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Disturbing Halloween Stories That Will Haunt You · Stories from the Dark

• 0:23
  Speaker 1: My Uncle Dave told me this story last year around
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the holidays, and I've been meaning to write it down
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: for a while because I think it's one that you
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: get a real kick out of. So, my Uncle Dave
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: used to be a sheriff's deputy up in the Colorado mountains,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: back in the late 70s and early 80s. He was
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: based in this small county way up high, the kind
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: of place where the towns are strung along these two-lane
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: highways that hug the sides of the mountains. Not naming
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the exact town because he asked me not to, but
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: He once said it was one of those places that
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: looks postcard pretty until the sun goes down and you
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: realize how isolated it really is. Then in winter, the
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: whole thing just shuts down half the time. Real The
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Shining type stuff. They weren't joking in that movie. Uncle
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Dave worked nights a lot and said that he preferred
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: things that way. And while he never made Sheriff, he
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: saw plenty and retired with enough stories to fill a book.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: This here is just one of those stories. And he
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: told it over beers last Thanksgiving when I was already
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: in my 20s. And the way he talked about it,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: you could tell it still bothered him. And he said
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: that some nights he'd wake up thinking about it and
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: how close the whole damn county came to one of
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the most awful mass losses of life in its entire history.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: And it started on Halloween night of 1979. Dave was
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: on duty when the calls started coming in from around
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: 11 o'clock until midnight, and while he was expecting the
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: usual complaints about kids egging houses or tipping cows or
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: doing pranks, these calls weren't about those at all. A
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: series of vicious assaults had taken place around town, and
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: while most victims had been on their way home from parties,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: some had been lured out of their homes and into
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the street before being ambushed by unknown assailants. Some of
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: them were beaten so badly that they ended up in
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: the hospital with Uncle Dave saying that one lady got
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: her arm broken in two places by someone using a bat,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: while another guy got kicked in the head so hard
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: he needed his jaw wired shut for a while. It
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: didn't go any further than that. No one died, but
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: whoever organized the attacks clearly wanted to hurt people, and
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: they wanted to hurt them badly. No one had any
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: doubt about it either. It wasn't just one person doing it.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: It was a bunch of people cooperating on it. The
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: assaults happened in parts of town that were so spaced
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: out that, given the timeline of events, there was no
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: way that it could have been just one person running
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: around doing it, not without getting spotted anyway. The thing
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: that made it so confusing at first was that all
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: the perps had the same description, and Uncle Dave says
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: it was only later, once the timings had been figured out,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: that people started to get spooked. They all wore dark clothing.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: and they all wore Halloween masks, the exact same one
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: too by the sounds of it, and in the style
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: of a jack-o'-lantern. Now by morning, they had about five
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: or six victims, but zero suspects, and the case went
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: cold pretty quick. People responded by locking their doors and
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: windows and being extra careful about going places alone or
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: after dark. But life went on, just in the way
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: it has a habit of doing so in mountain towns
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: like that. When you can't fight something, you have to adapt.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: The next year, during the Halloween of 1980, Dave and
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: the boys remembered the attacks of that previous year. But
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: never in a million years did they think that there
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: was going to be any kind of repeat performance. That year,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: like every year, the high school was putting on this
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: big dance in the gymnasium where prizes were always given
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: for the best costumes. Then, at around 9.30, right as
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: all the prizes were being announced and the kids were
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: walking up on stage to collect them, someone started to
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: smell smoke. They managed to get the kids out before
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: the whole building went up, but Uncle Dave said it
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: was way too close for comfort. Someone had tried to
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: barricade the doors from outside, meaning a fire axe had
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: to be used to ensure everyone's escape. But this time,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: instead of the suspects just disappearing into the dark, The
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: cops actually caught the guy trying to escape the scene
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: in his car. The guy ended up skidding off the
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: road and suffering a real bad crash, but after pulling
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: him from the wreckage and getting him to a hospital,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: they managed to figure out who it was. It wasn't
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: some lone drifter or serial killer. It wasn't some escaped lunatic.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: It was just a guy. Some local guy in his
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: mid-thirties who worked at a lumberyard. He was a quiet
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: sort of guy, no criminal record to speak of. But
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: then the cops asked him why he did it and
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: he just sort of shut down, wouldn't say anything. Uncle
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Dave said the trial was pretty straightforward and then after
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: convictions for arson and attempted murder and such, he got
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: sent away for about 40 years or something similarly hefty.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: And they asked him again when he was in prison,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: why did you do it? But still nothing. The guy
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: didn't say a word. He just sat there looking blank
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: until everyone figured that it was some lone nut who
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: just snapped one day. Until Dave said the sheriff at
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: the time was this guy named Stanley, and while everyone
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: was high-fiving each other and patting themselves on the back,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Stanley wasn't happy. A pattern of violence was emerging, one
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: that seemed to be aimed at the town itself, and
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: all Sheriff Stan could think about for weeks after was,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: what the hell's going to happen next year? He was
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: convinced that the fire in 1980 was linked to the
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: assaults in 1979, and he couldn't quite figure out how.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: They might never be able to prove it either, but
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: that didn't matter, not with at least one perp locked
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: up for a nice long while. What mattered was making
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: sure that, the next year, they were ready for whatever
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: came their way. Now fast forward to the fall of 1981.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: There were no assaults, no arson attacks, nothing. right up
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: until October 30th when the inventory at the county shop
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: showed that there was a spike strip missing. Now, that's
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: not something that walks off on its own, obviously, and
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: the circumstances meant that it was most likely a deputy
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: that took it. But then, since no one would admit
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: to it, Uncle Dave said the sheriff put the whole
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: damn department on notice. He put everyone on extra patrols,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: and that had everyone working doubles on the weekend, too.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Only the most senior deputy... A guy Stan really trusted
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: worked with him to try and figure out who took
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: the spike strip, and the rest were out checking around
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: schools and places like that. Everyone seemed convinced that something
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: was coming, they just didn't know what. Halloween night itself
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: was quiet at first, and the weather was fine for
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: early winter. It was cold but clear. My Uncle Dave
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: said he was riding with another deputy and doing loops
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: through town with the radio pretty quiet except for the
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: usual drunk calls. and then around nine, Sheriff Stan comes
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: over the radio. He'd just heard about a group of
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: kids going out of town for a kind of Halloween
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: special they were holding at a movie theater over there.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Kids from all over the county would be in attendance,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: but while the theater itself was pretty well guarded, the
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: sheriff realized that there had been a blind spot. Their
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: bus journey had involved crossing this narrow bridge, one that
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: spanned a deep gorge between two ridges. It was this
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: old steel thing with two lanes and if you weren't careful,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: you risked dropping a couple of hundred feet straight down
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: to the river. In the dark, with no guardrails to
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: speak of on the older sections, it was already dicey.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: And then factor in the fact that there was a
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: spike strip missing and he realized that he had a
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: potential disaster on his hands. Sheriff Stan didn't share his
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: exact train of thought until later. He just told everyone
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: to get themselves up to the bridge as soon as
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: possible before the bus crossed it. Uncle Dave and his
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: partner were closest, and so they hauled ass up the
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: switchbacks with their lights off so they didn't tip anybody
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: off that they were coming. He said when they got there,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: their cruiser's headlights cut across the far end of the
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: bridge and lit up a person standing by the railing
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: on the near side. They were wearing dark clothes, but
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: no mask this time, and laid out across the road
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: just at the mouth of the bridge. was that missing
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: spike strip. Uncle Dave said that he and his buddy
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: jumped out with their guns drawn, yelling at the figure
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: in front of them to freeze. They tried to run,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: but Dave caught up and tackled them, and then when
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: he rolled them over, he realized who it was. It
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: was some petite, middle-aged woman. He can't remember her name exactly,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Ellison or something like that, but she was maybe five
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: foot two, worked the counter at the church thrift store,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: and volunteered for every bake sale and youth group thing.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Her husband worked the mines and they had a couple
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: of grown kids, real pillar of the community type people.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: But then there she was, up on the bridge, trying
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: to cause the deaths of maybe 60 elementary school kids
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: and for no discernible reason whatsoever. Uncle Dave said knocking
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: her off her feet was pretty easy, but then when
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: he tried to get the cuffs on her, She fought
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: back with a strength that didn't make a single lick
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: of sense for a woman of her size. She kicked
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Dave's partner hard enough to stagger him and then somehow
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: twisted out of his hold like she had grease on her.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: He said he grabbed her arm, but it felt like
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: trying to hold a cable under tension. Then the second
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: she pulled away, she slipped one cuff they managed to
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: get on her and broke free. Before anybody could tackle
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: her again, she ran straight to the railing and vaulted over.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Uncle Dave said it must have happened in maybe two
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: or three seconds, quick as that. One second she was struggling,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: the next she was throwing herself down into the dark.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: He said they heard the splash before they reached the railing,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: but it was too dark to see anything going on below.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: The bus full of kids came over the bridge about
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: ten minutes later, and if that spike strip had stayed down,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: tires would have blown right at the entrance with the
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: speed that they were going. It probably would have been
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: game over for all of them. They called it in.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: They got search and rescue out with lights and boats
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: the next morning, but since the river was running high
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and fast from recent rain, It was thought the woman's
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: body might have been halfway to Arizona by the time
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the search even picked up any stream. They never found
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: a body, not even a shoe. And so, officially speaking,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: the lady was listed as missing, presumed drowned, and there's
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: every chance that she could have survived the fall somehow
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: and gone on to make an escape. That seems unlikely
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: given her age and stature, but given how strangely strong
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: she was, Dave always said it was a distinct possibility.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: but either way, everyone was shook when they heard the news.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: The church folks just couldn't believe it, particularly the lady's husband,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: who hadn't noticed any kind of strange behavior or irregular
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: activities at all. She hadn't left any sort of note,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: and there was no one's prints on the spike strip
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: but hers, but when it came to motive, it was
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: just as mysterious as the previous year's events. But everyone
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: knew it was connected to that other stuff. They didn't
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: know how, they just knew it was definitely no coincidence
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: anymore how that stuff kept happening on Halloween. The next year,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: everyone was tense as hell, knowing something was coming, just
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: not being able to figure out what. My Uncle Dave
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: was in the office that night, doing some paperwork, and
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: then at around midnight, everyone heard this huge roar outside,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: and then a huge crash. Someone had stolen a pickup
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: from a ranch outside of town, doused the cabin gas,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: set it on fire, and then driven it straight into
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: the front of the sheriff's building. A fire crew got
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: there fast and put it out before the whole place
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: went up. No one was hurt and the damage was
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: mostly to the lobby, but things could have been way worse.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: From the tracks left in the mud, the driver had
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: jumped out at the last second and then ran off
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: into the trees. From there, the perp's tracks disappeared into
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: the rocks, and there was another one where no suspect
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: was ever found. The next year, in 1983... Everyone in
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: the county was keyed up and ready for some kind
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: of repeat performance. But Halloween came and went, and nothing
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: noteworthy happened. The same could be said for 84, and
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: after that it seemed like the violence had stopped. Like
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: whatever had been brewing just naturally burned itself out. The
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: guy they locked up for the gym fire in 1980
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: died in prison a couple of years later. I heard
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: it was natural causes, but who knows? And then after that,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: with answers being firmly out of reach, the whole thing
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: just slowly faded into the county's history. People still talked
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: about that nice church-going lady from time to time, wondering
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: why a person might choose to do something like that.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: But while officially speaking it was firmly chalked up to
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: mental illness or some kind of elaborate revenge plot, some
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: folks whispered about a cult operating around the county. One
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: whose goal was nothing short of human sacrifice. Uncle Dave
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: never bought the cult angle hard, but he said himself
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: that the whole thing felt organized. It was different people
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: each time, but it was the same night each year,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: and it escalated until the violence was aimed at the
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: cops themselves. Then silence. Like whoever was responsible knew things
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: were getting out of hand. Uncle Dave told me that
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: for years afterwards, he'd slow down whenever he got to
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: that bridge and look over the side. It seems impossible
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: that anyone could survive the fall or the temperature of
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: the water, but since no trace of the wound was
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: ever found, and I mean ever, it's impossible not to
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: entertain the idea that somehow she survived. There are a
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: lot of different titles I could actually give this story.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Some are way more attention-grabbing than the others, and some
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: might even say clickbaity. But I guess for me, the
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: thing that fits most refers to the legacy of what
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: happened that night. The thing I think about most. And
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: that's how, in circumstances I don't think I'll fully ever understand,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I lost my best friend. So it was Halloween of 2019,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: and back then, me and my close circle of friends
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: were all in our late 20s and early 30s. I'd
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: always been hugely into Halloween, and it was the same
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: with Gina, my best friend since high school, who'd help
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: me pick out questionable costumes for many dances and parties.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: We'd grown up a lot since then. We still loved Halloween,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: but there were no more questionable costumes, especially not that year,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: because about five months prior... Gina made a stunning announcement.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: She was pregnant. And I say stunning because in the past,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Gina had been pretty vocal about never wanting kids. She
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: hadn't had the greatest of childhoods, and having grown up
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: the eldest daughter in a large family, she had eight
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: younger brothers and sisters, she spent her teenage years changing
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: diapers and bathing infants. She'd even have to play teen
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: mom during trips home from college, And more than once
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: she lost out on getting a cute guy's number because
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: he mistook her little sister for her little girl. She
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: said that she wanted some quiet time, you know, some
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: time to herself, and she doubted that feeling would ever
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: go away. But then, about two years into dating this
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: guy named Richie, who we all loved, she announced that
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: they were going to have a kid. It was shocking,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: but everyone was just so happy for her that no
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: one questioned it at first. It was only about a
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: week later that we talked about her radical change of attitude.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: But that made for a beautiful and very emotional conversation.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: It made for quite a big lifestyle change, too. Now, before,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: most of our hangouts had been over a bottle of wine.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: But after, it was all mocktails and smoothies and other
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: health-conscious stuff. It made everyone grow up a little and
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: start considering the future. And so when Halloween rolled around,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: it was less party planning and more cute, cozy gathering planning. Now,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: with me hosting in the two-bedroom apartment I shared with
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: my boyfriend, I decided on a small party of seven. Myself, Gina,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: our boyfriends, and then our friends Kaz, Ross, and Trevor.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Kaz was the only singleton, but she didn't mind, and
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: she showed up in high spirits dressed as a vampire's victim,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: complete with a face paint bite wound and jokes about
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: how it suited her already anemic complexion. Ross and Trevor
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: showed up with the best bottles of red wine while
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: dressed as Dean and Sam from Supernatural. Gina and Richie
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: came as Frankenstein and the Bride of, with Gina having
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: written It's Alive on her stomach. While me and my boyfriend,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: who shall remain nameless, were the Joker and Harley Quinn.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: We put on some nibbles before serving this amazing beef
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: and red wine stew and then served Halloween-themed cocktails while
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: playing Halloween Monopoly. It was a really fun night. even
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: for the likes of Gina and my boyfriend who stayed
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: firmly on the wagon. And then around 11, as things
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: started to get pretty loose, Kaz suggested we play a
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: different kind of board game. She then walked over to
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: her bag and took out a small, foldable Ouija board
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: from her bag along with a small, velvet-bottom pointer thing.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Right away, Trevor's like, nuh-uh, do not even, but only
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: in a sort of jokey way. No one was actually
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: scared of it, and while no one believed it'd work either,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: no one had a problem trying it out for the
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: sake of some Halloween hijinks. We laid the board out
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: after clearing the table a little, and then after we
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: all crowded around, everyone but Trevor put a hand on
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: the little pointer. Like I said, he didn't object to it,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: there just literally wasn't enough space on Kaz's little pointer.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: He laughed as I went around turning off all the lights,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: so the only light came from a couple of scented
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: candles I had lit. And then I placed my hand
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: on the pointer and let Kaz do her thing. She
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: recited some mystical-sounding bullcrap like, Oh, hear ye, spirits of
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: the netherworld, hear us now and give your reply. Then,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: after a few moments of silence, the pointer started to move.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: I thought Kaz was moving it, but she denied it
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: and accused my boyfriend. And in all fairness, it was
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: exactly the kind of thing that he'd do, but he
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: denied it too. Trevor even joked that he was doing
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: it with his mind and then put two fingers to
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: his temple, stared at the pointer, and made a funny
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: face that made all of us laugh. But still the
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: little pointer thing moved. It hit L, then E, then T,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: and we all called the word out together. Let. Let.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Then it hit M, then E, and then we said, me.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: And that's when things got a little tense, because it
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: was like, let me what, you know? Then as the
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: pointer carried on sliding, it hit the I, then the N.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: We didn't all say it together that time. Only Richie did,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: who repeated the whole phrase back to us with this
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: kind of nervous tone in his voice. Let me in.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: There was a slight chill in the air after he
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: said that. And then it was Kaz who kind of
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: burst into nervous laughter saying something like, Wow, you guys,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: that's never happened before. This prompted us to start accusing again.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out who'd very subtly been pushing the
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: pointer around. But while it was all in good fun,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: no one would admit to it. I was totally convinced
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: that it was my ex, to the point that I said, Babe,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: just admit it was you. It was funny. And he's
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: laughing like, I swear to God it wasn't me, it
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: was Ross. Look at him, look at his eyes. To
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: be fair, Ross did have a remarkably suspicious grin on
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: his face, but he too responds, Nope. But whoever came
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: up with let me in is a genius because it's
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: creepy as hell. It almost got to the point where
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: people started to feel uncomfortable because we were waiting and
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: waiting for someone to just fess up, but no one did.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: And it dragged on and on, with Gina in particular
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: looking more and more distressed. Richie asked if she was
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: okay and the whole room seemed to tilt on its
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: axis when Gina gently put a hand to her stomach
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: and said, think something's wrong and the room descended into
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: a near panic with trevor on the phone to 911
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: just moments after those words left gina's lips gina just
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: seemed worried at first and i don't know exactly how
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: she felt but it was clear something was wrong but
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: then as the minutes went by this horrible pain seemed
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: to creep up on her and she went from just
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: squeezing richie's hand to crying and gritting her teeth in agony.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: The ambulance showed up just a few minutes later, which
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: was a huge relief as I figured that they might
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: be busy, but even though they got there quick, it
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: was still too late. Gina was rushed to the hospital,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: doctors did an ultrasound, and that's how she found out
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: the bad news. There was no heartbeat coming from her womb,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: meaning her baby had passed away. Then since Gina was
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: experiencing a lot of pain and nausea, the deceased fetus
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: was a likely culprit and they wanted to do a
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: surgical evacuation. I think they called it that, to get
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: it out as soon as possible. With it being an emergency,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the surgery was performed that night. And then after another
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: 24 hours of observation, Gina was discharged. It was an awful,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: awful time. Gina and Richie were understandably devastated But it
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: wasn't just that they'd lost their baby. It was the
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: circumstances surrounding it. And I'm explaining this all from memory,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: so excuse me if the language isn't as medically precise
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: as I'd like it to be. But basically, in light
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: of the condition it was in when they removed it,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: the doctors told Gina her baby must have been deceased
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: for quite a while. But Gina said that that was impossible.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: She said her baby had been kicking at the table
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: when she first experienced the discomfort. so there was no
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: way that it could have been dead for even a
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: day before it happened. The doctors said that they were
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: very sorry for her loss, and that they understood she
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: was grieving. But in their experienced professional opinions, her baby
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: hadn't had a heartbeat for at least two weeks, maybe
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: even since just after her last scan, which was around
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: a month prior. She expressed such vehement disbelief that doctors
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: recommended psychiatric help, implying that she knew the baby had
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: died weeks earlier and just hadn't been able to process
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: or accept it. Richie said that's when Gina started yelling,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: and she didn't calm down until the doctors and nurses
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: left the room and she was done crying in his arms.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: By the end of that first week, she was just
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: so confused and tired and scared that she didn't know
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: what to think, and as I said, it was one
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: of the most awful times of our entire lives. But,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: That period is what I refer to as Phase 1.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: In a lot of ways, Phase 2 was way worse.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: There was a kind of window between the two in
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: which Gina suffered from crippling depression, obviously. Richie said that
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: she spent all of her time reading in bed. Just
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: novels and things like that first. But then a lot
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: of religious stuff too, and it's around then that Phase
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: 2 started. Richie said it seemed like she was finally healing,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: which obviously made us all very happy. It was just
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: one little problem. She wouldn't return any of our calls
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: or texts, and whenever we asked Richie how she was doing,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't give any specifics. There was like a full
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: week where all he said was stuff like, she's eating
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: well again, or she went for a walk today. But
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: whenever we spoke on the phone, he still seemed worried.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Worried to the point of sounding scared. Now anyways, this
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: went on for about a week and we figured Richie
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: was just grieving along with her. And then out of nowhere, boom,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Gina kicked him out. He went over to Ross and
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Trevor's place who offered him their spare bedroom for as
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: long as he needed it. And then after me and
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Kaz got there, he went through the whole thing with us.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: And so Gina had been reading a lot of religious stuff, right?
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: And at first, Richie figured that was a good thing,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: that maybe scripture might help her. and she wasn't getting
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: fanatical over one particular religion or anything, she was just
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: reading all sorts of things in what he figured was
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: a search for meaning. But then she went from the
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: religious stuff to the spiritualist stuff, which, as we found out,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: was not in the same ballpark. Spiritualism, in so many words,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: is the belief that the living can somehow commune and
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: talk to the dead, and that there's a world beyond
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: that we can't reach out to. usually through mediums, but
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: sometimes through Ouija boards. And after reading up on the
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: use of them, Gina had come to the conclusion that
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: horrified and saddened us in equal measure, and that through
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: the use of the Ouija board, a spirit had somehow
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: entered her unborn child and ended its life. She said
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: it was our fault, Kaz's in particular, for bringing the
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: board along in the first place, and she never wanted
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: to talk to us ever again. Richie tried to make
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: her see sense, telling her that that was impossible, but
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Gina wouldn't hear it. She accused him of gaslighting, or
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: even covering for Kaz and the rest of us in
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: our demonic plot to offer her baby to the devil.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: The delusion had this weird invigorating effect on her, which
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: is when Richie was telling us her diet and exercise
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: had improved, but while her body was improving, her mind
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: seemed to be collapsing. Richie said what made the whole
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: thing infinitely worse was when Gina found all these Facebook
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: groups dedicated to spiritualism and combating demonic entities. She had
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: all these total strangers feeding into her delusions, telling her
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: she was right, and that we, meaning her friends, might
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: actually be a coven of witches. The night she kicked
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: Richie out, she was convinced the only reason that he
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: got her pregnant was so the baby could be sacrificed,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: and by that point in the story, he was in tears.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: and really we all were. We tried a bunch of
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: times to reach out to her, but she refused to
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: speak to any of us except Richie, who she called
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: before driving to her mom's out of state. She said
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: that was the last time he'd ever hear from her,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: that she couldn't live in such a sinful place with
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: such sinful people anymore, and then off she went. Richie
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: had her mom's number, and so he called her and
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: they talked. Gina's mom tried to get her psychiatric care
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: once she got there, but The state wouldn't take her
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: because she didn't fit the criteria, and Gina refused to
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: go anywhere voluntarily to get treatment. We lost her slowly,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: and then all at once. And then it was over.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Gina was gone. With Richie's grief compounded, he drifted away,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: then Kaz felt so guilty about it that she started
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: drinking a lot more, and then she dropped off the
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: map too. Me and my now ex-boyfriend broke up for...
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Reasons I don't need to get into, but Ross and Trevor,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: they stayed together, and thank God, too, you know? Thank
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: God someone survived this. Me and the gays, as I
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: call them, are still really close, and I'm usually their
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: place for dinner, maybe two or three times a month.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: We don't talk about it much, because these days it's
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: just so sad. But it's not just sad, it's scary, too,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: and sometimes when I think about it from Gina's perspective,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: it's just terrible. I wonder if a mother's intuition was
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: right and that Ouija board really did do something to
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: her baby. But the more I think about that, the
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: harder it is to accept that reality. My name is Ulf,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: and I work in logistics in Trondheim here in Norway.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: It's nothing fancy, and I'm certainly no writer, and so
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: while this might not be the most beautifully written story
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: you've ever heard, I'd like to tell you the story
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: of my brother. You see, what happened here three years
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: ago is still very present in my daily life, and
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: sometimes I feel as if things will always be this way.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Then after finding your channel, I decided to set it
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: down as plainly as I can in the hopes that
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: retelling it might exercise some demons, so to speak. Everything
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: I describe I either saw myself or learned from the
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: police reports in the note he left. There's no speculation,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: no theorizing, only facts. Now my brother, Freddy, lived outside
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: a small town not far from the Swedish border, in
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: a place surrounded by forests and where the nights in
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: late October grow long very quickly. He was always a
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: very relaxed, down-to-earth sort of person who didn't have strong
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: opinions really about anything. But then, when he was 34,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: an accident happened. A logging truck lost its load on
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: a wet road, and his car was hit from the
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: side by 450 kilograms worth of fresh-cut timber. The doctor
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: said it was nothing short of a miracle that he survived,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: especially considering the damage that was done to his skull.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: He remained unconscious for 11 days and when he woke up,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: we were overjoyed. We thanked God that he'd come back
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: to us, but over the next few weeks we noticed
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: a very strong difference in Freddy's behavior. Before the crash,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: he'd been a pretty regular guy like I said. He
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: liked to drink, he liked to watch football, and to
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: his benefit, he didn't take life too seriously. The only
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: time I could remember him going to church was to
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: attend funerals. He wasn't interested in religion and Once he
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: told me he thought it was all just fairy tales.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: But then after the coma, it was like he couldn't
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: bear to go a minute without mentioning his new Christian faith.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: It was very alarming to see my former chilled-out brother
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: suddenly quoting Revelation and the book of Job at length.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: He also completely stopped drinking, and he stopped watching television altogether, too.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: He still loved football, but he'd only ever attend matches,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: and he would never go drinking with his friends afterwards.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: The neurologist said a frontal lobe injury can alter personality
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: this way, and while it might be alarming, there was
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: every chance my brother would go on to live a normal,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: happy life, albeit as a completely different person. However, another
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: said that it might not be neurological at all, and
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: that Freddy's newfound faith was secondary to his trauma, as
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: in he was so grateful to have survived that his
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: gratitude was overflowing and had to be poured into something,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: and that thing became Jesus. Either way, his physical recovery
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: had been a complete success, and so we, his loved ones,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: had a lot to be grateful for, too. Freddy might
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: have been different, but it was Freddy. He knew us,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: and he remembered us, and that was way better than
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: losing him. Now, I used to stop by his place
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: every weekend to visit him, and over time, I noticed
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: the furnishings becoming more and more sparse. He started giving
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: away his stuff to charity stores and saying it was
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: all stuff he didn't need. In the end, he only
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: had the bare essentials, like a bed, table, and a chair,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: and a fridge, stuff like that. In place of everything
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: he gave away were all kinds of religious items, bibles, statues, pictures,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: all kinds of things. Every conversation with him started someplace normal,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: and then verged into a talk about spiritual purity or
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: the coming judgment. I tried my best to engage with
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: it at first, to get used to the new normal
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: as they say, but After a while, I found it exhausting.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Conversations circled the same points over and over. The world
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: was damned, young people were in the grip of Satan,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: and the end was near. I obviously disagreed, but I
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: never argued back too hard. Having a Puritan for a
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: brother might have been a bore, but it was still
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: infinitely better than losing him. He was also the healthiest
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: he'd ever been, not just because he'd given up drinking.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: but because he'd taken up exercise as a hobby in
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: a very big way, and so there were benefits to
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: that too. But then as summer dragged into autumn, his
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: mood seemed to darken. And then as we entered October,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: he began to exhibit some very concerning behavior. During one
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: of my visits, when I asked what he'd been up to,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: he said he'd been walking the forest at night with
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: a light and a notebook. I asked why, and he
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: shared his beliefs that devil worshippers were using the woods
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: for black masses. He'd been walking around, mapping the sites
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: of their worship, looking for things like old campfires or
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: beer cans that had been left behind. I suggested if
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: it was beer cans he was finding, then it was
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: probably just local teenagers drinking out there. Something he and
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: I used to do together when we were that age.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: I know I told him that, but he didn't want
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: to hear it. He agreed it was teenagers out there
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: at night, but said things had changed a lot since
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: he and I were young. He claimed these new teenagers
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: were planning on summoning something in the woods on Halloween night.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: I laughed at this, but Freddy was very serious. He
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: even claimed to know which demon they were summoning, the
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: demon being Apollyon, the Destroyer, who if unleashed would bring
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: an end to all life on Earth. He'd even drawn
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: diagrams linking heavy metal album covers along with certain lyrics
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: to passages from the Apocalypse portion of the Bible. implying
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: these groups were trying to actively bring about the end
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: of the world and intend to do so on Halloween night.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: I knew exactly what gathering he was referring to, and
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: it was one that occurred on Halloween for many years
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: by that point. Now, a few kilometers outside of town,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: deep enough into the woods that the music and the
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: fires didn't reach the houses, teenagers would gather to drink
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: and smoke and listen to music. It was always the
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: punk kids, the heavy metal kids, and all the alternative
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: people like that. And because it was Halloween, there was
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: a lot of references to all things satanic and otherworldly. Now,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: they stayed until dawn, and it was always very crude
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: and provocative. But it never produced anything more than a
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: few drunken fistfights, and it kept the rabble away from
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: town and out of trouble. The local police treated it
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: as a kind of pressure release valve like that. The
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: more restless ones stayed out of the center of the town,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: and the rest of us got to take the kids
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: trick-or-treating in peace and get a good night's sleep afterwards.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: I explained this to my brother over and over, saying
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: it was a harmless get-together that had been happening for years.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: Freddy had been aware of the gatherings before the accident,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: and all he'd ever done was laugh and shake his
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: head whenever the subject came up. But now he'd changed
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: his mind about it, and radically so. No matter how
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: much I assured him that no demons would be summoned,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: he just refused to listen. And not only that, but
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: he ended up saying something that I found very ominous,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: that if the authorities wouldn't intervene, he would have to
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: act personally. I spoke with the sheriff myself, a polite,
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: practical man who tried his best to put my mind
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: at ease. He repeated that the party kept the worst
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: of the mischief away from residential streets, and that intervening
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: would only scatter the party into smaller, harder-to-monitor groups. He
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: had neither the manpower nor even the desire to shut
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: it down and certainly wouldn't do so by request of
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: one single citizen, no matter how correct or righteous that
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: citizen was. And when I relayed this, Freddy literally turned
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: red with anger. He started shouting and asking what in
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: God's name was wrong with people, and wondering what had
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: happened to the world to make everyone so apathetic. I
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: suggested that he should just focus his mind elsewhere, that
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: surely Jesus would want him to love the sinner just
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: as he had. Now that seemed to get through to
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: him for a moment. But then that cold, zealous look
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: came over him again, and I got a horrible chill
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: when he said that, since the sheriff had made his choice,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: the responsibility to keep people safe now rested elsewhere. I
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: told him that he better not be planning anything stupid,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: and when he did, he just went quiet. Now this
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: worried me more than anything, because if there was anything
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: the new Freddy liked doing, it was yapping. I made
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: him promise that he wasn't going to do anything. And
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: while he did technically promise that he wouldn't, there was
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: something about the way he said it which meant that
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: I didn't fully believe him. Now that was about a
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: week before Halloween, and then by the morning of, I
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: was so uneasy that I drove over to Freddy's place
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: to check up on him. I remember that morning well,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: how the road was slick from overnight rain and how
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: gray and cloudy the sky was. It's like that almost
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: all the time here in autumn. But that day, everything
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: felt a little darker. My brother's house stood at the
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: end of a gravel track. The windows were dark, but
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: his car was there. However, after knocking on the door,
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: I didn't get an answer. That bad feeling came back
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: to me, even worse that time. So instead of getting
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: back in my car and leaving, I used the spare
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: key that I'd been given years earlier to let myself in.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: The air inside smelled metallic, almost like a machine shop.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: And then when I entered the main room, I audibly gasped.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: Several rifles and shotguns were lying around the room, along
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: with neatly stacked boxes of ammunition, a ballistic vest, tactical gloves, binoculars,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: and even a small first aid kit. Maps of the
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: force were laid out on his table, with the area
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: the party was thought to take place circled in red.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: It was clear that he had prepared to go into
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: the woods and stop that gathering by force, but since
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: I was able to enter his home and walk around
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: without him stopping me, I didn't think he was there.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: I decided to check the other rooms to see if
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: he had anything else stockpiled, or there were any other
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: clues to what he had planned. But after walking into
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: the bedroom, I found Freddy had been home all along.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: He was lying on the floor beside the bed, cold
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: and lifeless. There were no indication of any kind of
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: struggle taking place, just a single sheet of paper on
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: the table under a glass of water explaining his decision.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: The handwriting and composition suggested it had been written frantically,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: like he'd been rushing to complete it before something happened
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: or someone showed up. And as I read through what
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: was written, I discovered that was exactly what Freddie had
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: thought too. He wrote that he could feel a presence
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: referred to only as him returning. Him being the one
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: he'd spoken to while he floated in the dark after
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: the accident. He had shown him the true nature of
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: the gathering in the woods and had demanded action. Action
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: he knew that in a brief moment of lucidity amounted
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: to cold-blooded mass murder. Freddy went on to write that
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: he couldn't allow him to return because if he did,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: there would be no way to stop the massacre that
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: would no doubt unfold. The only way to keep the
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: blood from being spilled was to remove himself before the
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: window closed. That way, there was no way that he
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: could gain control again and the town would be safe.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: The note ended with an apology to me and to
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: our mother and a request that the equipment be turned
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: over to the police so that no one else would
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: use it. They arrived within the hour, photographed everything and
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: collected the weapons. They even took the note, too, as
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: evidence of what Freddy was planning. The medical examiner later
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: confirmed that the injuries were consistent with a single, deliberate
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: act carried out while he was alone. The teenagers who
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: threw their party in the woods that night never knew
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: how close they had come to a bloody and terrifying end.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: The party went ahead as planned, with music and fires
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: and empty bottles left in the undergrowth. In the following weeks,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: the local paper ran a short piece about a man
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: found dead in his home after a period of mental disturbance.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: They mentioned a traffic accident, but nothing more. At the inquest,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: doctors spoke of brain trauma and psychiatric sequelae. That was
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: the clean explanation, the one that fits the forms. Yet
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: when I remember the note Freddy left, the phrasing stays
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: with me. He didn't say he was afraid of losing
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: his mind. He wrote that he was coming back, and
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: that the only remaining choice was to end things before
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: the return was complete. I don't know what he encountered
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: in the eleven days of that coma. I only know
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: that whatever it was convinced a practical, ordinary man that
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: the only way to save himself and countless others was
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: to end things on his own terms. What I'm about
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: to tell you has never been fully explained, at least
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: not to a standard anyone who was there is happy with.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: No one who got to decide the official explanation was
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: even there, and after taking the time to listen to
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: all of our accounts of it, they completely ignored us
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: and went with the one thing we told them it wasn't.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: An accident. It was Halloween weekend of 2016, and a
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: kid from our high school was throwing a costume party
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: since his parents were going away for the weekend. He
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: didn't want it to get too wild, so he kept
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: things invitation only, and pretty much begged people to keep
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: things in the DL. Things still got a little out
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: of control in terms of numbers, but it wasn't anything
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: he couldn't handle. And there was no one there wishing
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: any ill will. At least, not at first, anyway. All
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: in all, I'd say that there were maybe like 40
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: people there at around 8, and then maybe 50 at
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: around 9.30 as the latecomers started to show up. It
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: was a pretty nice place, so there were plenty of
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: places for people to hang out, be it in the
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: kitchen for drinks and food, the living room for karaoke,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: the backyard for smoking around the fire pit or the
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: upstairs where, I guess, that doesn't really need explaining. Now,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: it might have been a kind of low-key nerd-type party,
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: but it was still fun, and there was still booze,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: so while there was no noise complaints from the neighbors
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: or people jumping in the pool fully clothed, it was
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: still pretty wild. We all knew each other too and
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: all got along as well, so it was good vibes
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: all around. And then, a stranger showed up. I first
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: noticed him walking around the kitchen mostly because I couldn't
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: tell if he was in costume or not. He had
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: a black hood on and a dark ball cap under it,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: and then almost like a crust punk jean jacket too.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: He looked kind of like he was trying to look
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: like someone. But then as I kept on watching him
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: I realized that there was no costume and that the
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: guy was just sort of naturally creepy looking. I started
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: to get a really bad vibe from him and others
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: were getting the same. Noticing that he was a stranger
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: but either being too nervous or too nice to actually
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: confront him. He got all the way through the backyard
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: and then upstairs before a few kids got together and
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: told him to leave. It was a super awkward confrontation
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: that pretty much everyone saw. but it seemed like since
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: he knew he was outnumbered, the best thing to do
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: was just back off and leave the party. Now, he
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: didn't leave quietly, though. Not exactly anyway. Because on the
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: way out, he just kept snickering to himself, like he
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: was holding back a louder sort of laughter. Like he
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: knew something we didn't. And we didn't care, though. I mean,
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: not for long. We were way too pleased that some
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: of our friends had been brave enough to stand their
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: ground and defend the party. defend us, really. I mean,
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: that had been a pretty big anxiety for us. A
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: bunch of gatecrashers showing up to steal booze, trash the house,
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: or even start fights, who knows. But then once it
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: was just us again and the music was back on,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: people started to relax again as the defenders went around
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: getting pats on the back for all the good stuff
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: they did. Things were chill again for maybe around an hour,
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: and I remember thinking it was easily the best party
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: I'd ever been to. And then... things escalated. I know
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: it started with a kid falling off the roof because
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: almost everyone heard the screams coming through the open double
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: doors after he fell and hit the concrete near the
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: patio furniture. He climbed on the roof to get a
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: selfie or something, and then I don't know what happened exactly,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: but he lost his footing, tumbled down from the skylight
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: that he'd climbed out of, and then bang, he hit
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: the ground hard. I think after that is when the
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: girl upstairs slipped and fell in the tub because People
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: heard screams from up there too. But then I'm not
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: sure if that was because of the slip where she
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: severely cracked her head open by the way or seeing
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: the kid fall from the roof. But what I know
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: for certain is the next thing to happen was a
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: kid tripping and falling into the fire pit outside. I
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: heard they saw the kid fall and then got up
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: and tried running for help. But then since he was
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: drunk he lost his footing and tripped in the worst
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: place possible and then went crashing into the fire pit.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: That was when the panic really kicked in, when Kid
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: saw a human torch running around the backyard because his
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: coat caught on fire. He ran and jumped in the pool,
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: not realizing that the family had drained it as soon
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: as fall started, since it would be nothing but a
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: leaf trap or a death trap for any animals who
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: fell in while everyone was cozied up inside. The guy
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: ended up breaking his leg after jumping into the empty
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: deep end, and then since he was too messed up
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: to roll around to put the fire out, He was
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: just laying there and burned while trying and failing to
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: pull off his burning clothes. I guess he was too
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: drunk and panicked to think to even do that until
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: it was too late. And then people had to climb
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: down to him and throw a blanket over him to
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: finally put the fire out. Now a couple of more
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: things happened in a short space of time. A girl
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: tripped and fell down the stairs because it was her
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: boyfriend who fell off the roof and she was rushing
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: to see if he was dead or not. She ended
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: up doing something pretty serious to her neck, like, so
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: serious that she needed some kind of surgery to get
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: full range of motion again with no pain. And I
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: also heard a kid, like, full-on inhale a cigar when
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: he saw the other guy fall from the roof. He
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: managed to get it out pretty quick, and I think
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: just by puking up a ton of beer and party food.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: But he was legitimately choking for a second, and the
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: burning tobacco caused these super painful burns in his throat
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: that felt him grunting horribly and clawing at his neck.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: I remember seeing that guy rushing through the party, this
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: wild look in his eyes with a hand around his
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: neck and I had no idea what happened to him
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: right there but I found out later and what a
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: horrible injury. I heard one kid ran into the garage
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: because he thought the house was under attack or something.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: He didn't look for the light switch in his panic
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: and then tripped on something as he ran for the
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: garage door, and cut his arm open on some kind
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: of blade. And it meant that in the aftermath, there
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: was blood wherever this kid walked, which left this big
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: trail of blood all over the house and driveway before
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: someone finally managed to wrap his arm up in a shirt.
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: It was chaos, complete chaos, and within 30 minutes, the
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: street outside was filled with cop cars and ambulances. What
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: happened was considered to be a series of terrible accidents,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: started by the roof fall, then caused a bunch of drunk,
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: scared kids to panic. But I was there, and it
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: didn't happen like that. Not exactly like that. Yeah, some
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: accidents caused others. Like if the girl hadn't run for
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: the stairs, she might not have fallen down then. Or
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: if the kid with the fire pit, if there was
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: no fall, he probably wouldn't have set himself on fire, right? Well, wrong.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: When he was interviewed by police, one of the kids
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: who saw his buddy fall into the fire said it
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: didn't happen after the fall. It happened right at the
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: same time. The kid said it was almost like their
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: bodies hit the ground and the fire pit at the
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: exact same time, to the point that when people started
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: freaking out over the fall, he got confused thinking that
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: they were freaking out over the other kid going up
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: in flames. The girl who needed surgery on her neck
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: said roughly the same thing. She hadn't been running because
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: her boyfriend fell. She hadn't even seen it. She was
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: running to get a photo of him dancing on the roof,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: meaning she toppled down the stairs at almost the exact
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: same moment as her boyfriend fell off the roof. And
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: that's the thing the investigators really could never seem to understand.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: It was never just a series of unfortunate accidents exacerbated
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: by underage drinking. It was like something else was happening.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: Something like a curse. Like, I honestly can't think of
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: a better way to describe it. All those things happened
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: at once because someone or something made them happen. And
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: I don't think I'll ever be able to explain how
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: they did it, but I know that's what happened. Almost
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: everyone who was there knows that that's what happened, and
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: we know who did it too. It was that dude.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: The creepy guy in the hood. It had to be him,
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: just none of us can figure out how. Almost every
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: injured person that night needed some kind of surgery, and
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: some of them still feel the effects of their injuries.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: Only one of them has joined Team Accident, and I
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: know for a fact that that was for the sake
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: of their mental health. But the rest, I know. That
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: creepy a-hole did something to us that night. He did
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: something to the whole party, and that's why he was
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: so happy to just leave when he did. Whatever he
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: was planning on, the preparations had already been completed, and
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: so He just left and, I don't know, waited and
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: watched from somewhere. Everyone told the cops about seeing him
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: and how the guys kicked him out, but they were
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: never able to find anyone like that to question them,
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: so the guy's identity remained a total mystery. All the grown-ups,
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: the ones who weren't even there, told us it was
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: all just a horrible accident, a house party that went
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: horribly wrong because there was no adult supervision. But that's
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: not what happened. They weren't just accidents. There was an
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: evil in that house. And I'm not scared to go
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: the rest of my life without ever fully understanding what happened.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: I'm scared that people are so ignorant and cowardly that
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: they'll cover it up and it could happen again. Hey friends,
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: thanks for listening. Click that notification bell to be alerted
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• 54:25
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