Listener Tales 114: Back to School Tales

Hey, Weirdo's, I'm Miss Trunchbull, and I'm Miss Frizzle, and this is the Chokey and the Magic School Bus brought to you by Morbid. [Music] That is a wild combination. The Chokey in the Magic School Bus. Yeah, I mean, it could be like, good, you know. I don't know. I think I was just like, I was going to say something and then it just never came to fruition. But I said to Elena, I was thinking about it this morning because I knew I was going to be dressing up like Miss Trunchbull. I said, is it life just kind of like the Chokey right now? Yeah, like aren't we all just kind of stuck in the Chokey? Yeah, so it doesn't belong on the Magic School Bus. I know, you're in no way. That's absolutely correct. That's for kindness and love and happiness. I don't know what I'm looking for. I don't know what I meant to where I am. I loved it because you were just like, that would be cool. No, I said good. Good. They would be great. Yeah, I don't think so. Let's put a Chokey on the Magic School. It's not even real, okay. You said, let's torture them kids. I'm serious. I don't put that out there. AI is going to be like, let's take her voice and make it that she tortures people. Yeah. Oh, God. So today is Back to School Listener Tales. Yeah, it's September. So we were like, it's Deb picked these and she said, it's back to school. So you guys get back to school and we're back to school. Obviously, it's Proctober. It's Proctober again. Back to school. Proctober. It's being in Proctober. Oh. That means it's almost October. And that means you need to send us your Halloween Listener Tales, please. Halloween themed. Like an experience that you had on Halloween that is downright fucking scary. Or like if it's like leading up to Halloween. That works. Like the lead up to Halloween. Try to try to put on a party. A Halloween party, even if it's not on Halloween. A haunted house. Yes. That you went to. Yeah. But like Halloween coated scary in nature, please. Yes. But all possible. That would be great. Please. And just put Halloween Listener Tale. Yeah. In the title. Here it is. I will put you in the fucking Chokey. Well, I guess she's pro-chokey now. You went from very anti-chokey to very pro-chokey. For adults. Okay. That's what it is. I think we have some kid listeners. Well, it's not for you kids. That's okay. It's not for you. Ms. Frizzle would never. Yeah. Is it a weird thing for your brain and your eyes to like realize that she's Ms. Frizzle. But you know she's going to say some Elena shit during this episode. Isn't that weird? This is a little weird. It's hard to like rationalize. My kids loved this outfit. I keep downstairs and they're like, "Mrs. Trunchball." And they're like, "Muh." They said it to me like I didn't know. They're like, "Muh, Ms. Frizzle." Did you know? And I was like, "I literally work with her." We are literally about to record. Are you going to read first? Yeah, I'm going to read first. Cool. So this one's called Haunted Schools. A school so haunted it continues to constantly recur in my dreams. 17 years after it was torn down. Eat. I love that people are still putting the eat. It's special to me. It has such a place in my heart. Same Z's. I love it. So it says, "Hey, weirdos. My name is Shelby. And please use my name." Because if I hear this on the pod, I will 100%. No, 110% have to change my pants from shitting them. Change your pants. You just shitted. Please excuse my writing as I am not a writer in the least. I would normally apologize for the length. But you repeatedly say, "Never!" So I won't. Thank you. I went to a small private school in rural Tennessee. I'm scared. It was situated off a small two-lane road surrounded by cotton fields and no streetlights. I'm terrified. Did I mention that there hasn't been a graduating class larger than 65? Wow. 65 people? That's not a lot. That's but a handful. I think actually. Drew's might have been around there. Drew had a really small graduating class. That's wild. I'm going to text him and see how many kids graduated in his class. He's going to be like, "Why are you asking me this?" When I say this was a small school, I mean small. My graduating class was only 46 people. I'm going to see if Drew can beat this. 46 is crazy. 46 is nuts. Let's diabetes. So. What? How did diabetes get through the chat? Beat this. Diabetes. I beat this. Fair. You're silly. Thank you. The building I am about to describe to you and the setting for today's tales no longer exists. However, on some spiritual level, the structure embedded itself deep into the core of my memory. There are few pictures of the building left. Few pictures I can find attached below. Feel free to share any that don't have the school name on it. We won't do that. But I can describe this building in vast detail. I'm staying for the sake of the story. I have the update 84. 84? He didn't diabetes that. And I just asked him. He answered. And then I said, period. And now my phone's on. Do not disturb. Period. Period. It's going to be like one. It's going to be like. Honestly, though. He really knows. He's just going to move about his day. Probably. So the beautiful schoolhouse had real hardwood floors, two opposing staircases, 20-foot ceilings, long hallways, hung with graduating class portraits from years past. This sounds like Chilton. From Go More Girls. I pictured because we were talking about it recently. The school in Monster High. Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh. Make the third Monster High movie. If we can just go off on a quick tangent. Who talked to that up? Who? Fucked. That up. Truly? Fuck you for canceling the third Monster High movie. You. You left it on a cliffhanger, too. And now we just don't get Frankie's story. Exactly. And I make us fuck. Who was that grim reaper guy? Yeah. We'll never know. We better find out because somebody out there is going to make it. Let's make the third movie. Come on everybody. Okay. Sorry. That's really pissed me off lately. Same. Back to the story. The building was two stories. The building was two stories tall. Had huge panel windows was wrapped in dark red brick with a sandy colored stone as an accent color. That sounds pretty. The building was massive, beautiful, and old. I was at so massive if there was only four of you. Don't worry about it. They just want lots of room to breathe. I think lots of room for hauntings. Yeah. That's true. They needed to fit the ghosts in there too. They were thinking about them when they built it. Probably. The building was built in 1912. Though some sources say it was the 20s. These sources lie. Remember this building vividly. And on the face of it was 1912 etched in the stone. It even had engraved in stone above the doors. A girl's entrance and a boy's entrance. Damn. Throughout the years, oh boy has the small unassuming school seen some dark stuff. Many student deaths, including multiple motor vehicle accidents, as well as illness like cancer and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Damn. I've never heard of that. To be quite frank, for a school like this size, the amount of student deaths just doesn't seem normal. I'm counting seven in the span of 20 years off the top of my head. There were also other dark events that took place involving inappropriate behavior of staff. So those are not what these stories are about. Thank you. So this happened back when I was a kid in fourth or fifth grade. I was in the school alone. LOL, the times when kids were just free to roam about a big empty school. In the gym waiting for my mom to get off work. The gym was a basketball court with built-in wooden bleachers to one side. A locker room under the bleachers and a stage at one end. That's wild. Side note, the gym portion of the building was added in the 40s. Above the stage was a wrap around you-shaped closet. That housed all the theater department costumes props, as well as other things from past homecomings, proms and whatnot. There were only two ways to get to the upper closet, slash hallway area. Offstage right, you could go up the built-in bleachers to a door that had a rather large step to enter. Or offstage left, you could climb the ladder made of two by fours to a small square-shaped opening. Those all sound horrifying. Yeah, they don't sound like the best entrance is. Why were these the only two options? My guess is to confuse or trip whatever hell demon lived up there. I agree. Winchester Mystery Housewives. There you go. The narrow hallway was cramped and filled to the brim with years of production materials. Fire code violation? Probably. I was squeezing my way towards the back part of the hall around the corner to pull the small chain to turn the singular light bulb on when I heard a muffled voice from the part of the hallway where I just came. You. I knew right away that it wasn't human. You were too. I froze, waited a few seconds, then kept moving. The muffled voice sounded again, identical to the one I had just heard moments ago. I turned, expecting to see someone behind me. I thought someone has to be playing a joke on me, so I went back down the narrow hallway and turned the corner. No one. Silence. At this point, I'm not sure what convinced my fourth grade brain to think. Better keep going down this hallway, but I sure did. I turned back down the hallway and pulled the light chain. I finagled my way over the princess dresses when thud. A huge bang followed by a muffled voice came from the front hallway. The muffled voice kept sounding rhythmically. I ran towards the sound. Was this bravity or naivety? Naive. Naive. Naive. Naive. Naive. Naive. Naive. Naive. Naive. Naive. Naive. You have to say it like pretentiously to be honest. Yeah, you absolutely do. - You have to say it like on my voice. - Yeah, hell yeah. - She's not pretentious. - No, mostly rip. Most likely the latter. The voice, and I have a tie. The voice got louder and louder. I love you, I love you. - Well, at least it's saying nice things. - That would stress me out. I finally could make out what it was saying. My heart was racing so hard I could hear it in my ears and I could feel my face tingle red. It kept repeating until I found small stuffed bear holding a heart making the sound that was being crushed by a Greek-styled bust. - Ew, I picked it up and the sound stopped. As I tried to get my heart rate back down, it wasn't working. I looked around to see where this bust could have fallen and couldn't find anywhere. Granted, it was packed to the brim with props so it could have come from anywhere. But what made the stuffed bear go off two times before? Needless to say, I yeeted my tiny fourth grade self out of that area, ASAP. Did I continue to go back up into the proper room while I was at that school? - Absolutely. - Your girl always had a proclivity for the paranormal. - Hell yeah, sister. - Now, that reminds me even the sixth sense when it gets locked in that cabinet. - Oh, that's so much creepier. - And it's like the voice or when they're just listening to the voice from the cabinet. That part haunts my dreams in the same day. - I fucking hate that part. - At the birthday party? - I hate it. - That one is the scariest part of the entire room. - Oh my God, maybe not. - And you don't even see anything. - Yeah. - That part fucked me up. I honestly can't even rewatch that movie because it scares the shit out of me. - It scares the shit out of me and they're so mean to him. - And I don't think I can watch it as a parent. - That's the worst thing. And then you've had plenty of time to figure this out. When you find out that the guy's actually dead, it's just really sad. - Spoiler alert. - Yeah, you've had fun. I think that movie came out that year I was born. - Holy shit. - Yeah, you've had 30 years to. - But you know what I mean? - Yeah. - I mean, it's just sad. - It is really sad. - It's a good movie. - It is fun though when you find that out to go back and watch it. 'Cause then you can watch it and be like, oh shit, yeah, he was. And then there's also all the red that tells you and yeah. - Now I have so many more stories about this building that I can save for another time. But I won't, the time is now. (laughing) The girls that get it, get it. - Yeah. - Thank you for doing that. 'Cause usually people are like, I have so many more stories. - Maybe I'll send them later. - And I'm like, no, give it to me. - It's like dangling a carriage. - Yeah, I just want them. This story takes place in the gym and is much shorter. One day after school, I was in the gym alone shooting basketball and suddenly nature called. I sat the basketball down on the bench on the side of the court and left for the restroom. The restrooms in this building have their own stories in the saga. Stay tuned. - Oh man. - On my way back, I heard someone dribbling the ball. - Oh, someone must have come in while I was gone, I thought. So I made my way to the gym to find no one, not a single soul. And the ball that I specifically remember placing on the bench was now perfectly in the center of the court. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. - Now that's the restroom, yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no. Now the restrooms, there were two restrooms in this massive building. - That's it. - I mean, they don't have a lot of people in there. - Got them. - One next to the gym and another down on one, down one of the main hallways, practically under the staircase. Both haunted as fuck. - Oh, every school bathroom is haunted as fuck. - Absolutely, even brand new ones. - Yeah, yeah, haunted. - It could be built yesterday. - I guess what? Bloody Mary lives there. - Yeah, it's true. Now anyone who's ever been in those restrooms will tell you, you always felt uneasy in there, especially if you were alone. Because even if you were alone, you never felt like it. There would be times I would go to the restroom and literally start to panic. I could never stay in there for too long. The restroom at the end of the hall next to the stairs was the worst of the two. That one made me so uneasy that after only two times being in there, I straight up refused to go in there ever again. - That's valid. - I remember not taking but a few steps in and not being able to breathe. My head would start to spin and my brain would cloud up. - Not fun. - Yeah. - The other place I couldn't take more than a few steps without feeling the weight of, get the fuck out, was the locker room under the bleachers. Ooh, locker rooms are also haunted. - Yeah, they are. They're cursed. I wish I had more stories of that room, but was it? - Child me took hints for it. - Child me. But child me took the hint from the vibes as being don't even try. So I didn't, you're smart. Now fast forward a little after some shady dealings about money that I won't get into, the building was torn down in 2008. I wish you got into the shady dealings. - I know, I want the shady dealings. I literally cried as I watched the demolition tear down the walls of this beautiful schoolhouse. I spent my childhood running through, wanting to know every story here at her walls could tell. And maybe she still tries to tell me. Since 2008, I have recurring dreams of the building to this day and they are frequent. There have been too many to count. I probably have one every few months or so. Wow, all of them with the vivid details of the building I remember from childhood. Not only the building itself, but the plethora of feelings, both mystical and nefarious, I used to feel well in there. I think somewhere along the way the spirits of the building or the spirit of the building and I connected. I wish I could explain it better. Even years later, I still get upset about the tearing down of the building. I can still describe every detail of. I wish I could take you guys on a tour of the place. Maybe one day for my own sake, I will sit down and simply write out in detail every room as I still see it in my mind. That would be sick. You should do that. Anywho, that's my tale. Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope it added some spookiness to your day. Keep it weird, but not so weird. That take it away, Ash. That's a weird that you roam the haunted school alone and you get haunted by basketballs and teddy bears and Greek busts. Yeah, don't do that. Don't keep it that weird. Much love. Shelby. Shelby. Oh, that is a beautiful school. Oh, that's sad they tore it down. That's a spooky. Oh, I don't like the red door of the bathroom because that's very sick sense. I love. Well, those pictures are spooky. The demolition ones make me say it. Mm-hmm. I don't like demolition. I don't like demolition either. Just demolition in general. Bums me out. Derby's anything demolition related. I just don't want it. I like demolition Derby's. I do not as to read. [MUSIC] All right, tail number two fellas. The time an old man chased my friends out of a haunted house or a haunted school, excuse me, with an axe. And you want to be anonymous. Hey, Ash and Alina, please don't chair my name if you decide to share this on the episode. We won't. I'm not gonna. Before I start with my tail, I just had to tell you guys that morbid pretty much saved my life. Oh. A little backstory. I found your podcast back in October of 2020. I was eight and a half months pregnant at the time and dated something to listen to at work. That's like Hello pregnant. Yeah. I found you're like in case you didn't know. I'm like, guys, spoiler alert. I found your podcast, started an episode one. Thank you. I can't believe you made it this far. Thank you for sticking around. And I don't remember it being as bad as you guys say. Oh. I fell in love. I actually was looking. Thank you. I was looking through my old Instagram stories the other day, which do that to humble yourself. Damn. That was a different gal. But it was around the time that we started. I had shared like so many of us just like on the floor recording it. Like the one that we recorded at Mon Puppa's house. Yep. And we had like forgot about that. We like notebooks. Yeah. It's so funny. Yeah. We didn't even use a computer to like do our notes. Yeah. Hand wrote them. Remember our first show I hand wrote my notes and then I was like, I don't think I can read these. Yeah. And you had told me I don't think you're going to be able to read those. And I was like, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. Yeah. Anyways. Different gal, you know. Different gal. She's grown. Anyway, listen every day until I gave birth. It was part of it. It hit me hard. I was weighed down with anxiety and depression while trying to care for a newborn in myself. I lost my identity and even though I loved being a mom, I was struggling to find out who I was. I'm sorry. That's tough. Yeah. Fast forward two months. I was back at work and trying to juggle being a mom, a full-time employee, and keep up on my house. My husband tried his best, but his version of clean and minor too, very different versions. That often happens. It happens a lot. I knew I had to start making changes in my life so that I wasn't overcome with my depression. That's when I remembered morbid and how much I enjoyed listening to you guys. I made morbid by reward for doing a task. That's really sweet. That's like, kills me. I know. Oh, washing bottles, morbid, shower, morbid, folding laundry, morbid, folding laundry is morbid. This is actually a really smart thing to do too. I think I want to start treating things like a reward to make me do things. You should. That even small things, even seeing that, like, showering, to get to do this, because, like, it gets life works. Yeah. Give yourself rewards. Yeah. That's another way of romanticizing life. I think yourself. I think yourself a sticker chart. It makes little things rewards. Yeah. I get to listen to my audio book or listen to a podcast. I think that's really interrupted for however many times. Yeah. Oh, yes. Thank you, Anonymous, for telling us to do that. Well, the more I listened to the more I got done and the better I felt, fast forward four years later and another baby, and I'm doing so much better. Yeah. That's awesome. There are moments when I look at my daughter and think that if I never found this podcast, I might not be here today. That's really sweet. Damn. Thank you. You just gave me, like, the full chill. I know. Anyways, I'm sorry to get all mushy, but I just want to say thank you now to my story. Thank you. Thanks for listening. Damn. The year was 2016. And I was on a date with my two friends, their boyfriends and their boyfriends friend. If that was confusing, they said, if that was confusing, I was always a friend with no boyfriend who always went on dates with the other guy in the group with no girlfriend. Oh, that sucks. That does suck. I've been there. Yeah. We've all been there. Yeah. The difference this time was that I had a huge crush on the guy that I was on a date with. That's pretty good. That's awesome. -Crushes are fun. -Crushes are fun. -I think it's become a hot topic, but crushes are fun. -Did you guys know that some Gen Zs think crushes are bad? -Yeah. -Look and do it. -Look and do it. -Look and do it. -It's more. -It's crazy. -What? -Limorance. -Oh, yeah. -Limorance. -Limorance. -Look into that. -Yeah. -Anyway. -We drove 45 minutes from our little town, just slightly bigger town that had a fair going on at the time. A first date at the fair. -Stop it. -With the whole crush. -We have a crush on. -Come on. -I die. -We had our fun and decided to stop at a shake place. -The problem with this detail. -Get the shake. -Oh, no. -Oh, no. -The problem with this detail is that I am lactose intolerant. -I saw him with a very lactose intolerant household. -Oh, no. -As somebody who is lactose intolerant and has IBS and is just constantly in the bathroom. -I fear for you, baby girl. -Oh, yeah. -Or baby boy, monotonous. -I didn't want the baby anonymous. -Baby A. -And didn't want to be the only one who didn't get a shake. -I ordered one. -Sure enough, on the way home, my stomach was pissed. -Oh, yeah. Shake off. -Fuck you. -I'll wish you a piece. -I'll wish you a thousand dollars. -Because that's like, don't they put milk in the ice cream to like. -That's fucked up, dude. -But I had to play it cool and not scare this hottie away, no way. -Two more important side details. I need to add, and then I will get on with it. I have a severe fear of disappointment. I hate when I disappoint people, but especially my parents. So I never really did anything that was remotely dangerous, illegal, et cetera, can't really. The second fact is that I am a scaredy cat who loves true crime. So it makes a lot of things worse when put in scary situations. -I understand that. -Yeah, can't really do that. -Our group decided to stop at an old elementary school that was haunted in the middle of nowhere. -Fuck. -It was a full moon, and I was not about to go into a haunted school in the middle of the night with me trying not to ship my pants with my hot date. -Oh, no. -If I got really scared, I wouldn't be able to hold it in. -I'm so scared that you're going to shit yourself with your hot date. -Normally, this would be great. Like as a first date with a crush you like, 'cause it's like, "Oh, I'm scared." -Yeah. -Oh, we going on. -You know, like, put this one, you're like, "This one, if I get scared, I'm not sure." -Yeah. -That's right. -You're totally going to shit on your crush. I can feel it. I can feel that you're going to shit on this kid. -Oh. -Gutter, really? -You're going to shit on a ghost. -I think you're going to shit, period, at the end of the day. Okay, so they went in and I stayed in the -- Hold on, I told everyone I was going to be the getaway driver in case anything happened. That was smart. -That was smart. -Then you can go shit in the woods while everybody is in the car with the bios. They went in and I stayed in the back bucket seat. Some getaway driver, eh? I was curled in the seat so that my head wasn't poking over. But I could still see the rear view mirror. That's when I saw him. An old man carrying an axe wearing nothing but overalls in a ball cap was walking up to the car. The idiots who had left me had left the doors open and the key in the ignition and the car on. -Oh, no. -Mama, you got to get in that front seat and hit that man, maybe. -I don't know. Not escaped. Just commit homicide. -Just go to a place of vehicular homicide real quick. I panicked and got on the ground quick, covered myself in a blanket and just prayed that I was not about to get murdered. He walked around the car, got in the driver's side and turned the car off, then shut all the doors and walked inside the school. It's kind of nice that he wants to save your gas. That was before gas was even expensive, probably. -Heart would have stopped beating. -I would have shipped myself. -What if you shit on that guy? -That was your defense mechanism. -He used to think, "How did you not shit them?" That would have been the time I shit. -Even if I didn't have, like, chicken news going on, that I would have shipped my pants in the scenario. -I would have peed them off. -If you didn't shit your pants, then you could have gone in that house or in the elements. -Maybe you won't shit on your crush if you didn't shit. -Maybe not on the guy. -I immediately called Sarah, nothing, Anna, nothing. I called the guy I was on the date with, nothing, shit on him because the car, he doesn't answer your phone calls, put that on a fucking t-shirt because the car was off. It was silent outside. I heard no screams, but they weren't answering. I knew better than to go back inside, but I felt like I had to. I decided to call one more time before going in and my date finally answered. -Okay. Glad you didn't shit on him yet. -He was laughing and suddenly stopped when I whispered to him that somebody with an axe had come inside and they needed to come out a different way than the call drops. -Oh, no. -Oh, my God. I'm nervous. -I can't with this. I decided to hop in the driver's seat and wait for them to come out. After what felt like an eternity, all five of them ran outside, with the old man chasing them out, bovus as fast as I could. No one recognized who this man was, and to this day, I have no idea who it could have been. -What? -He just never found out who this man with an axe was. I mean, how do you find out, really? -I don't know. -He probably was just there to scare us away, but I've never been more grateful to be a security cat with diarrhea than in that instance. -Yeah. -I know that I'm not the best writer, untrue. -I hope that you ladies enjoyed my story about the one time, and old man chased my friends with an axe out of a haunted house. Thank you for all that you do. -I'm just glad that you didn't shit on your crush. -I can't believe that that man, that's pretty iconic, old man behavior, to be quite honest. -Yes. -It actually is. It reminds me of the old man lore of our town. -Yeah. -There's always old man lore of any town, I feel. And I think that's, I would love, if I became an old man, I would, I would chase kids away from things, I think. -I think you'll do that as an old woman, too. -Maybe. -You might. -We never know. -I respect it. -I think that's, like, old man right. -Yeah. You know? -It's a right-of-passage-ass old man. -To chase teenagers out of places. They shouldn't be. -Oh, my God. -With a weapon. -I remember the guy with the lawn. -Yeah. -Oh, yeah. -Yeah. -Oh, yeah. -I was scary. -Yeah, got off my lawn. -Yeah, no, legit. -Oh, damn. -He looked at clouds. -He looked at a gun, right? -Yeah. -Like, there was some violence involved. -Stay off his lawn. -Outviolence. -But everybody has one of those, right? -You guys know what that is, right? -Yeah. -You guys get it. -Yeah. [music] [music] -Tail three spooky stories from a school for the deaf and the blind. -Mm-hmm. -Hello. Lovely ladies. -Hey, oh. -Please do not use my name. Oh, another. -Anonymous. -Anonymous. -But they have a pseudonym. -A pseudonym. -A pen name, if you will. -Please do not use my name, but you can call me Emma. -Mm-hmm. -I've been meaning to send this to you for a while, as I believe you'll greatly enjoy the spooky tale written in this putt of a-- -We better. -Everything within me wants to apologize for the length, but I know you'll both just scream. Never apologize. -It's too sweet. -To read on, regardless. Freaking champs. -Oh, my God, thank you. -I am a teacher at a school for the deaf and the blind. This school is established in 1846 and is still running strong. It's located in a picturesque, adorable little town called Stanton. Oh, no. Stanton. Don't know why there's you there. Oh, okay. Here we go. Stanton. I know. We don't believe in proper phonics here, I guess. Thank you very much. -Oh, it's nice that they recognize it. -Which is also known for its many ghost stories due to being built to top limestone caves with rushing waters that the spirits seem to really enjoy. -I would like to look into that. -I want to. -The school has loads. And I mean loads of ghost stories that have been documented by multiple staff members and students over the years. It's also important to note that during the Civil War, it was temporarily shut down to serve as a hospital for both the Confederate and Union soldiers, Dale. -That's so interesting because that happened back then, like with schools and hotels, they would make them into a hospital. -Whenever we tell a haunted hotel story, that happens. -At one point, it was a Civil War hospital. -Yeah. -Ligit. -This is crucial information since during renovations, they found tons of amputated leg and arm bones in a mass pile and you know how ghosts feel about renovations. They do not like that. -We also made a ghost story documentary based on the stories below. Buckle Up Buttercup. It's about to get spooky. -Fuck yeah. -I'm buckled. -The school has residential because I'm on the bus. The school has residential. -I'm buckled. -You always have a buckle. The school has residential students. So that means staff members work in a variety of shifts throughout the day and night. -Many night staff members have seen one swing swinging, one swing swinging while the other stagnant during the Windless Nights. The old metal Mary go round, freaking quietly in circles without anyone around, as well as various ghosts throughout the property. -I don't like that. -Playground ghosts freak me out. -It reminds me of the Shawnee Amusement Park. -Yeah. -Or the beginning of Are You Afraid of the Dark? -There is famously a little boy in early 1900s, Blue Clothing, who we call the Boy in Blue. -Why? -That's very unique. -He's a harmless lad who was usually caught running the halls after bedtime, playing hide and seek from the staff members or bouncing a ball down the hall. -That's cute. -In the early 1900s, there used to be a road that cut the campus in half. It was quite dangerous, since there were many carriages and early vehicles just zoom in by without paying much attention to the deaf and blind children present on the grounds. That's super cool of humans. -I guess we didn't have those signs yet. People always be people in, yeah. -In one sad instance, a little boy was struck by a vehicle and passed away on the property. The road was then bought and grasped over to combine the campus into one. -Wow. It's so weird. -S staff members believe the boy in Blue is the same boy who is struck by the car that faithful day. He still haunts the halls and the nearby dorm and enjoys playing tricks on both the students and staff members who live there. -I like that he's just like living in the afterlife. -Hey, he's just being a kid. -Yeah, just pranking. -Good for him. -This dorm is very spooky. it was renovated recently to become apartments where older students would live and practice independent living skills like cooking, cleaning, paint bills, etc. Oh, the worst skills to have to have. In order to prepare them for a dull life, the renovations must have stirred up some other spirit friends because the students and interns would arrive to school and share stories about what they experienced the night before. Fossets would turn on by themselves and run for long periods of time. Bathroom doors would lock by themselves and the water would run in the shower. Lights would flicker on and off throughout the night, random cold friends would pass through the room, and TVs would turn on and off without anyone touching the remote. That's my least favorite. That one's scary, and again, it seems like these ghosts just enjoy playing harmless tricks on those who live here, but it's scary nonetheless. Yeah, I was filming a movie in the dorm with a few of my students, I almost hiccuped, while filming one of the students noticed that all of the burners on the stone stove were red hot. Yeah, that's right. Every single burner was put on high. Let's fucked up. None of us had gone near the stove, and we're pretty freaked out by this. According to two different groups of interns, this happened to them multiple times as well. Thankfully, nobody has gotten hurt by this, but it seems to be the most malicious trick. It's pretty fucking malicious. Main hall was the original building erected in 1846, where the students lived and participated in school. It's a stunning brick building, and this was the one that was briefly turned into a hospital during the Civil War. This is the building where most stories were documented. Let me add that there are older stories since students no longer live in this building or participate in student activities here since it was being renovated, again, with the renovations. Oi, with the poodles. Oi, with the renovations. When students still lived in the dorm, many blind students commented that they heard what sounded like walking slowly down the hall on crutches. It would hear one like thwomp and two creaky sounds follow. After sharing this with a few deaf students, they set out to find out who was walking the hall's past bedtime. The floor was vibrating, and one heart of hearing student heard the same sounds that the blind students described. Wow. This is so interesting. I love how they work together to be like, all right, let's use all that collective power. All our senses. Yeah. They slowly opened their door to peek out and gasped. They saw a soldier dressed in his union uniform. You slowly crushing down the hall. His right leg was amputated below the knee and still bandaged and bloody. He looked like he was looking for something. Our lore calls him Billy X and says he walks the halls at night looking for his missing leg. That's so sad. Poor Billy X. My TA was an alumni for the school and worked with me daily. She had a story she experienced when she was in high school. During her time, the student activity center was located in main hall. It was Halloween night. Oh see, there it is. Halloween night. Fogging crisp with the moon peeking out behind rolling clouds. Oh, I love it. What a picture you're just paying to this period. She was dressed in her costume and headed to the student center for the Halloween party that was planned for that evening. When she arrived, they told her, sorry, you're too early and need to wait in the hall. We will let you know when you can come in. She sighed, frustrated, and sat in one of the old red velvet chairs that lined the downstairs hallway. Pretty. Curiosity got the best of her, so she decided to sneak up the off-limit stairs to check out the abandoned second floor. I too would do that. Yep. What else are you going to do? Exactly. These stairs had a landing in between floors where you had to turn in order to go up to the final set before reaching the next floor. She was successful at making it up the first set. As she turned, she felt a sudden ice cold chill run through her and all of the hair stood up on her body. Oh, she knew something was off. Slowly, she looked up to the top of the stairs and saw two dirty, bare feet standing at the top of the landing. No. No, no, no, no, no. Uh-uh, not for me. Clean your feet. A young girl wearing a tattered old white night gown was slow, stepping slowly down the stairs. Get out of here. Wash your feet. Wash your night gown. Wash your feet. Wash up. Just hygiene. Forget squabble up. Yeah. Wash up. My TA said absolutely not valid as quickly as possible and flew down the stairs. Out of breath, she reported this to her staff who did not believe her. For them. Now, you may be wondering, do you have a story yourself? Why yes. In fact, I do. Well, filming this ghost story documentary, we were in main hall in the dollhouse room. Yes, I know. Uh, did you just say dollhouse room? Yeah, sure did. Apparently in the 50s, students would build dollhouses from scratch and enter them into competition around the state. That's really fun. That's sick. I want to do that. They won multiple times and had a few relics of furniture they made as well as their massive winning dollhouse in the center of the room. I bet that was so cool, but also so creepy. Yeah. This was on the abandoned second floor where nobody works or goes since it's off limits. Oh, they should display that. We had to get special permission to film up there and take multiple safety precautions. One of my students was sharing her story about feeling a cold rush while in the dollhouse room in an elementary, uh, as an elementary student. The entire class was helping film setting up lights, finding the best place for her to stand, filming, directing, and giving feedback. At this point in the project, my students were comfortable doing this with little support from me. So I enjoyed stepping back and watching them do their magic. Mind you, I am the only hearing person in the room. I'm standing by a wall somewhere near the door while they're filming on the opposite end of the room to my left. Suddenly, I felt a cold rush as the hair stood up on my body. To my right, I heard a marble drop to the floor and rolled down the hallway. I stared in disbelief and didn't know what to do because I was the only hearing person. I was the only one that heard this. My students kept filming happily and quickly moved towards them. I guess, and I quickly moved towards them. I guess I looked like I had just seen a ghost because they all paused and stared at me. They knew. We all got out of there as quickly as possible. Phew. I will end with what I find to be the spookiest tale of all. Let's go. A blind department student had gotten lost and disoriented while going to class. He was stuck on the fourth floor, which at the time was only used for storage and wasn't sure how to find the stairs. He checked each door he could find only to find it locked. He was increasingly more frustrated each time the door handled in turn and even more flustered since he had no sense of where he was. I must be really scared. Yeah. Soon he felt a tap on his shoulder and a young boy's voice say, "Hey, do you need help?" Yeah, that would be great since I'm not sure where I am. I know him late for class and I can't figure out how to get there. I can help. The young boy replied. He grabbed the blind student by his shirt and led him down the hallway towards the stairs and to the correct floor. I'm so glad you said to the correct floor. I thought you were going to say like to the basement and killed him and then murdered him. Yeah. Spooky. That was the spookiest. The blind student thanked the boy and went to class. When he got to class, the teacher said, "Where have you been? We've been looking for you everywhere." Oh, I got lost on the fourth floor, I think, and this boy helped me get here. Can you help me find him? I want to thank him. They walked into the hall and saw nothing. Check the stairway, nothing. Check the fourth floor, nothing. Nobody knew who the boy was, where he came from or what he looked like. Maybe it was a harmless boy in blue who noticed a lost friend and wanted to learn some help. Wait, that's not spooky. That's the love spot. I love this thing I've ever heard. Either way, I find this the spookiest since the blind student was completely unaware that he was interacting with the spirit. That is pretty fucking spooky. Well, this concludes my tales from the deaf and blind school. I hope you enjoyed reading them. Maybe one day I will write you about living in a former insane asylum, turned prison, turned apartment complex. Until then, much love to you, Emma. Emma, don't just dangle that carrot at us. Yeah, I want that. Give me that, Emma. Please. Give me that, Emma. Poor favor. We're going to end up the probably best tale, at least best headline we've ever gotten. Tale five. Fuck that condom stained house. And I thank you for this tale. And I thank you. Hello, my beautiful besties. Yes, I do consider you guys my besties. I'm going to drip state straight into my tale. Otherwise, if I start talking about my love for you guys and your show, this thing won't be a tale. It'll be a damn tone. Hell yeah. Before I do that, I have to give a shout out to my mom, who I've also put on to your show. Shout out to your mom. Shout out mama. And my friend Meg, who listened to your listener tales with me for six straight hours in the car back from our friend's lake house. Shout out to Meg. Yeah. Now you guys have been binging them for the last two weeks. She's on listener tale 84. Damn, Meg. Fucking Meg and Emma. This tale is really just a compilation of six really creepy occurrences at my old college house. They all involve a condom stained home. Or it just was maybe homeostasis for that house, I guess, perhaps. Oh, yeah, there you go. Yeah. So let's set the scene. My girlfriends and I are going into our third year of college and we decide we want to live in a house instead of an apartment for you. We found one for rent near downtown closer to the bars than campus. So clearly it was already perfect. We walked through the house with the landlord while the current renters were home. A group of five guys that were all on the football team at our college. The tour itself was uneventful. Yeah, it was probably smelliest fucking there. I know it smelled in there. The tour itself was uneventful and we've just we decided to sign a one year lease for the next school year. Unfortunately, though, the house got creepy almost immediately following moving in though. Creepy incidents number one, demon summoning cross. In the house, my room was upstairs with one of the other girls' room and a bathroom. As I took the first load of stuff up to my room, I noticed there was a cross hanging on the wall. Without any hesitation, I took it down because I'm not super religious. Good for you. I felt like throwing away a cross was asking for some crazy bad juju, though. So I left it sitting on top of a random stove that was in an open space before bedroom, uh, before the bedroom doors. We would call it choices that probably was a duplex at some point. Choices of you to leave a cross on a stove. Like, like, like, like, badger, Jew to throw it away. Worse, Jew to leave it on a flammable surface. I got potentially light on fire. Yeah. Well, a week or so later, I'd left for the weekend and when I returned home, the cross was hanging upside down in my room. Okay. Your friend here remates did that. They're fucking iconic. Yeah. That's the best word made ever. I left it there and immediately asked all my roommates who did it, but no one admitted to it. Yeah. Once again, I took it down and again, left it on the oven because even though I felt like I was going to, it was going to summon demons throwing it away. I felt like it could make things worse. Nothing more ever happened with the cross and you bet. I left that pitch there for the next tenants. Good for you. They were probably like, why the fuck is this cross on a stove? Creepy instance number two. Why you staring at my house? Why? Maybe a week or two after moving in. I end up being the only one of my roommates staying at the house for the weekend. Oh, all the luck. I don't like anything. So I convinced one of my girlfriends to stay with me. Good job. We were already hanging out at the house, but she had to go home, shower, and grab some things. So we went back to her place and we're driving back to my house around, let's say, dark o'clock, because all I know is that it was late. I like that. We were chit-chatting in the car and she went to turn into my driveway, which was just a cement pad next to the house in an alleyway. She begins to turn into the alleyway and she's looking more at me than the road when something super casual catches my eye. There is a man in the middle of the alleyway staring up at my house into the window where I had left the lights on. No. Bad. No. That guy was hoping someone was in there. One hundo beat. He's going to be able to look at you. That's called a peeping tom. Yeah. I said her name without looking at her, continuing to look at the man as her headlights illuminate said, man, he takes off running through my neighbors yard. What a nasty little pig bitch. We both panicked and drove away debating over 10 minutes if we were going to go back in my house or not. In the end, we did decide to go back to the house so I could grab my charger. She refused to get out of the car and left me to find for myself. That's a bad friend. And only unlocked it long enough for me to get out, damn. I don't know why you would want to be sitting in your car though. I know. At least you can be in the house with you and find a weapon when you've already he's already seen you. So it's like, yeah, and he knows your way. Yeah. It's not a little pig bitch. Yeah. Well, I spent a day in grabs what I needed and we went and stayed at her house. We never figured anything out about the guy and didn't report it since he technically didn't do anything wrong. Oh, yeah. It wouldn't be creepy as fuck. Ew. I hope he got curtains after that. I hate that. Creepy instance number three, dark cloud man, dark cloud man. It's giving like blue man group. I don't know. Whoa. My brain just works that well. Okay. One night, like they could be a troop dark cloud man. Okay. All right. I had to explain myself through there. Yeah. One night as I was about to go to bed, my boyfriend, now husband was staying over. I would like to clarify. I was stone cold sober. So I was at a clear state of mind. I had just brushed my teeth and came back into the bedroom, turned off the light, gotten to bed and then realized like an idiot I had to pee. Oh, god. I do that. It's so frequently. I'm idiot. I got out of bed and decided not to turn the light back on because the bathroom door was less than four feet from my bedroom door. I walked out of my room into the bathroom, left the door open, left the light off, but there were windows upstairs that did let a little light in and the bathroom there was a mirror that faced toward the toilet. As I did my thing, I looked forward and saw a whole ass black shadow form walk into the room and stand in front of the mirror like it was looking at me. No. You have to just flush yourself down the toilet. Just get it. What do you do? You flush yourself down the toilet is the only option. That's it. Give yourself a swirly, babe. That's it. That's the ultimate swirly. A fatal swirly. You might make it to the sewer system. Oh, Lord, give yourself a terminal swirly. It was not a solid figure, just like a dark cloud in the shape of a damn man. I didn't know what to do. So I just closed my eyes, finished peeing. I can't believe you continued to pee. What else? That would halt by you. You know what? See, I'll just pee more probably. Yeah, that's true. One that I ran out of the bathroom back to my room, woke my boyfriend up to go look in the bathroom to ensure that the dark cloud man was man cloud was gone. He thought I was being dramatic. Damn, but went in and looked anyway because he knew I wouldn't let him go back to bed until he did where high school sweetheart. So he knows me very well. He went in and looked and he saw nothing, which I lot, which logically I knew he still wouldn't be there, but I had to know for sure. I never saw the dark cloud man again, but I can still see the shape of him like it was yesterday every time I think about it. Oh, every time you pee, every time. Now I'd be worried about peeing. I don't know. But there's like a dark cloud man that's going to walk through. Yeah, I don't like that. It's kind of like put a toilet in your room, like ever heard knocking. Yeah, like forget about the room. Just put a toilet in some area of your room and be like that and then put a little sign that says like cloud man can't be here. Man cloud. Yeah. Yeah. I don't like it. Creepy instance for nearly every time question mark, question mark, question mark. Huh. About half an hour, half an hour, about halfway into our lease at the house, eight and dropped a bombshell on me. He stayed in me probably three or four nights a week, which is important to this part of the story, because the bombshell he dropped was that he had a reoccurring nightmare almost ever nearly every single time he stayed at my house. Before I get into the dream, what the hell was this man doing at my house? Three to four nights a week if he had the same nightmare nearly every time he lurves you. My house would know the fuck out of that house immediately. Two, why the fuck was he now just telling me this after months of staying with me? He lurves you. Yeah, he does. He didn't well scary. Like you kept that shit to yourself for this long. Why the hell couldn't he wait until I moved out so I didn't have to worry about the nightmares coming after me? Because he lurves you. He lurves you. Let's get to the dream. Now dream always started out normal, but would switch into him feeling like someone was watching him. Every time Aiden looked back, he would see the person and they would move out of sight. This would continue until Aiden decided to chase after him, but he could never quite catch them. He describes feeling more and more anxious as it would go on until he'd eventually wake up. I moved out of the house over four years ago and he's never had the nightmare again. So what was it about that house? Haunted. Yeah. Creepy. Spooky. Condom stained. Condom stained. When I decided to write in my tale, I asked him to remind me about the nightmare and he demonstrated by standing with only one eye showing behind our closet door and then moving out of sight. Oh, fuck that. Then they said it was a nerving and he's literally my husband. I don't like that. That would fuck me. I know. Also, I knew these football players were coming back. I did too. Creepy instance number five. Fuck them football players. As I mentioned, the reason we picked the house was because it was close to the bars. So naturally, one night we went out to the bars and ran into one of the guys who lived in the house the year before. As soon as we began talking about the house, he said what I was already coming to know. You know that house was haunted, right? I remember being shocked and saying, what the fuck do you mean? I knew exactly what he meant, but I hadn't said anything to him about things that I had experienced. He asked me who had the room upstairs, and that was at the end of the hallway. And as I'm sure you can guess, that was my damn room. Of course it was. He told me his friend who lived in that room was on his way to the bar that I needed to talk to him. Oh, that's like a movie. Yeah. It really is. His friend got to the bar a little later, and he told me about a few situations that led him to believe it was haunted. He said his PS4 would randomly make its signature beep like it was turning off when he was nowhere near it or in bed about to go to sleep. I immediately tried to dismiss it as the house and outlets being old. But what he said next, I couldn't come up with an explanation. He said, if he had the LED strip lights on all around the room, I fucking hate those things. I know. And thank you. And while he was sitting in his room one day, they all fell off the wall at once. Honestly, good. They're probably just like not sticky enough. Or it's just the house is being like these are dumb. Yeah, don't put these up in an old house. Why does your room have to be right here? You can't sleep with this shit. He said not like a trickle where it slowly peeled off the wall all at once, like switching gravity on. They thought the house just being like, fuck them. This is an old house. Don't decorate like that. I don't do that. I was happy I was the only one to experience the thing, uh, experience things, but it also made it more real. Like why would some football player make this kind of thing up? And how would they know that that was my room? And I was the only one in the house experiencing anything. I know. I'm going to attach an image of the bathroom upstairs. I don't want to see it. Oh, I do. I do. When I moved in, I noticed there was a weird stain on the wall that happened to look like a used condom. I never asked him about it. And I regret it to this day. If I have to see it, you have to see it too. Actually, I, I, I retract my, here's the thing. What? I mean, I didn't, in no way did I see that coming. I know the name of the tale, but I didn't see that coming. I didn't see it being that, but like, you don't have to ask him about it. It's a house full of football players. Somebody like through that condom, but somebody would say, "What answer are you looking for?" And they never cleaned it that you're like, what? We're like, not to make you feel bad, but like the answer is going to be pretty, uh, pretty black and white. Yeah. It's a used condom that I threw up the wall. So yeah. Yeah. Also, like, you can't, you know what, I'm not going to ask for questions. That's foul. It's foul. Creepy and sexy. Seanify a burden on the dance floor. Oh, whoa. You know, I listened to that on the way here the other day. Did you really keep up on my on my club playlist. Well done, my club playlist. You know that like for about playlist that I've been listening to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm so good. At this point, I moved out of that demon summoning cross scary alleyway man, dark cloud man, or curry nightmare, PS4 turning on condom stainless. Thank you for incoming that. I'm so glad you were out of there. Mostly because of the condom stain of it all. I would. The house I moved into was about four blocks away. And so sometimes I went on walks past there. One day a girlfriend and I were on a walk and happened to see smoke in the distance. I obviously needed to know where it was coming from because I'm nosy as hell. And as I kept walking toward the smoke, I realized it's getting closer to my old house. Lowenby holds the house that I'd moved out of less than a year earlier was on fire. Oh, I was able to look up at my old bedroom window standing on the sidewalk and see outside on the other side. My bedroom was completely destroyed. The roof caved in. I've attached a video of the house on fire. I bet it's I bet it's because there was a cross but on the stove. Yeah, probably. That's what I think happened to your old man. I've attached a video of the house on fire at a link to the news article about the fire. I read later in the news that everyone in the house got out okay, but that a car had exploded and lit the house on fire. I still think it was the cross. Huh. It's a little different. He said a book. I don't know a lot about house fires, but it seemed crazy that a car explosion would cause so much damage to a house. Yeah, I mean, it depends on where the car was. Yeah, it's in close proximity. I wonder if it was like right in that alleyway. Dang. What was really confusing was that my room was on the opposite side of the house from where the car was parked and on the second floor. Yeah. So how was that part of the house damaged so badly? That's a solid question. I would love to hear what either of you think and if this is really realistic. No, it was the cross on the stove. Yeah, probably. That's what I think. It's fucking weird, either way. Either way, the house was a total loss and was later demolished. I hate demolition. So much demolition. It's just an empty lot to this day. Demolition tale. Yeah, it's real. Well, friends, that's my long-winded as fuck tale about my creepy ass haunted house, college ass house that burned to the ground to keep it weird, but not college ass house. Everything else was ass. I had to put it in there. That you move into a house that was owned by a full-mo football player as it used to call them staying on the wall. Yeah, that's so college. That is so college. That's so yucky. Dang. Those are some good back to school tales. Yeah, some of them were not safe for school, but yeah, no most of them weren't. Yeah, they definitely weren't, but yeah, from Miss Frizzle and Miss Trunchbull, we out. I don't know what I was gonna say after that. You kind of just looked at me and I was like, and me, and me. We out. So we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird, but not so weird that you don't stay in school, cans, staying school, and throw your condoms in the trash. Yeah. Wouldn't use them. Don't just throw them in the trash. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)