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5 Creepy Christmas Horror Stories That Will Ruin Your Holiday Spirit · True Horror Stories

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Speaker 1: Being an attic during the holidays can be a surreal experience,
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Speaker 1: and that's putting it lightly. My first Christmas as a
0:07
Speaker 1: junkie was actually pretty awesome, if you can believe it.
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Speaker 2: I was still a.
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Speaker 1: Week end warrior back then, limiting my doses to stave
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Speaker 1: off physical addiction, and whenever I felt myself getting a
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Speaker 1: little too into it, I'd weaned myself off with seboxen
0:22
Speaker 1: and then start all over again. But then as time
0:25
Speaker 1: went by, the small amount I used to do wasn't enough,
0:28
Speaker 1: so just a little got to be more and more.
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Speaker 1: Slowly but surely, it took over my hobbies, work, then
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Speaker 1: eventually family, until the only important thing in the world
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Speaker 1: was making sure that I had enough not to get
0:42
Speaker 1: dope sick. I managed to say functioning for about a year,
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Speaker 1: and by that I mean I managed to hold down
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Speaker 1: a job, keep up with relationships, and otherwise refrained from
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Speaker 1: being a total screw up. But after a bad break
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Speaker 1: up with the one girl that was holding me together,
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Speaker 1: I gave up on any kind of dream or aspiration
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Speaker 1: I had and sett on on taking h for the
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Speaker 1: rest of my life instead.
1:06
Speaker 2: I guess that sounds like a.
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Speaker 1: Pretty crappy decision when I lay it out like that,
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Speaker 1: But that's essentially what I did. I told myself it
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Speaker 1: was all just temporary, that my so called hero's journey
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Speaker 1: would end in me kicking h after a few months
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Speaker 1: on my butt, and that it would all end up
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Speaker 1: being a crazy story that I told my drinking buddies
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Speaker 1: one day. Well, a few months turned into six years
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Speaker 1: of lost time. And like I said, the first few
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Speaker 1: holiday seasons weren't so bad. But once I stopped talking
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Speaker 1: to my parents and moved up to Portland, that's when
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Speaker 1: things started getting rough.
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Speaker 2: For a start.
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Speaker 1: A junkie in the Pacific Northwest, the year is split
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Speaker 1: into two halves, as the old Ella Fitzgerald's song goes,
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Speaker 1: Summer time and the livin' is easy, And that's for
1:51
Speaker 1: all the obvious reasons. You can imagine nice weather good
1:55
Speaker 1: dope after the dry season harvests down in Mexico and
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Speaker 1: everyone's relatively chilled out, But then in winter all you
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Speaker 1: got is dope from the wet season harvest, which is
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Speaker 1: weak crap that barely gets you high. Then, on top
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Speaker 1: of that, when it gets real icy or the snow
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Speaker 1: is too thick, getting your hands on enough dope to
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Speaker 1: see you through. The day gets tougher and tougher. Then eventually,
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Speaker 1: around Christmas, pretty much everyone who wasn't a degenerate junkie
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Speaker 1: takes a twenty four to forty eight hour break to
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Speaker 1: sing please Navidad, see their families neath their turkey or
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Speaker 1: whatever an experienced junkie knows to stalk up before them.
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Speaker 1: Meaning people were boosting and selling like crazy in an
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Speaker 1: anticipation of their dealers turning their cell phones off for
2:38
Speaker 1: the day. So on the run up to Christmas, I've
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Speaker 1: been squirreling away cash like crazy, and on the twenty third,
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Speaker 1: me and my girl managed to score fifteen grams of
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Speaker 1: crappy dope that'd be enough to see us through this
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Speaker 1: next week or so without having to go out into
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Speaker 1: the ice and snow to score more. We scored in
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Speaker 1: the early afternoon, went back to my apartment, did enough
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Speaker 1: to stop get sick. Then I went off to work
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Speaker 1: for a few hours. My girl had a job working
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Speaker 1: as a waitress and started her shift like an hour
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Speaker 1: or two after I did, so it was normal that
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Speaker 1: I'd come home to an empty apartment, so I finished
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Speaker 1: my shift. One of the guys from work gives me
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Speaker 1: a ride back home, and I got these tingles of exhilaration,
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Speaker 1: knowing I'm about to spend an hour or two in
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Speaker 1: a warm bath with a few bumps of age to
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Speaker 1: keep me company. I walk into my apartment, flop down
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Speaker 1: onto the couch, then reached under it to pull out
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Speaker 1: the little wooden box that we'd kept our dope in,
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Speaker 1: and I sat it down on the coffee table, flipped
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Speaker 1: it open. But instead of the five little baggies that
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Speaker 1: should have been staring at me, there was nothing. At
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Speaker 1: the time, I figured there had to be some kind
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Speaker 1: of mistake. I had all these wishful thoughts, like maybe
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Speaker 1: my girl had stashed the dope elsewhere after she saw
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Speaker 1: the cops hanging around our apartment building or something. Or
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Speaker 1: maybe she'd poured all the dope into one of the
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Speaker 1: bigger baggies that we had. You'd honestly be amazed at
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Speaker 1: how much people will pay for baggies when they really
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Speaker 1: really need them. So maybe she'd sold or swapped the
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Speaker 1: smaller ones than just forgotten to put the dope back
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Speaker 1: in the box. It sounds really pathetic looking back on it,
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Speaker 1: but it took me a really depressing long amount of
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Speaker 1: time to realize that there wasn't some innocent explanation for
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Speaker 1: three hundred bucks worth of dope going missing. My girl
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Speaker 1: wasn't my girl any more, and on her way out,
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Speaker 1: she'd stolen almost everything of value that she could carry. Again,
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Speaker 1: sounds pretty pathetic, but I think that was one of
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Speaker 1: the single worst moments of my life right there. My
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Speaker 1: immediate reaction was well bad, But with addiction comes a
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Speaker 1: certain pragmatism. Every moment I wasted freaking out that the
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Speaker 1: love of my life had betrayed me for a few
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Speaker 1: banks of dope was one that I wasn't spending trying
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Speaker 1: to recoup my losses. So I got to work. I
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Speaker 1: walked for miles, literally miles, making almost constant fuat phone
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Speaker 1: calls to a bunch of different people. Now, don't get
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Speaker 1: it twisted. I was still trying to call my girl,
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Speaker 1: but she continued ducking my calls, and in the end,
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Speaker 1: it didn't make sense to jam up my line with
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Speaker 1: calls to her voicemail, even if it did mean that
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Speaker 1: I could leave her some threatening voicemails. I'm not proud
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Speaker 1: of it, but it is what it is. Anyway. I
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Speaker 1: call around every dealer I know and every one is
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Speaker 1: either out of stuff or is finishing up for the
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Speaker 1: night and not answering their phones. A lot of options.
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Speaker 1: I started calling around every one I know that uses
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Speaker 1: and I'll even get my hands on there's enough dope
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Speaker 1: to last me the night. I walk over to the place,
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Speaker 1: get the stuff, and walk all the way back to
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Speaker 1: my apartment. I'm still trying to get a hook up
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Speaker 1: the whole way. When I get back, I wait until
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Speaker 1: I'm feeling gross. Then I fix go to bed, and
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Speaker 1: wake up bright and early the next day to start
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Speaker 1: all over again. The next day, pretty much the same
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Speaker 1: thing happened, only without the goddamn disaster at the start
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Speaker 1: of it. I walked all over town, almost constantly on
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Speaker 1: the phone, but all I could find was enough to
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Speaker 1: fix me for that night, and that night alone.
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Speaker 2: Everywhere I went.
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Speaker 1: I was asking if anyone had seen my girl, and
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Speaker 1: when everyone said no, every single time, I had this
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Speaker 1: overwhelming sensation that they were lying to me. I guess
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Speaker 1: it was partly paranoia, but partly based in fact too,
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Speaker 1: because she couldn't have just disappeared on her own like that.
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Speaker 1: Someone knew where she was and who she'd run off with.
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Speaker 1: But even if they knew they'd never tell me. No
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Speaker 1: one wanted to have the blood on their hands, and
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Speaker 1: given the headspace that I was in at the time,
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Speaker 1: I honestly couldn't tell you what I'd have done if
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Speaker 1: I'd gotten my hands on my thieving ex girlfriend. Anyway,
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Speaker 1: Like I said, I did a lot of walking and
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Speaker 1: only managed to get a hold of about half a gram.
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Speaker 1: So despite having enough to keep me from going into
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Speaker 1: withdrawals on Christmas Eve, I knew Christmas Day was going
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Speaker 1: to be rough as all hell, but still the poetry
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Speaker 1: of it wasn't lost on me. Cold Turkey on Christmas
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Speaker 1: Day no better day for it, right. The weird thing, though,
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Speaker 1: is when you're on heroin or any kind of powerful opiate,
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Speaker 1: it kind of makes you chemically incapable of caring. Every
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Speaker 1: wonder why street junkies seem to have zero shame when
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Speaker 1: it comes to begging or shoplifting. We just don't care,
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Speaker 1: at least after those first few times. If you're deep
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Speaker 1: enough into it, it becomes just another thing. So I
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Speaker 1: knew I was screwed, but it wasn't going to hit
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Speaker 1: me until I started to get sick, And when it did,
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Speaker 1: it hit me all at once. Around eight thirty on
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Speaker 1: Christmas morning, I started calling everyone I knew who used Again,
7:38
Speaker 1: this was the third day in a row, so people
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Speaker 1: were only naturally starting to get sick of hearing from me.
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Speaker 1: Everyone was either out or didn't have a single hit
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Speaker 1: to spare me, and the more desperate I got, the
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Speaker 1: more I turned to sketchier and sketchier sources. These were
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Speaker 1: people who, for one reason or another, I'd learned not
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Speaker 1: to associate or do business with, and the case of
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Speaker 1: one of them, I literally had him saved in my contact,
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Speaker 1: says Sketchy Kevin. I worked my way through Sketchy Kevin,
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Speaker 1: another guy i'd call Pissy Pete, and then finally a
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Speaker 1: guy named Rattail name so because he wore his hairn
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Speaker 1: or rattail like ten years ago after I got lame
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Speaker 1: to do so. He also partly earned the nickname due
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Speaker 1: to being a complete and utter scum bag. But by
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Speaker 1: noon on Christmas Day, I was relying on that scum
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Speaker 1: bag to score me some dope. Rattail said that he'd
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Speaker 1: see what he could do and would call me back
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Speaker 1: if anything came up. About an hour later, he did,
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Speaker 1: but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear. Rattail
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Speaker 1: said that there was a dude named George who would
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Speaker 1: just straight up give me a couple of grams, but
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Speaker 1: he just needed a favor right away. I thought that
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Speaker 1: that was weird, because who the hell just gives away dope?
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Speaker 1: But Rattail said that he wasn't a junkie and he
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Speaker 1: needed someone who didn't mind getting their hands dirty. I
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Speaker 1: didn't like the sound of that, nor did I have
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Speaker 1: any idea what Rattail meant, but I was also in
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Speaker 1: no position to turn the offer down, so off I went.
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Speaker 1: After getting hold of George's address. The last place I
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Speaker 1: expected ended up that day was a nice looking three
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Speaker 1: story right on the edge of where the city meets
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Speaker 1: the suburbs. It was way too nice of a place
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Speaker 1: to have any heroin inside, but then again, appearances can
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Speaker 1: be deceptive. I walked up the driveway, knocked on the door,
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Speaker 1: and some totally normal looking, well to do, dentist looking
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Speaker 1: dude welcomes me inside like some late dinner guest that
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Speaker 1: he'd been expecting. It was to the point where, despite
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Speaker 1: this dude expecting me, I sort of didn't believe that
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Speaker 1: he had the dope to just give away, and I
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Speaker 1: started thinking that he was like a cop or something.
9:46
Speaker 1: I don't know how that had worked out, but I
9:48
Speaker 1: honestly couldn't mentally handle the setup. So I just started
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Speaker 1: asking questions, where's this dude's family, did he actually have
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Speaker 1: the dope? Could I see it? And could I fix
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Speaker 1: before I did whatever he wanted to me to do.
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Speaker 1: The guy had no problem showing me the dope, and
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Speaker 1: he had no problem if I used a little if
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Speaker 1: it helped me get the job done. I was so
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Speaker 1: desperate by then that whatever it was didn't matter. All
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Speaker 1: that mattered was the dope. I took the baggy he
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Speaker 1: gave me, went up to the bathroom and did my thing.
10:19
Speaker 1: All I did was smoke and snort. Never got into needles.
10:23
Speaker 1: Always hated him, so it was a relatively quick process
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Speaker 1: of snorting some and then seeing what the deal was
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Speaker 1: with the task that he wanted. And during that, George
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Speaker 1: leads me on to the third floor of the house
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Speaker 1: and into what he said was the guest's bedroom, and
10:38
Speaker 1: there lying on the bed was the body. The kid
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Speaker 1: looked to be about high school age, and he was
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Speaker 1: just laying on their back, wide eyed. With all this
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Speaker 1: dried puke around his mouth. I'll never forget what George
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Speaker 1: said to me when I gave him this look of horror.
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Speaker 1: He was eighteen, I swear the poor kid's age was
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Speaker 1: the very last thing on my mind in that moment.
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Speaker 1: I had a ton of other questions, and George seemed
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Speaker 1: more than happy to fill me in without me asking.
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Speaker 1: I don't know what happened. One minute we were you know,
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Speaker 1: then the next he and that was all he said. Well,
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Speaker 1: aside from the very last thing, which was I need
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Speaker 1: him gone, I'd rather not go into what happened next.
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Speaker 1: I'm not proud of it, and to be perfectly honest,
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Speaker 1: it's extremely incriminating. I don't imagine George was really George,
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Speaker 1: and I don't know how in the hell he knew
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Speaker 1: a guy like Rattail. But the only thing that keeps
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Speaker 1: my conscience clean is thinking that at least he didn't
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Speaker 1: kill him. If it was just a tragic accident that happened,
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Speaker 1: I don't know somehow, then all I did was help
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Speaker 1: clean it up. At least That's what I told myself
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Speaker 1: at the time. And now I'm not so capable of
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Speaker 1: lying to myself that easily. I don't know if the
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Speaker 1: poor kid was ever found, but if he was, it
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Speaker 1: was never back to me. Maybe that George character, but
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Speaker 1: never directly to me. And so that's the story of
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Speaker 1: the worst Christmas I ever had, where I hit a
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Speaker 1: dead body for some varnished old psycho just to get
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Speaker 1: enough heroin to see me through the holidays. Worst thing
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Speaker 1: is I didn't even quit for like another year, not truly,
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Speaker 1: that is, but that was definitely the event that made
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Speaker 1: me realize that I truly hit rock bottom. Getting clean
12:29
Speaker 1: was rough, too, especially rough. I wanted so badly to
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Speaker 1: put things right. But not only was I so high
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Speaker 1: at the time that I'm not sure I could remember
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Speaker 1: exactly where I put all the pieces, but I was
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Speaker 1: far too cowardly to face up to all the terrible
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Speaker 1: things I'd done during my years as a junkie. I
12:46
Speaker 1: guess this works as a sort of confession too, but
12:49
Speaker 1: I think it reads much better as a warning, and
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Speaker 1: not even specifically regarding heroin either. No matter what you
12:56
Speaker 1: do in life, don't ever sell your soul for anything.
13:00
Speaker 1: And by that I mean nothing is worth selling your
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Speaker 1: conscience or your innocence for, because they're not things that
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Speaker 1: you can never get back once they're gone. And my
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Speaker 1: second morning is that ghosts are very, very real. They're
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Speaker 1: not real in the sense that you might expect, but
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Speaker 1: if you do something terrible enough, does someone innocent enough,
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Speaker 1: you can bet your bottom dollar they'll haunt you for
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Speaker 1: the rest of your life, just like that poor naked
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Speaker 1: teenager with puke around his mouth still haunts me every
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Speaker 1: single Christmas.
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Speaker 2: I'm an elementary school teacher.
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Speaker 3: Win or break just started. I'm feeling super joyful. Before break,
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Speaker 3: some of the kids were talking about their presence and Sanna.
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Speaker 3: He got me thinking about when I stopped believing in Sanna,
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Speaker 3: which is the story that I'm going to share with
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Speaker 3: you all, because when it comes to finding out about
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Speaker 3: Santa Claus and that he isn't real, I had a
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Speaker 3: pretty uniquely terrifying experience. I loved Christmas, I mean I
14:09
Speaker 3: still do, but as a child, I absolutely could not
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Speaker 3: sleep on Christmas Eve. I tried to spy Sanna a
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Speaker 3: million times. I'd wait for my parents to go to
14:18
Speaker 3: bed try to sneak out. They'd catch me every single time,
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Speaker 3: except one year. I was in second grade, so probably
14:27
Speaker 3: like six or seven years old. I recall my best
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Speaker 3: friend at school, saying something like, pretend to be asleep,
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Speaker 3: then my parents will go to sleep faster, so sneaking
14:35
Speaker 3: out to meet Santa would be easier.
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Speaker 2: Perfect.
14:39
Speaker 3: So Christmas Eve shows up, I'm riddled with angst, and
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Speaker 3: I remember my friend's advice. Pretend to be asleep, and
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Speaker 3: that's what I did. Before Christmas story was even over,
14:51
Speaker 3: I started to act sleepy. I don't know how great
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Speaker 3: my acting skills were, but it was good enough to
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Speaker 3: where my dad said he should just take me up
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Speaker 3: to bed. I al and allowed myself to be carried
15:02
Speaker 3: when my dad left the room, I think I waited
15:04
Speaker 3: just a few moments before getting out of bed and
15:06
Speaker 3: sitting next to the door. I was listening for all
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Speaker 3: the key indicators that the house was sleeping. But I
15:12
Speaker 3: remember most is how long it took forever I actually
15:16
Speaker 3: dozed off, and when I woke up, the house noises
15:20
Speaker 3: had subsided. I figured my parents had been in their
15:23
Speaker 3: room for long enough. Decided now I'm gonna make my move.
15:27
Speaker 3: Opening my door was such grace. I slid out of
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Speaker 3: the doorway and started my way up to the living room,
15:33
Speaker 3: a combo of tiptoeing and sliding, until eventually I reached
15:37
Speaker 3: our couch. I dove into the couch, lifted the curtains,
15:41
Speaker 3: and then sat wrapped up in a blanket, peering out
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Speaker 3: the window for Santa. It was snowing, and I could
15:48
Speaker 3: have sworn that I heard sleigh bells, but I wasn't
15:51
Speaker 3: seeing anyone. I had a gut wrenching thought maybe he
15:55
Speaker 3: had already come. I squirmed out of the blanket and curtains,
15:59
Speaker 3: looked at the true in stockings and he hadn't arrived yet.
16:04
Speaker 3: As I maneuvered back under the curtains, I'm shocked. I
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Speaker 3: see the man himself, Santa. He's walking though, no sleigh
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Speaker 3: and no reindeer.
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Speaker 2: But I'm not picky. It's Santa. I realize he's going
16:18
Speaker 2: to pass right by my house.
16:20
Speaker 3: But he's looking all over the place at all the
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Speaker 3: houses and all the windows. What's he looking for? I
16:26
Speaker 3: think to myself. Then he stops in his tracks. He
16:30
Speaker 3: gives another look around at all the houses before his
16:33
Speaker 3: eyes land on me.
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Speaker 2: He sees me. I'm a static.
16:38
Speaker 3: I start waving excitedly, trying so hard not to squeal.
16:42
Speaker 3: He waves back and then looks around before he starts
16:45
Speaker 3: walking toward my window. As he approaches. I notice that
16:50
Speaker 3: he's got a bag with him, and I assume it's
16:52
Speaker 3: full of presents. He mouths or whispers the phrase do
16:57
Speaker 3: you want to come say hi to Santa? Sweetie? I
17:00
Speaker 3: shake my head yes. He points to the front door.
17:05
Speaker 3: I leave the window and walk over to the door,
17:08
Speaker 3: where there's another long window that reached the floor. I
17:11
Speaker 3: watch as Santa tries to open up the door, but
17:13
Speaker 3: it's locked. I reach for the lock, unlocking the door,
17:18
Speaker 3: and he tries again. From the other side of the door.
17:21
Speaker 3: I hear him say, okay, sweetie, you just got to
17:24
Speaker 3: unlock that other lock, the one on the door knob.
17:28
Speaker 3: So I try to do what he's telling me, but
17:30
Speaker 3: for some reason, I can't quite grip the lock. My
17:32
Speaker 3: little fingers keep slipping. Santa then tells me it's okay,
17:37
Speaker 3: just go to the back door. Brilliant. I scoot over
17:41
Speaker 3: to the back door and I wait for Santa. He
17:44
Speaker 3: rounds the corner and the light from the back deck
17:47
Speaker 3: turns on. Santa is fully illuminated, and I remember thinking, Wow,
17:53
Speaker 3: Santa is a lot younger than I thought. He was
17:56
Speaker 3: skinnier too. The lights seem to scare him. He almost
18:01
Speaker 3: ran away until he saw me standing there. Then he
18:04
Speaker 3: proceeded to hustle towards the door, was telling me and
18:07
Speaker 3: motioning me that I need to be quick. He said
18:10
Speaker 3: he had something special for me, but.
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Speaker 2: He had to then go.
18:15
Speaker 3: He leaned down and was reaching for something inside his back.
18:18
Speaker 3: I unlocked a sliding glass door. I pushed my hands
18:21
Speaker 3: against the glass and start to push the door by
18:23
Speaker 3: walking my body in the direction.
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Speaker 2: I needed to open it.
18:27
Speaker 3: I'll note that even today, this door is hard to
18:30
Speaker 3: open or close if it's at the wrong angle, but
18:33
Speaker 3: at six or seven, it's nearly impossible.
18:37
Speaker 2: Just as he turned around, I heard.
18:39
Speaker 3: The door start to give way, and as soon as
18:41
Speaker 3: it had, the home was filled with this awful sound
18:44
Speaker 3: of alarms. I took my hands away from the door
18:47
Speaker 3: and plugged my ears, and I looked at Sanna. He
18:50
Speaker 3: now looked panicked. I noticed he was now holding some
18:54
Speaker 3: sort of rope in one hand and a bag in
18:56
Speaker 3: the other. He drops the bag and reaches for the
18:58
Speaker 3: sliding door. He slides it open, no problem. He then
19:03
Speaker 3: reaches for me, but before I can reach back or
19:06
Speaker 3: move or do anything, I'm swept up by my mother.
19:10
Speaker 3: My dad kicks Santa Square in the chest, knocking him
19:14
Speaker 3: back several feet, landing him on his backside. That's all
19:18
Speaker 3: I saw before my mom rushed me back to their
19:20
Speaker 3: bedroom and locked the door. My mom tells me that
19:24
Speaker 3: I didn't even cry at that point, which makes sense.
19:27
Speaker 3: I don't remember crying or even being terribly upset, not
19:31
Speaker 3: until later. It was when my parents explained that the
19:34
Speaker 3: man who came to our house wasn't Santa, and my
19:37
Speaker 3: dad kept saying things like she still thinks he's real.
19:40
Speaker 3: Of course, she tried to let the guy in. Then
19:44
Speaker 3: I did start crying. That was all while the police
19:47
Speaker 3: were there. What happened to the guy? He got away ish.
19:51
Speaker 3: The guy took off once he gained footing, and my
19:53
Speaker 3: dad didn't bother chasing him because he'd got in the
19:56
Speaker 3: guy's wallet. The cops were on the phone, and the
19:59
Speaker 3: guy left his bag behind. That bag wasn't filled with presents.
20:05
Speaker 3: My dad told me that it was filled with more
20:06
Speaker 3: rope like the kind of man had been holding. There's
20:09
Speaker 3: duct tape, candy, miscellaneous tools like a hammer, a lot
20:14
Speaker 3: of plastic bags, and random clothes. Yeah, it's horrifying, but
20:19
Speaker 3: luckily he was picked up just a few minutes after
20:22
Speaker 3: he left our house. Pretty hard not to spot the
20:25
Speaker 3: guy running around town dressed up like Santa Claus. In
20:29
Speaker 3: the end, I did forgive my parents for ruining the
20:31
Speaker 3: magic that is believing in Santa, because you know, they
20:34
Speaker 3: did save my life. Normally, I don't go out Christmas
20:44
Speaker 3: shopping on Black Friday. I know there's deals to be gotten,
20:47
Speaker 3: but the actual amount of people who get them is
20:49
Speaker 3: pretty low. It sometimes seems that more negativity comes out
20:53
Speaker 3: of it more than anything else. I did go out
20:56
Speaker 3: on Black Friday once, and honestly, the experience kept me
21:00
Speaker 3: from ever even considering doing it ever again. This was
21:04
Speaker 3: a few years back. The big Christmas gift that year
21:07
Speaker 3: was a game called Uno Attack. It was supposed to
21:10
Speaker 3: sell out pretty quickly. My nephew really wanted one, so
21:14
Speaker 3: I decided, for the first time ever to brave the
21:16
Speaker 3: Black Friday crowd and see about getting one. I waited
21:20
Speaker 3: outside the store in line for it to open. The
21:23
Speaker 3: entire time. I kept wondering why people were so fanatical
21:26
Speaker 3: about this. It was cold, and although I was reasonably
21:30
Speaker 3: bundled up, it didn't help that I had to spend
21:32
Speaker 3: so much time not moving. In addition, people were in
21:36
Speaker 3: terrible spirits, which seems to take the spirit away from
21:39
Speaker 3: the event itself. Some people would try to cut in line,
21:43
Speaker 3: which only made people already in line.
21:44
Speaker 2: Crabbier than they were.
21:47
Speaker 3: When the store was getting closer to opening, I noticed
21:49
Speaker 3: that there was someone from the store headed out and
21:52
Speaker 3: talking to each person in line. When they got to me,
21:56
Speaker 3: I realized that he was handing out tickets indicating who
21:59
Speaker 3: would be able to uno attack. He asked me if
22:02
Speaker 3: that was why I was there, and I told him yes.
22:05
Speaker 3: He told me I'm lucky because I was getting the
22:08
Speaker 3: very last ticket. Of course, this caused some groaning and
22:12
Speaker 3: swearing from people behind me.
22:14
Speaker 2: Although I hated the.
22:15
Speaker 3: Idea that there would be a lot of children who
22:17
Speaker 3: wouldn't be getting the toy they wanted, I personally was elated.
22:22
Speaker 2: That was until this guy got out of line and.
22:24
Speaker 3: Walked up to me. He came up immediately after that
22:27
Speaker 3: worker left. He first offered to buy the ticket from me.
22:32
Speaker 3: I told him no, because it wasn't a matter of money,
22:35
Speaker 3: it was me trying to make my nephew happy. He
22:38
Speaker 3: then started telling me this son really wanted that toy.
22:41
Speaker 3: I countered letting him know that my nephew also really
22:44
Speaker 3: wanted that toy. When I kept refusing, he started telling
22:48
Speaker 3: the other stories, such as his son was really sick.
22:51
Speaker 3: But I could tell he was just doing his best
22:53
Speaker 3: to make me feel guilty. From further back in the line,
22:57
Speaker 3: a few other people began telling the guy to leave
22:59
Speaker 3: me alone. He got into a shouting match with several
23:02
Speaker 3: of them. Eventually, the guy stomped away, but not before
23:05
Speaker 3: telling me that I'll get that toy. I tried to
23:09
Speaker 3: not think about it. I went in claimed the Uno
23:12
Speaker 3: game and did some more shopping. I figured that since
23:15
Speaker 3: I'd spent so much time outside, I should try to
23:18
Speaker 3: get as much done as I could. When I was
23:21
Speaker 3: done in the store, I went back out to my car.
23:24
Speaker 3: I put all the toys in the trunk, and then
23:26
Speaker 3: walked over to the bookstore in the street mall in
23:28
Speaker 3: order to get some other items. When I began walking
23:32
Speaker 3: back to the car second time, I paused when I
23:35
Speaker 3: noticed the man from earlier was leaning on my car.
23:37
Speaker 3: Now I began feeling tense, knowing this guy was going
23:42
Speaker 3: to confront me again. It was much bigger than I,
23:45
Speaker 3: but I decided I couldn't let him intimidate me as
23:49
Speaker 3: I got closer to my car.
23:50
Speaker 2: He noticed and smiled.
23:53
Speaker 3: He reached into his pocket, and I assumed he was
23:56
Speaker 3: reaching for his wallet, but it only took a moment
23:59
Speaker 3: before I saw that it was a pocket knife and
24:01
Speaker 3: he flipped it open. I immediately stopped. I couldn't imagine
24:06
Speaker 3: this guy would be stupid enough to try and threaten
24:08
Speaker 3: or stab me in a busy parking lot, but I
24:12
Speaker 3: also didn't want to test that theory. I quickly turned
24:15
Speaker 3: around and ran back into the store that I bought
24:18
Speaker 3: that Uno game man. I let the store of security
24:21
Speaker 3: know what happened, and they quickly gave me an escort out.
24:24
Speaker 2: To my car.
24:26
Speaker 3: The man was gone, but I was still shaken. I
24:28
Speaker 3: was more shaken when I noticed the knife marks on
24:30
Speaker 3: the lock for my trunk, and now my trunk was
24:33
Speaker 3: also dented. There were also deep scratches in my driver's
24:37
Speaker 3: side window. For obvious reasons, I never went out Blackbriday
24:43
Speaker 3: shopping again.
24:46
Speaker 1: When I was a kid, I witnessed a neighbor murder
24:49
Speaker 1: his wife on Christmas Eve. I was still at that
24:52
Speaker 1: age where I actually believed in Santa, so when my
24:54
Speaker 1: mom and dad put me to bed, I stayed up
24:58
Speaker 1: and stared out the window, hoping to catch a glimpse
25:00
Speaker 1: of him landing on the rooftops in our neighborhood. It
25:03
Speaker 1: didn't take long before I realized that I could see
25:06
Speaker 1: in my neighbor's bedroom. It was dark, and all I
25:09
Speaker 1: could see was the shape of a sleeping person covered
25:12
Speaker 1: in a duvet, lit up by the light of a
25:14
Speaker 1: nearby TV. Not exactly skin amax some sure you'll agrees,
25:19
Speaker 1: so I didn't feel too guilty about it, and I
25:22
Speaker 1: kept on looking out for Santa's magic sleigh. Suddenly there
25:27
Speaker 1: was movement in the bedroom across the way, and I
25:30
Speaker 1: looked in time to see my neighbor walking in on
25:33
Speaker 1: his sleeping wife. I tried to pry my attention away
25:37
Speaker 1: from the bedroom as he moved towards the bed, but
25:40
Speaker 1: then it's quickly drawn back when I see fast, violent
25:43
Speaker 1: movements in the light.
25:44
Speaker 2: Of the TV.
25:45
Speaker 1: In the low light, it just looked like my neighbor
25:48
Speaker 1: was hitting his wife, and I know that's bad enough,
25:51
Speaker 1: but all I could see were these downward moving blows
25:55
Speaker 1: and nothing else. So as distressed as I was, all
25:59
Speaker 1: I told my mom and when I ran downstairs was like,
26:02
Speaker 1: I think the neighbors beating up the neighbor Mom. My
26:06
Speaker 1: dad just bolts upstairs, figuring I'd seen something from my
26:09
Speaker 1: bedroom window. He went up to check it out, but
26:13
Speaker 1: by that time someone had drawn the curtains. My dad
26:16
Speaker 1: asked me if I hadn't just had a bad dream,
26:18
Speaker 1: but I swore to him that i'd been awake and
26:21
Speaker 1: on the lookout for Sanna. I then repeated everything I'd
26:25
Speaker 1: seen in exact detail, and by that time Mom was
26:28
Speaker 1: listening too. When I finished, Dad and Mom gave each
26:32
Speaker 1: other a look, you know, one of those mom and
26:35
Speaker 1: dad concerned looks. That's like an entire conversation with an
26:38
Speaker 1: a silent word spoken. Then my dad kneels down and
26:44
Speaker 1: asks me something, buddy, are you sure that's what you saw?
26:49
Speaker 1: Because we could get in a lot of trouble if
26:50
Speaker 1: that's not true. But again, I'm not totally insistent that
26:56
Speaker 1: I saw what I saw, and I didn't find out
26:59
Speaker 1: what happened and immediately after that until quite a while later.
27:03
Speaker 1: But as I was actually drifting off to sleep, Mom
27:06
Speaker 1: and Dad were downstairs having a very tense but quiet conversation. Dad,
27:12
Speaker 1: to his eternal shame, was insisting that I couldn't be
27:16
Speaker 1: sure that the room had been dark, that I might
27:19
Speaker 1: have even seen them, possibly doing something that I shouldn't have,
27:24
Speaker 1: and just not understood what I was seeing. Mom, on
27:27
Speaker 1: the other hand, was steadfast in her better safe than
27:30
Speaker 1: sorry attitude and told my dad that if he didn't
27:32
Speaker 1: call the cops, she'd take me to my aunt's place
27:35
Speaker 1: because she wouldn't be celebrating Christmas next to a wife
27:38
Speaker 1: beating neighbor. That was that my dad called the cops.
27:43
Speaker 1: They said he was praying it was some kind of mistake,
27:46
Speaker 1: but given how he could just give an anonymous tip,
27:48
Speaker 1: he figured why not. My parents then watched from their
27:53
Speaker 1: own bedroom window, which had a view of the neighbor's driveway,
27:56
Speaker 1: as the cops pulled up outside and knocked on their door.
28:00
Speaker 1: They said it was this nail biting moment, hoping they'd
28:03
Speaker 1: hear the sound of the neighbor's wife answering the door
28:06
Speaker 1: before being all, oh, good evening, officers, what seems to
28:09
Speaker 1: be the problem. That way, they could just carry on
28:12
Speaker 1: drinking eggnog and watching Jesus Christ Superstar or whatever they
28:16
Speaker 1: had on down there, But instead of that, they watched
28:20
Speaker 1: the cops knock, then knock again, all before they apparently
28:25
Speaker 1: turned on their flashlights and began circling the home. Wood
28:29
Speaker 1: woke me up, was hearing sir, come out with your
28:32
Speaker 1: hands up and all this other cops speak. When the
28:35
Speaker 1: police finally blocked off the guy's house for the eventual
28:39
Speaker 1: stand off that would unfold, our neighbor had a gun
28:42
Speaker 1: and he was threatening to shoot at police officers if
28:45
Speaker 1: they attempted to enter his home. The next thing I remember,
28:48
Speaker 1: my mom was rushing into my room and telling me
28:51
Speaker 1: to get dressed. The cops had knocked at our house
28:54
Speaker 1: and told us that they were evacuating the area just
28:57
Speaker 1: as a precaution in case a shootout had commenced. Our
29:01
Speaker 1: house had that old stucco style of wall, which is
29:05
Speaker 1: apparently pretty safe, but even so the cops weren't taking
29:08
Speaker 1: any chances. Considering that we lived in Texas at the time,
29:12
Speaker 1: the guy could have had anything in there. My parents
29:16
Speaker 1: say that when they were driving out of the area,
29:18
Speaker 1: the whole street lit up by blue and red flashing lights.
29:22
Speaker 1: They had no idea what kind of scene that they
29:24
Speaker 1: were going to come back to. This wasn't all that
29:27
Speaker 1: long after the whole Waco thing either, well a few
29:31
Speaker 1: years after, but fear of some repeat shootout type deal
29:34
Speaker 1: weighed on every one's mind as news of the standoff
29:37
Speaker 1: got around town, and it ended pretty anticlimactically. The guy
29:42
Speaker 1: actually took his own life as the police were finally
29:45
Speaker 1: busting into his house, but upstairs they found the dead
29:48
Speaker 1: body of his wife, still lying in her bed, exactly
29:51
Speaker 1: where I'd seen her stabbed more than thirty times. I
29:57
Speaker 1: hadn't been watching that I hitting his wife. I've been
30:00
Speaker 1: watching him stab her over and over again. And all
30:04
Speaker 1: I'd done for a couple of the seconds there was
30:06
Speaker 1: just watch. Once all the info was out there, Mom
30:12
Speaker 1: and Dad tried as best they could to shield me
30:14
Speaker 1: from it, because they correctly figured that once I put
30:18
Speaker 1: two and two together and worked out what I'd seen,
30:20
Speaker 1: I'd be extremely messed up by it, and yeah, I
30:24
Speaker 1: really was seeing It screwed me up for a long
30:28
Speaker 1: time afterward, and I didn't grow up out of the
30:30
Speaker 1: general anxiety disorder until my early twenties. I just figured
30:34
Speaker 1: that if our neighbor could do something so terrible to
30:37
Speaker 1: someone he seemed to love, that anyone could do it
30:40
Speaker 1: people I'd known for years, people I was otherwise warm too.
30:44
Speaker 1: They could be capable of the obscenest acts of random evil.
30:50
Speaker 1: Just because they looked normal, just because they smiled when
30:53
Speaker 1: they saw you in the driveway in the mornings, didn't
30:56
Speaker 1: mean they were a monster hiding in plain sight.