Hi, ghosties, I'm Macy, and I'm Natalie. There's a type of entity that we have come across many times over the last three years, and if you watch any paranormal content, even outside of this podcast, then I have no doubt that you've heard of it too. Shadow figures. These entities present themselves as darker than night. I'm your shadow with eyes walking freely and bringing feelings of fear or anxiety in their wake. There are many theories as to what they could be, interdimensional beings of physical manifestation of negativity and fear, demons. Today, we'll be telling stories of these beings from our listeners. It's a truly frightening set of tales, so grab your tea, your blanket, maybe even your night light, and we'll get started. So have you landed on a solid theory in your mind yet? No, and I don't think I ever could. Yeah, I don't have one. All I know is that they are very scary. Yes, that's it. That's all I know. I don't know if I've ever heard a story of a shadow figure that wasn't fear-inducing, like it's the better thing. People who saw it weren't really scared, you know? Yeah. Would you count my encounter as a shadow figure? No, because it was more of a mist, wasn't it? Because it wasn't a fully formed person. These are like Peter Pan's shadow, you know what I mean? Okay. Yeah, mine was more of a misty. Yours was the darkness from twitches. Yes. Yes, almost. Yeah. Oh, creepy. Well, we'll get started. Our tea today is from the Binner Tea Company. It's Green Tea Pomegranate. It's a good one. It was sent by one of you guys, and it has become one of my go-to's. Yeah. So. Oh, God. Okay. I'm ready. Spooky. Let's go. So this first story is unsigned, so anonymous. Oh my gosh. I'm not going to shadow figure. I've never believed in the paranormal, but when I was 13, something happened that I still can't explain. In 2021, I had a close friend who was fascinated by the supernatural. We lived near each other and spent almost every day together. One winter afternoon, we decided to explore the forest behind her house. The snow was deep, the air crisp, and everything seemed perfectly normal, until it didn't. As we trudged through the woods, an unsettling feeling crept over us. It was as if we were being watched, but not from the ground. Sensation was different, almost as if unseen eyes followed us from the tree branches above. The feeling intensified when we reached a small clearing encircled by tall skeletal trees, but we brushed it off and continued walking. When we finally returned to our starting point, something made my blood run cold. Fresh footprints. Large, unmistakably for my man's boots were imprinted beside our own in the snow. The tracks stretched along the entire route we had taken. Someone, or something, had followed us the entire time. Yet we had heard nothing, seen nothing. Their realizations had to chill down my spine and we hurried back to my friend's house. Our sister had arrived home while we were gone and we breathlessly told her what had happened. Skeptical, she insisted we go back and check. I wasn't thrilled about the idea, but curiosity got the better of me. As we retraced our steps through the snow, I tried to rationalize the footprints, probably just a jogger I told myself. Nothing weird, I even forced myself to look for something scary, something that would make the trip feel worth it. That's when I saw it. A tree stump, oddly shaped, almost like a grotesque face. I pointed it out to my friend laughing nervously, but as I lifted my gaze from the stump my breath caught in my throat. Standing about 20 meters away, partially hidden behind a tree was a tall, black figure. It had no face, just a void where features should have been. One elongated hand gripped the tree trunk, its fingers impossibly long. Though it had no eyes, I felt its gaze heavy and unrelenting. I barely managed to whisper. Do you see that? My friend screamed. Her sister who had been skeptical moments before turned pale and gasped. Then we ran. The forest floor was uneven, our feet slipping and sinking into the snow as we stumbled downhill. Behind us, my friend's sister suddenly let out a strangled cry and fell forward. Later, she swore she felt something grab her, yanking her back before she managed to break free. We didn't stop running until we were inside. The door looked behind us. Trimbling, we huddled in the bathroom, trying to make sense of what had just happened. I hadn't described the figure to them, yet when I asked, they both described exactly what I had seen. Down to the way, it had clutched the tree. After a while, we worked up the courage to return, but the figure was gone. Snow had started falling heavily, erasing any footprints, any sign that something had been there at all. I told my parents they didn't believe me. Even now years later, my friend insists she saw the same thing I did, a dark figure watching us from the trees. And the strangest part? I still don't know who or what it was or why it was watching us. Two things. One, the fact that what, three people saw it? Real. I mean, yeah. If one person saw it, I could always write something off like that is like, oh, you know, like your eyes were playing tricks on you. It was the light. The tree was stumpest weird. Maybe there was a bush. Three people saw it. They all described the same thing. But what I find really weird is the physical footprints. Yeah. Because when I think of shadow figure-esque things, I don't think of them physically like leaving a trace like that. Yeah. That's weird, right? Yeah. At first when I first read it, I was like, maybe it was a man. Maybe it was a creepy man. Yeah. Writer got these feelings, you know, that they were being watched anyway. Yeah. But the way that it gripped the tree, it's a long, dark fingers, just like shadow voidless face, just the void, or void, void face. That's not a person. Yeah. To go back a third time though, like you're out there the first time, you go back a second time and you go back later just to be sure that that's wild. And that couldn't be me. Crazy. And not only did they all see it, but they all saw it at the same time. Yes. OP said, you see that at the same time, their friends screamed. So they were all witnessing this. It wasn't like how that feeling. It wasn't like, oh god, I saw this thing. And they're like, yeah, I see like, you know, it wasn't like playing off like a stereotype thing. It was like everyone saw it, fear, and run. I'm not a fan. That one, I'm already not a fan. Great writing too. I felt, I felt immersed. Me too. But this next story is from Oliver. Hi, ghosties. I hope everything is going well. My name is Oliver. And I've been listening for a few months now. I absolutely love the podcast and look forward to each new episode. I've meant to send in my stories, but more just keeps happening as my girlfriend and I seem to attract the paranormal. And I've recently befriended someone who takes us on ghost adventures. Anyways, onto my stories. This is going to be a very long email, even though I'm not including everything, as I think I could write a book at this point. My childhood home was in a more sketchy area in town. So I was always afraid of the people more than ghosts. But I was still very scared thanks to my little sister forcing me to watch ghost adventures whenever my parents left this home alone. She's a big horror movie buff now by the way. There were a few small spooky instances where I would see odd lights in the house. The cats would have weird reactions to different areas of the house. And there was a weird life-sized doll in a black garbage bag that stayed on a wire shelf in the corner of the dungeon like basement that one day just disappeared. Hello. Hello. I need more information on that Oliver. Just casual. Okay. I saw a picture the other day of a thrift store that kept all their dolls like in a basket and they had something on top of it. Like they kept them basically in a cage and like a heavy thing on top of it so they couldn't move. They couldn't get out. Very freaky. Creepy. The main thing that happened here though was my sleep paralysis. This was my first and so far only sleep paralysis. I slept on a loft bed facing toward the rest of the room. I had a ton of flush animals and a few shelves of porcelain dolls. I was having a rough night and fell asleep after some trouble or so I thought. I was lying on my back and I found myself unable to move. I can't remember if my eyes were open or closed but I could clearly see the whole room. I was stuck. Not even being able to move my eyes. Everything felt so heavy. I was already quite freaked out at this point. Things started to get worse. My beloved childhood plushies started moving. They moved their heads to look at me and their faces started morphing. I was crying at this point, completely shaken. To make it even worse, the dolls and the shelves turned their heads to look at me. At this point I started trying to scream for my parent. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get any sound out. Nothing. I used all of my energy to scream more. A shadow started to form in front of the shelf in my room and moved towards me. Becoming more and more like a shadow figure. Somehow my parents since they needed to come check on me so they entered my room and saw I was crying. They held my hands and helped me come out of my sleep paralysis right before the shadow figure got to me. Though not believing anything I told them, they still prayed over me. Thankfully, I haven't experienced anything like this since. Well yeah, thankfully what the heck? The dolls, the stuffed animals, like that sounds like something. Did they say how they were? No, just a child, yeah. That is something that is straight from a child's deepest, like fears. My deepest fears. Yeah. All of the dolls and plushies looking at me and I can't move as their shadow leader comes after me. Their shadow leader. Yeah, that's scary. Not quite a year after this. I was having a sleepover at my grandma's house with my sister. My grandma lived out in the the countryside on the edge of the forest.
She had a large hill out front, a few small horse fields on the right side of the property, and then mostly hilly forest for miles behind her house. Now, there have been a few small times here where my cousin and I saw some sort of dragon bird demon, but our grandma made fun of us for it, so I always wrote this off as something we came up with as kid. I learned recently though what it was I saw from a friend who studied demons. I'll share that story another time, maybe. Anyways, my sister and I were hanging out and planning to sleep in the living room of my grandma's house, which had large windows facing out to the hill and filled in front of it. This window never had and still doesn't have any sort of blinds or curtains, so there was no way to hide from what was outside. Cornelson number one, that wild choice. Not okay. The amount of people in my neighborhood that don't have blinds or curtains. Oh, I know. I drive by and see what they're watching. Oh, I do. Take my dogs on a walk. I'm like, oh, well, they haven't for dinner. Not a creepy way. It's just. It's wide open. My eyes go there. Sorry, but yeah. Creepy. We were just chatting and playing word games with my notebook and pens. Electronics have a difficult time working in her house sometimes, and we weren't allowed anything at the time. We decided to get up and do something else, and that's when I saw it. Out the large window, not even 25 yards from the house, was a tall, black shadow figure. It had to be at least 10 feet tall. At first, it didn't move, then I saw it shift. I nearly screamed and went to hide downstairs in the recreation room. My sister didn't see it, and was confused about why I was hiding. I told her what I saw. She didn't seem to believe me, but was intrigued anyway. She had the audacity to suggest we go out the side door on the other side of the house to see if it was out there. No. Thinking back, I was so insanely stupid to let my little sister boss me around to go outside where I saw a shadow figure. And yet, I did. I followed her, and we walked up the steps of the garage, through the dimly lit garage and opened the back door. At first, I thought maybe everything would be ok. Then I felt it, the dread. The strong sense of fear. I looked out to the horse fields, slightly to my right, and there it was, standing ominously staring at me, as if it was waiting for me to come outside. I started crying and backed into the garage. My sister called me a chicken and followed me back in. My ran upstairs to my grandma. She tried to comfort me that nothing was out there, but I knew what I saw. I don't know how I slept that night, but I don't think I slept well. Unfortunately, that was not the last time I saw that shadow figure. That all took place in middle school. I had numerous other smaller paranormal experiences throughout high school, but for the sake of not making this email a billion years long, I'll leave those out for now. They're not as spooky as what I'm about to share, but if you're curious, I can send them over. A little time skip now to my second year of college. Despite living less than 10 minutes away from my university, my family and I decided I should have the college experience and live on campus for the rest of my college career. I had commuted my first year, but now it was getting serious. At this point, I was getting deeply involved in theater and was in the theater honorary group. The theater has its own set of spooky tales, including the possessed bunny head. But this next experience didn't happen inside the theater itself. Our theater group played dungeons and dragons late into the night almost every week, and we played this in the building the theater was in, which was also coincidentally the oldest building on campus and nearly abandoned. Of course it is. But to say that's why it would be. Yeah. One night after my girlfriend decided to join me for a session, we were walking through the dark hall. It was after hours, and we really weren't supposed to be there, so most of the lights were off. I imagine that. A decaying college building that's mostly abandoned in the dark. That's as scary as it gets, right? Wrong. No. It had been years since I saw the shadow figure, but it was back. Right before the doors to exit the building, there was a long hallway that stretched out to both sides. I made the mistake of looking down the hallway to my left. There it was. At the end of the dark hallway was the same shadow figure I had seen at my grandma's house in middle school. It stood there, completely black, no facial features, no features at all, besides looking vaguely humanoid, I froze in fear. My girlfriend didn't see it, but I did. The shadow figure tilted its head. My body tensed up and I grabbed my girlfriend and we got out of there as soon as possible. I didn't look back. Little did I know this was just the beginning of my college experience with the shadow figure. Oh my god. I don't quite remember everything about the next two experiences I had with the shadow figure in college, but what I do remember is enough. They both took place in my dorm room. My bed stared directly at the door to the hallway, which is where I it liked to appear. The first time, it just stood by my door. That was enough to freak me out and concern my girlfriend. The second time, it moved closer, but not yet right beside the bed. I don't remember how either of these experiences ended. All I know is my girlfriend stayed for quite a while after to make sure I was okay. After these experiences, we started telling a person or two and they suggested we name it. Any guesses on a name for a terrifying shadow creature that has followed me around since middle school? No. Well, here it is. Craig. We named the shadow figure Craig, I almost said Greg with a G. I'm not joking. I almost said Greg, wow. But that is hilarious and also horrifying. Don't name your shadow figures. That's true. I like Craig. It's a good name. Now, onto what I consider to be the most terrifying scenario with Craig. I was staying the night in my girlfriend's dorm room. Shh. Don't tell the RAs. And we were lying on the mattresses that she put on the floor to my right was my girlfriend and to the left was the hallway to the door. It was already a rough night, but to make matters worse, Craig appeared. Entering into my field of vision in the hallway right beside the bed, there it was. This time, however, it had a singular facial feature, a large sharp tooth smile. I whispered to my girlfriend that it was there. She hugged me tight and asked me what to do. I don't know if I answered or if she started praying on her own, Craig started to lean down towards me smiling wider somehow. I was sobbing at this point. This was the most terrified I ever felt. It was getting much too close. The closer it got, the louder my girlfriend seemed to pray. She was crying at this point too. I started praying. I'm not sure how this ended or when it disappeared, but it did. It left. For now. I'm sorry, but referring to it as Craig takes away the fear for me. It does. When they said Craig leaned down. It's like, okay. Okay. I couldn't be afraid if I had named it Craig. I think it's a good strategy. Yeah. Maybe that's the point I guess. Yes, I think so. And I think it's a good one. After this awful night, I didn't want anything to do with it. I had a very spiritual friend at the time and through one of our conversations, I told her about Craig. She was immediately concerned and knew it was demonic. By the end of this conversation, she decided we needed to do a prayer. We spent some time with her praying over me quite intensely. Once she finished, it felt like a weight was lifted off of me. I knew that Craig was going to leave me alone. And thankfully, Craig has not appeared soon. Whenever I tell people about my experiences with shadow figures, they are terrified. I really don't know how I dealt with it, especially in college. I believe Craig came into my life as a result of my trauma and depression. As the times in my life, he appeared where the worst times of my life. I've always been sensitive to the paranormal in other ways, but this shadow figure was much more malicious and worse than anything else. So that's a story of the shadow figure named Craig. These are my scariest stories, but I have experienced so many other things as well. If you want to hear any more of my stories, let me know. I'll be going ghost hunting for the third time soon, so maybe I'll share those stories someday. Thank you for reading this and keep up the spooky work. Stay safe. Love y'all. Oliver. Yes. Please do. Please share the ghost hunting stories. Everybody comment, convince Macy that we need to go on a ghost hunt. Convince me. Convince you. I'm down. I'll go. At night. At night. Um, but I, I think at this point, I'm down. Okay. So if anybody has been on our Patreon and watched our one and only vlog, you can see there, there is a moment where our spirit box app says something spooky and they said it wanted to go with us. Runs. Just, she disappears. Right. To be fair before we got out of the car. Okay. I said, if stuff goes wrong, I'm running. I hope you're going to be there too. And I warned. I'm not blaming you for running. All I say is, I walk, thank you, equipped for ghost hunt. I walked very quickly. I did not run. We were in a cemetery. Okay. Yes. It was a fast walk. It was a fast walk. I said, no. I need to rewatch. So that was fun. That was funny. Yeah. Um, comment where we should go ghost hunting. Okay. Sure. Down. As long as we can bring a lot of protection. If Craig shows up, I'm, I'm not going. That's horrifying. And what does he want? No. What is it all for? So that gets me. That's the question. Always. Having these, like, the most horrifying experiences in the lowest points in your life makes so much sense to me because I feel like negative, low vibrational beings just feed on that trauma on that, you know, just bad times in your life. That's the only way they can come in. If you're like me, and I'm saying, no. No, all the time, they're not going to get me. But if I, you know, let my guard down and things got really, really hard. And I was just like, oh, everything's horrible. They might come for me, you know? And when I had my experiences, they were always in the most like tumultuous times in my life too. Just the very big changes, the very like intense emotional stages of my life. That's when I had my most horrifying experiences too. Yeah. Well, I'm glad Craig disappeared and I hope he never returns. Same. who have seen a shadow figure. - I. - Possibly.
think so. I think so, and I, the more time that passes and the further I get away from the house that it happened in, the more I start to say like, "Okay, maybe it happened." Because I'm really afraid of it. So, as you know, at my old house where we first started the pod, I don't know if I've ever told the people. I don't know. I don't remember this story. I think I told the guys on "Believing the Bazaar." I don't know if I told it on the pod. Okay. Okay. So, in my old place, we used a room that was strictly just for like pod room usage and then like, I would edit in there. And I had one or two instances where I fell asleep on this couch in the old room. And I heard loud. Oh, I'm gonna throw up. Oh, I don't know what you were talking about. It's not real. It's not real. I heard three loud like, boom, boom, boom, knocks from the closet door. I remember this part. Yes. And so it like, woke me up out of my sleep. And the thing that really got me is that PD reacted to it too. The dogs, both dogs like looked up and they reacted and looked at the closet. Uh-huh. And I just said, oh, that's not real. Uh-huh. And I just went back to bed. How could you go back to bed right there? Why would you leave? I was afraid to react. Okay. I was afraid to get up because then if I got up and reacted, it's more real like you didn't see anything. Yeah. And I would feel crazy and I had to go tell Ryan like, I think I heard something. He'd be like, oh my god, you just need to like, stop doing the pod. Yeah. And so I was like, you know what, that's not real. It happened a second time. And I was like, oh, no. No, a different night. Okay. And so I was like, all right, no more falling asleep in the pod room, shutting that door if you're not there. Done. The second thing that happened in that house that I'm just now coming to terms with is it was like early in the morning. I was laying in my bed. And the way I was sleeping in this house, here's my, here's my spot where I lay. And then to the left right in front of me on the wall directly in front of my feet is the bedroom door. I opened my eyes. At first, I was like, I kept blinking because I was thinking like, no, like, I'm not seeing anything. I saw like hands like wrapped around the door. And I had enough time to see it, blink and keep thinking, that's not real. I just need to stop thinking so much about the pod. That's not real. That's not real. And it wouldn't go away. And then I saw like a head like peak, but it was just black. It was all black. Yeah, it like peaked. And I was like, that's not real. I just closed my eyes. And then like a couple seconds or minutes, I don't know how long pass it opened my eyes. And it was gone. And I was like, that wasn't real. But the more time that is passed, I'm like, what was that? Did it peak over and then duck back? Yeah. And I was just like, no, no, that's not real. I couldn't accept it or talk about it out loud at the old place because I was really afraid to be like, and I live here, see, I don't think you ever told me that because I was too scared to see how this got brought up. And you all didn't see the the start of this conversation. She said, oh yeah, that time that I saw its hands reach around the door and it peaked out at me and tuged back in. I said, no, hello, I didn't, I don't remember, I didn't remember that I didn't tell you, but oh, I am feeling not well. Because if you all been watching long enough, you know, I'm like, no, it didn't happen. No, not real. Ah, yeah, man. And the knocking led up to this, it was like all like the knocking was first. No, I don't know the timeline, but the knocking happened on two separate occasions and then that happened and then we moved shortly after. So then I was like, whew, we're in the clear. You know what? The knocking starts cleansing after you cleared all your belongings out for the next people. I don't know who lives there. Sorry to that man, but I think it is just a guy. Yeah. The knocking's what really scared me and not seeing the shadow figure peek around your door frame. No, because the knocking was loud and PDN Piper reacted to it. You blinked. You blinked many times. But I was in, I don't know, PDN Piper reacting to it, like the knocking actually scared me more than anything. I've ever felt like as an adult, I haven't had paranormal experiences other than that. So yes, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. What? I'm sorry. We got. I've been in this house for almost a year now, so I've come to terms with the old place. Okay. We talked about some really scary stuff over there. We did. And that place already had a vibe. It did. Like pre-ghosties. Yeah. But we don't have to talk about it. I don't live there anymore. It's fine. Damly casually saw a shadow figure, but casually. We'll move on to Brittany's story. What? Are you? I really didn't tell you. You did that tell me this. You're like, oh yeah, the time that it peaked. No. I thought I called you. I really think I, I thought I called you that morning. You called me after Ryan. You thought Ryan said something to you from the bathroom. Like you were in the bathroom. No. You called me about that. He knocked. It was like, like, he knocked on the door. I was like, one second. That's what it was. Yeah, dude. You called me after that. When you start to talk about all the things, that place was kind of creepy. Okay, I don't. I don't like it. I like it at all. I don't like it at all. I'm going to throw up. Okay. Okay. So this next story is from Brittany. Hey, ghosties. I just wanted to start off by saying, I love your podcast and binge it immediately after finding it. Hearing others, other listener stories have reminded me of my not so casual encounters with the paranormal. I live in a small town smack dab center of Southwest Kansas. I can't say for sure when we started noticing strange things around our house, but I know when we did, it was enough to make my non-believer brother swear off anything remotely paranormal or horror related for years. My earliest memory was when we moved into an older home located in a neighborhood that was notorious for being built over gravesite. Why my parents felt this was not at all a bad decision? I'll never understand. It was a bit of a fixer upper, but it still had its own quirky charm. One day, my dad had decided to till our backyard to level it out so he could build a shed for his tools. And when we were leaving leveling out the soil, we found a strange looking key. And after further research, we discovered it belonged to a coffin that was common for the time before our house had been built. They would lock the coffins to avoid having gravesites eluded and typically have family members hold onto the keys. My dad being the fairly religious man that he is, he immediately cleans the key instead of prayer for disturbing their resting grounds before burying the key back into the ground. I don't think this had anything to do with what happened after. I do feel, however, that this is what sparked my dad's fear and started making everyone more precarious. I was maybe 12 or 13 years old at the time and was heavily into self-care and having a lot of aroma therapy items in my room. I almost always had some type of candle lit up as it helped me feel cozy, especially when I was curled up in my bed with a good book. This particular night felt off from the get-go, but I'm a creature of habit. So I lit my candle before crawling under the sheets for a quick late night read. Our power suddenly went off, which wasn't too unusual for a neighborhood during heavy storms. I was grateful for having my candle on, but the feeling soon faded as I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I could feel the pressure of something or someone leaning behind me. This strong smell of a woman's perfume was overwhelming, so close that I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I attempted to pull myself out of bed to try to get away from the scent. That's when a heavy weight settled on my shoulders and sat me back down where I would have been laying. While I was trying to process what had just happened, I glanced over to my mirror and noticed my shadow being reflected on the wall. However, I wasn't alone. I couldn't make out much detail other than it being a small, framed woman that was right behind me and reaching out towards me. I could feel her running her thin fingers along my scalp and through my hair. If I didn't know any better, I would assume it was someone gently coaxing me to sleep. I was in disbelief, but quietly asked, "What are you doing?" Before feeling her quickly yank her hand for my hair and disappear from the wall. This all happened in a matter of seconds, but it felt like an eternity. My mom eventually made it downstairs to check on me, not wanting to freak her out. I didn't mention the encounter until months later when we had another paranormal visit that involved possession and us driving to a church at 2 a.m., but that's a story for another day. If you'd like to hear more about it, feel free to ask exo-exo-britney. PSI absolutely refused to use candles in my house to this day because of this encounter and hope this doesn't leave anyone else paranoid to use them. Right. Right. The exorcism or whatever they said at 2 a.m. casually thrown in there. Wow. I have good news. Did they share it? Britney shared the exorcism story? Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. We're back in. Or a possession story, yeah. But before we move on into that, what do you think of old skeletal hands? Is that the name? It's the name we're assigning it? Yes. Well, at first, it made me want to throw up. It was gross and creepy. I don't know if it's scarier. The thought of something running its fingers through your hair, and it knows that you know, or it not thinking that you know. Which one is creepier? Because it's like, what are you doing? It's like, I've been caught or is it like, okay, I don't know. So could go one of two ways for me. One, the lights are out and maybe they're trying to comfort you. Or two, they want you to go to sleep. Yes. And they're trying to go back to sleep. It's okay. She needs to guide you into your slumber. Don't like it either way. Don't want to be touched. That's gross. I don't, I don't like seeing that dropping Britney back down the visual. Just like running their bony fingers through their hair. The visual was a lot. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. For God, I had this in my drafts, but figured I'd send it as a continuation of my first story.
This happened just a few weeks after I had my run-in with a shadow woman in my bedroom. I'm going to preface this in advance by saying this is a long read but bear with me. My sister had moved back into my parents' house temporarily after separating from her husband. She worked overnight and when leave my parents in charge of her kids while she was gone. My niece and nephew were around 8 to 10 years old at the time, but were still processing all of the changes so they didn't like being left alone at night. I would usually be asked to sleep downstairs with them until my sister would get home around 5 a.m. Let me kind of explain the layout of our house to give you an idea of how this played out. There's a small set of steps in front of our laundry room that led up to my parents' bedroom. They had their own separate space similar to an attic, but it was furnished with carpet and windows. Their room is located more towards the back of the house. Next to that set of stairs was the doorway that led to this second living room that was directly below my parents' room where they were staying. But if you turn the corner, it led to another set of steps that led to our basement. Once day one of living here, I always hated our basement. No amount of remodeling could ever shake the eerie feeling I got any time I had to go down there. The worst part was it didn't have a door, so I couldn't even mentally prepare myself to be staring down into the darkness, since the light switch was all the way down the steps. That is a crime. That is a crime. That feels intentional by someone that is very evil designing this house. You cannot be of kind spirit and do that to someone. I was grateful once we put up temporary walls for my sister's room, and I could at least take comfort behind a door so I wasn't peering down at the basement all night. Once I went down to watch over the kids, I rarely if ever left the room. My parents would occasionally check on us, but figured we were just watching movies before heading to bed. The house had settled into its usual quiet aside from the slight noise of a movie playing on the screen, I could feel my eyes getting heavy and decided to call it a night. I couldn't have been asleep for more than a few minutes, when I heard a loud scratching noise. I glanced around to see if our dog had accidentally snuck his way into the room and was wanting to go back upstairs. But then the noise came again, louder this time, and I realized it was coming from outside the door. I called out his name and tried to figure out why he was trying to get into the room this late since he was usually curled up on my parents' feet most night. I reluctantly got up from bed to open the door, only to be met with silence. I called out his name again and didn't find him anywhere, so I was slightly annoyed thinking he had changed his mind. Right as I was about to step back into the room, I noticed movement in the basement. My first thought was that maybe he'd wander downstairs confused since we'd only had this new room put together for a few weeks at this point, but I knew he was just as scared as I was about going downstairs. It wouldn't have ventured on his own, especially with the lights off. Before I could call out for him again, I noticed a pair of red glowing eyes staring back at me. My eyes were slowly adjusting to the dark when I noticed this dark figure looming at the bottom of the stairs, slowly creeping upward. An animalistic growl coming from it as if I was intruding on its space. Long shadowy fingers sharp nails seemed to reach out from the dark and dug into the floor from the final step. I couldn't even tell what the rest of it looked like, aside from the never changing eyes that continuously stared at me, I was frozen in panic, knowing that the kids were right behind me and the door was wide open. As if sensing my hesitation, it began moving closer, and the figure's height kept growing. 5. 6. 7. Feet. It towered over me and all I could do was stare and disbelief. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up and I could feel myself wanting to crawl out of my skin. I couldn't tell if it was trying to look human or like a large animal. I just knew I didn't want to be in its line of sight or anywhere near it at all. I was begging for someone to wake me up because there was no way I was going to overpower whatever it was that came from downstairs. I seemed to regain my senses and darted behind the door before locking it behind me. I tried calling my parents but my battery had been drained. This just caused me to spiral further since I knew my phone had been fully charged before. I kept hearing whatever it was, scratching at the door and twisting the knob, furiously trying to let itself in. I threw myself over my niece and nephew, hoping I could shield them in case it broke in. I prayed desperately for someone else to wake up and hear it. Then I noticed everything had stopped. The door had stopped moving and it was eerily quiet. I could feel my heart thrumming in my chest and trying to process what had just happened. Before I could summon the courage to leave the bed again, I noticed the door knob jiggle again. I fought the clawing weight in my throat and managed to yell out, "Leave us alone! You're not welcome here!" Only to hear a slightly confused, "What are you talking about? Unlock the door so I can come in!" With a sigh of relief, I realized my dad was on the other side. I jumped up to unlock the door and practically knocked him over as I hugged him, crying, begging him to stay downstairs. I gave him a quick rundown of what happened and he tried to calm me down. My dad had his fair share of run-ins with the paranormal when he lived in Mexico and Texas. So, he knew I wouldn't lie about something like this. He grabbed his charm of holy water and ran it around the perimeter of the basement doorway before sending me upstairs with my mom. He offered to stay with the kids since it was still too soon for my sister to be home. Once I lay down in my bed with my mom, I figured that was the end of it. But once again, I could hear the loud scratching noise coming from downstairs. It was followed by loud, crashing noises of my dad shouting, "What are you doing? I shook my mom awake and told her we needed to go check on my dad and the kids. I rounded the corner to see my dad fighting with my nephew. At first, I thought maybe he had a bad dream and my dad was trying to calm him down, but when my nephew turned to look at me, his eyes were completely dark and void of emotion. He kept clawing at my dad and trying to fight his way out of his hold. I grabbed a blanket off the floor and quickly wrapped him up while my dad held him down. My dad started yelling at us to get in the car now. I grabbed my niece and carried her outside with me to our van. My mom was still half asleep and trying to figure out what had gotten into us. He followed behind my dad as he hung onto my nephew and strapped him in the back seat next to him. He asked my mom to drive us fast as she could to our Catholic Church. Once we got there, my dad pulled my nephew out. My nephew was tall but lanky and we always joked he couldn't be more than 80 pounds wet. I could see my dad was struggling hard to move him from the car. I was so confused at what my dad had planned to do with the church this late considering it was locked and the parking lot was totally empty. When he finally managed to drag my nephew to the entrance, he grabbed his face and turned it towards the glass door. He pleaded with him to look at himself and snap out of it. I didn't understand what my dad meant until I stepped a little closer. My nephew still had a stony expression with his eyes completely glossed over. But when you glanced at his reflection in the door, you could see my nephew crying and banging against the door. It was almost as if he was trapped on the other side of a mirror begging for help. The color drained from my face, I couldn't even tell what was going on anymore. My dad began shaking him, praying over and over with an unwavering calmness. After what felt like hours, but had only been a few minutes, I noticed my nephew slowly regaining himself. He took in this huge gasp of air almost like he had just broke the surface of water. He turned to hold onto my dad and was sobbing uncontrollably. We drove back home and all sat in the living room waiting for my sister to get home. We explained what had happened and immediately made an appointment with the church to have someone come and bless the house. We never did find out the connection between the creature and our basement and whatever it was that I controlled my nephew's body, but I never saw it roaming our house again. There were a few times when I would have bad dreams about it and could hear it whispering about returning. Luckily, we've since moved out and haven't had any crazy run-ins with shadowy figures. I apologize again for the long read but thank you for reading if you've gotten this far. Well, this took a much darker turn than I had thought we were going to. What did I just hear? Something horrifying. The thought of it being a possibility that you could be outside of your body kind of like in that mirror or on the other side of the glass watching that happen, I had never been considered and that's really horrifying. If mirrors are portals to other realms, but I didn't think I could be stuck on the other side. My body, that's like the whole insidious thing, like astral projection, like you're outside of your body, but maybe, I don't know, I mean, niece and nephew were going through a tough time with their parents' separation and moving to a new house for a moment in time. I am horrified. I didn't expect that in this episode. I told you. I told you this was a really scary one and I did. Yeah. That's a lot. Oh my God. Thank you for going ahead and sharing that second story with this Brittany because it was something. It really freaked me out and I hope that you're niece and nephew and this are doing okay. I know. I'm sweating. That was so scary. Okay. But we have one more story. This one is from Matthew. Hi, Ghosties. My name is Matthew and I'm a new subscriber. But after everything I've heard on your show, I felt a pull to finally speak up. Something in me said, "It's time." So here I am. It was me. I was in your ear. It is time. First off, I just want to say thank you. Your podcast has helped me through so many rough days, whether I'm drowning in chores or just desperate to quiet my thoughts. It's become a kind of comfort blanket for me, which is ironic considering the stories you tell. But sometimes it's good to know I'm not the only one out there who's seen the wrong things. Now I feel I should apologize in advance for what I'm about to share because this isn't just some spooky moment story. This is something that followed me throughout my entire childhood. Something that didn't just want to scare me, it wanted to break me. And possibly, I think it still does. The house I grew up in.
was built in the late 1950s. Old bones, creaking floorboards, cracks in the walls that seemed to whisper when the wind hit them just right. There had never been any renovations, so everything remained frozen in time. Shaggy brown carpets, wood paneling, a retro outdated kitchen that always smelled faintly of mildew, no matter how many candles my mom lit. It had the soul of something forgotten, something that should have been forgotten. Over time, I memorized every sound the house made, every groan of wood under pressure, every whimper from the pipes laid at night. I knew this place inside and out. I was also born sensitive to energies, something I didn't fully understand until much later when I got into spirituality. My parents used to say I was an old soul, but I've come to realize I was more like an open door. The first time I really noticed it, I was about seven or eight. It always began in the basement. That place was never normal, even in the dead of summer it stayed rigid, unnaturally cold. Not the kind of cold you explain with poor insulation, it was wrong, like walking into a freezer carved from stone. You could feel it before you even opened the door. The way the air pressed down on your shoulders, the way your breath caught in your throat before you stepped on the first stair, but it wasn't just cold, no. The second I set foot on those stairs, I felt like I was being watched. Not in the casual, oh someone's nearby kind of way. No, this was targeted, as if something at the bottom of those stairs knew me, knew my name, knew my thoughts, and every time I went down there, a wave of nausea would hit me so hard it felt like gravity itself was trying to pull me through the floor. Of course, back then I didn't tell anyone, I just avoided it when I could, but by the time I hit 15, avoidance was no longer an option. Around then things changed. First, it was little things, items disappearing, reappearing in places no one had touched. My headphones would vanish from my nightstand and show up inside the microwave. Books I had been reading would fall off shelves with a thud, even when the air was still in the window shut. But the worst part was how the house itself began to feel like a trap. Suddenly the rooms I once felt safe in made my skin crawl. The living room was suffocating, the hallway gave me tunnel vision. The only place I felt okay was in my bedroom. That was my sanctuary. But even that didn't last. At night, I avoided going into the bathroom, not because I didn't need to, but because I knew what waited for me. One night, two a.m., I couldn't hold it anymore. The bathroom was only six feet away from my bedroom, small, cozy house. Nothing should have felt scary. But the moment I opened my bedroom door, I was met with a silence so complete it rang in my ears. No winds, no ticking clock, no hum from the fridge, just void. I went into the bathroom with the door open, then I saw it. At first, I thought it was a trick of the light, but no, it was real. Standing just outside my bathroom door in the hallway was a tall gaunt figure, easily seven feet or more. Its body was pitch black, like it absorbed the light around it. No face, just two faintly glowing eyes, like dying embers. And those hands, long, bony, twisted fingers that curled around my door frame like hooks. It didn't move. It didn't breathe. It just watched me. I was paralyzed. I stared at it in disbelief out of the corner of my eye, blood roaring in my ears. When I finally mustered the courage to turn my head, just to confirm it was real, it was gone. But that wasn't the last time. Beside the bathroom are the stairs, two flights side by side, one to the living room, and one right beside it leading to the basement. Sometimes while it was in the bathroom, I'd hear them creak slowly. One step at a time, not fast, not like someone running, like something crawling, deliberate, malicious. And then I'd see it, just the top of a head, peeking up around the corner. Then I hand, gripping the edge of the wall, holding still, watching. As soon as I looked directly at it, it would dart away with unnatural speed down the stairs into the black. But I always felt it, waiting at the bottom, waiting for the next time. I've drawn what I've seen, and I'll attach it here with my story. People say it's shadow people, but these don't seem like just shadow people. They want more than just to watch. These are entities. They think they want. And I'm not the only one who's seen them. My mom once told me she saw something tall and black sprinting between the bedrooms in the hallway. Our rooms were beside each other. She said she heard my voice calling for help. Only I was asleep. As I got older, whatever haunted our home grew more aggressive. One afternoon, I was alone in my room with the door closed. I heard the floor creak. Then again, and again, right outside my door. I stopped breathing. I jumped up and I locked the door. Seconds later, the door knob began to turn slowly, then violently rattling, then silent. Then the voice. Matthew, come downstairs. I need you. It was my mother's voice. Except I checked my phone, she and my dad were still out. No one was home. Then it came again, this time from what seemed far away. The basement. Matthew, come down here now. The door knob began to twist again. I couldn't move, I just sat there shaking, listening to it whispering, whispering, whispering. Eventually it stopped, but I knew what it wanted. It wanted me to open the door. I've heard it say my name more times than I can count usually from the basement, sometimes from closets, once from under my bed. Even my dog knows it's real. She hears the same voices. Sometimes she'll growl at the door, ears up, tail low, and I know that's when it's close. Whatever it is. It's not just watching anymore, it's waiting. I'm in college now. I live away from home and here. I feel nothing. No eyes, no whispers, no clawed hands wrapping around the corners of my vision. So maybe it stayed behind. But every time I go home for break, that familiar sickness returns, like stepping into a place you swore you'd never visit again. During spring break, I saw it again, and it was closer. This time I felt its intention. It wasn't just watching, it wanted more. I no longer leave my room at night, I dread summer break, because I know it's still there, and it's hungry for something. Something it's been waiting a long time to take. This is only the surface of what I've experienced. There's more, so much more. And I'd love to share it if you're interested. Thank you for giving people like me a place to be heard. I would be honored if my story were featured on the pod. Stay safe out there, because I'm not sure what's lurking in the dark anymore. And be sure you don't answer when it calls. All the best. Matthew. The amount of like horrifying one-liners in that email? Oh my god, I'm not sure what's in the dark anymore. Oh my god. Oh my god, enough to turn your stomach, man. That was good. Ancels are sweating. I don't know. I don't know, man. I've never heard of a shadow figure mimicking. And I don't like that at all. It is so aggressive. It is so aggressive. And you know what, Matthew? Just don't go home. Never. Move out. Never return home. At all costs. Leave everything. Start a new life. Get a new name. It already knows your name. You can't be Matthew anymore. You have to be someone else. I heard crags for grabs. You can always be crag. Oh my god. I'm like, I'm sweating. Every orifice of my body right now is sweating. I'm feeling it a little but I can't get out from underneath this blanket because I feel unsafe. Well, that's what I have for you today. That's it. That's enough. Thank you. Those were such horrifying stories and I perfect, perfect time. Perfect time of the year for it. Yeah. I'm unwell. It's like I feel they came to us at this time for a reason. Like it's just such a good. I don't know. Okay. It sounds so good. I guess because I looked for shadow figure stories before and didn't and these weren't here yet. Yeah. Anyway, thank you to everyone who wrote into us. There were plenty more to go into this type of topic. So please keep sending them in. If you have one, you can email us. It's
[email protected]. Like this video if you liked it. Share it with your friends. If you feel compelled to do so and subscribe for more. We've got another fun episode coming on Monday that you're not going to want to miss. Plus on Monday, we have our merch dropping. It's the limited merch. It's super awesome. I'm so excited and if you haven't yet, you have until Monday to go ahead and enter our giveaway that we're doing with our network forward. Yes. So go to our Instagram, it's @ghostyspod. I think you just have to follow us and forward and comment on the post, tag your friends, whatever you got to do. These are really great sweaters and I really do love them. It's just a good time, man. I'm horrified but excited. Yes. Happy spooky season to all. It has officially begun. And to all, a good night. We'll see you on Monday. Goodbye!
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