WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:04.679 Hey there, it's Edwin. Scary Story Podcast will be getting to you earlier 2 00:00:04.679 --> 00:00:08.839 in the week, starting next Tuesday. That'll be instead of Fridays from now 3 00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:13.720 on, and that's thanks to your feedback. For now on with the story. 4 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:19.839 Welcome to Scary Story Podcast. Here I'll tell you the story of a 5 00:00:19.879 --> 00:00:25.839 man who spent his best years at work in some of his experiences. My 6 00:00:25.960 --> 00:00:35.000 name is Edwin, and here it's a scary story. I was leaning on 7 00:00:35.039 --> 00:00:38.240 my knuckles that were resting on top of the mob at the end of the 8 00:00:38.280 --> 00:00:42.320 hallway. It had been a long night and it was time for me to 9 00:00:42.359 --> 00:00:47.320 go. It's strange being in a place that has seen me through pretty much 10 00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:53.679 everything, every phase of my life, you know, walking through the reception 11 00:00:53.880 --> 00:00:57.759 desk on my way to the custodian closet and passing by the mirror they have 12 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:00.679 in the front, the one by the fake dusty flowers, I would look 13 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:06.159 at myself and see that same kid, the one who wanted a few extra 14 00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:11.519 bucks to take his girlfriend out to dinner Friday nights. It was right after 15 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:15.920 my senior year. Nancy was going to be a senior now, and back 16 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:19.239 then we used to get married real young. It wasn't far off in my 17 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:23.599 mind that one day i'd want to marry her. But I wasn't great at 18 00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:29.599 school, and life had not been fair with my parents either. They struggled 19 00:01:29.640 --> 00:01:33.760 all of their lives, and I remember telling myself that I wouldn't end up 20 00:01:33.799 --> 00:01:38.000 like them. I would be happy with just a stable job and a house 21 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:44.239 with the backyard, one with real walls, one that couldn't be towed off 22 00:01:44.239 --> 00:01:49.599 the lot. One of the highways had just opened up, and the city 23 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:53.200 was hard at work with the new side streets and such. Word going around 24 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:59.280 the town at the time spoke about the new housing developments, fancy new stuff 25 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:04.640 from New York in California. But like with all small towns, everyone had 26 00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:08.879 something to say. But I saw those places as my opportunity to finally get 27 00:02:08.919 --> 00:02:15.520 something nice, and so on my friend Ben's old truck, he would drive 28 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:21.159 around at night and entering those large empty lots, screaming this one, this 29 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:27.560 one's mine. I miss that guy. And it was about six months later 30 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:30.439 when they started building the houses there, and along with that road came new 31 00:02:30.439 --> 00:02:35.919 ones just like they said. The one you could see off the reflection of 32 00:02:35.960 --> 00:02:40.159 the mirror at the front desk was Henderson Road, with new motels and fast 33 00:02:40.199 --> 00:02:46.120 food restaurants came along other jobs, and suddenly this place went from dirt roads 34 00:02:46.120 --> 00:02:52.840 and trailer parks to asphalts and lots of cars and less trees. I don't 35 00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:55.080 know where I lost my town along the way, but it did give me 36 00:02:55.120 --> 00:03:01.639 several chances to do something. I borrowed an old suit for my dad, 37 00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:06.560 one that he would use for church and for flying sometimes. When I went 38 00:03:06.599 --> 00:03:10.719 to interview at Sammy's motel, they were hiring for all positions, and I 39 00:03:10.759 --> 00:03:15.960 remember all I wanted to be was at the front desk in a suit and 40 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:19.919 just greet people like they did in the movies. But they said that for 41 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:23.240 two dollars an hour more, I could start working in maintenance, and that 42 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:27.199 if I did good work, I would get a review at the end of 43 00:03:27.240 --> 00:03:30.560 the year and then be moved to be in charge of maintenance. As a 44 00:03:30.599 --> 00:03:35.560 whole, I trusted the owners. They were friends of the family, and 45 00:03:35.800 --> 00:03:40.199 through all those years they always did what they promised. I really wish everything 46 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:46.560 would have stayed the same. You know, they say that teachers remember all 47 00:03:46.599 --> 00:03:50.199 of their students as they go through their careers, but they never say that 48 00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:53.840 about any other people. I mean, I could tell you that I remember 49 00:03:53.919 --> 00:03:58.840 every single one of my guests. I mean, maybe not by name, 50 00:03:59.319 --> 00:04:02.520 but all of them were friendly and kind to me, even the ones that 51 00:04:02.599 --> 00:04:06.879 came only to take care of business during their lunchtime or for brief moments after 52 00:04:06.919 --> 00:04:14.000 a night out. The things had been changing for a while. Mister Jones 53 00:04:14.039 --> 00:04:17.319 eventually left the business to his son Robert. He got a lot of his 54 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:21.040 buddies to come and help with the business, adding new things that people do 55 00:04:21.160 --> 00:04:27.560 today, like internet things, which worked for a bit, although everyone seemed 56 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:31.279 to just get more stressed out. They wanted me to use a computer. 57 00:04:31.879 --> 00:04:36.920 Can you imagine that to do cleaning and maintenance work just didn't make sense. 58 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:43.600 I couldn't complain, though I didn't want to. It was their thing, 59 00:04:43.639 --> 00:04:49.240 and if I've learned anything throughout the years, it's to mind your own business. 60 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:56.040 They soon started blaming me for a lot of the things they messed up 61 00:04:56.040 --> 00:05:00.199 on, like, for example, they started doing a twin four hour check 62 00:05:00.279 --> 00:05:04.879 in thing where people would come in by themselves, and that opened a whole 63 00:05:04.959 --> 00:05:10.959 lot of trouble. Drugs and other things were around the hallway in the morning, 64 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:14.879 and I don't even want to get into what happened in those rooms. 65 00:05:15.399 --> 00:05:19.079 They were terrible, even the non smoking ones. But aside from the dirty 66 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:24.439 carpets and toilets, there were other things that started happening at Sammy's Motel. 67 00:05:25.720 --> 00:05:30.000 The first one of many was with this woman named Teresa from the state of 68 00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:36.920 Arizona. From what I heard, she didn't drive herself to Sammy's Motel, 69 00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:42.480 and I don't even think she stepped into the place over at Room one, 70 00:05:42.439 --> 00:05:46.639 P fourteen on her own. It was about two years after mister Jones had 71 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:49.839 left Robert in charge, and the place, who was more or less still 72 00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:55.279 all right. The manager, a woman hired from out of town, was 73 00:05:55.279 --> 00:05:59.319 on the verge of quitting after all the demands Robert would put on everybody, 74 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:03.920 And that night, when she was instructed once again to leave the place up 75 00:06:03.959 --> 00:06:08.920 to the cameras and the security buttons to do their thing, she got in 76 00:06:08.959 --> 00:06:13.600 her car and went home after that long twelve hour shift. I mean I 77 00:06:13.600 --> 00:06:18.040 would have done the same, That's what was supposed to happen. But that 78 00:06:18.160 --> 00:06:23.279 next morning, Robert and some of his friends who didn't actually work there, 79 00:06:23.720 --> 00:06:27.959 had been coming in and out of the building telling me and the cleaning staff 80 00:06:27.959 --> 00:06:32.240 about an incident that required us to be extra careful with everything. They shut 81 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:36.480 the place down, with the exception of seven or so guests that had not 82 00:06:36.639 --> 00:06:42.399 checked out that day. When they called that ambulance, that's what I call 83 00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:46.240 it, even though those who were in charge of it were definitely not there 84 00:06:46.279 --> 00:06:50.319 to keep someone alive. The police arrived, a couple of men in suits 85 00:06:50.319 --> 00:06:55.680 and cameras, and they asked each of us a few questions, and that 86 00:06:55.800 --> 00:07:00.839 was that. Margaret, one of the cleaning ladies, had the toughest time 87 00:07:00.920 --> 00:07:03.839 getting all of the information out. She had been the one who made the 88 00:07:03.879 --> 00:07:11.319 discovery that morning when she stabbed into Room one fourteen. She found the woman's 89 00:07:11.360 --> 00:07:17.319 lifeless body in the bathtub. No note, no weapons, just a cold 90 00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:23.480 person and a dry tub. I don't think I was able to process that 91 00:07:23.560 --> 00:07:28.439 back then. I was still very young and had my mind in other places. 92 00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:31.120 I had just gotten married and usually couldn't wait to get out of there 93 00:07:31.160 --> 00:07:36.199 to go back home to see Nancy after those long shifts. But I think 94 00:07:36.279 --> 00:07:43.040 it did hit the other employees pretty hard. All we knew of this woman 95 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:46.759 was based on the check in information. We all started calling her Teresa from 96 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:53.199 Arizona. The police did their own investigation, but for all of our town's 97 00:07:53.319 --> 00:07:59.959 talk, Teresa from Arizona was enough. I remember going into Room one fourteen 98 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:05.800 to paint the walls. They looked perfectly fine to me, but Robert wanted 99 00:08:05.839 --> 00:08:09.639 them painted over to cover up the layers of bad stuff, as he put 100 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:13.720 it, So that night I went over and painted it. I wiped down 101 00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:20.040 the tub and changed the light bulbs. I thought he would change things up 102 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:24.600 and stop leaving that door open to let people check themselves in with whatever computer 103 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:28.959 thing they were doing, but that didn't happen. It didn't take long for 104 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:35.759 us to have a second incident, a bloodied room, this time number one 105 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:41.360 thirty one. By that time, Margaret had quit and we had new people 106 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:46.519 in who were even more traumatized by the scene, and with good reason. 107 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:52.159 They had never been through that before. I didn't get to see it right 108 00:08:52.200 --> 00:08:56.720 away, but I was the one in charge of painting those walls after the 109 00:08:56.759 --> 00:09:03.159 poor job the cleanup crew would do. I remember going home and telling Nancy 110 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:07.320 that everything wouldn't find at work except for one thing. She would normally find 111 00:09:07.399 --> 00:09:11.360 out what it was when it popped up on the news by the time she 112 00:09:11.399 --> 00:09:16.360 found out about that one, I had already painted all the walls in that 113 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:22.720 room. It was always the same thing, same patterns, discovery, police 114 00:09:22.799 --> 00:09:28.279 questioning, then the newspaper and radio, and finally we would all forget about 115 00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:33.360 it. I'm happy for them for being able to do that, because I 116 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:39.799 never could. Those walls had streaks of brown liquid that had once been dark 117 00:09:39.879 --> 00:09:43.200 red. They'd stand out from the rest of the walls, and if they 118 00:09:43.240 --> 00:09:48.159 wiped them for too long or were too rough with the paint, it would 119 00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:54.080 begin to peel, showing the layer underneath. I offered a help. I 120 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:56.200 told him that I knew a guy who could stand the paint off for us, 121 00:09:56.399 --> 00:10:01.879 or use paint remover to start over. The owners had given up. 122 00:10:03.879 --> 00:10:09.000 First there was the walls, and then the ice machine. The carpets, 123 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:13.480 then the beds. Curtains would get tiny holes that would cast little dots of 124 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:20.320 lights in the rooms at night. This somehow attracted a certain type of person 125 00:10:20.399 --> 00:10:26.320 to the Sammy's Motel. Remember this was just a start. All of the 126 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:31.799 employees were eventually replaced after the countless events at the motel, not just deaths, 127 00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:39.559 but other strange things. I remember every single one of those co workers, 128 00:10:39.600 --> 00:10:43.679 just like I remembered all of those who fell victim to the evil of 129 00:10:43.720 --> 00:10:48.399 the night. I would get asked often about the strange sounds and whispers that 130 00:10:48.440 --> 00:10:52.000 they'd hear at all hours of the day, and I would tell them, 131 00:10:52.879 --> 00:10:58.279 if you really want to know, I'll tell you think about it first, 132 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:11.759 and every single one of them eventually decided to find out Part two of Layers 133 00:11:11.879 --> 00:11:20.279 is coming up right after this stay with me. A common complaint from the 134 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:26.240 employees, not the guests, was that the doors would get stuck. I 135 00:11:26.279 --> 00:11:31.000 mean, the guests knew what they were getting into after stepping into the reception 136 00:11:31.120 --> 00:11:37.000 desk area, but the employees, God bless them, still expected something better 137 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:41.000 out of management. I would normally go in and sand off part of the 138 00:11:41.039 --> 00:11:46.519 door, the painted surface on the frame. It had been painted over so 139 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:50.559 many times that it had grown thick enough to make the door barely fit on 140 00:11:50.559 --> 00:11:54.559 the frame itself and get stuck. I would tell them about it, and 141 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:58.720 they'd asked me why it had been painted over so many times. I would 142 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:01.960 just say that the owner wanted it that way, so I would do it. 143 00:12:03.559 --> 00:12:09.159 I would tell them that eventually they would find out for themselves, but 144 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:13.799 the workers, especially the young ones, would be so interested in the dark 145 00:12:13.879 --> 00:12:18.399 part of all of this, you know, about the ghosts and all that 146 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:24.519 stuff. I would tell them leave them alone, they're not bothering anybody. 147 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:30.679 They sure would push it. One time they showed up at night asking me 148 00:12:30.799 --> 00:12:35.519 to let them in to record ghosts or whatever. I've been working at night 149 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:39.000 doing some of the plumbing repairs covering for someone else. When they did that, 150 00:12:39.879 --> 00:12:41.360 they came to me all freaked out, saying that they had heard a 151 00:12:41.399 --> 00:12:46.360 woman whispering in one of their ears. That would happen to me as well, 152 00:12:48.159 --> 00:12:52.200 but it wasn't scary anymore. I knew about the calls to the front 153 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:56.799 desk from Room one fourteen, even though it was empty. That wasn't the 154 00:12:56.799 --> 00:13:01.519 only one. It would ring in the middle of the night, sometimes when 155 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:05.080 there was no attendant there, and I would have to walk all the way 156 00:13:05.080 --> 00:13:09.679 there only to see the room marked as available on the phone thing. I 157 00:13:09.759 --> 00:13:15.360 answered a couple of times and just heard the sound of air. Obviously those 158 00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:20.799 rooms were empty. I think you can be afraid of things when you don't 159 00:13:20.840 --> 00:13:26.360 know what they are. And I know about the rooms, I know who's 160 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:31.320 in there, and I was there when they found Elizabeth, her body stuffed 161 00:13:31.320 --> 00:13:35.879 in the wooden box under the mattress. It was a complaint from a traveler 162 00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:39.799 going across the United States who checked out, saying that the smell of the 163 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:45.759 room was terrible, even though he was very nice about it. When one 164 00:13:45.799 --> 00:13:50.799 of the maids moved the bed to clean underneath it, liquid was oozing onto 165 00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:54.279 the carpet and spreading a terrible smell all around the room in the hallway. 166 00:13:56.679 --> 00:14:00.799 When she knelt down to check it out, she got to see a greenish 167 00:14:00.840 --> 00:14:05.120 purple arm about to fall to the floor right through the wood boards from under 168 00:14:05.159 --> 00:14:09.559 the box spring. It used to be so easy back in the day. 169 00:14:09.720 --> 00:14:15.679 You see, even with the technology that they had back then in the nineties, 170 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:18.159 people wouldn't be so quick to pay with a credit card like they do 171 00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:24.039 now. I hear that they can trace your money down to the scent and 172 00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:30.840 figure out exactly where you had been, but not back then, the attendant 173 00:14:30.879 --> 00:14:33.879 would be happy to take your cash and your excuse for not having your ID 174 00:14:35.080 --> 00:14:39.600 card with you. It was better than having to get your card information and 175 00:14:39.799 --> 00:14:45.240 process everything by that evening hoping that it would go through. Then checks, 176 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:50.200 well, those were equally as bad to accept. I was glad to have 177 00:14:50.279 --> 00:14:54.360 taken a job in maintenance instead of the front desk. I don't know how 178 00:14:54.399 --> 00:15:01.039 I would have dealt with stuff like that, But in the end, it 179 00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:05.639 was the Biltinton family the one that caused the owners to finally give up on 180 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:09.919 the place for good. I got to meet them when I replaced their key 181 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:15.000 after the father had lost it. Without going into the details of the incident, 182 00:15:15.639 --> 00:15:18.960 they were all found dead on a Saturday morning. They were forced to 183 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:26.240 replace the carpet and furniture, and again I was there to repaint the walls. 184 00:15:26.440 --> 00:15:31.639 It didn't happen all at once. I had been there for over forty 185 00:15:31.720 --> 00:15:35.840 years already when they finally decided to sell it, and even though I don't 186 00:15:35.879 --> 00:15:43.200 know about other roadside motels, eight deaths over the span of forty years doesn't 187 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:48.039 seem as excessive as I make it sound. In the end, I was 188 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:54.039 the only one left, quite literally, in the entire building. The new 189 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:58.039 owners had removed the Sammy's Motel sign from up front, one that hadn't been 190 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:02.799 changed for as long as I had been there, and along with that they 191 00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:07.039 had the carpets torn off. All of the furniture thrown out of the back 192 00:16:07.080 --> 00:16:11.639 lot with the lamps and everything. They were going to do a complete overhaul 193 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:18.759 with the sinks, showers, and windows. I knew about every single nook 194 00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:22.600 and cranny of that place, so they asked me to stay with them while 195 00:16:22.639 --> 00:16:30.120 they sorted everything out. The tasks were only about replacing the parts of the 196 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:33.080 pipes and wiring and move them over to the place where they would reach their 197 00:16:33.080 --> 00:16:38.960 new installations. It was pretty easy near the end, although a little lonely. 198 00:16:41.320 --> 00:16:44.879 Some of my last days there were spent only with the light of my 199 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:48.399 lamp as I got rid of popcorn ceilings and scrape the paint off those doors. 200 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:55.519 I would walk up and down those halls, pass room one fourteen and 201 00:16:55.559 --> 00:17:03.240 one thirty one, sometimes into one twenty eight and the saddest one, and 202 00:17:03.279 --> 00:17:07.599 I would think so much about those people who came and went over the years, 203 00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:11.920 how they, I guess, in part, helped me pay for that 204 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:17.680 spot where I live, for that paycheck that would be vanishing, but had 205 00:17:17.799 --> 00:17:21.559 left me with savings for myself and my family for the next stage of my 206 00:17:21.640 --> 00:17:26.599 life. And it would be those whispers at night while I would be in 207 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:33.279 the rooms that reminded me of those who stayed and probably didn't know it, 208 00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:40.480 the ones that would gently remind me of where we're going. I spent a 209 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:45.000 little over a week scraping at those walls. I saved the sad rooms for 210 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:49.640 last, revealing the lives once lived, be it through their blood or hair 211 00:17:49.759 --> 00:17:56.200 trapped there, or even just their breaths. And I thought that perhaps even 212 00:17:56.279 --> 00:18:00.960 parts of me were between those layers of paint. I was the one who 213 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:07.640 had painted every single inch of those walls. What had been grown over the 214 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:15.440 span of forty years was now being scraped away by its painter. I left 215 00:18:15.480 --> 00:18:18.200 the keys for the new owners in the lock box outside, and I then 216 00:18:18.279 --> 00:18:22.279 stood by the entrance door for a moment, looking at the dark, empty 217 00:18:22.279 --> 00:18:27.000 front desk area. My eyes tried to make out the shapes I would see 218 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:32.519 in the dark hallways for a bit. It was before I turned away and 219 00:18:32.680 --> 00:18:40.599 started heading toward my car. The fading sounds of the telephone was how it 220 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:57.640 said goodbye to me. Do you want to know what I'm working on? 221 00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:02.359 You can follow me on on social media. I'll leave links to everything and 222 00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:07.599 the description of this episode up next, check out Dark Memory, where I 223 00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:11.920 talk about real haunted places and mysteries. You can search for it by typing 224 00:19:11.160 --> 00:19:15.640 Dark Memory on your podcast app. Don't forget a tap follow so you get 225 00:19:15.640 --> 00:19:22.359 the next episode. Thank you very much for listening to my story. See 226 00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:22.759 you soon.