Welcome to Scary Story Podcast. You were asking for these, so today I'll
be telling you ghost stories. They seem to be my favorite. Two.
Are you ready? My name is Edwin and here's a scary story the sleepover.
Over winter break, my family and I got to talking about old friends,
probably because over the holidays we got calls and Facebook messages from people that
at one point were very close friends but we had lost touch. It's sad
how it happens, people fading like that. But we started reliving all of
those stories, and it even got us to pick up the phone and call
some of our friends. Somewhere along the way, we started talking about my
old friends from elementary school and about where they could possibly be. I remember
when I was little, I would go to the store with my dad and
he would bump into an old friend of his and he would be so excited
to tell me that they had been friends in elementary school. I wish I
were like that, because whenever I bump into somebody I know, I try
to avoid them anyway. That's how we all remembered this story, and I
didn't know it then, but it turned out to be one of the creepiest
things that has ever happened to me. Back when I was in second grade,
I had a friend named Stephanie. Her mom used to buy her the
coolest things, and I used to love going over to her house, who
would play with the newest toys and barbies that she would get. She had
a whole collection of cars for dolls, along with houses and boats. So
one time I asked my mom if she would let me go over and sleep
there at her house. Stephanie and I both made plans on how we were
going to tell our parents, and it took like four days to figure it
out. First she would ask her mom, and then if she said yes,
then I would ask mine. I was too excited to wait, so
I just asked that same day and my mom said yes, but that she
would like to talk with Stephanie's mother after school and to ask if that was
okay. It was a Wednesday when Stephanie came in with her huge purple backpack
into the classroom. The teacher had already started talking and I could see her
signaling that her mom had also said yes. I was so excited for that.
The next day, both of our moms got to meet each other by
the exit where they picked up the kids. They started talking, who were
joking, saying that they would also become best friends. And so we sat
there outside of the school for a very long time. I remember the school
being empty and with the gates wide open, Stephanie and I just ran inside
towards the fields. We had them all to ourselves. We didn't have to
wait our turn for the monkey bars, didn't have to count for the swings.
Everything was quiet, Neither of us had said anything until Stephanie broke the
silence with something like, this is really nice, huh. And to this
day, I think that's the first time I was able to acknowledge that very
special moment, the one where everything seems perfect and all you want to do
is sit there and look up at the sky, calm and completely happy,
with the soft breeze and the sun being dimmed by the trees at the edge
of the field. Our moms called us from the gate, saying that we
were leaving, and then we started walking back, with Stephanie suggesting that it
would be cool if she could invite another one of her friends, Betty.
I didn't know her, but I said, yeah, that it would be
very cool, and with smiles on our faces, they got in their car
and Mom and I walked the two blocks home. I couldn't wait for Friday
to come. Mom had even gotten me a new set of pajamas to use
that night, and she packed them along with my toothbrush and a comb for
my hair. She told me to make sure that I cleaned up after myself,
that if I changed my mind about spending the night, that Stephanie's mother
had her phone number, that all I had to do was ask to be
taken home and my dad would come and get me. There was no way
I would call to be taken home. Stephanie's house was huge, and she
had one of those outdoor playhouses right by her bedroom window. They said that
at one point it had been a shed, but it didn't look like ours.
Her parents had painted it with white and pink, and it was like
a real house with the window and everything. I remember thinking that she was
so lucky. Then again, I didn't know the whole story. We got
there and Stephanie's mom had already set up the television room for us with snacks,
and then she asked what movie we wanted to see, because her dad
was going to go to the video store for us. We wanted to see
a cartoon movie, but we didn't know many of them. I think we
finally settled on Aladdin, but I don't remember because we spent the whole time
talking and playing with other things while the TV was on. We went up
to Stephanie's room, where her parents had set up the fold out bed from
the couch that she had in there. But it was still early, so
we got out some of her board games. I was setting up one of
them when Stephanie got up to open the door and another girl came in.
It was Betty. She had a tiny backpack in her hand, although it
looked empty, and she looked right at me, smiling. I used to
be awkward back then, so I didn't speak much to her, but I
remember thinking that she didn't seem to want to speak with me either. It
was the way she looked at me. But she still joined us for a
couple of rounds of Trouble board game, and even though she didn't speak,
I still manage to have a lot of fun. When it was time to
go to bed, Stephanie opened the door for Betty and she left without saying
anything else. But I did ask Stephanie where Betty was going to sleep.
I couldn't understand why she got to sleep out in the playhouse by herself and
we couldn't, and so through the window I remember peeking out there. I
never saw her go inside. I just let it go. It was weird
to see how another family lived. I mean, I think our first sleepovers
have that kind of shock as well. Right, the plates are different,
the cups are different, the color of the carpet is different, and the
way they treat each other is different from family to family. I don't remember
at what time we fell asleep. We just kept watching late night cartoons and
cable, something that I didn't have at home. It's actually how I discovered
Nickelodeon, now that I think about it. The next morning, we had
McDonald's for breakfast and got to play out in Stephanie's playhouse. Betty would supposedly
be coming by later, but at around noon my dad was outside ready to
pick me up, and I told him all about my night. On the
way home. He just nodded and asked me questions about what the place was
like and stuff. I couldn't stop talking about it for that next week either.
It was like Stephanie and I had something to talk about with our friends
that everyone wanted to do as well. It was another Wednesday when my mom
asked me something on the way home. She said that she had been talking
to my dad about the sleepover and that she wanted to ask me why I
hadn't told her that another friend had been there with us. She said that
I was supposed to tell her everything and that she was going to have to
call Stephanie's mom and ask her about it. But I wasn't sure why it
was a big deal, but I guess now as a mom, I kind
of get it. Anyway, she called her and asked about Betty and everything,
but I was glad that I wasn't in trouble. But while we were
talking about it recently, my mom said that it was such a bizarre story
for her, knowing that I had gone to stay at a friend's house and
played with Stephanie's imaginary friend. That's what creeped me out. Mom swears that
she had told me about Betty and that I didn't care too much about it
as a kid, although honestly I couldn't remember her telling me. It turns
out that after she called Stephanie's mom, She explained that Stephanie had an imaginary
friend named Betty that she claimed to have lived in the shed outside the shed
that was then a playhouse. Stephanie's parents had taken her to a doctor to
talk about it, and eventually they determined that she was imagining the whole thing,
basically an imaginary friend. But I had seen Betty also, and even
though it's been a long time since then, she did seem to be just
like any other little girl our age. The details I remember about her are
that she was very quiet when she spoke, just those few times she did.
Her hair was dark and oily, and she moved with an odd slow
motion even when she walked. She didn't laugh, and she had that stare
one with a smile that Stephanie and I talked about at school. At some
point, my mom relieved at the thought that it had only been us to
she let it go and forgot about it. And so while we were there
talking about these stories, I thought about sending Stephanie a message on Facebook,
just to see how she was doing, and I did. We caught up
a bit, and then I asked her about Betty, which obviously she remembers,
but she said that yeah, it was her imaginary friend, and as
she grew up, Betty sort of went away. She thought that I was
asking her about Betty, just like her parents and doctor had done so back
in the day. Throughout the whole conversation, I don't think Stephanie remembers that
I had seen her too. I figured it would be better to just leave
it that way. The next story is called apartment building, and it's coming
up right after this. Stay with me. It was at an apartment building
back when I was in Mexico. I didn't have a lot of money,
and I moved to the city to work and go to school. So I
found an apartment sort of on the edge of town along a dark street.
It was cheap, and the owner was a parent of one of my classmates,
so he gave me a discount while I was in school. The area
itself wasn't bad. I mean, it wasn't terrible. It was just dark
at night. The road to get there was still dirt. But the neighbors
were nice and they all watched out for each other. This building had two
floors above the base floor, so three in total. Each floor had its
own dedicated staircase on opposite sides of it. It's a weird thing to imagine,
but that's how it was built, and honestly, I didn't give it
much thought. It just seemed like I had a nice private entrance to my
unit the entire second floor, which I know I make it sound like it
was a huge space, but really the brick and concrete building was skinny,
built up to the edge of the lot where there was a house that they
were tearing down to build something else. It was fine for me. I
didn't have a lot of furniture or guests over, plus I was mostly there
at night because of work and school. One day I found out that the
owner of the ice cream shop where I worked was going to close it down,
and I found myself scrambling for another job. At the time, the
landlord of the building where I was living was setting up a sandwich shop right
at the base floor, and it was looking pretty nice When I found him
in there one day, I asked him if he needed someone to look after
it, because I needed a job, and he said that he did,
but that he had just hired someone else and that if he needed the extra
help once everything got set up, that he would let me know and that
for sure i'd be able to work there. Couple of weeks passed and I
was getting worried about the job situation because I needed to pay for a few
things more than just the rent. But that third week brought along some good
luck. The girl who had been hired at the shop downstairs had quit suddenly,
but the owner didn't want to tell me her reasons and kept changing the
subject. Anyway, the job would be mine if I wanted it. I
agreed and met up with him to figure everything out, and soon enough,
that same day, I was in charge of JR. HISZ Sandwiches. It
was simple and I could manage it all on my own, and it started
doing very well. People would come in and out during the morning rush,
and then again at lunchtime. I stayed working that shift for a while until
the end of the semester, when my classes would be in the morning and
afternoon instead of the evenings. That way, I would have to change my
schedule to work at night. We didn't have an evening schedule for the shop,
but I convince the owner to try it out and to find someone to
help me in the mornings, and he agreed. Another girl, Barbara,
I think her name was joined me one evening so I could teach her how
to place orders and make everything, how often to clean, and all that
stuff. I had to figure out how to close the shop down on my
own at night and deal with the danger of possibly getting robbed. I mean,
I didn't think it would happen, but again, those streets were dark,
and it wasn't too familiar with that neighborhood. But I cut on right
away. There was nothing different, just the dinner rush, and every Friday
and Saturday I would get a couple of drunk people coming in and ordering bags
of chips and sodas. I remember thinking that maybe I should set up one
of these for myself. It was a good business. Almost immediately after I
started working at night, though, I started noticing that this woman just kept
past sing by in front of the window. She would wave. Her clothes
looked old and a bit torn, so I figured she was homeless, and
once I saw her, I kept seeing her every night. At around eleven
or so, just when I was about to close, I would see her
dark hair coming across the path right in front of the property, across a
glass door. Sometimes she would look at me and wave and others, she
would just keep on walking. One night, I was clearing out the refrigerator
and had some bread and ham in a bag. It was on top of
the counter and ready to offer them to this woman. And it was until
I was unlocking the metal gate outside when I saw her coming up around from
behind the building and toward the shop. I stepped inside and grabbed the bag.
As this woman walked in front of the building and then around it,
I asked her to wait, that I had something for her and if she
wanted it, but she simply looked at me, waved, and kept walking
with the bag in my hand. Now I stepped out and saw her turn
the corner of the building, so I walked behind her, saying that I
had something for her. She just kept on walking away, very slowly,
and so I turned the corner of the building to where she had gone.
That property had a fence there, right next to the staircase that led up
to the third floor of the building. There was no other place to go.
She had been my upstairs neighbor the whole time. I thought it was
strange how I had never heard anyone upstairs and never even seen those lights on.
I simply took the bag with me to my own apartment after locking everything
up, and went to sleep. The following night, and for the next
several nights, I kept seeing her again, walking in front of the apartment
building and going into the staircase that led to the third floor. Eventually I
asked the owner about it, and he surprised me by asking if I was
going to quit two because that's why Marcella, that very first employee, had
left a job. I laughed, saying that no, that I was just
curious as to who she was and if she was okay. Without saying another
word, he signaled me to follow him around that building, and I walked
behind him all the way up the staircase that led to the third floor.
Look, he said, the door is blocked off, and literally it had
been practically cemented shut with concrete blocks. He further explained that homeless people at
one point had used the place to sleep and to stay away from the cold,
and that Horge had let them use a play since they hadn't caused much
trouble. He simply pretended like he didn't notice. But one day there was
an accident there and a homeless woman had died. Jorge had been investigated as
they tried to sort everything out, so he decided it would be best to
just close off that area at least until he got it set up to rent
it out again. But the superstitious neighbors would never let that happen, scaring
off any potential renters. I stayed there throughout the entire time I was a
student, and eventually I moved out. I still managed to see that woman
out in front of the property every once in a while, though not as
often, but it has opened my eyes to wonder how much we don't know
about the places we live in, and if death is the end for us
after all. This episode of Scary Story podcast was produced by me Edwin Kovarubias.
If you have an idea for a story, let me know over on
Instagram or via email at Edwin at scarystory dot com. Up next, check
out Dark Memory, where I talk about creepy stories of ghosts, legends,
and mysteries. You can find it by searching for dark Memory right here on
the app. Thank you very much for listening to my stories. See you soon.