Latest / Ghost stories and the Unusual Paranormal podcast / Ghost Stories: The Raven – The Haunting Truth Behind Poe's Darkest Poem

Transcript

Ghost Stories: The Raven – The Haunting Truth Behind Poe's Darkest Poem · Ghost stories and the Unusual Paranormal podcast

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: When the lights go out, some stories refuse to stay buried.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Ghost Stories and the Unusual Paranormal Podcast. Where
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: whispers become warnings. Where shadows remember. And where the things
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: that follow you home were never just your imagination. So tonight,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: lock your doors, turn up the volume, and whatever you do,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: try not to listen alone. And the Unusual Paranormal Podcast
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: with your host, Joe, the Ghost Guy.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Previously on Ghost Stories and the Unusual Paranormal Podcast. Joe
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: the Ghost Guy told us about the man, the myth,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: and the scary and horrifying legend of the most feared
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: monster of all, the Prince of Darkness himself, Vlad II,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: also known as Vlad the Impaler, also known as his
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: darker name, Count Dracula. How he started as a prince, and.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: What he did to the invading soldiers, either by torture
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: and or putting their bodies on wooden stakes, dead or alive,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: or both. And the legend tells us he drank their blood,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: and the legends of Dracula began. Where is he going
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: to go next? Let's tune into this episode and see,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: shall we? On Ghost Stories and the Unusual Paranormal Podcast,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: with your spooky ghost investigator, Joe the Ghost Guy.
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are across
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: the country and around the world. You are listening to
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Ghost Stories and the Unusual Paranormal Podcast. I am indeed
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: your spooky host, Joe the Ghost Guy. We have a
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: wonderful story lined up for you today. We do a
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: monster one we did on Vlad. And we're going to
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: tiptoe into the darker side. One of my favorite poems.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: You know, even though this poet was scrutinized and, you know,
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: made fun of and etc., you know, after his death,
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: you know, his poems.
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: Were sought to be, you know, pretty dark, but also
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: they were like any artist, you know, who passed away
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: or as, you know, you know, that their, the work
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: is good. And, um, Tonight, we're going to go into
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: one of his poems. We're going to talk about Edgar
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: Allan Poe and the story we're going to do tonight.
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: There are things in this world that mankind was never
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: meant to understand. There are shadows that move within nothing.
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: Living stands before the night. There are voices that whisper
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: from empty rooms. And there are creatures that seem to
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: exist somewhere between the world of the living and the
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: kingdom of dead. But along All these creatures associated with darkness, death,
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: and the supernatural. There is one whose presence has haunted
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: the imagination of mankind for centuries. A creature dressed entirely
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: in black. A creature whose wings seemed woven from midnight
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: itself a creature that reaches from the dead branches abandoned
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: churches forgotten graveyards and windows of houses where death was
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: recently visited tonight story we are diving deep into the raven.
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: Its feathers are darker than the grave. Its eyes seem
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: to carry secrets that no living soul should know. And
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: its cry sound like the warning from somewhere beyond the veil.
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: But what happens when a raven does not nearly cry.
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: What happens when it speaks? And what happens when the
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: only word it knows is the very word you fear
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: hearing the most? Tonight, we travel into the torture and
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: the tortured imagination of America's greatest masters of horror, a
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: man who understood that the most terrifying ghosts are sometimes
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: not the spirits that haunt your house, but the memories
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: of that haunted in our minds. His name was Edgar
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: Allan Poe. And in 1845, he gave the world one
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: of the darkest and most unforgivable poems ever written, called
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: The Raven. And I tell a grieving man, lost love,
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: and a midnight visitor, and a single word that would
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: condemn a broken soul into an eternity of sorrow. Welcome
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: to Ghost Stories and the Unusual Paranormal Podcast. Tonight's terrifying
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: journey is called The Raven, The Midnight Messenger Who Never Leaves.
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: A lonely house standing beneath a black winter sky. The
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: year is somewhere in the 19th century. December has come.
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: Bringing with it a bitter cold of winter. The trees
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: are bare. The gardens are dead. The roads are deserted.
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: And inside forgotten house one man sits alone in a
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: chamber illuminated by the fading light of a dying fire
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: his name has been lost to memory but his suffering
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: has not once this man knew happiness Once, laughter filled
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: those rooms. Once, there was want in this house. And once,
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: there was Lenore. Lenore? Even the sound of her name
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: was enough to break his heart. And had she been
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: been beautiful. Her voice had been gentle. Her presence had
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: filled his world with happiness. But believed that would last forever.
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: But death makes no promises. And death does not care
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: how deeply someone is in love. Lenore was gone, taken
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: from the world of the living, buried beneath the cold earth.
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: And the man who had loved her was felt, was
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: left behind to wander through the ruins of their memories.
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: Every room submitted him to her. Every shadow seemed to
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: assemble her figure. Every creak of the floorboards made him turn,
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: hoping against hope that she had some more return. Sometimes,
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: late at night, He believed he could hear her walking
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: through the hallway. Sometimes he thought he could smell the
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: faint perfume she once wore. And sometimes he whispered her
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: name into the darkness. The darkness never answered until one
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: December night. One terrible night when something came knocking. It
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: was well past midnight. Fire had burned out to glowing embers.
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: The man sat in his chair, surrounded by ancient books
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: filled with forgotten knowledge. He had spent countless nights searching
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: through these volumes.
• 12:18
  Speaker 6: Books about philosophy, books about religion, books about the mysterious death,
• 12:27
  Speaker 6: books that promised wisdom, and books that offered no comfort whatsoever.
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: He waited, he wanted only one thing, to forget, to
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: forget the funeral, to forget her grave, to forget the
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: terrible moment when he realized that Lenoir would never return.
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: His eyes grew heavy. His head began to fall, and
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: just as sleep reached out to claim him, he heard.
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: He opened his eyes. Someone was knocking at the chamber door.
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: Not pounding. Not scratching. Just a gentle tapping. He started
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: towards the darkness. Who's there? No answer. He waited. The
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: clock continued ticking. It came. Another sound. A little louder
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: this time. The man. rose slowly from his chair. His
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: hands trembled. He told himself it was only a visitor.
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: Perhaps some traveler seeking shelter from the storm. Perhaps a servant.
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: Perhaps someone who had lost their way. But deep inside
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: him something stirred. Something that had been buried beneath his grief. Hope.
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: An impossible, dreadful hope. What if it was her? What
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: if death had somehow released Nora? What if she had
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: come home? He approached the chamber door. His fingers closed
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: round the cold, brass anvil. He hesitated. They pulled it open.
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: Beyond the doorway stood nothing. Only darkness. An endless hallway,
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: swallowed by shadows. Gia leaned forward.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Hello?
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: Silence. He stepped in the doorway. Is someone there? Still nothing. Then,
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: almost without realizing it, he was what he was doing.
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: He whispered the name that had tortured his dreams. Lenore? Lenore?
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: The words returned to him. but it was only an echo.
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: Or so he believed. He closed the door, returned to
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: his chair, and tried to convince himself that the entire
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: experience had been nothing more than the work of an
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: exhausted mind. But the night was not finished with him.
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: Because the knocking began again. And this time it came
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: from the window. The man turned sharply. The sound came
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: from behind the heavy curtains. From the window overlooked the
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: darkened garden. He stared. at the velvet drapes. Something was there.
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: Something was moving the glass. It heard a faint scrape
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: of fluttering and the unmistakable sound of claws against wood.
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: His heart began to race. Slowly, He approached the window.
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: He reached for the curtain. And with one sudden movement,
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: he pulled him to a side. A massive black raven
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: slipped into the chamber. Its wings beaded ferociously. His wings
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: beaded ferociously against the air. shimmed beneath the firelight, a
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: polished obsidian. His claws were long and curved. Its beak
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: was sharp, and its eyes, its eyes were terrible, not
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: because they were, they glowed, but because they were monstrous.
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: but because they seemed to understand. The bird circled the
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: chamber once, then twice, and finally landed upon a marble
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: bust of Peleus Athena, positioned above the chamber door. There
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: it sat, motionless, watching, The man stared in disbelief. A raven,
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: or of all the creatures that could have entered his home,
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: a raven had chosen his chamber, and not just any raven.
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: This one seemed almost loyal. Its posture was proud. its
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: gaze over a week, its gaze under waving. It showed
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: no fear of the man, no desire to escape. Instead,
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: it sat above the door like a dark judge waiting
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: to deliver a sentence and gave a nervous laugh. Well,
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: You are a strange visitor. Raven. remain silent. Tell me,
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: creature of the night, what is your name? For a moment,
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: nothing happened. The bird tilted its head, its black eyes
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: fixed upon And then, it speaked open. The raven, a natural,
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: hollow voice. Nevermore. The man stumbled backward. Had he heard correctly?
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: Had that bird spoken? He stared at it. The raven
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: stared back. Nevermore. the wood of the word hung in
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: the chamber, cold, final, unchanging. He had heard stories of
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: ravens that could imitate human speech. Perhaps the bird had
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: belonged to someone, unfortunate master, who had taught that single
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: word to it. Perhaps it had escaped. Perhaps the storm
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: had driven it into his window. Surely there was a
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: reasonable explanation. But as he studied the bird, he noticed
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: something that disturbed it. The raven did not look confused.
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: It did not behave like a frightened animal trapped inside
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: an unfamiliar room. It looked as though it had been
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: waiting for him, as though it knew precisely where it was.
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: and why he had came. At first, the man tried
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: to amuse himself with his visit. What could a bird
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: possibly do? It was only an animal, a creature seeking shelter.
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: He pulled his chair closer to the door and sat
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: directly Beneath the raven, the bird watched them. He watched
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: the bird for several minutes. Neither moved. Then the man spoke.
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: Others have left me before. His voice was barely a whisper.
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: Friends have departed.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Happiness.
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: Has departed. Even hope has departed. He lowered his eyes.
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: And tomorrow, perhaps, you will leave me too. The raven
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: opened his beak. Nevermore? The man froze. Something about timing
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: was wrong. It was as though the bird had answered
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: his statement. Not meanly repeated a word. Answered. He laughed nervously.
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: Of course. That is all you know how to say.
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: The raven remained still. But the man could not stop staring.
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: A terrible thought had began forming in his mind. What
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: if the bird was not an ordinary visitor? What if
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: he had been sent? His Suffering What if something beyond
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: the grave had hurt his suffering? What if Lenore herself
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: had sent a messenger. He leaned forward. Tell me, Raven,
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: where have you come from? Silence. From some distant land? Nothing.
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: From a graveyard? The raven tilted his head. From the
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: kingdom of the dead? The bird's eyes seemed to darken,
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: and the man seriously wished he had never asked. For
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: hours passed, the storm continued, and the raven refused to move.
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: The man tried to read, but every sentence reminded him
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: of death. He tried to close his eyes. And every
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: time he did, he saw Lenore. Her face. Her smile.
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: The way she used to stand behind the window and
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: watch the rain. He remembered the last time he had
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: held her hand. How cold it had become. How weak
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: her voice. sounded and now desperately he had begged her
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: not to leave him. He had promised her that he
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: would remember her forever but now he was beginning to
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: understand that forever can be a curse. He looked towards
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: the raven Did you know her? The bird didn't. Did
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: you know Lenore? The chamber seemed to grow older. She
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: was everything to me. His voice broke.
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: Everything.
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: He rose and approached the bird. Tell me, is she
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: at peace? The raven stared. Is she somewhere beyond the
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: world waiting for me? Silence. Will I ever hold her again?
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: The raven opened its beak. The raven said, Nevermore. The
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: man staggered backwards No. He shook his head. No, that
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: can't be true. The bird said nothing. You don't understand
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: what I'm asking. The raven blinked. Are you only a bird?
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: The man slammed his fist against the table. Are you
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: only a bird? Then the raven. remained emotional. And somehow,
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: the silence was more terrifying than its voice. Because the
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: man began to believe that the creature knew something he
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: did not. Something about manure. Something about death. Something about
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: the terrible possibility that the grave was not only a
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: merely a separation but an ending. Then the strange things began.
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: At first, they were almost too subtle to notice. The
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: candle flames leaned towards the raven. Along the walls, seemed
• 29:11
  Speaker 5: to stretch. The air grew heavy with a fragrance the
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: man recognized immediately. Lenore's perfume. He stood. His breath caught
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: in his throat. The fragrance grew stronger. Roses. Lavender. the
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: faint sweetness that had once clung into her hair he
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: turned towards an empty room Lenore he spun around nothing
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: Another footstep. This time near the fireplace. Then a third
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: near the door. He could feel a presence moving through
• 30:11
  Speaker 5: the room. Not something he could see. Something he could sense.
• 30:20
  Speaker 5: The same sensation. No experiences. Even standing. In an empty room.
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: And suddenly. Became certain. That someone. Is watching. The man looked.
• 30:39
  Speaker 5: At the raven. Is she here? The bird did not answer.
• 30:46
  Speaker 5: Have you brought her to me? The curtains moved. Although
• 30:52
  Speaker 5: the windows. Were closed. The fire. Dim and the darkened
• 31:02
  Speaker 5: reflection of the window. The man thought he saw the
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: outline of a woman standing behind him. A pale figure.
• 31:15
  Speaker 5: Long hair. A familiar dress. He turned. Lenore. Nothing stood there.
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: Only an empty chamber. But in the window's reflection, the
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: woman remained. He stared in horror. Her face was hidden.
• 31:46
  Speaker 5: Her head was bowed. Her hands hung at her sides. Slowly.
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: Very slowly. She raised her hand, and there her voice
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: could have been seen. There was only darkness. The man screamed.
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: He stumbled backwards. He reflected. The reflection vanished, and the
• 32:22
  Speaker 5: raven spoke. Nevermore was the ghost. Was it Lenore? There
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: was a nightmare brought into life by grief and exhaustion.
• 32:40
  Speaker 5: Or had the raven opened a doorway through which something
• 32:45
  Speaker 5: else had entered? The man could no longer tell. And
• 32:52
  Speaker 5: that was when the true horror began. Throughout history, ravens
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: had occupied a strange place in human imagination. In some traditions,
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: they are associated with wisdom, others, prophecy, and others, of
• 33:21
  Speaker 5: death and the battlefield. Ancient Norse god Odin was accompanied
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: by two ravens, human and human associated with thought, memory,
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: and folklore. Ravens have sometimes been imagined as watchers, messengers,
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: or creatures that know, but human beings cannot. and in
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: dark corners of Gothic literature. The raven became something more frightening,
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: a symbol of knowledge that cannot be forgotten, a messenger
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: that delivers no comfort, a messenger that death does not dictate.
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: The man gazed up at the creature What are you?
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: His voice trembled. Are you a spirit? Raven watched. A messenger?
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: No answer. A demon? The flames flickered. Or be something worse.
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: The bird slowly spread its wings. Its numerous shadows climbed
• 35:06
  Speaker 5: the walls, crossed the ceiling, over the bookshelves, until the
• 35:13
  Speaker 5: chamber seemed to be filled with the monstrous shape that
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: no ordinary bird can cast. The man covered his face,
• 35:26
  Speaker 5: and from somewhere inside his own mind, a whisper seemed
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: to rise. Ask it. Ask the question you fear the most. It.
• 35:45
  Speaker 5: There are. Six to three. He lowered his hands. Tears
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: ran down his face. Tell me, creature. Is there a
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: heaven where Lenore waits? The raven did not move.
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: Will my soul find hers when my life is over?
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: His voice flows into a deep despair.
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: Will I see my beloved Lenore again? Terrible silence fills
• 36:31
  Speaker 5: the chamber. Then the bird spoke. Nevermore. The man fell
• 36:40
  Speaker 5: into his knees. The word struck him harder than any
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: physical blow. Nevermore. No reunion. No final embrace. No voice
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: calling his name behind the grave. only absence, only meaning,
• 37:07
  Speaker 5: only memory, only the endless torment of loving someone who
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: would never answer. Yet the raven had offered no proof
• 37:23
  Speaker 5: of any of this and only repeated one word that knew.
• 37:32
  Speaker 5: And that was perhaps the cruelest part of all. The
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: man himself had given the word its meaning. He had
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: turned a bird's message utterance into a sentence of eternal damnation.
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: Something inside the man began to break. He could not
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: no longer extinguished the storm outside from the storm within
• 38:09
  Speaker 5: his mind. Every shadow became a threat. Every creak became
• 38:17
  Speaker 5: a whisper. Every movement of the raven's head seemed to
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: be like judgment. He began pacing. Why have you come here?
• 38:32
  Speaker 5: Raven watched. Why this house? Silence. Why tonight is breathing quicken?
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: Why torp me with that word? The bird remained perched
• 38:55
  Speaker 5: above the door. The man pointed at it.
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 39:02
  Speaker 5: His voice cracked. You know what happened to her. He
• 39:07
  Speaker 5: grabbed a book. He grabbed a book and hurled it
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: across the room. It had struck the wall and fell open.
• 39:18
  Speaker 5: Another book followed. Then another. The pages scattered across the floor.
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: The man screamed into the darkness. Answer me. Nevermore? He
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: staggered towards the door. Then leave. The raven remained. Get
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: out of my house. movement return to that storm bird
• 39:57
  Speaker 5: watch return to whatever nightmare sent you feathers ruffled softly
• 40:07
  Speaker 5: leave me alone never more in that instant man understood
• 40:17
  Speaker 5: the word in its entirely New way. The raven would
• 40:24
  Speaker 5: never leave. Not tomorrow. Not the next day. Not even
• 40:33
  Speaker 5: when the sun rose. Never more. It would remain. Watching. Waiting.
• 40:45
  Speaker 5: A living reminder of everything he had lost. He backed
• 40:52
  Speaker 5: away from the door. The bird's shadow stretched across the floor.
• 41:00
  Speaker 5: And whatever the man moved, his shadow seemed to follow.
• 41:07
  Speaker 5: The man could endure no more. His sorrow became a terror.
• 41:17
  Speaker 5: His terror became rain. and his rage had become something
• 41:25
  Speaker 5: close to madness. He stood before the raven, trembling, creature
• 41:34
  Speaker 5: of darkness, his voice echoed through the chamber. Whether you
• 41:42
  Speaker 5: are a bird, a devil, or some messenger of From
• 41:48
  Speaker 5: the world beyond, I condemn you to leave. The raven
• 41:57
  Speaker 5: remained motionless. Take your black wings away from my door. Silence.
• 42:07
  Speaker 5: Take your shadow from my floor. The man's voice rose
• 42:14
  Speaker 5: into a scream. Take your terrible word from my heart.
• 42:21
  Speaker 5: For one dreadful moment, the bird seemed almost human. His
• 42:28
  Speaker 5: head tilted, his eyes fixed upon the man, its beak open,
• 42:38
  Speaker 5: and the final answer came. Nevermore. Nevermore. The word filled
• 42:50
  Speaker 5: the darkness and seemed to settle into the walls, into
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: the books, and into every story, every stone, the house.
• 43:07
  Speaker 5: The man fell backwards into his chair. His strength was gone.
• 43:15
  Speaker 5: His anger was gone. Even his tears had stopped. He
• 43:21
  Speaker 5: looked towards the door. There, upon a marble bust, the
• 43:27
  Speaker 5: raven still sat, black against the darkness, his eyes reflecting
• 43:38
  Speaker 5: at the glass pale light of the moon. Beneath it,
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: the shadow stretched across the floor, The man tried to rise.
• 43:50
  Speaker 5: He could not. He tried to pray. No words came out.
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: And tried to remember Lenore's smile. But all he could
• 44:03
  Speaker 5: see was the raven. And all he could hear was
• 44:12
  Speaker 5: that one dreadful word. Nevermore? Warning should have brought comfort.
• 44:24
  Speaker 5: Warning should have driven away darkness. Warning should have revived
• 44:36
  Speaker 5: the raven as nothing more than an ordinary bird. But
• 44:43
  Speaker 5: into the world of Edgar Allan Poe, not every nightmare
• 44:48
  Speaker 5: ends with sun as the sun rises. The raven remained,
• 44:56
  Speaker 5: still poached above the chamber door, still silent, still watching.
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: The man remained into his chair, his eyes fixed upon
• 45:10
  Speaker 5: the creature, and across the floor lay the bird's long
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: dark shadow, shadow that had become something more than an
• 45:26
  Speaker 5: absence of light. It was grief. It was memory. It
• 45:33
  Speaker 5: was desire. It was the terrible certainty that the life
• 45:39
  Speaker 5: he once knew would never return. The man would ask
• 45:47
  Speaker 5: whoever he would see Lenore again. The raven would answer.
• 45:57
  Speaker 5: But perhaps the true horror was not that the bird
• 46:03
  Speaker 5: possessed knowledge of that afterlife. Perhaps the true horror was
• 46:10
  Speaker 5: that the man could no longer imagine any answer other
• 46:16
  Speaker 5: than despair The Raven did not seem to attack them.
• 46:23
  Speaker 5: It did not need its claws to stain with blood.
• 46:28
  Speaker 5: It did not need supernatural powers. It needed only the
• 46:35
  Speaker 5: Sith to watch and to repeat the word that Grieving
• 46:43
  Speaker 5: Man could not bear. Nevermore? And so the man remained
• 46:52
  Speaker 5: beneath the shadow, trapped only by iron chains, not by
• 46:59
  Speaker 5: locked doors, not by any visible prison, but the memory
• 47:07
  Speaker 5: he could neither release nor forgive or survive without. The
• 47:14
  Speaker 5: raven had come to the guardian of his sorrow, and
• 47:20
  Speaker 5: his soul cannot raise from beneath its shadow. Now, my listeners,
• 47:29
  Speaker 5: there is something important we must understand about this terrifying story.
• 47:38
  Speaker 5: Edgar Allan Poe published The Raven in January 1845. it
• 47:46
  Speaker 5: became one of those most celebrated works. And though our
• 47:52
  Speaker 5: dramatized tonight was carried its haunting images into the root
• 48:02
  Speaker 5: of the supernatural horror, Poe's original poem leaves one chilling
• 48:09
  Speaker 5: question to answer. Is the raven truly supernatural or is
• 48:17
  Speaker 5: the narrator destroying himself through the grief. The raven never
• 48:26
  Speaker 5: claims to be a demon. It never claims to speak
• 48:31
  Speaker 5: from the dead. It never opposes that Lenore was lost forever.
• 48:37
  Speaker 5: And it says only one word, nevermore. Yet the narrator
• 48:50
  Speaker 5: continues asking questions that he knows all bring him the
• 48:58
  Speaker 5: same painful answer. He becomes both the prisoner and the jailer.
• 49:06
  Speaker 5: He is terrified of the word and still he demands
• 49:12
  Speaker 5: to hear it again. That is the genius, opposed masterpiece,
• 49:20
  Speaker 5: The raven may not be a messenger from the other world,
• 49:26
  Speaker 5: or it may be nothing more than just an ordinary bird,
• 49:31
  Speaker 5: but the suffering is real. The despair is real. And
• 49:39
  Speaker 5: the In the darkness of all costumes, the narrator is
• 49:44
  Speaker 5: terrified because it can't exist without any ghosts at all.
• 49:51
  Speaker 5: Poe himself knew much about loss and hardship. His life
• 49:58
  Speaker 5: was marked by betrayment, financial struggles, and personal suffering. His wife, Virginia,
• 50:09
  Speaker 5: would die in 1847, two years after The Raven was published.
• 50:16
  Speaker 5: His work reportedly explored the fragile boundary between mourning, obsession, fear,
• 50:29
  Speaker 5: and madness. Perhaps that is why The Raven was endured
• 50:36
  Speaker 5: for so long. Because it speaks to something equally human.
• 50:43
  Speaker 5: The fear of losing something or someone. The fear of
• 50:52
  Speaker 5: being forgotten. And the fear of the people we love.
• 51:01
  Speaker 5: Maybe God preserves us. And now, dear listeners, I want
• 51:08
  Speaker 5: you to imagine something. Imagine that tonight, after this episode ends,
• 51:17
  Speaker 5: you turn off the lights. You walk through your quiet house.
• 51:24
  Speaker 5: You check your doors. You close the curtains. And you
• 51:30
  Speaker 5: prepare for sleep. But just as you are drifting off,
• 51:36
  Speaker 5: You hear something, a gentle tapping. You open your eyes.
• 51:44
  Speaker 5: You listen. Perhaps it is just the wind. Perhaps a
• 51:49
  Speaker 5: branch rushing against your window. Perhaps nothing at all. Then
• 51:57
  Speaker 5: it comes again. You rise from your bed. You walk
• 52:02
  Speaker 5: towards the window. And through the darkness, you see a shape.
• 52:09
  Speaker 5: A large black bird perched upon your windowsill. Its feathers
• 52:16
  Speaker 5: shine beneath the moon. Its claws grip the wood. And
• 52:22
  Speaker 5: its eyes, its eyes are watching you. You tell yourself,
• 52:29
  Speaker 5: it's only a raven. An ordinary bird. Nothing more. But
• 52:37
  Speaker 5: then the creature tilts its head. Its beak opens. And
• 52:45
  Speaker 5: from the darkness comes a voice. A voice that sounds
• 52:49
  Speaker 5: supposedly old. A voice that seems to rise. The bottom
• 52:59
  Speaker 5: of an empty grave. Nevermore. You stumble backwards. The raven
• 53:09
  Speaker 5: does not move. You close the curtains, but you still
• 53:14
  Speaker 5: hear its claws against glass. You turn away, and then,
• 53:20
  Speaker 5: from somewhere inside the room, you hear the tapping again.
• 53:27
  Speaker 5: This time, it's not coming from the window. It's coming
• 53:33
  Speaker 5: from behind you. And perhaps, The most terrifying thing about
• 53:40
  Speaker 5: the raven is not that it speaks, but that it
• 53:46
  Speaker 5: appears at midnight. Not only even that it seems to
• 53:53
  Speaker 5: know the secrets of the dead, but as the once
• 53:58
  Speaker 5: terrible word enters your mind, you may never be able
• 54:04
  Speaker 5: to silence it. Because some memories do not fade. Some
• 54:11
  Speaker 5: sorrows do not sleep. And some shadows never leave. The
• 54:19
  Speaker 5: night is growing darker. The wind is beginning to rise.
• 54:26
  Speaker 5: Somewhere behind your window. Something black is waiting. And if
• 54:33
  Speaker 5: you hear the tapping. your chamber door tonight. Do not
• 54:38
  Speaker 5: answer to because the visitor stand behind. May not leave.
• 54:46
  Speaker 5: Take your life. It may have come for something worse.
• 54:54
  Speaker 5: Your peace, your hope, at least at last light remain
• 55:01
  Speaker 5: in your soul and This has been Ghost Stories and
• 55:09
  Speaker 5: the Unusual Paranormal Podcast where the unexplained becomes terrifying and
• 55:18
  Speaker 5: the dead still have stories to tell. Until we meet again,
• 55:23
  Speaker 5: my friends, beware the darkness. Beware the midnight hour. Above all,
• 55:33
  Speaker 5: beware of the raven. Quote the Raven, Nevermore.