336: Lady In Black, Something Under The Bed, Shadow Figure & Shared Dream

[00:00:00] Tonight's episode is brought to you by my newest contributor, Mark, and the continued support of listeners like you. Thank you so much for making the show possible. Tonight, I'll be talking about a young boy who encounters a woman without eyes. A symbolic dream that's shared by multiple people.

[00:00:29] Two different children's bedrooms that seem to be inhabited by unknown entities. And an unsettling report of a dark humanoid shadow that walks along a river in the wee hours of night. Thank you for tuning in and welcome back. I'm your host, Nick Ryan.

[00:01:05] Our first experience of the night comes to us from Woollens. And Woollens' experience is called The Lady in Black. Woollens says, Hi Nick, I really enjoy listening to your show and thought it was about time I shared an experience that happened to my brother.

[00:01:24] I was present when it occurred, so to some extent I was also involved in what happened. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and this experience occurred in 1996 in a seaside suburb of Melbourne. I was 12 years old and my brother was 10 years old at the time.

[00:01:43] To protect the identity of my brother, I will give him the alias of Mick. Mick and I spent the previous year living with separate aunties due to the breakdown of our family unit, which was a traumatic and difficult time for us.

[00:01:58] My dad had taken custody of us in 1996 and became a single parent. Dad wanted to keep us in the seaside suburb that we had been living in with our extended family to provide stability for us and ensure that we remained close to our extended family.

[00:02:14] The suburb we lived in was and still is a very expensive and affluent area full of big beachside houses and wide streets. My dad was having a lot of trouble finding a home for us until a very cheap property,

[00:02:28] the cheapest home in the suburb, became available and it was just up the road from my auntie's home. The location was perfect and given that there was no other home that we could afford, my dad quickly applied and was successful.

[00:02:42] The home was on a very large corner block and was said to be an old farmstead. It was very run down and neglected. To give you an idea of what it was like, the house was dark with minimal sunlight. There was mold across the ceilings in the bedrooms.

[00:02:58] One old fireplace was the only source of heating. The toilet would frequently flood and the bathroom was dirty with large areas of mold. There really wasn't much to like about the house, but it was set on a lovely block with

[00:03:13] an expansive yard where my brother and I would go on to find old horseshoes and other interesting items that revealed the farming history of the property. I remember feeling upset when we arrived at the house.

[00:03:26] I didn't see how we, or anyone for that matter, could live in it. That said, I was reunited with my dad and brother after a long time without seeing them, so anything was worth having my family back together again.

[00:03:41] My brother and I spent the first few days in the house exploring and helping my dad clean. Whilst exploring the home, I found a pair of skull earrings hanging from the brickwork of the fireplace.

[00:03:52] I felt disturbed but intrigued by them, and I wondered who had lived in the house before us. My brother and I also noticed an old rope hanging from a low branch of a tree further up the yard with an old red leather looking seat underneath it.

[00:04:07] We didn't understand why the rope was there or what it had been used for, and I don't think any of us wanted to think too much about why those two items were next to each other. It was weird and disturbing that they'd been left there like that.

[00:04:22] The home had four bedrooms. My dad took the big bedroom at the front of the house, which had double doors that opened onto a small porch that faced the driveway and entrance to the home.

[00:04:33] My brother and I took the second bedroom closest to my dad, preferring to be together instead of having our own bedrooms. The house had an odd vibe to it, which I attributed to its poor condition and lack of sunlight.

[00:04:47] I myself never witnessed or felt anything in the home, and until the experience that happened to my brother, I had never questioned anything paranormal in the house. This brings me to the day where that would change.

[00:05:02] Mick loved being outside, especially in the huge yard where he could run and kick the footy. He was outside more than he was inside. I spent most of the weekends reading on the couch whilst my brother ran around outside, kicking the footy.

[00:05:16] This particular weekend afternoon was no different. I was inside reading, and my dad was also reading in his bedroom. I'll mention now for reference to the story that our front door was old-fashioned and could only be opened by a key. There was no handle.

[00:05:32] If the door was closed, there was no way to open it without the key. It was a sunny day outside as I laid on the couch reading. This was suddenly interrupted by a horrific scream followed by pounding on the front door.

[00:05:47] I didn't know what was going on, and I immediately thought that Mick had been injured outside. My heart was jumping out of my skin. Dad and I rushed to the front door to open it, and we found Mick screaming and crying

[00:06:00] all at once, unable to talk or tell us what on earth had happened. He did not look injured or in pain, so we ruled that out quickly. Mick grabbed my dad and wouldn't let go of him. Eventually, he settled down enough to explain what happened.

[00:06:18] Mick was kicking the footy around when he kicked it further up the yard, landing near the tree with the rope, the one I mentioned earlier. Mick ran over to pick it up, and as he was bending back up, a woman was standing in front of him.

[00:06:33] She stood there silently staring straight through him. She was dressed all in black in 20th century style clothing, wearing a dress and boots, and something covering her hair. As Mick went to look at her eyes, he wished he never had.

[00:06:49] He looked at her eyes to find that none were there, and instead he found large gaping black sockets. Mick refused to sleep on his own, and slept with my dad in the weeks following.

[00:07:03] He had nightmares and couldn't reconcile that the woman he had seen had no eyes, as this aspect frightened him the most. Mick was so upset by the experience that he decided that he had to confront the fear,

[00:07:16] and the only way to do this was to lock himself in the shed in the dark. So my brother who was all of 10 years old took himself to the shed in the yard, and sat in there in the dark for a long time.

[00:07:29] To this day, I don't know how he did that, but it seemed to give him peace when nothing happened in there. I think Mick felt that no one could understand what he had seen, so he had to deal with it on his own, and in his own way.

[00:07:44] Surprisingly, I wasn't as distressed by the experience as my brother was. Don't get me wrong, I was terrified by it, and I've never seen my brother like that before or since. However, I had this strong sense that the woman my brother had seen would not come into

[00:08:00] the house. When it was dark outside and I needed to go to the toilet, I made a point of not looking out the windows to the yard, in case I saw her. I heard from our neighbors that there was a fire on the property, and that the second

[00:08:14] story to the home had burned down, but aside from that we weren't able to get much history on the house. My brother did not see the woman again after that, and neither did anyone else.

[00:08:27] Interestingly though, my auntie stayed with us for a few days, and said that she saw an older man standing in our yard, holding a briefcase. She was adamant about what she saw. To this day, my brother still gets tears in his eyes recalling what he saw.

[00:08:43] I think that some of the terror of that experience will stay with him forever. I do have my own experiences to share, which I hope to in the future, and my brother has gone on to have many more experiences.

[00:08:57] I think he has psychic abilities, and perhaps this came about from his experience of the lady in black. Our next experience comes to us from Belle, and Belle's story is called, There is something in my room. Belle says, Hello Nick, I hope this email finds you well.

[00:09:22] I have been listening to your podcast for a while, and I have a story for you. For privacy reasons, I will call my older sister Jenna, my cousin Carol, and myself, Belle. Here's some backstory of my life in relation to these stories.

[00:09:39] I lived in a house we called a firehouse because, as you can infer, there was a fire. This happened when I was about three or so, but everything was fine. We moved to a different house afterwards, and lived there for a while until my parents had a divorce.

[00:09:56] My mother moved back to the firehouse where we stayed for the school year, and this is where things happened. We lived in this house for a while, and still currently do, but even in the beginning things were very weird.

[00:10:09] It started with being alone in the room, and getting senses of dread, or really anywhere in the house that was close to my room. I share a room with my sister and cousin, with the kitchen being under it.

[00:10:22] I was in my room when I felt the strong feeling of being watched. I looked around, but no one was there. I spotted a pigeon outside the window, looking at me, so I blamed it on that.

[00:10:34] A while later, these things kept happening, but my Christian mother blesses the house monthly, so it goes away for a few months or so before coming back for a day or two. I apologize if this gets confusing, I have a bad memory, so I'm trying my best.

[00:10:51] It turned into tapping, knocking, random shaking of the house, things falling, and just small things that can be explained away. We had an ongoing joke of what we called the thing downstairs at night, but we should have

[00:11:06] known that the real danger was only one floor directly above us. It was like that until my second incident involving a sleepover scare, where me and my sister had a friend over for a sleepover. She was mostly my sister's friend, but I was close to her as well.

[00:11:24] She was sleeping next to my bed on an air mattress while my sister's bed was a ways away. For the story, the friend's name will be Allison, but everyone called her Allie. Me and her were in mid-conversation when we both heard a voice from under my bed whisper

[00:11:40] ALLIE in a very calm voice, like they were just getting her attention. We both looked at each other and said, was that you? But we both already knew that it wasn't. She slept on my sister's bed that night.

[00:11:57] It went away for a while before continuing its average stuff. The next big occurrence was the one I mentioned first. The tug, as I call it. I like giving these occurrences dramatic names, as it helps me make light of the situation,

[00:12:12] seeing as if I don't, panic sets in. This one scares me the most, as this is its big leap in bravery. It was a school night, so my sister and I were asleep.

[00:12:25] My cousin Carol, who is just a little bit older than Jenna, lived with us and shared a room. Our beds were set up against the wall, directly opposite from where the door is, with my bed

[00:12:36] farthest behind to your left, Jenna in the middle, and Carol's on the right. There was a fan between mine and Jenna's bed, but nothing between hers and Carol's. I'll write this from how she said that it happened.

[00:12:51] She was asleep when she felt a tug on her blanket that pulled it off of her some. She at first thought that it was the fan, before realizing that it was on Carol's side.

[00:13:01] She asked Carol if she had tugged her blanket, or even gotten up and done it on accident, but Carol said that she had been laying down all night. She then woke me up and explained, but I had no clue.

[00:13:14] I then told it to get out and to leave us alone, explaining that it had no power, and that we were protected by Jesus and the Lord God. Later that night, I felt a strand of my hair being moved as if someone wanted to touch

[00:13:29] it and was stroking it. I prayed and told it to leave. I didn't want to scare Jenna, so I only told her about it today. She was pretty freaked, but she was at our father's house for the weekend.

[00:13:44] This was the first physical contact I've had, and I doubt it will be the last. With my heritage and where I live, I can understand why this might be happening, not to mention me and my sister's emotional and spiritual walk.

[00:13:59] I also have some unrelated stories from my family. Keep doing what you are doing, and tell this story as you see fit. Before I continue, please consider showing your support by subscribing, sharing, and giving the podcast a positive review.

[00:14:20] If you'd like to support the show further, please visit me on Patreon, BuyMeACoffee, or PayPal, where you can make a donation, or become a member for as little as a dollar a month. Benefits include ad-free episodes and early access to select shows.

[00:14:36] And if you've had a paranormal experience, you can share it with me through email or voice message at sharemyevp.com. You can also get involved by joining the forum, subscribing on YouTube, and following me on social media.

[00:14:51] All of my support and contact information can be found in the show notes. With that being said, I'll be right back after this brief message. This next experience comes to us from Arthur, and Arthur's story is called Echoes of the Past. Arthur says,

[00:15:15] Hi Nick, I hope this finds you well. I've been listening to your podcast for about a year, and still remain quite the skeptic. I do, however, have at least one experience in my life that keeps me awake at night, and

[00:15:28] thinking that there's just some things that we don't understand about the world. I've wanted to share this experience for a while, and I think now is the time. In the summer of 1999, I moved with my family from New Jersey to Virginia.

[00:15:45] I worked for a catering company that operated out of a renovated plantation, and catered to business conventions and the like. It was also a historical site, and as such, pieces of the property remained intact, such as the slave quarters.

[00:16:01] They also would occasionally stumble upon part of the grounds that had been swallowed over the last century or so, and been forgotten. When they did, they would ask for volunteers from the catering crews to help excavate or clear these areas of overgrowth.

[00:16:17] One time I joined one of these groups, and it was the only time I ever did. As it turns out, what they found was a slave cemetery, completely smothered by vines, and I can only imagine how they found it in the first place. We began clearing the vines.

[00:16:36] Every few minutes or so, one of us would call out that we found another grave marker. Almost a stone, no writing, no record of who that person was, and the life that they had lived. It took all day, and there must have been almost a hundred markers.

[00:16:52] We all left that day in silence, as the work had taken a toll on our hearts. That night I went to bed and I fell asleep thinking about the gravity of what I had seen. I then had a dream that I will never forget.

[00:17:08] I was laying in a field, and I couldn't move any part of my body. Slowly, vines began to wrap around my arms and legs, and then my throat, and finally they completely enveloped me, and they grew into my mouth and nose, and covered my eyes.

[00:17:25] After what felt like eternity, I felt the vines being ripped free of me, and I jolted awake. I didn't know what to make of it, and thought that I had just let my experience get the better of me, so I got up and got ready for work.

[00:17:41] When I got to work, some of my coworkers who had been there with me the day before were quiet, so I asked them if something was wrong. One by one, they all told me in perfect detail the exact dream that I had had, without me

[00:17:55] ever volunteering any information. I maybe worked there another month or so, before I sought employment elsewhere. I don't know what this means, and whether the dream was good or bad, but I will never

[00:18:09] forget it, or the feeling I had when the other people told me that they had had the exact same dream. I will carry that to my deathbed. Thank you for reading this, and for what you do, and I hope that you and your family are well. Sincerely, Arthur

[00:18:33] Our next experience comes to us from Emily, and Emily calls their story, Did I have a roommate? Emily says, When I was a kid, I vividly remember that for a time I had a roommate.

[00:18:48] I always thought that it was weird that I had an older man living in my room that was named Alberto. I remember this because he would tell me to sleep under my bed every night. So I slept under my bed, every single night.

[00:19:03] This went on for a couple of months, and I never said anything about it because my mom would take people in, and give them a place to stay sometimes. It wasn't until years later that I asked my mom who that man was, and she said,

[00:19:17] We never let a man named Alberto stay with us. I asked my brothers as well, but they don't remember him, however, I know that I slept under my bed for months. We moved out of that house, and I never saw him again.

[00:19:32] But I sometimes see a man following me. Who is this man, and why do I feel him following me sometimes? Thank you for these stories. I've listened for months, and I thought that it was time for me to send in my story.

[00:19:51] This next experience comes to us from Kaylee, and Kaylee calls their story, A Walk in the Dark. Kaylee says, Hello Nick. I've been listening to your podcast for a few months now, and I could never really recall a paranormal experience until today.

[00:20:09] It's something that happened a while back, but listening to some of your listeners' stories today about shadow people seems to have triggered a repressed memory, and I wonder if my experience could be paranormal. I must admit, I lean more towards paranormal skepticism, but I am open-minded, fascinated,

[00:20:28] and I want to believe, hence why I regularly listen to your podcast. My story is just a short one, but I would love to hear yours and perhaps your listeners' thoughts on this, if you decide to share it.

[00:20:42] I live in a fairly newly built house in Dorset, England. It's a three-story house that overlooks a river, and the riverside. It's a nice route for dog walkers and families during the day, and there's a narrow gravel path that runs alongside the river.

[00:20:58] My bedroom is at the top of the three stories. It's built into the attic, and the window looks out onto the river and the distant fields. One winter, perhaps a year ago in the month of February if I remember correctly, I woke in the middle of the night.

[00:21:14] I didn't note the time, but I usually go to bed quite late, so it must have been sometime after 1am, or likely later. I got up to use the bathroom, and when I had finished, for a seemingly unknown reason,

[00:21:28] I went to the window to take a look outside. It's strange that I felt compelled to go and look out the window, since it was the middle of the night, and very dark. It was nearly pitch black outside.

[00:21:40] It was a cloudy night, so there was no bright moonlight, and there are no street lamps on that side of the house, but I do live in a fairly built-up area, so there is always a

[00:21:49] very low, diffused sort of light, so you can just about make out the outline of trees and other high-contrast shapes, but not a great deal. I drew the curtains and looked outside, and I had to look twice because I saw a dark shadow

[00:22:04] of a human figure walking at a normal pace somewhere along the riverside. They walked towards the exit of the riverside walk, but then circled back towards the trail. Just moments later, they faded into the dark of the night, and they either disappeared,

[00:22:21] or my eyes just couldn't make them out in the dark anymore. There are several things that I found strange. I remember the shadow being very fuzzy, and I couldn't make out any discernible angles or shapes, like a hat or a bag or something.

[00:22:37] It was just a human-shaped mass. Why was this shadow walking so late at night without a torch, and in an area that isn't a through road and doesn't lead to anywhere?

[00:22:48] I live in a small town with no nightlife, so it's very rare to see anyone out after dark. It was also a cold, cold night, and I couldn't make out any dogs or other people with them. I don't know.

[00:23:03] I just felt very uneasy, and thought about the figure for a while afterward. At some point, I put the memory to the back of my mind because I often have to cycle close

[00:23:12] to the route on my commute back from work in the dark, and I didn't want to scare myself on the way home, I guess. Anyway, stay safe everyone, and thanks for all the hard work that you put into Paranormal Mysteries.

[00:23:28] I hope you enjoyed tonight's episode, and before I go, I'd like to thank Woollens, Bell, Arthur, Emily, and Kaylee for coming forward with their experiences, and remember that if you'd like to submit your experience, or learn more about supporting what I do,

[00:23:48] you can find all of my contact and support information at paranormalmysteriespodcast.com, as well as in the show notes. Until next time, thank you so much for listening, and please remember, don't wait for the unknown to come to you. Get out there and find it.