The Shadow Guest Pt. 1

I stole a look inside the book. It said exactly what the monster took. By hook or crook, I told the cook. But she mistook. Said I was full of garbage. You've crossed over. The spook. Field guide to the shadow. Stay tuned. Thirteen years old. I'm up in church and the pastor's preaching. He says, because of his love. His sacrifice. If you repent your wicked ways even a second before you die. All your sins will be forgiven. What? This gets my attention. That's right, Reverend. If you truly repent, even the most desperate sinner will be allowed passage into paradise. Whoa. What? You can just be evil and say, well, my bad. And your slate is wiped clean? This is news. And I have questions. So later, after services. I ask him, you know, if he has any other loopholes or tricks like that that I can use to, I don't know, kind of slide by with all the fuss and everything. And pastor's face turns purple. Forgiveness is not a trick. All right. Okay. I just mean, like, do you know of any other schemes like that last minute switcheroo you were talking about? Do you make mockery? Make mockery? No, sir. I am all sincerity. I'm just trying to work the system. But I decide maybe it's best to keep my questions to myself for a while. I start to read books instead and pretty quickly discover that I am not the only one to ever search for shortcuts. That there are rules for entering the final paradise. Rules for escaping curses. Rules for speaking to gods. Rules for calling things. And rules for sending them back down. And wherever there are rules, someone, somewhere is looking for the trick. The back door. The escape from consequence. Come to believe that this is what the book of shadow is. A list of loopholes. Of shortcuts. Tricks. In order to avoid at all. Costs. Deeding what you truly deserve. Dangerous knowledge indeed. Spooked. The field guide to the shadow. Starts. Now. Spooked. See, before you can game the system, you have to understand what the system is. It's 1989 and Angelo and his new wife, Leanne, they just bought a big piece of land on the edge of the Blackfoot Reservation in Montana. They move in with her three kids and now they're in the process of turning it into some kind of a DIY community center. Nice. I wanted to start a place for those that really could use my help, you know, and were in some kind of trouble. We had families who got evicted, and they had no place to go. We were offering a place to stay for a few days. Different people, different churches would come. We would have loads of food to give out. We'd get a trailer in, somebody would donate it, and we'd just strip them down, put new flooring, walls, drywall, everything. Each one had its Don't hook up for electricity and water. And they had a bath, dresser, a window to look out. And then we move on to the next trailer. Within a year, they had a total of four trailer homes on the property. There was the one he and his family lived in, and then a double-wide they called the big trailer where they cooked and ate meals. And then, on top of that, there were two other guest trailers. But soon, money was starting to get tight. You know, we're getting behind on bills and a few things that we needed, and you look at this little town, you know, there's hardly no work, hardly any resources or anything. I was looking every day, but there was nothing. But then I met Mike. I met him out of the wake. We just got to talking about fishing, hunting, stuff like that. I left him my number, and we became friends, you know. He was a mortician. He owned a funeral home in Browning, and after a bit, I told him I was looking for extra work. He asked me if I was queasy or not, you know, and how I felt around deceased people. To tell you the truth, I thought it would be interesting, and it was money, money that we needed. So, you know, I took him up on it. The biggest part of my job there with him was to go on pickup. And pickup was picking up someone who was deceased. It wasn't no training per se. It was just, you know, common sense. It worked like this. Angela would get a call from Mike with a location. He'd drive there in the hearse, load up the body, then bring it back to the funeral home. Thankfully, I didn't actually do anything with the formaldehyde or embalming like that. That was old Mike. I'd just get him ready for him to do what he has to do. That just means, like, if there's any clothing on the body, if they have gowns on or socks, sometimes they come in with socks, I'd remove it, and then I'd wash them down, clean them off, shampoo their hair, like I'd clean myself, you know. Just like giving them a regular bath. It didn't really bother me because I was just trying to make their last days on Earth as pleasant and comfortable as possible. And then one day, Angelo was driving back home from a pickup a few towns over, and he decided to take the long way home, along a tiny road called Old Agency. It's about 9, 10 o'clock that evening. The sun's going down and it's already getting purple and orange, really pretty sunset, you know. As we're driving down to the west of Old Agency, you can see everything. The Rocky Mountains to the south, more like rolling hills, then plains and mountains. It's home. That's what it feels like when I see the mountains. But as I was driving in from the north, I'd say about four or five miles out of Browning, all of a sudden, I can hear the sirens going off, and I can see the blue and red lights going, and then all of a sudden, I see an ambulance going, and then I see a red fire truck going. At first, I didn't think much of it. I just wanted to get home. But then I could see these skid marks that were going this way and then overcorrecting this way. By the time I come, there was just a couple of police cars, highway patrol, tow truck. It was all that was left at the crash site. And there was just one vehicle. It was a grayish flatbed truck. By the way it looked, it just looked like it rolled into a ball, like a twisted even. That was basically what was left. I continued on a couple hundred yards from where the wreck was. I seen somebody walking up the road. He was carrying one of those old Army duffel bags. old army duffel bag. I got closer and closer. When he turned around and looked, I recognized him right away. It was my friend Jason. His hair was long, but he always wears his heart on the side. So I just pulled over and stopped. I had a big smile. Jason, what are you doing out here, you know? But he didn't say anything to me. He just threw his duffel bag and got in. I said, where are you off to? And he didn't even say where. He just pointed towards Browning. I hardly talked at all, you know. I said, are you okay? He'd say, yeah. What's going on? Nothing. It struck me really hard. I've known him forever. We grew up together in a country, and my folks had a ranch there. He would come and stay with us, and we just hit it off like that, you know? Just a little string bean type kid, running all the energy off here and there. I mean, he's always smiling and talking and joking, and always be the first one to engage in conversation. Even if he was feeling bad, you know, he never hid anything like that. He was never quiet like that. I asked him if I could drop him off at his house, and all of a sudden he started speaking more. He said, I can't go home right now. Mind if I camp at your place for a couple days? He's got some things going on, he's got to clear up in his head. Sure. Just walked in, didn't say anything, dropped his bag, and I said, well, I'll see you in the morning then, Jason. I went over to our house, our trailer. We got in bed and went to sleep. Must have been 3, 4 in the morning, the phone started ringing. It was Mike, my boss and mortician. And he said, I need to do a pickup in Great Falls Hospital as soon as possible. He said, can you go now? Yeah, I can go now, sure. I got to Hearst, drove it out. It was about 9, 10 o'clock that evening when I got to the hospital to transport the body. They helped me put them on a gurney, zip them up, close it up, and then lock them in place in the hearse in a position where you don't move around in there. And I finally got them all out and signed papers and headed home. I see maybe nine, ten miles out of Great Falls. I just felt this bump against the back of my seat. I stepped on the brakes. I looked up into the mirror. I could see the gurney come loose that we had the body on and it rolled up and hit the back of my seat It just, it spooked me I was scared I didn't know how it would come loose because I know I fastened it in tight, you know After it hooks in I mean, it takes a lot of force to unsnap it It'll click when it unsnaps It'll click when you fasten it shut I didn't hear any of that I pulled over, I stopped, and when I opened it up to look, of course the gurney was sitting sideways like this. I just put him back in place and fastened him back in and got back in the car and started driving again. Then the next thing I came to, the same thing. And I was thinking, I don't know, for sure I know I fastened it. For sure I know I fastened it. turned off, put him back in place and fastened it back up again. I was, you know, trying to be rational. I was thinking maybe it's issues with the car. Maybe it's me. You're just overtired. I knew it wasn't a coincidence after the fourth or fifth time. It didn't hit in the middle. It didn't hit on the passenger side. No, it all just come bouncing up against my seat. And I began to get these chills, you know. That last hill, I just didn't even bother fastening it. I just began to just floor it. I got to the funeral home and got my passenger out, brought him inside, put him into the cooler. Just as I was going back in, then the phone rings. I walked back to the office, picked up the phone, And it was Mike. He asked me if I would stay and prep for him. I was still scared. You know, honestly, I didn't want to be there. But we needed the money, and I didn't want to appear to Mike to be a scaredy cat or anything like that. So I told Mike, yeah, I'll stick around. I hung up the phone, and, I mean, everything just went silent. it was just quiet. Even the sounds outside seemed quiet, like you can hear dogs barking in the distance or vehicles driving by, and none of that. I was walking down from that little hallway to the cooler room to prep the body for Mike, but before I could get there, I heard just knocking. Small, soft. At first, I thought it was the front door. Then I heard it again, just a little louder, you know. And I turned around like that, and I was trying to listen if it was somebody from the garage or whatever. The next thing, it was the cooler. I froze. I was still standing in that little hallway to the coolers. then all of a sudden I could see the doorknobs like they were turning. Every one of them. The office, front room, the bathrooms, the wake room, the kitchen, everything. Seeing them going up and down by themselves and it was going really fast. Like someone was trying to get into the building or trying to get out. I ran. I was running. I was running out The door. I've never felt fear like that in all my life. As soon as I got to the door, I opened the door and I ran right smack into Mike and I almost knocked him off his feet. He said, what the hell Angelo, are you okay? Every time I tried to open my mouth, it was like my heart was beating in my mouth. I finally calmed down enough to explain to him what happened and And we talked for a minute about it, and we chalked it up to not enough rest. He said, I'll feel better in a few days. I just need rest. That's what I thought, you know. By that point, Angelo had been up for nearly 24 hours. So he left the funeral home and drove back home. I just, I couldn't sleep. Every little noise I'd hear, I'd turn and look, you know, this way and that. I mean, I was afraid. And I was just glad when the sun came up. I mean, oh, golly. I got up, got ready, and I went to check on my friend. I knocked on the door. I kept knocking, and he didn't answer right away. And then finally, he opened the door. He said, come in. It's barely audible. I said, hey, I asked him if he needed a ride to town because I was going to work. He said, no, he said, I'm good, I'm okay. And so, buddy, you think I can stay a couple more days with you, you know, with his head hung low. I told him, I said, don't you want to be with your family instead of being holed up in a room by yourself? All he told me is, come on, I won't be no trouble. Sure, I don't care, but I was thinking, "Geez, you know, this isn't my buddy at all." Something was obviously wrong with him. I remember the time when we met in school. We were in the third grade. I mean, I was just a little guy, didn't speak English, could only speak Blackfeet. I've been in the military for a long time. This can only speak Blackfeet. Well, one day I wasn't feeling very well. So I raised my hand, asking for water from my teacher. I said, "Want some water, mom?" I didn't know her name, so I said, "Mom, nuh-uh." She got mad, "You didn't speak English, what do you want?" And Jason said, "I think he wants water." My eyes brightened up. 'Cause before that, nobody understood me. None of the kids spoke Blackfeet. So I knew he knew what I was saying, and I didn't have to worry about, you know, or try to figure out what they were saying. And we just hit it off like that, you know? We talked about everything. So the way he was acting and the way he was drawing, you know, I was kind of losing trust. I was thinking all kinds of things, you know? What's he doing? Why wouldn't he go home with me? Did something happen to him? Did you just make him do a 180-degree change in his personality? ♪♪ I arrived at work about 8:30. Mike was asleep on the couch, and I said, "Did anything happen after I left, you know?" He said, "No." I was thinking, "Man, I'm getting this guy to sleep here." Mike told him he had to go and meet with the family of the man whose body Angelo had picked up. He said, "No, I'm not going to sleep with you." And I said, "I'm not going to sleep with you." And he said, "No, I'm not going to sleep with you." And I said, "No, I'm not going to sleep with you." And I said, "No, I'm not going to sleep with you." And he said, "No, I'm not going to sleep with you." The next thing I heard, "Is anybody home?" And I said, "Just a minute. I'll be right with you." It sounded like a male voice coming from the entrance. "This is clear, so I'm talking to you." I start walking towards the front door. And as I was walking from the back, I said, "Didn't I lock that door?" You know, before I went to make the coffee. So I'd know if somebody came. When I got to the door, sure enough, it was locked. Nobody was in there. I remember getting lightheaded. Like, if you get up too fast and then things start getting dark, that's how I would start feeling. They started talking to me, so I was like, "Come on, get a grip on yourself." Just then I heard what sounded like a bunch of tools in the back room crash to the floor, like a bunch of spoons and forks and knives being tossed around in there. My body, you know, drained me. I mean, like, I was, like, weak. So I didn't go back there. I thought, "I'm losing my mind. Am I crazy? What's wrong with me?" Angelo got in his car and called Mike and told him that he was feeling sick and he had to go home early. When he got back, he could still smell the formaldehyde, the stuff Mike used to embalm the bodies, all over him. It was an awful smell. I mean, it smelled like human waste and matches. And I could always smell it in my nostrils and my hair. I just wanted it off of me. So I gathered my stuff and I went to the bathroom. I turned on the shower and the hot water, it felt really good. I put the shampoo on my hand and got a nice lather going. All of a sudden, it started getting cold air. It was like a deeper cold where you can almost feel it in your bones. My eyes were burning because I was, you know, washing my hair. And I looked up and I could see a figure of a person through that sliding glass. It was just kind of, like, smoky. I couldn't make out any features. But you can see, like, it's leaning against the sink. It had its legs and its arms crossed. My first thought was, like, people, intruders, somebody trying to steal. I don't know. I just felt that whatever that was that was at the funeral home had somehow fallen into our home. It came to the place where my wife and my dad lived. It came to the place where my wife and my children felt safe, where I felt safe. And at the same time, I was trying to get the shampoo out. I closed my eyes as tight as I could and then shouted as loud as I could. I said, "Getting out of here. You're not welcome here." You know, as loud as I could. I heard him yelling because our trailer wasn't that big. The tone of his voice, it was just a fear. I never heard my husband ever talk like that. I was able to finish my shower and put on my fresh clothes. And I asked me aunt and the kids to smudge and pray with me. my first thought was to smudge i was told from our elders that cedar alone is like a repellent for evil we gathered up the children in the living room so i mixed my pine cedar and sweet grass mix those together and lit it. I would smudge myself and the smoke was going up. Just as we were about to start praying, we heard another knock on the door and I jumped in and I said, who is it? It's me, Jason. Can I come in? He said he smelled the smudge and wanted to smudge and pray with us. When we finished praying and smudging, I said, well, good, you know, now we're, we'll be okay. Jason stood up, politely said goodnight to me and myself and the kids and walked away. I jumped up and I followed Jason to his room. And I'm like, I want to talk to him and try to figure out what's bugging him. As we were walking, he was looking up at the stars and I offered him a cigarette and he said, no thanks. That's another thing surprised me because we smoked tobacco, Marlboro Lights. He always had a pack. I always had a pack. Well, I lit up a cigarette and I was half tempted to clue him in on what was going on. I was thinking, should I tell him? Well, I don't think I should because he's going through a lot right now. He's not the same. But before I could open my mouth, he began to talk to me in a low, quiet voice, like there were some unseen ears nearby listening. He said, Angelo, I haven't been able to come to grips with something I did. I've been worried. I've been worried about my folks, about Kim. Kim was his little girl. We talked for a while, and I lit up another smoke, but as he began to talk, his voice just drifted off. I tried to make sense of everything and lost my thoughts. I didn't know how long we were out there. I almost swallowed my cigarette when my daughter, Livia, shook me by the arm, and she said, Dad, Mom's been calling you. Tell Jason, rest up, and I'll see you in the morning. I had to head back and see what Leanne needed. He said, yeah, I'll see you. He even told Livick and I. She shouted back at him, night, night, you know, in her little girl's voice. We walked back to our trailer and she said, okay, listen, I didn't want to scare the kids, but you need to see this. I went, Angelo, there's somebody in that room. She led me back into our bedroom, and she was pointing out the window towards the big trailer. The big trailer was two trailers that were put together for the kitchen. We could actually see into the big trailer from our trailer. As I was looking over there, it was like people, like dark figures moving around. The room was dark but the sinks in there were darker than the darkness that was in that trailer. They were like in a form of people, but they didn't have discernible features, you know, like nose or mouth or eyes. It was just like an outline of a head and shoulders. but they weren't turning their head when they were walking. They weren't, like, bumping into one another. They were, like, passing through one another. That really scared the shit out of me. I knew nobody was over there. Those spirits are walking around. That was something bad. And then we heard three loud bangs on the back door and it was just about two feet away from me and I jumped. She opened the door and looked out, but there was nothing. Just an eerie silence. The little ones, they come running and screaming into our room. They were screaming and jumping up and down and they cried and they were pointing down the hallway. Olivia, she laid out a blood-curdling scream and all that came out of her mouth was, Daddy, Daddy. And that's when our night of terror began. Oh, it is not over. It's not over by a long shot. Thank you, Angela and Leanne, for sharing your story with Spooked. Come back for the stunning conclusion because you will not believe what happens next. The original score for that piece was by Lauren Newsom. It was scouted and produced by Elliot Lightfoot. Now, do you have a secret ability? A talent that you didn't practice? You didn't develop through hard work over time, but instead just inherited? In a flash, maybe from another, perhaps older version of yourself? Yes. If so, I would love to hear about it. Spooked at SnapJudgment.org because there is nothing better than a spook story from a spooked listener. Know that spook balances on the precarious edge between here and the void. A line where one false move might spell eternal damnation. And this is why I ask, please, please, don't seek to find it. Lest it seeks to find you. KQD in San Francisco holds the Book of Shadow in the deepest underground vault under climate-controlled 24-hour surveillance by a sanctified cadre of warrior monks. And let the all-seeing surveillance eye record this, that no Snap Studio's content may be used for training, testing, or developing machine learning or AI systems without prior written permission. On Team Spooked, the union represented producers, artists, editors, and engineers. Armies of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Communications, Worker of America, AFL-CIO, Local 51. Spooked is brought to you by the team that prefers a closed casket memorial. Except for Mark Ristich, he needs to be sure exactly who's in there. Please give love to David Kim, to Zoe Ferrigno, Eric Yanez, Teo Ducat, Elliot Lightfoot, Marissa Dodge, Miles Lassie, Doug Stewart, Nicholas Marks. The Spooked theme song is by Pat Massini-Miller. My name's from Washington. And there was an old man, at least old to me, a white guy, but European white, who used to frequent a bar where I was a regular. And I liked him, even looked for him, partly because, he would never let anybody pay for a drink, but mostly because he had knowledge. He'd done things, gone places, and he would tell you about them, amazing stories. All you had to do was listen. And sitting across from him one night, he tells me, I am not a good person. I said, what are you on about? You are great. No, no, no, no, no. Matter of fact, like the, whether like a train schedule, no, I am a bad man, but I have lived an extraordinary life. And we just sit with this for a moment, looking at our drinks. And now, now that I am old, they say, this is the time I must pay. They say that now, regret comes to eat you. But, he says, somehow, even though I am bad, I regret nothing. He smiles at me then and says, so, I win. I don't buy a new car. Another round. Never, ever, never, ever, ever, ever, never turn out the lights. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.