Speaker 1: Have you ever had a moment that made your skin crawl,
Speaker 1: a shadow where there shouldn't be one, a whisper in
Speaker 1: an empty room, or something you simply can't explain. If so,
Speaker 1: we want to hear from you here at the Haunted
Speaker 1: UK Podcast. We're always on the lookout for spine tingling
Speaker 1: stories to feature in our end of season listener episodes
Speaker 1: and our short Haunts series. Whether it's a chilling encounter,
Speaker 1: a mysterious experience, or something that's haunted you for years,
Speaker 1: we want your tale. Send your story to contact us
Speaker 1: at Haunted UK podcast dot com, and don't forget to
Speaker 1: follow us on social media Facebook, x at Haunted Ukpod,
Speaker 1: TikTok and Instagram at Haunted UK podcast, or visit our
Speaker 1: website www dot hauntedukpodcast dot com. Now, if you love
Speaker 1: what we do and want even more Haunted goodies, then
Speaker 1: you can support the show on Patreon and Coffee. We've
Speaker 1: got two brilliant tears, Possessed and Spooked, both packed with
Speaker 1: bonus content, exclusive episodes and extra material that'll keep you
Speaker 1: up all night. But that's not all. We've launched a
Speaker 1: brand new sister podcast, Haunted UK Fiction, and we're calling
Speaker 1: all storytellers, whether you're a published author, an aspiring writer,
Speaker 1: or someone with a natural gift for spinning ear retails.
Speaker 1: We're looking for original fictional short stories and novellas with
Speaker 1: strong paranormal or supernatural themes. Think suspenseful, mysterious, atmospheric, terrifying,
Speaker 1: thought provoking, even darkly magical. If your story is selected,
Speaker 1: we'll professionally narrate, record, mix and master it into an
Speaker 1: audiobook style format, then feature it on the show. You'll
Speaker 1: get a copy of the finished production to use however
Speaker 1: you like, and you'll retain full ownership of your work.
Speaker 1: So admit your story to Haunted Ukfiction at hotmail dot
Speaker 1: com and follow us on Instagram at Haunted UK Fiction. So,
Speaker 1: whether it's truth or fiction, if it's haunted, we wanted
Speaker 1: now sit back and enjoy the episode. We ran as
Speaker 1: fast as our little feet could carry us, our lungs burning,
Speaker 1: making our way back through the path that we knew
Speaker 1: so well, only to be back where we started at
Speaker 1: the clearing the first time. We thought maybe in our
Speaker 1: haste we'd taken a wrong turn, and so set out again,
Speaker 1: But yet again we ended up back at the clearing.
Speaker 1: We were stuck in a loop. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I would classify it as a time loop, but whatever
Speaker 1: was in that clearing, it had us running in circles.
Speaker 1: We were absolutely terrified at this point as the shadow
Speaker 1: people were flitting about the place and the sounds that
Speaker 1: were coming from the woods had this horrible eerie quality
Speaker 1: to them, but it was all around us. We were surrounded.
Speaker 1: This is episode sixty nine of the Haunted UK podcast
Speaker 1: and in this episode, we step into the world of Katie,
Speaker 1: an eclectic witch as she shares her strange, supernatural and
Speaker 1: deeply personal experiences. In this episode, we're diving into the
Speaker 1: many strange, paranormal and supernatural experiences of Katie, an eclectic
Speaker 1: witch who now lives in Dublin, Ireland. Katie practices magic
Speaker 1: in a deeply personal and intuitive way, drawing inspiration from
Speaker 1: a wide variety of traditions and practices, from herbalism and
Speaker 1: taro to astrology and energy work. She blends these elements
Speaker 1: to create a craft that is entirely her own. Katie
Speaker 1: values creativity, individuality, and exploration in her spiritual journey, and
Speaker 1: she isn't afraid to follow her intuition wherever it leads.
Speaker 1: On this episode, She shares her unique perspective on witchcraft,
Speaker 1: the unusual experiences that have shaped her path, and the
Speaker 1: way she weaves magic and intention into her everyday life.
Speaker 1: Whether you're curious about modern witchcraft, fascinated by the paranormal,
Speaker 1: or simply love a good story, Katie's journey is sure
Speaker 1: to captivate and inspire. Now over to Katie. I'm Katie,
Speaker 1: and I'm an eclectic which that practices ancestor veneration. My
Speaker 1: magic is a hodgepodge of different magical pathways and very
Speaker 1: very gray.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: I do curses and hexes if they're warranted. Do I
Speaker 1: put people in jars? You betcha? I use my magic
Speaker 1: to help people as well, particularly when they need to
Speaker 1: get rid of ghosts or spirits from their homes or
Speaker 1: abusive or nasty, vindictive exes. Just an example, People come
Speaker 1: to me with all sorts of magical and occultic queries.
Speaker 1: I honor the goddesses bast Artemis and Kate, and I
Speaker 1: have a very strong link to Medusa. I'm also a
Speaker 1: herbalist and poisonous path practitioner and use non poisonous and
Speaker 1: poisonous plants to help people with their ailments. I'm an
Speaker 1: intuitive tarot reader and have been doing professional readings for
Speaker 1: over twenty years. I'm an avid student of astrology and
Speaker 1: a proud Sagittarius. I'm also a scientist, holding degrees in
Speaker 1: forensic science and chemistry as well as herbal medicine. I'm
Speaker 1: a staunch advocate, friend, and confidant to the LGTBQI plus community,
Speaker 1: and I avidly stand up and protect all the underdogs
Speaker 1: and fringe kids that get pushed to the corners of
Speaker 1: society and bullied for being a little bit different. This
Speaker 1: includes standing up and advocating for those who are oppressed
Speaker 1: by colonization. I've always been drawn to the occult from
Speaker 1: a young age and have had paranormal experiences since the
Speaker 1: age of five. So I have been a Clare sentient,
Speaker 1: clairvoyant and Claire cognizant with a splash of Claire audience
Speaker 1: from as long as I can remember, and would say
Speaker 1: that I was born a witch, although I just followed
Speaker 1: my intuition throughout my teens. I kept my beliefs and
Speaker 1: experiences mostly to myself so as not to have to
Speaker 1: explain myself to my overly religious family. That would have
Speaker 1: made for some very interesting conversations. I grew up in
Speaker 1: deep South Bible Belt, Alabama, so I was bombarded throughout
Speaker 1: my early existence with the notion that my interest in
Speaker 1: the weird, the macabre, and the occult was devil worship.
Speaker 1: It was hard, very hard. I joked that I must
Speaker 1: have fucked up really bad in a past life that
Speaker 1: the universe thought it would be hilarious to have me
Speaker 1: repay my karma by being born in the Bible Belt
Speaker 1: into an evangelical household. I am the black sheep. I'm
Speaker 1: not a religious person at all, due to, as having said,
Speaker 1: evangelical Christianity shoved down my throat growing up. I never
Speaker 1: thought of myself as a witch back in those early days.
Speaker 1: Just knew that I was sensitive, could see and feel ghosts,
Speaker 1: new things I shouldn't know, etc. It wasn't until I
Speaker 1: was in college when a classmate who was a witch
Speaker 1: said to me randomly, do you know what you are?
Speaker 1: Of course I was like, pardon what, But just that
Speaker 1: question made me realize, oh, dreh, that makes so much sense.
Speaker 1: From then on, everything fell into place. I read and
Speaker 1: studied everything I could on different practices and pathways, and
Speaker 1: intuitively incorporated what felt right My practice has changed over
Speaker 1: the years as my knowledge has grown. I believe that
Speaker 1: a lot of the things that we are told that
Speaker 1: aren't real are in fact, very very real. There is
Speaker 1: a reason why metaphysics has physics in it. Just because
Speaker 1: it's hidden doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. I have
Speaker 1: a knack for communicating with trees and some nature spirits.
Speaker 1: I'll have to tell you, guys about an experience I
Speaker 1: had with a dryad in Greece. Sometime. She saved me
Speaker 1: from a visit to A and E. I come to
Speaker 1: the tulpa to protect me when my neighborhood had a
Speaker 1: serial rapist attacking young single women living alone, which I
Speaker 1: was at the time. A tulpa is a materialized being,
Speaker 1: typically in human form, and the apartment really did never
Speaker 1: feel empty. My friends always asked if I'd had a
Speaker 1: guy over when they'd visit. The sense of him was
Speaker 1: that strong, and it was really hard to say goodbye
Speaker 1: to him when I moved to Ireland. But he kept
Speaker 1: me safe and filled my apartment with such a masculine vibe.
Speaker 1: I even joked that he was my invisible night in
Speaker 1: shining armor, my beloved familiar Onli the cat still haunts
Speaker 1: me to visit and checks in to see how his
Speaker 1: mamma is doing. And interestingly enough, he sent me my
Speaker 1: familiar that I have now, Tillie. She's a tortoise. By
Speaker 1: the way, I live in Dublin, Ireland.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Ireland has always called to me and I consider it
Speaker 1: to be my home, real and ancestral. It's a magical
Speaker 1: place full of mystery and mysticism. Still, the sacred sights
Speaker 1: here are places I use for my rituals and to
Speaker 1: commune with my ancestors. It's a place where I feel
Speaker 1: I can always be myself and be open with who
Speaker 1: I am. I've had many experiences throughout my life, and
Speaker 1: some of these I'll be recounting with you in this episode,
Speaker 1: So if you're ready, let's begin. My best friend Ell
Speaker 1: and I loved playing outside in the woods behind my
Speaker 1: dad's house growing up. It was always a place where
Speaker 1: our imagination ran riot and we would play for hours
Speaker 1: in our own made up worlds. I know that I've
Speaker 1: previously mentioned in a listener's episode that my dad's property
Speaker 1: was on a stretch of land that the Creek and
Speaker 1: Chocked Tor Native Americans had lived on, which had been
Speaker 1: decimated by the Spanish conquistadores. We'd found a few bones
Speaker 1: in our exploits that I am more than certain were human,
Speaker 1: which my dad confiscated, probably for that very reason, very
Speaker 1: quickly afterwards, much to our disappointment, treasures in our innocent minds. Anyway,
Speaker 1: on one occasion, we set out along a well known
Speaker 1: trail that we had traversed many many times before. But
Speaker 1: what made this time different was the trail took us
Speaker 1: deeper into the forest than we'd ever gone before. I
Speaker 1: remember us both wondering why it was taking so long
Speaker 1: to get to this particular spot that we always played at,
Speaker 1: and then suddenly the trail opened up to this expansive
Speaker 1: clearing that had dried out from the lack of rain.
Speaker 1: As the tree's roots looked like those that you might
Speaker 1: find protruding in a swamp or marsh, we were a
Speaker 1: bit awe struck to have found such a cool place
Speaker 1: to play, and proceeded to make a day of it. Now.
Speaker 1: During this time, there was this nagging feeling that we
Speaker 1: were being watched, and every once in a while we
Speaker 1: would catch a flitter of a shadow person ducking behind
Speaker 1: a tree. The clearing was bathed in the light of
Speaker 1: the sunshine filtering through the trees. So I had the
Speaker 1: notion that as as long as we stayed in the light,
Speaker 1: it couldn't get us. And honestly, when I think back
Speaker 1: on that memory, we were having so much fun, so
Speaker 1: lost in our imaginations that we didn't care, which makes
Speaker 1: me wonder if the spot had put a spell on
Speaker 1: us to lure us in, because when we found it,
Speaker 1: the clearing had that other worldly quality about it. The
Speaker 1: rule at home was that we had to be back
Speaker 1: at twilight. All gen X's know this rule. That was
Speaker 1: what was so great about the eighties. Mom would leave
Speaker 1: us to our devices and let us play outside on
Speaker 1: the property unsupervised until twilight, which was when the street
Speaker 1: lights came on. If we weren't home by then, we
Speaker 1: got in trouble. Simple. At some point in our play,
Speaker 1: it was like we woke up and realized it was
Speaker 1: almost dark. We panicked as we had very little time
Speaker 1: to get home before the street lights came on, and
Speaker 1: because we had walked, to our knowledge and farther to
Speaker 1: this location than the original location in the woods, we
Speaker 1: knew we had to hurry or else get in trouble.
Speaker 1: But then it was like the clearing started closing in
Speaker 1: on us, the shadow people hiding behind the trees, slithering out,
Speaker 1: becoming braver with the coming dark. I remember talking about
Speaker 1: the incident when we were older, and both of us
Speaker 1: had this sinking and terrible feeling, knowing that if one
Speaker 1: of those shadows had touched us, we would be stuck there.
Speaker 1: I know that sounds odd, but Elle and I have
Speaker 1: talked about this event many times over the years, and
Speaker 1: it is something that has never left us. We ran
Speaker 1: as fast as our little feet could carry us, our
Speaker 1: lungs burning, making our way back through the path that
Speaker 1: we knew so well, only to be back where we
Speaker 1: started at the clearing the first time. We thought maybe
Speaker 1: in our haste we'd taken a wrong turn, and so
Speaker 1: set out again, but yet again, we ended up back
Speaker 1: at the clearing. We were stuck in a loop. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I would classify it as a time loop,
Speaker 1: but whatever was in that clearing, it had us running
Speaker 1: in circles. We were absolutely terrified at this point, as
Speaker 1: the shadow people were flitting about the place and the
Speaker 1: sounds that were coming from the woods had this horrible
Speaker 1: eerie quality to them, but it was all around us.
Speaker 1: We were surrounded. We set out again. I was determined
Speaker 1: to get us out of there, and I honestly didn't
Speaker 1: know if I willed us home or if our guardians
Speaker 1: stepped in to help us. But it was like we
Speaker 1: came to the edge of whatever's shadow magic was in
Speaker 1: the woods and was able to break through the barrier
Speaker 1: into the normal woods. The street lights had just turned on,
Speaker 1: but we were so distressed that my mom gave us
Speaker 1: a pass, asking us what had happened. We downplayed it
Speaker 1: as we didn't want her not letting us play in
Speaker 1: the woods, and in the end we said that we
Speaker 1: simply had got lost. Coming back home. Years later, I
Speaker 1: met a lovely woman who was a sham and here
Speaker 1: in Dublin, we were telling stories of weird things that
Speaker 1: had happened to us, and I recounted this story to her.
Speaker 1: I remember her having an odd look on her face
Speaker 1: throughout the telling of my story. When I got to
Speaker 1: the part about being led out of the woods, she
Speaker 1: got this very dreamy look on her face, as if
Speaker 1: she was far away, and told me that that was
Speaker 1: exactly what had happened. She told me that I had
Speaker 1: two very large Native American warrior chieftains that stood tall
Speaker 1: at either side of me as guardians, and that they
Speaker 1: were the ones that had led me and my best
Speaker 1: friend out of the woods that day and they were
Speaker 1: always with me. I was gobsmacked, as I had not
Speaker 1: said anything to her about how I had always felt
Speaker 1: that my guardians had led us to safety. I just
Speaker 1: said to her that I felt like we were guided out,
Speaker 1: no more, no less. That was pretty amazing to me.
Speaker 1: A week or so went by before we dared to
Speaker 1: venture back into the woods again, and this time we
Speaker 1: left ourselves breadcrumbs tying little ribbons along our trail to
Speaker 1: mark our way so we didn't get turned around again.
Speaker 1: We followed the exact path that we had before that
Speaker 1: led us to this clearing. We were met with just
Speaker 1: more trees where the opening of the clearing had been.
Speaker 1: It was just a wall of forest, and the path
Speaker 1: veered off to the left as it always had done.
Speaker 1: We were definitely freaked out, as it seemed the clearing
Speaker 1: had never existed before. As I got older, I reflected
Speaker 1: back on that day periodically. I believe those woods were
Speaker 1: and still are haunted either by angry spirits of long
Speaker 1: forgotten Native Americans, Spanish conquistadors or due to Satanic rituals.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of that going on at the
Speaker 1: time in town. A story for another time or volume,
Speaker 1: and we somehow got stuck in a vortex or time
Speaker 1: loop of some sort where those spirits congregated and they
Speaker 1: had plans not to let us leave. My Mimi. Mum's
Speaker 1: mother had inherited a few dolls from her mother memwhile
Speaker 1: that were ridiculously old, probably turn of the century. The
Speaker 1: want to note was one of those early nineteen hundred's
Speaker 1: porcelain dolls that had the blinky eyes when you tipped
Speaker 1: them back, so they would go to sleep when you
Speaker 1: laid them down. At the time, we lived in South
Speaker 1: Alabama and my mom's family lived in North Alabama, about
Speaker 1: a four hour drive. Growing up, we didn't really go
Speaker 1: to visit that much, as my dad's mother was disabled
Speaker 1: and lived with us, so it made it hard to
Speaker 1: travel for someone had to watch her around the clock.
Speaker 1: But on this occasion we were traveling up with Mom
Speaker 1: to see her mom and siblings. I can't remember why
Speaker 1: we were going, but as young children we were as
Speaker 1: excited as it meant we could have a spend the
Speaker 1: night party at Mimi's. I was about six or seven
Speaker 1: at the time, and my sister was about four or five.
Speaker 1: My sister loves dolls, all sorts. If it was a doll,
Speaker 1: then you could bet she would love it. She was
Speaker 1: excited to be able to play with Mimi's dolls. I
Speaker 1: remember arriving at Mimi's apartment building, which was extremely haunted
Speaker 1: by the way again another story, and I was looking
Speaker 1: forward to staying with her, as we didn't see her
Speaker 1: very often. I remembered the building giving me a feeling
Speaker 1: of uneasiness. Though the building housed a lot of older
Speaker 1: people that eventually died in their apartments, so I immediately
Speaker 1: felt a few errand spirits wandering the halls. I pushed
Speaker 1: it aside as my excitement was greater. Mimi's apartment was tiny,
Speaker 1: but it was cozy, smelling of stale nicotine and double
Speaker 1: mint gum. The front door opened straight into the living
Speaker 1: room that was framed by a wall of windows. There
Speaker 1: was a couch that sat against that wall of windows,
Speaker 1: and off to the right of the front door was
Speaker 1: a closet. Mimi had set out her dolls on the
Speaker 1: couch for my sister, and I froze in the middle
Speaker 1: of all these innocuous dolls was that porcelain one. That
Speaker 1: doll made my skin crawl. There was this cold intelligence
Speaker 1: that emanated from it, and it was watching us. I
Speaker 1: immediately didn't want to be around it. My sister, on
Speaker 1: the other hand, loved that fucking doll. She was drawn
Speaker 1: to it as much as I had an aversion to it.
Speaker 1: I stayed as far away from it as humanly possible,
Speaker 1: and the evening went without a hitch. Mimi made us
Speaker 1: palettes on the floor in front of the couch that evening.
Speaker 1: The living room closet was at her feet. She told
Speaker 1: us spent time stories and that we could pick up
Speaker 1: a doll each to sleep with. I picked a stuffed
Speaker 1: animal of swords, but of course my sister picked up
Speaker 1: that damn doll. I was like, absolutely nope. I told
Speaker 1: her that there was something wrong with the doll and
Speaker 1: that I refuse to sleep next to her with it.
Speaker 1: During this exchange, the doll was sat on the couch
Speaker 1: watching us. I could feel its eyes on me, I wonder,
Speaker 1: and when Mimi told us to clear away the excess
Speaker 1: toys and dolls into the closet, I happily obliged. It's
Speaker 1: important to note I watched my sister put the doll
Speaker 1: into the closet. We then went to sleep. The next morning,
Speaker 1: I woke up, yawned, and stretched. I looked out the window,
Speaker 1: only to be met with the eyes of the doll
Speaker 1: staring at me. She was sat at the corner of
Speaker 1: the couch. I just remember getting angry at first that
Speaker 1: my sister had obviously gotten the doll out of the
Speaker 1: closet at some point in the night. I jostled her
Speaker 1: awake and asked her why she had gone and got
Speaker 1: the doll out of the closet. She looked at me
Speaker 1: puzzled and said I didn't. I remember thinking she was lying,
Speaker 1: but the absolute surprise on her face made me think twice.
Speaker 1: Mimi came out shortly after and started making breakfast for us.
Speaker 1: I asked her if she'd gotten me Moore's doll out
Speaker 1: of the closet. She looked at me blankly and said no.
Speaker 1: I was absolutely freaking out at this point, but just
Speaker 1: kept quiet as we would be leaving later in the day,
Speaker 1: so I just had to endure the doll's presence for
Speaker 1: a little while longer. Fast forward to nineteen ninety seven,
Speaker 1: Mimi had passed away and had left that doll to
Speaker 1: my sister in her will. I was obviously thrilled, as
Speaker 1: you can imagine. I remember getting in a huge argument
Speaker 1: with my mom about it, saying that I didn't want
Speaker 1: it in the house. My mom couldn't understand why I
Speaker 1: had such an issue with it, so I explained to
Speaker 1: her that the doll was evil, that there was something
Speaker 1: very wrong with it, and recounted the story at Mimi's
Speaker 1: apartments so many years ago. She kind of brushed it off,
Speaker 1: and so I just told my sister to keep the
Speaker 1: doll in her room and keep it away from me. Now,
Speaker 1: the farmhouse where we lived throughout my middle and high
Speaker 1: school years also had some weird goings on, and that
Speaker 1: doll just added to them even more. You'd hear whisperings
Speaker 1: and this evil giggle coming from my sister's room. I
Speaker 1: hated being alone in the house and would normally keep
Speaker 1: the doors shut to her room if I was there alone.
Speaker 1: The doll would watch you if you were in the room,
Speaker 1: and it would also physically move around. I kid you not.
Speaker 1: I remember putting the doll in my sister's wardrobe, only
Speaker 1: to come in later to put something I had borrowed back,
Speaker 1: and the doll was on her bed. Crazy shit like
Speaker 1: that happened on a regular basis. There was always this
Speaker 1: feeling of a presence in the room throughout the time
Speaker 1: she had that doll. I normally didn't go into her
Speaker 1: room unless she was there, but she was oblivious to
Speaker 1: it all, or so I thought. Years later, she randomly
Speaker 1: told me that she had given the doll to one
Speaker 1: of our cousins, who insanely enough, also loved the doll.
Speaker 1: I was actually shocked because she always seemed to be
Speaker 1: so attached to it. She said that she knew I
Speaker 1: was telling the truth because she had experienced similar things
Speaker 1: with the doll and had been attacked by a shadow
Speaker 1: figure in her room after putting the doll away, something
Speaker 1: she never did. I was like, why not just throw
Speaker 1: the doll in the trash. She argued that she couldn't
Speaker 1: because it was a family heirloom, but I called bullshit.
Speaker 1: We argued about it, but I stopped as I was
Speaker 1: just wasting my breath. As far as I know, my
Speaker 1: cousin still has the doll, but I have no idea
Speaker 1: if they've experienced anything. I went to a bog Standard
Speaker 1: Elementary school until I was in the fourth grade that's
Speaker 1: nine to ten years old, before my mom thought it
Speaker 1: would be an amazing idea to homeschool me and my sister.
Speaker 1: Believe me when I say it wasn't anyway. The school
Speaker 1: had a main building where this story takes place, and
Speaker 1: was divided into three floors. The cafeteria and first grade
Speaker 1: bild building was separate. The first grade building was also haunted,
Speaker 1: but I never had any memorable experiences in there, other
Speaker 1: than it felt weird, as if you were being followed
Speaker 1: in an empty hallway. The second grade classes were on
Speaker 1: the lower floor. My classroom was tucked off to the
Speaker 1: right of the main stairway up to the main floor.
Speaker 1: As you were going up, on the left of the
Speaker 1: stairway was the girl's bathroom, and there was a fire
Speaker 1: exit that was used for recess right beside it. Now,
Speaker 1: the lower floor had that same creepy feeling as the
Speaker 1: first grade hall. Sometimes you'd be walking down an empty
Speaker 1: hallway and feel eyes on you or feel like someone
Speaker 1: was behind you. Whispers started to fly about the girl's
Speaker 1: bathroom on my end of the hall that it was haunted.
Speaker 1: I hadn't given it much thought as a second grader,
Speaker 1: because we normally went to the bathroom in groups of
Speaker 1: four or five kids at a time. Seven and eight
Speaker 1: year olds are pretty chaotic, so there wasn't much time
Speaker 1: to get scared of a ghost. I needed to go
Speaker 1: to the loop, which was just two seconds across the hall.
Speaker 1: My teacher had no issue letting me go alone, so
Speaker 1: off I trotted. I walked in and immediately felt something
Speaker 1: was wrong. Something was very off. There was a girl
Speaker 1: standing in the middle of the bathroom, just kind of
Speaker 1: staring at nothing. She was facing the wall of sinks
Speaker 1: and mirrors off to the right of the bathroom door.
Speaker 1: She had shoulder length, straight blonde hair that she wore
Speaker 1: down with the top half in a ponytail. I remember
Speaker 1: she wore a white dress that had a smock apron
Speaker 1: front and a blue ribbon that was tied off behind
Speaker 1: her back. She was also wearing white tights and black
Speaker 1: paint and buckle shoes. A bit outdated for nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 1: but very Alice in Wonderland. I was a friendly, bubbly kid,
Speaker 1: so I said hello, as I didn't recognize her. I
Speaker 1: know she spoke to me, but I don't remember what
Speaker 1: she said as she was difficult to understand. It was
Speaker 1: as though she was whispering or mumbling. Also to note,
Speaker 1: the bathroom was very cold. At this point, I was
Speaker 1: very unnerved, and I knew the teacher would be wondering
Speaker 1: why I was taking so long, so I went to
Speaker 1: go to a cubicle. But something about this whole interaction
Speaker 1: felt so very wrong and weird, and I really didn't
Speaker 1: want to go into a cubicle by myself while this
Speaker 1: strange girl was still out there. But it was right
Speaker 1: at this moment that something weird happened. It was as
Speaker 1: if she'd taken a cue from me, because she also
Speaker 1: walked into a cubicle, almost in a mimicking fashion. It
Speaker 1: was the very last one to be exact, and as
Speaker 1: she opened the door, she gave me an odd look.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how to describe it other than it
Speaker 1: was creepy. I was quick and exited the cubicle. I
Speaker 1: could hear her eerie humming from the last stall and
Speaker 1: could see her feet. It was then that the bathroom
Speaker 1: became deadly silent. I tentatively walked to the last cubicle
Speaker 1: and took a peek underneath, but her feet weren't there.
Speaker 1: I gently prodded the door, which was now unlocked. I
Speaker 1: know that I'd heard her lock the door of the
Speaker 1: cubicle when she went in. I opened it fully, but
Speaker 1: she wasn't there. This whole time, my second grade A
Speaker 1: self was absolutely teeming with dread. Every fiber of my
Speaker 1: being was telling me to get the fuck out of
Speaker 1: that bathroom. The growing alarm that something really bad had
Speaker 1: happened to that girl at some point in time raced
Speaker 1: through my brain. I noticed that the door felt heavy,
Speaker 1: so curiosity got the better of me, and I took
Speaker 1: a peek. Hanging on the back of the door was
Speaker 1: what seemed to be this girl's clothes, but there were
Speaker 1: dark stains on them, dark reddish stains. My mind immediately
Speaker 1: thought blood. The clothes were also ripped in place. I
Speaker 1: remember my scalp standing on end at this point, and
Speaker 1: I yelped and ran out. I ran back to the classroom,
Speaker 1: and the teacher asked me what was wrong, as they
Speaker 1: could visibly see I was shaken up. I'd also been
Speaker 1: gone much longer than expected. I explained to her my
Speaker 1: interaction with the girl and then her disappearance and finding
Speaker 1: her torn bloody clothes on the door. She walked me
Speaker 1: over to the bathroom again and went in. I refused
Speaker 1: to enter and watched her from the door. She walked
Speaker 1: to the last cubicle and opened it. Checking the back
Speaker 1: of the stall door, there were no clothes hanging, no
Speaker 1: little girl. The teacher was perplexed, but recovered herself well
Speaker 1: and tried to comfort me. After that, I refused to
Speaker 1: go to that toilet. I would use the one at
Speaker 1: the far end of the building instead. There were other
Speaker 1: whispers of more kids having seen her, and that she
Speaker 1: was the ghost of a murdered girl from years ago,
Speaker 1: but I have no clue what her story was. I
Speaker 1: could never find any further information that helped me research it.
Speaker 1: Moving on to when I was in seventh or eighth grade,
Speaker 1: on one of my school friends, who will call d
Speaker 1: was having to spend the night party at her house
Speaker 1: one weekend. There were about five or six of us there,
Speaker 1: all girls. Her house was somewhat out in the country
Speaker 1: and away from the main road. We went over immediately
Speaker 1: after school and headed to the woods behind her house
Speaker 1: to mess about before dinner. It was October, if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, because we just started back to school a
Speaker 1: few weeks prior. We were wandering aimlessly through the woods,
Speaker 1: cracking jokes and falling around when there was just suddenly
Speaker 1: this old, dilapidated cottage in front of us. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that it just appeared out of thin air, but
Speaker 1: it was just there, very abruptly, standing very ominously in
Speaker 1: the middle of nowhere in the woods. We asked d
Speaker 1: if she'd ever come across it before, but she was
Speaker 1: just as spooked as we were. She told us she
Speaker 1: traversed these woods on a regular basis and had never
Speaker 1: come across it. She was really creeped out by its presence.
Speaker 1: I know she had said there was a lot of
Speaker 1: devil worship that occurred in those woods, something we talked
Speaker 1: about as we had meandered through the trees before coming
Speaker 1: to this dilapidated cottage. When I think back on it,
Speaker 1: the cottage reminded me of the old Witch's house that
Speaker 1: you see at the end of the Blair Witch Project movie.
Speaker 1: It had a foreboding presence. We contemplated exploring it, going
Speaker 1: back and forth between ourselves, daring each other to take
Speaker 1: the first steps onto the porch. Most of the girls
Speaker 1: decided to go back to the house and noped right out.
Speaker 1: But me, de and Julie, the friend from my previous
Speaker 1: Ouija boards stories in episode fifty Experiences of a Witch
Speaker 1: and other listener stories, decided to stick it out and
Speaker 1: explore the house. Now. I have no idea why I
Speaker 1: agreed to go into that house, only that my curiosity
Speaker 1: was greater than my fear, and of course my intuition
Speaker 1: telling me not to go in. We all decided to
Speaker 1: go onto the porch together. The porch itself was a
Speaker 1: death trap, with the rotting wood bending under our weight.
Speaker 1: The front door was slightly ajar with a screen door.
Speaker 1: We opened the screen door and pushed the front door wide.
Speaker 1: Directly in front of us was a long hallway that
Speaker 1: led to the rest of the cottage. There were five doors,
Speaker 1: three on the left and two on the right. The
Speaker 1: house is ceiling sagged and the walls were covered in
Speaker 1: muck and grime. No one had lived here for a
Speaker 1: very long time. It seemed to have smoke and water damage,
Speaker 1: but no evidence of a fire. The house had a horrible,
Speaker 1: horrible energy and felt very alive, like it was watching us,
Speaker 1: beckoning us in. The first doors on the left and
Speaker 1: right were closed and jammed so we couldn't get into
Speaker 1: them to see what was behind them. As we moved
Speaker 1: down the long hallway, time seemed kind of frozen and
Speaker 1: like we were walking through quicksand I noticed the mirror
Speaker 1: on the right side of the wall, diagonally across from
Speaker 1: what I assumed was a bedroom. As I could see
Speaker 1: into the room through the mirror, there was the edge
Speaker 1: of a bed and what looked like a dark, shadowy
Speaker 1: figure lying on it. I froze at this point. I
Speaker 1: have no idea where the other girls were, just that
Speaker 1: they were no longer with me. My gaze was riveted
Speaker 1: to the moving shadow on the bed. I remember being
Speaker 1: beckoned physically into the room, beyond the whispers to come
Speaker 1: closer floating through my mind. I switched my gaze between
Speaker 1: the mirror and the doorway itself, as I didn't trust
Speaker 1: myself to gaze into the room for very long. There
Speaker 1: was a dark entity in the room, and the energy
Speaker 1: it emanated was terrifying. It wanted me, that I was
Speaker 1: certain of, but I had to make the choice to
Speaker 1: go into that room. I knew that in the back
Speaker 1: of my brain somewhere I remembered staring into the room
Speaker 1: at the bed, trying to make out the entity. It
Speaker 1: was humanoid in shape, but featureless. I couldn't make out
Speaker 1: any eyes or nose or mouth, just darkness. And then
Speaker 1: it sat up and turned, looking directly at me and smiled.
Speaker 1: The smile was that of long, sharp knives, stark white
Speaker 1: against the shadowy black. Seeing the sharpness of those knifelike
Speaker 1: teeth broke the spell over me, and I screamed and
Speaker 1: ran out. The other girls were waiting outside, relief flooding
Speaker 1: over them. They asked me if I was okay that
Speaker 1: they couldn't find me in the house. I told them
Speaker 1: I had never left the hallway, but they said when
Speaker 1: they ran out of the house from the kitchen, I
Speaker 1: wasn't there. I told them what had happened to what
Speaker 1: I had seen. They'd also seen similar things, but in
Speaker 1: differ rooms of the cottage.
Speaker 2: I guess there.
Speaker 1: Were more rooms beyond the kitchen that sat across from
Speaker 1: the creepy bedroom. We left immediately and didn't say much
Speaker 1: more on it, Enjoying pizza and movies for the sleepover,
Speaker 1: we didn't say anything to the others. The next morning,
Speaker 1: the three of us related weird dreams of the house
Speaker 1: and the shadow entity beckoning us to come in. We
Speaker 1: decided that we would go back out there. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: we were idiots, just to see if we weren't all hallucinating.
Speaker 1: We followed the exact path that led us there the
Speaker 1: day before and was met with a small clearing with
Speaker 1: pine trees, no creepy house. We wondered if we'd hallucinated
Speaker 1: the whole thing, but we each clearly remembered our interactions
Speaker 1: in the house. Over the years, D would go back
Speaker 1: into the woods to see if the house had reappeared,
Speaker 1: but it never did. It was definitely one for the
Speaker 1: weird bank. One thing I will never forget that those
Speaker 1: raise a sharp teeth and that evil smile. The other
Speaker 1: thing that bothered me over the years was that we
Speaker 1: all went out of the house the same way we
Speaker 1: came in, but D and A never saw me in
Speaker 1: the hallway, and they would have passed me on the
Speaker 1: way out of getting the fuck out of there. It
Speaker 1: was like the house that sucked us into our own
Speaker 1: little nightmares. As I've stated before, my dad's house had
Speaker 1: a lot of weird stuff happening throughout my childhood. I
Speaker 1: believe the land is haunted, not the house itself. The
Speaker 1: house is a conduit of sorts my opinion anyway. In
Speaker 1: this particular instance, I was down at my dad's for
Speaker 1: the weekend with my sister. It was a pretty normal weekend.
Speaker 1: Saturday night, we went to bed without any incident. The
Speaker 1: bedroom that we shared was on the second floor of
Speaker 1: the house. I remember being woken suddenly between around three
Speaker 1: and four AM. I looked around the room, but nothing
Speaker 1: caught my eye, but it felt like I wasn't alone.
Speaker 1: My childhood bed is right next to a long set
Speaker 1: of windows on the far wall of the bedroom. I
Speaker 1: remember the moon was very bright that night, It was almost,
Speaker 1: if not completely full. Just as I was settling back
Speaker 1: down to go to sleep, I noticed a figure in
Speaker 1: the windows. At first, I thought it was just a
Speaker 1: play of shadow from the moonlight, but the more I
Speaker 1: woke up, the more I realized that it was a person.
Speaker 1: The figure was male. He was gaunt, with a very
Speaker 1: prominent nose and bulging eyes that just stared into the
Speaker 1: room and threw me. The energy coming off him was
Speaker 1: very menacing. I was frozen for what seemed like an
Speaker 1: eternity with fear, but he just kept staring. I finally
Speaker 1: snapped out of it and woke my sister up. She
Speaker 1: was pissed off, but then she saw him too and
Speaker 1: freaked out. We ran downstairs and woke my dad, something
Speaker 1: we never did, as he was a grump when woken prematurely.
Speaker 1: We woke him up and we got the grumpy response
Speaker 1: as we expected, But when he saw how scared we were,
Speaker 1: he went into dad mode and told us to stay
Speaker 1: put and he would go and check it out. He
Speaker 1: was worried that there was a peeping tom outside that
Speaker 1: had dragged his large ladder out of the basement, and
Speaker 1: decided to purve on his kids. He was gone for
Speaker 1: an eternity, but when he came back into the house,
Speaker 1: he was visibly unsettled. He asked us to explain what
Speaker 1: we'd seen. I think he would have told me I
Speaker 1: was dreaming if my sister hadn't seen it too. He
Speaker 1: stayed up with us for a while to calm us down,
Speaker 1: and then we went back to bed. The next day,
Speaker 1: I asked him about it. He said he had no
Speaker 1: idea what we'd seen, but he did believe us. He
Speaker 1: went on to explain that there was no sign of
Speaker 1: a peeping tom or anything being disturbed under our second
Speaker 1: floor window to suggest the possible intruder. I got the
Speaker 1: impression he realized we'd seen a ghost, but he didn't
Speaker 1: want to say ghost out loud. Thing more was said
Speaker 1: about it, and we got on with our weekend. After that,
Speaker 1: I wasn't at my dad's much, as i'd started college
Speaker 1: and had a part time job. A few years later,
Speaker 1: my sister randomly told me that she continued to see
Speaker 1: the ghost floating at the window, staring at her periodically.
Speaker 1: My dad's mother died in nineteen ninety three. She was
Speaker 1: an invalid and had been living with us for as
Speaker 1: long as I could remember. She had a bell she
Speaker 1: rang when she needed something or for help getting up
Speaker 1: for the loo. I remember being a bit nervous when
Speaker 1: she died, as I thought I would start seeing her
Speaker 1: she passed away in my dad's house, but much to
Speaker 1: my surprise, she didn't, and my dad's house was quiet
Speaker 1: except for the other weird ship that carried on. Years
Speaker 1: went by and I was at my dad's visiting one
Speaker 1: weekend during college. My dad my sister had gone out,
Speaker 1: and I was at the house by myself for a
Speaker 1: little bit while they got groceries. I was watching a
Speaker 1: movie when out of the blue, I heard a bell.
Speaker 1: It was faint, so I thought maybe my dad was
Speaker 1: ringing the doorbell. I got up and checked, but there
Speaker 1: wasn't anyone there. I went back to my movie and
Speaker 1: was watching for a few more minutes when the bell
Speaker 1: sounded again, quite incessantly. I paused the movie, my skin prickling.
Speaker 1: I knew that bell. She had a way of ringing
Speaker 1: her bell in a certain way that just made me
Speaker 1: know it was her. I was perplexed as it had
Speaker 1: been roughly eight years since her passing without a peep,
Speaker 1: so I thought it was odd that she would be
Speaker 1: communicating now. The bell sounded again, and I literally jumped
Speaker 1: out of my skin. I went to her old room
Speaker 1: and asked her what she wanted to tell me, but
Speaker 1: I was just met with silence. I asked a few
Speaker 1: more times for information from her, but nothing happened. I
Speaker 1: have no idea why she reached out, but it still
Speaker 1: creeps me out walking by her old room. I worked
Speaker 1: in an Italian restaurant and coffee bar until it closed
Speaker 1: in late two thousand and five. I was there for
Speaker 1: about four years, and during that time I had numerous
Speaker 1: interactions with a couple of ghosts that haunted the building.
Speaker 1: The restaurant was in the old historic part of Aniston, Alabama.
Speaker 1: I have no idea what the building was before, but
Speaker 1: it was spooky at night closing up and early in
Speaker 1: the morning when opening. The first spirit that interacted with
Speaker 1: me was harmless and a prankster. Its favorite thing to
Speaker 1: do was to keep you from locking up the back
Speaker 1: door at night. The key wouldn't budge to turn the
Speaker 1: lock over. I almost broke the key ones trying to
Speaker 1: lock up. You'd have to say to him, Hi, I
Speaker 1: really want to go home now. Please let me lock
Speaker 1: the door. Thank you, and puff The door would lock
Speaker 1: as normal. There were private booths that lined the back
Speaker 1: wall by the back door. If you were walking out
Speaker 1: the back door, sometimes you would catch a fleeting glance
Speaker 1: of an old man with a gray beard sitting there.
Speaker 1: It was always a bit startling because very rarely did
Speaker 1: that booth get used. You'd do a double take and blink,
Speaker 1: and then he'd begone. One day, a friend of mine
Speaker 1: came into the restaurant through the back door, and she
Speaker 1: sat at the bar and said, you know, you have
Speaker 1: a customer in the back I looked at her confused
Speaker 1: and replied that there wasn't anyone back there, as the
Speaker 1: restaurant was closed until four pm and only the bar
Speaker 1: was serving. She was adamant that there was an old
Speaker 1: bearded gentleman sitting in the back booth. I told her
Speaker 1: that was our resident ghost. She scoffed at me, so
Speaker 1: I took her to the booth, and sure enough, it
Speaker 1: was empty. She was thoroughly creeped out after that. This
Speaker 1: ghost never gave off any bad vibes. He was just
Speaker 1: a messer. He would bang about the back at the
Speaker 1: restaurant while you were closing up. You'd hear footsteps at
Speaker 1: the back, and he would set off the back door bell,
Speaker 1: making us think that someone had come in the backway.
Speaker 1: The back of house toilets would randomly flush, even though
Speaker 1: they were not auto flush toilets. The other spirit was
Speaker 1: not so nice. When this spirit was in the back
Speaker 1: of the restaurant, I hated having to go back there
Speaker 1: to close up. Things were darker and more foreboding when
Speaker 1: it was around. I saw it a few times as
Speaker 1: a shadow person in my peripherals. It liked to climb
Speaker 1: the walls and watch you from a corner At the
Speaker 1: back of the restaurant. The menace that bled from the
Speaker 1: walls made my skin crawl as I just wanted to
Speaker 1: close up and get the fuck out. But this spirit
Speaker 1: loved making you afraid. It fed off your fear, and
Speaker 1: I hated closing the bar down when that spirit decided
Speaker 1: to show up. There were a few times that I
Speaker 1: was touched by this evil spirit. Normally it was touches
Speaker 1: to my shoulders or my hair. I was pushed one
Speaker 1: night while taking the trash ad and almost tripped down
Speaker 1: the stairs, which could have ended quite badly. Even though
Speaker 1: I was well seasoned in the ghost department, this particular
Speaker 1: entity or spirit was one that I didn't want to
Speaker 1: mess around with. If this spirit was in the building,
Speaker 1: it wasn't a resident. Thankfully I got out, closing as
Speaker 1: fast as I could. Many of us saw a figure
Speaker 1: staring out at us from the upstairs office over the
Speaker 1: years as it overlooked the bar and cafe area. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you could hear footsteps up there as well. Even though
Speaker 1: there was never anyone up there. I always assumed it
Speaker 1: was the friendlier ghost just hanging out with us after
Speaker 1: work for a natter and a drink, enjoying our camaraderie.
Speaker 1: I'm going to skip forward now to two thousand and
Speaker 1: nine and talk about the Marshall House. It was opened
Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty two and was one of the first
Speaker 1: hotels in Savannah, Georgia. It was used as a hospital
Speaker 1: and morgue during the Civil War. It is so haunted
Speaker 1: that they have a guest book just for haunted instances
Speaker 1: at the hotel. One of the most notable stories is
Speaker 1: that of a lady, her daughter, and the l lady's
Speaker 1: sister who all stayed in the Marshall House for a weekend.
Speaker 1: They got into the lift and hit the button for
Speaker 1: the floor they were staying in. Instead of taking them up,
Speaker 1: the elevator went down. They were perplexed, but figured maybe
Speaker 1: someone had mistakenly pressed a descending button before them. When
Speaker 1: the elevator doors opened, they were in the basement. They
Speaker 1: were met with the grizzly scene of a makeshift hospital.
Speaker 1: Men laying in cots, moaning, bleeding out, maimed. Doctors and
Speaker 1: nurses hurried around tending to the wounded and the dying.
Speaker 1: They were a bit startled at first, but figured that
Speaker 1: it was part of the hotel's spooky offerings. Everyone before
Speaker 1: them was oblivious to them. The ladies got back into
Speaker 1: the elevator and made their way back to reception. They
Speaker 1: explained that the Civil war reenactment in the basement was
Speaker 1: great and so real. The concierge looked perplexed and explained
Speaker 1: that they did not do civil war reenactments in the hotel.
Speaker 1: The ladies were adamant, so the concierge took them to
Speaker 1: the basement to show them that was where the offices
Speaker 1: were and no hospital. The ladies were visibly shaken, which
Speaker 1: brings me to my story. Jay and I went to
Speaker 1: the Marshall House for our honeymoon. We were booked in
Speaker 1: to stay on the third floor, which is the most
Speaker 1: haunted floor of the hotel. We had a lovely room
Speaker 1: and the staff had left us a bottle of champagne,
Speaker 1: a goodie basket, and balloons. It is important to note
Speaker 1: that the balloons were tied very securely to the goody basket,
Speaker 1: like in several knots. There was a huge antique armoire
Speaker 1: that gave me the hebees, which I must add could
Speaker 1: only be opened with a key. The bathroom also made
Speaker 1: me feel very uncomfortable, but that was what we were there.
Speaker 1: For ghosts. We settled in and began to enjoy our evening.
Speaker 1: That night, I was dead asleep when I heard what
Speaker 1: sounded like a cannon fire or a loud gunshot go off,
Speaker 1: and then screaming. It sounded like it was right in
Speaker 1: our room. I woke up and realized that it was
Speaker 1: Jay that was screaming. He had his eyes shut tight,
Speaker 1: and he was clasping his hands over his ears, rocking
Speaker 1: back and forth. The room was cold and had that
Speaker 1: e ReVibe when you knew you weren't alone. Once Jay
Speaker 1: had calmed down, I noticed that the balloons, which had
Speaker 1: been previously very securely tied to the goody basket, had
Speaker 1: now tangled up in the ceiling fan. There is no
Speaker 1: way that these balloons could have gotten loose from the
Speaker 1: basket unless they were cut. They weren't. I checked the
Speaker 1: spooky armoir was standing wide open as well. My skin
Speaker 1: was crawling, but my main focus was to make sure
Speaker 1: Ja was okay. Once he was calm and settled, we
Speaker 1: got the balloons off the fan and locked the armoire again.
Speaker 1: I made a point to put the key on the
Speaker 1: bedside table. We also noticed there were a bricked up
Speaker 1: doorway directly behind where Jay was sleeping in the bed,
Speaker 1: which had added to the overall creep factor. The room
Speaker 1: felt very hostile, so we watched Marriage with Children until
Speaker 1: we fell asleep again. The next day, I was in
Speaker 1: the bathroom taking a shower when I began to feel
Speaker 1: very uneasy, like someone was watching me through the curtain
Speaker 1: who didn't particularly like that I was there. I then
Speaker 1: got the flash in my mind's eye of blood dripping
Speaker 1: off the walls and limbs being hacked off. I called
Speaker 1: for Jay to keep me company until I could finish
Speaker 1: because the energy in the bathroom was so threatening. We
Speaker 1: enjoyed our trip out and got ourselves ready for our
Speaker 1: last night, and we settled in a side note to
Speaker 1: say every time we came back into the room, the
Speaker 1: andour doors would be wide open, but the key was
Speaker 1: still sitting on the bedside table. That last night, I
Speaker 1: slept horribly the whole night. There was a Confederate soldier
Speaker 1: standing by my side of the bed with spring into
Speaker 1: my ear. I couldn't understand what he was saying or wanted,
Speaker 1: so I ignored him as I was so exhausted. But
Speaker 1: what was really annoying was the two or three kids
Speaker 1: running up and down the hall, playing and making a
Speaker 1: huge racket until around four am. It really pissed me off.
Speaker 1: The next day, when we were checking out, the concierge
Speaker 1: asked us how our stay was. We told them we
Speaker 1: loved it and that we definitely had some paranormal experiences,
Speaker 1: which the concierge asked us to record in their book.
Speaker 1: I then said that whoever the parents were of the
Speaker 1: unruly kids running around until four am should probably be
Speaker 1: reminded to keep them in check so as not to
Speaker 1: disturb further guests. The concierge went pale and stated very quietly,
Speaker 1: that's impossible. We don't have any families with children currently
Speaker 1: checked into the hotel. It's now twenty eleven and Jay
Speaker 1: and I went to Edinburgh for a weekend. We were
Speaker 1: looking forward to going on all the ghosts tour that
Speaker 1: Edinburgh had to offer. We always loved checking out all
Speaker 1: the ghost tours whenever we traveled, and Edinburgh certainly delivered.
Speaker 1: We went to the City of the Dead's Ghost tour
Speaker 1: in Greyfriars Kirkyard as well as some of the vault tours.
Speaker 1: Greyfriars is particularly haunted besides the Mackenzie Poltergeist. It is
Speaker 1: teeming with spirits of the long since departed. It's a
Speaker 1: very active cemetery and you can feel the dead watching you,
Speaker 1: mostly curious. They're whispers intermingling amongst the punter's chatter. It
Speaker 1: houses some of the largest numbers of bubonic plague victims,
Speaker 1: to the point that if you unick yourself on a
Speaker 1: bone shard walking about, the likelihood of getting the plague
Speaker 1: is quite high, as it lies dormant until it comes
Speaker 1: into contact with living tissue. There's a crypt at the
Speaker 1: back of the cemetery, a black mausoleum that they have
Speaker 1: everyone crowd into. I made my way to the back
Speaker 1: wall and stayed away from everyone as I wanted to
Speaker 1: see if I would have any experiences here. As I
Speaker 1: could feel something inside. I was grabbed multiple times from behind.
Speaker 1: The only thing behind me was the wall. At one
Speaker 1: point I felt someone standing behind me, and as I
Speaker 1: looked over my shoulder there was a huge, dark, cloaked
Speaker 1: shadow standing there. I felt someone breathing down my neck.
Speaker 1: I felt unwelcome, like I was a pest. When walking
Speaker 1: by the Mackenzie Poltergeist's crypt, I stayed back to allow
Speaker 1: everyone else to walk by, and I looked in. Jay
Speaker 1: had moved on down to the exit, which is in
Speaker 1: view of the crypt, waiting for me to finish. I
Speaker 1: walked up to the gates and stood there feeling out
Speaker 1: the energy. There was a malicious anger and I felt
Speaker 1: a presence walk up to the bars and scream in
Speaker 1: my face. This was followed by a maladerous smell of
Speaker 1: human remains rotting. Obviously, I very quickly got away from
Speaker 1: the gated doorway. Jane noticed that I was off killed
Speaker 1: and asked me what happened, so I told him. He
Speaker 1: was wide eyed and encouraged me to tell the tour owner.
Speaker 1: Once the punters had left, I approached the owner and
Speaker 1: explained what had happened. He told me he was wondering
Speaker 1: if I had anything unusual happened during the tour. I
Speaker 1: was a bit shocked, so he continued to explain that
Speaker 1: he could tell I was extremely psychic and knew the
Speaker 1: ghosts would want to talk to me. He also went
Speaker 1: on to say that my psychicness came from my maternal line,
Speaker 1: most notably my Mimi, maternal grandmother. This was all news
Speaker 1: to me as my mom was extremely religious. As stated
Speaker 1: previously and wouldn't touch anything paranormal or esoteric with a
Speaker 1: ten foot poll. My Mimi, who was not as religiously
Speaker 1: inclined in her older age, did suffer from mental health
Speaker 1: difficulties throughout her life, so she could have very well
Speaker 1: been psychic and just not know how to deal with it,
Speaker 1: a theory that I support. Chatted with the owner for
Speaker 1: a while and he asked if I could tell my
Speaker 1: story as part of his tours, which I readily agreed.
Speaker 1: We all believed the Mackenzie poltergeist had made his presence known.
Speaker 1: The Edinburgh Volts are also teeming with ghosts and dark entities.
Speaker 1: The Banshee Labyrinth is a great spot to get a
Speaker 1: drink and watch a movie in their cinema basement and
Speaker 1: pick up ghosts. The pub is connected to the vaults
Speaker 1: and a lot of the tours end there. There are
Speaker 1: lots of cold spots throughout the place, as well as
Speaker 1: unseen eyes watching you. We'd gone through one of the
Speaker 1: vault tours where a child ghosts attached itself to me.
Speaker 1: The tour guide had said there was a little boy
Speaker 1: ghost that'd like to attach himself to Punter's particularly females.
Speaker 1: Sure enough. As we walked through that section of the vault,
Speaker 1: I felt my hand freeze. The cold crept up my arm,
Speaker 1: and I distinctly felt a small hand in mine. I
Speaker 1: was surprised the child ghost had picked me, as I
Speaker 1: don't have a maternal bone in my body, but I
Speaker 1: just whispered hello and went about the tour. Towards the
Speaker 1: end of the tour, we were led into a small
Speaker 1: room that had a stone circle. The tour guide explained
Speaker 1: that this circle was known to be cursed, and anyone
Speaker 1: that had dared to set foot inside it had something
Speaker 1: bad happened to them. Any time I got too close
Speaker 1: to the circle, I would feel this jolt of cold
Speaker 1: electricity snake up my arm, as if the boy was
Speaker 1: warning me away. I assured him I was not going
Speaker 1: to step inside the circle. Once we got to the
Speaker 1: entrance of the Banshee Labyrinth, my arm started to warm
Speaker 1: up and I felt the little ghost boy leave. In
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, I worked in Starbucks Temple Bar for a
Speaker 1: few years as a supervisor. At the time, there were
Speaker 1: no buses into the city center that could get me
Speaker 1: in for an early morning start, so I would have
Speaker 1: to stay in a hostel on my own dime, just
Speaker 1: to keep my job. It never fails. When I've stayed
Speaker 1: in a hostel here in Dublin, I always get put
Speaker 1: in a haunted room, seriously every time. Anyway, I checked in,
Speaker 1: and sure enough there was a presence in the room
Speaker 1: watching me from the shadows. But I just quickly acknowledged
Speaker 1: them and went about my business and went to bed.
Speaker 1: The next morning, I woke up early, got ready for work,
Speaker 1: and checked out. The hostel I stayed at is located
Speaker 1: on Lord Edward Street, so I had about a ten
Speaker 1: minute walk up Dame Street to Temple Bar. I must
Speaker 1: add this occurred right before Halloween, just a couple of
Speaker 1: days before, if memory serves so. I'm walking along, minding
Speaker 1: my own business, listening to music when I realized that
Speaker 1: it feels like I'm being followed. Now, anyone that has
Speaker 1: been to Dublin in October knows that it gets dark
Speaker 1: at six am. The city was a tomb I stopped
Speaker 1: and pulled my headphones out and turned around to see
Speaker 1: if I was being followed. There was no one there.
Speaker 1: It was quiet. It just so happened that when I
Speaker 1: felt like this, I stopped right in front of the
Speaker 1: alleyway next to the Olympia Theater. This alleyway is also haunted,
Speaker 1: but I will share that story with you another time.
Speaker 1: But the ghosts that are there, I could feel them
Speaker 1: watching me too. I acknowledged them and kept on my way.
Speaker 1: The feeling of being followed stayed with me though. I
Speaker 1: got to the shop and my barista and I started
Speaker 1: to get the store ready to open. As I was
Speaker 1: going to restock the pastries, I rounded the corner to
Speaker 1: come through the doorway that led from the back of
Speaker 1: the house to the bar and I looked up and
Speaker 1: had a straight clear view of the front door. There
Speaker 1: was a slightly translucent man standing at the door. He
Speaker 1: was dressed in a brown three piece suit with a
Speaker 1: cravat and a fancy time piece draped in his waistcoat pocket.
Speaker 1: He held a bowler hat and looked to be about thirty,
Speaker 1: with brown hair and a quiff mustache. He had the
Speaker 1: vibe of the Victorian era. He just stood there staring
Speaker 1: at me, curious. I didn't get any bad way feelings
Speaker 1: of him. He was just curious about me, and he
Speaker 1: knew I could see him sends him. I believe he
Speaker 1: was the one that followed me from the hostel. I
Speaker 1: have no idea how long he'd been there watching me
Speaker 1: from the door. When I saw him, I shouted, oh shit.
Speaker 1: My barristas startled asked me what was wrong. Nonchalantly, I said,
Speaker 1: there was a ghost at the door. He disappeared as
Speaker 1: soon as I'd blinked, so our interaction lasted all of
Speaker 1: thirty seconds. My barrista freaked out, but they all knew
Speaker 1: I was a witch, so as soon as I told
Speaker 1: her he was gone, she calmed down. I never saw
Speaker 1: him again, but it was the first full body apparition
Speaker 1: that I'd seen in a very long time. The Hill
Speaker 1: of Tara is the seat of the High Kings of Ireland.
Speaker 1: It's a sacred place and a place that exists outside
Speaker 1: of time. I say this because I've experienced time slips here.
Speaker 1: It's also a place of the hi or Fay, which
Speaker 1: adds to its other worldliness. The Hawthorne Sentinels keep watch
Speaker 1: over the land and hold its secrets. I would always
Speaker 1: advise if you're going to visit here to bring trinkets
Speaker 1: or sweets. Don't ever come and leave without an offering
Speaker 1: for the she It was twenty sixteen and I was
Speaker 1: at the Hill of Tara for the summer Saltice festivities.
Speaker 1: It was a beautiful day and there was a drumming
Speaker 1: circle setting the mood. I was walking around in the
Speaker 1: area that historically is known as the banquet Hall. This
Speaker 1: is where the banquet hall was believed to have stood
Speaker 1: for celebrations in ancient times. As I meandered around, enjoying
Speaker 1: the vibes, the music and the revelry, the air shifted
Speaker 1: suddenly and became very shimmery. I could see another layer
Speaker 1: of time transposed over us in the present. Before me
Speaker 1: was an ancient Salstice festival celebration transposed over the present
Speaker 1: day festivities. I was gobsmacked. I stood transfer fixed on
Speaker 1: the spot, watching the ancient feast and merriment play out
Speaker 1: before me. Then I caught a glimpse of white as
Speaker 1: an old woman broke through the crowd. She was regal looking,
Speaker 1: with sharp features and flowing white hair. She stood in
Speaker 1: front of me, just out of arm's reach, and stared
Speaker 1: at me.
Speaker 2: She saw me.
Speaker 1: We stood staring at each other, curiosity passing between us.
Speaker 1: She was their witch de calliach. I just instinctively knew
Speaker 1: this as soon as the thought went through my mind.
Speaker 1: She smirked knowingly and threw me out, shutting down the
Speaker 1: displacement of time. The air returned to normal, the sounds
Speaker 1: of the Leth Festival from my time filling my ears again.
Speaker 1: I was blown away. I'll wrap all of this spookin
Speaker 1: us up with some doppelgangers. I'm forever fascinated with the
Speaker 1: subject of doppelgangers, and I'm not quite sure what they are.
Speaker 1: One of my best friends, E was staying with us
Speaker 1: for a while between house moves in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: She'd gone out and I knew she'd be home late.
Speaker 1: I'd gone to bed earlier, but woke up briefly as
Speaker 1: I heard the front door open and shut, and then
Speaker 1: footsteps on the stairs. In my mind, I thought, oh,
Speaker 1: he is back home. I then heard my bedroom door
Speaker 1: open and could hear someone speaking and polish quite loudly
Speaker 1: from her phone. I peeped my eyes open a crack
Speaker 1: to see what she was watching. At one am, she
Speaker 1: stood at the foot of my bed watching some video
Speaker 1: on her phone. I could see her face lit up
Speaker 1: by the light of the phone screen, but it was
Speaker 1: like there was something not quite right about the angles.
Speaker 1: I thought maybe it was just my sleepiness not seeing
Speaker 1: things properly. The loud, polish video continued and I said, sleepily, E,
Speaker 1: please turn that off and go to sleep. It's one am.
Speaker 1: She slowly turned and looked at me. She had this weird,
Speaker 1: uncanny smile on her face, and like I mentioned before,
Speaker 1: the angles of her face seemed wrong. Somehow it was
Speaker 1: E but wasn't. It was many sing. She looked at
Speaker 1: me for what felt like ages with that weird smile,
Speaker 1: and then slowly turned back to her phone. I watched
Speaker 1: her for another minute or two to see if she
Speaker 1: did anything else, and also trying to calm myself down.
Speaker 1: Whilst debating on whether I was going to properly wake
Speaker 1: up and confront this chilling version of my friend. My
Speaker 1: body decided for me exhaustion, lulling me back to sleep. Finally,
Speaker 1: as the short burst of adrenaline left my system. Later,
Speaker 1: I heard my bedroom door open again and felt her
Speaker 1: get into bed beside me. The next morning, we were
Speaker 1: lying in bed chatting and I asked her when she
Speaker 1: got back home from her night out. She said she
Speaker 1: got in at around four a m. I recounted what
Speaker 1: had happened with her doppelganger. She was intrigued and adamant
Speaker 1: that it definitely was not her. I have no explanation. Interestingly,
Speaker 1: throughout my teendom and into my adulthood, I was told
Speaker 1: by friends and family that they had run into me
Speaker 1: in town or at an event and had said hi
Speaker 1: or tried to talk to me, and that I just
Speaker 1: looked at them blankly and didn't engage with them at all.
Speaker 1: Since I'm a very chatty person. They all thought this
Speaker 1: was very out of character for me. Plus, if it
Speaker 1: were a case of mistaken identity, the person they had
Speaker 1: mistaken for me would surely have said something along the
Speaker 1: lines of sorry, I'm not her. But the other me
Speaker 1: never said a word, only stared at them and then
Speaker 1: walked away. They had said there was something very off
Speaker 1: or odd about the other me. I can only assume
Speaker 1: this was a doppelganger. Another instant occurred when I broke
Speaker 1: up with an abusive X from college. This would have
Speaker 1: been about two thousand and five. I believe a doppelganger
Speaker 1: assisted did me to finally get out of this shitty relationship.
Speaker 1: He called me at work to ask where I was.
Speaker 1: I stated I'd been at university all day and had
Speaker 1: just clocked in for my shift at the bar I
Speaker 1: worked at. He asked sardonically, are you sure about that?
Speaker 1: I got exasperated with him and said, yes, I am sure.
Speaker 1: What's this all about? He smugly told me that a
Speaker 1: trusted source of his had seen me canoodling with a
Speaker 1: guy at the local Starbucks that morning, and we were
Speaker 1: there for a few hours. He thought he'd caught me cheating.
Speaker 1: I laughed and stated that I'd been at university since
Speaker 1: eight am and that I'd started my shift at the
Speaker 1: bar at two pm directly after university. He started getting
Speaker 1: unruly on the phone, yelling that he knew it was
Speaker 1: me and that I was lying. In that moment, I
Speaker 1: got so angry that I just broke up with him
Speaker 1: on the spot over the phone. I told him I
Speaker 1: was sick of his shit and that I wished I
Speaker 1: had the time between work and college to have a
Speaker 1: secret boyfriend. And he started backtracking, but I just told
Speaker 1: him I was sick of hearing his excuses, that we
Speaker 1: were done, and put the phone down. It's the best
Speaker 1: thing I ever did. Apparently I also have a doppelganger
Speaker 1: roaming around Dublin as well. I've had friends tell me
Speaker 1: similarly that they have seen me out interacted with me,
Speaker 1: but the doppelganger does not engage, and there is always
Speaker 1: something off or odd about the other me that and
Speaker 1: nerves them. I've had to give out a few apologies
Speaker 1: for this doppelganger because some people were offended. This concludes
Speaker 1: another spookfest from me. As always, it's a pleasure, Steve.
Speaker 1: I hope you and the listeners enjoy. And there you
Speaker 1: have it, the end of this episode, but also the
Speaker 1: end of season seven, almost yet again, as we begin
Speaker 1: to draw another season to a close, we have to
Speaker 1: thank each and every one of you for tuning in
Speaker 1: and listening to the show. It really means the world
Speaker 1: to us. We'd also like to thank Katie for sending
Speaker 1: in these amazing stories and for letting us share them
Speaker 1: with you. As you've already found out, Katie seems to
Speaker 1: have a number of gifts, and whilst she is now
Speaker 1: used to them and their impact upon her life and
Speaker 1: those close to her, it would be very interesting to
Speaker 1: see how someone else would cope who didn't have these gifts.
Speaker 1: Still to come before we finally wave goodbye to season
Speaker 1: seven A listener stories and we have four jam packed
Speaker 1: episodes of strange encounters, ghostly sightings, haunted locations, and much
Speaker 1: much more. So, stay tuned for that little bit longer,
Speaker 1: because you never know. One of the submissions in our
Speaker 1: upcoming Listener Stories episodes.
Speaker 2: Could be yours, Protect, Protect predcredent bred no predec pec Protect,
Speaker 2: predict gret BT, Prefect Conect, Contain Pride bred Old