Speaker 1: Thank you for arriving this fast, I said, struggling to
Speaker 1: bring the strap of my purse into the back seat
Speaker 1: of the car. The driver murmured something sorry, I said,
Speaker 1: still adjusting shut the door.
Speaker 2: The man boomed. I pulled the strap completely into the car.
Speaker 1: Finally the door actually shut. I tried wiping down the
Speaker 1: seat with what remained dry from my jeans. The man
Speaker 1: didn't seem to notice that part. I could see his
Speaker 1: eyes through the.
Speaker 2: Rear view mirror looking at me.
Speaker 1: I had, after all, got in the back seat of
Speaker 1: the car wet. Why did they even make these things
Speaker 1: at a leather any more? The ride was going to
Speaker 1: be cold, and from what I remembered, was going to
Speaker 1: be a long one. This weather, right, I said, trying
Speaker 1: to tone things down a bit. He ignored me, or
Speaker 1: it probably couldn't hear me from the rain drumming on
Speaker 1: the roof of the old black Camry. I looked down
Speaker 1: at the back of the seat, and then down at
Speaker 1: the window. A sudden urge to step out into the
Speaker 1: rain again came over me. The locks clicked shut, and
Speaker 1: I looked at the driver, and then he looked at
Speaker 1: the mirror that looked at me. He said, something, but
Speaker 1: I didn't hear him. I nodded, and he nodded. He
Speaker 1: looked away, and I looked toward the window again. What
Speaker 1: was supposed to be a simple ride is about to
Speaker 1: turn into the most haunting experience for one of them,
Speaker 1: as a drive into a dark and rainy night begins.
Speaker 1: Just be ready for when it happens to you. My
Speaker 1: name is Edwin, and he a scary story. The rain
Speaker 1: was crying its way down the glass and disappearing into
Speaker 1: the wind behind us. The window wouldn't close all the way,
Speaker 1: so some of it was seeping into the car, but
Speaker 1: I wouldn't worry about it anymore. The blurry lights had
Speaker 1: long disappeared in the distance, and now was going to
Speaker 1: be a stretch of nothing but trees around us until
Speaker 1: we pulled up to my home, or what remained of it.
Speaker 2: It was just a house.
Speaker 1: Now home. I pulled out my phone to take the time.
Speaker 1: I still had about forty minutes to make it. That
Speaker 1: was glad that the whole small talk part was thrown
Speaker 1: out the window from the start. I looked at the
Speaker 1: back of the driver's head, bald. He was with huge
Speaker 1: scars by his ears, but perhaps what remained of a
Speaker 1: tattoo that had faded a long time ago. His hand
Speaker 1: was held tightly in a fist, and it made me
Speaker 1: feel uncomfortable, bankry. There was lots of stuff I grew
Speaker 1: up around, and fists were not uncommon around where I lived.
Speaker 1: There were the tools of husbands and bullies, tools you
Speaker 1: get to use until you get something better, something sharper.
Speaker 1: You learned to find the fists, and it's like this.
Speaker 1: The eyes give it away first. You know when someone's
Speaker 1: about to do something. You have a look down at
Speaker 1: the fists and be ready for it. Either you run
Speaker 1: or you get punched. If you fight, or you get
Speaker 1: punched too. Plus, the girls from my town were evil,
Speaker 1: some of them quite literally. But you learn to use
Speaker 1: evil as a tool eventually, or you die their choice.
Speaker 1: I looked at the driver, and again he looked at
Speaker 1: the mirror that looked at me. I looked down at
Speaker 1: his fist and then at the area where the handbrake
Speaker 1: was an automatic transmission. He was never going to open
Speaker 1: up that fist, and I couldn't tell from his eyes
Speaker 1: just yet, but something about his posture told me that
Speaker 1: he was planning something. I should have been scared here
Speaker 1: at his sudden anger with the door at the scar
Speaker 1: on his head by his ear. But it wasn't not
Speaker 1: after everything that happened these past couple of days, there
Speaker 1: was nothing to look at out the window but my
Speaker 1: own thoughts as I played back the mental track about
Speaker 1: what got me to the city. The phone call I
Speaker 1: got at the motel where I stayed for those two nights.
Speaker 1: The call had come from Mike, a guy had met
Speaker 1: one of the meets for this group. I was a
Speaker 1: part of PI, he said. Paulina was, but he could
Speaker 1: never say it. I was able to make it out.
Speaker 1: Let's just start over. I don't think this is for us,
Speaker 1: he said, the strange seriousness in his voice. He used
Speaker 1: to be so gentle and dark.
Speaker 2: It was true.
Speaker 1: Mike hadn't been to our meets in a while. He
Speaker 1: had gotten into a fight with one of the leaders
Speaker 1: of the group over a thing that he forced us
Speaker 1: to do, a part of a grand ritual.
Speaker 2: He called it.
Speaker 1: Not everyone agreed with it, but we all did it,
Speaker 1: even Mike. Something changed in him after that night. Everyone
Speaker 1: could tell, and yet everyone knew that he was planning
Speaker 1: on leaving. Nobody liked it, not even me, because once
Speaker 1: they left with what they know, they can bring us
Speaker 1: all down. But Mike hadn't been heard of in a while.
Speaker 1: He had left the state, and who knows how he
Speaker 1: got the number of where I was staying. Plus we
Speaker 1: all knew about what happened with Erica and Manny. Their
Speaker 1: dried up hands were still hanging on a wire by
Speaker 1: the back entrance of the house, a stern reminder of consequences.
Speaker 1: Many tried to leave first, and Erica helped him, and
Speaker 1: then both.
Speaker 2: Got the shovels.
Speaker 1: I know now of just how bad it was, and
Speaker 1: I can blame it on how naive I used to be,
Speaker 1: or how dumb whatever, but none of that matters.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I had chances to leave. Everyone did, and we didn't.
Speaker 1: I tried, though, I mean I ended up in a
Speaker 1: motel in a dark alley. For goodness sake, I walked
Speaker 1: halfway there before I was picked up and asked to
Speaker 1: be dropped off anywhere in the city. I had no address,
Speaker 1: only a plan to leave later that week and get
Speaker 1: across the state. Maybe you find a church and confess
Speaker 1: everything we had done. If I managed to stay alive.
Speaker 1: But now I had until midnight to make it back
Speaker 1: before I would have to dig my own grave. My
Speaker 1: hand was to become another dangling reminder of what happens
Speaker 1: when you try to leave. The night Backers. It's the
Speaker 1: name of a group, and I took it.
Speaker 2: I was gonna go back.
Speaker 1: There was more to do, people that still needed to pay,
Speaker 1: so they sends a driver for me.
Speaker 2: Within minute.
Speaker 1: Mike told me that they aren't as large as they seem.
Speaker 1: They only stay around the town and a couple of
Speaker 1: neighboring ones. They don't go out and find you anywhere
Speaker 1: in the world like they say that they do. There
Speaker 1: are ways to leave and stop dealing with all the
Speaker 1: things they make us go through, but at the time,
Speaker 1: it's not to be weird or anything here. Revenge was
Speaker 1: pretty sweet. It still is because imagine this being able
Speaker 1: to watch as a person who made you eat their
Speaker 1: leftovers and took your birthday money get struck by a car.
Speaker 2: Sweet, isn't it?
Speaker 1: What if I told you that you made it happen,
Speaker 1: or that the person who spit on you while you
Speaker 1: were tying your shoe, the same loser who stole your
Speaker 1: dad's lawnmower, was found dead in a ditch, stuck in
Speaker 1: the mud for two days, found but did not survive
Speaker 1: the thirst. It was baked in the sun, along with
Speaker 1: a mother that surrounded him.
Speaker 2: Petty right, a little bit but fair, who's to say.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing that balance comes from somewhere. Favors
Speaker 1: aren't free. It's how I lost my family. At least,
Speaker 1: it's what I believe in, what I was told over
Speaker 1: and over. And that's why you can't leave. You See,
Speaker 1: there's always something to balance out, like a never ending
Speaker 1: game of seesaw, where things aren't ever perfectly aligned anymore.
Speaker 1: But you're always fighting rights to fix wrongs, and someone
Speaker 1: always gets in the way to pay. You always take
Speaker 1: away from someone, and it always seems to be you
Speaker 1: that makes the payment. But evil doesn't even begin.
Speaker 2: To describe what this is.
Speaker 1: Too many nights I spent trying to decide on that
Speaker 1: first ritual, and when I finally did it, I could
Speaker 1: ever remember it. I knew the kid from a couple
Speaker 1: of babies sitting gigs too, and once I knew where
Speaker 1: he slept, I went back and grabbed him. I even
Speaker 1: went to his funeral. That's when they found where I
Speaker 1: had left him. It's easy when you don't remember what
Speaker 1: you did. As far as I know, I didn't do it.
Speaker 1: Whatever took over did it. It remembers it for me,
Speaker 1: and I just carry on doing these little tasks. So
Speaker 1: was I ready to leave, No, Mike, not yet. I
Speaker 1: looked at the time again. We were never gonna make it.
Speaker 1: Even if the driver sped through the rest of the
Speaker 1: road in the woods, it would.
Speaker 2: Be too late.
Speaker 1: Then I saw his fists shaking as he looked at
Speaker 1: the mirror that looked at me. I could do nothing.
Speaker 1: I told him to hurry, and even I was surprised
Speaker 1: at how stern my voice came out. He stepped on
Speaker 1: the gas and I felt my body he leaned back
Speaker 1: on the seat. It was like that for a few
Speaker 1: minutes before I knew it. There were only two minutes left.
Speaker 1: So I looked at him, and he looked at the
Speaker 1: mirror that looked at me. His whole body was trembling,
Speaker 1: and he pulled over and quickly he reached for his door.
Speaker 1: Shut the door. I yelled, it was my turn to boom.
Speaker 1: Now He ran out, nearly tripping on the edge of
Speaker 1: the asphalt by the trees.
Speaker 2: Was he thinking of leaving me there?
Speaker 1: My door was unlocked when he stepped out, and I
Speaker 1: pushed it open. I ran after him, but I couldn't
Speaker 1: get close. I saw his eyes, the fear I loved
Speaker 1: and missed so much, with that fist. My mind couldn't
Speaker 1: take it. I saw the small beads now dangling from
Speaker 1: the side of his hand, and I only imagined what
Speaker 1: was inside. I looked at the darkness, and it called
Speaker 1: to me. I followed as fast as I could. I
Speaker 1: don't remember much as to how I got back that night,
Speaker 1: or of what happened to the taxi driver, but it
Speaker 1: made it back in time. I'm still in the same
Speaker 1: old town, away from the same old people, and yes,
Speaker 1: I think of those that I've harmed often. I think
Speaker 1: of those that I've scared to death sometimes, though only sometimes.
Speaker 1: The TV was loud, blaring to an unknown static channel.
Speaker 1: As I realized where I was, the bleak decorations of
Speaker 1: the hotel room being lit up with that blue light
Speaker 1: from the screen, and I was able to make out
Speaker 1: the shapes around the bed, silhouettes that jumped with a
Speaker 1: light around the room, everything and sink. My wife started
Speaker 1: tapping around the bed, searching for the remote control, a
Speaker 1: thing we never used while on vacation, until I leaned
Speaker 1: over and hoarsely said, but I would turn it off.
Speaker 1: My wife rolled away from me as I stepped toward
Speaker 1: the front of the room. But then I saw it,
Speaker 1: A strange face appearing on the screen, distant and cold
Speaker 1: among the bits of black and white that were moving
Speaker 1: around like a million ants. But the face, that of
Speaker 1: a man, started getting closer. Its white smile came flashing
Speaker 1: across the screen, and then Hello, it said. My wife
Speaker 1: rolled on the bed and quickly sat up.
Speaker 2: What is that?
Speaker 1: My wife whispered, Hello it said, slower this time, and
Speaker 1: I could swear that it looked in the direction of
Speaker 1: my wife.
Speaker 2: I remember thinking it.
Speaker 1: Was weird at first, and probably chuckled at the thought
Speaker 1: that it was some prank on us. Maybe it was
Speaker 1: I don't know, nervousness. My wife didn't find it funny.
Speaker 1: I could tell by her white and the way she
Speaker 1: was curling up with a bench sheet against the back.
Speaker 2: Of the bed.
Speaker 1: Hello, it said, again, angrier, and then something replaced the screen.
Speaker 1: Of people in the rooms, some of them still sleeping,
Speaker 1: and others approaching the screen as if trying to turn
Speaker 1: it off. Others were screaming, and I could hear voices
Speaker 1: next door, people that were going through the same thing.
Speaker 1: I couldn't find the switch to turn off the television,
Speaker 1: so I looked around for the cable, but it was
Speaker 1: hidden behind the board that held it up on the wall.
Speaker 1: The volume got louder, and my wife was up and
Speaker 1: looking around for her sandals. I checked the time two
Speaker 1: fifty six in the morning. There was a commotion outside.
Speaker 1: I could see silhouettes moving through the people on the door.
Speaker 1: It clicked on the light. Sandra was on her way
Speaker 1: to me already and reaching for it, tightening the nightrobe
Speaker 1: around her waist. Outside was much worse than I expected.
Speaker 1: The whole floor seemed to be out of the rooms.
Speaker 1: Children were screaming, confused. Parents were on their phones looking
Speaker 1: around to get signal. People were running around the halls
Speaker 1: and toward one particular staircase. My wife and I looked
Speaker 1: at each other as the other television seemed to be
Speaker 1: blaring the same sounds, the echoes of the helloes coming
Speaker 1: from all around us. As we lined up for the staircase,
Speaker 1: people were shoving each other in a panic, unaware of
Speaker 1: what was going on. I don't know how I was
Speaker 1: able to stay calm. Maybe it was from trying to
Speaker 1: reason everything out. I watched as an elevator opened up
Speaker 1: and everyone shoved themselves inside, yelling and shouting onto the
Speaker 1: doors closed. We were on the fourteenth floor, and even
Speaker 1: though it would be a long way down, I dragged
Speaker 1: my wife to the other staircase at the end of
Speaker 1: the building. There was no alarm, no smoke, nothing but
Speaker 1: the panic of people trying to get away from whatever
Speaker 1: was replaying on these screens, huge faces of the man
Speaker 1: with his face up again to TV. As we passed
Speaker 1: by the wide open rooms toward the end of the hall,
Speaker 1: the staircase was quiet, with few footsteps going downstairs. Two
Speaker 1: or three floors below us. Guests were whispering to each
Speaker 1: other in confusion, But as we passed down the floors,
Speaker 1: we'd had to see other people running and shouting in
Speaker 1: a panic. Grown men were wiping tears from their eyes
Speaker 1: as they ran in the opposite direction.
Speaker 2: It took us a while as.
Speaker 1: We worked our way down the stairs, and with every
Speaker 1: floor that we passed, we saw the doors of the
Speaker 1: rooms were wide open.
Speaker 2: What is going on?
Speaker 1: My wife yelled and try to keep her calm as
Speaker 1: they reassured her that we were almost at the base floor.
Speaker 1: To just keep going and that we would find answers.
Speaker 1: The echoes of those televisions were everywhere, loud and getting louder.
Speaker 1: We finally got to the floor what the reception was
Speaker 1: and rushed out. Two other families were crowding up the
Speaker 1: desk while everyone else panicked in the lobby. I thought
Speaker 1: about us simply going outside, catching the eyes of a
Speaker 1: calm security guard standing by the door. His demeanor was
Speaker 1: nothing I wanted to see at that moment. He simply
Speaker 1: smiled and looked away. Once again, that is not a problem,
Speaker 1: I heard the receptionist say, with a white smile. We
Speaker 1: will have that looked at immediately. She then handed them
Speaker 1: vouchers for something and then looked at the next person
Speaker 1: in line. I cut in and shouted, what is going on?
Speaker 1: There was no reason to be calm in such a moment.
Speaker 1: Everyone was scared out of their wits. Sir, she said firmly,
Speaker 1: I will help you right after them. I looked at
Speaker 1: my wife and she was shocked at the manor professional. Yes,
Speaker 1: but at that moment it was the same thing. The
Speaker 1: family was complaining about the man on the television that
Speaker 1: they couldn't turn it off. Same script by the receptionist, apologizing,
Speaker 1: radioing the maintenance person to have that looked at immediately,
Speaker 1: and then offering vouchers. Confused, the family just stepped away.
Speaker 1: The receptionist looked at me and smiled. The television turned
Speaker 1: on by itself, and we saw something very disturbing.
Speaker 2: I started.
Speaker 1: She looked at me intently, as if she hadn't just
Speaker 1: heard the same story two times before, right in front
Speaker 1: of me, and waited for me to finish. That is
Speaker 1: not a problem, sir, I am setting some one to
Speaker 1: look at that right away. What is your room number,
Speaker 1: Room fourteen zero seven, I replied, nearly whispering, realizing that
Speaker 1: none of this made sense. What if it was a
Speaker 1: dream or a strange practical joke. She looked at me,
Speaker 1: smiled again, and offered two vouchers for breakfast and some
Speaker 1: other things that I didn't pay attention to, Holding them
Speaker 1: tightly in my hand, I stepped back, my wife looking
Speaker 1: around confused as well. There was no one around us
Speaker 1: any more. We looked at the receptionist and she looked
Speaker 1: back at us, pointing us in the direction of the elevator.
Speaker 1: We walked toward it slowly pushed a button that opened
Speaker 1: up the doors immediately, What is going on? I whispered
Speaker 1: to myself. Neither of us could offer anything here and
Speaker 1: simply stayed quiet. We got back up to our floor
Speaker 1: and everything was quiet. The maintenance man was waiting for
Speaker 1: us at the front of our room. We showed him inside,
Speaker 1: and he lifted a small compartment behind the television and
Speaker 1: plugging it from the wall. He was about to take
Speaker 1: out a tool from his belt.
Speaker 2: But I stopped him. Can you just leave it unplugged.
Speaker 2: We'll be okay with that, please.
Speaker 1: No problem, he said, in the same tone as a receptionist.
Speaker 2: He smiled.
Speaker 1: He stepped out of the room and shut the door.
Speaker 1: We stayed in complete silence for a while, not even
Speaker 1: sure when we fell asleep, but we did eventually. Did
Speaker 1: that actually happen last night? My wife said from the
Speaker 1: bathroom very early the next morning. She stepped toward me.
Speaker 1: It was strange, the man of the screen, yeah, and
Speaker 1: the commotion in the building. She continued. I was disturbed
Speaker 1: by the views of other people's rooms and panicked faces
Speaker 1: of everyone out in the hallways. It was as if
Speaker 1: reality slipped for a bit, and all I was left
Speaker 1: with was the margins in between spaces where our minds
Speaker 1: reach an edge that we should all be afraid of crossing,
Speaker 1: in fear we can never get it back. We got
Speaker 1: to the breakfast area early. We were the only ones
Speaker 1: there in the buffet, but it was hard to even
Speaker 1: get something down. That nauseating feeling that something was wrong
Speaker 1: wouldn't leave me, and I wasn't alone. My wife was
Speaker 1: very concerned with everything, and it was her that suggested
Speaker 1: that we leave early. We got the reservation for another
Speaker 1: night left without questioning it. We agreed to get our
Speaker 1: things from the room and get back to the lobby,
Speaker 1: and we did so very quickly. We looked at the
Speaker 1: television with the unplugged cable and really lived everything in
Speaker 1: my mind, the face of a man I've never seen before,
Speaker 1: greeting me with that hello and repeat. We shut the
Speaker 1: door after a quick look around the room, and before
Speaker 1: we knew it, and we were at the lobby again.
Speaker 1: Sandra went to sit by the couches with our things,
Speaker 1: while I went to cancel the remainder.
Speaker 2: Of our stay.
Speaker 1: Oh, the receptionist said, with an exaggerated frown, but I understand,
Speaker 1: what is your room number?
Speaker 2: We got a full refund for the.
Speaker 1: Remainder of our stay and I went to the group
Speaker 1: by the couches. We had no other plan then, where
Speaker 1: else to stay or where to go with our things.
Speaker 2: Let's just go.
Speaker 1: There's a bunch of places on this block, Sandra said, concerned.
Speaker 1: I could tell she was even more disturbed by everything
Speaker 1: than I was. I walked out to the front with
Speaker 1: our bags. The same security guard from last night was
Speaker 1: holding the door open for us. What happened last night,
Speaker 1: I blurted out, all three of us there. Still he
Speaker 1: seemed confused, so I mentioned the man of the screen,
Speaker 1: the commotion, the panic of everyone around the hallways. The
Speaker 1: guard seemed more normal than the staff at the desk
Speaker 1: or the maintenance guy. No fake smiles and didn't speak
Speaker 1: all professionally or whatever.
Speaker 2: Man, you're giving me.
Speaker 1: The creeps, he said, You're not the first person to
Speaker 1: leave just like that. But I'll tell you this whole
Speaker 1: building right here, there were only two other rooms besides
Speaker 1: yours that were occupied. I looked at him in shock.
Speaker 1: He continued, I've been here all night. I know what
Speaker 1: I'm telling you. He let out a nervous chuckle. I
Speaker 1: had never been so relieved to leave a place like
Speaker 1: I was that day, and even now when my wife
Speaker 1: and I talk about it, we can't believe that it
Speaker 1: happened ourselves. We were able to find reviews of the
Speaker 1: hotel for a while, the Belkan Hotel and Spa, but
Speaker 1: it showed nothing strange. We checked for a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks up until the listing disappeared, was renamed to something else,
Speaker 1: and now who knows what it is. To this day,
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened, and honestly, I still wonder
Speaker 1: if it happened at all. Thank you all for waiting
Speaker 1: for the stories to come out. I really hope you
Speaker 1: like these. We have lots more coming up. I promise
Speaker 1: a lot of these stories I make are inspired by
Speaker 1: things I see or hear, and this was no exception.
Speaker 1: I actually can fill up my notes app with a
Speaker 1: ton of ideas that would make a good story. And
Speaker 1: this time, because I was traveling to take care of
Speaker 1: a few things, I was staying at hotel rooms, taking.
Speaker 2: A lot of ubers taxis.
Speaker 1: I was tiring, but I was staying at a hotel
Speaker 1: room where I was The idea just popped up because
Speaker 1: I heard very early in the morning it was still
Speaker 1: dark out. The TV suddenly turned on coincidentally. Pretty sure
Speaker 1: there's a coincident, at least I want to believe that,
Speaker 1: staying in the sixth floor, room six o six.
Speaker 2: I promise I have pictures of this stuff.
Speaker 1: I just upload these on my Instagram at one point
Speaker 1: make a short story out of it or something.
Speaker 2: But if you're not following me.
Speaker 1: There, I'm edwin Cove ed w i n CoV All
Speaker 1: Winward on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. But yeah, it was really
Speaker 1: eerie And when that happened, I didn't think of anything
Speaker 1: of it at the moment until after and I was like,
Speaker 1: did you hear that static sound in the morning?
Speaker 2: And my wife was like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that happened really, really creepy. That's actually part of
Speaker 1: the you know what triggers some of these stories. But anyway,
Speaker 1: you guys used to send me ideas through the reviews
Speaker 1: and comments about things that you think would make good stories,
Speaker 1: and I want to follow follow up on those, like
Speaker 1: I want to make stories from your idea, So send
Speaker 1: them over again. Please let's come up with some new
Speaker 1: stuff around here. If you want to join our community
Speaker 1: on scary Plus and get these stories early and without ads,
Speaker 1: go to scaryplus dot com. Everything together scaryplus dot com
Speaker 1: and try it free for two weeks. You can cancel anytime.
Speaker 1: This podcast is written and produced by me Edwin Colarubias.
Speaker 1: If you're subbed, I'll be back next week with more stories.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for listening. If it's scary everyone,
Speaker 1: see you soon.