from the 70s.

[00:39:48] That's just my favorite stuff.

[00:39:51] I kind of do, but stuff like that makes me feel uneasy when they're actually praising

[00:39:56] or trying to contact evil entities with some sort of reverence.

[00:40:01] Even with music, I listen to a lot of metal and I don't mind the lyrics and imagery about Satan,

[00:40:07] but there's a certain line where I feel like I'm going to become collateral damage to something.

[00:40:12] Collateral? Am I saying that right?

[00:40:13] You are.

[00:40:14] Okay, but yeah, as per witchcraft, I'm glad it's all positive vibes.

[00:40:19] Yeah, I'm actually going to be talking to a fourth generation witch from the UK for that

[00:40:24] upcoming pod, so if you have any questions that you think I should add to my list, by all means,

[00:40:29] go ahead.

[00:40:30] I guess something along the lines of what sort of

[00:40:33] aha moments they've had that validated their beliefs.

[00:40:37] Maybe they did a spell and something happened that they

[00:40:40] feel couldn't have been a natural coincidence.

[00:40:43] I know a couple of people who claim to be witches, and for them,

[00:40:47] they just jive with the spiritual philosophy and the rituals help keep them grounded.

[00:40:53] I just like hearing about metaphysical experiences in general,

[00:40:56] especially when it's something that makes somebody a believer in whatever it might be.

[00:41:01] Right, right, and I'll definitely be getting into that, but you're right.

[00:41:04] It's less about spells and more about energy work and spirituality.

[00:41:09] I'm reading a really interesting book right now on that exact idea called Psychic Witch by Matt

[00:41:15] Aron. It explores the psychic and intuitive aspects of witchcraft. I love it.

[00:41:22] Yeah, you'll have to report back with how that interview goes. I think religion and

[00:41:26] spirituality fit well with the paranormal, kind of like how there's an overlap with

[00:41:30] horror and true crime.

[00:41:32] Yeah, yeah, those things have more in common than devil worship and witchcraft.

[00:41:37] Sick callback, bro.

[00:41:39] Thanks. But yeah, we can use this portion of the show from time to time to recap some of the

[00:41:45] topics that I come up with in those interviews, because it kind of rhymes with everything that

[00:41:49] we do here on All Trails.

[00:41:51] Perfect. Well, I'm going to finish this original song I've been working on called Bohemian Rhapsody.

[00:41:58] You better triple check your bags and get some sleep, Mr. Disneyland.

[00:42:01] Yeah, I know. I've had the pre-travel jitters all day, but good luck on that song. I hope it

[00:42:08] tops the charts, man.

[00:42:10] Oh, it will.

[00:42:12] Thanks everybody for listening. If you have a story to share, make sure you send it to

[00:42:15] stories at oddtrails.com, as long as it's not fiction. However, all of the stories you've

[00:42:22] heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors.

[00:42:26] And make sure you sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com forward slash odd trails. If

[00:42:30] you want to get access to ad-free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bit rate

[00:42:35] for the best listening experience, you can do that at patreon.com forward slash odd trails.

[00:42:40] And finally, make sure you check out the new episodes of our other podcasts like Let's Not

[00:42:43] Meet a True Horror Podcast and the Old Time Radiocast at crypticcountypodcast.com.

[00:42:48] Everyone stay safe.

[00:42:49] Peace out.

[00:42:50] Don't let the ghosts and the ghouls disturb you, darling.