Latest / Crime and Horror / Sometimes the vanished never return Campfire for a Cause - MrBallen

Transcript

Sometimes the vanished never return Campfire for a Cause - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Seconds later, what does he start hearing? Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: So tonight's episode is a very important episode. I'm going
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: to give you context right now so you can really
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: appreciate it. Two years ago, during our live tour, I
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: was in Washington, D.C., and after the show ended... I
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: had the chance to meet this really special family. It
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: was Tony, the father, Corey, the mother, and then their
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: two daughters, Liana and Raylan. The father, Tony had been
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: diagnosed with ALS, which is a terrible, terrible disease. And
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: this family, they were hardcore Mr. Ballin fans. And so
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I could just see that this was a huge struggle
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: for them, but they'd come out for the show and
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: I had a chance to meet them. And it just,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: it struck me how positive they were through this horrible hardship. Well, Recently,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: we found out that Liana, the 10 year old, was
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: just diagnosed with leukemia. So in addition to, you know,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the father having ALS, she also has leukemia. And when
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: we found out, you know, I have three kids, including
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: a 10 year old daughter myself. I told my team that,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: you know, we are going to Virginia and we are
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: going to surprise this little girl. And we're going to
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: do a private show for her around the campfire. And
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: all the money from this episode should go to their
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: family's medical bills. And so here we are. We just
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: recorded the episode over the last few hours. It was incredible. Liana,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: you're going to love her and her cousins and her siblings.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: They're all in the show. They're amazing. So literally just
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: watch this video. That alone will help drive up the
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: revenue we make. And all of it will go to
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Liana and her family. They have pretty excessive medical bills. Also,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: our studio will be donating. I'm going to be donating.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: The link to the GoFundMe is in the description. They
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: are incredible people. And Liana, as you're going to see,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: she is just a ray of light in a very
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: dark world. I love her. I'm proud of her. I
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: wish the best for their family, and I hope that
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: you guys support them however you can. But there actually
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: is a whole episode here. We told a whole bunch
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: of stories. I told three sort of core stories, and
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: you'll see the kids' reaction to these stories is pretty profound.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: One of them is particularly spooky. I riffed a couple
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: at the end, but it's a long episode. It's a
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: lot of fun, and it's for a good cause. So
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: before we get into it, tonight's many stories. If you're
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: story format, then you've come to the right place because
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: that's all we do, and we upload two, three, even
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: four times every week. So if that's of interest to you,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: please invite the like button to come to your campfire
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: and roast some s'mores with you. But don't tell them
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: you've secretly embedded dynamite in their marshmallows. Also, please subscribe
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: to our channel and turn on all notifications so you
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: into it. tonight's stories.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: So on March 3rd of 1954 there was this woman
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: named Yeh who lived in Hong Kong and she and
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: her friends.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Were big time Mahjong players. Now I actually don't, I
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: had to look up what Mahjong was because I obviously
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: heard of it, but I don't really know how it's played.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: It's effectively like a card game with tiles, like domino tiles, right?
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: And you're sort of trying to arrange the tiles. You
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: pick up a tile, you discard one, and you're trying
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: to build like the best set, the way you would
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: play like with cards. This is probably atrocious for those
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: who play Mahjong, but either way, big Mahjong player. And
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: in the 1950s in Hong Kong, Mahjong was like really,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: really popular. like to the point where you'd go into
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: restaurants in Hong Kong and like the, the tables would
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: have laminated to the table itself, like a mahjong board.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: So people are playing mahjong everywhere. It's a big deal.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: And so, yeah, her name, why he, yeah, she, uh,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: she was a really good mahjong player and she played
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: like really competitively and she had these three friends, these
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: three women that she always played with. Um, and on
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: this day, March 3rd, 1954, She's at her apartment. She's
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: in a second floor apartment. It's a new apartment she
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: just got. Her dad owned it and he rented it out.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: And apparently the tenant was out. So he'd just given
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: it to his daughter to live in. So she's stoked.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: She's got this amazing apartment. And she's hosting like a
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Mahjong tournament with her friends. And that night it had
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: gone exceptionally well for Yaa. She was just crushing it.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: And the way they were playing was like for every,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: I guess, hand, I'm not really sure how they describe it,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: but for every round you'd play, the pot just kept
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: getting bigger and bigger. I don't mean to mean they
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: reinvested the money or something, but by the end of
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: the night, it's late at night. And there's this like
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: massive cash pool in the middle of the table for
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: the person who wins the game. And so Yaz playing,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: the other three are situated around this table. It's loud.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: They've been drinking. They're having a good time. It's late.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: And it goes to Yaz's turn and she draws a
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: tile and she realizes like she's going to win. Like
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: she knows it. Like this is it. This is my
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: big moment. And so she puts down the tile and
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: then they yell out this word. It's like, whoo, it's
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: some word they yell. It's sort of like saying bingo, right?
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Like they yell it out, they win the game. And
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: so she calls it out and her friends, they're like
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: so defeated. They're like, oh, you know, they kind of
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: like push their tiles all over the place because they're
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: just like, of course, yeah, yeah, one again. And so, yeah,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: she's like celebrating and her friends are sort of beginning
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: to sort of talk amongst themselves. And yeah, it's looking
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: at this huge pile of cash. And she starts like
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: literally like grabbing the money and like pushing it all together.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: It's a big stack of, you know, singles or whatever.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: And as she's doing this, she sees a hand like
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: push her hand back as if someone was reaching out
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: and grabbing the money. Sort of like you're trying to
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: get the money. And if I reach out and push
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: your hand away and her immediate reaction is, oh, my
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: jealous friends are trying to take the money from me,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: trying to stop me from taking the money. Right. And
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: so she stops what she's doing. She's sort of annoyed. Like,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: come on, this is fair and square. I won. And
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: she looks up to see which of her friends is
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: taking the money or who is pushing her hand away
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: from getting the money. And she looks at one of
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: her friends and she sees her hands on her lap.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: And she looks at the other woman next to her
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: and she's doing something with her hands, but she's far
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: enough away from the table. It's not her. She looks
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: at the other woman. They're all three of them. They've
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: stepped away from the table. They're not doing it. And
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: she looks down at the table again and she sees
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: there's this hand that's on the table and it's actively
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: now grabbing at the money. And it's sort of like this,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: the skin's fairly gray with long fingernails. And the arm
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: is coming from under the table. Someone is reaching up
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: from under the table and grabbing at the money. And
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: this is a small table. It's a small kitchen. Picture yourself,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: you're with your three friends. You know there's nobody else there.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: And so immediately she's looking at the table thinking, who
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: else is in the room? That's under the table right now.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Whose disembodied arm is reaching up from underneath the table?
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: And so for a second, Yez just staring at it,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: knowing that she has to look under the table. She
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: has to, right? Who's down there? Who's under the table
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: doing this? And so she begins to look under the table.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: And when she does, there's no one under the table.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: And then when she stands back up again, there's an
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: arm on the table. And she screams, ghost! Ghost! And
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: the other three women, they turn and they see the
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: arm as well. They're like, oh my gosh. And they
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: start throwing things at this arm and they bolt out
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: of the apartment. Before I continue, this story was an
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: enormous deal in the 1950s in Hong Kong. I don't
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: know if you follow 1950s Hong Kong war, but this
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: was a big deal in 1950s Hong Kong. It made
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: national headlines. Like it was talked about all over the place. Okay.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: But initially, initially, When these women come running out of
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the apartment because of the ghost arm grabbing at their
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: mahjong table and they tell the police, the police are like, really?
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: A ghost arm was grabbing at your tiles? You know
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: what I mean? But they bolt out of the apartment.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: They tell the police. They stay at the police station.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: They're terrified. All four of them have seen this arm.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: They're terrified. They left the money in the apartment. A
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  Speaker 1: police officer comes to the apartment, goes in the complex.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: He walks up to the second floor, you know, and
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: he's like, This is so dumb. Like, this is going
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  Speaker 1: to be nothing more than, you know, they've clearly been
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: partying and drinking. They're probably just seeing things. There's no
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: way this is real. He gets to their apartment door
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and he sees it's partially open. It's a jar. And
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: he's like, okay, you know, I guess what must have
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: happened is someone broke in or something. So he goes
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: into the apartment and, you know, there's clearly signs that
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: from what they described, which is in a panic as
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: they're leaving, they're flipping tables over. He saw the mahjong
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: tiles are on the ground. He saw some tables were
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: upturned and whatnot, but there's still money on the ground,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: you know, which suggests if this was a robbery, if
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: someone broke in and, you know, tried to steal from you,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: wouldn't they take the money that's literally scattered around the room?
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: So he's like, that's weird. And so the officer, after
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: scanning the apartment, he leaves and he ends up calling
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: his superior and he's like, hey, I think this is
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: just a hoax. I don't know to what end. I
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: don't know why they did this because there's really nothing
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: about this that feels like it gets them anything. It's
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: just a weird sort of unbelievable hoax. No one's really
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: thinking a ghost arm grabbed you, right? So he goes
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: back to the station and his plan is to get
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: into the station and not interrogate, that's probably too strong
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: of a word, but was to speak to these women
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: and be like, all right, let's go through the details
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: of what you actually saw. So he goes back to
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: the station and he goes into the interrogation room where
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: the women had been waiting and they're not in there.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: There's four seats inside of this room where they had been.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: and sitting on all four seats is a single mahjong
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: tile on each of these chairs. But the women aren't there.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: And this is the 1950s. There wasn't robust surveillance in
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: or outside of the station. But they looked for these women.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Nobody saw them leave. No one could report where they went.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: And they were never found. They vanished this night. Their families, nothing.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: They have no idea what happened to them. And so
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: following this incident, if you will, that apartment became quite
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: famous because Mahjong is such a big deal in Hong Kong.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: And now there's like this crazy mystery attached to it.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: And so shortly after this became huge news around Hong
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Kong to the point where people were like, there was
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: a pilgrimage to go to this apartment from all over
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: the country. And people were trying to like sneak into
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: the apartment, like see the ghost who plays Mahjong. to
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: the point where they had to put police escorts, and
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: they walled off the compound. So many people were going there.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: But to this day, we don't know what happened to
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: the women, and we don't know if there really was
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: or was not an arm, but pretty creepy story nonetheless.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: That was scary.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Pretty creepy. So, yeah, so what's your take on that?
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: What do you think? Do you think that a literal
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: disembodied ghost arm is responsible for their disappearance? I mean,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't make sense if they saw an arm, but
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: nothing underneath. It's an odd thing to claim, right? Because
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: if you're going to claim that, you better be pretty
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: confident that's it. But all of them said it was arms.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: And actually one smaller detail is that as the as
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Viet stood back up again after looking under the table
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: and seeing nothing there, when she stood back up again,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: she described the hand had gone from just grabbing the
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: money to like moving the tiles around. So the ghost
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: arm is now playing mahjong. I think it became like
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: the mahjong ghost after that. So anyways, you are a
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: captive audience. I love it. You know, it's funny when
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: When I have done live stories, so much of how
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: I feel and how it's going is really built on
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: how I believe the audience is perceiving the story. So
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: I'll give you an anecdote. When we were in actually Washington, D.C.,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: where I met you and your family for the first time,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: the audience, you included, were really into it. Like there
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: were gasps. There were like moments where it was obvious
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: the audience was like literally reacting to the story I
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: was telling which was great because on stage you're like
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I'm nailing it you know people really get it conversely
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: we and this is no no shade on anybody in
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: fact in some ways it's a reflection of someone's manners
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: we went to the show we did a show in
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: North Carolina and people were so polite like freakishly polite
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: like everyone we met before and after the show couldn't
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: have been nicer couldn't have been could have been more
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: devoted like from a fan fandom perspective but this is
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: later in the tour and i'm on stage and it
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: was like silent in the theater but i think it's
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: because people were trying to be very respectful of like
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: me on stage they were not trying to move around
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: too much and so it felt sometimes like i was
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: talking into a vacuum which was really jarring and as
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: i'm sitting here listening or telling the story to you
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: uh you you are an excellent audience you really are
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: And I can see it in your eyes, you're really
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: paying close attention. So I really appreciate it so far.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: So in 1964, there was this family who were? Stephen, Henry,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: and Della. Stephen and his son Henry, who's 14, and Della.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Very good job. We were just rehearsing before this. She
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: nailed it. Thank you. You nailed it. You're perfect. This family,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: they loved American history. In fact, really specifically, I would
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: say Stephen and his son, Henry, were like big into
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: American history. They were into going to like the different
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: like battlefields from the Civil War that played out on
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: American soil. And Della, the wife, also was interested to
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: some degree, but more than anything, she enjoyed being outdoors.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: And so when her husband and son would wanna go
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: visit one of these various like battlefields or whatever, She
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: often just treated it as a chance to just go
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: be outdoors, go for a walk or whatever. So in
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: April of 1964, Stephen and Henry make the decision that
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: they want to go to the site of the Battle
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: of Little Bighorn. There was a very meaningful battle in
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: the late 1800s called the Battle of Little Bighorn. And
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: they wanted to go check it out. And so they
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: made the decision to go and Della agrees. And so
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: off they go. And it's in Montana. And this is
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: not only good scene setting, but it's also important to
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: the story. The site of the battle where so many
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: people were killed, so many people were killed. But if
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: you're there, there's a monument called the Little Bighorn Monument
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: that is, I mean, I hate to say it, but
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: it's remarkably unremarkable. It's just like this monolith, this big
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: rock monolith and just open field. And have you ever
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: been to Montana by any chance? No, have you not
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: been to Montana? So Montana is like, The setting in
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Montana is just beautiful, like rugged, beautiful, beautiful. This part
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: of Montana where Little Bighorn was fought is basically like
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: this huge open field. It's not ugly, but it's just plain.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: It's like you'd be staring out in all directions and
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: it's just like rolling hills, but it's not really any trees.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: It's just like grass, not really any mountains. Just imagine
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: a vast plain. in all directions with the singular monolith
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: right in the middle. So as a history buff, you know,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: it's an interesting place to go. But even for Della,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: when they got there, they're sort of like, huh, there's
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: not a whole lot to do here. You know, there's
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: not like forest or anything nearby. But when they get there,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: you know, Stephen and Henry, they're like, you know, they
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: had done their research about the battle before. They're sort
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: of looking out in the cardinal directions, imagining, you know,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: where various battles were fought because they knew the history, right?
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: And then for them, this is fascinating. And there were
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: some other tourists that were sort of walking around. But again,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: there's really not much going on there. And so they're
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: just kind of standing near the monolith. And at some point, Henry,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: the 14-year-old, who's really into this, he just starts wandering
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: off on his own. Now, again, this is a big
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: open field. And he's 14, right? He can wander off
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: and look around. It is what it is. But there
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: wasn't much to go see. And he starts walking off
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: along the rolling hills. And the husband and wife, his parents,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: they just stay up on the hill where the monument is.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: And they're watching him, or I should say specifically Stephen,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: his dad, is watching him. And he's not worried, he's
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: just watching his son walk off. And at some point,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: there's like, the clouds rolled in. It's a very sunny day.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Clouds roll in, and the way the clouds sort of
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: went across the sun for a second, created this odd,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: almost like optical illusion. Well, it was just a beam
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: of light sort of cut through the sky. And it
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: was spotlighting the top of the hill that was sort
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: of in the direction that Henry was going. It was
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: just like this weird act of nature, right? Like he's
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: walking along, the clouds roll in, it's getting dark. And
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: one sort of like beam of light is almost like
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: a spotlight. Imagine a play, you got a spotlight on
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: a play, like these spotlights. right on the top of
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: this hill, right in front of him. And so Stephen,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the dad, is watching. He's not thinking, wow, a spotlight
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: of light on the hill. It's just, he's aware of.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: It, right?
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Henry walks in Stephen's purview into this light, like into
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: the light that's been cast on the hill. And for
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: a second, Stephen's watching him and the light's really bright.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: It's like a really bright ray of light. And then
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: after a moment, Stephen realizes after his son has walked
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: into this light that Stephen's gone. He can't see his
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: son anymore. There's no one there and it's rolling hills.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: So like, as you look out across this vast landscape,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: it is, there's, there's areas where if you went down
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: into like sort of the ravine between two rolling hills,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: I might not be able to see you. And so Stephen,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: he turns to Della and he's like, Hey, where did,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: where did Henry go? And they're both looking out and
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: there are really no other tourists here. This is not
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: like a highly populated place. And they're looking there. That's
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: so weird. And they're waiting for their son to emerge
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: on the backside of this hill. Because where else could
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: he have gone, right? But after like several minutes, he doesn't.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: And he hasn't appeared anywhere. There's been no audible sign
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: of distress of any kind. And Stephen, the dad, he
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: starts to feel like really worried. Like a deep gut
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: feeling that something is wrong. And they don't know what
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: to do. And his wife just starts to sort of panic.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: And she starts screaming like, Henry, come back. like come
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: back Henry and as Stephen is waiting hoping for his
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: son to like hear his mother and come running he
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: doesn't and so Stephen he starts to panic and so
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: from Della's perspective she watches as her husband now he
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: starts running in the direction of still this ray of
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: light the clouds have not moved it's like this bizarre
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: ray of light that's cast down on the field and
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: so Della is like sort of hysterical. She's screaming now
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: for her husband to wait or like, no, go find him.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: She's screaming for her son and off goes Steve, you know,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: a couple hundred yards away. And she watches as Stephen,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: her husband, runs seemingly into this light and then he vanishes.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Not like, oh, he went into the light, but no,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: he runs into the light and then she can't see
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: him anymore. And this time, because she's just watched her
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: son effectively vanish into the light, she doesn't wait. She just,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: she starts running. down the hill towards this ray of
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: light that's being cast on the hill. She's screaming for
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: her husband now. She's screaming for Henry. No one's emerging.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: The other tourists that are there, they're sort of looking
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: over like, what's going on? And so Della, she runs
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: over to this hill. She doesn't go in the light.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: She sort of circumvents the whole hill because she's thinking
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: they've got to be on the other side. There is
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: nowhere else for them to be. She goes around and
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: there's no one there. There's no one there. There is
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: no one here. There's nowhere for them to go, but
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: they're gone. And so Della is, like, out of her mind.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: She's screaming. She doesn't even know what to ask for.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Other tourists are coming over, the handful that were there.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: They're like, do we call the police? They're, like, running around, like,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: looking for the father and son. No one's there. Eventually,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: they do call the police. And around the time that
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the police were about to arrive, Della is crumpled on
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the ground at the foot of the hill where her
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: husband and son have vanished. And the other tourists are
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: sort of with her trying to console her because they
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: don't really understand what's happened. And as they're like talking
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: it through, waiting for the police to show up, suddenly
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: from behind them, from the top of the hill, who
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: comes strolling down the hill but Stephen and Henry. And Della,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: she sees her husband and her son and it's like
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: this unbelievable relief. She didn't even know what could have
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: happened to them, right? Like, she's not thinking something bad
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: has happened. She's just like, I don't get it. Where
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: could you have gone? And so she's so relieved. She
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: runs up. She grabs her husband. She's sobbing. She's so happy.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: She's trying to ask them, like, where did you go?
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Where were you? And the look on their face, they just,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: they can't even begin to articulate it. They're like, almost
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: like they're shell-shocked. Something's happened to them. And it's immediately
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: apparent something bad has happened to them. but they can't
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: put it to words yet. They're like in shock and
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: they're like staggering down the mountain or the hill. And
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: so in this reunion, this reunion is happening. The police
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: show up basically simultaneously. And so the police, they come
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: over and they see this sort of like, you know,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: emotional scene unfolding and they quickly identify who must be,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: you know, the missing two guys based on their appearance.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: And they're like trying to figure out like what's going
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: on here. Like we already come out here. We got
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: to take a statement. We got to figure out what happened.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Like we do need to know Stephen and Henry, where
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: you went, clearly something happened. And so after, you know,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: sort of a few minutes of assessing the scene, the
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: father was pulled aside by one of the police officers
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: to give his statement. This is the statement he gave,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: which I'll tell you has been verified by the FBI.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: The FBI looked into this case following this statement. And
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: due to what I'm going to tell you, they found
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: they don't have a good way to debunk this. Okay.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: The father, Stephen, is up at the monolith and he's
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: watched his son vanish into the light. He waits, he
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: starts running after him. He's not thinking anything about this light.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: The light means nothing to him. He just thinks, my
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: son's somewhere over here. He runs, he steps into the light,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: and the second he does, he doesn't feel any physical
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: change at all. Nothing in his life changed. He just
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: stepped into it. You've stepped into sunlight before. Not really
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: that remarkable, right? You just stepped into light. But suddenly,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: it's like his son appeared in front of him. He's
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: still on the field, the little bighorn field here. His
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: son is standing like 10 feet away from him, sort
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: of down the hill. And his back is to his dad.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: And he's looking at his son. And then he realizes
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: there's all these dead bodies all over the field. Everywhere
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: he can look, there are dead bodies everywhere. And his
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: son is standing there, just sort of looking out with
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: his back to his father. And Stephen... He's not at
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: a point of, what's happening here? Let's assess the situation
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and figure out what in the world is going on.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: He's in full panic mode, like fight or flight, got
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: to survive. And he just runs down the hill and
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: he grabs his son. He turns him around and his son, Henry,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: is just beyond horrified, pale face. And he's like, dad, dad.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: And they start running just instinctively, like just pure survival.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: They start running back up the hill to get out
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: of what amounts to like the modern day, you know,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: version of the little bighorn battlefield. It's like they're looking
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: at the actual battlefield and they're running, they're falling over bodies.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: They're like landing in people's like the dead bodies and stuff.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: And then they make their way to the top of
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: the hill and they like fall out of the light,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: if you will. And they're back. You know, it took
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: several minutes. They sort of struggled their way out. And
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: they're back, you know, there's Della down the hill. Here's
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: all these people. And they stand up and they walk
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: down to Della. And that's the reunion I told you about.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: So Stephen tells that story to the police, which as
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: you and I are sitting here, pretty hard to believe
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: that story. You stepped into a portal and you saw
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: the field where the bodies were from the Battle of
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Little Bighorn a couple hundred years ago. That's what you did.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Pretty hard to believe, right?
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: A detail I didn't share with you is that when
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: they returned, they were soaked in blood, head to toe.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Head to toe in blood. So when Della looks up
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: and sees her son and father, her son and husband,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: they were covered in blood. They would later test that
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: blood and it was not their blood. Pretty crazy, huh?
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: So there you go. If you got a little bighorn,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: be careful of portals that'll send you back in time.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Something to be aware of, you know? What do you
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: think about that story, dude? It's hard to believe, but... Agree.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, of all the scary stories you told everyone,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's also believable. It's somewhat believable? Yeah. Yeah,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: there are some stories that we'll come across that, on
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: their face, they're just difficult to believe. But I think
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: some of the more powerful stories... are the ones where
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: you're sort of relying on an individual's perspective. Like whether
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: or not it's true sort of is a secondary thing.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: It's more like, here's what Stephen had to say. And
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: by the way, his son had the same story. It
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: was the same rendition of events that Henry's like, I
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: stepped into this portal, if you will. My dad showed up,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: we fell in the bodies, came out covered in blood, right?
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: But it's their perspective. It allows the defining moment of
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: the story to be really powerful, which is what we
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: love telling stories where we are not relying on truth
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: as much as this is what they said happened. And
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: that's a cool way to tell a story. All right.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: You all set over there, Raylan? You're looking perfect. All
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: you guys look great. So we decided we'd bring the
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: whole gang over for this last story. So here we go.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: We have, obviously, Liana. We have Ellie Grace. Raise your hand,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Ellie Grace. There we go. We got Desmond. That's your
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: brother right there. We got Raelynn. And we got Gwen
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: in front. We got the whole gang here. This is
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Liana's gang, cousins and siblings. And for the final story,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: which I think is going to be like the spookiest
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: of the three. You should probably put on that flannel.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: It'll protect you. That's why I got this one on, dude.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: I thought it'd be fitting we all tell the story together. Right?
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Or near each other. I got three kids at home.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I know the vibe, okay? I tell my daughters and
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: my son scary stories, and this is a setting that
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: feels natural.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: You guys are going to like this story. All right,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: this one, it's called Tap, Tap, Tap. I know this one.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: I doubt it, because I just named it on the spot.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: But you might. You might have heard it, though. Honestly, Raelynn,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: you are on top of some stuff. You listed some Mr.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Ball and Lore stories. It was impressive. Was it you
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: or Gwen who referenced the yellow room? You're doing the
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: hand talking, which I feel I could have partially inspired.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: It was me. It was you?
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay. These are also Liana's sisters right here. We've
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: been watching for like seven years. Legends. In 2010, there
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: was a 17-year-old boy named Matt who his family had
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: this cabin. up in the mountains of Oregon. Oregon's like
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: a very mountainous, lots of trees, lots of wildlife up there.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: You've been to Oregon, anybody? I haven't. Okay. Picture forests
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: and mountains and stuff, right? And so his family, they
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: don't live up in the mountains. They just have this
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: cabin up in the mountains in Oregon. It's called Mount
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Bachelor in Oregon. Are you familiar with this one? Okay, good.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: It's too scary. It's too scary. Good. That's a good start.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: His family's getting ready to sell this cabin. But his
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: whole life growing up, Matt would oftentimes go, a lot
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: of times with his dad, he would go to this
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: cabin and they go fishing and hunting and they just
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: enjoy being out in nature, right? Just like we're right
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: near a cabin out in the wild. I don't know
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: if this is comforting or not, but it's a lot
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: like the setting of this story. It's not comforting. So
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Matt decides he's going to go and he's going to
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: do one more stay in this cabin before they sell
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: this cabin. And so he tells his folks, okay, I'm
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: going to go. I'm going to just go up there
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: with the dog. He has a dog. His name is Midnight,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: family dog. I'm going to go up there just for
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: a couple of days. I'm just going to enjoy myself.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: And then I'll come back and we can sell this place.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: It is what it is. So off he goes. He
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: takes his dad's old truck and he heads up with,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: you know, in the back he packs some snacks. He's
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: bringing his PlayStation along. He's just going to go hang
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: out in this cabin and just enjoy himself for a
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: few days. So he gets to the cabin. And this
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: is like pretty remote, okay? This is tucked away deep
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: in the pine forest, like at the foot of this mountain.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: Very isolated. He does have neighbors though, but his neighbors
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: are about a mile in either direction. So they're not
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: particularly close, but he sort of knows them, like he
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: would recognize them, but he's not close with his neighbors.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: But he has neighbors, right? So he gets to the
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: cabin and, you know, there's supposed to be a snowstorm
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: while he's out here. He knows there's going to be
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: a snowstorm. it's going to be in the next couple
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: of days, but he's bracing for being here for a
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: couple of days, right, so he got all his supplies inside,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: he got all his snacks, all his Oreos, he was
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: crushing Oreos earlier, he brought a lot of Oreos in there,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: juice boxes, and he just kind of begins to have
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: a nice time, right? He's there. He's exactly what he
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: wanted to do. He's playing video games. He's by himself.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Like he likes being alone. You know, when he went in,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: when he arrived, he didn't see his neighbors and he
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: actually passed by one of his neighbors, their driveway on
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: the way to turning into his. And he did look
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: down and he didn't think they were home. He didn't
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: know if they were home, but his mental image is
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: that he's probably alone, a little off season. There's probably
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: nobody out here, but that's good. He wants that. The
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: snowstorm's coming. It's a little risky being up in the
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: mountains in the middle of a big storm. So he's thinking,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: I'm probably alone. So he and Midnight have this great
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: first day. The weather's great. He stays up super late.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: He's eating snacks. He's playing video games. It's awesome. The
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: next day comes around, another awesome day. He's got no plans.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: He's just going to hang out at the cabin. He's
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: just going to hang out, eat snacks, and play video
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: games and periodically go walking around with Midnight. And that's
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: what he does. In fact, the first two full days
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: that he's there are awesome. This is like exactly the
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: retreat that he was hoping for. On the third day,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: it snows a lot, like two feet of snow. This
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: is like he wakes up on the third day and
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: it's just a ton of snow on the ground. He
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: knew there was going to be a storm, so he's
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: not really caught off guard by it. He also knew
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: he was likely going to be here for a few
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: more days. And so this wasn't really a huge inconvenience.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: It was just sort of like, okay, now I'm basically
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: snowed in. It's going to be hard to drive out
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: of here. No snow plows coming up my driveway. No
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: one's coming up here. I got to wait. I got
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: to wait and plow it out myself, probably, right? So
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: he's like, well, luckily, I got tons of snacks. I'll
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: just stay indoors for another couple of days and enjoy
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: myself in the cabin. So he and Midnight, they're just
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: doing their thing. And at some point in the middle
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: of this third day, Midnight starts acting really weird. Midnight
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: runs to the door. And the door, like there's quite
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: a few windows in this cabin. Like sort of he
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: would describe it as like almost more windows than you
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: sort of needed in a cabin. And when you're out
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the woods in the middle of
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: the night, I got to be honest, that's a little unsettling.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: I'd want more wood, less windows for me. But it's
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: broad daylight and midnight has run to the door. And
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: he thinks, oh, she must need to go pee. So
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: he goes over and says, all right, midnight. Like, all right,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: chill out. Like, we'll go out. We'll let you pee.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: And remember, there's a lot of snow on the ground.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: So he gets to get his stuff on. He says,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: all right. But he finally opens the door. And Midnight
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: was a really well-trained dog. Midnight, every time he let
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Midnight out to that point, and just in general, she'd
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: go out, she'd do her business, and then she'd come
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: back in. Or if they went and walked around, she
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: was just a well-trained dog. So, like, he expects the
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: second this door is open, even with snow on the ground,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Midnight's just going to sort of jump into the snow,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: she's going to do her business, and that'll be it. Like,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: I don't expect more than that. He opens the door,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: and Midnight leaps out the front door and starts sort
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: of running through the snow. not showing any sign that
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: she's going to stop to go to the bathroom. She's,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: she's off for some reason. She's, she's seen something. She
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: senses something. Now for reference, when you are in his cabin,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: if you're looking from the front of the cabin on
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: the second floor or the first floor, there are these
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: big windows and it overlooks sort of like a front clearing.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Like it's not a courtyard. It's mostly trees everywhere around
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: his cabin, but there's sort of like a, a cleared
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: area where you can park your cars in the front
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: of the cabin. Sort of like the size of the
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: clearing we're in right here. And there was a big
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: tree that had one big branch, they called it the
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: sitting tree, that sort of hung over this courtyard. It
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: was like 20 feet up, no one really actually sit
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: on this branch, but it almost looked like a perfect
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: branch for sitting that sort of hung out over this courtyard.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: And it was sort of set back down the driveway
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: a little bit. So right when you come into the courtyard,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: you pass underneath the sitting tree branch. Basically, where we
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: are sitting right now, relative to the front of the cabin,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: that's sort of where the branch would be slung, about
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: 20 feet above us right now. And so he opens
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: his door from the cabin and Midnight's running towards the
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: base of that tree. And that's the first thing he notices.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: She isn't showing signs that she needs to go to
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: the bathroom. She is showing signs that she's seen something
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: out near that tree or in the woods. And he
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: starts yelling to her to stop. Because he put his
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: stuff on, but he doesn't really have snow pants on.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: It's like feet of snow out there. He's yelling at
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: midnight to stop. She does. She's a well-trained dog. She
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: doesn't make it all the way to the tree. She stops.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: But then he's looking around and he realizes something. There
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: are footprints in the snow out in front of his cabin.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: Not from midnight and not from him. He hasn't been
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: out in the snow. There are human footprints that are
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: leading what appear to be from around where that tree is,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: that sitting tree, up to the cabin, up to his door.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: He's now looking and realizing he hasn't stepped out yet.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: He sees dog prints. He doesn't see, he didn't step
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: out here. There are human prints that went up to
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: his door and then walked around the side of his
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: cabin and up into the mountains where no one lives.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: There's no people up there and they disappear. They don't
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: come back. And so now between seeing his dog run
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: off and his dog's well-trained, remember, The dog's seen something,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: and it's running toward the tree, and these footprints appear
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: to be coming basically from where that tree is. And
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: so Matt, he's feeling a little on edge, as any
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: of you would, and I would too. I would be
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: very much on edge because you're out there by yourself,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: and you thought when you showed up there wasn't anybody
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: out here. Not a big hiking area either, and there's
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: been a storm. So there's a lot of reasons that
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: nobody should be out there. But he tells himself, as
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: by this point, midnight has trotted back. She has done
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: her business. She's come in the house. She's safe. He
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: shuts the cabin door and he makes sure it's locked,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: you know. But he's telling himself, it's just got to
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: be a lost hiker or a neighbor who made those prints.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: There's no other explanation for it. So he's nervous, but
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: he accepts that something weird has happened, but it's got
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: to be okay, right? Because nothing weird could have happened
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: out here. Yeah. The rest of the day, they hang
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: out in the cabin, and midnight did go out a
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: couple more times, but she never took off toward the
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: tree like she did before. Eventually, it gets dark, and
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: he's going to be here at least for two, maybe
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: three more days. At least that's the way the weather looks.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: He's not going to be able to leave, so he's
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: trying really hard as he's getting to this first cycle
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: of darkness since seeing the steps. He's trying to tell
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: himself everything's okay, you know? Everything's okay. But somewhere deep down,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: he's thinking it's not. This is weird. So when it
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: gets dark, he lets Midnight out for her last business.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: You know, she does her business one more time, brings
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: her into the cabin, and he shuts and locks the door.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: And then he goes all around the cabin to make
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: sure all, well, there's really only two doors. There's the
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: front door. And then if you go to the upstairs
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: portion of the cabin, there's his bed. There's one bedroom upstairs.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: It's a small cabin, and there's a balcony that sort
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: of juts out from the upstairs bedroom. So if you
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: were in the upstairs bedroom, you could slide a door,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: step onto a little porch that overlooks that clearing. You'd
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: see the sitting tree. So he walks around and he
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: locks that upstairs sliding door. He locks the downstairs door.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: He checks all the windows because there's a bunch of
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: windows on this cabin. And he's out here alone and
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: he's just seen these prints. He's feeling weird. He locks,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: he checks every window. Got to make sure it's locked.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: Everything's fine, but got to make sure it's locked. So
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: he locks the whole cabin up and now he's like, okay,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: I'm good out here. I'm safe. So he gets upstairs,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: he gets into his bed, that's where he's sleeping, and
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Midnight sleeps in the bed with him. He gets in
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: his bed, and it's very quiet. You know, he doesn't
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: have a fan going, there's no noise machine in his room.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: It's like quiet, very quiet. And he's listening for like
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: any cue of something weird outside, right? As he's laying there,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: Midnight starts acting really weird. Midnight can't settle down. She's anxious.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: She normally would fall asleep real quick. She can't settle down.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: And he's like, Midnight, calm down, calm down. but she
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: keeps having this low growl, like she's sensing something's wrong.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: It's the middle of the night, it's dark, he's drawn
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: all the curtains so it's dark, and as he's laying
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: in the bed, he hears footsteps on the roof, which
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: is right above his head. Specifically, he hears six footsteps.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: He didn't hear anybody land on the roof, he didn't
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: hear anybody climb up the roof, he just started hearing
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: distinct footsteps on the roof. Six steps across the roof.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: Midnight is frozen in bed like she's scared. And then
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: as soon as the sixth step stopped, midnight just starts barking.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: She runs down the stairs. She wants to go outside.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: That's all she wants to do. And like now, frankly,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: Matt doesn't know what to do. He runs down after
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: midnight and he's like, oh my goodness, stop. But she
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: won't stop. And he's thinking, there is someone out here.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: Someone's messing with me. I don't know how they got
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: on my roof. I would have hurt them. I don't
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: know how this is happening. But I need to establish
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: that I'm not going to get scared out here. I'm
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: going to let my dog out to scare them away.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: That's what he's thinking. He finally gets his stuff on.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: He hasn't heard anything beside that sixth step. It's quiet now.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: He opens up the door and midnight bolts out into
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: the dark. And he doesn't see anything out there. Midnight's
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: running off, and he immediately thinks, this is a bad idea.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: I wish I hadn't have done this. It's dark. What
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: if she runs off deep into the woods? I'm going
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: to have to chase her, right? But he does. He
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: takes off after. He's yelling for her to come back.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: She gets all the way to the base of the
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: sitting tree and she's looking up into the sitting tree
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: and he's not even looking up. He's just grabbing his
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: dog and he starts dragging Midnight back into the house.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: He drags her back inside of the cabin. He finally
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: gets her in there. All she wants to do is
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: go back out again. He shuts the door. He locks
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: it and he's like, okay, I'm not going to try
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: to be tough anymore. I'm just scared, okay? He goes
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: up to the bedroom. He's holding the dog down. The
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: dog will not rest. The dog is not calm. And
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: he's like, okay, I'm just going to wait it out.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: I'm going to leave tomorrow. I don't know what's wrong
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: with this place, but I'm leaving tomorrow. I'm just going
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: to be tough. I'm going to sit here. I'm going
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: to hold my dog. I'm not going outside. I'm going
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: to wait it out. Remember, all the doors and windows
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: are locked. All the blinds are drawn. He has no
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: idea what's going on. As he's sitting there on his bed,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: He starts to hear tapping on his front door, downstairs.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: He's by himself in the middle of the woods. He's
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: hearing tapping on his front door in the middle of
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: the woods. And it's not loud, but it's enough that
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: he knows someone's out there trying to get his attention.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: He holds onto the dog. The dog wants to go downstairs.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: The dog wants to protect. He's holding Midnight back. The
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: tapping stops. The tapping starts again, but now it's upstairs.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: It's on the side of his house. It's the window
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: leading into the one bathroom on the second floor. There
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: actually isn't a place to stand at the second floor.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: To be tapping at that window, the only way would
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: be maybe on the roof bending down. It's impossible to
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: be up there. Now there's tapping coming from the other
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: side of the house. And then the worst part comes
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: when he's laying in his bed. Remember there's that balcony
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: right in front of where he's sleeping? There's a porch,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: a sliding glass door that leads out to it. All
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: he has is curtains that are separating him from the
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: glass leading out there. He hears tapping on the glass
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: right on the outside of his balcony. And then he
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: hears the shifting of weight on the outside porch. Someone,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: something is out there on that porch. And then it stops.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: A few minutes goes by and he knows that like
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: someone's out there. Someone's haunting me at this point. And
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: so he takes midnight and he's like, we have to
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: be brave. We have to go open up the blinds
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: and look what's out on the porch. Something's out there
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: right now. So he brings midnight over to the curtains
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: that are drawn in front of the sliding glass doors.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: He swings them open and there's nobody out there. He's
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: got a flashlight. He puts his flashlight through the glass.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: He's looking at this very small porch, expecting to see something, nothing.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: But there's footsteps all over the place. And he's like,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: what's going on? Are they on the roof? Like, I
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: have to do something. I'm alone out here. And so
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: with midnight, he's freaked out. He's holding midnight here. He's
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: got a flashlight in the other hand. He slides the
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: glass door open and he steps out onto this porch.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: And the first thing he does is he turns around
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: and he looks up onto the roof because he had
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: heard steps on the roof, right? Nothing on the roof,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: but he sees footsteps all over the roof, everywhere. Scanning
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: the roof. He comes back down. He's shining straight down
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: onto the ground, looking at the footsteps down here. And
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: then he knows he needs to look out in front
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: of his property. He needs to look and see what
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: else is out there. Something's out here. So he takes
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: his flashlight, midnight by his side, and he looks out
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: to the left. He's looking out of this balcony here,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: the front of his property. He looks out to the left.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: It's pitch black besides his light. And he starts scanning.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: He doesn't see anything, just trees. Trees and darkness. He
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: gets to the courtyard. Nothing's in the courtyard. Lots of
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: footsteps everywhere. He gets to the base of the sitting tree,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: and midnight starts to growl. And he slowly raises the
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: light and he illuminates the branch of the sitting tree.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: And there is a man who is unnaturally tall with
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: his hands over his head and his mouth open as
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: wide as he can make it. And he's staring directly
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: at Matt and his dog. And it scares Matt so
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: badly that he fumbles the flashlight. He grabs it again
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: and the man's gone. He looks all around. He's completely gone.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: In a panic, Matt grabs Midnight. He jumps back inside
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: the room. He slides the glass door shut. He locks it.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: He shuts the curtains. He jumps in bed. Now he's
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: just going to wait this one out. He knows someone's
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: out here. I don't know what that is. Seconds later,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: what does he start hearing? Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: All night he sat there until right before the sun
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: came up, the tapping stopped. And then when the sun
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: fully came up, He packed up his stuff, and as
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: he left the cabin, there was a racetrack, if you will,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: of footsteps. There had been so many steps around his
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: cabin that had been worn down to the grass. This
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: is two feet of snow. Something, while simultaneously making a
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: tapping sound on the glass ten feet away from him,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: was walking in circles around his cabin the entire night.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: No one has any idea what it was. They sold
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: the cabin, and he's knocked them back. The end. That
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: was so, that was so scary.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: I do know that one. I'm trying to be brave.
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: Pretty good?
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: That was so scary. I'm going to have nightmares. It's
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: like I heard whispering in the back. Yeah, probably is
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: that tall guy did. Don't tell me. Guys, please try
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: and just be brave. Be brave. No, you guys did great.
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: You did great.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: I would have left it at the tapping part. I
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: was actually squeezing onto Ellie. Yeah? We were like this.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: Ellie Grace. Ellie graced the elephant.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: We were literally so.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: We were so scared.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: I was... Honestly, it scared me a lot because, like,
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: the guy was, like, doing this.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: Pretty nuts. And the fact that there was actually, like, footprints. Crazy, right?
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: You want a bonus story that's actually uplifting real quick? Yes, please.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: It's one that my team's heard about a thousand times.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: And you very likely have heard it, but I would
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: say this is the one... that I think is, it
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: starts sad. It doesn't end sad. Wait, do I know
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: this one? Yeah, probably. It's pretty good. Does it end scary?
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: It ends amazingly. How about that?
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: Does it end happy?
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: Yes. So here, are you ready to hear it? This
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: one's pretty good. I told this one at a show
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: in Texas and people cheered, but not because of my storytelling,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: but because the ending was so satisfying. It was like, phew,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: it's really good.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: All right, so in the 90s, there was this woman
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: named Ellie Lobel. She goes out for a run because
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: she's very athletic. Goes out for a run. And she
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: lives in Connecticut, right? And so she goes out for
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: a run on this, like, nature trail. Anyone familiar with this?
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: You would know it by now.
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: No.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: I have never in my life.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: Wait.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: Don't say it if you know it. Maybe keep going. Okay,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: I'll keep going. I'll probably remember it. You probably will.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: I feel like you are a connoisseur of the strange, dark,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: and mysterious. But you've done a great job keeping it tight-lipped. Yeah. Yeah,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: we'll see.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: Here we go.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: We'll tell it, and you can tell me at the
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: end if you knew this one. You can tell me
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: when you figured it out. How about that? So she
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: goes for a run, and then when she gets back,
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: she changes up. She gets ready for work. She goes out. She's, again,
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: this high-powered lawyer. It's a big, important job. But over
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: the course of the day, she starts feeling kind of sick.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: Not really bad, not like she's got a fever, but
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: like just a little sick, like a little under the weather.
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: And she normally feels great all the time. And so
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: this is really noticeable. So she registers that I'm not
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: feeling too good. But she goes about her day. She
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: does her work. She comes home and she tells her husband.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: And she's got two kids who are teenagers. She's like, yeah,
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: I don't feel that good. I don't feel that good.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: And the husband's like, well, you know what? Tomorrow, if
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: you're not feeling good, you should just stay home. Take
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: a sick day. You never take sick days, right? She's like, oh,
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: we'll see. Next day comes around. She feels even worse.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: But it's still sort of subtle. She's not vomiting. She
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: doesn't have a fever. It's like, I feel lethargic and sick.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: I feel tired. So she takes a sick day. she's
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: thinking this is just a cold or something minor, it'll
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: go away. But it doesn't. And over the course of
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: the week, she just doesn't get any better. It's like
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: she just keeps feeling just sort of a little bit
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: under the weather and it never goes away. By the
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: end of the week, when she's missed a week of
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: work now, and she really never missed work, she goes
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: to a doctor. She talks to a doctor and she's like,
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know what it is. Like, I just feel
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: under the weather. And they're like, oh, Ellie, you know,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: you just, you work too hard. You need to take
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: more time off, right? That's all it is. That's The
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: classic explanation that happens in every movie, everyone writes it off, right?
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: And she's like, okay. So she takes more time off,
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: but she doesn't get better. And so she starts seeing
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: more doctors and more doctors sort of have like this
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: roundabout answer. It's like, well, you know, your levels in
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: your blood are this, or like, oh, you know, you
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: probably just have this sickness that's going on. It's all
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: these sort of roundabout answers, but no one's prepared to
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: really like dig in and say, wait a minute, is
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: there something actually seriously wrong here? And so months go by,
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: Ellie just doesn't get better. She ends up taking time
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: off from work. That's an extended time off from work.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: And her boss doesn't believe her that she's actually sick.
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: They think it's a term called malingering where somebody basically
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: thinks you're lying about being sick. Like, oh, I can't
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: go to school today because I'm sick. I'd be like malingering.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: She gets accused of malingering and she gets fired. She
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: gets fired from her job. And worse than that, as
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: she's dealing with a very real sickness, her own family
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: sort of is like, honey, I don't know. Maybe this
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: is in your head. Maybe you're not really sick. She
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: ends up getting divorced. So this, again, starts sad. Don't worry.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: Bear with me. She gets divorced because her and her husband,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: they start fighting over, basically, is it real or not
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: that you have some mystery illness? They get divorced. She
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: gets fired. Her kids sort of turn their back on her.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: They sort of were like, I don't know. I sort
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: of don't know if this is real or not. They
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: didn't say, I don't believe you, but it's like, I
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: don't know, mom. Like this is sort of, this is
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: sort of, I don't know. I mean, you got fired
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: over this. A lot of people are saying it's not true, right?
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: Ellie's life from that point just went downhill for like
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: two decades, like 20 years almost. She never got better.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: It got like progressively worse. but only a little bit worse,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: but always worse for like decades. She went to specialist
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: after specialist after specialist and nobody could give her an answer.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: By this point, they also know you clearly have something
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: serious and we don't know what it is, but no
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: one could help her. Eventually though, she starts showing signs
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: that whatever's going on with her is getting really serious
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: and she convinces herself that she's going to die. Like,
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: you know what? No one can cure me. I feel
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: like I'm just shutting down. This is it for me.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: And so instead of going to a doctor at this point,
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: this is 20 years into this madness. She's lost her husband.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: Her kids have turned on her. She's been fired. Her
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: life has really gone poorly at this point. She's sort
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: of over it, to be honest. She's like, you know
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do? I'm not gonna seek care anymore.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: No one can help me. I'm gonna go move to
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: this house in Southern California. She loves Southern California. I'm
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: gonna move to this house. I'm not gonna tell anyone.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: And I'm just going to let myself pass away. And
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: I'm going to die in this house. That's it. So
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do. And she's convinced herself that she's,
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: she's near the end anyways. So she's just going to
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: enjoy her last few moments. And so she hires this
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: person known as an end of life care coordinator. Who's
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: like with you when you die. And she goes to
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: this house and she literally gets into her bed and
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: tells this person that she's just hired. Okay. I'm just
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: going to like lay here and wait and to die.
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: But three days goes by. And she doesn't die. She
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: feels horrible, but she's very frail, but she doesn't die.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: And so she's like, okay, I'm actually going to go
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: for a walk. I'm going to take a little break,
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to come back, and I'll go back
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: to lying, and we'll figure it out. So she and
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: her end-of-life care coordinator, they leave the house, and they
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: go for a walk. And it's a beautiful day, like sunny,
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: beautiful day. And they end up walking past this field
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: of flowers, this beautiful field of flowers. It's right along
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: the sidewalk, this wooden fence, Just imagine the most picturesque
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: field of just the most beautiful flowers. And Ellie is
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: so struck by how beautiful it is that for a
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: moment it was like, wow, you know what? Life isn't
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: so bad. This is so beautiful. And she told her
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: person she was with, like, you go over there. I'm
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: just going to sit here and just take in this
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: amazing view. Smell the flowers. Enjoy this. Enjoy this. This
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: is one of my final moments, right? And so she's
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: looking at this field. She's taking it all in. And
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: she starts to hear a buzzing sound over her head.
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: And I mean, you're near a field of flowers. There's
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: bound to be insects. So this was not a particularly
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: big deal. But she hears a buzzing sound. She looks
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: up and she sees a bee. It's a huge bee.
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: It was an African killer bee. It's a huge bee.
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: But again, she's like, I'm near a field of flowers.
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: This is where bees are. Not a big deal. So
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: she's back to looking at the field. But a second later,
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: the buzzing gets a lot louder. Like really loud. She
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: looks up now. And now there is an entire swarm
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: of African killer bees that are right over her head.
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: And these are like vicious stinging insects that will attack
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: you and keep attacking you. These are called killer bees
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: for a reason. And for whatever reason, Ellie Lobel became
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: their target. And as she's looking up, this swarm of
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: bees descended on her face and began stinging her hundreds
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: of times. Over and over and over, and she collapses
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: to the ground. She's very frail to begin with. She's
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: getting stung repeatedly. Her care person runs away, you know,
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: leaves her there. She can't even go anywhere. She's getting
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: stung over. It's like, this is the worst thing that
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: can happen to you. But eventually, the care person's like,
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: I should probably go help her. He runs back, and
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: he picks her up, and he's running with her now
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: in his arms to bring her back to the Airbnb
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: or the rented house they were in. And she's telling him,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: don't bring me to the hospital. Like the bees are
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: off of her now, but she's all already swelling up
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: from all the stings. And she's like, don't bring me
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: to the hospital. Like this will help me die. Like,
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: let me just be put in my bed. And so
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: they run Ellie back to the house and they put
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: her in her bed and she's in so much pain.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: And she just like lays there and she's like, leave
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: me be like, let the anaphylactic shock take over. But
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: she doesn't get worse. She doesn't, the pain she's feeling
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: is really bad. But like over the coming three days,
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: it was almost like things got better for Ellie. Like
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: all those chronic pains that she had for 20 years
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: began to fade. Like she had joint stiffness that was
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: like so intense. And by day three, post bee stings,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: she's got a lot of pain from the stings. But
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: she's like, wow, I can like move my arms again.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: I can move my legs again. I can sit up
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: on my own power again. But she wasn't someone who
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: automatically thought, oh, great, I'm better now. It's like, what's
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: going on here? This doesn't make any sense. I just
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: got stung by a pack of bees. Why do I
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: feel better? It would turn out there was a group
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: of scientists in Australia who were studying a disease called
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: Lyme disease, which is something you get if you're bit
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: by a tick that's carrying this disease. And they were
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: trying to determine if potentially certain bee venom... could cure
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: Lyme disease in its end stage. But the problem with
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: this particular theory is it was unethical to conduct a study.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: They couldn't round up Lyme disease patients who were in
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: their end stage and say, hey, do you mind if
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: we sting you a thousand times with these bees? Probably
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: won't do anything, but we need to see if it
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: might help you. It was denied. So they had all
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: this paperwork that they had done, all these, the thesis
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: they'd come up with that we think certain bee venom,
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: including African killer bee venom, could cure Lyme disease. Ellie Lobel,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: on the day she went out running, got bit by
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: a tick and nobody noticed. She caught Lyme disease. She
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: was dying of Lyme disease. She got stung by the
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: correct bees, according to the theory, and it cured her completely.
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: And now, because of that, that instance, bee stings have
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: become literally a way to treat Lyme disease. And Ellie
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: Lobel tours the country, literally advocating for Lyme disease patients
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: to go get stung by bees because it'll cure your condition.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: So she's all better now. Just took getting stung by bees. Yeah.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: She just goes and gets stung by bees. You ever
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: thought about that as a profession? That's crazy. All right.
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: So look, obviously Gwen and Liana and Raylan and Desmond
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: and Ellie Grace, they're incredible. And it's been so much
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: fun to be here. to get to share this time
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: with you. And of course you, Liana. As I said before, please,
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: obviously just watching this video, all the proceeds are going
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: to go to helping fund your medical bills, but also
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: they have a GoFundMe. I will make a donation. Our
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: studio is making donations for this video. Let's do the
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: little things we can to help this family. You guys
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: deserve it. Great to have you. Thank you guys. That's all.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: Let's do one of these. I want to do one
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: of these to sign off. You ever see me do those?
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: Even though I do it at the beginning, we'll do
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: it at the end. All right. Thank you very much
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: and good night. Good morning. I'm doing a workout called
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: the Tony Strong workout. He was diagnosed with ALS a
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: few years ago. This workout, he and his family, they
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: created to sort of represent his fighting inner spirit, and
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do it.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: Tony, you're diabolical, dude.
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: Just got done doing Tony Strong. This was brutal. Way
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: harder than I thought it would be. We're going to
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: try to raise some money for them. Hey, if you
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: want to try the Tony Strong workout, film yourself doing it,
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: take a picture, whatever, and hashtag Tony Strong, and I'll
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: reshare it. All right, see you guys. All right, thank
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: you all so much for joining me tonight at the campfire.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: And if you enjoyed this, remember, we actually have a
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: whole playlist of Campfire episodes that are ready for you
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: to binge right now. If you want to do that,
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: go ahead and click right here and give them a watch.
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: All right. Until next time.
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: See ya.