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10 Encounters With Shapeshifters That Still Haunt Witnesses | Horror Stories · Appalachian Horror | Horror Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Park Ranger Files. I'm your host, and
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: tonight we've got something that'll crawl under your skin and
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: stay there. We're diving into testimonies from people who've encountered
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: things in the wilderness that defy explanation. Creatures that wear
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: stolen faces, beings that shift and change into forms that
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: shouldn't exist. But before we start, I need your help.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I'm racing to hit 1,000 subscribers before my birthday next month,
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  Speaker 1: and every single one of you matters. Hit that subscribe button,
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  Speaker 1: smash the like, and drop a comment telling me which
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  Speaker 1: story messed you up the most. Your support keeps this
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  Speaker 1: channel alive. All right, let's get into it. Story one,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I've been guiding hunting trips in northern Wisconsin for about
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: 15 years now. Seen plenty of weird stuff out there.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Strange tracks, heard sounds that don't match any animal I know,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: but nothing prepared me for what happened during bow season
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: in October of 2019. I was taking a father and
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: son duo out to one of my favorite spots about
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: eight miles into state forest land. We'd set up a
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: couple of deer stands the week prior, so the plan
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: was simple. Get them positioned before dawn, let them sit
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: until mid-morning, then regroup for lunch, Dot. The son, kid
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: named Tyler, maybe 19 or 20, he'd been bragging the
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: whole ride in about how he'd already bagged two bucks
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: that season. Confident kid. Maybe too confident. His old man, Frank,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: he was quieter. More respectful of the woods, if that
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: makes sense, Dot. We got to the clearing around 5.15
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: in the morning, skies still pitch black, except for our
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: headlamps cutting through the dark. I positioned Frank in the stand,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: closer to the ridge, told Tyler to take the one
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: near the creek bed, about 200 yards east. Both spots
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: had good sight lines, decent cover. I told them I'd
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: be back around 10, gave them my satellite phone number
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: in case of emergency, and headed back to my truck
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: to catch some sleep and monitor my other group's dot.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Around 8.30, my phone starts buzzing. It's Frank. He's whispering,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: sounds panicked, and he tells me to get out there immediately.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Won't say why. Just keeps repeating. Get here now, Marcus.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Something's wrong. I grabbed my rifle and hauled it back
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: to the clearing, heart pounding the whole way. When I
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: got to Frank's stand, he was already on the ground,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: rifle in hand, pointing toward Tyler's position. He's been calling me,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Frank said, voice shaking. But it's not him. I know
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: my own son's voice, Marcus. That's not him. I didn't
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: understand what he meant until I heard it, too, dot.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: From the direction of Tyler's stand came his voice, clear
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: as day, yelling, Dad, Dad, I got one. Come help me.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: But something about it was off. The pitch was right.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: The words were right. But it was like listening to
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: a recording. Too perfect. No breath behind it. No strain
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: from yelling. Dot Frank looked at me with these wide,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: terrified eyes. That's the fourth time in the last hour.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Same exact words. Same exact tone. I raised my rifle
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: and started moving toward the creek bed, Frank right behind me.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: As we got closer, Tyler's voice called out again. Dad! Dad! Dad,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: I got one. Come help me. We reached his deer
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: stand and found it empty. His bow was still hanging
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: on the hook. His backpack was there, water bottle, everything,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: but no Tyler Dot. Then we heard rustling in the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: brush about 30 feet away. I aimed my light and
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: my rifle in that direction, and that's when I saw him.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Dot Tyler was standing between two pine trees, partially hidden,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: but I could see his orange vest in his face.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: He waved at us, smiling. There you are, I called out.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Your dad's been worried sick. What the hell are you
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: doing down there? Tyler just kept smiling. Didn't say a word.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Just stared at us with this blank expression, dot. Frank
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: grabbed my shoulder. Marcus, that's not my son. What are
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: you talking about? He's right there. Look at his eyes.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: I focused my light directly on Tyler's face and that's
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: when I saw it. His eyes weren't blinking. Not at all.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: And they were completely black. Not just the pupils, the
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: entire eye. White and all. was solid black like someone
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: had painted over them. Tyler, I called out, keeping my
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: rifle aimed at him. You all right, buddy? The thing
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: wearing Tyler's face tilted its head to one side, too
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: far to one side, like a curious dog. Then it
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: smiled wider, so wide that I could see teeth that
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: went back way too far into its mouth. Dad, it
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: said in Tyler's voice. Dad, I got one. Come help me.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Frank started backing away, and so did I. The Tyler
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: thing took a step forward and its movements were all wrong.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Its legs bent backward at the knee, but its body
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: stayed upright. It was like watching someone walk in reverse
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: while facing forward. Where's my son? Frank shouted. Where is he?
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: The thing stopped moving. Its smile dropped and it just
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: stared at us with those black eyes. Then, without any warning,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: it turned and sprinted into the woods. But it didn't
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: run like a person. It ran on all fours impossibly fast.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: crashing through the underbrush like a deer dot. We stood
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: there frozen for what felt like hours, but was probably
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: only seconds. Then we heard Tyler's real voice, distant and terrified, screaming,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Help me! Somebody help me! The voice was coming from
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: the opposite direction, deeper into the woods, away from where
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: the thing had run. Dot, we found Tyler about a
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: quarter mile out, wedged into a gap between two massive boulders.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: He was trying to make himself as small as possible.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: arms wrapped around his knees, shaking like a leaf dot.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: He told us he'd climbed down from his stand around
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: 7 to investigate what he thought was a wounded deer
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: making noise in the brush. He followed the sound for
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: a few minutes before realizing it was leading him away
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: from camp. When he turned around to head back, he
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: saw himself standing by a tree, washing him dot. Tyler
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: said the thing looked exactly like him, down to the
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: scar on his chin from a childhood accident. It smiled
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: at him and said, You should run. in his own voice.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: So he did. He ran until he found those rocks
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: and squeezed himself in. And he'd been hiding there for
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: over an hour, listening to that thing call out to
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: his father in his voice, Dot, we got Tyler out
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: of there and back to my truck. The whole hike out,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Tyler kept looking over his shoulder, convinced that thing was
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: following us. Frank kept his rifle ready the entire time.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I reported it to the DNR, told them we'd had
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: an incident, and were closing that section for the season
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: They didn't ask questions. Makes me wonder if they'd heard
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: similar things before Dot Tyler never went hunting again. Frank
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: sold all his gear the next month. And me? I
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: still guide, but I won't take anyone within ten miles
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: of that creek bed. Some parts of the woods aren't
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: meant for us. Dot the thing that still keeps me
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: up at night is wondering where that thing came from.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Did it copy Tyler when it saw him? Or had
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: it been watching him before? Learning him? Waiting for the
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: right moment? And worse than that... How many times have
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: I walked past something in the woods that it was
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: wearing a face it stole from someone else? Story two.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: When I was 26, I worked as a long-haul trucker
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: running routes between Sacramento and Portland. It's lonely work, and
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the pay isn't great, but I liked the solitude, liked
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: having time to think, listen to podcasts, just exist without
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: anyone bothering. Not in March of 2016, I picked up
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: a load in Redding and was heading north on the
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: 5 when I got a call from my dispatcher. There'd
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: been a rock slide on the interstate about 40 miles
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: ahead and traffic was backed up for hours. He told
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: me to take the detour through the back roads, cut
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: over near Wairika and rejoin the five further north, dot
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: I quote, D driven those back roads a few times before.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Winding mountain routes, not much out there except trees and
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the occasional gas station. I didn't mind. Gave me a
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: chance to see some scenery instead of just endless highway dot.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: It was getting dark when I made the turn onto
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Highway 96, following the Klamath River. Beautiful area, but isolated.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: The kind of place where your cell signal drops to
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: nothing and you don't see another car for miles. Dot
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: about an hour into the detour, I saw someone standing
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: on the side of the road, thumb out. A hitchhiker
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: dot now comma. I don't usually pick people up. Company
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: policy says don't do it, and beyond that it's just
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: common sense. But this person looked rough. Soaking wet despite
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: the fact it hadn't rained, holding what looked like a
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: torn jacket, standing in the middle of nowhere, with night
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: coming on fast dot. Against my better judgment, I slowed
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: down and pulled over. It was a woman, maybe in
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: her thirties, with long, dark hair plastered to her face.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: She ran up to the passenger side, and I rolled
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: down the window. Thank God, she said out of breath.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: My car went into the river about two miles back.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I'd been walking for over an hour. Please, can you
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: give me a ride to the next town? Something felt
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: off about her, but I couldn't put my finger on what.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Maybe it was the way she kept looking back over
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: her shoulder, like she was expecting something to come out
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: of the woods. Yeah, all right, I said. Get in.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: She climbed into the cab, dripping water all over the seat,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: and immediately locked the door behind her. That struck me
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: as odd, but I figured she was just shaken up
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: from the accident. Thank you so much, she said shivering.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: I thought I was going to die out there. I
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: pulled back onto the road and handed her an old
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: blanket I kept behind the seat. She wrapped it around
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: herself but didn't stop shaking. What happened to your car?
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: I asked, trying to make conversation. I swerved to avoid
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: something in the road, she said quietly. Lost control and
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: went through the guardrail. I barely got out before it sank. Jesus,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: you call anyone? No signal. That tracked. I glanced at
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: my phone mounted on the dash. Zero bars. Dot, we
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: drove in silence for a few minutes. I kept glancing
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: over at her, and every time I did, she was
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: staring straight ahead with this blank expression. Didn't look at me.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Didn't look out the window. Just stared at the road ahead.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: like she was in a trance. You heard it all?
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I finally asked. Should I take you to a hospital
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: instead of just dropping you in town? She didn't answer
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: right away. When she finally spoke, her voice was different. Flatter.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: I'm fine. Another few minutes of silence. Then she said
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: something that made my blood run cold. You should pull over. What? Why?
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: You should pull over now. Let me out. I looked
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: at her, confused. We're still miles from anywhere. I thought
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: you needed a ride to town. She turned to look
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: at me for the first time since getting in the truck,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: and that's when I saw her eyes. They were wrong.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: The pupils were too large, taking up almost the entire iris,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: and they didn't react to the light from the dashboard.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Just these massive black circles staring at Pull over, she
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: said again, and her voice had no emotion in it
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: at all. Let me out now. My instincts screamed at
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: me that something was very, very wrong. I started to
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: slow down, reaching for the door lock to let her out.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: When she grabbed my wrist, thought her hand was freezing
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: cold and her grip was way too strong. I tried
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: to pull away, but she held on tight, her fingernails
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: digging into my skin. I said, pull over, she hissed.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: And when she opened her mouth, I saw that her
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: teeth were wrong too. Too sharp, too many of them
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: arranged in rows like a shark. I panicked and slammed
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: on the brakes. The truck lurched forward, and she lost
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: her grip on my wrist. I immediately hit the unlock
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: button and shoved the passenger door open. Get out! Get
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the hell out of my truck! She stared at me
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: for a long moment, head tilted at an unnatural angle.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Then she smiled. It was the most horrible smile I've
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: ever seen, stretching her face wider than it should have
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: been able to go dot. Then she climbed out of
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: the truck, slowly and deliberately, never taking those black eyes
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: off me. I expected her to walk away, but instead
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: she just stood there beside the open door, still smiling.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Close the door, I shouted. Close it and get away
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: from my truck. She reached out and grabbed the door handle,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: but instead of closing it, she just held it. And
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: then she started changing dot. Her face began to shift,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the features melting and reforming like wax. Her hair shortened
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and lightened in color. Her body changed shape. growing taller
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and broader. Within seconds, she didn't look like a woman anymore. Dot,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: she looked like me. I was staring at myself, standing
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: outside my own truck, wearing my face, my build, even
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the same flannel shirt I was wearing. The only difference
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: was the eyes. Still, those massive black pupils that didn't
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: belong Dot. The thing wearing my face leaned into the
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: cab and spoke in my voice. You should have kept driving,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: and then stepped back and slammed the door shut. I
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: didn't wait to see what it would do next. I
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: threw the truck into gear and floored it, watching in
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: the side mirror as my own reflection stood in the
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: middle of the road, watching me go. I drove for
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: two straight hours without stopping, hands shaking so bad I
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: could barely hold the wheel. When I finally hit a
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: town with cell service, I pulled into the first gas
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: station I saw and called my dispatcher. Told him I
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: was sick and needed to end the route early. He
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: wasn't happy, but I didn't care. I never drove that
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: route again. put in for permanent reassignment to Southern California runs,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: even though it meant less pay. When people ask why,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: I tell them I don't like the mountain roads, Dot.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: But the real reason? The real reason is that I
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: can't stop thinking about what that thing said. You should
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: have kept driving. What would have happened if I had?
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Or was it trying to get me to go? And
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: how many other drivers had picked up that same hitchhiker
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: and made the mistake of not stopping when it told
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: them to? I see my own face sometimes when I'm
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: driving late at night, just for a second in the
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: rearview mirror or reflected in a window as I pass by.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: And I always wonder if it's really me I'm seeing,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: or if that thing is still out there somewhere, wearing
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: my face, waiting for another driver to make the same
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: mistake I did Dot. If you're still watching, you're braver
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: than most. We're just getting started, but before we continue,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: I need you to do something for me. Subscribe if
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: you haven't already. I'm trying to hit 1,000 subs before
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: my birthday next month, and every single one matters. Drop
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: a like, leave a comment telling me what you think
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: is going on in these stories. Is it supernatural? Cryptids?
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Something else entirely? I want to hear your theories dot,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: alright comma, let's keep going. Story three. I used to
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: work as a wildlife photographer. Freelance stuff, mostly for nature
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: magazines and conservation websites. The job took me all over
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the country, but Some of my best work came from
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: the Appalachian region. Something about those old mountains just produced
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: incredible shots. Dot, in November 2017, I was on assignment
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: in eastern Kentucky, documenting black bears preparing for winter. I'd
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: been tracking a particular female and her two cubs for
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: about a week, and I was getting some fantastic footage
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: of their denning behavior. Dot, I quote, Dee set up
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: a base to camp about three miles from the nearest
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: fire road. deep enough into the woods that I wouldn't
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: be disturbed by hikers or hunters, but close enough that
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I could hike out if I needed supplies. Dot, the
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: area was beautiful but eerie. Lots of old growth forests,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: massive oaks and pines that blocked out most of the sunlight.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: The underbrush was thick, and there were these rock formations everywhere,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: huge boulders and cliff faces covered in moss. Dot, on
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: my sixth day out there, I was reviewing footage in
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: my tent, when I heard something that made me stop.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: It was a child's laughter, high-pitched and clear, coming from
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: somewhere to the east of my camp. I stepped outside
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: and listened. Sure enough, I heard it again. A little
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: girl laughing like she was playing a game dot. My
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: first thought was that someone had brought their kid camping,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: which seemed insane given how remote the area was. My
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: second thought was that the kid might be lost. I
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: grabbed my radio and headed in the direction of the sound,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: calling out as I went. Hello? Is someone out there?
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Are you lost? The laughter continued, moving through the trees
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: ahead of me. I followed it for about ten minutes,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: getting deeper into an area I hadn't explored yet. The
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: forest got denser, the light dimmer dot. Then the laughter stopped.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: I stood there in the silence, listening, and that's when
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: I realized I couldn't hear anything. No birds, no insects,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: no wind in the trees. Just complete, total silence. Dot
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: that quote S when I saw her. A little girl,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: maybe seven or eight years old, standing between two trees
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: about 40 feet away. She had blonde hair and pigtails,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: wearing a pink dress that looked like something from the 1950s.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: She was barefoot. Hey there, I called out gently. Are
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: you okay? Where are your parents? She didn't respond, just
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: stood there, perfectly still, staring at me. I took a
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: few steps closer. It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: My name's Rebecca, what's yours? Still nothing. She just kept
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: staring with this blank expression. I was about 20 feet
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: away when I noticed something that made me stop. She
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: wasn't breathing, her chest wasn't moving at all. And she
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: wasn't blinking either. Sweetheart? I tried again, my voice less
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: certain now. Dot that quote, S, when she smiled. But
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: it wasn't a child's smile. It was too knowing, too cold.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: And her teeth, when she showed them, were wrong. They
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: were all the same size and shape, perfectly uniform, like
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: someone had carved them out of wood. You're not real,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: I whispered, more to myself than to her dot. The
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: little girl's head tilted to the side, too far to
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: the side, 90 degrees at least. And then she spoke
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: in a voice that didn't match her appearance at all.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: It was deep, masculine, echoing like it was coming from
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: the bottom of a well. Why did you follow me?
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: I stumbled backward, nearly tripping over a root. The thing
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: wearing the little girl's shape took a step toward me,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: its movements jerky and wrong, like a marionette being controlled
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: by someone who didn't quite know how humans moved. I
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: asked you a question, it said in that horrible voice.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Why did you follow me? I couldn't speak, couldn't move,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: just stood there, frozen as this thing took another step closer. Dot,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: then it started to change. Dot, the little girl's face
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: began to stretch and distort, features sliding around like they
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: were painted on wet paper. The blonde hair darkened and
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: grew longer. The pink dress seemed to melt into the skin,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: becoming part of whatever was underneath Dot. Within seconds, the
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: little girl was gone. In her place stood something I
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: can barely describe, Dot. It was roughly human-shaped, but wrong
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: in every way. Too tall, too thin, with limbs that
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: bent in too many places. Its skin was gray and
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: smooth like stone, and its face was almost featureless, just
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: two black holes where eyes should be and a wide
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: slash of a mouth. You shouldn't have followed me, it said,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: and now its voice sounded like multiple people speaking at once,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: all slightly out of sync dot. My survival instincts finally
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: kicked in. I turned and ran. I crashed through the underbrush,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: not caring about the noise I was making, just trying
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: to put distance between myself and that thing. Behind me,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: I could hear it moving through the trees, but it
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: wasn't running. It was just walking, somehow keeping pace with me,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: even though I was sprinting. I don't know how long
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: I ran. Could have been five minutes. Could have been thirty. Eventually,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: I burst out of the tree line and found myself
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: at the edge of a cliff I didn't recognize. I'd
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: gotten myself completely turned around. I spun around expecting to
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: see that thing right behind me, but the forest was empty, silent.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: I stood there panting, trying to get my bearings when
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: I heard the little girl's laughter again. This time it
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: was coming from three different directions at once. Dot that
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: quote S when I realized what it was doing. It
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: was hurting me, driving me toward the cliff. I looked
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: over the edge. About a 70-foot drop onto rocks and
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: shallow water. Not survivable, Dot. The laughter got closer. I
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: could see movement in the trees now, multiple figures approaching.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: They all looked like the little girl, moving in perfect synchronization.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: I had two choices. Jump and die, or die. or
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: wait for whatever those things were planning to do to me.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: I chose a third option. I ran along the cliff edge,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: parallel to the drop, hoping to find a way down
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: or break in the line of those things. I was
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: about 50 yards along when I spotted a narrow deer
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: trail leading down the cliff face at a steep angle.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: I took it without thinking, half sliding, half climbing down
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: loose rock and roots. I could hear those things above me,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: their laughter turning into shrieks of anger or frustration, I
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: hit the bottom hard, twisting my ankle, but I didn't stop.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: I splashed across the creek and into the forest on
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: the other side, limping as fast as I could dot.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: The shrieks followed me for a while, echoing through the trees,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: but eventually they faded. By the time I found my
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: way back to camp, the sun was setting and my
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: ankle was swollen to twice its normal size. I didn't
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: even bother packing up properly. I grabbed my car keys,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: my phone, and my camera with all my footage, and
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: I hiked the three miles back to my truck in
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: the dark, jumping at every sound. I reported the incident
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: to local authorities, told them there was something dangerous in
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: those woods and they should post warnings. They took my
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: statement politely, but I could tell they thought I was
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: either crazy or had eaten the wrong mushrooms. I developed
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: the footage from that day when I got home. Most
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: of it was normal, bears, birds, trees. But there was
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: one clip, about 15 seconds long, that I don't remember filming,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: dot it, quote, S shot from my camera's perspective, looking
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: down at my own sleeping bag in my tent. The
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: timestamp says it was recorded at 3.47 in the morning
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: on my fourth night out there. Dot in the footage,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: the tent flap slowly opens, and that little girl crawls inside.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: She sits next to my sleeping bag for a moment,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: just watching me sleep. Then she leans down close to
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: my face, so close that her nose is almost touching
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: mine dot. And she smiles, that horrible smile with those
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: uniform wooden teeth dot. The footage cuts off there. I
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: haven't been back to Appalachia since. Don't plan to ever
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: go back. Story four. My name is David Chen, and
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: I'm a geologist. For the last 12 years, I've worked
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: for various mining companies, doing surveys and environmental assessments in
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: remote areas. The job takes me to places most people
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: never see, deep in mountain ranges far from any civilization dot.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: In the summer of 2018, I was hired by a
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: company to do a mineral survey in the Cascade Range
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: in Washington State. They were looking to see if a
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: certain area had enough copper deposits to be worth developing
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: a mine dot. The survey required me to spend two
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: weeks alone in the backcountry, taking core samples and mapping
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: geological formations. I'd done dozens of similar jobs, so this
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: wasn't unusual. I drove out to the site in late July,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: parked at the end of a logging road, and hiked
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: about six miles to the area I needed to survey.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: I set up my base camp in a small clearing
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: next to a stream and spent the first few days
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: getting oriented and planning my survey routes, dot. The area
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: was stunning. Alpine meadows, dense conifer forests, and these dramatic
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: volcanic rock formations. I saw evidence of black bears and deer,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: but no other people. Perfect working conditions, dot. On my
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: fifth day, I was taking samples near a cliff face
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: about two miles from camp when I found something odd.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: There was a cave entrance, maybe four feet high, partially
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: hidden by brush. What caught my attention was that the
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: rock around the entrance showed signs of being worked by tools.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Someone had deliberately enlarged this opening dot. I quote, I'm
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: a scientist, so naturally I wanted to investigate. I got
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: my headlamp and crawled inside. Dot the cave opened up
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: after about ten feet, becoming a larger chamber maybe twelve
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: feet across. And it wasn't natural. Someone had carved this
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: space out of the rock. probably decades ago, based on
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: the weathering dot. But that wasn't the strange part. Dot
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: the walls of the chamber were covered in carvings. Hundreds
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: of them, maybe thousands, all depicting the same thing. Human figures,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: but with their faces blank. No eyes, no nose, no mouth.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Just smooth ovals where their heads should be dot. The
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: carvings showed these faceless people doing various activities. Hunting, eating, dancing, fighting.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: It was like someone had documented an entire society of
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: these things. I took photos of everything, fascinated by this
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: archaeological find. This was way outside my expertise, but I
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: knew it was significant. I made a note to report
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: it to the proper authorities once I got back to civilization, dot,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: that quote, yes, when I noticed the smell, dot. It
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: was faint at first, like rotting meat, coming from the
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: back of the chamber where the shadows were deepest. I
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: aimed my headlamp in that direction and saw another open,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: a tunnel leading deeper into the rock. Dot against my
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: better judgment, I crawled toward it. The smell got stronger,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: more pungent. My eyes were watering by the time I
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: reached the tunnel entrance. I shined my light down the
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: passage and immediately wished I hadn't quote T. Dot. There
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: were bodies in there. Not human bodies, but not animal either.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: They were roughly the size and shape of people, but
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: their skin was wrong. Too gray, too smooth, and they
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: had no faces. just like in the carvings. Blank, featureless
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: heads where eyes and mouths should have been dot. There
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: were six of them, all in various states of decay.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Some looked fresh. Others were mostly skeletal. They were piled
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: on top of each other like cordwood. I backed away
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: from the tunnel so fast I hit my head on
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: the cave ceiling. I didn't care. I just needed to
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: get out of there. I scrambled back through the main
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: chamber and out the entrance, gulping fresh air as soon
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: as I emerged. My hands were shaking so badly I
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: could barely hold my camera. I should have left right then.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Should have packed up my camp and hiked back to
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: my truck. But the scientist in me couldn't let it go.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: What were those things? Some unknown primate? A hoax? Mass grave?
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: I decided to come back the next day with better
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: equipment and protective gear. Document everything properly, collect samples, then
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: report it, dot. That night in the back of camp,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: I couldn't sleep. Kept thinking about those faceless bodies. Around midnight,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: I finally dozed off. I woke up to something touching
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: my face. I opened my eyes and saw a figure
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: crouched over my sleeping bag. It was dark. My campfire
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: had died down to embers. But I could make out
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the shape. Human-sized, human-dash-shaped dot. But no faceless dot. Where
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: its head should have had eyes and a mouth, there
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: was nothing. Just smooth skin stretched over the skull. I
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: tried to scream, but no sound came out. The thing's
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: hand was on my cheek, fingers ice cold, feeling the
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: contours of my face like a blind person trying to
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: identify someone by touch dot. Then it started to change,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: and the blank surface of its face began to split
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: and reform. I watched in horror as features emerged from
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: the smooth skin, eyes, a nose, a mouth. Within seconds,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: it had a complete face dot. My face. I was
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: looking at myself, crouched over my own sleeping bag, wearing
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: my face like a mask dot. The thing smiled and
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: spoke in my voice. Thank you. Then it stood up
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: and walked away into the darkness. I lay there paralyzed
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: with fear for what felt like hours. Eventually, as dawn
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: started to break, I forced myself to move. I grabbed
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: my essentials and hiked straight back to my truck, not
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: bothering with the survey equipment or most of my supplies
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: dot When I got to the parking area, I saw
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: someone sitting on the hood of my truck. Dot, it
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: was me. Dot, the thing wearing my face, waved at
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: me cheerfully. It was dressed in clothes similar to mine.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Even had a backpack like the one I was carrying.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: You should go home, it said in my voice. I'll
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: finish the survey. I didn't know what to do. Part
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: of me wanted to rush it, fight it, try to, what,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: kill it? I didn't even know if it could be killed.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Who are you? I managed to ask. I'm David Chen,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: it said, smiling. Geologist. Been doing surveys for 12 years.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: This is my job. No, I'm David Chen. The thing's
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: smile widened. We're both David Chen now, but you should
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: go home. I'll take care of things here. It slid
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: off the hood of my truck and started walking past me,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: back toward the trail. As it passed, it paused and
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: looked at me with my own eyes. Don't come back here,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: it said quietly. There are more of us in those caves.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: They're all waiting for faces. You were lucky. I only
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: needed one. Then I walked away, disappearing into the forest.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: I stood there for a long time, trying to process
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: what had just happened. Eventually I got in my truck
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: and drove home. I reported to the mining company that
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: the area wasn't suitable for development. Too unstable. High risk
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: of cave-ins. They accepted my assessment without question, Dot. But
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: here's the thing that keeps me awake at night, Dot.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: About two months after I left those mountains, I ran
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: into my colleague Richard at a geology conference in Denver.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: He congratulated me on my engagement, dot, I quote, am
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: not engaged, dot. He showed me the Facebook post. It
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: was my profile, my name, my pictures. And there was
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: a photo of me, or the thing that looks like me,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: with a woman I'd never seen before announcing our engagement.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: I checked my social media. Sure enough, there was the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: post from my account. The thing had somehow accessed my
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: online presence and was living my life, dot, at posts regularly.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: Pictures of itself at work sites, at restaurants, with friends
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: I don't recognize. It's building a whole life using my identity.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: I can't report it to the police. What would I say? Officer,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: there's a shape-shifting creature pretending to be me. They'd think
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: I was insane. I can't confront it. I don't know
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: what it would do, what it's capable of, dot. So
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: I just watch as this thing lives a version of
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: my life that's somehow more successful than my real one.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: It got promoted last year. The wedding is scheduled for
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: next spring, Dot. Sometimes I wonder if I should just
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: let it have my identity. It seems to be doing
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: a better job of being David Chen than I ever
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: did it, Dot. But then I remember those bodies in
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: the cave. All those faceless things waiting for someone to
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: give them an identity, a shape, a life, Dot. And
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: I wonder how many other people out there are watching
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: their own doppelgangers live their lives, too afraid to do
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: anything about it. Dot, all right, comma, we're halfway through
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: and things are getting weird. If you're enjoying this, or
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: if it's freaking you out, make sure you hit that
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: subscribe button. I'm trying to reach 1,000 subscribers before my
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: birthday next month, and I'm counting on you to help
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: me get there. Leave a comment and tell me what
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: you'd do if you encountered one of these things. Would
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: you run, fight, try to reason with it? I want
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: to know. Dot, let quote S continue. Story six. I'm
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: a wedding photographer based out of Charleston, South Carolina. It's
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: a good job. I get to travel to beautiful locations,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: work with happy people, and the pay is decent if
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: you build up a good reputation. In September of 2020,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: I was hired to photograph a destination wedding in the
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Great Smoky Mountains. The couple wanted something rustic and intimate,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: so they'd rented out this luxury cabin property that overlooked
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: a valley. The place was gorgeous. Ten bedrooms, massive deck,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: hot tub, the whole nine yards. The wedding party arrived
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: on Thursday. The ceremony was scheduled for Saturday afternoon with
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: the reception following at the cabin. My job was to
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: document everything from the rehearsal dinner through the end of
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: the reception. Friday was rehearsal and final preparations. I spent
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: most of the day taking candid shots of the bridal party,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: getting ready, the groom and his guys playing poker, that
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: sort of thing. Standard wedding photography stuff. Around 8 p.m.,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: I went outside to get some sunset shots of the
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: cabin and the surrounding forest. The light was perfect. golden hour,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: with this mist rolling through the valley. I was setting
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: up my tripod on the deck when I noticed someone
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: standing at the tree line, maybe a hundred yards from
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: the cabin. It was a woman in a white dress.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: At first, I thought it was the bride, which would
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: have been weird since she was superstitious about the groom
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: seeing her in the dress before the wedding. But as
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: I looked closer through my camera's zoom lens, I realized
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: it wasn't the bride. This woman was older, with long
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: gray hair, and the dress looked vintage, Victorian era maybe.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: She was just standing there, completely still, staring at the cabin.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: I lowered my camera and waved, thinking she might be
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: a neighbor. She didn't wave back, didn't move at all.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: I figured she was probably just out for an evening
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: walk and admiring the property. So I went back to
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: my sunset shots. When I looked back toward the tree
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: line a few minutes later, she was gone. I didn't
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: think much of it at the time. The area was remote,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: but there were other cabins scattered around. Someone in period
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: costume wasn't that weird. Could have been taking vintage photos
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: as a Civil War reenactment, who knows? That night after
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: the rehearsal dinner, I was in my room downloading the
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: day's photos when I heard scratching at my window. My
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: room was on the second floor. There was no balcony,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: no tree branches close enough to reach. Nothing that should
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: be making that sound. The scratching continued, rhythmic and deliberate.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: I got up and looked out the window. The woman
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: in the white dress was floating outside my window. Not
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: standing on anything. Not climbing. Floating in midair, her face
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: pressed against the glass, fingers scratching at the window. She
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: had no eyes. Just empty black sockets where her eyes
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: should have been. I shouted and stumbled backward, tripping over
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: my camera bag. When I looked at the window again,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: she was gone. I didn't sleep that night. Kept telling
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: myself it was a dream. that I dozed off and
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: had a nightmare. But the scratches on the window were
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: still there in the morning. Five distinct lines in the glass,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: like someone had dragged their fingernails across it. I almost left,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: almost packed my gear, and told the couple I was
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: sick and had to go home. But this was a
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: big job, good money, and I'd worked too hard to
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: build my reputation to throw it away over what was
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: probably just a vivid nightmare. Dotso, I stayed, Dot Saturday morning,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: was chaotic in the best way. Everyone getting ready. Makeup
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: artists and hairdressers everywhere. Excitement building. I was so busy
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: taking photos that I almost forgot about the woman in white.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Dot almost Dot around noon. I was outside taking detail
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: shots of the ceremony setup when I saw her again.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: This time she was standing right at the edge of
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: the deck, maybe 20 feet from where the bride and
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: groom would be exchanging vows, Dot. She was staring at me.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: with those empty eye sockets. I dropped my camera. It
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: hit the deck with a horrible cracking sound, lens shattering.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: One of the groomsmen ran over, asking if I was okay,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: but I couldn't take my eyes off the woman. Do
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: you see her? I asked, pointing dot. He looked where
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: I was pointing. See who? The woman in the white dress?
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: Right there. He followed my finger, but his expression told
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: me he couldn't see her. There's nobody there. Are you
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: feeling all right? Did you hit your head? But she
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: was right there. I could see her as clearly as
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: I could see him. She raised one hand and pointed
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: at me, her mouth opening in a silent scream dot.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Then she was gone. Just vanished. The groomsman convinced me
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: to sit down and drink some water. I told him
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: I was fine, just a little dehydrated. He helped me
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: check my camera. The lens was destroyed, but I had
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: a backup dot. The ceremony started at 4 p.m. Beautiful weather.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Everyone happy and crying in that way people do at weddings.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: I went through the motions on autopilot, taking the standard shots.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: Bride walking down the aisle. Exchange of rings. First kiss. Dot.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: But I kept seeing her in my peripheral vision. The
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: woman in white standing among the guests. Weaving between the
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: seated rows. Nobody else reacted to her. Nobody else saw her. Dot.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: During the reception... I was photographing the first dance when
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: I felt ice-cold breath on the back of my neck.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: I spun around and she was right behind me, close
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: enough to touch. Her empty eye sockets were somehow staring
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: directly into my soul. Then she opened her mouth and spoke,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: but the voice that came out wasn't hers. It was
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: the bride's voice. Why won't you look at me? I
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: stumbled backward, and my backup camera fell to the floor.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: People were asking if I was okay. The bride herself
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: was rushing over to check on me. She looked concerned,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: worried Dot. But that thing in the white dress was
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: still standing there, still talking in the bride's voice. Why
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: won't you look at me? I'm right here. That's when
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: I understood. It wasn't trying to scare me. It was
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: trying to replace the bride. It wanted someone to look
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: at it, acknowledge it, give it the attention that the
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: bride was getting. Dot, it wanted to be her. I
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: backed away, keeping my eyes on the real bride, refusing
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: to look at the thing in white. It followed me
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: as I moved through the reception, always at the edge
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: of my vision, always speaking in the bride's voice. Look
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: at me. Please look at me. Why won't anyone look
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: at me? I made it through the rest of the
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: reception somehow. Took all the required photos, documented the cake
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: cutting and bouquet toss and the couple's exit. Professional to
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: the end, dot. But I could see her in every
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: single photo I took. Standing in the background, sometimes in focus,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: sometimes blurred. Always in that white dress, always with those
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: empty eye sockets, dot. When I got home and edited
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: the photos, I had to remove her from over a
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: hundred shots, just her. The bride was always in her
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: proper place, happy and alive. But this other woman in
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: white was photobombing almost every picture. I delivered the edited
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: photos to the couple two weeks later. They loved them,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: wrote me a glowing review, referred me to three other couples, dot.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: But I stopped photographing weddings after that. switch to corporate events,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: family portraits, anything that doesn't involve brides in white dresses,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: because sometimes late at night when I'm editing photos, I'll
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: see her in shots where she shouldn't be. Pictures taken
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: months after that wedding in completely different locations. Different brides,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: different ceremonies, dot. But the same woman in white, with
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: those empty eye sockets, always watching, always waiting. I think
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: she's still trying to replace someone. To become someone. To
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: be seen, dot. And I'm terrified that one day, I'll
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: look through my camera and see her wearing my face.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: Story 7. My name is James Whitmore, and for eight years,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: I worked as a telecommunications technician. My job was to
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: install and repair cell towers in remote areas, places where
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: they needed to expand coverage. In October of 2019, I
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: was sent to install new equipment on a tower in
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: rural Montana, about 15 miles outside a tiny town called Augusta.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: The tower was way out in the middle of nowhere,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: accessible only by a rough dirt road that barely qualified
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: as a trail. I drove out there early in the morning,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: planning to have the installation done by mid-afternoon. The tower
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: was in a valley surrounded by forest, with mountains visible
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: in the distance. Beautiful country, but isolated. The nearest building
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: was probably 10 miles away. I parked my truck at
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: the base of the tower and started hauling equipment out.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: The tower itself was about 150 feet tall, and I
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: needed to climb up to install the new relay equipment
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: about two-thirds of the way up. Dot I quote, but
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: never been afraid of heights. Done this kind of work
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: hundreds of times. But as I was gearing up and
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: double-checking my safety harness, I had this weird feeling like
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: I was being watched. I looked around at the clearing. Nothing.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: No animals, no people, no movement, just trees and silence.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: I shrugged it off and started climbing dot. About halfway up,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: I paused to rest and checked my equipment. That's when
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: I looked down and saw someone standing next to my
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: truck dot. It was a man, middle-aged, wearing jeans and
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: a flannel shirt. He was looking up at me, one
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: hand shading his eyes from the sun. Hey, I called down.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: You need something? He didn't answer, just kept looking up
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: at me. This is a restricted area, I shouted. You're
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: not supposed to be here. Still nothing. He just stood there,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: perfectly still. I figured he was probably a local who
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: was curious about what I was doing, so I went
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: back to climbing. I'd deal with him when I got
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: back down. I reached the platform where I needed to
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: install the equipment and got to work. The job took
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: longer than expected. One of the mounting brackets was damaged,
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: and I had to jury rig a replacement. By the
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: time I finished, about two hours had passed. I packed
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: up my tools and started climbing back down. When I
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: was about 50 feet from the ground, I looked down
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: to check my position dot. The man was still standing there,
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: in exactly the same spot, in exactly the same pose,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: hand up shading his eyes, looking up at me. He
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: hadn't moved an inch in two hours. A chill ran
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: down my spine. That wasn't normal. Nobody stands perfectly still
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: for two hours. I stopped climbing and called down again. Hey,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: are you okay? No response. He just kept staring up
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: at me with that hand shaping his eyes. I made
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: a decision. I climbed back up about 20 feet and
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: called my supervisor on the radio. Yeah, I've got a
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: situation here. There's someone at the tower site, and he's
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: acting really strange. Just standing there won't respond to me.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: My supervisor sighed. Probably just some local drunk. Finish up
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: and get out of there. If he causes problems, call
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: the sheriff. I didn't think the guy was drunk. Drunk
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: people don't stand perfectly still for two hours. But I
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: didn't have much choice. I had to get down eventually.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: I climbed slowly, keeping my eyes on the man the
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: whole time. He never moved. Never changed position. Just kept
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: staring up at me, Dot. When I was about 20
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: feet from the ground, I stopped again. I'm coming down now,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: I called out. I need you to step away from
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: my truck. He didn't move. Sir, I need you to move. Now. Nothing.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: I climbed down the last 20 feet, my heart pounding.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: When my feet hit the ground, I immediately started unhooking
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: my safety harness, keeping the man in my peripheral vision dot.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: He was still in the same position, but now that
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: I was on the ground, I could see him more
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: clearly dot that quote S when I noticed something that
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: made my blood freeze. Dot, he wasn't breathing. His chest
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: wasn't moving at all, and he wasn't blinking. His eyes
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: were wide open, unmoving, staring at the top of the
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: tower where I'd just been. Hey, I said in my
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: voice shaking. Are you, are you all right? Slowly, very slowly,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: he lowered his hand from his face and turned his
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: head to look at me, Dot. His eyes were wrong.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: The pupils were too large, completely black, and they didn't
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: focus on me. They were just pointed in my direction,
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: like a doll's eyes. What are you doing up there,
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: he asked, and his voice sounded wrong too. It was monotone, flat,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: like text-to-speech. I work for the phone company. Installing equipment.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: What equipment? Cell tower equipment. Look, you need to leave.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: This is private property. He tilted his head to one side,
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: too far, at an angle that should have been painful.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: I'm supposed to be here. No, you're not. I have
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: the work order. This is restricted. I'm supposed to be here,
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: he repeated in exactly the same tone. I work for
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: the phone company. Installing equipment. He was repeating my words
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: back to me. but they sounded wrong coming from his mouth,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: like he was practicing them, learning them. I started backing
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: toward my truck, keeping my eyes on him. Okay, well,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: I'm done here, so I'm going to leave now. I'm
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: done here, he repeated. I'm going to leave now. He
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: took a step toward me, and his movement was all wrong.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: His legs bent at strange angles. His torso remained rigid.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: His arms swung stiffly at his sides. I ran for
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: my truck, throwing my tools in the bed and jumping
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: into the cab. I started the engine, threw it in reverse,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: and floored it dot. In my rearview mirror, I saw
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: him standing there, watching me go. He raised his hand
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: and waved, but the motion was jerky and unnatural, like
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: someone who'd never waved before and was trying to imitate it.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: I drove straight to the sheriff's office in Augusta and
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: reported what I'd seen. Told them there was someone acting
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: erratically at the tower site, possibly on drugs or having
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: some kind of medical emergency dot. They said that they'd
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: send someone to check it out. Dot two days later,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: my supervisor called me. The sheriff went out to that
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: tower site. Didn't find anyone. No signs that anyone else
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: had been there. That's impossible. I saw him. He was
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: right there. They checked the whole area. Nothing. Look, James,
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: are you feeling okay? That's pretty high altitude out there.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: You could have been suffering from oxygen deprivation, or... I
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: know what I saw. He was quiet for a moment. Then...
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: The sheriff did find something weird, though. Said there were
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: footprints all around the base of the tower. A lot
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: of them walking in circles. All the same size, same pattern.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: Like someone had been pacing around the tower for hours. Days, maybe?
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: I didn't go back to that tower when the equipment
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: needed maintenance six months later. I made sure someone else
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: got assigned to the job. Dot, but here's what keeps
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: me up at night, Dot, last year. I was at
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: a company training in Denver. During lunch, I was sitting
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: in the cafeteria when I saw him walk past. The
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: same man from the tower. Same face, same build, same
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: flannel shirt, Dot. But he was wearing a company uniform.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: He had a badge. I followed him and watched as
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: he sat down with a group of other technicians. They
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: were laughing at something, completely normal, and he was laughing too.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: But there was something off about his laugh. It was
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: too practiced, too perfect. Like he'd studied how to laugh
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: and was performing it. I looked at his badge as
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: I walked past his table. Dot had said, James Whitmore,
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Dot my name. Dot that thing from the tower had
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: somehow gotten my identity. It was living my life, working
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: my job, being me. I quit the next day, changed
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: my name legally, moved to a different state, got a
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: new job doing office work, dot. But sometimes I still
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: see him on social media, photos from company events, my
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: old colleagues posting pictures with James Whitmore, the guy who's
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: apparently much funnier and more popular than I ever was.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: I wonder if anyone notices that he never blinks quite right.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: that his movements are just slightly too precise to calculate
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: a dot, or if they just think he's gotten better
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: at his job, more confident, more social. I wonder how
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: many other people out there have had their lives stolen
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: by things that learn to wear their faces, dot, and
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: I wonder what happens to those things when they don't
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: need the press anymore. Dot, we quote, three more stories
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: to go. Before we continue, I want to thank everyone
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: who's subscribed so far. We're getting close to that 1,000
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: subscriber goal. but I need your help to push it
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: over the finish line before my birthday next month. If
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: you haven't subscribed yet, now's the time. Hit that button,
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: drop a like, and leave a comment telling me which
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: story has been the scariest. Sofar.letquote s finish this. Story 8.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: I'm a paramedic in rural Oregon. Been doing it for
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: about 11 years now. Most of the job is pretty routine.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Car accidents, heart attacks, the occasional hiking injury. Nothing you
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: don't expect working in a small town surrounded by wilderness.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: But in August of 2021, we got a call that
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: I still can't fully explain. It was about 2 a.m.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: on a Wednesday. Dispatch radioed that there was a hiker
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: in distress near Cascade Head, reporting that her hiking partner
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: was injured and needed immediate assistance. My partner that night
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: was a guy named Derek, good medic, been doing it
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: longer than me. We loaded up the ambulance and drove
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: out to the trailhead where the caller said she'd be waiting.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: When we arrived, there was a woman standing by a
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: parked car, waving us down. She was in her 30s,
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: wearing hiking gear, and she looked genuinely panicked. Thank God
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: you're here, she said as we climbed out. My friend
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: twisted her ankle really bad about a mile up the trail.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: She can't walk. Standard call. Derek grabbed the medical kit
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: and I got the backboard, and we followed the woman
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: up the trail with our flashlights. She led us through
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: the forest, walking quickly despite the darkness and rough terrain.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: She kept looking back to make sure we were following,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: but She didn't say much. About 20 minutes in, we
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: reached a small clearing, and there was another woman sitting
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: on a log, holding her ankle. Finally, she said when
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: she saw us. I've been waiting forever. Something immediately struck
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: me as odd. The woman on the log looked exactly
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: like the woman who'd led us there. Same face, same build,
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: same hiking outfit. I glanced at Derek. He'd noticed it, too.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: Are you two sisters? I asked. trying to keep my
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: voice casual. The woman who had led us there laughed. No,
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: we just met on the trail this morning. I looked
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: between them. They were identical. Same facial features, same hair
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: color and length, same everything. You look exactly alike, Derek said.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: Both women looked at each other, then back at us, confused.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: We do? The one on the log asked. We don't
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: look anything alike, the other one said. I pulled out
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: my phone and turned on the flashlight function, shining it
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: on both of their faces. They were absolutely identical, down
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: to the mole on their left cheek and the scar
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: above their right eyebrow. But they genuinely seemed confused by
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: our observation. Derek and I exchanged looks. Something was very
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: wrong here. Okay, Derek said slowly. Let's take a look
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: at that ankle. He knelt down next to the injured
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: woman and started examining her foot. I stayed standing. keeping
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: both women in view. The injured woman winced as Derek
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: probed her ankle. How bad is it? Doesn't look like
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: a break, Derek said. Probably just a bad sprain. We'll
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: wrap it and get you down to the ambulance. While
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: Derek worked, I kept watching the other woman, the one
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: who'd led us there. She was standing a few feet away,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: staring at me with this blank expression. How long were
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: you hiking today, I asked, trying to make conversation. All day,
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: she said. since sunrise. That's a long hike. You must
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: be tired. Yes, she said, but her tone was flat, emotionless.
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: Very tired. Derek finished wrapping the ankle and helped the
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: injured woman to her feet. She tested her weight and nodded. Okay,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: let's head back, Derek said. We started walking, the injured
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: woman between us, limping but mobile. The other woman walked ahead,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: leading the way again. About halfway back to the trailhead,
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: Derek leaned close and whispered, those two are identical. That's
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: not normal. I know, I whispered back. That's when the
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: woman in front stopped walking. She turned around to face us,
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: and in the beam of our flashlights, I saw her
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: face change. Not dramatically, not like melting wax or anything
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: from a horror movie. It was subtle. Her features just
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: shifted slightly, rearranging themselves into a different configuration. Within seconds,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: she looked different, Still a woman in her 30s, but
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: not identical to the injured one anymore. She now looked
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: completely ordinary, forgettable even. Derek and I both stopped dead
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: in our tracks. What's wrong? The injured woman asked. I
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: couldn't answer. I was staring at the woman ahead of us,
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: who smiled and said, We should keep moving. But her
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: voice was different now too. Higher pitched, with a slight
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: accent that hadn't been there before. We continued down the
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: trail in silence. My mind was racing, trying to make
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: sense of what I'd just seen. Had I imagined it?
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: Was it just a trick of the flashlight? When we
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: finally got back to the ambulance, we loaded the injured
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: woman into the back. I went to help the other woman,
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: to thank her for leading us to her friend, but
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: she was gone. I looked around the parking area. Her
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: car was still there, but she was nowhere to be seen.'
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: Where' d she go?' Derek asked. We searched the immediate area,
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: calling out, but there was no response. It was like
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: she'd simply vanished. We didn't have much choice but to
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: transport our patient. On the drive to the hospital, I
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: asked the injured woman about her hiking partner. What partner,
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: she asked, confused. The woman who called us, who led
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: us to you. I called you, she said, on my
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: cell phone. I hiked alone today. There was no one
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: with me. I pulled out my phone and checked the
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: dispatch log. Sure enough, the call had come from the
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: injured woman's phone number, not from anyone else. But, Derek started,
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: then stopped. We both knew what we'd seen. There had
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: definitely been another woman. We dropped off our patient at
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: the hospital and drove back to the station in silence.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: Neither of us knew what to say, how to explain
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: what had happened. The next morning, I called dispatch and
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: asked them to pull the recording of the initial call.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: I needed to hear it again, to confirm that there
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: had been two people mentioned. The recording was clear, a
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: woman's voice. the injured woman's voice, saying, I'm injured and
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: need help. Twisted ankle, I'm alone. No mention of anyone else,
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: no hiking partner. But Derek and I both saw her.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: Both followed her up that trail. Both watched her face change.
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: A week later, I ran into the injured woman at
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: a grocery store. I asked her how her ankle was healing,
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: and she thanked me for the help. Then I asked,
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: as casually as I could, Did you ever figure out
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: what happened to that woman who was with you? She
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: looked at me like I was crazy. I told you
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: I was alone that day. There was no other woman.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: I didn't push it. Just thanked her and left. But
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: I know what I saw. Derek knows what we saw.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: Something led us to that injured woman. Something that could
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: make itself look like anyone. That could appear and disappear
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: at will. And the question that haunts me is, why?
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: What did it want? Why help us find the injured hiker?
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: Or was that the point? To help, to do something good,
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: to blend in and seem normal? I don't know. And
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: that scares me more than anything. Because if these things
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: can be helpful, if they can save lives and do
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: good deeds, how are we supposed to know when we're
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: dealing with one? How do we know who's real and
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: who's just wearing a real person's face? Story nine. I
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: used to be a delivery driver for UPS. working the
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: rural routes in upstate New York. Most drivers hate those routes.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: Lots of driving for not many packages. But I liked them. Peaceful.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: Gave me time to think, listen to podcasts, enjoy the scenery.
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: In December of 2015, right before the holiday rush, I
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: was assigned a cover for another driver who'd called in sick.
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: His route included some seriously remote areas in the Adirondacks,
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: places where the houses were miles apart and the roads
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: weren't always properly maintained. One of the stops was for
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: a package going to an address way out past Lake Placid,
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: almost to the Canadian border. The GPS had a hard
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: time even finding it, and I had to stop twice
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: to check my paper map. When I finally found the driveway,
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: it was more like a tunnel through the trees, narrow, overgrown,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: and about half a mile long. I almost turned around,
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: thinking I'd gotten it wrong, but the address on the
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: mailbox matched. I drove down the driveway and came out
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: into a clearing with an old farmhouse. The place looked abandoned,
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: peeling paint, broken shutters, porch sagging. But there were fresh
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: tire tracks in the snow, so someone was living there.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: I grabbed the package and walked up to the front door.
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: Before I could knock, the door opened. A man stood there,
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: maybe 60 years old, thin and haggard looking. He had
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: these intense eyes that locked onto me immediately. Package for Richardson?
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: I asked. He nodded and took it from me, but
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: he didn't step back or close the door. He just
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: stood there, staring at me.' Have a good day,' I said,
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: turning to leave.' Wait,' he said. His voice was rough,
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: like he hadn't used it in a while.' You see
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: anyone else on your way in?' I stopped.' No, sir,
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: just me.'' You sure? No one on the road? No
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: one in the trees?'' I' m sure. Is everything okay?' He
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: looked past me, scanning the clearing and the tree line.
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: Then he looked back at me, and his expression was
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: dead serious. You need to leave. Now. And don't come
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: back here. Ever. Sir? I'm serious. Don't come back. Tell
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: your company to stop delivering here. I don't care about
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: the packages. Just don't come back. He slammed the door
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: before I could respond. I stood there for a moment, confused,
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: then walked back to my truck. As I was climbing in,
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: I noticed something that made me pause. There were footprints
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: in the snow around my truck, not mine. I'd walk
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: straight from my truck to the porch and back. These
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: prints circled my vehicle, coming from the trees and returning
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: to the trees. And they were strange. They started as
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: human footprints, normal boot prints. But as they circled the truck,
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: they changed. The prints became longer, narrower. The tread pattern vanished.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: By the time they headed back into the trees, they
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: didn't look like human prints at all. They looked like
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: animal prints. Large animal prints. I got in my truck
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: and locked the door, heart pounding. I looked toward the treeline.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: where the prints led, but I couldn't see anything in
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: the shadows between the trees. I started the engine and
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: headed back down the driveway. In my rear view mirror,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: I saw something that made me floor the accelerator. Something
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: was following me. It was running through the trees parallel
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: to the driveway, keeping pace with my truck even though
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: I was doing 40 miles an hour on that rough road.
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: I couldn't see it clearly, just glimpses of movement, something
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: large and dark weaving between the trunks. Then it burst
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: out of the tree line ahead of me, crossing the
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: driveway in one leap. I got a clear look at
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: it for maybe two seconds. It was roughly human-shaped, running
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: on two legs, but everything about it was wrong. Too tall,
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: maybe eight or nine feet. Arms too long, hanging past
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: its knees. Its head was the worst part. It looked
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: like a skull covered in skin with no hair, no
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: features except two glowing eyes and a mouth full of teeth.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: Then it was gone, disappearing into the trees on the
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: other side of the driveway. I didn't slow down until
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: I hit the main road. When I checked my mirrors,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: there was nothing behind me. I reported the incident to
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: my supervisor, told him there was an aggressive animal on
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: that property, and I wasn't comfortable delivering there again. He
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: didn't argue, just reassigned the address to a different route.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: Three months later, I saw a news article online. The
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: old farmhouse had burned down. The owner, a man named Richardson,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: had died in the fire. The article said his body
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: was found in the basement, along with the remains of
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: several other people. Forensics determined that they'd been dead for years,
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: buried in the dirt floor. Turned out Richardson was wanted
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: in connection with multiple missing persons cases going back to
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: the 1980s. He'd been living out there for decades, far
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: from civilization, doing God knows what. But here's the part
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: that the article didn't mention. the part I only learned
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: later from talking to a state trooper who worked the case.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: When they found Richardson's body, it wasn't burned. The fire
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: hadn't touched the basement. His cause of death was massive trauma.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: His body had been torn apart, limbs separated from torso,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: bones shattered. The forensics team said it looked like he'd
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: been attacked by a large predator. But they never found
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: what killed him. No animal tracks, no signs of forced entry.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: Whatever it was, it got in, killed him, and left
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: without a trace. I think about that thing I saw
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: crossing the driveway, about those strange footprints that started human
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: and became something else. And I wonder if maybe, just maybe,
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: there are things in those woods that hunt people like Richardson,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: things that know when someone's done evil and come to
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: deliver justice in their own terrible way. Or maybe I'm
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: giving it too much credit. Maybe it was just hungry,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: and Richardson happened to be convenient prey. Either way, I'm
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: glad I listened to him when he told me never
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: to come back. Last one. This is the story that
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: made me start this channel in the first place. The
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: one I had to share because keeping it to myself
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: was driving me crazy. If you've made it this far,
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: thank you. You're part of something special here and I
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: need you to help it grow. Subscribe if you haven't already.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: We're so close to 1,000 subscribers and I'm counting on
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: you to help me hit that goal before my birthday.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: Leave a like, share this with someone who loves horror stories,
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: And drop a comment telling me what you think is
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: really going on in these accounts. Alright, here's the final story.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: Story 10. My name is Sarah Vega and I'm a
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: forest ranger. Or I was. Until six months ago when
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: I quit my job and moved to Phoenix. As far
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: from the woods as I could get without leaving the country.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: I worked in Olympic National Forest in Washington State for
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: seven years. Beautiful area. Massive old growth trees. Incredible wildlife.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: Most of the time, the job was peaceful, monitoring trails,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: helping lost hikers, that sort of thing. But in June
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: of 2022, something happened that made me realize the forest
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: I thought I knew was hiding something I couldn't explain.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: It started with missing person reports. Three hikers, all solo backpackers,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: all disappeared within a two-week period in the same general area.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: No bodies found, no evidence of foul play, just gone.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: Search and rescue teams scoured the area. Dogs, helicopters, thermal imaging. Nothing.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: Then the reports started coming in. Multiple hikers claimed they'd
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: seen the missing people. Saw them on the trails, walking around.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: Perfectly fine. But when approached, these lookalikes would either run
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: away or just vanish into the trees. We thought it
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: was just rumors. People seeing what they wanted to see.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: Happens sometimes with missing persons cases. People's minds play tricks
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: on them. But then I saw one. I was doing
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: a routine patrol near Enchanted Valley when I spotted a
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: man sitting on a log near the trail. I recognized
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: him immediately. Thomas Chen, one of the missing hikers. I'd
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: seen his photo dozens of times. I approached carefully, not
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: wanting to spook him. Thomas? Thomas Chen? He looked up
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: at me and smiled. Hello? Thomas, everyone's been looking for you.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: Are you okay? Are you hurt? He just kept smiling.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: Didn't answer my questions. I reached for my radio to
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: call it in, and that's when I noticed his eyes.
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: They were completely black. Not just the pupils, the entire eye,
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: white and all, was solid black. You're not Thomas Chin,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: I said, backing away. Yes, I am, it said in
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: his voice. I'm Thomas Chin. I'm lost. I need help.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: But there was no emotion in his voice. It was
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: just reciting facts, like reading from a script. I called
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: for backup and tried to keep the thing talking, but
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: it just repeated the same phrases over and over. I'm
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: Thomas Chen. I'm lost. I need help. When my backup
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: arrived ten minutes later, the thing was gone. Just vanished.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: We searched the area but found nothing. Over the next week,
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: there were six more sightings. Different hikers, all missing persons
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: from the past year, all exhibiting the same strange behavior.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: Black eyes, emotionless voices, disappearing when approached. Then we found
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: the cave. It was during an expanded search, about eight
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: miles from where the first hiker had gone missing. One
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: of the search dogs went crazy, barking and pulling toward
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: a rock face that looked solid. But when we investigated,
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: we found a narrow opening hidden behind some brush. A
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: cave entrance. I volunteered to go in with two other rangers.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: We had full climbing gear, lights, radios. We were prepared.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: The cave opened into a larger chamber about 50 feet in.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: And that's where we found them. The missing hikers. All
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: 12 of them, from the past three years. They were alive,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: but changed. They were sitting in a circle, completely naked,
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: staring at nothing. Their skin was gray, almost translucent. And
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: they had those black eyes, no pupils, no whites, just
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: solid black. We tried to talk to them, to get
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: them to respond, but they just sat there, like they
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: were in some kind of trance. Then one of them
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: stood up, a woman named Jennifer Park. who'd disappeared eight
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: months earlier. She looked at us with those black eyes
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: and smiled. We've been waiting, she said. Waiting for what,
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: I asked. For more faces. The others started standing up,
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: all of them smiling now. We need faces, Jennifer said.
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: We need to remember what we were. That's when I
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: realized they weren't the missing hikers anymore. Something had taken
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: them over, was using them, wearing them like suits. What
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: are you, I asked. We don't remember, Jennifer said, and
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: for the first time, there was something like sadness in
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: her voice. We forgot. We've been here too long. We
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: forgot what we are, we forgot our faces, so we
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: take yours. The other ranger with me, a guy named Mike,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: he started backing toward the cave entrance. We should go,
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: he said. We should leave now. But the things wearing
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: the hikers' bodies moved to block the exit. They weren't aggressive,
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: just blocking us. We don't want to hurt you, Jennifer said.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: We just want to remember. Please help us remember. One
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: of them, wearing the body of Thomas Chen, reached out
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: toward me. Can I have your face? it asked, almost pleading.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: Just for a little while, so I can remember what
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: it's like? I pulled my service weapon. Stay back, all
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: of you, stay back. They stopped moving, but they didn't
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: back away. We're not bad, Jennifer said. We don't want
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: to hurt anyone. We just want to be people again.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: You can't have our faces, I said, trying to keep
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: my voice steady. We're leaving, and we're coming back with help.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: If you bring others, we'll run, she said. We'll take
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: these faces and run, and you'll never find us. And
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: we'll keep taking faces because we can't remember without them.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: Mike made a break for it. He pushed past the
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: wall of bodies and ran for the entrance. But things
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: didn't try to stop him. I backed toward the exit,
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: guns still raised. The things just watched me go, those
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: black eyes tracking my movement. We're sorry, Jennifer said as
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: I reached the entrance. We don't want to scare you.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: We just want to remember. I ran. We reported everything,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: but when the team went back the next day, the
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: cave was empty. No missing hikers, no strange creatures, just
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: an empty chamber with signs that people had been living there.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: Makeshift beds, food wrappers, that sort of thing. But the
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: missing hikers, they're still missing. All 12 of them. Except
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: now people keep seeing them. All over the Pacific Northwest,
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: there are reports of the missing hikers being spotted. Walking
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: through towns, sitting in restaurants, living normal lives. But they're
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: not the real people. They can't be, because I've seen
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: the photos that people have taken. When you look closely
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: at their eyes, you can see it. The blacks are
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: too black, too uniform. They're not quite right. Those things
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: are out there, wearing the faces of the missing hikers,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: trying to remember what it's like to be human. And
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: I wonder how many other missing persons cases are really
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: just those things, taking faces and learning to be us.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: I quit my job because I couldn't stand being in
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: those woods anymore, knowing what was hiding in them. Knowing
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: that every hiker I met could be one of those things,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: wearing a stolen face, trying to remember how to be human.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I look in the mirror and wonder if I'm
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: really me. If maybe one of those things took my
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: face when I wasn't paying attention, and I'm just a copy,
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: Living out Sarah Vega's life, thinking I'm real. How would
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: I know? How would any of us know if we
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: weren't real anymore, if something had taken our place? That's
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: what keeps me awake at night, the not knowing. I
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: left the Forest Service six months ago, moved to Phoenix,
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: got a job doing data entry for an insurance company.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: About as far from the wilderness as you can get
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: while still being outdoors occasionally, but I still see them sometimes.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: Last month, I was getting coffee at a Starbucks downtown
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: when I saw Jennifer Park in line ahead of me.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: Same face, same build, wearing business casual and checking her
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: phone like any normal person. I froze, couldn't move, couldn't breathe.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: She ordered a latte, paid with her card, thanked the barista.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: Completely normal interaction. Then, as she was leaving, she walked
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: right past me. Our eyes met for just a second,
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: and I saw it. that flash of solid black, where
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: her pupils should have been. Just for an instant, then
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: back to normal. She smiled at me. Not the blank
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: smile from the cave, but a real smile. Warm, genuine. Sarah,
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: she said. Sarah Vega. Oh my god, I thought that
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: was you. I couldn't speak. I heard you left the
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: Forest Service, she continued. Good for you. That job was
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: way too stressful. I'm so much happier now that I'm
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: that I'm out of there, too. She said it like
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: she'd also been a ranger, but Jennifer Park had never
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: worked for the Forest Service. She'd been a software engineer
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: from Seattle who'd gone missing on a solo backpacking trip.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: How did you... I started, but I couldn't finish the question.
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: She leaned in close, so close I could smell her perfume,
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: something floral and expensive that the real Jennifer Park probably
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: never wore. I remembered, she whispered. I finally remembered how
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: to be human, Thank you for not shooting me that day.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: Thank you for letting us learn. Then she walked away,
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: got into a Tesla, parked outside, and drove off. I
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: checked social media that night. Jennifer Park has an active
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: Instagram account. She posts regularly. Photos of brunches, workout selfies,
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: pictures with friends I'm certain she never had before she disappeared.
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: She works as a project manager for a tech company
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: in Phoenix. She has a boyfriend. A whole life. The
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: comments on her posts are normal. Her friends and family
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: interact with her like nothing ever happened, like she never
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: went missing at all. But I know the truth. That's
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: not Jennifer Park. It's something wearing Jennifer Park's face, living
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: Jennifer Park's life, doing such a perfect job of being
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: her that even her own mother can't tell the difference.
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: And the worst part? Maybe that's okay. Maybe those things
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: in the cave really did just want to be human.
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: Maybe they're not hurting anyone, just living quiet lives. being
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: the people they copied. Or maybe they're just getting better
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: at hiding what they really are. I don't know which
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: option scares me more. So there you have it. Ten
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: stories from people who encountered things that shouldn't exist. Things
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: that steal faces, copy voices, wear our shapes like costumes.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: Are they all connected? Are these the same creatures or
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: different ones? Are they supernatural, extraterrestrial, cryptids, or something else entirely?
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: I don't have those answers. All I know is that
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: every single person who shared their story with me was
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: absolutely convinced that what they experienced was real. And after
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: compiling all of these accounts, after seeing the patterns emerge,
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: the black eyes, the mimicry, the wrongness of movement, the
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: inability to perfectly replicate humanity, I believe them. I think
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: there's something out there in the wild places. Something that's
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: been there longer than we have, watching us, learning us,
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: occasionally trying to become us. Most of the time, they
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: stay hidden. But sometimes when someone wanders too far from civilization,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: goes too deep into the woods, stays too long in
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: places humans weren't meant to be, sometimes they make contact,
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: and sometimes they take what they need. Before you go,
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: I need to ask you one more time. If you
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: found value in these stories, if they've made you think
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: or given you chills or kept you up at night,
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: please subscribe to this channel. We're so close to 1,000
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: subscribers and I need your support to keep bringing you
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: content like this. Hit that subscribe button, smash the like,
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: and most importantly, leave a comment. Tell me, which story
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: affected you the most? Do you think these creatures are
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: malevolent or just trying to survive? Have you ever experienced
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: something similar? What would you do if you encountered one
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: of these things? Your engagement is what keeps this channel alive.
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: Every comment, every share, every subscription tells me that these
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: stories matter. that they're reaching people who need to hear them.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: And if you have a story of your own, something
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: you encountered in the wilderness, something that didn't make sense,
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: something that still haunts you, send it to me. You
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: can find my contact information in the video description. Your
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: story could be featured in the next episode. Remember, the
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: woods are full of mysteries. Most of them are beautiful.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: Some of them are terrifying. And a few of them
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: are watching you right now, learning how to wear your face.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: Stay safe out there. This has been Park Ranger Files.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, and I'll see you in the next one.