Speaker 1: I did my best to backtrack exactly where I had
Speaker 1: been when it happened. I didn't even think of renewing
Speaker 1: my driver's license, canceling credit cards, spending another dollar for
Speaker 1: the public transport card, or about the three ten dollars
Speaker 1: bills I had in there for about a year. This
Speaker 1: was more important, way past the unfairness of it all,
Speaker 1: to take a wallet that doesn't belong to you, for
Speaker 1: what was it the cash that was going to get
Speaker 1: you the things that would kill you just a little
Speaker 1: bit faster. Don't we all wish for that bravery, from
Speaker 1: the willing and the will to face the reaper. My
Speaker 1: name is Edwin, and here's a scary story. I got
Speaker 1: in the car and faced the garage door as I
Speaker 1: did my best to think back on my day. Three
Speaker 1: men and one child on that train that left me
Speaker 1: with only two suspects and a father. I've heard that
Speaker 1: being a dad does things to you, but I wouldn't know.
Speaker 1: And a child, well, the child can't spend on anything
Speaker 1: without being asked where the money came from. The color
Speaker 1: switched easily between black and green in my mind. Book
Speaker 1: color was his shirt either way. I remember he looked
Speaker 1: at me not a single familiar face on that train.
Speaker 1: I'd tell you the other one was too busy playing
Speaker 1: on his phone. It wasn't supposed to be dumb around
Speaker 1: these areas to show your thousand dollars phone out in public.
Speaker 1: The father and his son were a few seats away,
Speaker 1: facing away from me, and I knew it. I knew
Speaker 1: something was going to happen as soon as I stepped
Speaker 1: into that train car. I never missed that second one,
Speaker 1: but this time I did. I was rushing down the
Speaker 1: steps because of that woman who couldn't figure out how
Speaker 1: to use a card reader. They were new back then.
Speaker 1: These things cost a dollar plus another five to put
Speaker 1: your fare in it. Tracking us, seeing where we enter
Speaker 1: and where we leave. Not hard to figure out where
Speaker 1: we live and where we work because of it. And
Speaker 1: so I watched as everyone rushed past us on my
Speaker 1: right to make that train, and desperation, I murmured something
Speaker 1: to myself angrily enough for her to turn around. Bright red.
Speaker 1: She was beautiful, older than me, long black hair, and
Speaker 1: a light purple jacket over a white shirt. I pushed
Speaker 1: my wallet past her, brushing her arm with mine as
Speaker 1: a beep and the green light triggered the tiny gate
Speaker 1: to open. She rushed forward and waited for me, acting
Speaker 1: as if we knew each other. I ran straight ahead
Speaker 1: and down the steps, ignoring her loud thank yous as
Speaker 1: I barely made the third car on the train. It
Speaker 1: was a nice voice she had, likely a singer, shouting
Speaker 1: as the door was closing. I looked at her and
Speaker 1: almost waved as the train sped away. Had I not
Speaker 1: been in the wrong train, I wouldn't have arrived by
Speaker 1: the away. From the stairs, up the platform and onto
Speaker 1: the street, I had to go past the vendors and
Speaker 1: the lazy taxi driver smoking when the security guards finished
Speaker 1: their rounds. Looking back at it now, I remember the
Speaker 1: woman expecting me to buy coffee at six pm. Who
Speaker 1: even does that? She got up and went to the
Speaker 1: cash register, and I just walked past her two I
Speaker 1: found it odd, But when I turned around there was
Speaker 1: a man from the train right there again ordering something,
Speaker 1: searching his jacket for his wallet. It was then when
Speaker 1: I was walking out of the station when I realized
Speaker 1: I didn't have it. There was no way to tap
Speaker 1: my card on the exit thing, and now I stood
Speaker 1: there as another random person behind me murmured something to
Speaker 1: themselves loud enough for me to hear. I turned around
Speaker 1: and stepped back, frantically searching for my wallet. That's when
Speaker 1: I felt the coldness flowing over my own arms and
Speaker 1: then my legs. It was gone. Now. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to do it, but I called up my friend Matt
Speaker 1: to ask him if I could come over. His girlfriend
Speaker 1: was going to be there. I was sure of it,
Speaker 1: so I grabbed my things at eleven pm that same
Speaker 1: night and went over there. They were acting as if
Speaker 1: it was just a regular afternoon. His girlfriend, Jade was
Speaker 1: making waffles and the toaster and heating something else up
Speaker 1: in the microwave. I stepped over the clothes they had
Speaker 1: on the floor and sat down. I started asking questions.
Speaker 1: They were the only ones that stayed awake with me
Speaker 1: when I couldn't sleep all those nights. They let me
Speaker 1: crash on that same couch until I got better. My
Speaker 1: therapist told me it was something we had to search through,
Speaker 1: which didn't help, but they did. He would talk about
Speaker 1: my past relationship and the streak of bad luck. When
Speaker 1: I was sure I was having no job, no home,
Speaker 1: no life. But there was something Jade told me that
Speaker 1: would actually help. Anything you want she said, literally, that's
Speaker 1: how we found each other, right, Mattie. She looked over
Speaker 1: at Matt and pinched his cheeks, going in for another
Speaker 1: one of those long and inappropriate kisses in front of
Speaker 1: another person. That's actually how I got to know her
Speaker 1: through these wishes, as she called them. At the time,
Speaker 1: I didn't know if they were working, but they approved
Speaker 1: themselves in time. First I got two job offers, the
Speaker 1: second one for a lot more money than the first.
Speaker 1: I got approved on the first apartment application I submitted.
Speaker 1: They were doing well too. Business cards. They called them,
Speaker 1: these oval shaped pieces of what I thought was paper
Speaker 1: at the time, but later found out that it was
Speaker 1: made of human skin. Inscribed were odd markings and soft
Speaker 1: burn marks, all neatly around it, in such a way
Speaker 1: that it looked to be all of one color you
Speaker 1: got close enough to see them. The ink was permanent.
Speaker 1: It spread over the years I had it, but I
Speaker 1: tried not to look at it. Carry it with you
Speaker 1: were the instructions for the thing. Almost three hundred dollars
Speaker 1: for it back then. It must only stay with you.
Speaker 1: Matt and Jade also had their own maid. They kept
Speaker 1: it with them, but I sat there all those memories
Speaker 1: circling me, mixing up with the new ones, trying to
Speaker 1: decipher the shirt color of the man on the train
Speaker 1: that when I was sure had taken my wallet and
Speaker 1: then used it to buy a coffee. So late in
Speaker 1: the day, Jade had brought over a plate of chicken nuggets,
Speaker 1: the bottle of maple syrup, and her waffles to the
Speaker 1: living room table. Spill. She yelled, Suddenly my wallet was stolen,
Speaker 1: I said, looking at her dead in the eye. Her
Speaker 1: shoulders relaxed, and then she looked at Matt. Oh, she said,
Speaker 1: that sucks. Then she grabbed the nugget and stuffed it
Speaker 1: in her mouth while trying to cool it down. At
Speaker 1: the same time, Matt turned to me, trying to be
Speaker 1: supportive as always. Did you cancer your cards or whatever? Man?
Speaker 1: Do you need cash? I looked at them. At one
Speaker 1: point I had trusted these two with my life, and
Speaker 1: now I was out there looking at them for what
Speaker 1: they really were. The business card was in there, I whispered.
Speaker 1: Jade stopped chewing and her eyes opened wide. Matt got
Speaker 1: on the floor and crawled up next to me. Do
Speaker 1: you know who took it? Jade interrupted? You sure you
Speaker 1: didn't just lose it. Check your pockets, man, check them.
Speaker 1: I tried to answer both of them, but they kept
Speaker 1: interrupting with more and more questions about where was I
Speaker 1: sure that the business card was in there? And it
Speaker 1: took only a few seconds of silence for my part
Speaker 1: before Matt realized what this meant. Jade took off to
Speaker 1: the the room. There was a reason that this thing
Speaker 1: was supposed to stay with me at all times unless
Speaker 1: disposed of properly according to the instructions. Jade was already
Speaker 1: on the job. I could hear things being moved around
Speaker 1: from down the hallway, for she came out not two
Speaker 1: minutes after that. Her hand was shaking as she read
Speaker 1: the instructions. I remember that yellow piece of paper from back.
Speaker 1: Then keep the Prisserius with you at all times. It
Speaker 1: would serve as life, as shield as sword. The sacrifice
Speaker 1: was from the lineage of the First Death is at Bay.
Speaker 1: Matt stayed quiet for a little bit before turning toward
Speaker 1: me to ask again if I knew who had taken it.
Speaker 1: We sat there in silence. There was a man on
Speaker 1: the train. I started, black or green shirt. He looked
Speaker 1: at me, and I looked at him. He followed me
Speaker 1: out and stopped for a coffee. I think he had
Speaker 1: my wallet by then. Thief Jade interrupted. Matt put his
Speaker 1: hand on her shoulder and looked at her with serious eyes.
Speaker 1: He will die. And that was the thing from all
Speaker 1: of our conversations. The reason why I forked over three
Speaker 1: hundred dollars back then, back when I was struggling with
Speaker 1: groceries at the dollar store, was because of this. Somehow
Speaker 1: death made these promises seem real, these gruesome photos of
Speaker 1: people with the final belongings laid right next to them.
Speaker 1: What remained of a man with a bloody white shirt
Speaker 1: and fourteen credit cards, a license, a picture of another family,
Speaker 1: and one hundred and thirty five dollars in cash, a
Speaker 1: few coins from his pocket, a watch, the prisers or
Speaker 1: business card as we called it. Then there were the
Speaker 1: photos of a teenager with her black spiky purse from
Speaker 1: hot topic, lip gloss, a prisceris, and the idea of
Speaker 1: a man. And these were photos no person should ever see,
Speaker 1: of traumatic deaths, bodies twisted in ways that showed me
Speaker 1: how fragile we are against steel wood and pavement. The exchange,
Speaker 1: the website said in every caption it was a way
Speaker 1: to defer the payback if you will. They say that
Speaker 1: when you ask for gifts from a dark force, you
Speaker 1: must pay it back, but not with this. It was
Speaker 1: yours forever, and only those who take it from you
Speaker 1: would end up paying the price, ending the cycle at
Speaker 1: the same time, until you bought another priceras or disposed
Speaker 1: of it properly, essentially meaning that you send it back
Speaker 1: for it to be prepared and sent to someone else.
Speaker 1: Nothing you can do now, Jade said softly, you want
Speaker 1: to stay here? I looked at mad. He was worried
Speaker 1: for that stranger. Nearly four years since our lives turned
Speaker 1: around without incident until now. We stayed up the rest
Speaker 1: of the night, watching the news and scanning the radio
Speaker 1: every so often. Not many in terms of news out there,
Speaker 1: mainly the same music we've been listening to for ten years,
Speaker 1: plus the occasional pop hit, but we would get announcements
Speaker 1: every now and then. A business owner arrested for suspicion
Speaker 1: of fraud, a mom taken to custody for leaving her
Speaker 1: children alone for two days while she left with her
Speaker 1: boyfriend to gamble. We talked about life and death, just
Speaker 1: like back then. Matt hadn't changed a bit, though he
Speaker 1: had gotten a new job. Jade had changed the most.
Speaker 1: She was more serious in her tone, her lipstick wasn't
Speaker 1: as stark, and she had stopped smoking. I must have
Speaker 1: replayed that night after work a thousand times. I could
Speaker 1: see the men in that shirt. Green, by the way,
Speaker 1: was the color of it. He matched the logo of
Speaker 1: his shoes, and I remember that detail. The night had
Speaker 1: happened because of the muddy footprints he had left on
Speaker 1: the floor. They ended right where he was sitting. It's
Speaker 1: why he looked at me. I was blaming him with
Speaker 1: my eyes, Jade. I started looking for the website again
Speaker 1: to reach out to the same guy who had sold
Speaker 1: them to us, but had no luck. Suspicious, wasn't it.
Speaker 1: How did they get the pictures of those who had
Speaker 1: taken these items for lack of a better word, from
Speaker 1: someone else. Were they on patrol for gruesome deaths? Or
Speaker 1: did they get them from the police report? Somehow? Jade
Speaker 1: had a theory that it must have been the latter.
Speaker 1: They do take photographs of the belongings of the deceased.
Speaker 1: Sometimes in some cases they even get more detailed. When
Speaker 1: their's suspicion of foul play, and how do they know
Speaker 1: it was because they had unknowingly taken the prisras. Some
Speaker 1: of the reports said that the deaths were mostly ruled acts,
Speaker 1: with a few exceptions. Was it some type of coincidence?
Speaker 1: Matt said that it might have been marketing, you know
Speaker 1: the photoshopp in the prisserius into the photos, say that
Speaker 1: it was because of that, and use it to sell
Speaker 1: us those things. But even he thought of just how
Speaker 1: much these things had changed our lives. Matt had somehow
Speaker 1: managed to sell his first business for a lot of money,
Speaker 1: and Jade ended up with her dad's inheritance. With the
Speaker 1: courts favored her over her step mother. They both seemed healthy,
Speaker 1: and although it seemed to be purely on them, I
Speaker 1: wasn't going to say anything because my life had changed
Speaker 1: two It made me feel uneasy at first, but then
Speaker 1: I noticed more and more things around me were changing.
Speaker 1: Women were approaching me, and at work people would show
Speaker 1: up to greet me by name, tapping a hand on
Speaker 1: my shoulder. With confidence, I no longer thought of my past,
Speaker 1: the fear of losing, Although fear of losing as all
Speaker 1: the fear there is right our health, our money, our sanity.
Speaker 1: I started risking, more confident enough to turn away opportunities
Speaker 1: and wait for better ones. It was more than just
Speaker 1: a thing I carried in my wallet, and I knew it.
Speaker 1: And yet there was a rational part of me that
Speaker 1: told me that this couldn't possibly be real, that it
Speaker 1: was all a joke or a dream, that I would
Speaker 1: wake up and no one would be dead because of me. Okay, man,
Speaker 1: here's the thing, the detective started. You can tell me
Speaker 1: what you know, so this gets a little easier for everyone.
Speaker 1: We already have you on camera and everything. It doesn't
Speaker 1: need to get dragged out so much. We have some
Speaker 1: pretty nosy journalists in town. Tell them where I was
Speaker 1: on the night of the fourth, the night I lost
Speaker 1: my wallet. I was at Matt and Jade's apartment, and
Speaker 1: part of me was afraid to tell that had they
Speaker 1: done something wrong? Well, aside from the purchase, I knew
Speaker 1: my rights even better back then. Now I think I
Speaker 1: would get a little overconfident, but I managed to stay
Speaker 1: silent until I got a lawyer. The guy was bad,
Speaker 1: but at least he explained everything had been staying tuned
Speaker 1: into the news for the death of a man, almost
Speaker 1: believing everything I had read from the website that Jade found.
Speaker 1: It seemed like such a scam. Now, sitting on those
Speaker 1: generic offices with law books in front of me, but
Speaker 1: no death ever came, well, not the one I was
Speaker 1: looking for. The lawyer sat me down and explained even
Speaker 1: more than what the detectives had found and what incriminated me. Listen,
Speaker 1: he said, tell me all the truth here, and I
Speaker 1: will do my best to get you a deal. It
Speaker 1: won't be too much time. I knew it was serious then,
Speaker 1: so I told him what I did. That night, as
Speaker 1: we prepared for the meeting with a detective and other prosecutors,
Speaker 1: I was at Matt and Jade's apartment, longtime friends that
Speaker 1: I knew since college. I stayed with them for a
Speaker 1: couple of nights because I was having some trouble and
Speaker 1: wanted to be with my friends. I would go to
Speaker 1: my house in the mornings and come back in the
Speaker 1: evening after work, back to Matt's, and then we would
Speaker 1: stay up watching television. That's the truth, the lawyer, mister
Speaker 1: Brown said, leaning back in his chair. What about Melissa, Melissa,
Speaker 1: I asked, confused, you gotta tell me the truth, sir,
Speaker 1: he shot back, beginning to lose his patience. Who is Melissa,
Speaker 1: I nearly yelled as I heard him clear his throat,
Speaker 1: his mouth beginning to shake Melissa, the woman you were
Speaker 1: with on the train. Now what happened next is to
Speaker 1: what made me wish my memory wasn't so good. I
Speaker 1: remember every detail he showed me the photograph. So what
Speaker 1: was left of a woman with dark hair, the purple jacket,
Speaker 1: and the white shirt. I remembered Melissa, the one that
Speaker 1: was found on the train tracks right outside the platform,
Speaker 1: the wrong exit, one I had never taken, The exit
Speaker 1: that was traced back to me. The camera showed us
Speaker 1: together by the turnstiles, the way she turned to look
Speaker 1: at me and waited, the way my public transportation card
Speaker 1: was scanned at the same time she left the platform
Speaker 1: on Fourteenth Street, but the case was dismissed once the
Speaker 1: full clips were released, no thanks to this lawyer. The
Speaker 1: footage showed the way she yelled for me after I
Speaker 1: had dropped my wallet. It showed me going down to
Speaker 1: take the train and stepping into the wrong train car.
Speaker 1: It showed her exit the platform alone the way I
Speaker 1: had taught her with my wallet. The stories on Scary
Speaker 1: Story podcasts are written and produced by me Edwin Kowarubias.
Speaker 1: We needed a bit of a gruesome story with this one,
Speaker 1: but kept it hidden enough with a splash of guilt.
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of it, and if
Speaker 1: you're off for it, check out my other podcast, Horror Story,
Speaker 1: where I tell you about true paranormal mysteries and hauntings
Speaker 1: and adds a similar feel to this one. Anyway, as always,
Speaker 1: if you're following the show, I'll be back next week.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for listening. It scary everyone, see
Speaker 1: as soon