(A) Slender Man, Haunted Daycare & Haunted Military Bases | Archive Ep192/202

[00:00:03] On today's episode, we'll be talking about an extremely haunted daycare, dreams of death, ghosts, and strange whispers. These stories and more on this edition of Paranormal Mysteries. Thank you for joining me as always, and welcome. I'm your host, Nic Ryan.

[00:00:34] I hope you all have been having a wonderful week, and before we start today's episode, I'd like to thank all of you for your support and generosity. And if you haven't already, please consider following, sharing, and reviewing the podcast.

[00:00:46] This greatly supports us by helping new listeners to find the show. You can also support us at patreon.com slash paranormalmysteries, or at buymeacoffee.com slash paranormal. And if you'd like to share your paranormal encounter on the podcast,

[00:01:01] you can submit your story through email at paranormalmysteriespodcast at gmail.com, through voice message at speakpipe.com slash paranormalmysteries, or of course on our website at paranormalmysteriespodcast.com. And you can find these links in the show notes.

[00:01:20] And with all that in mind, our first listener's story comes to us from China. And China's story is called, The Haunted Daycare I Cleaned. China says, Hi! I just started listening and I truly enjoy this podcast and I wanted to share my story.

[00:01:38] Back in 2016, I used to clean a Christian daycare here in San Antonio, Texas. I was so excited as a new franchise owner. It was one of my first buildings I would be cleaning. The upstairs was a small church and the downstairs was a daycare.

[00:01:54] It was a very large 10,000 square foot building. The building itself was very old. It must have been around for a long time, because as nicely painted as it was, cute colorful decorations here and there, and children's laughter all around,

[00:02:07] it still didn't take away the fact that this place had some history prior to being converted into a daycare. I hired a worker named Tabitha, and I would go help her clean every other night. While we were downstairs, we were casually talking about her leaving the job.

[00:02:23] This was because her husband, a military man, was getting stationed elsewhere. So she couldn't stay long. Suddenly I heard a loud cough coming from upstairs. It was a man's cough, like he was very sick.

[00:02:36] I asked if she heard that too, and she looked at me puzzled and said, No, I didn't hear anything. She then looked at me like I was crazy, and we basically just shrugged it off. After she left her job, I was cleaning alone.

[00:02:49] Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except for the usual loud cough coming from upstairs. I then hired my best friend, her boyfriend, and his brother, and almost immediately she said that she didn't like it there. She felt like she was being watched.

[00:03:03] She always wanted me nearby, and I agreed. I didn't tell them anything about what I heard prior, because I wanted them to experience it for themselves, just so I knew that I wasn't going crazy. And not long after, we all heard the same loud cough,

[00:03:18] and we got scared. We thought that someone was upstairs sleeping in one of the offices, and we felt bad for disturbing him. There was always one office that we never went inside to clean, because it was always locked. We figured that that's where the man stayed,

[00:03:32] so I wrote a note to the daycare director and told her that we apologized if we woke the man upstairs who was sleeping. She wrote back saying that there was nobody upstairs after hours, and plus the alarms were all set.

[00:03:45] They also checked the surveillance cameras, and they saw nothing. Things started to get more and more weird, and let's just say that within a year, I went through about ten different workers. My best friend, her boyfriend, and his brother ended up leaving for good,

[00:04:00] and I hired two new workers. One time I was downstairs cleaning in the children's eating area when my two workers upstairs came running downstairs so fast that they left their cleaning equipment behind. These were both large, tough-looking men by the way.

[00:04:14] They didn't look the type to be easily scared. By the looks on their faces, I could tell that they had seen something. They said they were talking upstairs, and the office door next to them slammed shut, and they dropped their stuff and ran downstairs.

[00:04:28] From there on, we started working together within close proximity of one another. We wouldn't let the other one out of our sight. We even went to take the trash out together because it got so bad.

[00:04:39] While I was cleaning the restroom, I heard what sounded like a woman humming. My worker asked if it was me humming, and I laughed and was like, Man, I thought that was you humming like a lady. Then there were times that we would go downstairs together and clean

[00:04:53] and we'd hear footsteps from above us. Sometimes we thought the church people would be stopping by because there was so much movement, but then again, who would be stopping by after midnight?

[00:05:03] We'd check the stairs and the lights would still be off and undisturbed the way we left it. Then things really started to escalate, and the workers left permanently. They really did their best and stuck it out the best they could.

[00:05:16] Sometimes I was there in the middle of the night after midnight. In the main offices downstairs, you could see which spots the surveillance cameras pointed to all around the daycare. I stood there watching the screen, and I happened to look in the same spot

[00:05:30] where the doors slammed shut where my coworkers said that it happened. I could see orbs shooting in and around the camera. In no way, shape, or form were they bugs, insects, or dust flurries.

[00:05:42] At the very end of the dark hallway was an outline of a large black figure. It just stood there, never moving. And sometimes those same cameras that showed the upstairs floor would turn off. The screen would go blank and never go back on.

[00:05:57] That was always weird to me. On one occasion I saw a half-white see-through figure gliding in the children's eating area, right on the other side of the wall where I was standing. It showed up on the surveillance screen, gliding slowly and then disappearing seconds later.

[00:06:13] I also remember I was cleaning the girls' restroom downstairs, and after I scrubbed the toilet, I turned around and the door was latched shut. I was locked in. I stood there in shock because I never locked the stalls while I cleaned the toilets.

[00:06:26] Why would you lock them in the first place? Then I started to hear loud conversations going on, usually a man and a woman talking, as if I wasn't standing there. There would also be shadows moving real fast on the walls.

[00:06:38] The hallways were very dark and long, and seeing shadows moving on the walls was quite scary. I thought I was going crazy or my eyes were playing tricks on me. I'm sorry if that sounds weird, but I know what I saw.

[00:06:50] I hired my other best friend named Rose at the time. Her father lived in the UK, and he was a psychic medium, and she was an empath. As soon as she got inside the building, her father called her on Messenger and asked about her whereabouts.

[00:07:05] Every time he asked something like that, we always knew that he knew she was somewhere she shouldn't belong. He knew nothing of the daycare prior. He said to her, Tell Chyna to be careful of the spooks standing on the top of the stairs.

[00:07:19] We were like, how the hell did he know that there were stairs here? We went to work and I was cleaning one classroom, and she was next to me in the next classroom. We both heard people talking. We both walked out of the classrooms at the same time.

[00:07:33] We were like, did you hear that? Then from time to time, the toys would turn on. The toy piano would start playing. The crazy thing is that the teachers would take out the batteries at the end of the day.

[00:07:45] We'd open up the backs, and there would be no batteries. We even set my phone on the table to catch an EVP or something. After we locked up, we played the audio. We heard nothing the whole time.

[00:07:56] But at the very last five minutes, you could hear her saying, Chyna, don't forget your phone. And about five seconds after that, you can clearly hear a low voice saying, Get out of here. We played it over and over, and we looked at each other in shock.

[00:08:10] Did we just hear that? Then one night, she was unable to come with me, and that was the turning point. I was cleaning the toddler's room. I walked out, and the baby dolls started talking. They said something to the effect of,

[00:08:24] Hi, Mommy. I love you. Do you want to play with me? I freaked out, so I went back in, and they stopped talking. I picked them up and checked for batteries. They had no place for batteries. I squeezed them. They were only plush dolls.

[00:08:39] I walked out again, and they started playing repeatedly. I didn't mention this before, but this same classroom is where I saw the shadow figure walking into weeks before. My best friend called and said, Chyna, my dad says for you to not touch those dolls. They are demonic.

[00:08:57] Then her dad messaged me and said that I needed to leave those dolls alone and that I needed to leave that place. It was evil. I was like, how did he know I came in contact with these dolls or that I was even here?

[00:09:10] And remember, he lived in the UK. We never met in person, and I lived in San Antonio. I was so scared and I was crying because I got so scared. They kept telling me not to panic. It was the middle of the night, and I was alone.

[00:09:23] They started talking again and kept going and going. And then my phone started to die. It's almost like whatever type of demonic entity was there was draining my battery. And again there were footsteps upstairs during the whole conversations once again. I couldn't take it.

[00:09:40] I hurried up and cleaned as fast as I could. I locked up and left that place, and I ended up giving my account to another franchise owner. The daycare alone paid over $1,600 a month to clean, but it wasn't worth the mental torture.

[00:09:54] No one believed us from the office. They thought we were crazy. Myself and my past co-workers all experienced the same things we couldn't explain. I thought they should have checked the surveillance cameras. I mean all the times that we ran, the times that we felt uneasy,

[00:10:09] the doors slamming shut in the view of the cameras, the looks on our faces, or the times we ran and cried because I saw something scary. I never went back to that place, not even to leave the keys to the new franchise owner taking over the building.

[00:10:23] I left them with the people from the office. I hoped that whoever got that account didn't go through what we went through. Thank you for letting me share my story to you all. This type of stuff is not easy to share, especially with ones who don't believe.

[00:10:38] Thank you for letting me and others use this platform to share our experiences. I have a few more from other places I've cleaned, like the funeral home in Bjorn, Texas. I'll tell that one next time. Have a blessed day.

[00:10:52] Our next story of the night comes to us from Fred, and Fred's story is called Footsteps, The Man in Pajamas, and The Whisper. Fred says, Hi Nick, I hope you're well. I discovered your podcast a few weeks ago

[00:11:11] and they have been the best thing since sliced bread to me. Seriously, keep doing what you're doing and keep inspiring others. I'm 27 and I live in a little village called Aldbourne in the UK. I have three separate paranormal encounters that have happened to my mom,

[00:11:27] my sister, and myself. I am sorry for the up-and-coming stories that will be a little long, but please bear with me. My first story is called The Man in Pajamas. When my parents were in their 20s, they went out for a night with my auntie and uncle.

[00:11:43] They were staying in a hotel down the road from the bar where they were. My dad went back to the hotel early, leaving my mom and company out. Finally coming back later with my auntie and uncle, they went to their room and my mom was going to hers.

[00:11:57] She realized the door was locked due to my dad locking her out before he inevitably passed out from the drink. My mom, knowing this, was banging on the door with intent and shouting trying to wake up my inebriated father, but to no joy.

[00:12:11] So she then started walking to the reception for a spare key. As she was going down a staircase with a squared-off midpoint that connected to the other staircase, she encountered a man. She thought it was odd as she did not hear him coming up the stairs

[00:12:25] as they were wooden. He was wearing a two-piece pajama set and it was pink with purple elephants on it. It seems like this was very specific from my mom, I must add. She said that he stood there staring at her with an angry face,

[00:12:38] my mom realizing that only a minute before she was being loud and banging, so she immediately apologized to the man and said that she would work it all out with him in the morning and she was drunk and tired.

[00:12:49] The man then proceeded to walk past her and go up the stairs. My mom then got the spare key and went to bed. The following morning, my mom went down to the reception and spoke to the receptionist

[00:13:00] and asked if she had had a complaint or anything last night from any of the guests. The lady at the reception looked confused by what my mom had asked her. With a pause, she then said, None at all.

[00:13:11] You and your friends are the only ones in the hotel at the moment. Granted, the receptionist could have been wrong, but it was an old hotel that wasn't very big. Plus, the receptionist was also the hotel owner

[00:13:22] and was the only one on shift for the past two nights. This next story I'll keep short. I call it The Whisperer. We used to live in a 400-year-old farmhouse in Aldbourne. At this time, my sister was about eight

[00:13:37] and she was in the hallway that connected her room to the bathroom. In this hallway was a long bench covered in children's books. It was late and she was looking through the books with the light off, not wanting to wake the parents,

[00:13:49] but she was using the light from her windows. Kneeling there, looking through the books, she suddenly felt someone or something move up to her right side and whisper in her ear, Hey, look over here. She froze in fear but stayed looking at the books,

[00:14:05] not wanting to turn to see whatever was asking her to look. She then stood up and ran into her room in terror. She told me years later that she is positive it was a male's voice, and the only male in the house at the time was my dad,

[00:14:18] whose bedroom was on the other side of the house, not the side that the voice was coming from. To add to that, I'm pretty sure my sister would recognize her own father's voice. The last story today is my own experience.

[00:14:33] I was 14 and was just on my way home from babysitting at the late hour of 2am. This was when we lived on Oxford Street in Aldbourne, which was up a steep hill. So I was walking up this hill on a still summer's night with no clouds.

[00:14:47] The moon was out in full, lighting up the village in all its beauty as I leisurely strolled up the hill. Being 2am in the village, there was no one about, so I decided to walk up the hill in the middle of the road.

[00:14:59] Halfway up, only 300 meters from my house, I heard footsteps on a gravel drive. For some reason, I was compelled to stop. I stood there and stared at this gravel driveway, where the footsteps were coming from. Now, there was a car blocking my view,

[00:15:14] but the footsteps were coming towards me. They then stopped where I believe was the end of the driveway, just before the pavement. I then asked, Hello? Is anyone there? And then the footsteps started again on the pavement around the back of the car,

[00:15:27] and then walked around the car, and right up to me. I was frozen in fear, and I then felt dizzy and lightheaded, and my eyes were looking at nothing, just air. My vision then went to what I can only describe as electric white.

[00:15:42] It was like the sun was out, and I could see everything so clearly. I still have no idea why this happened, but I have never experienced this since. At this point, I ran like my life depended on it, all the way home and told my parents.

[00:15:55] They were amazed, even though I was shaking and white as a sheet. Now, as I said, I never saw anyone, but by the sound of the footsteps, I can tell you that they were heavy, like workman's boots. Heavy and dense, and the pacing was slow,

[00:16:09] and I know that it was a male. Good or bad, I can't tell you, but for years onward at night, I always ran up that hill. Never did I dare walk it again. Again, sorry for my long stories,

[00:16:22] but you made me feel comfortable getting it out to the world. Thank you so much for hearing me out, and for your patience. Kind regards, Fred Our next story of the night comes to us from Taylor, and Taylor's story is called Weird Morning. Taylor says, Hey Nick,

[00:16:43] I wanted to write in again because I just had a weird experience that I wanted to share. It happened this morning, and I'm still really confused. So, I was sleeping last night. Nothing strange. In my dream, I remember smelling cigarette smoke, which threw me off.

[00:16:59] It woke me up, and the smell still kind of lingered, and I'm the only person in my home. It was early morning, around maybe eight, so there was some light in my room. I was lying on my stomach with my arms under my pillow,

[00:17:12] and I was looking at the wall. I felt kind of scared for no real reason. Then I saw what looked like smoke or mist come from the window above the head of my bed. It wasn't a lot, maybe enough from like a breath.

[00:17:24] It slowly rose to the corner of my ceiling, and disappeared. At the same time I'm watching this, I felt something get on the bed behind me, kind of down by my feet. My first thought was that it was my cat, but I keep the door closed,

[00:17:38] so it couldn't have been him. I felt like I was being watched. I didn't really try to move, so I just closed my eyes, and almost immediately woke up again. It was such a bizarre feeling, and I've never experienced anything like this before.

[00:17:51] I don't exactly want to classify it as sleep paralysis, because I didn't try to move, so I'm not sure if I even could have, but the terror or fear other people talk about was something that I felt. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this,

[00:18:05] and hopefully someone else has experienced something similar. Our next story of the night comes to us from Caitlin, and Caitlin's story is called Dreams of Death. Caitlin says, Hello! I was listening to your podcast, and a story like this inspired me to submit my own story.

[00:18:28] There was a collection of stories shared between me and my family regarding death, and what we called the man in the pointed hat. Yet this is only the stories concerning my grandfather and I. Months before I was born, in the 90s, my grandfather underwent an amputation surgery.

[00:18:44] My mother described how my grandfather began speaking to his parents and two older brothers while waking up from the surgery. She tried calling his name, shaking his shoulders, but nothing worked. He was calm and soothing, saying how much he missed them and loved them,

[00:18:59] and how he would be with them soon. Concerned, my mom put her hand on the bed to stand up, being heavily pregnant and all, and her hand came away soaked in blood. He was bleeding out from his incision site, and once he returned from being stitched back up,

[00:19:14] he woke up crying, saying that he had seen his parents and brothers again, and how they had smiled and told him that they loved him and missed him. After that, when another of his siblings passed away, or other close family members, he would dream of them all together,

[00:19:29] and they would say their goodbyes. Without fail, when he got the call from one of his other remaining siblings, he would simply say, I know, and began to weep. When I was young, I had many experiences with what I now believe were shadow people,

[00:19:44] but the dreams stuck with me far longer. I dreamt of my aunt and my dog dying, one after another. My aunt was distraught and in pain in the dream, and my dog was lethargic and weak within my arms. My mom assured me it was okay,

[00:19:59] because it wasn't like grandpa's, where they were found dead the next morning. Mine are spaced out a bit further. A few years later, my aunt had witnessed her son die from cancer after a terrible battle.

[00:20:12] She then died less than a year later from the same kind of cancer, and within a month of her death, my dog died in my arms after two weeks of starving himself due to separation anxiety that we discovered too late.

[00:20:25] I dreamt again, a few months afterwards, of my grandfather and mother. I was in a wedding dress begging my grandfather on my knees to stay, because I hadn't graduated college yet, and that I had met the man I loved,

[00:20:38] and I wanted him to walk me to the altar. He only cried and said that he loved me. He died less than a year after I met my soon-to-be husband, not even two years after my dream, after my first year of college.

[00:20:51] The last time I saw him, he was crying and telling me how much he loved me. And he died that night. The most terrifying part? My mother was in the dream, and I was begging her to stay to meet her first grandchild,

[00:21:04] and that I had just gotten married and I still needed her. I'm in the middle of planning my wedding, and part of me dreads the day, despite how much I love my fiancé. In the back of my mind,

[00:21:15] I feel it's only a matter of time before my dream comes true again, and I don't want this one to. I'm afraid because my mother's health has been declining over the last few years, despite our best efforts.

[00:21:27] I would love for you to share my story on your podcast, and if you're ever interested, I have more about the man in the pointed hat, and my own experiences of what I think was a shadow person. As tonight's edition of Paranormal Mysteries comes to a close,

[00:21:42] I appreciate all of you for tuning in, and a special thank you goes out to Chyna, Fred, Taylor, and Kaitlyn for sharing their experiences. And now, let's begin the show with our first listener story of the night, which comes to us from Stacey. And Stacey's story is called,

[00:22:05] Grandma's Back Room, Mom's Apartment, and Slender. Stacey says, Hi Nick, I've been wanting to write in ever since I heard the listener story from a girl in Cheyenne, Wyoming who wrote about the Atlas Theater.

[00:22:19] I too live in Cheyenne and was shocked to hear that you accepted a submission letter from someone here, since Wyoming is often overlooked as one of the least populated states. I've only had a handful of strange experiences in my life, nothing too crazy,

[00:22:33] but I've been putting off sharing them until yesterday, when I heard you mention the Slender Man in episode 168. The first time I ever experienced anything possibly paranormal was when I was 15, living with my grandma in Laramie, Wyoming. My uncle committed suicide a few months prior to this,

[00:22:50] and I was thinking about him constantly. My bedroom was in the back of the house, and one night while I was lying in bed facing the wall with my back toward the edge of the bed, I was remembering a particular memory of my uncle touching my hair

[00:23:03] and telling me how much he loved it because it reminded him of Indian hair. Very thick, sleek, and soft. Just then I felt someone stroke my hair from the back of my head down to the middle of my shoulder blades.

[00:23:16] I sat straight up in my bed and looked around the dark room with my heart pounding in my ears, part of me expecting to see him at my bedside. It was startling, but I was overwhelmed with comfort immediately after.

[00:23:28] Another night in this back room I was trying to fall asleep, but I kept hearing a noise coming from my closet. I knew exactly what the noise was because I heard it every time I opened and closed my closet door.

[00:23:40] It was the sound of the door dragging across the carpet, which took some effort since the carpet was starting to raise up in that area because it was old and needed to be stretched.

[00:23:49] The noise was very gradual, as if someone was sneakily opening it inch by inch to peek in on me. After laying there frozen in place for about a minute, I finally gathered the courage to raise my head and look.

[00:24:01] As I stared into the darkness of the closet with the room lit only by the dim moonlight, everything was quiet for a few seconds until I heard the noise suddenly, and I saw the door move just a little bit. I jumped up and flipped the light on,

[00:24:15] and then walked to the door to try and nudge it gently to see how it moved. As normal, it wouldn't budge without me pulling or pushing on it because of the rolled carpet.

[00:24:24] All windows were closed, and there wasn't a draft of any sort coming from anywhere in the house. After these things happened, I told my family about it, and everyone who has ever stayed in that back room had something unnerving to say about it.

[00:24:39] Another weird experience happened when I was 20 and living in an old apartment in downtown Cheyenne, which was originally rented out by my mom, but my husband Frank and I took over the lease so that she could move back to Laramie with my grandma

[00:24:51] and stay in that creepy back room. Frank hours left for work around 7am while I slept in for another hour or so. When he left, he kissed me goodbye as usual, and I heard him lock the door on his way out.

[00:25:04] What seemed like just a few minutes after, I started to toss and turn, thinking that I was smelling gas from our stove. I shouted out to Frank to ask what he was cooking, but I didn't hear anything back.

[00:25:14] I kept smelling the fumes get stronger until I got out of bed and walked into the kitchen, expecting to see him, but I only saw the front door locked the way he left it, in the empty kitchen.

[00:25:24] A burner was turned on medium high. No flame, only running gas. Immediately I shut it off, and I called my husband. I asked him if he had used the stove or went into the kitchen before he left,

[00:25:37] thinking that he might have bumped the knob on his way out, but he told me that he never even went into the kitchen because he was running late and only had time to get dressed and brush his teeth before he left.

[00:25:47] I told him about the stove, and neither one of us could think of an explanation. Not to mention the time was now 8.05, over an hour after Frank had left,

[00:25:56] and with our tiny one-bedroom apartment, I should have been able to smell the gas within just a couple of minutes of it running on medium high. Another incident in this same apartment took place one afternoon when Frank went to my dad's house to work on a project.

[00:26:11] About ten minutes after he left, I stepped into the shower, and suddenly clear as day I heard Frank yell, Babe! I nonchalantly replied, Yeah? But no response. Louder I shouted, What? And again nothing. Finally, feeling frustrated because I was covered in soap,

[00:26:28] I grabbed my towel, walked into the bedroom, and again said, What, babe? I looked out the window expecting to see his blue truck in its parking space, but it was gone. In my head I was thinking there was no possible way that he could have left that quick

[00:26:42] since we lived on the third floor, and only about 15 seconds had passed from the time I heard him to the time I looked out the window. I called him and asked if he had come back home for something,

[00:26:52] but he told me that he had just barely arrived at my dad's house, and I could hear both my dad and his bench saw in the background. This time I was so freaked out that I rinsed off, dressed as quickly as I could, and left the apartment,

[00:27:04] because I felt an uneasiness, like I wasn't alone anymore. My mom mentioned that on occasion, strange things like loud bangs on the bedroom wall above her headboard would wake her up in the middle of the night. But after this day, nothing else ever happened to me.

[00:27:21] Finally, this last experience took place just a couple of years ago when I was on my way home, and it was late, around 2am. A few months before this night, my sister showed me a documentary on Hulu about Slender Man

[00:27:34] and the two girls who stabbed their friend because they believed Slender told them to do it. It was disturbing, and I had trouble sleeping that night, but I soon put it out of my mind. Anyway, on this night I was on my way home.

[00:27:47] I was driving down a one-way street that turns off onto the street where my house is, and it also merges into a large roundabout. Before my turn, I noticed someone walking on the side of the road. He was abnormally tall and skinny, with unusually long arms,

[00:28:01] both slightly bent at the elbows. His body shape reminded me of Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas. He was dressed in dark clothing that covered everything except his hands and head. I pumped the brakes a bit, but couldn't get a good look at his face

[00:28:16] because it was dark in my rearview mirror. Right away I was reminded about the documentary, and I felt chills go down my back. After my turn, I called my sister to tell her what I just saw.

[00:28:27] I shakily described him to her, and I emphasized how eerily similar he was to the way Slender Man is portrayed in all the fan art. Feeling compelled by curiosity to turn back, I told my sister to stay on the phone with me.

[00:28:40] Full of adrenaline, I turned back onto the road and tried to spot him through the haze of the early morning fog. By this time he was walking straight across the roundabout. I rolled the window down to stick my head out and get a better look,

[00:28:53] but kept my distance because I felt the dread grow the closer I came to him. His walk was strange, slow and steady with a slight drag in one of his feet, and all movement was only in his legs while the rest of his body was still.

[00:29:07] I could see more details under the streetlights of the roundabout, such as his head. He was very pale with no visible hair, and I couldn't see his face. He was dressed in what looked like a black suit with white sleeves showing under the jacket,

[00:29:21] and at this point I was barely going 5 miles an hour before I came to a complete stop in the middle of the road. Now he was walking smack dab in the middle of the road, almost crossing over into the opposite lane, seemingly oblivious to everything around him.

[00:29:36] I put my sister on FaceTime, turned the flashlight on, and zoomed in a little so that she could see what I was looking at. It was only us on the road, and come to think of it, I don't remember ever seeing another car drive by at all.

[00:29:48] For a few seconds it was dead silence, like all time, was frozen in place. Just then the silence was broken when two police officers pulled up next to me. One of them said, ''What are you doing? You're going to cause an accident.'' I shouted back,

[00:30:03] ''I'm sorry, I was just about to call you because of this person walking down the street. I don't know if he's hurt or drunk or what, but he's freaking me out.''

[00:30:11] At this point I was almost in tears, and they told me to go home so that they could handle it. I was so afraid to go near the man that I asked the cops if I could do a U-turn instead of driving past him.

[00:30:22] In my rearview mirror I saw them turn their red and blue lights on and shine their bright spotlight on him, but he didn't turn around. Later my sister and I three-way called our friend Amber to tell her.

[00:30:33] I remember describing him to her as a thing or an it because it was too difficult to even call him a man because of how freaky he looked. I slept with all the lights on that night and away from all the windows.

[00:30:45] For the next week I checked the police blotters to see if I could find anything about it, but there was nothing. I know Slenderman is a fictional character made up by a group of students, but I will never forget what I saw or how disturbing it was,

[00:30:59] and I'll always wonder what really happened after the cops stopped him and who he really was. I know these accounts aren't much, especially compared to some of the off-the-wall experiences mentioned on the show, but thank you for giving me the opportunity to share them anyway.

[00:31:19] Our next story of the night comes to us from T, and T's story is called Regarding a Story from R in Freeland, Michigan. The episode that T is referring to is episode 91, which I'll put a link to in the show notes. T says,

[00:31:35] R from Freeland, Michigan messaged you, I'm not sure when but you shared his experience from when he was very little about the creatures looking in his window and his father finding footprints later.

[00:31:46] R is my boyfriend and had told me the story but never in the detail I just heard on your podcast. He often puts it on just for me to listen to because I do like these kinds of things,

[00:31:56] and it's nice to not feel alone when it comes to odd experiences. That being said, he and I both have been magnets for it our entire lives, and just knowing each other before being together seems to have magnified it all.

[00:32:09] That being said, I sleep under a loft area. We both work overnight, so I basically have a blanket fort going to block the light out since we sleep early. One night while in bed with R, both of us in a deep sleep, I suddenly woke up.

[00:32:24] My eyes popped open and I saw a face retreat behind the blanket that hides out the light. I honestly couldn't describe the face if I wanted to, but I do remember its large almond eyes and the very non-human fingers that slowly let go of the blanket.

[00:32:39] They were large, long, and rounded with no nails, and its skin color was greenish gray. It's like whatever it was was simply peeking in on us, watching us while we slept. Oddly, I didn't feel any kind of fear. It was more like an, oh, okay, kind of feeling.

[00:32:56] And then I drifted back to sleep. I told him about it the next morning and he looked troubled, but I tried to calm him down by saying how it made me feel, and that it just felt like more or less a how-are-they visit.

[00:33:09] So that's my weird story that goes along with his. I've had other off events that are very odd. This was the first with him around that dealt with something like he experienced, or with things like he experienced when he was young.

[00:33:26] Our next story comes to us from Joel, and Joel's story is called Haunted Military Bases. Joel says, When I was in the U.S. Navy, I was stationed in Groton, Connecticut in 2006-2007.

[00:33:40] There was a lot of history there, including the site of a Revolutionary War battle at Fort Griswold, which overlooks the Thames River. There were massive losses on both sides of the Battle of Groton Heights, and Benedict Arnold raided the fort and killed most of the remaining Connecticut militia.

[00:33:56] I went there with three or four friends from base one night, and when we arrived outside the fort, I could feel serious dread and fear. Upon entering the fort, I felt a crowd of people around me, even though it was only me and a few friends.

[00:34:10] The feeling was overwhelming and like I was not actually in 2006. It felt as though I had traveled back through time and could almost see what was going on between the British and Americans. It is definitely a sight to visit if you want to feel something strange.

[00:34:26] My next experience is of a dark or demonic presence. It was one cold night in winter, snow on the ground and snow falling from a blanket of clouds overhead. When I was on my way from the galley, or chow hall, to my barracks,

[00:34:39] I felt a presence that was watching and following me. As I walked in the sidewalk along the right side of the two-lane road, I kept looking over to the woods on the left side of the road, and I could have sworn I saw something.

[00:34:51] I stopped walking under a streetlight and stood there staring across the street, trying to see what was there. What I saw froze me. Passing tree to tree, keeping up with me was a dark shadow with dark red eyes, and it was the only feature I could see.

[00:35:07] It ducked behind a tree directly across from me and peered out from behind the tree at me before coming out completely. It emerged entirely from behind the tree and stood there facing me broadside and stared at me.

[00:35:19] As I stood there frozen, it slunk back behind the tree and then ran to the next tree. This dark creature stood out against the snowy background, and it didn't cast a shadow. It was one of the scariest nights of my life.

[00:35:33] Next was one night when I was on duty during a tropical storm. I began patrolling my barracks as regularly scheduled. While on the first floor, entering the south wing towards the laundry room, the power went out. Immediately the generators came on as did the hallway red emergency lights.

[00:35:50] At that moment, I saw the ghost of a young man standing there only in his skivvies, with a white bedsheet twisted and tied around his neck. He was standing there facing me down the hallway from me. He looked sad and lost.

[00:36:04] He turned toward the laundry room while keeping his eyes on me, and slowly walked into the laundry room. I ran down the hallway into the locker room and looked for him but to no avail. There was only one door, and I had just gone through it.

[00:36:17] The only windows in the room were locked, and from the outside were high above the ground. There were pipes hanging from the ceiling and multiple rows of laundry machines. The ghost was nowhere to be seen.

[00:36:29] I then ran all the way back to the lobby where our check-in desk was, and I told the BPO, or barracks manager, who then told me what had happened. Apparently years ago a young sailor had hung himself in that same laundry room.

[00:36:42] I didn't feel fear of danger from this ghost, but I definitely felt some fear of the unknown. I felt bad for him, like he transferred his sadness and pain to me. Lastly, one night I was patrolling this submarine school building, and as I walked through the hall,

[00:36:59] I could hear a little girl giggling and running, which was weird because no kids were allowed in the building. I looked all through the hall while on patrol and I could not see anyone anywhere.

[00:37:09] My hair stood on end and I got goosebumps, so I went to the staircase and went down to the next floor. As I did, I heard what sounded like a little girl screaming and then falling.

[00:37:19] That scared me, and when I finished and went to the front desk, I brought it up. I don't know if they were messing with me hearing about this, but apparently other sailors on patrol had heard the same thing.

[00:37:29] They told me that it was the daughter of an officer who toured the building and fell to her death on a staircase. I believe the Navy Submarine School in Groton, Connecticut to be very haunted, with its very long existence, and the town as well.

[00:37:44] If you ever get the chance, try to make it there. I'm sorry for the long story, but it gives me the strong belief in ghosts and demons. Joel Our next story of the night comes to us from E, and E says,

[00:38:02] Hello Nick, and greetings from Montana. I hope this email reaches you in excellent health. I ran across your podcast last week while getting ready for work and have been binging on every episode throughout my days since.

[00:38:14] Since I first listened to your podcast, I wanted to share one of my many stories with you. I have always been sort of a believer when it comes to ghosts, spirits, and unseen entities.

[00:38:23] I think this belief mainly stems from when I was younger, as you will find out in the story. This story spans most of my life, and a couple of different locations as I have moved houses a couple of times.

[00:38:35] So I know that they are all connected, and not just hauntings of the homes. This story is about what I have come to know as shadow people. I first encountered these shadow people when I was about 5 or 6.

[00:38:48] At the time, I shared a room with my slightly older brother, who I will call D. I remember that one day I was sitting on my bed that was on the side of our squarish room furthest away from the door.

[00:38:59] Now, our closet doors were at the foot of my bed, straight across from the door. As I was sitting on my bed, I noticed the closet doors open slightly, and a completely black shadow floated out of the closet and out through the door.

[00:39:11] I got scared and ran out of my room and into the living room where my mom and D were watching TV. I told my mom what had happened, but she shrugged it off as childhood imagination.

[00:39:22] I should say that this was during the afternoon while the sun was still high in the sky. I never saw the shadow again when we lived in that house, but I had other experiences in it.

[00:39:32] The second time I saw a shadow person was a handful of years later. We had just moved into a new house in North Dakota, and I was about 11 at the time.

[00:39:42] Since we had just moved in, only my mom's bed had arrived, so D and I slept in her bed. My mom's bedroom was on the second floor of her house and had a window facing an orange-colored streetlight that cast a little light into the room at night.

[00:39:56] When we went to sleep that night, my mom slept on the left side of the bed, D in the middle, and I was on the right side of the bed.

[00:40:03] When I went to bed, I had a small green blanket of mine wrapped around me because I was always cold. Later in the middle of the night, I woke up because I was freezing.

[00:40:11] That's when I rolled over to see if my blanket had fallen off the side of the bed. Now, my side of the bed faced the window and the light from the street. When I rolled over, there was the shadow of what looked like a giant man.

[00:40:24] The shadow was so thick that I couldn't see the light through him. I froze and couldn't move as the shadow lowered his head close to mine. It looked like it then raised one of its arms toward me, and then I remembered screwing my eyes shut.

[00:40:37] When I opened my eyes, the shadow was near the window, and it stayed for about a second before dissolving like smoke into the air. I then grabbed my blanket off the floor and moved closer to my brother, and when I calmed down the scare, I fell asleep.

[00:40:53] The last time I saw one of these shadow people was fairly recently, just a month ago. I am currently 17 and now living with my dad. I have my own room, which used to be my stepmom's office, so it's not very big.

[00:41:05] Just 9 or so feet wide and 12 feet long. That day we had spent most of our time working cows and sheep, and we were glad to come in and go to bed. I laid a blanket on the floor for my cat, who sleeps at the foot of my dresser,

[00:41:18] which is halfway between the door and my bed, which takes up the section of wall opposite of the door. I quickly fell asleep and felt like I wasn't asleep for long before I opened my eyes and found that I couldn't move.

[00:41:31] I could only stare toward my door as a shadow darkened in the middle of my room, close to where the cat slept. It grew so dark that the small light from the hallway on the other side of my room was completely blocked out.

[00:41:43] It was tall and thin and didn't move. It just hovered a few inches off the ground, and I could feel it watching me. After a minute or two, my cat suddenly woke up and started to have a fit.

[00:41:55] She started yowling and hissing at the shadow that floated next to her. The shadow almost immediately dissolved like smoke, and my stepbrother came running into my room to see why the cat was howling,

[00:42:05] since he was in the living room with a friend staying up late and playing Xbox. I told him what had happened, but he didn't believe me, and he then took the cat into the living room to try and keep her quiet. I had trouble sleeping after that.

[00:42:19] And after that I have always kept my cat with me while I slept, because at least she could see what I could. Sorry for the long story, but it would mean a lot to me if you read it on your podcast.

[00:42:31] If anyone knows why this keeps happening or how I can stop it, please let me know. Thanks for reading, and I love your podcast, and the space you created to share stories like this with people who won't shrug you off. Thanks again. E

[00:42:47] As we come to the end of tonight's episode, I appreciate all of you for tuning in, and a special thank you goes out to Stacy, T, Joel, and E for sharing their experiences. And if you've had a paranormal experience and would like to share your story,

[00:43:04] you can contact me through email, voice message, or on our website, and these links can be found in the show notes.