WEBVTT

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Welcome to Scary Story Podcast. To
those who spend a lot of time alone

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or think they don't, this one's
for you. My name is Edwin,

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and here it's a scary story.
My voice echoed around the living room as

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I yawned, frustrated of that place. It was another day and another attempt

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at the comments on YouTube. My
mom had said that trying should always be

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celebrated, no matter how small,
and over the years I had tried doing

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everything from Facebook to Instagram, commenting
on random profiles, saying anything. The

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most I would get was that little
heart or thumbs up when someone liked my

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comments, but even that wore out
pretty quickly. They never responded to my

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direct messages, and when they did, it would not go very far.

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I always thought that if maybe I
had a different job and it's not something

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where I literally only filled up paperwork
from digital scans to online forms, maybe

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I would get some friends at work. Had I tried for the longest time,

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I tried, I swear I tell
you, trying and failing actually feels

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worse than not trying at all.
Despite what everyone else says, books and

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websites were what used to get me
through the day. I would read news

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article after news article, and books
on stories from around the world, places

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I wanted to visit and people that
I wanted to talk to what I knew

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deep down that I would never get
the chance to do that you come off

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too strong. The teachers back in
high school used to tell me when I

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would complain about not having any partners
to work on our projects with. To

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have good friends, you need to
be a good friend, They would tell

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me. Bring something to share,
learn some jokes, invite people to hang

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out or study lies. Nobody cared, although I remember Jackson, one of

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the kids at my school, became
my friend back then, but with no

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reason at all. He just stopped
talking to me one day. But I

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guess the work emails also count right. For example, I received an email

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a couple of years ago for an
event at work. Executives were going to

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be coming down to the city and
they wanted the employees to be there absolutely

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everyone. It sounded like a nightmare
to me, so I politely declined,

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but the manager quickly emailed me back
with a forgot to say, there are

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two spots at the table in case
you want to bring your wife to let

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me know. Take care goodbye.
My wife. Imagine her the most supportive

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person ever, or so I thought. Stuck with this mess of a person,

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she would do her own thing and
spend the evenings in the only room

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in the house, coming out to
ask if I was okay. She would

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see me stuck in front of the
computer in the living room for most of

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the day, and she would remind
me things were fine, that I didn't

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have to do anything I did not
want to do, and it made me

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feel better. And just like with
that event that I did not want to

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go to, I refused many other
chances. Every week that passed felt like

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waves of time flying just above the
water, and others sinking deeply into places

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where light wouldn't stand a chance.
I guess I could say hi to the

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checker woman at the marketplace, or
make friends with the guy who greets everybody

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at the store. Maybe someone from
Twitch and the many games I used to

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watch on there, you know,
to practice conversations. But yes, everything

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was going to be fine. But
then doubt, and in the words of

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my wife, that I was fine
the way that I was, and I

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just retreated deeper and back into that
dark part of the sea that hadn't drowned

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me. Yet one afternoon, I
had just finished two half frozen burritos,

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leaning over the sink and straight out
of the microwave, when I was thinking

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about how much courage I needed to
get out of here. Maybe in a

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new town I would do better.
That's when the doorbell rang. At first,

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I just ignored it and kept thinking
that a greyhound bus ticket was just

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fourteen dollars and that it would get
me very far to the south, maybe

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to the ocean or some mountain somewhere. Nature had been a healer for thousands

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of years, and I had learned
so much about the people of The doorbell

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rang again. I looked out the
window from the kitchen and saw a young

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man at the door with a plastic
container next to him on the ground,

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And in a moment of courage,
I walked to it and I opened the

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door and I said hello. The
young man started talking, smiling and saying

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how he had the best deal for
me that day. Packs of socks,

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a remote control that would work on
everything, boxes of chocolates, and cleaning

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products. He just talked and talked, and I didn't know ho to react,

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so I just smiled until eventually he
paused and asked if I was all

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right. Did he care? No, he was just being polite. But

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then the urge to make up something
a lie like always that yes, that

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I was only thinking of something that
made me laugh, or that my wife

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had told me a joke about socks, and that he just reminded me of

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that, maybe a story that I
would tell myself and believe, like how

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I used to be in the navy, or that I knew how to survive

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out in the woods, that my
uncle had been friends with Bill Gates back

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in college, or that I could
read minds. But something about this guy

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seemed honest, so I thought of
meeting him halfway. I don't know,

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man, I think there's something wrong
with me, I said, in defeat.

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I even surprised myself, and it
just stood there, looking down at

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the plastic container for a bit,
hesitating about packing up his things and walking

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away from my messy porch. But
then he suddenly looked behind me, and

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with a surprised or terrified look in
his eyes, his mouth dropped open.

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I thought he had probably seen the
mess inside as well. I looked down

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and was ready to close the door
when he stopped reached for his wallet and

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took out a business card, his
shaky hands stretching out toward me, his

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eyes still looking behind me. Listen. I know it's none of my business,

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but this guy helped me out a
couple of years ago. He's sort

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of a psychologist, and hey,
it's someone to talk to. He then

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quickly picked up his things and left. But you know, if only I

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could find him again somewhere, I
would like to thank him for what he

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did for me that day changed my
life. I spent the rest of the

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evening in silence in that living room. My wife hadn't left the room yet,

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stared at that card with a name
and phone number until I had to

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get up to turn on the light
and finally get into bed. You know,

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I told my wife I got this
contact today, someone who could help.

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She stared at me with curiosity at
first, and then with anger.

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Help with what. I did my
best to tell her about it, but

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she only got angrier the more I
explained. She threatened to leave if I

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were to call, before changing her
tone again, saying that she only wanted

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what was best for me and did
not want me to feel bad again.

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I understood where she was coming from, but it had been far too long

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of being stuck at home alone,
the way my mind would freeze up sometimes,

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and the ways I had been made
fun of for so long. I

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stayed quiet until she fell asleep,
and eventually, after a very long time,

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I'll sleep too. The next day
was just like the others, a

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bowl of cereal, then to the
computer and logging into work. But something

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was different. The idea that things
could get better for me was there,

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like little droplets. The ideas came
to me out with friends, talking on

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the phone, meeting up to catch
a game, and again, in a

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moment of courage, I looked around
the room and then grabbed my phone to

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call the number on the business card. The man on the other end of

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the line was friendly. He asked
me direct questions about what I did and

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what I needed help with, and
eventually agreed to come visit the next day.

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That had happened so fast that I
didn't even ask about how much the

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sessions were going to cost. But
still it was a step forward, and

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I knew right then that I would
have to keep it a secret. The

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next morning, at noon, my
lunch hour, the doorbell rang and there

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stood a man somewhere in his forties
and with dark hair. He shook my

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hand and I let him in.
Doctor Jilton was his name. He smiled

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politely stepped inside. As I pointed
toward the only two chairs in the living

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room. He looked at the one
with an indented cushion, and then at

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the other one. Your choice,
I said, before realizing how dumb I

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sounded. Your choice who says that
he picked a chair that wasn't mine.

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He took out a notebook from his
bag and looked right at me, smiling,

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and then with a click of his
pen, we started talking. He

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asked me questions I had never been
asked before about my childhood, parents,

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friends, goals, and what I
saw myself doing in a week, a

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month, a year, and a
decade from now. Tough questions to have

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all at once, although I got
through them okay. What not thing was

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that he kept reminding me that his
method were not traditional, but insisted that

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they were indeed very effective. I
told him, for the sake of honesty,

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that my wife was supportive of many
things, except for his visits.

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She worried for my safety, and
he nodded and then changed the subject of

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conversation, asking me instead questions about
made up scenarios and ideas. During our

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conversation, he stood up a few
times and looked around the room, asking

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me about things I had around the
house, and he took a look at

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my closet. He looked at the
backyard, saw many things around there,

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and then he would sit back down
and continued non stop and as calmly as

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you can imagine, until he finally
slowed down and finally silence. He got

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up off his chair and walked over
the door, giving me a slip of

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paper his rake card, he called
it, and with that he left.

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Part two of sessions is coming up
right after this stay with me. My

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wife did not take it well.
She knew immediately that the visit had been

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from the psychologist from the business card. She stood at the base of the

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bed that night and shouted at me, saying that if I went through with

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that, I would never hear from
her again. She started crying and then

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sat in the chair in the corner
of the room. When I tried to

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approach her, she scurried over to
the other side of the room. I

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wanted to understand her, I really
did, but instead I stayed quiet.

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I just grabbed the extra blanket and
pillow and walked to the living room.

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I spent the night there. For
the next several weekly sessions, I had

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some exercises to do, to step
out of the house and say hi to

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a neighbor passing by, to buy
a box of chocolates and give them away

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in front of the grocery store.
Some things came easy, like recording a

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YouTube video of myself explaining something I
enjoyed doing or talking about my day.

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Others like calling a customer service number
I called the one in the back of

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the Nestley Quick yellowbox and complimenting their
product were things that were much harder.

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But things were getting easier for me. And while that was going great,

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my wife was losing it. She
would yell and shout absurdities, until one

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night it all came to a close. I was on my bed looking toward

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the blue light of the night sky
coming through the window when she stormed in

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and said that I was never going
to see her again. I asked why,

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ask what was wrong with me getting
help? I begged her to reconsider

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staying and that we would come up
with an agreement if we could only talk

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about it. She refused. She
went back to the living room, leaving

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me with my head spinning in the
dark. The next morning, I explained

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to doctor Jillton what had happened,
and this came near the end of the

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session. That's when he put his
pen down and then looked me right in

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the eyes. It is near the
end of our eighth session together, he

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said. An awkward silence followed.
He then said, upon investigating everything,

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even things about the hows from as
many questions, he determined that there was

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no logical reason for my condition.
He could not diagnose me with anything just

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yet, but that it was an
appropriate time to discuss my wife. What

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is her name? He asked,
after a long pause. What is her

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name? Why did he her name
is? Well, of course it's He

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looked at me in silence. I
wasn't sure of her name. Maybe I

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had been calling her by her pet
name all this time, but even that

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felt off. Doctor Jilton stood up
and walked over to the door, extending

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his right hand. I shook it
and remained there, frozen as he turned

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around, opened the door and stepped
out into the porch, shutting it behind

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him. Years of pressure had accumulated
up to that moment when I stomped back

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into the bedroom, my wife now
standing by the window, anger still in

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her eyes. I told you not
to talk to him, she said,

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gaging my reaction. A rush of
thoughts and not remembering the moment that this

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woman came into my life burned me
up inside. I used to be able

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to walk around the block, try
at least to speak with others. Things

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at work could have gone great.
She stopped me. Deep down, I

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think she hated me. She was
a sum of rejections across my years in

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college, and the tightening of my
throat whenever I needed to talk to others.

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She was a crippling fear of seeing
myself as a monster in front of

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other people, and the never ending
self conscious feelings and insecurities. There.

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She was a monster herself, nothing
but a voice without a face, constantly

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telling me to remain sad and pathetic. I could not remember your name,

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I managed to say. Doctor Jilton
called me the following day and then showed

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up at my door in the evening. I hadn't cleaned up or eaten anything.

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In the living room was a mess. He walked in with his usual

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silence, shutting the door behind him
and waiting for me to say something first,

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but upon seeing my confusion, he
spoke up. What can you tell

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me about your wife? He asked, you already know, I answered,

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He nodded. We talked about the
following sessions and how they would take place,

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suggesting his office a place I started
frequenting for months until we started making

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significant progress. Even though I could
see the cost of the help from doctor

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Jilton written out in front of me
with every check that I gave to him,

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it never felt like enough. He
also changed my life. I got

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to go to meetings, puzzles and
board games, believe it or not,

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had clubs in my town where I
made a few friends. I got a

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raise and training for a new position
in the company. At work. Everything

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was looking up. I never thought
I would need his services again. One

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day, I desperately started searching my
drawers for that business card. I moved

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the whole house around. I had
reorganized much of it years ago after the

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sessions with doctor Jilton. Eventually I
found it tucked away under a stack of

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books. I just needed to place
that call. It had been so long

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since I last saw him, and
I went through the journals he made me

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work on to remember everything. We
had talked about my wife. This thing

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had not been real. Doctor Jilton
even considered testing for schizophrenia, dementia,

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hallucinations, theories that became even more
confusing the more he asked me the questions

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and showed him that it was something
else. He would often admit how there

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was a lack of logic in his
methods, the exercises he would make me

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do, speaking to nothing, requesting
them to leave, prayers or like he

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called them, mantras, repeated at
different hours of the day and night.

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Had a whole list of them to
do, and I don't remember when I

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stopped. It had not been the
first case of its kind for him,

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He would often repeat, There had
been no trace of this thing, this

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woman, my wife, ever living
with me, never meeting me. There

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was no story, no beginning,
no end, no name, no face.

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But if she wasn't real, then
who was standing by my phone?

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This episode of Scary Story podcast was
written and produced by me Edwin cohor Rubiez.

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You can find me over on Instagram
and TikTok at edwind Cove. That's

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00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:44.000
E d W I N c O
V. Anyway, thank you very much

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for listening to my stories. See
you soon