Episode 100 !!!!!!

Hate waiting a week for the next episode of Radio Rental? Subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus to get early access to episodes, add free listening, and even some bonus scary stories. Visit TenderfootPlus.com for details. Take a break from the same old boring blockbusters and experience a new kind of movie night with Radio Rental. At Radio Rental, our videos come to life in your living room. Defy all logic and reasoning and make you question your own reality. This is not your ordinary video rental store. At Radio Rental, we carry one of our kind videos, so frightening, so mind-bending, you won't be able to sleep at night. You've gone, Radio Rental. There's this thing even, uh, Demi JVC, I know I've gotten Panasonic, okay, there we go, yes, yeah. There that little red light is blinking, am I in frame, yes, I am perfect, aha, hmm. My dear loyal customers, welcome. If you found this tape, then you already know what today is, drum roll please, burrrrrr, episode one hundred, one hundred, one hundred. Malachite, that was your cue. You're supposed to release the confetti. I made that whole kitty cat, Rube Goldberg machine, and you were, yes, thank you, oh, that's, that's great, thank you, vibrant. Really helping me feel confident leaving the store in your grubby little paws. Shut it. Anyway, my dear fans, one hundred episodes, wow, and boy have we had some times together. Have we not? I am so sorry, I can't be with you there in person, or IRL as they say. I am on day 50, or perhaps it's day 500, I've lost count, of my journey to recover my beautiful and ever elusive, wife, Zellon. She knows, I'm a sucker for the chase, haha, that's enough now, Zellon. The intergalactic things we do for women, alas, I simply couldn't miss the opportunity to pop in and join you for this milestone, partly because I miss you, but mainly because I know how much you miss me, and it breaks my heart to leave my adoring fans wanting more. So you'll see, I left a little DIY system for you to honor this momentous occasion. If you see a red posted note on a tape, that means it's a brand new story, and if you see a blue posted note, that will be our most popular story to date, but a new and improved cut. How about you pop in the tape with a red posted note first? Okay, so, now for the annoying part. You're going to have to pop this tape out, you're going to have to put the new tape in, and then when it's done, take it out, and then put this tape back in, anyways, sorry, but it's time you pulled a little weight around here. Okay, eject me, eject me right now, I won't take it personally, I'll wait. Oh, I only wish I could see your faces. This was, I want to say July, 2023, I was in Arizona, I was getting tired of it, just couldn't stay there anymore, having trouble with jobs and family, and it sounds like, okay, you know what, I'm going to go back to Florida, I can't do this. I've got my car packed up, and I have a 30 hour drive ahead of me. About 6 p.m., I start hitting the road, I'm just driving, you know, nothing's going wrong. And I'm just listening to music, jamming out, having a good time. Six hours go by, things is about like three o'clock in the morning. I don't know where I'm at, I know I'm probably in Texas. It's about three o'clock in the morning, I have to pee so damn bad. And I can't find a gas station, I can't find a rest area, it's dark as shit out, all of a sudden like it starts getting a little foggy, all of a sudden I just see rest area next 28 miles so I'm like, thank God. So I keep driving and driving and I finally get to the rest area, but when I pull up, there's one light right above the bathroom, the both doors to the bathrooms are open, but there is nobody at this rest area. Not a single car, not a truck, nobody. I'm feeling low on easy here. I'm nervous, my anxiety is heightened and I pull up, I'm like shit, okay, so I take my keys, I leave my car unlocked and I be line it straight to the men's room. Take care of my business, wash my hands, I just want to get in and out of this rest stop as fast as I can. As soon as I get back to my car, close my door, I go to start my car and I don't have my keys. Where the fuck are my keys? I literally just had them in the fucking bathroom and I have no idea where the hell they're at. So I'm sitting there and I'm thinking I must have left them either on the counter or they're sitting next to the toilet or something, but they're not in my pocket, they're nowhere on me, they're not on my person. I don't know what happened to my keys, I don't remember taking them out of my pocket and I don't remember setting them on the counter, I don't remember setting them on the floor. Now I'm nervous as shit and I don't know what to do because I'm scared to get out of my car again because this is like the worst rest area I've ever been in. So as soon as I go to get out of my car and I go to unlock the door and I hear this loud just thump on the roof of my car. I immediately close my door again, I have no idea what it was, I don't know if it was a tree branch or what, an animal, a raccoon or a possum, you know, something very loud hit the roof of my car. I'm sitting there for a second just like what the fuck was that and all of a sudden I just started hearing footsteps, just walking closer and closer to where I'm sitting in the driver's seat and it stops right above me, they were on the roof of my car. I'm sitting there, but I don't see any shadows on the ground, I'm looking around, there's nothing there. I don't know what to do, I don't know about to cry, I'm freaking out, my heart is pounding. It was bad, do you know like the sound of throwing keys, they bring the like toss something? So I hear this swing and then that jingle and then right in front of my car lands my fucking car keys, so I'm sitting there, I'm just looking at these fucking keys and wondering what the fuck is on top of my car. What do I do? What do you do in this situation? Do you get out of the car and go grab them super fast? Do you sit there and wait, do you try and call somebody? I'm feeling like I'm in a life or death situation to get my keys now, so I look at my phone and I have no fucking service, so I'm just like okay, you know what, fuck this, I'm just going to run out of my car, I'm going to go grab my keys real quick, and I go to open up my car door, take a deep breath, and I just fucking poke it straight out right into the front of my car, I don't even look to see what's on top, I have no idea what is there, I got back in, closed my door, turned my car on, put that shit in my purse and I get the fuck out as fast as I could, I didn't hear anything roll off of the top of my car, I didn't hear anything run off I didn't see anything jump off. I don't know what it was. I keep driving and driving. I go until I see a gas station and I stop and I'm sitting there and I'm just shaking. I am just absolutely just scared, shitless right now. I have no idea what the fuck that was. And I get out and I go into the gas station. The people inside they could see that my face was just pale, like I lost all color. And the lady looks at me and she goes, "Oh, you stopped at that rest area up the road didn't you." Not a lot of people stop at that one. And I didn't say anything back because I just didn't know what to say and I just walked out, went back to my car. But when I got back to my car and I was sitting outside, I noticed that there was footprints, human footprints, wet footprints on top of the roof of my car. I still don't know what to say about it today. It could have been anything, ghosts, supernatural type, cryptid, who knows, could be all the above. From what I'm thinking in the area that I was in, I want to say with like a shape shifter, you know, something along those lines. I felt like if it really wasn't to attack me it would have, I think it more was just playing with me than anything. I've never experienced anything like this before. I've never had a paranormal experience. I've never had a supernatural experience. I've never seen something crazy before in my life. This is all new to me. I saw what I saw and I heard what I heard. If you don't believe it then that's on you. I know my story and what happened to me and it's just, it's crazy. It's crazy, it's crazy, it's crazy, it's crazy, it's crazy. Oh, terrifying. I hope that satisfied you. Happy one-hunder, babe, from me to you. And may I have your attention, please? The radio rental store has stocked new merch items featuring me, Terry Carnation. If you've ever longed to wear my face, well that's deeply concerning, very silence of the lambs. But you're in luck because there are new t-shirts featuring me and they're in the merch store now. So go to shop.tenderfoot.tv and peruse the Terry Carnation collection. It's shop.tenderfoot.tv. It pairs well with fava beans and a nice keonti. Okay, now pop in another one, I'll wait. Obviously. What choice do I have? I'm not real, I'm just recording. I just moved into a new condo in Boston and so I've been in this weird state of moving in furniture from storage and it's kind of felt half lived in and a little empty at times. I woke up in the morning and I was kind of feeling a little bit down, just sort of, I don't know, like I needed some direction. I've always kind of gone back and forth on coffee. I will go from drinking iced coffee to drinking only hot coffee and then recently in the sounds unhinged, but I promise you it's actually not as bad as it sounds. I've been drinking sugar free red bulls in the morning, which sounds diabolical, but they actually have less caffeine than a single cup of coffee. This particular morning I wake up, I go to my fridge to get one of these sugar free red bulls and for whatever reason I look at my coffee machine. It's not one of those regular cure eggs we just put in a pod. It's super big, clunky, but for whatever reason I was going to the fridge and I looked at this coffee maker, I found myself staring at my coffee maker on my kitchen counter and consciously asking myself why am I doing that. And for whatever reason I clocked that and I remembered it. I go sit back down on my couch and this particular morning I decided to listen to some podcast stuff I've been working on. I'm up late loud and so it's already kind of a weird 5 and then all of a sudden I hear this crashing sound. It almost sounded like somebody was inside the room and they threw something across the room. They also scared the shit out of me. I thought somebody was in my house and threw a plastic cup across the floor. I pause the music and I look over to my kitchen and the first thing I look eyes with is my coffee maker and the top hinge where you put the pods into is completely open. Which maybe at first you're like okay well that could happen but I promise you it can't because I went over there and tested it. You literally have to use a full hand and pull it open. It's not like a spring loaded one or lightweight, it's almost like a lever. It requires physical force to pull it open. Wind wouldn't do it, there's no spring apparatus that made it shoot open. The next thing you know I'm just standing there from my coffee maker and I'm like why am I staring at my coffee maker again? But then before I played the podcast again, I was like you know what, let me just go back over there to the coffee machine, just take a look. I wasn't even looking for anything specific. So for like 10 seconds I'm staring it up and down and I noticed that the coffee machine was up. It might be the biggest mystery of them all is how that thing opened. I really don't know and I clearly didn't leave it open. I never touched it earlier but it opened, that's what I heard but I went to go recreate that part of it. I'm like oh my god there's like not even like a spring thing here, I'm like oh my god like you have to like physically pull this up. I'm like sort of like as my eyes go from the top of it to the bottom I see something sticking out of it. There's some sort of paper or something that's just ever so slightly sticking out of the bottom of this coffee machine and mind you this is a pretty heavy coffee maker. That's not some lightweight thing. It's definitely at least 20 pounds and so I lift up with one hand and I'm bending over and I'm trying to see what's under there and I pull out this little booklet and my first thought was what the hell is this doing here. This booklet came with this tarot card set that I have and it's called Santa Morrete which I think means holy death and at first glance if you're not into this kind of spooky stuff or tarot cards this would be the deck that you're like don't play around with that one. You gotta go skull on it and it's red and it's metallic. It looks like a Ouija board or something so when I first got it I opened it up and I read a page or two of the booklet that came with it and it said something along the lines of take really good care of this card deck put it somewhere important don't just store it away somewhere and I was like yes sir and so I've always I've always set it up somewhere in a room where it's kind of visible and it's not just tucked away in a corner. The booklets open, it's open to a specific person. page and it's all in Spanish and I'm like oh my god like am I about to ask chat jbt what this says and it's gonna be something you know God awful like this place is brand new I thought how is it haunted already and so I take a picture of it and I translate it on my computer and the message is basically all about grounding yourself being careful with your decisions and your resources staying focused on your path not rushing things trusting your direction and recognizing opportunities when they appear and it also talks about like not clinging too tightly to what you already have and helping others and it was like maybe anything would have felt like the perfect thing to tell me but in that moment it was it felt like a reminder like hey man you're good like you're on the right path you're already doing it like just keep going just ground yourself and stay focused I really wanted to definitively figure out how there was any other logical explanation for this having happened for that booklet to have ended up under this heavy coffee maker in the first place someone had to really kind of hold it down flat with one hand and then kind of balance getting it just right and snug underneath it and just like picturing that is in zero way accidental borderline requires two people okay who's been in my place to my friends Mike and Mavs they both been here they actually were here a week or two ago and so I text Mavs first and I say did you put that under my coffee machine and he goes what are you talking about I'm like you know what I'm talking about you guys know I seriously don't know what you're talking about and I sent him a picture of it and he goes what the fuck is that now I'm like god I think he's being serious and I'm like did Mike really just pull one on us like did he get drunk or something and hide this like what what's the story Mike was even more in denial and more confused by my ask neither of these guys even speak Spanish so they wouldn't even know what it said to begin with I just I knew it wasn't there by accident because it could only be placed there on purpose literally by way of where it was it didn't end up there because the cleaning lady bumped it with her elbow impossible can I see myself accidentally setting the coffee maker down on this booklet when I moved in in no world I've owned this coffee maker for probably just about a year it's never happened before or since then just that one day on the day that I stared blankly at it for what felt like a strange subconscious reason the same day I found this booklet for a tarot card set I'd never used in my house that had a message I really did need at the time right there for me you could even try to explain away everything else but someone or something whatever that even means had to intentionally put this booklet flush underneath the coffee maker maybe that was just the universe's way of getting my attention I think that sometimes I can get in my own way and maybe it was just pull me back to earth a little bit at least as well I like to think I swear I know that voice hard to forget kind of annoying gets under my skin can't quite place it hmm nevertheless weird story bro but I do firmly believe that messages come to us from the great beyond often when we least expect it do you hear that Zalon come out from beyond the great beyond please and thank you please pretty please you're killing me here all right pop in the tape with the blue post it now and when that's done pull me I think you get the idea it was 1988 I was 10 years old my family and I lived in a small town called Trafalgar Indiana when you think of out in the middle of the country that's what it was all the kids knew each other we all like each other that's their typical 80s childhood you know before computers everyone's riding their BMX's around town a plan star wars GI Joe's pretty much a Stephen Spielberg movie on our street that I lived in there was about five houses and in between was a giant wooded area all these neighbors we knew the Mitchell's on one side down the other street we had Mr Robinson and then one of the other houses was a teacher of mine and then there was another house we called it the mystery house no one knew who lived there you could hardly see it you could see it if you went back in the woods but you could only see like the top story the roof window so we kind of became a fascinated with it the kids around town you know we spy on the mystery house tried to catch any sign of people come in or out and we never did no one knew who even lived there early and the look of the house was kind of it was different than all the other houses you know this is 80s in Indiana most they're just one story brick houses this was like three stories big black pointed road look very gothic just stood out it's out of place we just referred to as the mystery house and in the summertime I just like going out in the woods I just like being out there by myself I was kind of a loner I take a bag of GI Joe's out in the woods and one day I went back there a little spot by the creek where you could kind of see the mystery house I'm out there and I'm playing with my GI Joe's and all of a sudden just an overwhelming feeling of paralyzing fear basically I don't know how to explain it besides I knew someone or something was watching me out there I just remember stiffening up and being scared shitless basically I didn't turn around I didn't want to know what it was and I remember putting my GI Joe's back in the bag commonly stood up and then all of a sudden I don't know if I heard something or not but I just knew I don't have to explain to other than someone there and I started walking away and all of a sudden the voice came it scared me but since it was a gentle voice I turned around and there's a girl standing there and she simply said you don't have to go home and this is how I met Laura Laura was kind of strange looking on she had like a mop top hair kind of messy her clothes were kind of weird she explained to me that she lived in the mystery house and that she was an only child and that she was home top and that's how we struck up our friendship she was wearing clothing that she shouldn't be wearing this summer she had a long sleeve flannel and it buttoned real high it looked very uncomfortable to me it was like too tight in some spots and too baggy in other spots and her hair was like a mop top kind of sloppy you know like she hadn't combed it for like a week or two I kept going out there and hanging out with Laura who I just was having fun out there you know I was I met a new friend in the woods it's kind of strange she explained to me that her room in her house was the whole top floor like a giant attic to herself you could see one window from the area in the woods and that was her window the way she made it sound was basically like a giant toy room And one day, she said, "Very matter of factly, come here, I want to show you something." She took me to this little area, and there was this tree, first she showed me her name that she had carved in there, and her name was carved on the tree, and then she said, "I want to show you something else," one of the limbs had fallen off, and it was like a hole, and she put her hand in and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, marble reds, I'll never forget it 'cause it all crumpled up, and she taught me how to smoke cigarettes out there. She pulled one out and let it smoke it like half down, and then handed it to me, and I took at the time my best attempt at inhaling a cigarette. I think I did like two of them, and she smoked a lot. I think I'd wash her smoke like ten cigarettes out in the woods. She had a smoking habit. And one day, I went out there and she was gone. I went back out there a few times, but she never came back. The year after the house was for sale. They were having an open house like they do, and all of a sudden Laura came back into my head. We talked for years about this house, and finally it was open to the public. So we played and played it with my mom, and we went to the open house. I thought I might see her, you know? Plus, we just wanted to see what the house looked like. My mom was even excited, I remember. Like any open house, there was other people there. I remember some other people like us looking at the house, and then there was a man, which I assume was Laura's dad, and then there was Laura's mom, and I could tell right away it was Laura's mom. They looked a lot alike, although she got real short hair, but they looked alike, and you could just tell that they were related. She's showing us around the house, and we get through the second floor, and that's it, at the end of the tour. And I know there's a third floor, because she's told me there's a giant attic up there, and I've seen the window. She didn't mention it. She just said, "That's the house." I'm thinking, "No, I know there's more." I was 10, and I was kind of shy. I wanted to say, "I know there's a third floor, but I didn't." Eventually, she said that they lost their daughter years ago. She said, "Our daughter had passed away." At that point, I freaked out. She said years ago. It hadn't been years since I'd hung out with a girl. I'm thinking, "Who have I been out there hanging with?" I must've looked funny, because the mom said to me, "What's wrong, buddy? It was like you've seen a ghost." I just wanted to get the hell out of there. We were walking to the car, and my mom said, "No more. No more going out there. I don't know what's going on here, but you're not going out there by yourself anymore. I don't know if she'd believe in ghosts or what, but you're not going back out there without someone's supervision." It wasn't real scary until we got back to the house, and I was thinking about the ramifications of what, "Oh, my God, is it a ghost? Am I playing with a ghost?" Hannah, I didn't think she was dead. It's still creepy thinking about it. It's been 31 years. Already with my interactions with the Laura, I already had a bad vibe about her parents, because she would never talk about them. I didn't trust the lady. I thought Laura was in that house. I honestly thought Laura was locked in the attic. Maybe something bad's going on up there. After the open house, I disobeyed my parents one time and did go back out there, out of morbid curiosity. I kind of thought maybe Laura was locked up there. I thought she was being held hostage or something in the house. Dan a kid, very curious. I thought maybe I could save Laura, I think. I thought maybe if she was in the window, maybe she'd try to signal me, and I went out to the exact spot. And I went to the where I could see the window. I looked up at the window, and sure enough, I was being watched, but it wasn't Laura. It was her mom staring at me, like she was waiting for me. And it scared the piss out of me. She was staring right at me out the window. There was no smile, just staring at me. I turned around and got the hell out of there. My sister coined the name Laura of the Woods as the ghost out there, and it sounded like a pretty cool name. So eventually it kind of became a cool story. I was telling my buddies that I had a little ghost friend out there, and Laura of the woods, you know, out there roaming the wild woods at night, or whatever, and it kind of became a myth of its own. I just kind of went with the ghost story eventually in my head. Finally I started believing it over and over. A couple of years later, my parents got divorced, and in that process we sold the house, so I moved, and I never went back there for a long time. Eventually, Mr. Robinson passed away, and my uncle Bill bought his property. So now I had a chance to go back not to my house, but to the wooded area that I knew. And one day when we were at a cookout, I took my wife. And my sister brought up. Remember Laura of the Woods? I started telling the story again. I never told it fully to my wife, and then I realized after I was telling I never told my family about the cigarette part and all that good stuff. After a few beers, you know, my wife and sister were like, "Okay, let's go see it." The spot that I hung out in. Mr. Robinson's trails were grown up, but they were still there. It was just like being a kid again. I was tracing my own footsteps. We're going along the trail, and finally we get to the part where I used to sit with my GI Joes, and we found it. And the tree was there, and the name was still on the tree. And without really thinking, I walked up to it and put my hand in the tree and pulled out the old pack of cigarettes that was still there. We were all freaked out at this point. I thought I was maybe playing with a ghost, you know, but now it's physical. I'm feeling this. So we're like, "Okay, confirmed what I was telling them." It's true. Let's get the hell out of here. What the hell was my childhood? What was I doing out there? The next week or so, it was on my mind big time. And one night, I had some kind of food poisoning or something. I was real sick and in bed, having like fever dreams and sweating, and I had this dream. I'm walking out on the trails. It's dusk. It's gray outside. It's fall. I know the trail well. It's the one with the bench. Overlooking the creek. I'm just following the trail and I don't want to, but I just keep walking. Turn to corner and there's one of the benches. And sitting on the bench was Laura. You can tell the mop top hair from the back. She was facing the other way. I was coming up from behind, but I could tell from the hair everything that it was her. And I get closer and she's like laughing. It's a weird little giggle. She's laughing and I feel like she's laughing at me. I feel really stupid. She lifts her head up and when she does her hand is on her hair and it just comes off. And what I saw then really freaked me out. My wife said I sat straight up in the bed, panting and sweating and screaming. It was always her. It was always the mom. It was the mom the whole time. Perhaps our most sought after story ever. I've never heard anything quite like it. I can't tell you how many people have rang my proverbial doorbell just to get their hands on this one. Laura. Laura, where are you now? I hope not still in the woods. Tricking lonely children. Okay, well, the battery is dying on this old camcorder. I've got to wrap it up. Malachi Buddy, you take care of our store. All right, don't eat too much ripe before bed. Grume yourself, but not so much that you get a hairball. My God, and Malachi, one thing you should know, I miss you. I really do. No, yes, hi, I know you're right here. Hi, Malachi. Don't listen in. This is supposed to be for future you. I mean, obviously, I don't miss you right now and with you now, I'm, yes, I'm petting you right now. So come here. Come on now. Come and get a speech scratch. Oh, cool, cool, cool. That's a good boy. That's a good boy. You're burying like a lawn mower. What do you have in your mouth there? Is that a Lego piece? Give me that. Wait, no, we don't hit the. Radio Rental is created by Payne Lindsay and brought to you by Tenorfoot TV. Showrunner is Meredith Stedman. Lead producers are Eric Kintana and Stephen Perez. Executive producers are Payne Lindsay and Donald Albright. This episode is hosted by Rain Wilson as his character Terry Carnation. Writing by Meredith Stedman, original score by Makeup and Vanity Set, with additional score by J. Ragsdale. Sound design makes and master by Stephen Perez and Cooper Skinner. Editing by Eric Kintana, Sean Nerny, Stephen Perez, Meredith Stedman and Cooper Skinner. Our production manager is Jordan Foxworthy. Cover artwork by Trevor Eiler and Rob Sheridan. Radio Rental merchandise by Byron McCoy. To shop Radio Rental merch, visit shop.tenorfoot.tv. Special thanks to Orren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, as well as the Nord Group and the team at Odyssey. If you have a Radio Rental story that you'd like to share, please email us at your scary story at gmail.com or contact us via the form on our website, RadioRentalUSA.com. Follow us on Instagram at RadioRental. On behalf of the Radio Rental store, we'd love it if you'd subscribe, rate and review. As always, thanks for listening.