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Speaker 1: What is your life's biggest mystery that will probably go unsolved.

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Story one the time I woke up on top of

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my refrigerator. I don't remember exactly how old I was,

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sometime in my early teens, but it's exactly what I said.

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I woke up on top of my refrigerator. I had

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been sleeping up there, curled up like a cat, and

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to this day I have no idea how I got

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up there. There was nobody home at the time who

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would or could have put me up there while I

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was sleeping, and there's no way I could have climbed

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up there unassisted. But there were no chairs or stools

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or anything around the fridge I could have used to

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climb up, and I obviously couldn't have used one and

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put it back while I was still up there. I

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also had no prior history of sleepwalking whatsoever, and to

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my knowledge, I've never sleepwalked again since. To this day,

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I have absolutely no idea what happened, and it still

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bugs me. If anybody has any theories as to how

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this could have been possible, I would love to hear them.

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Story two, Is my dad really my dad? When I

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was conceived? My mother and her then boyfriend were having

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some serious relationship issues. He had been unfaithful to her

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with his ex wife. She went on a road trip

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to another state with some girlfriends to clear her head

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and blow off steam. While there, she ran into another

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guy she knew from back home. He had a nice car,

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offered to give her a ride in it, and they

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spent the night together. She went back home, and shortly

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after she and her boyfriend reconciled and resumed dating. Not

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long after that, she found out she was pregnant. The

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boyfriend wanted her to have an abortion. I don't think

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he knew about the other guy, however, but she refused.

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They ended up breaking up some time during her pregnancy.

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She was fairly sure that the guy with the car

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was the father, but didn't know for sure. The ex

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assumed he was the father, but didn't really want to

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take on a parental role. I came into the world

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and during my second year of life. She wrote a

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letter to the guy with the car, using his mother's address,

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as she didn't know where he was living at the time.

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She told him about me and gave him the choice

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of being in my life or not. We were fine

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either way. She never got a response. Fast forward thirteen years,

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my half sister from my mom's previous marriage was getting married.

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The wedding was pretty close to the home of the

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guy's mother. I had heard everything my mom could tell

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me about him and really wanted to meet him. She

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went to the house and formed his mom of my

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existence and left our phone number. He called later that

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night and we arranged a meeting for the next day.

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We lived pretty far apart we met. He was very

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friendly and we began to form a relationship. He claimed

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he didn't need a paternity test and believed he was

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the father. My mom believed it too. He passed away

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in a fire about four years later. During the last

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two years of his life, we didn't get to see

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each other much, but we stayed in contact over the phone.

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My mom passed away shortly after due to medical issues.

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I haven't heard from her former boyfriend since I was

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a toddler, and I don't even know if he's still alive.

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Story three. I moved into a new house in July.

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After unloading all the things I own, I realized that

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I had neglected some basics, like toilet paper in dish detergent.

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I went out and stocked up on a few things,

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including a giant pack of my favorite toilet paper, the

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one with the bears on it, only to realize that

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my mom had picked some up for me while I

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was out. This giant pack of toilet paper became a

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thorn in my side as I moved into a house

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that was a complete gut job, and everywhere I turned

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I was tripping over boxes and such. There wasn't a

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shelf or cupboard big enough to store it, so I

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was always throwing it somewhere q the day I actually

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need it. Where is this monstrosity nowhere? I searched every

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nook and cranny of my house, which had become a

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lot more organized over the past couple of weeks. I searched,

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I asked friends and family. It's gone. I went shopping

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and tried to forget about it. I still look for

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that giant pass back of toilet paper. I can't forget.

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It haunts me. How does a humongous pack of toilet

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paper disappear? And this, I feel, will be the greatest

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mystery of my life. Story four. Around two thousand and four,

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I was working as a projectionist at a movie theater.

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One of the Kids movies had ended, but the last

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movie of the night still had about fifty minutes left

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of its runtime, so one of the things I would

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typically do was check the theater for left behind, loose

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change or unopened candy. I went down there and looked

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around for maybe ten minutes. I made my way back upstairs,

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thinking I still had about forty minutes left in my shift,

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and next thing I know, my boss is calling me

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on the walkie talkie asking if I'm done and ready

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to go home. I thought he was just messing with me,

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which he sometimes would do, so I didn't think much

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of it until I realized none of the movies were running,

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and to my surprise, I had somehow just jumped about

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forty five minutes into the future. Even my watch was

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showing the later time. I've never been able to explain

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it to myself, and at this point, I'm just assuming

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my mind made the whole thing up. Or maybe I'm

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a one time time traveler who randomly moved ahead about

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forty five minutes for no apparent reason. Story five. Back

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in two thousand and four, I worked with an incredibly

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beautiful girl who, one night, while we were on a

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break together, just poured her heart out to me about

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how difficult life had become. She was a single mom

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trying to make ends meet. Anyway, I got up to

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go back to work, but before I left, I offered

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her a hug. She stood up and hugged me for

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about thirty seconds. It was the tightest hug anyone has

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ever given me in my life. A couple of months later,

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I found myself moving halfway across the country for a

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career change that ended up not working out. About six

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months after that, I moved back and got my old

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job again. To my delight, she was still there. So

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I showed up on my first day back with a

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lot of excitement. Come to find out, she had four

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days left before she was moving on and to become

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a nurse. In some sense, it's almost like she did

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to me exactly what I had done to her. Left

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for a career opportunity. I'll always wonder if she felt

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as strongly for me as I did for her. I

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never really got the chance to tell her. Maybe I

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should have. Story six. Okay, So I decided to try

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a baby gymnastics class with my one year old. She

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was having fun, and I decided to grab my phone

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to take a few photos. I noticed it wasn't with

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my bag, but I didn't panic. I probably left it

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in the car. I knew I had it in the

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car because I'd been listening to the Hamilton soundtrack. I

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finished the class and walked to my car, which was

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park parallel to the gym. I put the baby in

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her seat and called out, hey, Siri, a trick I

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often used to find my phone. Siri didn't respond. I

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was slightly more concerned, but I still got in the car,

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expecting it to connect to my phone via Bluetooth because

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it had to be in the car right. I started driving,

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but nothing happened. Now I knew for sure that my

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phone wasn't in the car. I was already nearby, so

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I pulled into my mom's house, she lives two minutes

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from the gym, frantically calling my number. To my relief,

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a woman answered and said I had left my phone

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at the gym. I thanked her profusely and told her

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I'd come right back to collect it. She said okay.

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I drove back to the gym, walked in, looking a

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bit embarrassed. The coach smiled and said, forget something. I laughed,

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and said my phone. Then she said, yeah, go walk

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around and look for it. I paused, what but I

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just called it and a woman said it was found here.

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The coach looked just as confused, saying no phone had

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been handed in and no one had come in since

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I left. She asked the two other moms present if

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they knew anything. They didn't. Now I was truly confused.

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I borrowed the gym's phone to call my number again.

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It rang, but no one answered. I stood at the

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desk for five minutes, just trying to process what was happening,

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before I asked the coach if I could borrow her

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phone to use find my iPhone. She handed it over

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and I logged in the compass, spun a few times,

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then stopped. My phone was close by, only three streets away,

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at another gym. I thank the coach. Drove to that gym,

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which I had never entered in my life, and saw

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my phone sitting on the counter. I asked the receptionist

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who turned it in, but she didn't really know. How

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did it get to the other gym, where was it found,

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who found it? And why didn't they return it to

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the first gym since it must have been lost on

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the sidewalk from the car to the original location. I

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still don't know how it got to the other gym

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or where it was found. I don't think I ever

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will story seven. Every Valentine's Day for the last ten

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to twelve years, I've been sent a secret Admirer card,

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same handwriting, always in all caps, always bearing a postmark

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from a London sorting office. To this day, I have

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been unable to determine who's sending it. My biggest suspicion

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is that it's either my mother or my sister. My

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reasoning is that the cards started when I was a teenager,

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a socially awkward kid who didn't exact exactly have admirers,

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and I just can't believe someone outside my family would

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keep this going for so long. I've asked my mom

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and sister about it numerous times, but they firmly insist

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it's not them. I've asked other family members and they

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all deny it too. I've tried getting upset and pleaded

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with them, telling them it's starting to bother me and

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I'd rather just know the truth. But still the cards arrive. Either.

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My family has way more will power and persistence than

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I give them credit for, or my mystery admirer is

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truly anonymous. Regardless, it continues to bug me. Like crazy

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story eight. I once got a random message on my

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phone saying four hundred minutes had been added to it.

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No idea how considering the only people who could have

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done it didn't have that kind of money at the time.

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It was a nice surprise. When I was seventeen, I

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heard sounds like someone stomping on my roof. I thought

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maybe it was the landlord or his son, since we

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had recently complained about a leak. I looked everywhere out

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there side, but there were no vehicles, no ladders. The

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stomping continued for about ten minutes, back and forth, then stopped.

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At fifteen. I went to take a nap after staying

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up late the night before. My mom came home from work,

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banged on my door, and I walked out of my room. Immediately,

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I was hit with a massive wave of heat, and

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my mom asked what was going on. I was confused

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and asked her the same thing. When she came in,

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she found the oven open and turned up to Max

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and one of the dining chairs placed directly in front

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of the bathroom door. The chair had been moved there

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once before during the night, when my mom had gotten

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up to use the bathroom. I could go on, but

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that's probably enough for now. Story nine. A few years ago,

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I was driving through East London with some friends, literally

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just driving around without any destination. We had been on

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the road for about ten minutes when I noticed flashes

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coming from the car in front, then more flashes. I

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realized they were taking pictures of my car. After a

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few shots, they sped off. We kept driving for another

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thirty to forty minutes, and while going through a different

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area of East London, someone in another car ahead of

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us stuck a camera out the window and started taking

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more pictures. After a few photos, they sped off too,

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this time running multiple red lights. There were a lot

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due to roadworks. About twenty minutes later we were near

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the first location where the photos were taken. We drove

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into a nearby council estate and I realized a car

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was following us closely. I took a left turn, so

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did they. I turned right and they followed again. I

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pulled into a car park, they did too. I pulled out,

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they followed. I started to feel uneasy, just about ready

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to speed away, when suddenly blue lights came on. The

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car following us was an undercover police car. I got

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pulled over. Two plane clothes officers approached the vehicle and

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asked me to step out. They showed their badges, checked

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my license and details, looked through the windows, but didn't

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search the car, and eventually let me go. I still

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don't know if if those were three unrelated incidents or

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two weird encounters followed by a police stop, or if

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everything was somehow connected. It didn't sit right with me

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that I was photographed in my car miles apart, with

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both cars speeding off, and then later pulled over for

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the first time in my life. I was a new

241
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driver at the time. Was I being followed? Was my

242
00:12:21,240 --> 00:12:24,679
old car somehow interesting to random people? I don't know

243
00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:27,279
if you'd call it a mystery, but it still feels

244
00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:30,960
like one to me. Story ten. Sometime around two thousand

245
00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:34,240
and eight, two roommates and I saw a giant, winged

246
00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:38,200
reptilian creature flying above our Henderson, Nevada home late one night.

247
00:12:38,919 --> 00:12:41,320
After maybe an hour or so, it flew off into

248
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the darkness. We dubbed it the Mothman. Like the antagonists

249
00:12:45,320 --> 00:12:48,039
from the movie with the same name. The next night,

250
00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:51,840
there were two. They flew in lazy circles over our subdivision,

251
00:12:52,159 --> 00:12:55,080
like hawks searching for mice in a field. One of

252
00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:57,679
them flew low enough that the street lights illuminated it,

253
00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:01,399
and I clearly remember seeing a well de fine quadrceps muscle.

254
00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:04,200
The night after that, the sky was full of them,

255
00:13:04,679 --> 00:13:09,399
along with smaller, barking type things. I can't even begin

256
00:13:09,519 --> 00:13:13,279
to describe what they look like. Then they were gone forever.

257
00:13:13,759 --> 00:13:16,799
For months after, we'd stay up late smoking cigarettes in

258
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the bed of my truck watching the skies. The kicker

259
00:13:19,960 --> 00:13:22,759
to the story is that years later, after I moved

260
00:13:22,799 --> 00:13:25,679
to the Pacific Northwest, my girlfriend and I were hanging

261
00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:28,279
out by the river. We chatted with the family next

262
00:13:28,279 --> 00:13:30,639
to us, and when I mentioned where I used to live,

263
00:13:30,679 --> 00:13:34,320
the guy asked, you ever see any of them flying gargoyles.

264
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My girlfriend, who already knew the story, and I looked

265
00:13:37,759 --> 00:13:40,720
at each other in total shock. Apparently he had a

266
00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:44,799
friend in Arizona who told a similar story. I'm not religious.

267
00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:48,559
I don't buy into outlandish things other people say. I

268
00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:53,159
think kem trails are just vapor condensation. Bigfoot probably a

269
00:13:53,200 --> 00:13:56,000
guy in a costume. I've never claimed to be abducted

270
00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:00,120
by aliens, but I have one giant, unexplainable mystery that

271
00:14:00,159 --> 00:14:03,480
I don't think i'll ever solve. Story eleven. I had

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a favorite toy as a kid that I played with

273
00:14:05,639 --> 00:14:08,759
every day, and I always kept it separate from my

274
00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:11,720
other toys so I wouldn't waste time looking for it.

275
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It sat inside this end table looking thing. One day,

276
00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:17,679
I went to grab it and it was gone. I

277
00:14:17,759 --> 00:14:20,879
searched everywhere, and my five or six year old self

278
00:14:20,879 --> 00:14:24,320
interrogated the whole family. No one had any idea where

279
00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:27,559
it had gone. Years later, as a teenager, I found

280
00:14:27,559 --> 00:14:30,559
it underneath a cardboard box in the basement, which had

281
00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:33,600
somehow slipped under the tool bench. I still have no

282
00:14:33,679 --> 00:14:37,039
clue how it got there. Side story, I'm convinced I

283
00:14:37,039 --> 00:14:39,879
have a doppelganger with similar tattoos to mine. In Georgia,

284
00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:43,200
I'm from Indiana. I had to travel there for work

285
00:14:43,360 --> 00:14:46,120
and had never been in that state before, not even

286
00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:49,799
in passing. I stopped at a gas station just outside Atlanta,

287
00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:53,000
and as soon as I walked in, the young cashier

288
00:14:53,080 --> 00:14:57,240
smiled brightly and said, oh my gosh, Hi. Confused, I

289
00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:00,279
smiled and said hi back. She asked how i'd and

290
00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:03,399
then said, I see you finally got your half sleeve finished.

291
00:15:04,159 --> 00:15:07,120
I had just completed it about a month prior. I

292
00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:10,000
was definitely weirded out, but I went along with it.

293
00:15:10,519 --> 00:15:13,440
Then she asked, are you still getting your shoulder covered up?

294
00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:16,720
I do have a tattoo on my shoulder and I

295
00:15:16,799 --> 00:15:19,000
had been planning to get it covered for a few months.

296
00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:22,799
I quickly wrapped up the conversation and left. To this day,

297
00:15:22,879 --> 00:15:26,039
I have absolutely no clue what happened, or maybe it

298
00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:30,240
was just an extremely strange coincidence. Story twelve. It was

299
00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:33,720
nineteen ninety six and I was backpacking solo, taking a

300
00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:37,039
train from Prague to Cheskey Krumlov. We got a bit

301
00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:41,200
outside Prague, stopping now and then at various stations. Then

302
00:15:41,240 --> 00:15:44,120
we stopped in a field. I didn't pay much attention

303
00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:46,279
at first, until a minute or two later, when I

304
00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:48,720
realized everyone was getting off the train with all their

305
00:15:48,759 --> 00:15:52,519
luggage and climbing a hill. I was totally confused. I

306
00:15:52,559 --> 00:15:56,240
looked around and saw that everyone had left my car, actually,

307
00:15:56,320 --> 00:15:59,080
everyone had left all the cars. So I grabbed my

308
00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:02,000
backpack and followed them up the hill, trying desperately to

309
00:16:02,039 --> 00:16:04,799
find someone who spoke English. At the top of the

310
00:16:04,879 --> 00:16:07,240
hill were a bunch of buses with signs in check,

311
00:16:07,679 --> 00:16:11,679
each apparently indicating different destinations, but none of them said

312
00:16:11,799 --> 00:16:16,039
Cheskey Krumloff. I stood there indecisively as buses started filling

313
00:16:16,159 --> 00:16:19,039
up and pulling away. Eventually, a little old lady grabbed

314
00:16:19,080 --> 00:16:20,639
me by the arm and pulled me into one of

315
00:16:20,639 --> 00:16:24,279
the last buses. There were no seats left, though someone

316
00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:27,960
kindly offered one to her, so I stood. We drove.

317
00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:31,320
I had no idea where we were going, why we

318
00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:34,600
were going there, or how long it would take. Still,

319
00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:38,440
I couldn't find anyone who spoke English. After about twenty minutes,

320
00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:41,399
we reached a small station in a rural area and

321
00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:44,000
there was a train waiting. It looked about the same

322
00:16:44,039 --> 00:16:46,320
as the one we'd been on, though I couldn't be

323
00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:48,919
sure it was the same. All the buses pulled in

324
00:16:49,399 --> 00:16:52,559
and everyone got back on the train, so I did two.

325
00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:56,759
Eventually we arrived in Cheske Krumloff, and I got off.

326
00:16:57,240 --> 00:16:59,960
To this day, I have no idea what happened. Was

327
00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:03,799
the track damaged? Was it some kind of emergency, A

328
00:17:03,879 --> 00:17:07,319
herd of cows blocking the line a quiet disaster. They

329
00:17:07,319 --> 00:17:10,039
didn't want to mention. Was it always part of the

330
00:17:10,039 --> 00:17:14,440
plan to switch to buses? I'll never know. Story thirteen

331
00:17:14,799 --> 00:17:17,319
who called me at my new house on my new

332
00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:20,400
landline number from a very old cell phone showing my

333
00:17:20,519 --> 00:17:23,480
dad's name on the caller ID, A year after he

334
00:17:23,519 --> 00:17:26,839
had passed away, and many years after we had lost

335
00:17:26,839 --> 00:17:29,720
that phone in number. I wasn't even in the same

336
00:17:29,759 --> 00:17:33,519
state anymore. I had moved and changed numbers several times,

337
00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:37,119
and only one person, my husband, had our new number.

338
00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:41,000
This happened about seven years ago, and I can't remember

339
00:17:41,039 --> 00:17:43,960
whether I actually answered the call and no one was there,

340
00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:46,720
or if I just stared at the caller ID with

341
00:17:46,799 --> 00:17:50,440
my dad's name until it stopped ringing. I was just

342
00:17:50,559 --> 00:17:54,400
so confused and deeply unsettled. I tried calling the number back,

343
00:17:54,759 --> 00:17:58,440
but never got an answer or voicemail. I contacted every

344
00:17:58,519 --> 00:18:01,319
phone company that might have been a associated with that number,

345
00:18:01,839 --> 00:18:06,160
explained my situation, thinking maybe it was a stolen phone,

346
00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:09,279
but still still, how would they have my new number

347
00:18:09,759 --> 00:18:12,680
and why would they call me? None of the providers

348
00:18:12,720 --> 00:18:16,039
had records of that number or name anymore, and honestly,

349
00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:18,799
I think they thought I was losing it. The only

350
00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:22,559
somewhat logical explanation I have is that an old acquaintance

351
00:18:22,599 --> 00:18:25,480
somehow ended up with the phone and tried to contact

352
00:18:25,519 --> 00:18:29,160
me and had somehow tracked down my new name and number.

353
00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:33,960
Or maybe I imagined the whole thing. I'll never really know.

354
00:18:34,519 --> 00:18:37,599
Story fourteen. My mom and dad were very sick in

355
00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:41,240
their final months. My dad was paraplegic and my mom

356
00:18:41,319 --> 00:18:45,359
was his full time caregiver. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer,

357
00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:48,160
and after about seven months we knew what was ahead.

358
00:18:49,039 --> 00:18:51,599
She was going to pass away. My dad had a

359
00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:55,480
lot of issues, including struggles with alcohol. I sat down

360
00:18:55,519 --> 00:18:57,200
next to him one day and told him he needed

361
00:18:57,200 --> 00:19:00,559
to start taking physical therapy seriously because she was getting

362
00:19:00,599 --> 00:19:03,880
weak and couldn't continue caring for him. He passed away

363
00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:06,720
in his sleep just a few days later. It was peaceful.

364
00:19:07,039 --> 00:19:08,799
My mom found him in the morning with a glass

365
00:19:08,799 --> 00:19:11,640
in his hand. That's how calm it was. He had

366
00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:15,839
an entire pharmacy at his bedside, including vicodin infentanyl. When

367
00:19:15,839 --> 00:19:18,640
the hospital asked if I wanted an autopsy, I declined.

368
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:21,319
I was twenty three at the time and felt he

369
00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:24,319
had been through enough in those last years. I couldn't

370
00:19:24,319 --> 00:19:27,319
bear the idea of his body being cut open for answers.

371
00:19:27,799 --> 00:19:31,039
My mom, already very sick herself, didn't argue with my decision.

372
00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:34,599
She was honestly overwhelmed with a mix of relief and guilt,

373
00:19:35,359 --> 00:19:37,759
relief that she wouldn't have to take care of him anymore,

374
00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:41,640
guilt for feeling that way, and anxiety about her own health.

375
00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:45,960
She passed just under four months after him. I think

376
00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:48,680
he may have ended his own life by overdosing, but

377
00:19:48,759 --> 00:19:51,759
I'll never know. A lot still haunts me about those

378
00:19:51,839 --> 00:19:54,200
last few months and what I could have done differently,

379
00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:56,599
but I was a mess and far too young to

380
00:19:56,720 --> 00:20:01,279
navigate that situation with a clear head. Story. My girlfriend

381
00:20:01,319 --> 00:20:03,359
and I moved into an apartment about a year ago.

382
00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:06,960
Nothing strange happened for the first month or so. Then

383
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:09,720
one day her mostly blind dog was staring into the

384
00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:12,880
closet and barking. We thought he was barking at a dress,

385
00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:15,680
so we said, come on, Nelson, it's just a dress

386
00:20:16,200 --> 00:20:18,599
and shut the closet, but he kept staring in that

387
00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:23,119
direction with an intense, almost aggressive focus. A bit later,

388
00:20:23,480 --> 00:20:26,519
something slid off the counter on its own. It was

389
00:20:26,559 --> 00:20:29,160
a little weird, but we didn't overthink it. Then one

390
00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:31,240
day I was walking to the bathroom and saw something

391
00:20:31,319 --> 00:20:34,680
run across the hallway. I asked my girlfriend where Nelson was,

392
00:20:35,279 --> 00:20:37,640
just in case it was him, but she said he

393
00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:40,599
was right next to her. Another day, while I was

394
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:43,519
at work, my girlfriend said she saw something that looked

395
00:20:43,519 --> 00:20:46,640
like a shadowy catlike figure. We know it wasn't an

396
00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:51,319
actual cat or any animal because I'm severely allergic. We've

397
00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:53,960
just come to accept that maybe the place is haunted

398
00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:58,000
by a ghost cat Story sixteen. A few years after

399
00:20:58,039 --> 00:21:00,640
I moved out of my parents' house, though I still

400
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:03,920
visited weekly, they kept calling me one week to tell

401
00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:06,279
me they saved a piece of coconut custard pie for me.

402
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:09,279
They were making a really big deal about it, which

403
00:21:09,279 --> 00:21:12,079
felt odd. When I got there that Friday, they were

404
00:21:12,119 --> 00:21:14,880
still going on and on about the pie. When it

405
00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:16,960
came time to eat it, I noticed there was only

406
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:20,720
one piece missing, not one piece saved. Strange, but I

407
00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:23,519
didn't dwell on it. They both watched me closely as

408
00:21:23,519 --> 00:21:26,880
I took a bite. It tasted terrible, like chemicals or

409
00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:30,359
cleaning solution. I spit it out and told them something

410
00:21:30,440 --> 00:21:32,720
was off. They tried to get me to eat more,

411
00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:35,519
saying maybe I could figure out what went wrong with it.

412
00:21:36,039 --> 00:21:39,920
I refused. They started acting very strange, so I asked

413
00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:43,519
what was going on. My mom acted confused and upset,

414
00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:47,480
saying there was nothing wrong, it was just pie. Then

415
00:21:47,519 --> 00:21:50,039
my dad casually got in his car and left. I

416
00:21:50,079 --> 00:21:52,599
pressed them about it many times afterward, but never got

417
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:55,559
a real answer. When I really pushed, my mom would

418
00:21:55,599 --> 00:21:58,359
get emotional and accuse me of being paranoid or strange

419
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:01,880
for thinking something was off. I spent years with them

420
00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:05,880
after that, never learning what actually happened. Now they're both gone,

421
00:22:06,279 --> 00:22:09,680
and I still have no answers. Story seventeen. When I

422
00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:11,559
was around ten years old, my dad and I were

423
00:22:11,599 --> 00:22:15,160
walking down some train tracks in West Virginia. Out of nowhere,

424
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:18,079
a young man appeared from the woods, probably in his

425
00:22:18,119 --> 00:22:21,759
early twenties. He was shirtless and had strange markings on

426
00:22:21,759 --> 00:22:24,240
his chest and face. It looked like he had used

427
00:22:24,279 --> 00:22:27,119
berry juice to paint on himself. He came over and

428
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:30,599
started talking to us. I don't remember everything he said

429
00:22:30,599 --> 00:22:33,000
since I was just a kid, but what I do

430
00:22:33,039 --> 00:22:36,200
remember has stayed with me. The tracks we were walking,

431
00:22:36,359 --> 00:22:39,079
followed a winding path through the woods, and eventually crossed

432
00:22:39,079 --> 00:22:42,599
a huge river via a narrow bridge. The bridge had

433
00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:45,599
no room to walk beside the tracks, just wide enough

434
00:22:45,599 --> 00:22:48,160
for the train. He told us that he walked across

435
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:50,759
that bridge all the time, and claimed a train had

436
00:22:50,799 --> 00:22:53,359
never come while he was crossing. He said a few

437
00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:55,559
more things and then went on his way. A few

438
00:22:55,559 --> 00:22:58,079
minutes later, we saw him reach the bridge and start crossing.

439
00:22:58,599 --> 00:23:00,599
When he was about a quarter of the way across,

440
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:04,640
we heard a train coming from our direction. It passed us,

441
00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:07,559
going fairly quickly and blocked our view of the bridge.

442
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:10,920
Then we noticed the trains slowing down and eventually coming

443
00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:14,200
to a complete stop. It couldn't stop fast enough, though

444
00:23:14,759 --> 00:23:17,000
The first car was about three quarters of the way

445
00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:20,039
across the bridge by the time it halted. We ran

446
00:23:20,119 --> 00:23:22,000
to the edge of the cliff to see what had happened.

447
00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:24,240
We looked at the land on the other side and

448
00:23:24,279 --> 00:23:27,039
down into the river below, but there was no sign

449
00:23:27,079 --> 00:23:29,720
of the guy. The train sat there for a few

450
00:23:29,759 --> 00:23:32,599
minutes and then started back up and left. We never

451
00:23:32,599 --> 00:23:34,799
found out what happened to him, and I think about

452
00:23:34,799 --> 00:23:37,960
it all the time. Story eighteen. I went to stay

453
00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:40,160
at a castle with my husband and his family members.

454
00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:43,200
I don't believe in ghosts, but they do, so they

455
00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:46,160
were planning to play ghost hunters. I just wanted the

456
00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:49,039
experience of staying in a castle. We were allowed to

457
00:23:49,079 --> 00:23:52,240
wander around at night after a guided ghost tour. The

458
00:23:52,359 --> 00:23:56,119
room we went to allegedly had two main spirits, a

459
00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:59,079
boy in blue and a gray lady, the usual kind

460
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:01,480
of legends. The rest of the group sat in the

461
00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:04,079
living room while I sat apart at a little folding

462
00:24:04,079 --> 00:24:07,079
table in the kitchen area. It was open plan. They

463
00:24:07,119 --> 00:24:10,160
didn't want my skeptical presence ruining the energy. While they

464
00:24:10,279 --> 00:24:14,240
tried to communicate. They started asking things like is anyone there,

465
00:24:14,759 --> 00:24:18,039
but weren't getting any responses. Suddenly I felt the energy

466
00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:20,720
drained from my body. I couldn't even hold my head

467
00:24:20,799 --> 00:24:23,000
up and had to rest it on the table. Then

468
00:24:23,039 --> 00:24:26,759
I started feeling these strange electric like sensations touching me.

469
00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:29,920
I told them what I was experiencing and that I

470
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:33,359
felt something touching my head. They turned the camera toward me,

471
00:24:33,720 --> 00:24:35,920
and on the footage they could see a bluish orb

472
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,480
flying out of my head. I said, I could feel

473
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:41,920
something touching my back and sure enough, the ORB then

474
00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:45,240
appeared to exit from my back. That continued for about

475
00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:49,000
five minutes, me describing where I felt something, followed by

476
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:51,319
the ORB appearing to come in or out of that

477
00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:55,240
exact spot. Then just as quickly as it started, it stopped.

478
00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:59,519
I felt completely normal again. That's my life's mystery. I

479
00:24:59,559 --> 00:25:03,279
don't belie even the supernatural. I believe there's probably a

480
00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:06,839
scientific explanation for what happened. There's still a lot we

481
00:25:06,839 --> 00:25:09,720
don't understand. I don't think it was a lens flare.

482
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:12,319
It was a pitch black room with the curtains closed.

483
00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:15,839
I checked for reflective surfaces, and there was nothing blue

484
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,920
in the area. If it were just dust catching the

485
00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:21,839
infrared light from the night vision camera, it would be

486
00:25:21,839 --> 00:25:25,240
an incredible coincidence for it to match the exact spots

487
00:25:25,279 --> 00:25:29,799
I was naming repeatedly. I don't think it was psychological either.

488
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:32,440
I don't believe in that kind of stuff, and I

489
00:25:32,559 --> 00:25:35,880
was honestly trying to suppress laughter at how ridiculous it

490
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:40,240
all seemed. I didn't convince myself into feeling or seeing anything,

491
00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:43,000
but that night still bugs me, and I think it

492
00:25:43,039 --> 00:25:46,880
always will. Story nineteen. I can't remember exactly how old

493
00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:49,400
I was, but I couldn't have been older than ten.

494
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:52,599
I was living in a small military town in Idaho.

495
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:56,079
One night, around ten pm, the power went out in

496
00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:59,440
the neighborhood. I've always loved the stars, and my dad

497
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:01,960
mentioned that with no lights around, I should go check

498
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:04,880
out how the sky looked. It would be super bright.

499
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:08,240
I went outside and spend some time just enjoying the view.

500
00:26:08,799 --> 00:26:10,559
Then I got the idea to climb up onto the

501
00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:13,640
roof over our patio. My dad kept a ladder leaning

502
00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:16,000
against the shed right next to the roof for that reason.

503
00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:18,559
I was about halfway up the ladder when I noticed

504
00:26:18,559 --> 00:26:22,519
something unusual. It took me a second to recognize it.

505
00:26:22,519 --> 00:26:26,079
It was the complete absence of sound. No bugs, chirping,

506
00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:30,160
no wind blowing, just silence. I looked up and saw

507
00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:35,039
something massive fly overhead, completely silent. It was dark, but

508
00:26:35,119 --> 00:26:38,160
I could just barely make out a huge shape behind it.

509
00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:41,200
It completely blotted out the stars. I had grown up

510
00:26:41,279 --> 00:26:43,480
near an air force base and was used to the

511
00:26:43,519 --> 00:26:46,720
sounds of jets flying overhead. This thing couldn't have been

512
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:50,599
a jet. There was absolutely no noise. The silence was

513
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:53,880
so intense I was frozen in place. I ran inside

514
00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:56,160
and told my dad what I saw. He didn't have

515
00:26:56,279 --> 00:26:59,359
any explanation, and even now, after serving in the Air

516
00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:01,759
Force for ten years, I still don't have a good

517
00:27:01,839 --> 00:27:04,279
theory for what it could have been. It scared me then,

518
00:27:04,759 --> 00:27:07,759
and the mystery of it still sticks with me. Story twenty.

519
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:09,920
I was on a family trip to Yosemite when I

520
00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:13,240
was somewhere between twelve and fourteen years old. I can't

521
00:27:13,319 --> 00:27:16,960
remember exactly. It was me, my parents, and my godparents

522
00:27:17,599 --> 00:27:20,119
one night walking home from dinner. We were on a

523
00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:22,799
path that had dark woods on one side and a

524
00:27:22,839 --> 00:27:25,920
part of town on the other. Through this particular stretch,

525
00:27:26,079 --> 00:27:28,680
there were no buildings on the left, just pitch black

526
00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:31,839
forest on the right. My parents started walking ahead of

527
00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:35,119
me and my godparents maybe about seventy five feet ahead,

528
00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:39,119
while I stayed back talking with my godparents. Between us

529
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:41,640
and my parents there was an older lady walking alone

530
00:27:41,759 --> 00:27:45,680
keeping pace. I was being a brat intentionally to my godparents,

531
00:27:45,799 --> 00:27:47,759
and they laughed and told me to go bother my

532
00:27:47,839 --> 00:27:52,119
parents instead, so I happily ran and skipped ahead. As

533
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:55,400
I passed the older lady, she suddenly grabbed my shoulder

534
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:58,519
and dug her nails into me. She said something along

535
00:27:58,559 --> 00:28:02,759
the lines of better be nice to your grandparents. I'll

536
00:28:02,759 --> 00:28:05,559
never forget the sound of her bracelets. She was wearing,

537
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:09,440
maybe seven to ten of them, clanging together. The entire

538
00:28:09,559 --> 00:28:13,559
encounter lasted maybe ten seconds. She grabbed me, whispered to me,

539
00:28:14,039 --> 00:28:16,400
and then I screamed and ran to my parents crying.

540
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:20,359
They asked what happened, and I explained everything. I went

541
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:22,839
to point back at the lady, but she was gone.

542
00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:26,039
She couldn't have passed my parents, and she couldn't have

543
00:28:26,079 --> 00:28:29,480
walked into town or we'd have seen her. That meant

544
00:28:29,519 --> 00:28:32,599
she must have gone into the woods. My parents didn't

545
00:28:32,599 --> 00:28:35,240
believe me until we got back to the hotel. They

546
00:28:35,279 --> 00:28:37,200
looked at my shoulder and it was red with clear

547
00:28:37,279 --> 00:28:40,799
nail imprints and faint marks from bracelets. I'll never know

548
00:28:40,839 --> 00:28:43,440
who she was or why she walked into the dark

549
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:47,200
woods that night. Story twenty one. I have two decent ones.

550
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:50,400
One night, I came home after drinking and went straight

551
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:52,920
to sleep. The next morning I had a missed call

552
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:56,319
and voicemail from an unknown number. The message was someone

553
00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:59,319
saying my name over and over again in a soft,

554
00:28:59,519 --> 00:29:03,480
almost voice. It sounded like a woman or a man

555
00:29:03,519 --> 00:29:07,319
trying to sound like one. The strange part, I had

556
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:09,559
just moved to the countryside and had only given my

557
00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:12,839
number to two people, my wife, who was asleep next

558
00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:15,640
to me at the time, and my best friend, who

559
00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:18,119
had crashed on our couch that night because he couldn't

560
00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:21,559
drive home. The second story happened in college. A few

561
00:29:21,559 --> 00:29:24,079
friends and I took a spontaneous spring break trip to

562
00:29:24,079 --> 00:29:27,200
Colorado to go skiing. None of our family or friends

563
00:29:27,279 --> 00:29:30,440
knew exactly where we were. We just drove to Durango,

564
00:29:30,839 --> 00:29:33,799
hopped online at the local library, and started calling around

565
00:29:33,799 --> 00:29:36,400
to find a cabin. We eventually found a place with

566
00:29:36,519 --> 00:29:39,160
just a few cabins, all empty except for the one

567
00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:42,039
where the owner lived. On the first or second night,

568
00:29:42,119 --> 00:29:44,279
there was a knock at the door. It was the

569
00:29:44,319 --> 00:29:46,200
owner telling us we had a phone call on the

570
00:29:46,200 --> 00:29:48,559
main line at her cabin. One of my friends went

571
00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:51,160
with her, but by the time they got there, the

572
00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:53,759
caller had hung up. The owner said the person on

573
00:29:53,799 --> 00:29:56,200
the line had asked to speak to the guys from

574
00:29:56,279 --> 00:29:59,839
Oklahoma who were staying there. All our cars had oak

575
00:29:59,880 --> 00:30:02,000
lea home of plates, but no one outside the group

576
00:30:02,079 --> 00:30:05,160
knew where we were. The owner didn't have any more information.

577
00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:09,240
We were thoroughly creeped out, especially me, since I had

578
00:30:09,279 --> 00:30:11,799
to sleep in the living room, which had big windows

579
00:30:11,799 --> 00:30:15,119
with no curtains, while the others were in bedrooms. I'll

580
00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:17,240
never know who made that call or how they knew

581
00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:20,440
where we were. Story twenty two. When I was around

582
00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:22,720
four or five years old, I became obsessed with the

583
00:30:22,759 --> 00:30:25,759
idea of flying. I thought that if I just focused

584
00:30:25,759 --> 00:30:29,160
hard enough, I could lift off the ground. I practiced

585
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:32,200
this for weeks until one day I actually started to

586
00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:34,640
float up to the upper part of a door frame

587
00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:38,799
and then slowly backed down. I was incredibly excited and

588
00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:41,839
ran to tell my mom. She didn't believe me at first,

589
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:45,720
just said, yeah, sure, But the thing is, she remembers

590
00:30:45,759 --> 00:30:48,920
that day. It never worked again after that, not even

591
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:52,079
later the same day. Another strange thing happened. Around that

592
00:30:52,119 --> 00:30:54,960
same time. I got a floating balloon from a theme

593
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:57,359
park and brought it home. I was alone with my

594
00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:00,480
parents out feeling bored. The balloon had I lost just

595
00:31:00,599 --> 00:31:03,559
enough gas to hover with its string touching the floor.

596
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:06,640
At one point I decided to play hide and seek

597
00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:09,960
with it, and somehow it worked. I would hide in

598
00:31:10,039 --> 00:31:12,960
another room behind a sofa, and the balloon would float

599
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:16,240
over to where I was and find me no open windows.

600
00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:19,759
It happened more than once. For some reason, I expected

601
00:31:19,799 --> 00:31:22,839
it to work like it wasn't just an inanimate object.

602
00:31:23,079 --> 00:31:26,480
I had no witnesses. What puzzles me most is that

603
00:31:26,559 --> 00:31:29,720
I didn't feel any fear. It was fun. I saw

604
00:31:29,759 --> 00:31:33,079
a kind of personality in that balloon. As I grew older,

605
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:36,559
nothing similar ever happened again. I have no idea what

606
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:39,599
any of that was, or if it was just a dream,

607
00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:42,640
but it didn't feel like a dream, and my mom's

608
00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:45,319
memory of the first event confirms at least that something

609
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:49,599
happened while I was awake. Story twenty three. This past summer,

610
00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:52,160
I was dog sitting for some friends of mine. They

611
00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:56,119
have a medium sized, older black lab. Such a beautiful dog,

612
00:31:56,599 --> 00:31:59,839
she rarely barks. One night, I woke up around three

613
00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:03,480
to the sound of barking outside. I listened for a moment,

614
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:06,079
trying to figure out where it was coming from, and

615
00:32:06,119 --> 00:32:08,839
realized it was her. I knew for a fact she

616
00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:11,119
had been inside when I went to bed, and there

617
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:13,160
was no one else in the house. I got up

618
00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:16,160
to let her in, assuming I had somehow misremembered and

619
00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:19,200
left her outside, only to find the back door wide

620
00:32:19,279 --> 00:32:21,960
open with the dead bolt still in the lock position.

621
00:32:22,839 --> 00:32:24,960
The female side of the dead bolt was set into

622
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:27,920
a load bearing beam and showed no signs of damage.

623
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:30,559
The dog came running in as soon as I got there.

624
00:32:31,079 --> 00:32:32,759
I shut the door and spent the rest of the

625
00:32:32,839 --> 00:32:35,279
night trying to calm down. The next day, I tried

626
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:37,920
everything I could to figure out how that door opened

627
00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:41,279
while the dead bolt was engaged. I slammed into it

628
00:32:41,319 --> 00:32:45,759
with my shoulder, tested the hinges. Nothing. I thought maybe

629
00:32:45,759 --> 00:32:48,400
it was spring loaded and the door wasn't fully latched

630
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:51,319
the night before, so when the dog pushed on it,

631
00:32:51,319 --> 00:32:53,920
it could have opened and the lock re engaged after.

632
00:32:54,799 --> 00:32:58,839
But no, that wasn't it either. Everything was working normally.

633
00:32:59,279 --> 00:33:03,119
There were valuable near the door untouched. I didn't sleep

634
00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:05,440
well the rest of that week, and I still get

635
00:33:05,519 --> 00:33:09,839
chills thinking about it. Before anyone suggests sleepwalking, my bedroom

636
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:12,960
door was fully closed and I have no history of sleepwalking.

637
00:33:13,759 --> 00:33:17,039
Still don't. Story twenty four. When my son was around

638
00:33:17,079 --> 00:33:20,400
two years old, he started coming home from preschool singing songs,

639
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,279
but we couldn't always understand the words. Most of the time,

640
00:33:24,559 --> 00:33:27,799
we'd eventually hear the same song somewhere else and he'd

641
00:33:27,799 --> 00:33:30,559
pointed out as the one he was singing. For example,

642
00:33:30,599 --> 00:33:34,160
he kept singing something that sounded like vordebete ci and

643
00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:36,759
we had no idea what it was. Then one day

644
00:33:36,759 --> 00:33:40,039
we were watching Transformers on Netflix and we realized he

645
00:33:40,079 --> 00:33:42,759
had been trying to say more than meets the eye.

646
00:33:43,319 --> 00:33:46,440
This happened multiple times He'd sing something we didn't recognize,

647
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:48,960
and eventually we'd figure it out. But just before he

648
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,200
turned three, he started singing something different, what sounded like

649
00:33:52,279 --> 00:33:57,240
tristabel bebe and sometimes tristable yuckie. We assumed it was

650
00:33:57,279 --> 00:34:00,839
another song or phrase we'd eventually understand. We even asked

651
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:03,759
his preschool teacher, but she had no idea what it

652
00:34:03,799 --> 00:34:07,200
could be. Not long after, he changed schools and the

653
00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:10,800
mystery phrase never got an answer. To this day, he

654
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:14,559
occasionally still says it and we still have absolutely no

655
00:34:14,679 --> 00:34:17,880
idea what it means. It's just become one of those

656
00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:21,880
family mysteries we may never solve. Story twenty five. I

657
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:24,840
know I accidentally created a mystery for someone else, and

658
00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:27,119
they might still be trying to figure it out all

659
00:34:27,159 --> 00:34:30,559
these years later. I've been with my boyfriend for five years.

660
00:34:31,039 --> 00:34:33,360
In the first couple of months, we kept things almost

661
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:37,400
completely quiet. The complication was that my ex, who i'd

662
00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:40,760
broken up with amicably, was kind of friends with my

663
00:34:40,880 --> 00:34:44,199
current boyfriend. They were both in the same friendship circle,

664
00:34:44,599 --> 00:34:47,519
and to avoid drama, we just kept it under wraps.

665
00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:50,320
One evening, I was hanging out at my boyfriend's place

666
00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:52,719
when a mutual friend of my ex showed up unannounced

667
00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:56,880
to return a video game. I quickly ran upstairs to hide. Honestly,

668
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:00,159
it was kind of fun and exciting. She stayed downstairs

669
00:35:00,199 --> 00:35:03,119
chatting for a while, maybe an hour. I could hear

670
00:35:03,159 --> 00:35:05,280
my boyfriend trying to gently get her to leave since

671
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:09,039
I was stuck upstairs. Eventually she went to go, but

672
00:35:09,119 --> 00:35:12,320
then came back in because her car wouldn't start. My

673
00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:14,559
boyfriend offered to go out and take a look. I

674
00:35:14,599 --> 00:35:17,800
should mention we had a cat. When the friend had arrived,

675
00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:19,760
I heard my boyfriend say he was putting the cat

676
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:22,800
in the kitchen because she was allergic. The kitchen had

677
00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:25,719
a solid door with a sturdy handle. When they both

678
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:28,599
stepped out, I got really thirsty and went down to

679
00:35:28,599 --> 00:35:31,159
the kitchen to grab a drink. I didn't realize the

680
00:35:31,199 --> 00:35:33,760
cat had slipped out into the living room. I ran

681
00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:35,880
back out of the kitchen and closed the door behind me.

682
00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:38,800
When they came back inside, I heard the friend exclaim

683
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:42,480
what the actual heck? She was baffled to see the

684
00:35:42,519 --> 00:35:45,079
cat sitting in the living room. She even tested the

685
00:35:45,119 --> 00:35:47,960
door handle trying to figure out how the cat got out.

686
00:35:48,679 --> 00:35:51,559
She was absolutely convinced she'd seen my boyfriend shut the

687
00:35:51,559 --> 00:35:54,599
cat in the kitchen, and he confirmed he had. She

688
00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:57,400
talked about it for months afterward, trying to make sense

689
00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:00,000
of it. I always wonder if she still thinks that

690
00:36:00,119 --> 00:36:03,840
cat had magical powers. Story twenty six. I was a

691
00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:06,360
freshman in college when I started receiving a series of

692
00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:10,400
mysterious and increasingly threatening phone calls. At the time, I

693
00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:13,280
was pledging a fraternity and assumed some of the brothers

694
00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:16,960
were pranking me. The calls always came from a restricted number.

695
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:20,559
At first, they seemed harmless, asking how I was enjoying

696
00:36:20,559 --> 00:36:24,039
the pledging experience, that sort of thing. But over time

697
00:36:24,079 --> 00:36:27,360
they got darker. The caller started making threats, saying I

698
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:30,360
was going to be hurt or worse. The weirdest part

699
00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:33,440
wasn't even the threats it was when the caller began

700
00:36:33,599 --> 00:36:36,719
contacting random people in my life and telling them that

701
00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:39,400
I was in love with them. There was no pattern

702
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,840
to who these people were. Many were men. Now I

703
00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:45,360
am queer, but I was deeply in the closet at

704
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,280
the time, and I'm certain none of the fraternity brothers

705
00:36:48,360 --> 00:36:51,760
knew that. I only found out because people, some of

706
00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:55,320
whom I hadn't spoken to in years, started independently reaching

707
00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:58,920
out to me, asking why they were receiving bizarre voicemails.

708
00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:01,800
Eventually I could in front of the fraternity's president and

709
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:03,800
told him to ask the brothers to knock it off.

710
00:37:04,239 --> 00:37:07,360
He seemed genuinely confused and insisted no one in the

711
00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:11,320
fraternity was behind it. Eventually the call stopped, but to

712
00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:14,800
this day, I still wonder how the caller a knew

713
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:17,960
such intimate details of my life and b why they

714
00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:20,880
would spend so much time and energy doing something so

715
00:37:21,039 --> 00:37:24,719
strange and seemingly pointless. I'd like to know who it

716
00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:27,679
was one day, but I've mostly accepted that I never will.

717
00:37:28,119 --> 00:37:30,880
Story twenty seven. Back in college, there was a girl

718
00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:34,199
I really liked. Her smile could brighten the gloomiest day.

719
00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:37,760
I remember it doing just that once. She had been

720
00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:42,119
struggling academically and was falling behind. Before winter break, I

721
00:37:42,239 --> 00:37:44,639
finally gathered the courage to ask her if she'd want

722
00:37:44,679 --> 00:37:47,920
to go out with me sometime. She said yes. One

723
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:51,039
day during my vacation. This was in two thousand and eight,

724
00:37:51,639 --> 00:37:53,960
I really wanted to talk to her. I had her

725
00:37:54,039 --> 00:37:56,760
number saved and almost dialed it. I was in a

726
00:37:56,760 --> 00:38:00,280
different country at the time, visiting family, but something stopped me,

727
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:03,599
maybe a bit of ego. I thought she could have

728
00:38:03,639 --> 00:38:06,119
called me too, so I didn't call and just went

729
00:38:06,119 --> 00:38:09,360
about my day. The next morning, several seniors and classmates

730
00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:13,599
contacted me with devastating news she had passed away. Apparently

731
00:38:13,639 --> 00:38:16,480
she had gotten access to her uncle's service revolver and

732
00:38:16,519 --> 00:38:19,639
taken her own life. I reread the messages and news

733
00:38:19,719 --> 00:38:22,840
articles over and over. The timeline seemed to match the

734
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:26,199
very moment I'd almost called her. I still wonder what

735
00:38:26,320 --> 00:38:28,440
might have happened if I had just dialed that number.

736
00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:31,840
Maybe I could have said something. Maybe I couldn't have

737
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:35,559
done anything. I've never told anyone about this, not the

738
00:38:35,599 --> 00:38:39,239
people I've dated, not my family, No one knows. I

739
00:38:39,239 --> 00:38:41,440
guess this felt like a good place to finally share it.

740
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:46,840
The anonymity makes it easier. Story twenty eight. It was

741
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:50,159
around ten pm on a Tuesday night. My friend Danny

742
00:38:50,199 --> 00:38:52,800
and I had this tradition of hitting the McDonald's drive through,

743
00:38:53,079 --> 00:38:56,159
grabbing some food, and parking back at his place inside

744
00:38:56,159 --> 00:38:59,679
a trailer park complex. We'd sit in the car, eat

745
00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:03,039
and watched conspiracy videos on his phone. We talked a

746
00:39:03,039 --> 00:39:05,320
lot about the wild things people claimed to have seen,

747
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:08,920
even though neither of us had ever experienced anything strange.

748
00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:12,280
Around eleven thirty pm, we were sitting in my car

749
00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:16,199
watching a video when suddenly a bright light flashed across

750
00:39:16,199 --> 00:39:18,920
a third to half of the sky. It only lasted

751
00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:22,760
a second and then disappeared. The light was incredibly bright,

752
00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:26,800
but oddly it didn't illuminate the ground or surroundings. We

753
00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:30,039
both froze and stared at each other. Then it flashed again.

754
00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:34,159
You saw that, right, I asked, Yeah, what the heck

755
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:37,920
was that? Danny replied It flashed once more, and we

756
00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:40,639
both freaked out, jumped out of the car and started

757
00:39:40,639 --> 00:39:43,559
recording on our phones, but the light never came back.

758
00:39:44,039 --> 00:39:46,440
Around midnight, I drove home and stopped at a nearby

759
00:39:46,519 --> 00:39:49,320
subway that's opened twenty four to seven to ask if

760
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:53,039
anyone working had seen it. They hadn't. We later looked

761
00:39:53,079 --> 00:39:55,039
up videos and tried to figure out what it could

762
00:39:55,039 --> 00:39:58,239
have been, but nothing matched. It was a bright white

763
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:00,719
light that filled a massive section of the sky, with

764
00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:04,239
no sound, no rumble, and no glow on the ground.

765
00:40:05,079 --> 00:40:08,000
I was seventeen when it happened. Now I'm twenty three,

766
00:40:08,679 --> 00:40:11,400
and we still have no clue what it was. I've

767
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:13,719
told a lot of people about it. It's not that

768
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:16,599
they don't believe me, but it's really hard to describe

769
00:40:16,639 --> 00:40:19,280
the scale of what we saw. Most people shrug it

770
00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:21,519
off like it was just a flashlight or something small.

771
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:24,960
But this thing filled what looked like half the sky.

772
00:40:25,039 --> 00:40:28,039
It was pure white and blinding, but it didn't cast

773
00:40:28,119 --> 00:40:31,800
any light on anything else. I've watched tons of lightning videos,

774
00:40:32,039 --> 00:40:35,079
and I can say with one hundred percent certainty it

775
00:40:35,159 --> 00:40:38,880
was not lightning. Story twenty nine. I'm fourteen years old

776
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:41,679
attending a summer camp organized by one of the local churches.

777
00:40:42,199 --> 00:40:46,199
I'm wearing a silly, funny hat because that's what nerdy,

778
00:40:46,280 --> 00:40:49,239
chubby kids who use humor as a defense mechanism tend

779
00:40:49,239 --> 00:40:53,280
to do. The hat makes absolutely no sense, but at

780
00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:55,599
some point I get this strange feeling that a girl

781
00:40:55,639 --> 00:40:58,199
is flirting with me. We didn't really know each other,

782
00:40:58,639 --> 00:41:00,840
though we had gone to the same sky for six years.

783
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:04,679
At that point. She was a year younger, cute and popular,

784
00:41:05,159 --> 00:41:08,400
and me, I'm overweight and nerdy, so I naturally assume

785
00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:11,639
she isn't flirting. On the last evening, I returned to

786
00:41:11,679 --> 00:41:14,079
the tent I share with two other boys and notice

787
00:41:14,079 --> 00:41:16,280
that my hat is missing. I had left it in

788
00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:19,000
the tent because we had attended some kind of evening mass.

789
00:41:19,599 --> 00:41:21,840
It was strange, but not the end of the world.

790
00:41:22,679 --> 00:41:25,440
Even stranger. Under my pillow, I find a pair of

791
00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:28,840
girls underwear. How did they end up there? I asked

792
00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:31,320
the other boys if they're messing with me, but they

793
00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:34,760
insist they're not involved at all. A couple of months later,

794
00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:37,880
during the annual school play, I'm in the audience. The

795
00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:40,559
cute girl's older sister is on stage doing a skit,

796
00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:43,639
and the hat she's wearing looks exactly like the one

797
00:41:43,679 --> 00:41:46,880
I lost. I have so many questions, but none of

798
00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:49,840
them have ever been answered. It's been twenty six years,

799
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:52,760
and I doubt they ever will be. Story thirty my

800
00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:55,880
good friend in college roommate, went missing at sea. He

801
00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:59,119
disappeared on a beautiful sunny day in Biscayne Bay. He

802
00:41:59,239 --> 00:42:03,079
was an incredible experienced sailor, having represented the US in

803
00:42:03,119 --> 00:42:06,280
the London Olympic Games and had spent his entire life

804
00:42:06,360 --> 00:42:09,800
on and around the ocean. His inflatable boat was later

805
00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:12,639
found that day, tangled in some mooring lines in the

806
00:42:12,679 --> 00:42:16,599
same harbor he had departed from. His life jacket, wallet,

807
00:42:16,639 --> 00:42:18,840
and cell phone were found on the boat, but there

808
00:42:18,920 --> 00:42:21,920
was no sign of Trevor. The GPS showed he had

809
00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:25,079
sailed directly to a specific spot in the bay where

810
00:42:25,119 --> 00:42:28,239
he kept crab and lobster traps. Then the boat appeared

811
00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:31,679
to zigzag back and forth before eventually drifting back into

812
00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:34,920
the harbor. Most people think he drowned, but this man

813
00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:37,920
was an incredible athlete and knew the water as well

814
00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:42,320
as anyone could. For context, Biscayne Bay is a shallow

815
00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:45,840
body of water with a sandy bottom and crystal clear water.

816
00:42:46,519 --> 00:42:50,159
Anything floating would be visible from the sky. A massive

817
00:42:50,320 --> 00:42:56,280
three day search and rescue operation was launched involving tied scientists, drones, helicopters,

818
00:42:56,519 --> 00:42:59,400
and a fleet of boats. They scoured the area thoroughly,

819
00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:03,639
but his body was never found. Story thirty one. When

820
00:43:03,679 --> 00:43:06,000
I was around thirteen years old, I was playing football

821
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:08,920
with friends at a local park. The field was massive,

822
00:43:09,159 --> 00:43:12,119
big enough to fit about five full sized football pitches.

823
00:43:13,079 --> 00:43:15,480
During the game, I noticed a woman maybe one hundred

824
00:43:15,559 --> 00:43:19,719
meters away taking photos of us, specifically me, with a

825
00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:23,239
large camera. It really looked like she was focusing on me,

826
00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:26,639
as I was playing goalkeeper and was standing apart from

827
00:43:26,639 --> 00:43:30,079
the other kids. She had long black hair, was dressed

828
00:43:30,119 --> 00:43:32,800
all in black, but was too far away to clearly

829
00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:35,639
see her face. I thought it was strange, but carried

830
00:43:35,679 --> 00:43:38,639
on playing. By the time I mentioned it to my friends,

831
00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:42,159
she had vanished. Later that week, at home, I went

832
00:43:42,159 --> 00:43:44,800
outside to take the rubbish to the garden bin. It

833
00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:48,679
was already dark, though probably not too late, maybe around

834
00:43:48,719 --> 00:43:51,840
eight pm. Our garden was about one hundred feet long,

835
00:43:52,199 --> 00:43:55,199
lined with flowers and bushes on both sides. As I

836
00:43:55,239 --> 00:43:57,960
opened the bin, I saw two large flashes on the

837
00:43:58,039 --> 00:44:01,119
right hand side of the garden, down near the bushes.

838
00:44:01,599 --> 00:44:05,559
I froze in fear. Then another flash, exactly like a

839
00:44:05,599 --> 00:44:09,800
camera flash, went off, and I bolted back inside. For

840
00:44:09,840 --> 00:44:12,960
some reason, I didn't tell my parents. Maybe I thought

841
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:16,719
they wouldn't believe me. There was no logical explanation, and

842
00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:20,519
it never happened again. I'm twenty eight now. This happened

843
00:44:20,559 --> 00:44:23,840
fifteen years ago, and I'm still totally confused by what

844
00:44:23,960 --> 00:44:27,400
happened that night. Story thirty two. One night, I was

845
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:30,320
sitting with my mom watching TV, waiting for my older

846
00:44:30,360 --> 00:44:33,079
sister to get home. My mom was on one couch

847
00:44:33,239 --> 00:44:35,840
and I was on the other. We were upstairs in

848
00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:39,119
the family room, which overlooked the stairs connecting the first

849
00:44:39,119 --> 00:44:42,599
and second floors. It was around midnight. My mom was

850
00:44:42,639 --> 00:44:45,840
trying to stay awake, though she kept dozing off. She

851
00:44:45,960 --> 00:44:48,480
was angry at my sister for breaking curfew again and

852
00:44:48,519 --> 00:44:51,880
didn't want her sneaking in unnoticed. We'd been watching TV

853
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:54,159
for about an hour when we heard the downstairs front

854
00:44:54,199 --> 00:44:58,199
door open. We heard shuffling around, no big deal. We

855
00:44:58,239 --> 00:45:01,079
assumed it was my sister. My mom sat up waiting

856
00:45:01,079 --> 00:45:04,599
for her to come up the stairs. We waited and waited.

857
00:45:05,239 --> 00:45:07,599
Then we finally heard someone coming up the stairs, but

858
00:45:07,639 --> 00:45:12,320
the steps were slow, heavy, and accompanied by strange guttural noises.

859
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:15,840
We watched as someone reached halfway up the stairs and stopped.

860
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:18,280
In the dim light of the TV, we could only

861
00:45:18,280 --> 00:45:21,840
see a silhouette from the shoulders up, just standing there

862
00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:26,360
staring at us, and we were staring back. After a moment,

863
00:45:26,480 --> 00:45:29,960
the figure turned, went back downstairs and exited out the

864
00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:32,360
front door. My mom looked at me and we were

865
00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:35,840
both completely weirded out. About five minutes later, my sister

866
00:45:35,880 --> 00:45:40,119
walked in loud and obnoxious as usual, chatting on her phone,

867
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:44,039
turning on lights, and acting totally normal. She had no

868
00:45:44,159 --> 00:45:46,960
clue what had just happened. While my mom grilled her

869
00:45:47,000 --> 00:45:49,800
for being late, she also questioned her about the weird

870
00:45:49,840 --> 00:45:53,480
behavior at the door. My sister was genuinely confused and

871
00:45:53,519 --> 00:45:55,960
had no idea what my mom was talking about, and

872
00:45:56,039 --> 00:45:59,079
I could tell my mom believed her. My sister wasn't

873
00:45:59,119 --> 00:46:02,440
into pranks and she wasn't creative or sneaky enough to

874
00:46:02,480 --> 00:46:05,840
pull something like that off. Later that night, my mom

875
00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:08,039
came into my room and told me never to tell

876
00:46:08,039 --> 00:46:10,840
my sister what had happened. She said my sister was

877
00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:13,920
such a scaredy cat that it could seriously mess her up.

878
00:46:14,519 --> 00:46:17,960
We still don't know what or who it was. Maybe

879
00:46:18,039 --> 00:46:20,320
it was a drunk neighbor who walked into the wrong house.

880
00:46:20,840 --> 00:46:24,960
Maybe it was something worse. We'll never know. Story thirty three.

881
00:46:25,320 --> 00:46:28,960
I studied abroad in Florence, Italy last fall. My girlfriend

882
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:32,920
was also studying abroad that semester, but in Prague. During

883
00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:35,400
the third weekend of the semester, she came to visit me.

884
00:46:36,039 --> 00:46:38,639
We had a pretty normal day exploring the city, and

885
00:46:38,719 --> 00:46:41,760
around six or seven pm we decided to head back

886
00:46:41,800 --> 00:46:44,519
to my apartment so I could introduce her to my roommates.

887
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:46,760
I was living on the fourth floor of an older

888
00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:50,039
apartment building about half a mile from the Duomo. On

889
00:46:50,199 --> 00:46:53,119
rainy days, the building gave off a weird smell, but

890
00:46:53,199 --> 00:46:56,480
that's pretty common in older European cities. Other than that,

891
00:46:56,639 --> 00:46:59,079
it was a great place. When you enter the building,

892
00:46:59,199 --> 00:47:02,360
there's a long, windowless hallway that leads to the stairwell,

893
00:47:02,639 --> 00:47:05,760
which connects to all the apartments. There's a button near

894
00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:08,000
the entrance that turns on the hallway lights for about

895
00:47:08,039 --> 00:47:10,840
five minutes. You can also find one of these buttons

896
00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:13,239
on every floor so you don't have to walk in

897
00:47:13,320 --> 00:47:17,280
total darkness. When we walked in, the lights were already on,

898
00:47:17,880 --> 00:47:21,159
which wasn't common but probably meant someone had just come

899
00:47:21,199 --> 00:47:24,039
in or was on their way out. We got about

900
00:47:24,079 --> 00:47:26,800
halfway down the hallway when the lights shut off, leaving

901
00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:30,159
us in total darkness. No big deal. I pulled out

902
00:47:30,159 --> 00:47:32,519
my phone to use the flashlight, but as I was

903
00:47:32,559 --> 00:47:35,480
doing that, we heard footsteps behind us. At first, they

904
00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:40,079
were slow, then louder, then faster, until it sounded like

905
00:47:40,119 --> 00:47:43,920
someone was sprinting toward us. Florence has a reputation for

906
00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:48,320
pickpockets and thieves. I'd already been robbed twice, so I

907
00:47:48,360 --> 00:47:50,679
assumed someone had slipped in behind us to mug us.

908
00:47:50,960 --> 00:47:53,800
I quickly pushed my girlfriend behind me, raised my hands

909
00:47:53,800 --> 00:47:57,159
to defend myself, and then just like that, the lights

910
00:47:57,159 --> 00:47:59,920
flicked back on and the sound stopped. We looked at

911
00:48:00,599 --> 00:48:03,400
but no one was there. Totally freaked out, we ran

912
00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:06,280
upstairs in my apartment. I still have no explanation for

913
00:48:06,320 --> 00:48:11,559
what happened in that hallway. Story thirty four I was

914
00:48:11,599 --> 00:48:14,679
seventeen and working at a gas station. My mom was

915
00:48:14,719 --> 00:48:18,119
the manager. On weekends, I opened the store by myself

916
00:48:18,159 --> 00:48:22,519
at five am. I followed the usual routine, opened the store,

917
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:27,320
completed my morning tasks, and waited for customers. Eventually, someone

918
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:29,679
came in to buy something, but I couldn't see the

919
00:48:29,679 --> 00:48:33,840
buttons on the register. Everything looked spotty and blurry. The

920
00:48:33,880 --> 00:48:36,679
customer asked if I was okay, then told me I

921
00:48:36,719 --> 00:48:40,119
was bleeding. I reached back and touched my head. My

922
00:48:40,199 --> 00:48:42,960
hand came back covered in blood. I don't remember much

923
00:48:42,960 --> 00:48:46,400
after that. The customer called nine to eleven. At some

924
00:48:46,519 --> 00:48:48,880
point I apparently called my mom and told her something

925
00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:52,639
was wrong, but I don't remember making that call. My

926
00:48:52,679 --> 00:48:55,000
mom said the ambulance was already there when she arrived.

927
00:48:55,480 --> 00:48:57,599
She told me she nearly passed out from the sight

928
00:48:57,679 --> 00:49:00,440
of all the blood coming from my head. I ended

929
00:49:00,519 --> 00:49:03,559
up with a concussion, stitches, and a ride to the hospital.

930
00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:06,880
To this day, I have no idea what happened. There

931
00:49:06,960 --> 00:49:10,119
was a security camera aimed at the register, but whatever

932
00:49:10,159 --> 00:49:13,119
happened to me didn't happen there. There was no blood

933
00:49:13,199 --> 00:49:17,039
anywhere in the store, only on me, and nothing was missing.

934
00:49:17,519 --> 00:49:20,320
That was over fifteen years ago, and I still don't

935
00:49:20,400 --> 00:49:23,519
know what caused it. Story thirty five. I woke up

936
00:49:23,559 --> 00:49:25,800
in bed and couldn't move my body, but I was

937
00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:29,400
one hundred percent awake and fully aware. I honestly thought

938
00:49:29,440 --> 00:49:31,880
I had been paralyzed from the neck down because I

939
00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:34,639
could move my eyes and look around the room. A

940
00:49:34,719 --> 00:49:37,760
dark shadow seeped in from under the door and slowly

941
00:49:37,800 --> 00:49:40,039
took the shape of something that looked like a cross

942
00:49:40,119 --> 00:49:43,679
between the Grim Reaper and a bansheet. Though it didn't

943
00:49:43,679 --> 00:49:46,559
have a scythe it looked like a dark specter in

944
00:49:46,639 --> 00:49:50,519
humanoid form. It moved around the room with long, shadowy

945
00:49:50,639 --> 00:49:52,840
arms that seemed to be feeling their way through the space.

946
00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:56,119
It moved as if it were assessing me, not in

947
00:49:56,159 --> 00:49:59,280
a threatening way, but I still felt an overwhelming dread.

948
00:50:00,079 --> 00:50:02,159
It felt like this thing was waiting for me to die.

949
00:50:02,920 --> 00:50:05,679
I've never been more terrified in my life. It felt

950
00:50:05,719 --> 00:50:09,480
like it lasted forever. Slowly, I began regaining the ability

951
00:50:09,519 --> 00:50:12,559
to move my body, but I was extremely weak. I

952
00:50:12,599 --> 00:50:15,360
tried lifting myself with my elbows, but I collapsed again,

953
00:50:15,760 --> 00:50:20,280
completely drained. The shade was still there, clearly visible, but

954
00:50:20,360 --> 00:50:23,800
it began to shrink. As I gathered more strength and

955
00:50:23,960 --> 00:50:26,280
managed to fall out of bed and stand up, the

956
00:50:26,320 --> 00:50:30,639
shadow rapidly dissipated. What made this so terrifying was that

957
00:50:30,679 --> 00:50:34,199
I'm not a religious or superstitious person, but I know

958
00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:37,920
without any doubt that I saw what I saw. I've

959
00:50:37,960 --> 00:50:40,679
never told anyone because I knew no one would believe me.

960
00:50:41,159 --> 00:50:44,599
People might say it was a hallucination, but I've never

961
00:50:44,679 --> 00:50:48,239
experienced anything like that in my life. I've never taken drugs,

962
00:50:48,559 --> 00:50:52,679
never been on medication, never hallucinated before or since. This

963
00:50:52,719 --> 00:50:56,159
thing looked one hundred percent real. And what terrified me

964
00:50:56,360 --> 00:50:59,639
wasn't just the paralysis. It was how real it looked.

965
00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:04,039
I'm a logical thinker. I've always thought of superstition and

966
00:51:04,119 --> 00:51:08,360
the supernatural as nonsense, but this event shook me. I

967
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:10,800
actually found myself shouting into the empty room for it

968
00:51:10,840 --> 00:51:14,119
to come back. I looked under the bed, checked the house,

969
00:51:14,639 --> 00:51:17,679
hoping it would return. I wanted to talk to it.

970
00:51:18,119 --> 00:51:21,559
The fear had turned into curiosity and then into frustration.

971
00:51:22,440 --> 00:51:24,639
As much as I don't ever want to go through

972
00:51:24,679 --> 00:51:27,880
that again, some part of me wishes it would return,

973
00:51:28,760 --> 00:51:31,360
just so I could understand what it was. I know

974
00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:34,320
how this sounds, but I was wide awake, fully conscious,

975
00:51:34,639 --> 00:51:38,199
not dreaming. It happened, and I will never forget it.

976
00:51:38,599 --> 00:51:41,800
Story thirty six. This happened when my family was spending

977
00:51:41,800 --> 00:51:44,519
the night at my grandmother's house. I was around ten

978
00:51:44,559 --> 00:51:46,519
to twelve years old and I've never been able to

979
00:51:46,559 --> 00:51:49,280
explain it. I had been asleep and woke up from

980
00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:52,679
a nightmare about a werewolf like creature with golden, glowing

981
00:51:52,679 --> 00:51:55,960
eyes chasing me. I always slept completely under all of

982
00:51:55,960 --> 00:51:58,719
my blankets, so when I woke up, I was in

983
00:51:58,760 --> 00:52:02,639
total darkness and completely covered. It was hot, but I

984
00:52:02,719 --> 00:52:05,719
was too scared to move. Still, I was old enough

985
00:52:05,760 --> 00:52:10,239
to calm myself down and recognize I just had a nightmare. Eventually,

986
00:52:10,280 --> 00:52:12,480
I worked up the courage to lift the blankets just

987
00:52:12,519 --> 00:52:15,119
a little to let in some air. I chose the

988
00:52:15,119 --> 00:52:17,639
side of the bed not facing the wall. The moment

989
00:52:17,679 --> 00:52:21,679
I lifted the blankets, I saw the golden eyes. I immediately

990
00:52:21,679 --> 00:52:24,559
ducked back under and told myself I was imagining things.

991
00:52:24,880 --> 00:52:28,199
I took a breath, braced myself, and looked again. The

992
00:52:28,280 --> 00:52:31,199
eyes were still there. I was frozen with fear. I

993
00:52:31,239 --> 00:52:35,719
couldn't move. I just laid there, terrified. After what felt

994
00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:39,119
like forever, I finally screamed for my dad. It took

995
00:52:39,119 --> 00:52:41,840
a few tries, but he eventually came in and turned

996
00:52:41,840 --> 00:52:45,239
on the light. I sat up, crying. We both looked

997
00:52:45,239 --> 00:52:47,840
over at the same time and saw that the desk

998
00:52:47,960 --> 00:52:49,920
chair next to my bed had been pulled out and

999
00:52:50,079 --> 00:52:52,880
was facing me. My brother was in the same room

1000
00:52:52,920 --> 00:52:55,840
the entire time, and somehow didn't wake up through any

1001
00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:59,519
of this. People always say it was sleep paralysis, but

1002
00:52:59,599 --> 00:53:03,760
I was definitely awake. I was moving, speaking, aware of everything.

1003
00:53:04,440 --> 00:53:07,079
I don't know what it was, but it still scares

1004
00:53:07,119 --> 00:53:10,079
me to this day. Story thirty seven. A couple of

1005
00:53:10,079 --> 00:53:13,000
friends and I really enjoyed smoking in high school. We

1006
00:53:13,039 --> 00:53:15,119
got into it later than most and had heard plenty

1007
00:53:15,119 --> 00:53:17,760
of stories from other classmates about getting caught by parents

1008
00:53:17,800 --> 00:53:20,880
or the police, so we decided to be extremely careful

1009
00:53:21,360 --> 00:53:23,880
to avoid getting caught. We kept all our stuff in

1010
00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:28,199
a plastic cereal container wrapped in camouflage duct tape. We

1011
00:53:28,320 --> 00:53:31,360
called it the box. Inside the box, we stored a

1012
00:53:31,360 --> 00:53:36,639
small bong, a helix pipe, rolling papers, swishers, grinders, and

1013
00:53:36,679 --> 00:53:39,920
a glass jar. The box would get moved between hiding

1014
00:53:39,920 --> 00:53:43,079
spots in our neighborhood. The rule was simple. If it

1015
00:53:43,159 --> 00:53:45,480
wasn't at one of our houses, we couldn't get caught

1016
00:53:45,480 --> 00:53:48,159
with it. We always made sure no one was watching

1017
00:53:48,199 --> 00:53:50,320
when we picked it up or dropped it off. At

1018
00:53:50,360 --> 00:53:52,679
one point, we were storing the box behind a tree

1019
00:53:52,679 --> 00:53:55,880
about fifteen yards off a quiet street, near a few

1020
00:53:55,920 --> 00:53:58,840
empty lots next to a large house. We dug a

1021
00:53:58,880 --> 00:54:01,400
shallow hole behind the tree and hid the box there,

1022
00:54:01,960 --> 00:54:04,440
covering it with leaves and brush to keep it concealed.

1023
00:54:05,239 --> 00:54:07,320
One day after school, we went to pick it up

1024
00:54:07,360 --> 00:54:10,559
like we always did, but this time something was off.

1025
00:54:11,039 --> 00:54:15,400
The jar was missing. It had contained some rolling papers, stems,

1026
00:54:15,440 --> 00:54:18,239
and a small bag with about three point five grams

1027
00:54:18,679 --> 00:54:22,199
maybe forty dollars worth. Everything else was still in the box,

1028
00:54:22,679 --> 00:54:26,559
about four hundred dollars worth of paraphernalia untouched, but the

1029
00:54:26,639 --> 00:54:29,760
jar was gone. Every now and then one of us

1030
00:54:29,840 --> 00:54:32,800
brings up the missing jar. Every time, it's followed by

1031
00:54:32,800 --> 00:54:35,199
a few minutes of silence as we all quietly wonder

1032
00:54:35,320 --> 00:54:38,519
what could have happened. To this day, we're still baffled

1033
00:54:38,519 --> 00:54:41,639
by the great mystery of the missing Jar. Story thirty eight.

1034
00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:44,920
About twenty years ago, I started chatting with a woman

1035
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:47,800
in a chat room. The conversation was deep, and we

1036
00:54:47,880 --> 00:54:51,239
quickly became attracted to one another. We ended up chatting

1037
00:54:51,239 --> 00:54:53,440
for months. Though we never spoke on the phone or

1038
00:54:53,480 --> 00:54:56,480
met in person, we had a strong connection and discussed

1039
00:54:56,480 --> 00:54:59,719
a lot of complex personal topics. I don't think we

1040
00:54:59,760 --> 00:55:03,440
even traded pictures. The thought crossed my mind that maybe

1041
00:55:03,440 --> 00:55:07,000
I was being catfished, but nothing bad ever happened. We

1042
00:55:07,199 --> 00:55:10,960
just eventually stopped chatting. Every now and then i'd log

1043
00:55:11,039 --> 00:55:13,800
in to see if she was online, but she never was.

1044
00:55:14,360 --> 00:55:17,400
Five or six years later, my life fell apart. I

1045
00:55:17,480 --> 00:55:20,119
moved to a new place and started over. I was

1046
00:55:20,159 --> 00:55:22,760
in a very low place in grasping at anything that

1047
00:55:22,880 --> 00:55:26,800
might lift my spirits out of habit or desperation. I

1048
00:55:26,880 --> 00:55:30,480
logged back into that old chat client, and like a

1049
00:55:30,519 --> 00:55:35,320
sign from the universe, she was online. We instantly reconnected

1050
00:55:35,440 --> 00:55:39,199
like no time had passed. This time we did trade pictures.

1051
00:55:39,679 --> 00:55:42,800
She was gorgeous, and to my surprise, she didn't think

1052
00:55:42,840 --> 00:55:45,639
I was a troll either. It felt like something straight

1053
00:55:45,679 --> 00:55:48,760
out of a movie. I was ecstatic. It genuinely felt

1054
00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:51,239
like fate. Still in the back of my mind, I

1055
00:55:51,320 --> 00:55:53,840
was waiting for the other shoe to drop until she

1056
00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:55,719
told me she would be in my town for a

1057
00:55:55,760 --> 00:55:59,119
conference and suggested we meet in person. So we did,

1058
00:55:59,599 --> 00:56:02,559
and it was that's amazing. It was like a fantasy

1059
00:56:02,679 --> 00:56:05,639
unfolding in real life, and I couldn't have dreamed a

1060
00:56:05,639 --> 00:56:08,199
better version of it. At the end of the night,

1061
00:56:08,239 --> 00:56:10,920
she invited me back to her hotel room. I went.

1062
00:56:11,679 --> 00:56:15,159
We spent hours together in the most electric, intimate connection

1063
00:56:15,239 --> 00:56:19,760
I've ever had. It's hard to even describe. Around four AM,

1064
00:56:19,960 --> 00:56:21,719
I had to leave because I needed to be at

1065
00:56:21,719 --> 00:56:24,559
work in two hours. I'll never forget the moment I

1066
00:56:24,599 --> 00:56:29,039
walked out the door, her flawless figure leaning in the doorway, whispering,

1067
00:56:29,599 --> 00:56:33,199
please don't go, but I had to. Over the next

1068
00:56:33,199 --> 00:56:35,760
two weeks, we kept talking and made plans to see

1069
00:56:35,760 --> 00:56:39,039
each other again. The day came, she texted me that

1070
00:56:39,079 --> 00:56:41,360
she was on her way and would arrive in about

1071
00:56:41,400 --> 00:56:44,840
four to five hours. But six hours later I hadn't

1072
00:56:44,840 --> 00:56:48,000
heard from her. I kept trying to reach her, but

1073
00:56:48,159 --> 00:56:53,119
she never responded. She never resurfaced. I spent years trying

1074
00:56:53,119 --> 00:56:56,119
to find her again. I never discovered any sign that

1075
00:56:56,199 --> 00:56:59,280
something bad had happened to her. I got no closure.

1076
00:56:59,679 --> 00:57:02,800
I have new life now and I'm happy, but I

1077
00:57:02,880 --> 00:57:05,880
still think about her every time I drive past that hotel.

1078
00:57:06,559 --> 00:57:08,760
It feels like I met a ghost that became real

1079
00:57:08,800 --> 00:57:11,159
for a brief moment, and I wonder what would have

1080
00:57:11,199 --> 00:57:12,960
happened if I had let her pull me back through

1081
00:57:13,000 --> 00:57:17,239
that door Story thirty nine. About two years ago, my

1082
00:57:17,320 --> 00:57:19,199
family and I went on vacation for a week and

1083
00:57:19,239 --> 00:57:21,840
a half. We had someone lined up to take care

1084
00:57:21,840 --> 00:57:24,360
of our cats and dogs while we were gone, and

1085
00:57:24,400 --> 00:57:27,079
we knew she was doing it. She kept in contact

1086
00:57:27,079 --> 00:57:30,840
with my sister on Snapchat the whole time. Everything seemed fine.

1087
00:57:31,360 --> 00:57:34,000
We got home around midnight one night. Her friend had

1088
00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:36,800
been there earlier that day and everything was reported to

1089
00:57:36,840 --> 00:57:39,159
be normal. But when we walked in the door, the

1090
00:57:39,199 --> 00:57:43,320
house smelled awful. It was a horrendous combination of cat urine,

1091
00:57:43,679 --> 00:57:47,719
sour milk, and rotting garbage. That description doesn't even begin

1092
00:57:47,840 --> 00:57:51,400
to convey how overpowering and disgusting it really was. The

1093
00:57:51,480 --> 00:57:55,280
smell filled every room and made the entire house nearly unbearable.

1094
00:57:55,719 --> 00:57:58,159
We were too exhausted to stay anywhere else that night.

1095
00:57:58,599 --> 00:58:00,880
All we could do was open every window and try

1096
00:58:00,920 --> 00:58:03,679
to air it out. Luckily, the room I was staying

1097
00:58:03,719 --> 00:58:05,719
in didn't smell nearly as bad as the rest of

1098
00:58:05,760 --> 00:58:08,840
the house, so I just dealt with it being a

1099
00:58:08,920 --> 00:58:10,800
night owl. I stayed up the rest of the night

1100
00:58:10,840 --> 00:58:13,880
on my computer. About an hour later, once everyone else

1101
00:58:14,000 --> 00:58:17,360
was asleep, the smell hadn't faded at all. It was

1102
00:58:17,400 --> 00:58:20,559
still just as strong. But I was hungry despite having

1103
00:58:20,679 --> 00:58:23,840
zero appetite because of how bad it was. I wrapped

1104
00:58:23,840 --> 00:58:26,000
a shirt around my mouth and nose to filter out

1105
00:58:26,000 --> 00:58:28,360
the odor and went to the kitchen, where it was

1106
00:58:28,440 --> 00:58:31,840
much worse. I put the shirt down, opened the fridge,

1107
00:58:32,239 --> 00:58:36,400
and then the smell was gone. I mean completely gone,

1108
00:58:36,960 --> 00:58:40,920
not weaker, gone. From the moment I left my room

1109
00:58:40,960 --> 00:58:44,199
to the moment I opened the fridge, maybe fifteen seconds

1110
00:58:44,199 --> 00:58:47,719
had passed. That's it. But in that short window of time,

1111
00:58:48,119 --> 00:58:52,519
the overwhelming stench that had filled the house just vanished.

1112
00:58:52,960 --> 00:58:54,760
I know that might not sound like a big deal

1113
00:58:54,800 --> 00:58:57,199
when you read it, but I can't explain how bad

1114
00:58:57,199 --> 00:59:01,000
the smell was, or how sudden and complete is disappearance was.

1115
00:59:01,440 --> 00:59:04,920
I've tried to think of rational explanations, but nothing fits.

1116
00:59:05,480 --> 00:59:07,800
It's one of those things that has never left my mind.

1117
00:59:08,480 --> 00:59:11,199
I still think about it because it was just so bizarre.

1118
00:59:11,880 --> 00:59:15,320
A house filled with an unbearable odor one moment, and

1119
00:59:15,400 --> 00:59:17,280
the next it's gone without a trace.