Speaker 1: That's not my birthday, I told the lady at the
Speaker 1: front desk. She smiled, but not in the polite I
Speaker 1: made a mistake kind of way, not even in an
Speaker 1: embarrassed or let me fix that kind of way. She
Speaker 1: simply stared at me in silence, and that smile was
Speaker 1: getting whiter, slow enough for me not to notice it
Speaker 1: until it was almost reaching her ears. No it isn't,
Speaker 1: she finally said, her expression barely changing. I looked around
Speaker 1: the office to see if anyone else was going to
Speaker 1: come and help me. The pain in my mouth suddenly
Speaker 1: pinched against my skull. Right then. It was when I
Speaker 1: realized that I was grinding my teeth again. A woman
Speaker 1: came out of the back of that old office, smiling
Speaker 1: at me until she looked at the woman behind the desk,
Speaker 1: and like a dog with her tail between her legs,
Speaker 1: the woman on the chair stood up quickly. She grabbed
Speaker 1: the broom that was leaning on the corner of the
Speaker 1: waiting room, and she rushed outside, not without offering one
Speaker 1: final look toward me, a sinister smile, one that I
Speaker 1: can still remember. My name is Edwin, and here's a
Speaker 1: scary story. It was weird that experience with that woman.
Speaker 1: I asked the dentist about her, and she said not
Speaker 1: to worry about it. But I told her clearly, March second,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one. What would she write February twenty sixth?
Speaker 1: The date hadn't even happened yet, the year was way off.
Speaker 1: What was I negative? Two weeks young? The dentist didn't
Speaker 1: seem to get the joke, and she simply asked for
Speaker 1: her tools and got to work. She was done in
Speaker 1: about ten minutes. The pain was still there when I
Speaker 1: walked out with the bag of prescription medication, but I
Speaker 1: knew that it was going to go away. She had
Speaker 1: taken it out. It can't hurt you if it ain't there,
Speaker 1: she said, with a chuckle. She wasn't wrong. I left
Speaker 1: the old dentist's office with forty dollars less that day,
Speaker 1: a deal thanks to that sliding scale that they charged
Speaker 1: us without insurance. The lines were long, and the areas
Speaker 1: around there weren't the best, but I was glad it
Speaker 1: was still around. Word around the neighborhood kept saying that
Speaker 1: the place was closing down, and it had been that
Speaker 1: way for years. I walked up to the bus stop
Speaker 1: and looked back at that office. The lion was now
Speaker 1: reaching Juan's Tacos by the corner of the plaza, and
Speaker 1: at the very very end, just around the corner of
Speaker 1: the building was that woman looking directly at me, her
Speaker 1: chin leaning on the old broom she was holding with
Speaker 1: both hands, that smile still reaching her ears. I looked
Speaker 1: away and pretended to look for the bus down the street.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately I saw it just on the other block. Wasn't
Speaker 1: as bad after that second pill at night. Overall, it
Speaker 1: was a good day today. Jimmy's school called me while
Speaker 1: I was at work. He was about to be picked
Speaker 1: up because of a stomach ache, but I kept the
Speaker 1: generic pepto bismo along with the inhaler at the front office.
Speaker 1: I said it was okay if he took it, so
Speaker 1: they gave it to him and they didn't call back.
Speaker 1: I got home to the door wide open at the
Speaker 1: apartment complex. I had told Jimmy not to do that
Speaker 1: many times. Those people, the ones that passed by the corner,
Speaker 1: they were said to be thieves. Although they wouldn't steal
Speaker 1: from us, they blatantly told me that. When I clutched
Speaker 1: my purse on my way home from the bus stop,
Speaker 1: one day. I didn't trust him, though we're neighbors friends,
Speaker 1: two of them said. Today. They waved and laughed as
Speaker 1: I walked by them, and then they went back to
Speaker 1: their card game two and they smacked the cards onto
Speaker 1: the floor. Twenty six, they yelled. Two of them were
Speaker 1: getting overly excited, while another said that he wanted a
Speaker 1: do over. Two and twenty six. The numbers echoed in
Speaker 1: my mind as I stared down the old black gum
Speaker 1: circles on the sidewalk. There ain't no do overs. It's over,
Speaker 1: one of them said. I turned around and caught a
Speaker 1: glimpse of him, a smile spread wide across his face.
Speaker 1: It's over, he repeated, and he looked directly at me.
Speaker 1: Time seemed to stand still for a moment. It wasn't
Speaker 1: immediate then the thoughts that I have now as I'm
Speaker 1: writing this down two and twenty six like the wrong
Speaker 1: birthday that the strange woman had written down for me.
Speaker 1: I was still thinking about it when I looked into
Speaker 1: the wide metal door that was opened. I turned the
Speaker 1: doorknob on the wooden door. It was locked with the
Speaker 1: dead bolt, so I knocked and Jimmy came up to
Speaker 1: open it. I decided to scold him. Then the door,
Speaker 1: after all, had been locked. Strange day today. The pain
Speaker 1: was gone now, just like the dentist said it would.
Speaker 1: It can't hurt me if it ain't there. She said
Speaker 1: that an implant can be considered sometime in the future.
Speaker 1: It knew what she meant. She meant when that had
Speaker 1: the money for it. There was no shame in it.
Speaker 1: We were all in it together, and she knew not
Speaker 1: to bother me with phone calls like those normal dentist
Speaker 1: places do, asking if I'm ready for the procedure now,
Speaker 1: because the doctor has availability for these next two weeks.
Speaker 1: I had heard it all, but not from these guys.
Speaker 1: There were more important things now anyway. Rhett was due
Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks. Jimmy needed cleats after out
Speaker 1: growing the ones they had let him borrow at the
Speaker 1: end of last season. And still I felt all right
Speaker 1: for the majority of the day. But I have to
Speaker 1: say that number it's still there. I don't know what
Speaker 1: it is. It's bothering me. Something isn't right. Weird day
Speaker 1: today there was an order that I messed up on
Speaker 1: at Hogies. The old woman got out of her car
Speaker 1: and came up to the counter, yelling with that raspy
Speaker 1: voice pointing at me. She wanted me to apologize, and
Speaker 1: I did. I keep my head down at work all
Speaker 1: the time. The risks are too big, so I told
Speaker 1: her that we would fix it, but it wasn't good
Speaker 1: enough for her. The manager came up to us, wiping
Speaker 1: her hands with the wrong rag and asked what the
Speaker 1: order number had been. I couldn't believe it. I looked
Speaker 1: at it, my mind going back to the woman with
Speaker 1: the broom and the man with the cards. Next thing
Speaker 1: I know, the manager was tapping me on the shoulder,
Speaker 1: two twenty six. Did you get that order? Two twenty six?
Speaker 1: Let's get it out again before it gets cold. The
Speaker 1: old woman, now out of air, was trying to yell,
Speaker 1: before you get cold. I heard the woman say, clear
Speaker 1: as day. I looked at her, confused, this time trying
Speaker 1: to make sure I had heard it correctly. When I
Speaker 1: saw a grin spreading across her face. At that moment,
Speaker 1: I went numb and felt the strange rush of cold
Speaker 1: blood go up to my head and I grabbed onto
Speaker 1: the counter. I heard the voice of a man through
Speaker 1: my headset of the drive through. I got to take
Speaker 1: a break too. I heard my friend Barbara come up
Speaker 1: and say that as she was taking my headset off.
Speaker 1: We both sat at the farthest table from the counter,
Speaker 1: with two sandwiches on the tray. That's when I told her,
Speaker 1: told her everything, at least what I could make sense of.
Speaker 1: That I kept seeing that number, that date, zero two
Speaker 1: twenty six, two twenty six, February twenty six. It was
Speaker 1: getting to me. Barbara simply stared pulling out her phone
Speaker 1: and typing something extremely fast on it, Susan. She seemed
Speaker 1: to be searching for something. I remember that name, but
Speaker 1: she didn't finish. She told me to let it go,
Speaker 1: to not think about it so much. She kept looking
Speaker 1: at her phone. I begged her to tell me what
Speaker 1: she was talking about, but she said that I should
Speaker 1: just focus on thinking of other things, that everything was
Speaker 1: going to be all right. But I could see it
Speaker 1: in her eyes. Something wasn't right. Not an easy day today.
Speaker 1: Things in order, two decks of cards on a bench.
Speaker 1: A woman with the broom was here again. I heard
Speaker 1: her raspy boys yelling at me from the corner of
Speaker 1: the room. Something's not right. February twenty sixth zero two
Speaker 1: two six to twenty six Day of Darkness, Day of rest.
Speaker 1: My name is Barbara Collins, from Diana's workplace at Hogy Smart.
Speaker 1: It's late March. Jimmy let me help him with his
Speaker 1: mother's things, and I found her journal. I hope what
Speaker 1: I tell you here offers some closure after her passing,
Speaker 1: though I must warn you that if you're looking for
Speaker 1: a logical explanation, I cannot offer that. Diana was found
Speaker 1: dead in her living room on the afternoon of February
Speaker 1: twenty sixth of this year. Her face seemed contorted, jaws
Speaker 1: stretched out beyond anything I had ever seen, her eyes
Speaker 1: staring at the ceiling, and her right hand rigid stuck
Speaker 1: with her index finger pointing at the open door of
Speaker 1: her apartment, though her arm was now against the carpet.
Speaker 1: From what I hear, this type of expression comes from
Speaker 1: fear when death arrives. And even though the police opened
Speaker 1: and closed the investigation, they never bothered to hear me
Speaker 1: on what she had told me regarding the strange people
Speaker 1: she encountered, the people in the days before her death.
Speaker 1: The number two twenty six the warnings. So I'm writing
Speaker 1: this here for everyone to read and listen to the
Speaker 1: things she did write down, the things she only told me.
Speaker 1: We were at work one evening. Rush hour was extra
Speaker 1: difficult that day because there was a concert at a
Speaker 1: nearby park. Diana was working the drive through when suddenly
Speaker 1: a woman who had left before getting the second bag
Speaker 1: of her order came rushing up to her by the counter.
Speaker 1: God only knows what kind of stuff She told her.
Speaker 1: She was pretty shaken up. And when she told me
Speaker 1: about the number two two six, the woman from the
Speaker 1: dentist's office, and the man with the cards, I started
Speaker 1: piecing things together. You see, I live in the same
Speaker 1: neighborhood where Diana shared her apartment with her son Jimmy,
Speaker 1: and if you're not from around that part of town,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't know about the strange sightings that happened in
Speaker 1: the eighties. No matter how hard I looked for more information,
Speaker 1: though nobody was willing to say anything. I'd forgotten all
Speaker 1: about it until Diana mentioned it. May she rest in peace,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't help It had been sent an email
Speaker 1: long ago. The only reply back about this the one
Speaker 1: that mentioned a woman with a broom. I thought it
Speaker 1: was a joke when I read it, I thought they
Speaker 1: were trying to make me believe that it was a witch,
Speaker 1: the typical flying woman across the night sky. I sent
Speaker 1: a response back to that email to a woman named
Speaker 1: Susan L. But she never replied back with anything else.
Speaker 1: But it was the idea behind this woman that terrified me.
Speaker 1: All of it detailed in that email. The long block
Speaker 1: of texts Susan had written explained the whole thing. That
Speaker 1: there was a strange woman. She would come up to
Speaker 1: people and tell them the day that they would die,
Speaker 1: somewhat believe her. Others would not. There were very few
Speaker 1: that actually understood the message, and I thought Diana was
Speaker 1: on her way to doing exactly that. I know that
Speaker 1: saying something isn't an option anymore, and honestly I should
Speaker 1: not have kept my mouth shut about it. It was
Speaker 1: only going to make things worse. But I should have
Speaker 1: said something anyway. There was something I could do now,
Speaker 1: at least to get some closure. I had it burned
Speaker 1: in my mind. I'm going to find out who this
Speaker 1: woman was and get some help for Jimmy. It was
Speaker 1: Saturday morning and I had called out a word to
Speaker 1: go back to the dentist's office. I knew the place
Speaker 1: she was talking about I had been there myself. The
Speaker 1: receptionist had just gotten to her post when the bell
Speaker 1: on the door rang as I stepped in. I hesitated
Speaker 1: at first, but I asked her about the woman with
Speaker 1: the broom. Her expression changed almost immediately. She asked me,
Speaker 1: did she say something to you? I told her no,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to know if she was around, and
Speaker 1: that I needed to ask her a few things. She
Speaker 1: told me that the woman had been spotted around the area,
Speaker 1: that there were several stories about her circulating around Facebook
Speaker 1: and some other forums as she frequented. As she did
Speaker 1: her own research on it, the receptionist was more than
Speaker 1: open to maybe eager to share more information about everything
Speaker 1: that she knew about this woman. I know it sounds
Speaker 1: insane to even hear this. Trust me, I already made
Speaker 1: peace with it. It was the skepticism that was keeping
Speaker 1: me for my answers. She agreed, and I turned my
Speaker 1: body toward the exit when a shadow passed right in
Speaker 1: front of the door, and at that moment, the reception
Speaker 1: is grabbed me by the wrists and pulled me toward
Speaker 1: her behind the counter. We stayed quiet as a shadow
Speaker 1: covered up the waiting room area. That's her, she whispered.
Speaker 1: We sit still for a long time, and eventually she
Speaker 1: was gone. That evening, the receptionist who was this middle
Speaker 1: aged woman, dark hair and overly nervous, Clara, what's her name?
Speaker 1: She was sitting across from me at one of those
Speaker 1: fast food restaurants, the ones where they serve you coffee
Speaker 1: and regular styrofoam cuffs. We talked for a couple of
Speaker 1: hours about the town, the woman with the broom. She
Speaker 1: understood computers and stuff, so when I told her that
Speaker 1: I had the email from this woman named Susan in
Speaker 1: the long lost MSN email, she quickly got to her
Speaker 1: phone and asked me what it said and if I
Speaker 1: could log in. And I'm not sure how she did it,
Speaker 1: password resets and god knows what else, but we were
Speaker 1: able to find it buried under a bunch of spam.
Speaker 1: It was there. So we read the email, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to read it for you here, if that's all right.
Speaker 1: Here's what it says regarding about the woman with the
Speaker 1: broom from Susan L. Thank you for your email, Barbara.
Speaker 1: I hope this reaches you in time, or if someone
Speaker 1: else is being affected that it reaches them. You're asking
Speaker 1: questions about the woman that people used to see around
Speaker 1: here in the late eighties, and I know who you
Speaker 1: were referring to. Most people call her a joke or
Speaker 1: a witch story, or she isn't. In nineteen eighty seven,
Speaker 1: my uncle Matteo told us about a woman that approached
Speaker 1: him outside a clinic on Fifth Street. She was holding
Speaker 1: a broom, leaning on it like a cane. He thought
Speaker 1: that she worked there, and she smiled. She said, that's
Speaker 1: not your day. He laughed and asked what she meant
Speaker 1: as she told them one August fourteenth, So he told
Speaker 1: her not even close, thinking that she was trying to
Speaker 1: guess his birthday. But she only smiled wider and said, no,
Speaker 1: it isn't, this creepy smile on her face. For weeks
Speaker 1: after that, he kept seeing the number on receipts, license plates,
Speaker 1: the radio clock stopping at eight fourteen. It was everywhere,
Speaker 1: and he started writing it down. He said it was
Speaker 1: something trying to get his attention. Now, most people would
Speaker 1: have said it was simply a coincidence. My uncle didn't.
Speaker 1: He started digging around, asking everyone who would listen, and
Speaker 1: as he looked back at his own life, he realized something.
Speaker 1: He had always been warned about this sort of thing.
Speaker 1: So August came around and he didn't move. He stayed home,
Speaker 1: closed all the doors and windows, didn't drive, didn't walk, nothing.
Speaker 1: He didn't even answer the phone. After the day was over,
Speaker 1: the sidings of the number stopped, and he never saw
Speaker 1: the strange woman again. When I heard this story, one
Speaker 1: where nothing happens, I realized something different. Cases have popped
Speaker 1: up over the years, and it's the same. Every time.
Speaker 1: She never says you will die or threatens you. She
Speaker 1: only corrects you. People who ignore her end up dead
Speaker 1: on the date that she gives them. I don't believe
Speaker 1: it to be a rumor. I found three cases from
Speaker 1: this very town alone. The difference between the ones that
Speaker 1: lived and the ones who died are those that figured
Speaker 1: out what the date meant before it arrived. And it
Speaker 1: was at this part where my jaw dropped open. Please,
Speaker 1: if someone you know has been given a date, don't
Speaker 1: tell them to forget about it. Don't tell them it's stress.
Speaker 1: They need to understand the warning. I don't send this lightly.
Speaker 1: Most people laugh. I hope you don't. I'm sorry if
Speaker 1: this reaches you too late. Susan l. I thought back
Speaker 1: on what I told Diana, that everything was going to
Speaker 1: be all right, that you shouldn't think about it too much.
Speaker 1: In the days that followed, I kept thinking about what
Speaker 1: got me into all this, even back then when I
Speaker 1: reached out to the woman in the email, the pure
Speaker 1: desperation I felt, how I felt checking my email over
Speaker 1: her response, never seeing anything from her again, and my
Speaker 1: mind kept thinking steps backwards, little by little until I
Speaker 1: found it. A memory at the gas station long ago,
Speaker 1: when a woman asked about the winning lotto tickets. She
Speaker 1: said to buy for my birthday July seventeenth, combine it
Speaker 1: with hers if I needed more numbers. I remember how
Speaker 1: the awkwardness came out of my voice when I told
Speaker 1: her that it wasn't my birthday. No, it is it,
Speaker 1: she said, her smile getting a little wider by the second.
Speaker 1: I smiled back, paid for my gas, and left that
Speaker 1: she simply stood there watching me drive away. I mentioned
Speaker 1: it to my aunt back then and passing when she
Speaker 1: said something about the lottery numbers, and then she stopped.
Speaker 1: She looked at me and asked me to describe the
Speaker 1: woman in detail. She eventually reached out to her friends,
Speaker 1: who eventually told told her the story. It's how I
Speaker 1: got Susan's emails. The obsession with seven one seven July seventeenth.
Speaker 1: And when I say that number was everywhere, I mean it.
Speaker 1: I thought about it so much. How did I eventually
Speaker 1: forget about it? When the day came, I felt sick
Speaker 1: to my stomach. My mind was going crazy over those numbers.
Speaker 1: I kept seeing them everywhere. It was debilitating that pounding headache.
Speaker 1: So I called off work that day. I closed all
Speaker 1: my doors, all my windows. I spent the entire time
Speaker 1: in bed, and then the number stopped the next day. I
Speaker 1: never told Diana that part. I was afraid that if
Speaker 1: I said it out loud, it would become real instead
Speaker 1: of only a nightmare I had woken up from long ago.
Speaker 1: It was clear now I should have said something. She
Speaker 1: would have still been alive. Do what you will with
Speaker 1: this information. I met up with Clara several times to
Speaker 1: talk about Diana's death and the other cases that she
Speaker 1: has stumbled upon. And yet there's one question that we
Speaker 1: always end the conversation with, Who is this woman with
Speaker 1: a broom and how does she choose who she gives
Speaker 1: a date to? Why do all the descriptions label her
Speaker 1: the same, a slim, older looking woman with thin hair,
Speaker 1: a broom in her hands, a smile so thin and
Speaker 1: wide that it sense shivers down your spine when you
Speaker 1: think of her the way all these accounts speak, how
Speaker 1: a stare, a dark black stare into nothingness, like the
Speaker 1: one she leads you to. Reports of sighting still pop up,
Speaker 1: and thankfully we catch them on time to warn them
Speaker 1: of all these other cases that resulted in death or
Speaker 1: near death experiences. We like to think that we have
Speaker 1: saved lives. And if you're from here Nla or the
Speaker 1: surrounding areas, if you see this woman with the broom,
Speaker 1: if you suddenly can't get a number out of your mind,
Speaker 1: pay attention to it. It isn't a prediction or a curse,
Speaker 1: but a sign. The gap into eternal rest is opening
Speaker 1: slowly for you, and if you're not ready, close your
Speaker 1: doors and windows. Scary Story podcast is written and produced
Speaker 1: by me Edwin Corrugyas. Don't forget to follow on this
Speaker 1: podcast and leave a review. Also, let me know what
Speaker 1: you think of this story and what others you would
Speaker 1: like to hear next. I'll be back next week with
Speaker 1: another story. And in the meantime, if you want to
Speaker 1: check out more of my shows, find a Paranormal Club
Speaker 1: over on YouTube, Spotify, a podcast, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcast. Thank you very much for listening, Keep it
Speaker 1: scary everyone, See you soon.