Episode 183: The Backwoods of West Virginia Are Definitely Haunted!

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_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. Forget facts. Forget logic. Forget everything that seems real. You just trust. Believe.

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_00] What Did I See That Night? by InspectorWestern2749 A few nights ago, I woke up just before sunrise. I slept on the top bunk, and when I opened my eyes, I saw something in the room. It looked humanoid, but long and slender. It was hard to see clearly,

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_00] but I could tell that its head was facing downward, because it was so tall and that it was hitting the ceiling. I know some of you will say, oh, it's just a dream or sleep paralysis, but it wasn't. I could move. I could talk. I was fully awake. The first thing I did was call out to my mom. She didn't answer, which was strange because she's a

[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_00] very light sleeper. I knew she was there because I could hear her snoring. And there's something else I should mention. We keep a small cross above the door of our room. It's been there for about 14 years and never moved. But the night before this happened, it fell to the ground. So back to the creature, it looked like it was breathing heavily, maybe even panting like a dog. After that night,

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_00] I woke up sweaty and out of breath. And ever since, I've had this constant feeling that someone is watching me. I don't know if it's just paranoia or something worse. There's a window across from my bed. It faces another house, and some of their windows line up with mine. Today, I swear I saw something watching me from one of those windows. It looked like the same creature, tall and crouching down.

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_00] As soon as I noticed it, it slowly moved backwards and disappeared. Not to the side, just backwards, like it melted into the darkness. Honestly, I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight. I thought that writing this down might help calm me. But for some reason, it's just made it worse. If anyone has any idea what I saw,

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_00] please let me know. Also, the creature looked kind of blurry, like my eyes couldn't really focus on it. I don't know how else to describe it. It was like my brain didn't want to see it clearly.

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_01] Firefighters from Ouija and DNA testing by Hidden B27 I grew up in a small, old town in Massachusetts, a place where almost every house has a history. Stories of hauntings weren't unusual growing up. Friends always had something creepy to share. It was just part of the culture. My own experiences started around seventh grade.

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_01] I had a really cool bedroom all to myself, on the second floor, while my parents and younger brother had rooms downstairs. Strange things started happening. My boombox and desktop computer, this was the early 2000s, would randomly turn on in the middle of the night. It terrified me. My parents brushed it off as electrical issues, which, looking back, is kind of funny. Like,

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_01] wouldn't that be more concerning? Other weird things included the downstairs bathroom's motion sensor light turning on by itself and strobing. Doors upstairs opened on their own. Our cat would look up at the ceiling, meowing and walking in circles. No catnip involved. We'd hear silverware fall, doors slam. Little things that added up. One day my babysitter told me someone had died in our house

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_01] at the age of 19, possibly by suicide. I've tried looking into it but haven't found anything concrete. Though if you're up for it, I'll give you the address. My brother admitted to some weird experiences, too. But my parents always played it cool. Only recently did they finally fess up. And my dad said, what, you wanted us to tell you someone died here and it might be haunted?

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_01] Then came the Ouija board. My friend had seen kids she babysat playing with one and convinced me to try it. I didn't expect much, but when we started, the planchette moved, without either of us touching it. We spoke to what claimed to be a firefighter who died saving people. He gave detailed information,

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_01] including where he lived, and even told me about an upcoming flight to St. Lucia, layover and all. He wanted me to deliver a message to someone I'd supposedly see at the airport. Quote-unquote, free their birds. At the time, I was a teenager. Now at 36, that entire interaction feels deeply unsettling. But back then I just accepted it.

[00:06:35] [SPEAKER_01] Strange things kept happening, but eventually I just learned to live with them. It's Massachusetts, after all. Houses here are old. Weirdness is almost expected. But here's where the story takes a turn. About a year ago, I took an ancestry DNA test. That's when I found out that the man I grew up calling Dad wasn't my biological father.

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_01] Everyone in my family, including my dad, knew. I was the only one who didn't. My mother had me young and didn't have a relationship with my biological father. The man who raised me passed away a few years prior, and I adored him. Learning the truth after his death was incredibly difficult. Thankfully, my biological family was kind and welcoming.

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_01] They had lost my bio dad just a few years ago, and were excited to discover that a piece of him lived on. Over time, the shock wore off, and I now consider it a blessing. But in the moment, I felt lost. So I did what any emotionally overwhelmed person does. I went to a psychic medium. I'd never been to a psychic before. Being Catholic, it's just something that's kind of frowned upon.

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_01] But this man turned out to be one of the kindest, most compassionate people I've ever met. I explained my situation, and said I was hoping to connect with my biological father. While he wasn't able to make a connection, he somehow knew what my father did for a living. And that information wasn't public anywhere. This was a recently uncovered family secret.

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_01] He also described a necklace my grandfather gave me, and shared detailed medical information about my adoptive dad. No way he could have known any of that. Then he said two things I'll never forget. First, he asked, who's the firefighter I'm seeing? I had no connection to any deceased firefighter. Except the spirit we supposedly contacted with

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_01] that Ouija board. I got chills. Second, he said, there are four biological siblings. One doesn't know. I brushed it off at the time. My biological father had five siblings, four of whom were still living.

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_01] I was just as confused as I had been. We're only months apart in age, and just like me, she'd grown up believing someone else was her biological dad. That made three of us. Me, my half-brother I grew up with, the half-sister I'd recently connected with. And now this newly discovered half-sister who also just

[00:09:44] [SPEAKER_01] found out the truth. Four siblings. One didn't know. Just like the psychic said. Now I'm wondering if I should go back, to ask more about the firefighter. Could he really be the same spirit from the Ouija session all those years ago? Or maybe some things are better left unexplored.

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[00:11:40] [SPEAKER_00] extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Geometric symbols caused an altered state of consciousness by garden craft. 15 years ago, I saw a set of strange geometric runes that unlocked something inside of me and thrust me into an altered state of cosmic consciousness. What follows is my best

[00:12:08] [SPEAKER_00] recollection of the incident. To set the scene, it was the summer following my first year of law school. I was spending the summer at my folks' place for a clerkship, but I traveled back to my school town for a weekend to hang out with my friends. We had planned to eat some weed brownies early in the morning and then spend the day at an amusement park riding roller coasters. And that's exactly what we did.

[00:12:34] [SPEAKER_00] I think somehow the adrenaline rush primed the pump for whatever would transpire later that evening. Everyone had a great time, and later that night, I arrived back at my school town home alone, exhausted but extremely content. At sundown, I laid there in bed, scrolling the internet, feeling unusually calm and happy. As I'm scrolling and thinking about other things, in my mind's eye,

[00:13:04] [SPEAKER_00] I see three monks. They start approaching me. I thought, this is really odd. But I was so relaxed and in such a good mood, and the monks seemed non-threatening. So I decided just to let it play out. The central of the three monks stepped forward, holding a rolled-up scroll. He unraveled it to

[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_00] reveal writing and a language that I didn't recognize. But bordering the indecipherable text were these geometric-shaped symbols. And those I did recognize. Not from this lifetime, but from somewhere else. Some time else. The moment I saw those symbols, my consciousness exploded up through

[00:13:52] [SPEAKER_00] a tunnel from the center of my brain and shot out of my forehead, and then expanded into everything. The central monk simply smiled and said, yes, now he remembers. That was the last I saw of the monks. But the altered state continued for the rest of that evening. At first I was terrified, certain that I had either died or was about to. All of my worst fears relating

[00:14:22] [SPEAKER_00] to death came bubbling up. I thought about my friends and my family being sad, and even worse, inconvenienced by my passing. I thought about the mess that my corpse would leave, and that some poor soul would have to clean me up. I spiraled into a full-blown panic attack. Then, at the peak of terror, I finally surrendered and thought, well, if this is it, let's do it.

[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_00] And so I just let go. The moment that I let go, the panic began to dissipate, and was replaced by a state of bliss beyond words. That's when the experience truly began. At first I just sat on the ground and rocked gently back and forth, basking in its ecstasy. It felt indescribably good. Then I gained my bearings, and the revelations began.

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_00] The first revelation was that death is impossible, at least in the way that I was perceiving it at the time, as non-existence or annihilation. In fact, the premise was laughably impossible. The idea that you could just not exist was cosmically absurd. I couldn't stop laughing about this.

[00:15:43] [SPEAKER_00] You can't not be. That's just the nature of reality at the most fundamental level. I felt simultaneously as large as the universe and somehow also as small as an infinitely tiny pinpoint. It was like infinity goes on forever, both inward and outward, and I was the interface between the two.

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_00] It was just a matter of perspective, whether you're infinitely large or small. I realized that there was nothing on the other side of my bedroom door until I opened it and walked through. Like the universe self-renders, but not only when observed. It felt like all of the knowledge in the universe was available to me, and yet it was effectively inaccessible because the moment I tried to formulate a question,

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_00] I immediately knew the answer. But there was no time to even digest or memorize these answers because they just disappeared too quickly, collapsing back into the question. There was no separation between the two. Moreover, the answers were so ridiculously obvious, even the answers to the deepest questions, that dwelling on them, even if I could, felt like a worthless expenditure,

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_00] or so it seemed in this state of consciousness. The remainder of the evening was spent mostly basking in the bliss. I wanted to drive to a friend's house to share the good news, but I realized that could be a risky endeavor given the altered state, so I just stayed put. When I went to sleep that evening, I told myself, whatever you do, do not forget this state of consciousness. This is huge news.

[00:17:32] [SPEAKER_00] Then I laughed and remembered that I always tell myself that, and I always forget. And that was the craziest part. I wasn't experiencing this altered state for the first time. I was remembering something that I had already known, something I always knew. The truth was inside me and all around me the entire time. Always had been, always will be, and I suspect that's the case for all of us.

[00:18:02] [SPEAKER_00] Suffice it to say, the experience changed me. I went from dean's list in law school to dropping out on two separate occasions. Turns out, when something just annihilates your concept of reality itself, you have to rebuild from scratch. And that's a lonely, disorienting process. I wish a community like this had been around back then. But ultimately, I am extremely grateful that it happened. I'm different now.

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_00] More compassionate. Less reactive. More empathetic towards others. Because I've met the actor playing all of the parts. Because that's who you really are. You're not the role that you're currently playing, but the actor beneath the mask. And it's the same actor playing you and me and everyone else. Once you've seen that, it becomes difficult not to feel empathy toward your fellow humans. Because they are you.

[00:19:45] [SPEAKER_01] She Wasn't My Daughter That's not the only thing that you're doing. I didn't see or feel anything. But really, I was just ignoring it. That all changed after I went through the worst three years of my life. Losing three of the people closest to me. That was an incredibly dark time. Then I spiraled deep into a depression. But when I got pregnant with my third child, something shifted. I started seeing things again. Like I used to.

[00:20:14] [SPEAKER_01] Which brings me to the night I saw not one, but two spirits in the same room, just hours apart. My husband, daughter, and I were spending the night at my mother-in-law's house. It's a two-story home sitting on about 50 acres in a tiny town called Blanket, Texas. Yes, it's a real place. We had just bought the house recently, and were getting ready to make it our own. After I saged the hell out of it, of course.

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_01] After dinner and the bedtime routine, we settled into my sister-in-law's room for the night. She was away at college. My husband, bless him, gave me the queen bed so I could sleep more comfortably. Being six months pregnant and not getting much rest, that was appreciated. He and our daughter took the floor. She's a daddy's girl, and between my tossing and turning, she wanted nothing to do with sleeping next to me. At around 2.30 in the morning,

[00:21:13] [SPEAKER_01] I woke up and rolled over to face the doorway. That's when I saw him. A huge shadow of a man stood in the doorframe. No facial features, just the silhouette. He was as tall as the frame itself. He didn't speak or move, just stood there. In my half-asleep mind, I figured it was my father-in-law checking in on us. He's a tall guy too, so I didn't think much of it and drifted back to sleep.

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_01] About an hour later, I woke up to the sound of movement on the floor. It sounded like my daughter was tossing and turning. I sat up and looked down, and saw her stand up and start walking toward the door. I said, Emma, turn around and lay back down. It's not time to wake up. She turned to face me, and that's when I realized it wasn't Emma. This little girl had dark eyes

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_01] and short, dark hair pinned up on one side. She wore a white dress with lace and puffed sleeves, like something from the late 1800s or early 1900s. For reference, my daughter has long blonde hair and was wearing her Elsa pajamas. She looked at me like she couldn't believe I could actually see her. Then she turned, walked back over to the pallet, and laid down, right next to my real daughter, and disappeared.

[00:22:43] [SPEAKER_01] I froze. I couldn't believe what I had just seen. But as soon as I came to, I swung my pregnant body out of bed faster than I thought possible and rushed over to scoop up my daughter. I carried her into bed with me, leaving my husband on the floor. The thought of waking him didn't even occur to me. I was in full mama bear mode, and the ghost girl wasn't getting another chance to cuddle. I didn't sleep for the rest of the night.

[00:23:12] [SPEAKER_01] I just laid there, eyes scanning the room, but she never came back. At breakfast, I asked my mother-in-law why my father-in-law had come to check on us. She gave me a strange look and said that he hadn't. He'd been sleeping all night and hadn't gotten up once. She's a light sleeper and would have noticed. I told her about the tall man I saw in the doorway, and she immediately started telling me that she'd seen him around the house and property for years.

[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_01] Which jogged my memory. Back before kids and marriage, when my husband and I were dating, he lived in a loft above his grandparents' house. I used to see that same tall man all the time, but never wanted to acknowledge it. I pushed it to the back of my mind. Now it's been eight years, and I've never seen that little girl again. In the moment, of course, I was terrified. My first thought was evil. But once the fear wore off,

[00:24:14] [SPEAKER_01] I realized she wasn't there to hurt anyone. I think she was just lonely. Still, would I be okay with her lying down next to one of my kids again? Hell no. As for the tall man, I've seen and felt him a few more times since then. I don't think he means any harm either. If he's just wandering around, that's fine. Just not in my house.

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER_00] The backwoods of West Virginia are definitely haunted by Taurine Dude 45. My grandma's property is settled all the way in the back of the woods at the end of a long, unpaved road. Along with being comically bumpy, it also has a history of hauntings that were passed between family members over the years. I myself was somewhat skeptical of these tales, until one night

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_00] about a year ago. Back then, I lived with my grandma down at the end of that road, and at that time, I also didn't own a car. As such, my boyfriend had to walk to my house from the entrance of the road since his parents didn't want to risk damaging their vehicles on the aforementioned bumpy road. Now, mind you, this road is a good twenty-minute walk from beginning to end, completely overgrown with bushes

[00:25:58] [SPEAKER_00] and trees, and has a puddle every other step. So, more often than not, I'd meet him halfway, then walk him back to the entrance once he was going home. That night, when we were walking back to the entrance, I decided to tell him about the property's haunted history. From the silver buried in the four corners of the property to appease a supposed deer spirit, to the knocking on the counters at night, I spilled every tale

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_00] that I had ever heard. Now, unlike me, he was genuinely afraid of such tales. He himself had once had an experience very similar, albeit much more terrifying, to the one I was just about to have. He warned me not to do one thing. Don't whistle at night. Now, one thing to know about me, I am a habitual whistler, and tend to do it

[00:26:56] [SPEAKER_00] without even thinking about it. So, of course, on my way back, I began whistling a tune. That particular night, it was unusually bright outside for being so late. The sky was still a dull blue, and there was hardly a shadow despite being well past 8.30. I had gotten to the quarter mark of the road. It was an almost gateway of bushes on a small ridge going further into the road when I heard something.

[00:27:26] [SPEAKER_00] A yell. A yell that very distinctly sounded like an old man. Later, once I got home, I had realized there was a word in that yell. The word help. At the time, I didn't think anything of this, which, yes, was especially dumb of me. I'd love to pull out every excuse under the sun, but I was evidently feeling very stupid that night. Now that I've

[00:27:55] [SPEAKER_00] had time to think about it, I've noted two things. One, there is no possible way there could have been an elderly man on or near the road. My grandma is the only person who lives on that road. Second, as I mentioned, was the word in the yell. Help. My boyfriend, after hearing the story, said it was meant to be a lure. For what, though? For me? Death?

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_00] All that fun stuff? Well, going back to my walk, when I got to the halfway mark of the road, there was a field of dead yellow grass and a single fallen tree on the left-hand side of the road. I had seen it hundreds of times before, and every time I thought, why is that tree still there? As I took my courtesy look at the tree, I noticed something. Or someone. Or maybe it. To this day, I don't understand

[00:28:55] [SPEAKER_00] what I saw. It wasn't a cryptid, not a monster, not a demon, but it was standing about 30 feet away from the trees. And honest to God, it can only be described as a sheet ghost. A simple, rounded pillar of white, nearly 8 feet tall, and as still as the tree before it, it stood there. It saw me. I know that it did.

[00:29:25] [SPEAKER_00] It didn't have any eyes or a face, but I know that it saw me. I had never truly known fear before that night. I froze in place and felt like a mouse beneath a cat's paws. I was caught, hopeless. Faster than I could think, it ducked behind the tree and stayed there. 30 feet traversed in under a second. Once it was behind the tree,

[00:29:54] [SPEAKER_00] it stayed there, and I could move again. The sensible among you probably think that I ran, but I didn't. I didn't want to get its attention again. Ten minutes of absolute silence and paranoia as I walked home, utterly terrified. I got home, and there sat my grandma on her little red couch smoking a cigarette. You look like you've seen a ghost, she chuckled. Well, I had.

[00:30:25] [SPEAKER_00] I've gotten all kinds of answers for what I saw. Skinwalker, Wendigo, Hide Behind. For now, I just wanted to share my story and let speculation generate more ideas as to what I saw. So thanks for listening.

[00:30:59] [SPEAKER_01] I broke a vow to something by the Popsicle Man. There are two parts to this story. Part one happened a couple years ago. It was early, about 5 a.m., and I was using a metro station bathroom when I caught a glimpse of something in the corner of my eye. I could have sworn a figure was waving at me, but when I turned to look, no one was there. Half joking, I said out loud, If that really was someone, let's make a deal.

[00:31:29] [SPEAKER_01] If my commute goes smoother this month, I'll perform a puttidana for you, which is a Buddhist offering of merit to the departed. To my surprise, the entire following month was weirdly smooth. No matter how late I was, I always found parking. The train I got on was never packed. Everything just flowed. At the end of the month, I kept my promise and performed the puttidana. After that, back to the usual,

[00:31:58] [SPEAKER_01] nightmare traffic and stressful commutes. Part two happened much later, around late January or early February. I had to work overtime until about 11 p.m. My office is in a building that's roughly 35 to 40 years old, with renovations here and there. And yep, this next part takes place in a restroom again. Our urinals are sensor-based, but they don't auto-flush. I know this for a fact because I worked

[00:32:28] [SPEAKER_01] on the renovation team. Anyway, as I was doing my business, the urinal next to me suddenly flushed. I thought back to the metro station and jokingly blurted out, if you're really here, do the sink too. The sink I wasn't even near, off in another direction, turned on. So yeah, I made the same deal again, better commuting, better traffic. But this time, I forgot to follow through after the month ended.

[00:32:57] [SPEAKER_01] Fast forward to May in the middle of the summer. One night, I woke up drenched in sweat. I looked at the air conditioning remote on the wall. It had switched to fan mode, not cooling. No timers were set. I switched it back and went to sleep. The next night, things got even worse. I experienced what I can only describe as sleep paralysis. I was half awake and felt a finger tracing something into the palm of my hand.

[00:33:27] [SPEAKER_01] I couldn't understand what it was writing. I gathered all my strength and sprang upright. A local belief says that if you're haunted in your sleep, you've got to force yourself awake as hard and fast as you can. My AC was back on fan mode. The next day, I told a friend what happened. He immediately asked, did you ever fulfill your promise? I started to say it was probably just a sensor glitch or something when he cut me off.

[00:33:56] [SPEAKER_01] Would you call what happened the last couple nights normal? And that's when it hit me. I went to a temple and explained everything to a monk. He helped me perform a greater patidana, more powerful than the first. And ever since then, everything's been fine. But now, I never take chances. And I wear the blessed necklace the monk gave me every single day.

[00:34:43] [SPEAKER_00] So I don't know a lot about geometric runes. I think they're similar to, I guess, sacred geometry or mandalas, mandalas, yantras. I'm not sure. I think of sigils. I think of sigils and like Full Metal Alchemist. Okay, no, that actually makes a lot more sense. While I was reading the story, I was like, that's interesting. I don't actually know what that is. I need to look it up.

[00:35:08] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah, they have different things in like the, I don't know, like the Nordic runes and everything like that. Right. The pagan stuff. Yeah.

[00:35:15] [SPEAKER_00] Okay, I'm looking it up now. It kind of looks like what most movies or TV shows kind of uses inspiration whenever they create another alphabet or language for like alien races or something.

[00:35:27] [SPEAKER_01] Always, always, yeah. It's always some like loose like arrow cross

[00:35:31] [SPEAKER_00] type of thing. Yeah. Yeah, I just played that, this really bad game on one of my streams yesterday. It was that Disney movie Atlantis. There was a game on Game Boy Advance that was, it's just awful. It's terrible, but there are runes all over it and they look exactly like some of the runes that I'm looking up now on Google. So yeah, I can see how this could make its way into somebody's consciousness. I don't know. Everything just seemed so perfectly placed

[00:36:00] [SPEAKER_00] for an awakening experience. all the way down to having their ego death, which normally affects people in a negative way. It sort of makes them kind of give up on life and they're depressed about life because they had this amazing spiritual experience and they died to their ego and now life means nothing to them. And it even sometimes happens with people who have near-death experiences. They're like, I just want to go back to where I was when I died that heaven or wherever I was.

[00:36:29] [SPEAKER_01] It's just the complete loss of self. There's like, there's no sense of real existence because what are you experiencing? There is no you. It's just a very difficult thing to wrap your head around and come to terms with when it does happen.

[00:36:42] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, and existence and consciousness is already something that's so hard to understand and be content with. Yes. Like, our whole purpose in life is the quest for meaning. Otherwise, what's the point? What are we doing here? So this, I found this story to be just really fascinating because it made me think a lot and their experience was just so interesting because it incorporated so many things that we see

[00:37:11] [SPEAKER_00] in popular culture or that we hear about and it all just kind of connected perfectly in their experience and I'm really glad that they shared it. So thank you so much to the author for sharing your awakening story. I'm really curious to have some updates on what's going on in your life now.

[00:37:28] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah, it was really good. I like the whole concept of consciousness when you break it down on like the most fundamental physical level like on a molecular level what is consciousness? It's just really just some sort of some sort of cellular vibration that's occurring within what we know as space and time and physical existence and we have this awareness and this awareness is some other type of I don't know it's such a weird thing.

[00:37:57] [SPEAKER_00] But hey it's no haunted house story I'll tell you that.

[00:38:01] [SPEAKER_01] Massachusetts has always been one of those places where I've never been but I feel like I have an idea on what like what it's all about same thing with Vermont and New Hampshire to an extent. Yeah. Really want to go and I hope it does happen someday. Such like a perfect scenic spot for any sort of haunting thing New England in general.

[00:38:21] [SPEAKER_00] Mm-hmm. The guys that helped me are really just did the heavy work did the shooting and the editing and everything for our Let's Not Meet shorts that we filmed they are all in Massachusetts and it was just the perfect place to film all the scenery that they used the locations that they used it just looked amazing and I'm really excited to do more with them out there because it's it's just a perfect place. Perfect place.

[00:38:48] [SPEAKER_01] Wow. Those are some fighting words. Yeah. It's gorgeous man. You're gonna get the key to the town of Boston if you keep it up. I'll replace Jason Tatum my Achilles are just fine. Poor guy. Poor guy. Yeah. Yeah. Bruins. Go Bruins. So how would you react to the news of finding out that you have a sibling somewhere whether it's a half sibling or maybe if it were a full sibling that would be even juicier in a way but yeah how would you react

[00:39:17] [SPEAKER_00] to that? It would be such a hard thing to wrap my head around because as an only child I have no siblings so it would be not only like a surprise it would be a complete reframing of my life because if you have siblings already you're already living a life of sharing that experience with others and you know you have this kinship with them. I've never had that. I've always been alone growing up so knowing that I missed out on years of being able

[00:39:46] [SPEAKER_00] to have a sibling and somebody close to me growing up like that I really I always wanted that. I would honestly be angry about it. So you would hiss at your parents and like storm off? Absolutely. This is important information especially for an only child. I could understand like I said if I had siblings already but I hated growing up alone and my mom just wasn't able to have another kid so I had such an isolated life growing up. It's a really

[00:40:15] [SPEAKER_00] sad boring story so let's move on. Ouija boards. Why do people keep using Ouija boards?

[00:40:24] [SPEAKER_01] Probably to get some I don't know some flight information about St. Lucia. I really don't know. It makes sense why people want to. I think when they are a participant in a group there's that lack of personal accountability when you're just part of a group you know like basic basic stuff right there. That's all I can really think of. In fact like the few times the very few times I've dabbled in that it was like a very begrudging well I guess I'll be okay because this

[00:40:53] [SPEAKER_01] person's doing it I'm just like you know to kind of along for the ride right said every person who ended up in prison so I mean it's not like the best reason to do things but that's that's my best guess it's just alluring

[00:41:06] [SPEAKER_00] I'm wondering if they should go back to the psychic or just leave it alone what would you do in this type of situation

[00:41:15] [SPEAKER_01] definitely go back to the psychic I think they were pretty spot on with a lot of the stuff that they had mentioned some things were just very spot on like the fourth sibling thing yeah the the firefighter something about it just feels like they were onto something and they may they might actually have a gift so why not see what else they have to offer

[00:41:36] [SPEAKER_00] sometimes I wonder like are some doors not meant to be open twice is this a dangerous thing to do to pursue but in this situation it's more about discovery and less about a scary situation they're just trying to learn more so yeah I'm on board I'd totally do it as well

[00:41:55] [SPEAKER_01] yeah get some closure and all of that pursue some great things and best of luck to you thank you so much for sending that one in

[00:42:03] [SPEAKER_00] I have the same question for you though what would you do if you found out you had a sibling and your parents kept it from you

[00:42:11] [SPEAKER_01] it would I think we would all get such a laugh over it like every single member of my family would probably laugh hysterically about it besides the parent who was hiding it

[00:42:22] [SPEAKER_00] I could see that

[00:42:24] [SPEAKER_01] yeah but I mean because yeah what else are we going to do be mad over something that happened that we can't change like it's just you know yeah make the best of it make some lemonade

[00:42:34] [SPEAKER_00] I think my response of being angry it just comes from a place of being bitter about growing up isolated lonely homeschooled and sheltered and not having anyone to share my life with anyways that's that's dark let's move on that's like two in a row for you yeah I think I need to talk to my therapist it's been a bit yeah it's always a solid idea anyways I do want to touch on one more story the West Virginia story sheet ghosts this is something

[00:43:04] [SPEAKER_00] that's a term actually that I had never really used specifically until pretty recently but the sheet ghost has always been something that's been really scary to me what about you

[00:43:12] [SPEAKER_01] yeah it's up there top 17 for sure

[00:43:16] [SPEAKER_00] top 17 yeah there was a Scooby-Doo movie because in the 80s they did like late 70s early 80s they did these Scooby-Doo movies where they would meet like a superhero or some type of other character and they met Batman and Robin on this one VHS that I had and either the Joker or the Penguin dressed up as a sheet ghost and they went blah blah blah blah blah and it was so

[00:43:46] [SPEAKER_00] goofy but it scared me so bad and I think that was the original sheet ghost that scared me and then I saw Halloween that scared me and then I saw Beetlejuice and just even though it was silly and supposed to be funny them dressing up in sheets as ghosts it's always scared me there's something so ominous and expressionless about it that makes it scary

[00:44:08] [SPEAKER_01] yeah I think that's what it is the pouty expressive eyes like ghost face but without the mouth or nose I don't even remember if he has a nose but yeah even just that alone or just two simple dots kind of like how so cliche but like Miyazaki's characters a lot of them have very like simplistic but so that kind of just like less is more when it comes to that I think that's what it is

[00:44:33] [SPEAKER_00] yeah I agree ghost face actually scared me too more than like him killing people like just the image of ghost face really creeped me out as a kid too I was just always scared by the sheet ghost the white pale just plain looking minimalist ghost however this one had no eyes at all in the story and then it suddenly ducks behind this tree that's also kind of scary like the ghost trying to hide why are you trying to hide that for some reason that makes

[00:45:03] [SPEAKER_00] it even creepier for me it's a little

[00:45:04] [SPEAKER_01] ironic too yeah I mean yeah a hiding ghost who would have thought that's like what they do

[00:45:11] [SPEAKER_00] yeah well I guess it was a recurring warning not to whistle into the night correct because you're gonna see a ghost and somebody's gonna yell help

[00:45:21] [SPEAKER_01] somebody help me

[00:45:22] [SPEAKER_00] house of the dead too yeah oh my god thank you for saving me thank you for saving me yeah that's a great game oh no I wonder if they they recorded all the voiceover lines for house of the dead 2 purposefully like that like they meant for it to sound cheesy and bad I don't

[00:45:38] [SPEAKER_01] think so and I think they just did the first take and they were just so stoked yeah like oh yeah that sounds great play it back okay load it up load it up and that was it they just kept it moving

[00:45:50] [SPEAKER_00] yeah that's a good game I always gravitate directly towards that one when I see it in an arcade same tons of fun yeah well everybody thank you so much for listening and thank you so much for sending in your stories if you have a story that you'd like to hear on the show send it to stories at odd trails dot com and sign up for our patreon at patreon dot com forward slash odd trails if you want to get ad free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bit rate it's the best way to listen to the show plus you'll be supporting the show and finally be sure to check out

[00:46:19] [SPEAKER_00] my other podcasts like let's not meet over at cryptic county podcasts dot com everybody stay safe peace out

[00:46:26] [SPEAKER_01] the ghosts and the ghouls disturb you done you