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3 True SUPERNATURAL Encounters Horror Stories ANIMATED · Martin Animations

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: My name is Connie Miller. I'm currently in my early 40s,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: but this happened in the fall of 1999, when I
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: was 14. My neighborhood sat on the western edge of
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: a small Massachusetts town, not one of the famous historic
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: ones that tourists visit, but close enough to the old
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  Speaker 1: colonial routes that the surrounding woods still carried some weight.
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  Speaker 1: It's the kind of place where kids biked everywhere, and
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  Speaker 1: parents only started worrying once the streetlights came on. That
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  Speaker 1: October afternoon was crisp. The air was thick with the
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  Speaker 1: smell of wood smoke and damp leaves. I had stayed
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  Speaker 1: late for an after-school program, and on the walk home
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  Speaker 1: I decided to cut through the forest instead of taking
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  Speaker 1: the long way around, which is the way I usually went,
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  Speaker 1: because I would normally walk home with my friends. But
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  Speaker 1: I was alone that day. The woods bordered the back
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  Speaker 1: of our subdivision. A girl I had never seen before
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  Speaker 1: stepped out from between two trees. At first, I thought
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  Speaker 1: she was just another kid from school. She looked to
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  Speaker 1: be around my age, but her dress was all wrong.
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  Speaker 1: It was dark, almost black wool, high collared, long sleeved,
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  Speaker 1: with a heavy skirt that brushed the ground. At the time,
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  Speaker 1: I thought it was strange. I didn't realize how outdated
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  Speaker 1: her outfit was. It was like something my grandmother would
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  Speaker 1: have worn to church in the 1950s. The girl's face
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  Speaker 1: was a bit pale. but otherwise looked normal. Hi, she said,
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  Speaker 1: smiling like we had known each other forever. My name
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  Speaker 1: is Ashley. You live up the road, right? I blinked
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  Speaker 1: as she fell into step beside me like it was
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  Speaker 1: the most natural thing in the world. We must be neighbors.
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  Speaker 1: I had lived in that neighborhood for my entire life,
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  Speaker 1: and I knew everyone on my street. I had never
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  Speaker 1: seen this girl before. but maybe a new family had
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  Speaker 1: moved in, and I just didn't notice. We walked together
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  Speaker 1: toward the neighborhood entrance. She asked about my classes, and
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  Speaker 1: complained about how long this walk was. We kept chatting
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  Speaker 1: as we turned onto our street. The sun began dipping low,
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  Speaker 1: casting long shadows across the lawns. Then Ashley disappeared. One
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  Speaker 1: second her shoulder was brushing mine, The next, the space
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  Speaker 1: beside me was empty. Ashley? I called out. No answer.
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  Speaker 1: That's when I heard it. A little girl scream. High, piercing,
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  Speaker 1: and full of raw pain. It came from somewhere near
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  Speaker 1: the tree line behind the houses, but I couldn't see anyone.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't sound like someone playing. It sounded like someone
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  Speaker 1: dying in agony. The scream rose and cut off sharply,
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  Speaker 1: then came again, weaker this time. Like whatever was making
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  Speaker 1: it was being dragged away. I ran, backpack slamming against
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  Speaker 1: my back, sneakers pounding the pavement, all the way back home.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't tell my parents the full story, just that
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  Speaker 1: I had heard something scary in the woods. They blamed
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: my imagination and the approaching Halloween season. I avoided that
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  Speaker 1: path afterward. By winter, I had almost convinced myself that
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  Speaker 1: it was just a weird daydream. Years passed. I moved
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: away for college and then work. Last summer, I was
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: back home visiting my family when I ran into Mr.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Coffee at the downtown cafe. He had been the Tome
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Librarian when I was a kid. He was tall, soft-spoken,
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  Speaker 1: and was always recommending local history books. He was now
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  Speaker 1: 82 years old, and he walked with a cane. But
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  Speaker 1: his eyes lit up when he recognized me. I wasn't
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  Speaker 1: with anyone, so we sat together and caught up over
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  Speaker 1: some coffee. Somehow the conversation drifted to childhood memories. and
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  Speaker 1: I found myself telling him about that afternoon in 1999.
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  Speaker 1: The girl in the dark dress, how she vanished, and
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  Speaker 1: that awful scream. He listened to my story with a
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  Speaker 1: serious expression. You grew up on Elm Court? He asked.
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  Speaker 1: When I confirmed, he told me the neighborhood had been
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  Speaker 1: built in the early 1960s, right on top of old foundations.
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  Speaker 1: The entire western side of town sat on what used
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  Speaker 1: to be a small colonial settlement. During King Philip's War
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  Speaker 1: in the 1670s, native warriors swept through, burning the settlement
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  Speaker 1: to the ground, killing or carrying off settlers. The survivors fled,
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  Speaker 1: and the site lay abandoned for centuries. By the 1950s,
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  Speaker 1: when Mr. Coffey was a boy, the ruins were still there,
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  Speaker 1: charred stone cellars and crumbling chimneys. Some of those people
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  Speaker 1: never made it out of the fire, or the woods
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  Speaker 1: for that matter. Mr. Coffee then apologized for being so intense,
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  Speaker 1: but told me he believed that I encountered a ghost
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  Speaker 1: that day. My parents still live in that neighborhood. Whenever
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  Speaker 1: I visit, I sometimes walk down that old forest path.
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  Speaker 1: I haven't seen or heard anything since that day over
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  Speaker 1: 25 years ago. But that scream... is something I'll never forget.
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  Speaker 1: This happened back in 2007. I was 22 years old
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  Speaker 1: and on vacation in Florida with a group of friends.
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  Speaker 1: We stayed in Zephyrhills, a small town that doesn't have
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  Speaker 1: much going on, except for its municipal airport where people
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: go skydiving. One of your recent stories took place in
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: this town, and since you also cover paranormal encounters, I
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: decided to type this up and share it. The others
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  Speaker 1: in my group were playing on skydiving, not me. No
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: amount of money could get me to jump out of
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  Speaker 1: an airplane. I've always preferred camping, hiking, fishing, etc. So
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: while I went to the drop zone, I decided to
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: do a solo overnight camping trip in the woods. My
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  Speaker 1: friend Mike dropped me off late that afternoon, near a
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  Speaker 1: bridge off of Highway 39. I rented a cheap tent,
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  Speaker 1: sleeping bag, and a portable skillet in town. The area
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  Speaker 1: I was in was part of the Upper Hillsborough Preserve,
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  Speaker 1: which runs along the Hillsborough River. Despite its name, that
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  Speaker 1: river technically begins in Pasco County, which is where I was.
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  Speaker 1: I told Mike I would find a spot along the river,
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  Speaker 1: camp for the night, and call him the next morning.
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  Speaker 1: He thought I was crazy for camping alone, but I
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  Speaker 1: thought the rest of them were crazy for jumping out
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  Speaker 1: of an airplane. So we wished each other luck and
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  Speaker 1: went our separate ways. The forest was full of pines
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  Speaker 1: and palmettos. The humidity near the river was brutal. I
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  Speaker 1: followed the trails for about 40 minutes until I found
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  Speaker 1: a nice clearing roughly 20 yards from the water. It
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  Speaker 1: felt perfect. I set up my tent. Cook some hot
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  Speaker 1: dogs on the portable skillet. There was a burn band
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  Speaker 1: in effect. No campfires. And watch the sky turn from
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  Speaker 1: orange to black. By 10 o'clock, I was zipped up
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  Speaker 1: inside my tent. Something woke me up a little after
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  Speaker 1: 2 a.m. Footsteps. Heavy and deliberate. Crunching on leaves and twigs.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't sound like an animal. I laid there frozen,
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  Speaker 1: heart pounding. As the steps circled nearby, they would pause,
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  Speaker 1: then start again, like whatever it was was wandering aimlessly.
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  Speaker 1: I grabbed my flashlight, unzipped the tent, and called out, Hello?
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  Speaker 1: Is someone there? I swept my beam around, but saw
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  Speaker 1: nothing but trees and the river reflecting my light. I
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  Speaker 1: stayed close to my tent. Then, the footsteps began again,
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  Speaker 1: this time on the opposite side of the river. I
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  Speaker 1: saw a shape stumbling out of the trees. Show yourself!
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  Speaker 1: It then came into the light. It was a man,
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  Speaker 1: with no head. Just a body wearing jeans and a jacket,
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  Speaker 1: but above the shoulders there was just nothing. According to
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  Speaker 1: most paranormal accounts I've read over the years headless apparitions
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  Speaker 1: usually move with the normalcy of a living person. This
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  Speaker 1: apparition did not behave in the same way. It appeared
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  Speaker 1: to be stumbling around like it couldn't see. I know
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: this may seem like a strange thing to say but
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  Speaker 1: it was like it actually had no head. Its movements
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  Speaker 1: were erratic. It jerked forward then suddenly halted before changing
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  Speaker 1: directions without warning. Its hands were blindly groping at tree branches,
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  Speaker 1: trying to steady itself as it staggered along. What the fuck?
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  Speaker 1: I called out. but the thing didn't stop moving. It
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  Speaker 1: just kept stumbling toward the river. I stood there, dumbfounded,
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  Speaker 1: my light fixed on the impossibility, just yards away, grateful
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  Speaker 1: that a river was separating us. It eventually made it
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  Speaker 1: to the riverbank, where it tripped on a rock, and
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  Speaker 1: fell into the water. It was a little further down
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  Speaker 1: the river so I ran to the spot where it
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  Speaker 1: fell in and shined my light into the water but
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  Speaker 1: saw no signs of anything. I ran back to my tent.
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  Speaker 1: Words cannot describe how confused and terrified I was. I
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  Speaker 1: zipped it shut like it would help, killed my light
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  Speaker 1: and sat there shaking for what felt like hours I
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  Speaker 1: didn't hear the footsteps again, but that did nothing for
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  Speaker 1: the panic attack I was having. I tried to calm
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  Speaker 1: myself down, but I ended up calling Mike around 4am,
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  Speaker 1: whispering into my phone like an idiot. He was half
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  Speaker 1: asleep when he answered, but when he heard the panic
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  Speaker 1: in my voice, he woke up fast. He met me
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  Speaker 1: back at the bridge about an hour later. I didn't
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  Speaker 1: tell him the full story on the drive back to
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  Speaker 1: the hotel, just that something had scared the shit out
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  Speaker 1: of me. He didn't push it. The next morning we
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  Speaker 1: had to go back for the camping gear. I was
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  Speaker 1: in such a hurry when I left that I didn't
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  Speaker 1: bother packing anything up. I felt much better having someone
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  Speaker 1: with me this time around. The tent was exactly as
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  Speaker 1: I had left it. The sleeping bag was still inside
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  Speaker 1: the tent, and the skillet was sitting on top of
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  Speaker 1: a log. Nothing seemed out of place. I tried to
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  Speaker 1: laugh off the incident for the rest of the trip.
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  Speaker 1: I ended up telling the guys that it was a bear,
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  Speaker 1: but they all figured that I was just being a
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  Speaker 1: chicken shit, which made no sense because I had been
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  Speaker 1: solo camping several times before this. On our last night
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: in town, we were at this dive bar having drinks.
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  Speaker 1: I ended up talking to an off-duty cop after a
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  Speaker 1: game of pool. He was an older guy who had
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  Speaker 1: lived in the area for his whole life. After a
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  Speaker 1: couple of beers, I casually asked him, if there had
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  Speaker 1: been any murders or strange deaths out in the woods
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  Speaker 1: by 39. He thought about it and said, Not that
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: I've ever heard of, but that preserve is huge, thousands
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  Speaker 1: of acres of forest, and lots of swamp areas that
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  Speaker 1: are hard to reach. If someone wanted to hide a
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  Speaker 1: body out there, they would have to drag it through
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: the woods from the highway, and we always look for
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: suspicious vehicles parked along the roads. It's unlikely, but not impossible.
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  Speaker 1: That night sparked my interest in the paranormal, and I've
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: read about a lot of ghostly encounters over the years,
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  Speaker 1: but I've never heard of an encounter quite like mine.
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  Speaker 1: Most stories that involve headless spirits never mention that spirit
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  Speaker 1: being affected by having no head. The entity I encountered
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  Speaker 1: was somehow bound by its missing anatomy, moving through the
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  Speaker 1: forest blind and disoriented. I have thought about that night
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  Speaker 1: a lot over the years, I think a long time
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  Speaker 1: ago someone was killed out there. Perhaps they were then
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  Speaker 1: dragged into the woods and their head was removed at
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  Speaker 1: some point. Spirits do often reenact the movements that were
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: part of a routine or something they did just before
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  Speaker 1: they died. They were often referred to as residual hauntings
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  Speaker 1: or an echo. I don't think this is the case
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  Speaker 1: because it would be nearly impossible for this to happen.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: But it's a very disturbing thought to think that I
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  Speaker 1: witnessed an echo of an unusually long reflexive action that
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: took place after a backwoods decapitation where a beheaded body
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  Speaker 1: stood up and stumbled aimlessly through the forest before plummeting
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: into the river. I grew up in New Orleans until
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: my parents moved us to Austin, Texas when I was
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  Speaker 1: around 15. For context, my mom's side of the family
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  Speaker 1: has always been deep into voodoo and black magic for generations.
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  Speaker 1: Root work, readings, altars in the back rooms, etc. My
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  Speaker 1: father is a hardline Baptist, so when I was a kid,
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  Speaker 1: my mother would shut that world away, which caused a
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: lot of problems. Her family was very upset that she
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: turned her back on the family legacy over a, quote,
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  Speaker 1: Bible thumper. In 2017, when I was in my early 20s,
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  Speaker 1: we got the news that my grandmother was dying. So
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  Speaker 1: my mom and I flew back to New Orleans to
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  Speaker 1: visit her. One evening my aunt pulled me aside in
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  Speaker 1: the kitchen while my mom was in the front room.
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  Speaker 1: She was my mom's older sister and the only one
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  Speaker 1: who still openly practiced. While we were catching up, she
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  Speaker 1: casually asked if I was seeing anyone. I told her
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  Speaker 1: the truth. A few dates here and there, but nothing serious.
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  Speaker 1: I was 21, in college, and was focused on my future.
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  Speaker 1: My aunt set her coffee down and looked me directly
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  Speaker 1: in the eye. You need to find somebody before 30. Married, babies,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: don't play with this. The women in this family, we
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: don't get to walk that road alone past 30. Not
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: without consequences. I actually laughed in her face. I told
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  Speaker 1: her I wasn't going to rush into marriage and kids
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  Speaker 1: just because some old superstitious nonsense. I was going to
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: be a lawyer, and I was going to build my
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: own life. She just nodded slowly. The way that people
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: do when you're making a big mistake, but you're just
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  Speaker 1: too proud to hear it. My grandmother passed away that year,
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  Speaker 1: and my aunt passed away two years after, in 2019.
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  Speaker 1: Fast forward to now. I turned 30 in February. I'm
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  Speaker 1: a brand new associate at a solid law firm here
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  Speaker 1: in Austin. Finally starting to feel like all those long
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: nights and student loans were worth it. I have my
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: own house, a good circle of friends, and zero interest
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: in settling down just to check a box. I was
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: proud of that. Until a dream started. The first one
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: was the night after I turned 30. I was back
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: in my grandmother's old house. Something with too many joins
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: was crawling across the ceiling, calling out my name in
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: a very disturbing voice. I woke up gasping, sheets soaked
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: with sweat. I told myself it was just the stress,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: but the nightmares kept coming, each one worse than the next.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Eventually things began happening when I was awake, scratching inside
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the walls, whispering voices from the air vents, footsteps in
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  Speaker 1: the hallway. I would catch a movement out of the
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: corner of my eye, a dark blur that vanished as
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: soon as I turned my head. I called up my mom.
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  Speaker 1: When I told her what was happening, she got real
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  Speaker 1: quiet and told me to come back home for a visit.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: She wouldn't say anything else over the phone. I was
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: busy with work assignments, and I couldn't visit her until
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: the following weekend. After Dad had gone to bed, Mom
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: sat me down at the kitchen table and told me
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  Speaker 1: the truth. Her voice was low and tired, like she
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: had been dreading this conversation for years. What your aunt
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: told you, your grandmother also told me, and I dismissed
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: it just like you. I grew up around superstition from
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: the old folks. But I still got married to your
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: father at 21 and had you by 23. I just
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: happened to fall in love at the right time. But
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: the stories about the women in our family who waited,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: something always came for them. Some got sick, some lost
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: their minds, and some just disappeared. The thing that shows
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: up is different for each of them. But it always
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: starts after their 30th birthday. I tried to pull us
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: out of that life. That's part of the reason we
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: moved to Texas. I raised you Christian. Kept you away
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: from all that. But deep down, a part of me
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: always knew. Blood remembers. I left my mom's house still unconvinced.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: But last Tuesday, I was working late on a case.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: I got home around 1130. kicked off my heels, and
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: walked into the kitchen. There's a dining room mirror that
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: hangs on the far wall that gives a clear view
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: into the kitchen before you reach it. In the reflection
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: was a tall, dark figure. It had its back turned
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: to me. It had broad shoulders under what looked like
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: an old coat and two thick, curved horns rising from
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: its head. It wasn't moving. It was just standing there
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Completely still, I screamed so loud I tore my throat.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: I ran out of the front door with my bare feet,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: and when I finally gathered myself... I called up my
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: friend Lauren and spent the night at her place. I'm
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: back at my place now during the day. The figure
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: hasn't appeared again, but I can still feel it watching me.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: I just want to make one thing perfectly clear before
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: I end my story. I'm not posting this to tell
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: young women that they need to get married and have
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: kids by age 30. I'm very proud of the life
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: I've built. I love my independence. I love my career.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: And I worked my ass off for it. But my
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: family has a history that can't be ignored. Something ancient
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: has followed me from New Orleans. And now I'm just
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: wondering if I'm already too late