WEBVTT

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This episode may contain content that is
not suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion

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is advised, especially for those under
the age of thirteen. Welcome to ind

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To the Night. I'm Nari,
your guide on to day's excursion down a

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twisted path. Be careful not to
get lost. Be it dark or light,

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It's easy to lose your way.
Are you ready? Then let's begin

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Spring Peepers Part three. That evening, Cassandra arrived at the cafe a few

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minutes early. She chose a booth
and sat facing the door. At exactly

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six o'clock, the door chimed and
a slender man with brown hair walked in.

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His eyes swept the room, and
he spotted Cassandra. I'm guessing your

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misscar Michael call me, Cassandra.
Please have a seat Tony for the next

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hour. Tony Atwell told her of
one incident after another that occurred at the

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Carmichael farm. Strange noises, his
dogs aggressively barking into the darkness, his

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cattle spooking for no apparent reason,
and times when there was no mistaking someone

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or something watched his every move.
I got to where I put up blinds

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on every window because even inside.
I felt like I was being watched.

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I know I must sound crazy.
Hell, I thought I was going crazy

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until I made that recording. I
knew then that I hadn't just imagined what

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was going on. I believe you
can. We listen to the recording.

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Yeah, of course, I only
saved it to prove to myself it happened.

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He pulled up the recording on his
phone. Yes, the frogs called

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into the night. But then she
heard it. Cassandra recoiled from the sound

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and pressed her back against the bench
seat. A look of horror passed over

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her. I'm sorry, Cassandra.
I'm not trying to scare you, but

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you need to know there is something
out there. During their conversation, Cassandra

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told him about the experiences she and
her cousins had, as well as what

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happened the night before. Ike,
bless his heart, wanted to protect me,

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even at his young age. Sadie
was terrified. I was too.

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I don't feel right about you living
out there, ma'am. I put all

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my eggs in this basket. I
need to figure out what to do now.

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He took one last bite of his
meal and looked at the clock hanging

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on the wall, ma'am. If
you don't mind, I need to get

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going. I've got to get home
and feed my cattle. Feel free to

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call me anytime. I'll do that. Tony, thank you for talking with

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me. It's better to be aware
than blindsided. And I appreciate that you

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took the time to tell me what
you've been through. Tony atwell, tipped

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the of his ball cap at her. I'll help anyway, I can have

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a good night. After he left, Cassandra paid their bill and left.

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Darkness was already falling, and an
involuntary shiver went through her, thinking of

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walking from her car to the house. Once she arrived home tonight, however,

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the darkness held no sinister feel to
it. Ike and Sadie asked to

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go outside, and the two puppies
frolicked in the backyard as Cassandra stood on

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the porch and watched. After they'd
tired themselves out, they'd stuggled next to

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her as she sat on the porch
steps. Everything seems right with the world

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tonight. The following night also passed
peacefully, but two nights later, the

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darkness hung heavily in the night.
The puppies didn't want to go outside and

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would only step out for a potty
break. If Cassandra stood next to them.

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I clut out a low growl as
he turned. Once they reached the

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porch, Come on, ikeers,
let's get inside. Cassandra closed and locked

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the back door once they made it
inside. It's a little foolish thinking that

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I can lock out the boogeyman,
but knowing the doors locked somehow makes me

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feel safer. She went around the
house and lowered the blinds. Situating herself

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on the couch with a bag of
popcorn, she settled in to watch a

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movie with her puppies sitting next to
her. Occasionally I could stiffen and stare

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at a window, but after reassurance, he'd calm down once more. Not

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every night was frightening, and because
of that, Cassandra sometimes questioned whether she'd

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lost her good sense. Then,
however, a night filled with dread and

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unexplainable events would happen, and she
was convinced that whatever lurked in the night

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was real. I don't know what
it could be, a ghost, evil

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spirits. The sounds on Tony's recording
sure sounded evil. If it had ill

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intentions, I'd think it would have
done more than lurk by now. Then

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again, it could enjoy toying with
people. How long has stopped this land?

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She wasn't sure. She wanted the
answer, but the unknown caused her

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anxiety to climb. She had trouble
sleeping and quiet hours lying awake in the

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dark did nothing to calm her fears. Occasionally, knocks on the window woke

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her, or awoke Ike, and
then he woke her. Sadie hid under

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the blankets at those times, but
as Ike grew bigger, the more protective

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he became of his frightened owner.
Night after night, terror overtook her.

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She regretted moving back to the homestead. Why didn't I remember that this thing

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follows my every move? What was
I thinking? Moving back here? Did

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I throw away years of hard work
to be driven insane? She remembered her

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mother once having a conversation with a
neighbor, Esther Jenkins, when Cassandra was

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a young girl. The scene came
back to her, wiping away the cobwebs

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of time until she pictured the two
women vividly in her mind. Her mother

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and grandmother sat showing peas from the
garden, and Esther joined them. Mounds

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of peapods from bushel baskets were heaped
into their aprons as the women snapped and

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shelled the vegetables as they talked.
Esther was no young woman at the time,

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years older than Cassandra's grandmother. She
and her husband, Henry, had

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lived on the adjoining farms since they'd
married at the ages of fourteen and sixteen.

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Cassandra sat on the floor listening to
the women visit and gossip. She

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remembered little of the conversation, except
for a comment esther maid, Henry is

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a good man and a hard worker, but he does have a wild idea

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here and there, such as Cassandra's
mother asked, if anything needs to be

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put up after dark, I've got
to do it because Henry won't go out

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after dark. He says something spookeshame. Well, I'll be Cassandra's grandmother chimed

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in, I never imagined Henry Jenkins
faring any one or anything. The women

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laughed, but two thoughts struck young
Cassandra at the time. The first was

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that she never before had known grown
ups to fear anything. The second was

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that she understood why Henry Jenkins feared
the dark. She was never afraid at

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home, but at her grandparent's farm, she knew the dark sometimes felt sinister

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and threatening. Lately, Cassandra remembered
that day. Often she had lost sleep

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and jumped at the slightest sounds.
After a month, Cassandra reached her breaking

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point. Standing on her porch one
evening, she stepped into the back yard

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to retrieve Sadie, who whined at
the fence. Come here, sweet girl.

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The dog trembled, and Cassandra picked
her up and held her close.

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A breeze swirled around her, and
she had the sudden sensation that she was

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surrounded by an unseen force. Once
again, she rushed to the porch,

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where Ike barked from inside the back
door. She put Sadie inside, and

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the screen door slammed out of her
hands. The wind, or something in

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it howled. Cassandra was afraid,
yes, but anger flashed in her eyes.

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Stop playing games. If you're out
there, show yourself, she shouted

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into the night. You have lurked
in the dark long enough. Tell me

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what you are and what you want. The wind stopped glowing, and a

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voice spoke to her through the black
of the night. We need someone to

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see us, We need someone to
say that we are real. It's been

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so long, and we've been trapped
in this hellish state for so long.

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Please overcome your fear and let us
be seen by you. Cassandra closed her

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eyes, then opened them. Okay, show yourselves to me. Not knowing

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what she'd unleashed, her heart pounded
out of the darkness. Forms took shape.

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At first they were ethereal, but
as they moved closer to her,

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she found herself face to face with
ghastly pale men in uniforms, some blue,

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some gray, holes made by lead
balls shot from rifles. As they

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tore through the tattered uniforms, some
men missed arms or legs, and others

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were disfigured by wounds to their heads
and faces. Cassandra gasped and stepped back

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in horror. We don't mean to
scare you, ma'am. We truly don't.

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These fellers and I we've been trapped
here under the burden of hate for

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so long. You're the first person
who's asked us to show ourselves. I

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know we look aside. It was
eighteen sixty three the last time we walked

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this ground as men. We killed
each other, Cassandra, and we died

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in agony on these hills, just
feet from each other as enemies. Why

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are you here? Why didn't you
go on? A young man, a

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boy really in a mutilated gray uniform
answered her. We couldn't. The hate

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held us back, and the only
way to free ourselves from here was to

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be seen. We tried for over
a hundred years to get someone's attention so

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we could be seen. No one
would do it, They kept telling themselves.

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We weren't real. No one can
live or die without being noticed.

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Don't you see? How do I
know this isn't some trick. The voices

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on Tony's recording sounded evil. How
do I know you aren't evil? The

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Union soldier who'd first spoken to her
shook his head. We aren't evil,

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ma'am. My name is Billy.
For what he recorded was agony. We

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all died here in agony, moaning
as we died, horrible deaths for no

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reason, For no damn reason,
we died. I was just seventeen.

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Pete was just eighteen, pointed to
the Confederate boy next to him. You

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could have appeared to other people in
the past my grandparents were carrying. Instead,

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you terrified everyone who lived here through
the years children had nightmares because you

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looked just out of sight, always
watching us. I'm sorry, ma'am.

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Pete looked at her with pleading eyes. That hatred wrought at our souls,

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and we were angry. I admit
that we wanted to scare people. We

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wanted people to be even a little
bit as uncomfortable as we've been for nearly

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two hundred years. We wanted to
end though. Tonight, a murmuring broke

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out in the crowd of ghostly beans
that stood in front of Cassandra. Billy

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said something to the crowd, then
nodded. He turned back to Cassandra.

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It's not just Yankees and Ribs here, ma'am. This land has trapped others

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here, Settlers, Indians, anyone
who's died in a violent way has been

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stuck here, fueled by the hatred
that killed them. We all agree,

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however, that the time has come
to end the spell. We need you

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to do that for us. We
need you to see us for our humanity

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and not just our violence. Please, ma'am, please, what do I

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need to do? Acknowledge us,
give us peace, Say it out loud

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that we are real and that we
are forgiven. Cassandra shook in fear,

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and her voice wavered. Do you
do you promise not to frighten anyone else?

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We promise, We just want to
be released. She looked over the

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dozens of ghastly figures in front of
her and struggled to control her fear.

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I see you, You are real, You are forgiven, you are free.

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As they faded, she saw tears
flow down their cheeks and heard sighs

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of relief. A warm spring wind
blew their milky shapes away towards the sky

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in a swirling mass that spiraled out
of sight. In the quiet of the

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night, she heard the song of
the spring Peepers, and she knew in

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its chorus was the understanding that all
was now right on this land. Thank

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you for joining me for this episode
of the Into the Night Anthology podcast.

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Written by Caroline Giamanco, narrated by
Nauri Quok, Theme music by Nico Rodriguez,

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all other original music, sound design
and editing by Omenhawk Studios. You

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can find our links in the show
notes. Into the Night is on your

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favorite podcatcher, so make sure to
like, subscribe, and leave a five

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star review to help other excursionists to
join us. I'll see you next time,

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and remember where the shadows or in
the daylight, all twisted paths lead

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you into the night. Into the
Night. Anthology is a creative typo entertainment production