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Horrifying Stories About Creepy Neighbors · Stories from the Dark

0:23
Speaker 1: This story involves my grandfather, Ivan, and his father, my great-grandpa, Maxim.
0:30
Speaker 1: This story takes place when the two lived behind the
0:33
Speaker 1: Iron Curtain in what was then known as the USSR.
0:38
Speaker 1: Great-grandpa Maxim was a Russian through and through, almost a
0:42
Speaker 1: stereotype really, He ran a pig farm out in the
0:45
Speaker 1: middle of the sticks, held together by spit, twine, and goodwill,
0:49
Speaker 1: and his neighbor reared sheep and bred pigs. When great-grandpa
0:53
Speaker 1: shared plans of building a new barn with the neighbor,
0:56
Speaker 1: the neighbor offered to help fund the project so they
0:58
Speaker 1: could use it as a shared space. Despite the goodwill
1:02
Speaker 1: my great-grandfather had shown in accepting the deal, the two
1:05
Speaker 1: men mostly kept to themselves after the barn was completed,
1:09
Speaker 1: and their wives got along well with each other at least.
1:12
Speaker 1: My grandpa Ivan, just a teenager at the time, had
1:15
Speaker 1: done a few odd jobs for the neighbor. But most
1:18
Speaker 1: of the socializing the men did was just giving each
1:20
Speaker 1: other a gruff hello, if they passed each other in
1:23
Speaker 1: the yard. Now this might seem hostile, but for Russian
1:27
Speaker 1: men in those days, this was very amicable behavior. About
1:32
Speaker 1: three times a year, they'd get together and get absolutely
1:35
Speaker 1: poop-faced on the neighbor's home-brewed vodka, which he made with
1:38
Speaker 1: some secret ingredients that grandpa Ivan was Certain involved farm chemicals. Now,
1:45
Speaker 1: life behind the Iron Curtain was tough. My grandpa, before
1:48
Speaker 1: he passed, would say that us Americans spend our lives
1:51
Speaker 1: running our fingers through sand to earn a living. In Russia,
1:56
Speaker 1: you had to dig at the frozen ground with bloody fingers,
1:59
Speaker 1: and even after a day, you'd barely make a dent.
2:02
Speaker 1: I think the phrase probably sounded better and more poetic
2:05
Speaker 1: in Russian, but the sentiment was one I always liked.
2:09
Speaker 1: It made me vow to work hard and not be
2:11
Speaker 1: one of those guys who only ever have to let
2:13
Speaker 1: soft sand run through their fingers to achieve a day's work.
2:17
Speaker 1: I don't think my grandpa's analogy was too far off, though.
2:21
Speaker 1: The area of Russia that they lived in was a cold,
2:23
Speaker 1: hard place. There was a reason that they reared pigs
2:27
Speaker 1: and cows there. Trying to dig any kind of meaningful
2:30
Speaker 1: holes or break the icy ground was an exercise of futility,
2:34
Speaker 1: or so my grandpa and his father thought. I'll give
2:37
Speaker 1: you some context here about the livestock barn that great-grandpa
2:41
Speaker 1: Maxim and his neighbor shared. There were two huge messes
2:45
Speaker 1: of pig enclosures on each side of the barn. Then
2:48
Speaker 1: in the middle were a few breeding cages where the
2:50
Speaker 1: animals would mate. This middle area would also double as
2:54
Speaker 1: the birthing area, so newly born piglets weren't trampled. And
2:58
Speaker 1: as I said, the farm was being held together by
3:01
Speaker 1: tape and goodwill. It was a very unconventional layout, but
3:05
Speaker 1: nothing in Russia was conventional these days. Grandpa Ivan would
3:09
Speaker 1: tell me stories of seeing a man the size of
3:11
Speaker 1: a Bigfoot walking down the side of the road walking
3:14
Speaker 1: a bear on a leash. He also told me how
3:17
Speaker 1: another neighbor's kid had almost blown their legs off while
3:19
Speaker 1: trying to create a turbo-powered dirt bike. He'd share more
3:23
Speaker 1: seedy tales like that of Svetlana, a 28-year-old madwoman who
3:28
Speaker 1: barked about wanting to take the innocence of every adult
3:30
Speaker 1: male in the village. And it later came out that
3:33
Speaker 1: Svetlana had never slept with a single man. It was
3:36
Speaker 1: just some kind of weird ploy to force her mother
3:38
Speaker 1: to allow her to join a covent. It takes all sorts,
3:42
Speaker 1: I suppose. Now anyway, back to great-grandpa Maxime, granddad Ivan,
3:48
Speaker 1: and the cleaning of the pig pen. This happened far
3:51
Speaker 1: less often than it should have, but with the harsh
3:53
Speaker 1: conditions described, I can understand why. Grandpa Ivan told me
3:58
Speaker 1: of the freezing cold winters and blistering summers. Even if
4:01
Speaker 1: you could survive the temperatures, it was still another problem.
4:04
Speaker 1: The ground always remained rock hard, so there was nowhere
4:08
Speaker 1: to bury the waste. And so, as you can bet,
4:11
Speaker 1: mucking out the pig pens was a job that Maxime
4:13
Speaker 1: and Ivan didn't exactly look forward to. The butcher they
4:17
Speaker 1: sold to didn't care how filthy the pigs were as
4:20
Speaker 1: long as they were healthy, and so the mucking was
4:22
Speaker 1: done about a third as much as your typical pig farm.
4:26
Speaker 1: One day, Maxime and Ivan are cleaning out the pig
4:29
Speaker 1: pen when Ivan calls Maxime over. He holds up what
4:32
Speaker 1: looks like an odd lump of bones fused together. Maxim
4:37
Speaker 1: dismisses it as a pig's knuckle that the dog must
4:40
Speaker 1: have somehow thrown into the pen, but then he takes
4:43
Speaker 1: another look. Granddad Ivan said Maxim's face went pale on
4:47
Speaker 1: further inspection of that pig knuckle. Russians are prone to
4:51
Speaker 1: speaking straight, and great-grandpa Maxim told Ivan that he thought
4:55
Speaker 1: it really did look like two finger bones sort of
4:58
Speaker 1: melted together. Of course, This got the boys digging out
5:02
Speaker 1: that pig pen and then the second. And as they worked,
5:07
Speaker 1: more and more odd remains were discovered. Eventually, enough bones
5:12
Speaker 1: were discovered to convince Ivan and Maxim that they had
5:15
Speaker 1: stumbled on human remains. If the bones had been restricted
5:19
Speaker 1: to just one of the pens, then Maxim might have
5:22
Speaker 1: dismissed it as an unlucky drifter who passed through the farm.
5:26
Speaker 1: Maybe someone was stupid enough to look for shelter in
5:28
Speaker 1: one of those pens on a deadly winter night and
5:31
Speaker 1: had drunkenly fallen asleep with the pigs. If that was
5:34
Speaker 1: the case, it wouldn't have taken much for one of
5:37
Speaker 1: the 300 to 600 pound creatures to overpower a grown man.
5:42
Speaker 1: Adult pigs do not discriminate when it comes to an
5:44
Speaker 1: easy meal. They're far faster and stronger than most people
5:47
Speaker 1: would give them credit for. If someone was dumb enough
5:50
Speaker 1: to invade their pen in the dead of night, these
5:53
Speaker 1: omnivores would make quick work or, perhaps overpowering and accidentally trampling,
5:59
Speaker 1: and then eventually devouring a drunken stranger. But no. According
6:04
Speaker 1: to Grandad Ivan, they found small bones in both pens.
6:08
Speaker 1: A single drifter was a rare thing on the farm,
6:10
Speaker 1: and there was no way both pens could house the
6:12
Speaker 1: remains if it was a mere drunken accident. Among the
6:17
Speaker 1: remains was a fraction of a human jaw, some teeth,
6:20
Speaker 1: and a couple toes, and what Maxime was certain was
6:24
Speaker 1: a fibula. Now the question was, How the hell were
6:28
Speaker 1: human bones getting into the pig pen? Only Maxim and
6:32
Speaker 1: his workers had the key to the west end of
6:34
Speaker 1: the barn. Their neighbor, Vazislav, and his team had keys
6:38
Speaker 1: to the other side. Maxim waited until he was sure
6:42
Speaker 1: Vazislav had taken some goods into town, and then he
6:46
Speaker 1: and granddad Ivan started searching through his neighbor's end of
6:49
Speaker 1: the barn. With Vasislav and the workers gone, Grandpa and
6:54
Speaker 1: Great-Grandpa had hours to look through the farmer's belongings for
6:57
Speaker 1: any signs of foul play. The hours-long search didn't lead
7:01
Speaker 1: to any shocking discoveries other than one canvas bag placed
7:05
Speaker 1: in the bottom of a barrel. Grandpa Ivan was sure
7:09
Speaker 1: that he would open that sack and see a human
7:11
Speaker 1: skull or blood-covered hatchet fall out. And the bag turned
7:16
Speaker 1: out to be full of old letters, some questionable vodka
7:19
Speaker 1: in used bottles... and a set of postcards featuring some
7:22
Speaker 1: scantily clad women. The search was less than fruitful, though.
7:27
Speaker 1: Vazislav's workers had the same access to the barn as
7:30
Speaker 1: he did. It was just as likely that one of
7:32
Speaker 1: the workers could have disposed of a set of remains,
7:35
Speaker 1: so great-grandpa Maxim decided to take a different approach. Maxim
7:40
Speaker 1: would begin to survey the barn for a few hours
7:42
Speaker 1: nightly to see if he could discover any suspicious activity.
7:47
Speaker 1: Maxim kept watch every night. Most nights, Grandad Ivan joined him,
7:51
Speaker 1: but about two weeks of surveillance in, they saw Vasislav
7:55
Speaker 1: sneaking out of the barn, flashlight in hand, headed into
7:59
Speaker 1: the forest. Maxim waited until the next day, and when
8:03
Speaker 1: the neighbor left for the market, he went and searched
8:05
Speaker 1: the forest. Patches of worked earth were found under a
8:09
Speaker 1: clump of trees in the forest. Perhaps the shade of
8:12
Speaker 1: the trees cast made the surrounding soil softer and easier
8:16
Speaker 1: to dig. Maxime insisted that Grandad Ivan wasn't to be involved,
8:21
Speaker 1: but my grandad wasn't having any of it. He helped
8:24
Speaker 1: Maxime dig up all the mounds. They were filled with
8:27
Speaker 1: canvas bags, each containing human bones. They didn't appear to
8:33
Speaker 1: be complete skeletons, though. Parts looked eaten, and to a farmer,
8:38
Speaker 1: the teeth marks very obviously belonged to pigs. My grandfather
8:44
Speaker 1: had a hardy constitution from working on the farms. You
8:47
Speaker 1: develop it when you spend most of your days smelling
8:49
Speaker 1: pig waste, and even he wasn't able to keep his
8:52
Speaker 1: lunch down when one of the more worn bags fell open.
8:56
Speaker 1: The smell alone would be enough to turn most people's stomachs,
8:59
Speaker 1: but then a particularly large lump of flesh fell out
9:02
Speaker 1: of the bag. The lump looked to be a rotting
9:05
Speaker 1: foot folded in on itself, and the foot being constricted
9:09
Speaker 1: by long, split strands of human hair was too much
9:13
Speaker 1: for Grandpa Ivan to take. It was impossible to identify
9:17
Speaker 1: any of the victims buried there from the rotted remains.
9:20
Speaker 1: Grandpa Ivan couldn't believe what they found in those sacks
9:23
Speaker 1: was once human. Maxime immediately headed back to the farm
9:28
Speaker 1: to call in the horror show to the village police,
9:31
Speaker 1: who were probably already drunk for the day but might
9:33
Speaker 1: get a kick out of remains being found in the woods.
9:37
Speaker 1: Granddad said that Maxime didn't even stop to worry about
9:39
Speaker 1: whether he'd be a suspect even though his pigs had
9:42
Speaker 1: eaten those people. He knew he wasn't responsible. He had
9:46
Speaker 1: faith that the police would believe him, drunk or not.
9:50
Speaker 1: The police arrived shortly after Great Grandad phoned them and
9:53
Speaker 1: if they weren't already sober, the sight of the remains
9:57
Speaker 1: must have done the trick. The neighbor was still at
10:00
Speaker 1: the market, so the police parked their Soviet GAZ wagons
10:03
Speaker 1: behind the barn so the neighbor would be caught unaware.
10:08
Speaker 1: A group of police waited in my great-grandfather's home and
10:11
Speaker 1: the second group entered the neighbor's home and explained to
10:14
Speaker 1: his wife that they needed to be taken in for questioning.
10:18
Speaker 1: After entering Vazislav's home, they discovered an obscene amount of
10:22
Speaker 1: vodka bottles, most of them drained. Mrs. Vazislav was cooperating
10:27
Speaker 1: but was under the impression that her husband had gotten
10:31
Speaker 1: drunk in town and maybe assaulted someone. She had obviously
10:34
Speaker 1: been a victim of his abuse with the scars and
10:37
Speaker 1: fresh bruises she carried. Grandpa Ivan told me it was
10:41
Speaker 1: hours before Vazislav returned. While he waited, every action in
10:45
Speaker 1: exchange with the man played through my grandfather's head. The
10:49
Speaker 1: neighbor had dined with grandpa and great-grandpa. They had labored together,
10:53
Speaker 1: although it was rare that they even shared a few jokes.
10:57
Speaker 1: How could the same man that he grew up with
10:59
Speaker 1: all those years be such a vile monster? Screaming was
11:03
Speaker 1: heard from Vazislav's home just after he had entered. The
11:07
Speaker 1: first was from his wife who started throwing accusations at
11:10
Speaker 1: him about being a brute and a drunk. And as
11:14
Speaker 1: the neighbor was checked by the police, he began screaming himself.
11:19
Speaker 1: Not screams of denial or protest against his arrest, he
11:23
Speaker 1: just kept screaming, they were whores, over and over with
11:26
Speaker 1: increasing fervor. And to cut a long story short, none
11:30
Speaker 1: of the victims were identified. It was believed that the
11:34
Speaker 1: neighbor mainly targeted prostitutes or homeless women in the hopes
11:37
Speaker 1: that they wouldn't be missed. And the Soviet Union had
11:41
Speaker 1: already reintroduced the death penalty for premeditated murder under aggravating
11:45
Speaker 1: circumstances by 1954. Vazislav was ultimately sentenced to death after
11:51
Speaker 1: admitting to these killings. He never identified his victims, and
11:55
Speaker 1: it was believed that he didn't know most of their names.
11:59
Speaker 1: The neighbor's wife could not survive on the farm alone,
12:02
Speaker 1: so she left after a few months to live with
12:04
Speaker 1: her sister. Great-grandpa Maxim stayed in the USSR even after
12:09
Speaker 1: the Iron Curtain fell, and I never got to meet him,
12:12
Speaker 1: although I wish I did. My great-grandmother was furious that
12:16
Speaker 1: Grandpa Ivan was allowed to help Maxim catch Vazislav, and
12:20
Speaker 1: she insisted that Grandpa Ivan be sent to the United
12:23
Speaker 1: States so he could live a better life. Great-Grandpa Maxim
12:27
Speaker 1: made Grandpa Ivan promise that he would raise a beautiful
12:31
Speaker 1: American family. And I can't promise that I fulfilled the
12:34
Speaker 1: beautiful bit, but Grandpa Ivan taught my father to be
12:38
Speaker 1: a hard worker and to be cautious of neighbors and
12:41
Speaker 1: strangers alike. I think some of those lessons have rubbed
12:44
Speaker 1: off on me and I would hope great-grandpa Maxime would
12:48
Speaker 1: be proud. So I was born with a congenital defect.
13:16
Speaker 1: In my specific case, my right eye was misaligned and
13:19
Speaker 1: the bone in the socket hadn't developed properly. This made
13:23
Speaker 1: it so that my eye bulged from the socket and
13:25
Speaker 1: it was a form of proptosis, which isn't always that
13:29
Speaker 1: noticeable by itself. But because my skull was a little misshapen,
13:33
Speaker 1: the effect was exaggerated and hard to hide from others.
13:37
Speaker 1: As you can imagine, this led to all sorts of
13:39
Speaker 1: teasing from kindergarten onwards. It's understandable for kids to be
13:42
Speaker 1: a little insensitive. I don't hold any bad feelings towards
13:45
Speaker 1: my former elementary classmates, but you would be surprised at
13:49
Speaker 1: some of the adults that I had to deal with.
13:51
Speaker 1: The looks that I would get from a new teacher
13:53
Speaker 1: would hurt a lot more than the bickering of some kid.
13:57
Speaker 1: And when an adult would hear a classmate calling me
13:59
Speaker 1: a name, most of the time they'd just ignore it
14:02
Speaker 1: and pretend that they didn't hear it. Things didn't get
14:05
Speaker 1: much better in middle school for me either. Most of
14:08
Speaker 1: the students had gotten used to me, but the ones
14:11
Speaker 1: that wanted to poke fun at me became more creative
14:13
Speaker 1: with their insults. I was called everything from Mad-Eye Moody
14:17
Speaker 1: to Peeping Tom, but the name that all the bullies
14:20
Speaker 1: settled on was Cyclops. I was unfortunate enough to be
14:25
Speaker 1: called to read one day in class, and we were
14:27
Speaker 1: going over some of the more popular Greek myths when
14:30
Speaker 1: I uttered the word Cyclops. About half of the class
14:34
Speaker 1: erupted with laughter. and the name really infuriated me because
14:38
Speaker 1: of course I had two eyes, but because I had
14:42
Speaker 1: started parting my hair to cover the bad eye, the
14:44
Speaker 1: bullies used my new look to double down on the
14:47
Speaker 1: name calling. Making friends became almost impossible. Other students might
14:52
Speaker 1: be nice enough to lend me an eraser, but I
14:55
Speaker 1: wasn't getting invited to any birthday parties. It wasn't the
14:58
Speaker 1: funnest middle school experience, but I was sure others had
15:01
Speaker 1: it worse, and I resigned myself to keeping my head
15:04
Speaker 1: down and staying out of anyone's way. All of this changed, though,
15:08
Speaker 1: when one day I saw a new family moving in
15:11
Speaker 1: next door. I saw a girl and a boy around
15:14
Speaker 1: my age outside lugging boxes out of a U-Haul, and
15:18
Speaker 1: this girl had a sort of emo vibe. It was
15:20
Speaker 1: the first time I saw someone with skinny jeans and
15:23
Speaker 1: straightened hair, and being a sheltered Midwestern girl myself, I
15:27
Speaker 1: was definitely intrigued. The boy, who I assumed was her brother,
15:30
Speaker 1: was sporting a Lakers jersey with some tattered blue jeans.
15:34
Speaker 1: and after gathering up some courage I decided to take
15:37
Speaker 1: the dog for a walk, as an excuse to run
15:39
Speaker 1: into the two siblings. The girl must have been ready
15:42
Speaker 1: to take a break because she ran over almost instantly
15:45
Speaker 1: to exchange some greetings. She introduced herself as Sarah and
15:49
Speaker 1: pointed to her brother and introduced him as James. James
15:52
Speaker 1: looked less than interested in us, which wasn't a bad
15:55
Speaker 1: thing because I hadn't had many good experiences with boys
15:58
Speaker 1: my age. Sarah and I talked for a few minutes later,
16:02
Speaker 1: Her family had just moved all the way from California.
16:05
Speaker 1: Her father worked for the church, something to do with finances,
16:09
Speaker 1: and he had agreed to help the local chapter and
16:11
Speaker 1: Sarah's whole family was uprooted. When I questioned Sarah about school,
16:15
Speaker 1: I was immediately relieved. Both Sarah and her brother were homeschooled,
16:19
Speaker 1: so I didn't think I had to worry about them
16:21
Speaker 1: learning any of my aliases. And as we continued talking,
16:25
Speaker 1: my stomach suddenly lurched, as they say. If you have
16:30
Speaker 1: ever sported a mole, scar, or unwieldy pimple, you might
16:34
Speaker 1: recognize the feeling. That look someone gives you when they
16:37
Speaker 1: recognize something unusual about you, and they quickly try to
16:41
Speaker 1: hide the reaction. My hair must have been shifted and
16:44
Speaker 1: Sarah caught a look in my right eye. Usually when
16:47
Speaker 1: this happened to me, the person I was talking to
16:49
Speaker 1: found a way to quickly end the conversation and go
16:51
Speaker 1: about their business. And so I was relieved when Sarah
16:54
Speaker 1: did her best to ignore my eye and keep the
16:56
Speaker 1: conversation going. She asked what there was to do around town,
17:00
Speaker 1: what kind of music I liked, and if I had
17:02
Speaker 1: any siblings. We talked for about 15 minutes, and we
17:06
Speaker 1: were finally interrupted by her brother, James. He yelled out
17:10
Speaker 1: to Sarah, telling her that she needed to help with
17:12
Speaker 1: the unpacking. James seemed to have a temper. After hearing
17:16
Speaker 1: him yell, I took a little mental note to stay
17:18
Speaker 1: out of his way. Sarah waved goodbye as she left
17:22
Speaker 1: to help her brother, and I headed back inside to
17:24
Speaker 1: reflect on our little exchange. And all in all, things
17:27
Speaker 1: went pretty well. although I would have to be more
17:29
Speaker 1: careful with my hair from now on, and that was
17:32
Speaker 1: about as good as any of my social interactions up
17:34
Speaker 1: to that point had ever gone. I hadn't expected to
17:37
Speaker 1: hear back from Sarah any time soon, so I was
17:40
Speaker 1: kind of over the moon the following weekend when my
17:42
Speaker 1: mother told me the next-door girl had come over to
17:45
Speaker 1: hang out with me. Sarah and I became fast friends,
17:48
Speaker 1: you see. She would come over every weekend. We'd play
17:51
Speaker 1: Mario Party, watch music videos, and just talk about family drama.
17:56
Speaker 1: And as we grew more comfortable with each other, Sarah
17:58
Speaker 1: started opening up about her brother James. He seemed to
18:01
Speaker 1: cause a lot of stress in the household. While Sarah
18:04
Speaker 1: had initially told me that their move was because her
18:07
Speaker 1: father was helping out with the church, she later revealed
18:10
Speaker 1: that it was more likely that James' behavior at school
18:13
Speaker 1: had been the main issue. Apparently, there was an incident
18:17
Speaker 1: involving a pissed-off James, a teacher, and a thrown chair.
18:22
Speaker 1: James had always had a violent temper from what Sarah
18:25
Speaker 1: told me, and it was also the reason why they
18:27
Speaker 1: had to be homeschooled now. Sarah's parents couldn't trust James
18:32
Speaker 1: to behave himself in public school, and Sarah's school life
18:35
Speaker 1: was just another casualty of his temper. As bad as
18:39
Speaker 1: it sounds, this was kind of a relief to me.
18:42
Speaker 1: I had started to suspect the reason Sarah didn't ever
18:44
Speaker 1: ask me to hang out at her place was because
18:46
Speaker 1: of my eye. Maybe she didn't want her parents finding
18:49
Speaker 1: out that she was friends with a freak or something,
18:52
Speaker 1: but no. It turned out that she wanted to get
18:54
Speaker 1: away from her brother for a few days a week.
18:58
Speaker 1: So we kept up with the usual shenanigans for a
19:00
Speaker 1: couple of months more. Sometimes Sarah would even stay the night.
19:04
Speaker 1: And then one day Sarah called and asked if I'd
19:06
Speaker 1: like to come over. I think she could tell that
19:09
Speaker 1: I was a little hesitant at first because she quickly
19:12
Speaker 1: let me know that her brother would be out of
19:14
Speaker 1: the house for the day. I was curious about what
19:17
Speaker 1: Sarah's place was like, so I accepted the offer. And
19:20
Speaker 1: let me tell you, we had a blast. The games
19:23
Speaker 1: we played in my place were on the GameCube, but
19:26
Speaker 1: at Sarah's place, they had a Wii. Sarah's room was
19:29
Speaker 1: also badass. She had so many posters on the wall,
19:32
Speaker 1: you couldn't tell what color the paint was. She had
19:34
Speaker 1: tons of clothes for me to try on as well,
19:37
Speaker 1: stuff my mom wouldn't have ever gotten from me. And
19:40
Speaker 1: with how excited we were at the change of scenery,
19:42
Speaker 1: we lost track of time pretty quickly. Now, after an
19:45
Speaker 1: especially sweaty round of trying not to put a wee
19:48
Speaker 1: moat through the drywall, I excused myself to use the bathroom.
19:53
Speaker 1: After I was finished, I ran out with an especially
19:55
Speaker 1: dumb-looking smile on my face. Jesus Christ, the hell's wrong
20:00
Speaker 1: with your face? Of course, James picked the best time
20:05
Speaker 1: to return home, and it didn't take much to rid
20:07
Speaker 1: me of that goofy smile, but That line did the trick,
20:11
Speaker 1: and I instantly felt so ashamed. Sarah had heard her
20:14
Speaker 1: brother's exclamation and started screaming at him to shut the
20:17
Speaker 1: F up, which led to James screaming back in her face.
20:21
Speaker 1: Sarah quickly grabbed me by the wrist and started dragging
20:23
Speaker 1: me to her room. Talk about an evil eye. James
20:29
Speaker 1: laughed as Sarah slammed the door in his face. I
20:32
Speaker 1: was pretty devastated. Sarah did her best to console me.
20:35
Speaker 1: She I kept going on about how James was an
20:38
Speaker 1: idiot and I shouldn't listen to anything he had to say.
20:41
Speaker 1: Her parents got home not long after and I made
20:44
Speaker 1: up some excuse that I should be heading back. I
20:46
Speaker 1: felt like crap, not just because of what James had
20:49
Speaker 1: said to me, but I could tell Sarah felt devastated
20:52
Speaker 1: about the whole situation. As Sarah was walking me out
20:56
Speaker 1: of the house, I felt something pelt me in the
20:58
Speaker 1: back of the head. James was sitting on the couch
21:01
Speaker 1: and had just thrown a quarter at me on my
21:03
Speaker 1: way out. Sarah had screamed at him asking why he
21:06
Speaker 1: would do that, and James said it was payment for
21:09
Speaker 1: the freak show. I wanted to disappear, and when I
21:13
Speaker 1: got home I cried more than I ever had in
21:16
Speaker 1: my whole life. My mom told me that Sarah kept
21:19
Speaker 1: calling the house, but I refused to leave my room,
21:21
Speaker 1: and the next day I took Sarah's call and she
21:23
Speaker 1: wouldn't stop apologizing. She went on telling me that she
21:28
Speaker 1: told her parents the whole story, and James was pretty screwed.
21:32
Speaker 1: Their parents had been warning James that he was on
21:34
Speaker 1: his last straw since he had moved to the neighborhood.
21:37
Speaker 1: His behavior hadn't gotten any better and there had been
21:39
Speaker 1: talks about military school for a while. I kept telling
21:43
Speaker 1: Sarah it was alright and I was used to it.
21:46
Speaker 1: And she kept insisting that I come back over. And
21:49
Speaker 1: so after a few weeks I eventually caved and visited
21:52
Speaker 1: her house again. This time her parents were home and
21:55
Speaker 1: James seemed to completely change his behavior. He ignored me
21:59
Speaker 1: for the most part, only aiming a couple of glares
22:01
Speaker 1: in my direction. It would be nice to say things
22:04
Speaker 1: stayed like this and I lived happily ever after, but
22:07
Speaker 1: that wasn't really the case. The problem was that I
22:11
Speaker 1: became too comfortable at Sarah's place. As the weeks passed,
22:14
Speaker 1: I would visit more often. James minded his own business
22:18
Speaker 1: and we did our thing. He would shoot a snide
22:21
Speaker 1: comment my way whenever he was sure that no one
22:23
Speaker 1: would hear that, but that was the extent of his
22:26
Speaker 1: little antics. and I even started visiting when Sarah's parents
22:29
Speaker 1: weren't home. Summer break had arrived, and I would be
22:32
Speaker 1: at Sarah's almost every day of the week. One afternoon,
22:36
Speaker 1: Sarah and I were in her room, and she was
22:38
Speaker 1: introducing me to the killers, I remember. She had her
22:41
Speaker 1: CD player blasting, and we were butchering some lyrics when
22:45
Speaker 1: James not-so-delicately barges in her door. He had a bowl
22:49
Speaker 1: of cereal in one hand and a spoon in the other.
22:53
Speaker 1: He whipped the spoon directly at Sarah's face and started
22:56
Speaker 1: screaming about staying out of his stuff. I later learned
22:59
Speaker 1: that that Killers album that we had been listening to
23:02
Speaker 1: was in fact James's, and Sarah had swiped it from
23:05
Speaker 1: his room a few weeks back. Sarah launched herself at
23:08
Speaker 1: James and began scratching at his face with her nails.
23:12
Speaker 1: I'd never seen siblings fight this suddenly and viciously before,
23:16
Speaker 1: being an only child myself, but this wasn't how I'd
23:19
Speaker 1: imagined it. James began pummeling Sarah with closed fists. and
23:24
Speaker 1: once she fell over, I did my best to pull
23:26
Speaker 1: him off of her. I caught an elbow to the
23:28
Speaker 1: face for my trouble, and suddenly James was on top
23:31
Speaker 1: of me. He put his knees over my arms and
23:34
Speaker 1: straddled me as I lay on my back. He kept
23:37
Speaker 1: screaming about how I was a freak and a thief.
23:42
Speaker 1: I was horrified when I saw him reach for the
23:44
Speaker 1: spoon that he had just thrown at Sarah and placed
23:47
Speaker 1: it directly below my right eye. He began slowly pressing
23:52
Speaker 1: it in with force and the pain was immediate. Just
23:56
Speaker 1: as I thought he would actually rip my eye out,
23:58
Speaker 1: Sarah stood over him and brought down her CD player
24:02
Speaker 1: across the back of his head. As soon as it hit,
24:05
Speaker 1: James' grip weakened and I wriggled myself out from under
24:09
Speaker 1: him and bolted for the front door. There's last straws
24:13
Speaker 1: and there's whatever the hell escalation of insanity that was.
24:17
Speaker 1: James was done. and when I got home screaming, my
24:20
Speaker 1: mother immediately called the police when she saw the situation
24:23
Speaker 1: with my eye. Not only was my bottom lid bruised
24:26
Speaker 1: and quickly swelling, it had started to actually bleed. The
24:30
Speaker 1: police had arrived in under five minutes and detained James
24:33
Speaker 1: until his parents arrived back home. It was obviously not
24:37
Speaker 1: his first offense, and the severity of using a weapon
24:39
Speaker 1: played a large role in his juvenile sentencing. Things were
24:44
Speaker 1: never the same with me and Sarah after that. I
24:45
Speaker 1: think Her parents partially blamed me for what happened with James,
24:49
Speaker 1: and an unspoken distance was created between us, and the
24:52
Speaker 1: days of hanging out became a thing of the past.
24:55
Speaker 1: My family moved not long after the incident, and Sarah
24:58
Speaker 1: would call me every couple of months for that first
25:00
Speaker 1: part of the year, but we ultimately lost touch. And
25:04
Speaker 1: despite how our relationship ended, she was my first true friend.
25:08
Speaker 1: She gave me a confidence I couldn't have found without her,
25:11
Speaker 1: and high school was a different story than middle school.
25:14
Speaker 1: I grew up pretty fast, and I kind of grew
25:16
Speaker 1: into my eye as well. The bigger I got, the
25:19
Speaker 1: less noticeable it was, and it was much easier to
25:21
Speaker 1: make actual friends when I understood it was possible. When
25:49
Speaker 1: I was a little boy, my mom always told me
25:51
Speaker 1: to stay away from Old Mrs. Ratchet, who lived in
25:55
Speaker 1: the ugliest house on the block. Obviously, Old Mrs. Ratchet
25:59
Speaker 1: is not her real name, but you'll understand why I
26:01
Speaker 1: called her that. Her house was all run down in ramshackle,
26:05
Speaker 1: as they say. Half the windows were boarded up, and
26:08
Speaker 1: a few that weren't had cracks or holes in them.
26:11
Speaker 1: The gutters were overflowing with debris, and most of the
26:14
Speaker 1: paint was stripped from the buildings. You could see where
26:16
Speaker 1: neighborhood vandals had tagged the house with graffiti and the
26:19
Speaker 1: poor attempts to cover it up. It was hard to
26:22
Speaker 1: tell if the house's state was worse due to negligence
26:25
Speaker 1: or vandalism. The garden was overgrown, and I remember when
26:30
Speaker 1: I was young, around six, I asked Mom why the
26:32
Speaker 1: house was the only one that looked so scary. This
26:36
Speaker 1: is when she told me I should keep away from
26:38
Speaker 1: old Mrs. Ratched because she wasn't particularly friendly to kids,
26:42
Speaker 1: especially young boys, and I was better off keeping my distance.
26:47
Speaker 1: Over the next few years, I would always take the
26:49
Speaker 1: route home from school that brought me past Mrs. Ratched's house.
26:54
Speaker 1: I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the woman,
26:55
Speaker 1: but apart from some curtain twitching and the occasional interior shadow,
27:00
Speaker 1: I never actually saw her. Now, one day at dinner
27:04
Speaker 1: with mom, stepdad, and my older sister, Laura, I asked
27:08
Speaker 1: what Mrs. Ratched looked like. Laura let out a laugh
27:12
Speaker 1: and said that she had a nose so big and
27:14
Speaker 1: crooked and warty that She was what witches were based on.
27:18
Speaker 1: Mom gave her some scolding look and dad sort of
27:21
Speaker 1: coughed into his hand, which even at 10 years old
27:23
Speaker 1: I could tell was him stifling a laugh. Now Laura
27:27
Speaker 1: was 18 and a senior at high school. It was
27:30
Speaker 1: October and I was begging Laura to take me and
27:32
Speaker 1: my friends trick-or-treating because both my parents were working late.
27:36
Speaker 1: Laura refused, saying she wasn't going to chaperone a bunch
27:40
Speaker 1: of prepubescent boys all night when she could be out
27:42
Speaker 1: with her boyfriend instead. Well, I promised and swore on
27:46
Speaker 1: my life that we'd finish by eight, and she'd still
27:49
Speaker 1: have time to meet up with her boyfriend before the
27:51
Speaker 1: night was over. Laura started to reconsider and said that
27:55
Speaker 1: she'd think about it. And then I mentioned that if
27:57
Speaker 1: Laura didn't come, we'd pay a visit to Mrs. Ratched.
28:01
Speaker 1: Laura got kind of antsy about this and then angry.
28:05
Speaker 1: She said we should be old enough to know not
28:07
Speaker 1: to bother the woman. I think she was actually worried
28:10
Speaker 1: that we might cause trouble because she finally relented and
28:12
Speaker 1: agreed to take us. Our only condition was that this
28:16
Speaker 1: be the last year of trick-or-treating together, because next year,
28:20
Speaker 1: she would be off to college. I agreed, and that
28:23
Speaker 1: seemed reasonable. One more year of chocolate, I thought, and besides,
28:27
Speaker 1: maybe by the time I turned 11, I could persuade
28:29
Speaker 1: Mom to let me trick-or-treat on my own. Now, it
28:33
Speaker 1: wasn't the safest neighborhood, but a kid hadn't eaten a
28:35
Speaker 1: razor blade or anything yet. On Halloween night, Laura gathered
28:40
Speaker 1: the three of us on the front porch and took
28:42
Speaker 1: a photo with her Polaroid. I was Dracula, Max was
28:45
Speaker 1: Gene Simmons, and Darnell was Superman. Laura was a generic witch,
28:50
Speaker 1: and she barely put in any effort, and I wasn't
28:52
Speaker 1: going to give her any crap about it. She was
28:55
Speaker 1: chaperoning us, after all. And we visited about three quarters
28:59
Speaker 1: of the usual houses. And then Laura suddenly ran across
29:02
Speaker 1: the street and jumped into a skeleton's arms. And it
29:06
Speaker 1: turns out it was her boyfriend and a couple of
29:08
Speaker 1: his buddies. I didn't mind when she asked us if
29:11
Speaker 1: we'd be okay just handling the last few houses ourselves.
29:14
Speaker 1: She had been a good sport all night, and I
29:16
Speaker 1: think that she had more fun than she was letting on.
29:20
Speaker 1: I still thought I was too old to need someone
29:22
Speaker 1: watching over me anyways. My parents were always overprotective of us,
29:26
Speaker 1: and the way that night ended definitely enforced that behavior
29:29
Speaker 1: for the rest of my childhood. And so off we went,
29:31
Speaker 1: on our separate ways, and soon we collected as much
29:35
Speaker 1: candy as we were ever going to. Now, one by one,
29:38
Speaker 1: the neighbors extinguished their porch lights, signaling the end of
29:41
Speaker 1: the night's festivities. I know it was me who had
29:45
Speaker 1: the idea first, but I never liked admitting it. I
29:48
Speaker 1: looked to the end of the block where Mrs. Ratched
29:50
Speaker 1: lived and thought, how funny it'd be to trick-or-treat her.
29:54
Speaker 1: And then I noticed the lit pumpkins on her porch.
29:57
Speaker 1: Everyone knew that was a sign that trick-or-treaters were welcome,
30:00
Speaker 1: and an old Mrs. Ratched had certainly never decorated for
30:02
Speaker 1: Halloween before. Maybe she'd moved out and there were new neighbors,
30:06
Speaker 1: or maybe she'd just turned over a new leaf. Either way,
30:10
Speaker 1: it was enough to give me the confidence to suggest
30:12
Speaker 1: to Darnell and Max that we knock on Mrs. Ratched's door.
30:17
Speaker 1: They were not down for this, and in the end
30:20
Speaker 1: I managed to persuade them to stand across the street
30:22
Speaker 1: while I knocked. I'd prove that I was right about her,
30:25
Speaker 1: and the pumpkins on her porch might mean that she
30:27
Speaker 1: wasn't the evil hag people said she was. Cue the
30:31
Speaker 1: others telling me all sorts of stories that they'd heard
30:33
Speaker 1: about Mrs. Ratched growing up, and they ranged from slightly
30:36
Speaker 1: believable to utterly impossible. One was about her throwing garbage
30:41
Speaker 1: at a passerby who decided to pick some wildflowers from
30:44
Speaker 1: her garden. And another, Mrs. Ratched was accused of driving
30:47
Speaker 1: like a maniac, running over skateboards, bikes, and smashing into cars.
30:52
Speaker 1: And my favorite of all was Max's story. Max claimed
30:56
Speaker 1: that last year he had gone to retrieve his basketball
30:58
Speaker 1: out of Mrs. Ratched's yard. The woman had supposedly bolted
31:02
Speaker 1: out of her front door shouting in tongues, and she
31:05
Speaker 1: launched herself on top of the basketball and began to
31:08
Speaker 1: cradle it while rocking back and forth. When Max had
31:11
Speaker 1: asked for his ball, her gaze snapped up to meet his,
31:15
Speaker 1: and she slowly stood up, refusing to break eye contact,
31:18
Speaker 1: lifted the ball, and kicked it over the fence. Max
31:22
Speaker 1: said the ball flew hundreds of feet away and he
31:24
Speaker 1: was never able to find it. Ridiculous. Remember, we're talking
31:28
Speaker 1: about an old lady who must have been in her
31:30
Speaker 1: 80s by this point. And it was settled. I was
31:33
Speaker 1: going to knock on the door of Mrs. Ratched and
31:35
Speaker 1: prove that she was just an old lady once and
31:37
Speaker 1: for all. Best case scenario, I would get to rub
31:41
Speaker 1: the candy I got in my friend's faces. Worst case,
31:45
Speaker 1: I'd be able to tell my own Mrs. Ratched story.
31:48
Speaker 1: And so I sprinted up to Mrs. Ratched's door. and
31:50
Speaker 1: knocked with confidence that only a ten-year-old can muster. Now
31:55
Speaker 1: almost immediately, the door flew open and Mrs. Ratched stood there,
31:59
Speaker 1: looking more furious than I'd ever imagined. And believe me,
32:03
Speaker 1: despite never having seen her, I always imagined her looking furious.
32:08
Speaker 1: Her nose wasn't as big, hooked, or warty as I'd
32:11
Speaker 1: been told, but she definitely looked like a witch. Her
32:14
Speaker 1: eyes moved down to the pumpkins, and only then did
32:17
Speaker 1: I look at them actually. big mistake. When I first
32:22
Speaker 1: saw the pumpkins from across the street, they appeared to
32:25
Speaker 1: be regular festive jack-o'-lanterns, and now that I was standing
32:28
Speaker 1: past them on the porch, I could see the extra
32:31
Speaker 1: carving someone had left on their backsides. The left pumpkin
32:35
Speaker 1: was inscribed with just one word, die. The person who
32:40
Speaker 1: worked on the right pumpkin must have been less poetic
32:42
Speaker 1: because carved into that one looked to be a wiener.
32:47
Speaker 1: And it only took a few seconds to figure out
32:49
Speaker 1: that Mrs. Ratched hadn't left these pumpkins out and it
32:52
Speaker 1: was in fact a couple of pranksters. And in that time,
32:56
Speaker 1: she had clawed onto my Dracula cape and captured me. Mrs.
33:01
Speaker 1: Ratched began screaming at me, accusing me of being the
33:04
Speaker 1: one who'd put the foul gourds of the devil on
33:07
Speaker 1: her porch. I tried to explain that I had nothing
33:10
Speaker 1: to do with the pumpkins and I was really sorry
33:12
Speaker 1: and I thought they were hers. and just as I
33:15
Speaker 1: thought that she started listening to my explanation, she brought
33:18
Speaker 1: her cane down across my arm, hard. Really hard, in fact.
33:23
Speaker 1: Up until that point, I had never actually been hit
33:25
Speaker 1: that much. With my arm starting to throb with pain, Mrs.
33:30
Speaker 1: Ratched began to drag me inside her home. She shoved
33:35
Speaker 1: me down her hallway, and I was shocked to see
33:37
Speaker 1: that her house was just full, wall to wall with trash.
33:42
Speaker 1: Looking back now, I realize that She was a hoarder,
33:45
Speaker 1: and a serious one at that. There were stacks of
33:48
Speaker 1: newspaper and magazines. They looked like they were damp and yellowing.
33:53
Speaker 1: I spotted a handful of taxidermied animals. Full trash bags
33:56
Speaker 1: were stuffed in between all of the odd furniture haphazardly
33:59
Speaker 1: arranged through the home. Cabinets full of junk were positioned
34:03
Speaker 1: around the house like some maze. As I was overwhelmed
34:07
Speaker 1: by the state of the home, my nose started registering
34:09
Speaker 1: the smells of A mixture of cat piss, mildew, rotten fruit,
34:15
Speaker 1: and spoiled meat perfumed my senses. There seemed to be
34:19
Speaker 1: a singular person-sized path to maneuver through the home. I
34:24
Speaker 1: started to put up a fight and tug my cape
34:26
Speaker 1: away from this deranged woman's grip. Mrs. Ratchet then began
34:30
Speaker 1: screaming that she was calling the police on me. A
34:33
Speaker 1: final tug broke her grip on me and she fell
34:36
Speaker 1: into a pile of boxes to our left. As she did,
34:40
Speaker 1: The excitement must have startled the cats that had been
34:43
Speaker 1: nesting there because several ran out hissing through the waste.
34:47
Speaker 1: I darted forward through what I guess was her living room,
34:50
Speaker 1: breaking out into a cold sweat as my arm continued
34:53
Speaker 1: to throb with increasing pain. And that's when I started
34:57
Speaker 1: to believe that she had actually broken something when she
34:59
Speaker 1: struck me. The path then led me to the kitchen.
35:03
Speaker 1: The smells doubled in intensity as I traversed piles and
35:06
Speaker 1: puddles of indistinguishable slop. Then I heard Mrs. Ratched in pursuit.
35:13
Speaker 1: On the one hand, she was a slow old lady,
35:15
Speaker 1: but on the other, I was running out of places
35:17
Speaker 1: to navigate. I desperately looked for a back door or
35:20
Speaker 1: window I could escape from, but the junk was too
35:22
Speaker 1: dense for me to break through. How did nobody know
35:25
Speaker 1: she lived this way? I know she just thwacked me
35:28
Speaker 1: and injured my arm, but I couldn't help but feel
35:30
Speaker 1: some pity for her. She was clearly deranged and living
35:34
Speaker 1: in this filth that really couldn't have helped. I finally
35:38
Speaker 1: saw what looked like a back door, but there was
35:40
Speaker 1: no way that I could move the pile of stuff
35:43
Speaker 1: placed in front of it. It was piled with cans
35:45
Speaker 1: and sacks of food that I was sure were probably
35:48
Speaker 1: rotten or expired. Continuing down the path, I found a
35:52
Speaker 1: door that I could try and flung it open. And
35:55
Speaker 1: of course, it was the goddamn basement. And before I
35:58
Speaker 1: had refused to enter, I remember our home had a
36:01
Speaker 1: similar layout with a basement in the exact same place.
36:04
Speaker 1: If this home also shared a cellar door to the
36:06
Speaker 1: outside like ours had, it probably was worth investigating. Our
36:10
Speaker 1: basement was the messiest area of our home, so I
36:13
Speaker 1: can only imagine what Mrs. Ratched's looked like. And speaking
36:16
Speaker 1: of her, I could hear her in what I thought
36:19
Speaker 1: was the living room cursing and screeching up some storm.
36:23
Speaker 1: I couldn't tell if she was yelling at me or
36:25
Speaker 1: the cats or some other being that she'd conjured up
36:27
Speaker 1: in her head. She'd gone full crazy mode by now.
36:31
Speaker 1: and I began to feel more angry at whoever had
36:33
Speaker 1: left those stupid pumpkins on her porch than at the
36:36
Speaker 1: loony lady herself. She was getting closer though, and so
36:41
Speaker 1: I had no choice but to enter the basement and
36:43
Speaker 1: pull the door shut behind me. Her basement steps were
36:46
Speaker 1: similar to ours, made of cement and not rotten wood
36:49
Speaker 1: or something that I could fall right through. I made
36:53
Speaker 1: it down the stairs, and knowing what the rest of
36:55
Speaker 1: the house was like, I didn't feel comfortable trying to
36:58
Speaker 1: wade through whatever horrors Mrs. Ratched might keep down there
37:01
Speaker 1: in the dark, and I reached for where the light
37:03
Speaker 1: switch was in our house, and thankfully, Ratched's was in
37:06
Speaker 1: the same place. The room was lit by a much
37:09
Speaker 1: brighter halogen bulb than the dull yellow one that we had.
37:13
Speaker 1: I'd been expecting the most cluttered, disgusting room yet, but
37:17
Speaker 1: I was not prepared for what I saw. The basement
37:21
Speaker 1: was essentially an empty room, just bare concrete flooring from
37:25
Speaker 1: one wall to the other, I let out a sigh
37:28
Speaker 1: of relief when I saw the cellar exit across the
37:31
Speaker 1: room and before I rushed for the doors and made
37:33
Speaker 1: my escape, I stopped to examine the walls around me.
37:37
Speaker 1: They looked like they were covered, and I mean covered,
37:41
Speaker 1: in photographs. Apart from a handful, the photographs had no frames.
37:48
Speaker 1: Most were stuck to the walls with whatever variety of
37:50
Speaker 1: tape was handy and what had appeared as a random
37:53
Speaker 1: assortment of photographs at first glance began to form a
37:56
Speaker 1: pattern as I studied them. They looked like a chronicle
38:00
Speaker 1: of Mrs. Ratched's life. Black and white photos of a
38:03
Speaker 1: little girl smiling with her family. Mrs. Ratched with a
38:06
Speaker 1: few different boys and girls from her teenage years into womanhood.
38:10
Speaker 1: And then I saw photos of her with the man
38:12
Speaker 1: who clearly had become her husband. My heart sank as
38:17
Speaker 1: I saw the wall, which was almost entirely dedicated to
38:19
Speaker 1: photos of her husband in a hospital bed. He looked
38:23
Speaker 1: around middle-aged and was clearly declining in health as the
38:26
Speaker 1: pictures went on. He looked so strong and happy in
38:29
Speaker 1: the older photographs but had lost a staggering amount of
38:32
Speaker 1: weight in the pictures at the end of the wall.
38:34
Speaker 1: Then in the space alone on the wall was a
38:37
Speaker 1: cutout of Mr. Ratched's obituary. The obituary was surrounded by
38:42
Speaker 1: pressed flowers that Mrs. Ratched seemed to have taped to
38:45
Speaker 1: the wall. Tears pricked my eyes, both from the pain
38:49
Speaker 1: in my arm and the makeshift tribute I was taking
38:51
Speaker 1: in that adorned the walls. I didn't have any more
38:54
Speaker 1: time to observe the obituary, though, because I heard Mrs.
38:57
Speaker 1: Ratched prying open the basement door at the top of
38:59
Speaker 1: the stairs. Relief washed over me when I saw that
39:03
Speaker 1: the only mechanism keeping the cellar door shut was just
39:06
Speaker 1: a simple wooden bar. I slid the bar from the
39:10
Speaker 1: latch and exited her house without incident. Mrs. Ratchet could
39:14
Speaker 1: still be heard screaming as I made my way into
39:16
Speaker 1: the backyard, and I wrapped my way around the front
39:18
Speaker 1: of the house and saw Max and Darnell still hiding
39:21
Speaker 1: behind some shrubs across the street. I was impressed that
39:25
Speaker 1: the two of them hadn't run off in fear, but
39:27
Speaker 1: at the same time, I was a little pissed that
39:29
Speaker 1: they hadn't run into the house. house to help me out.
39:32
Speaker 1: I ran to both of them and collapsed behind the
39:34
Speaker 1: bushes exhausted. The fresh air was amazing. The stink of
39:38
Speaker 1: that house finally started leaving my nostrils but then more
39:41
Speaker 1: pain shot through my arm. The adrenaline of the chase
39:44
Speaker 1: had started to wear off and the pain became sharper
39:47
Speaker 1: and more intense. The rest of the night was just
39:50
Speaker 1: some blur. Max and Darnell dragged me back to Laura
39:54
Speaker 1: and Laura began to freak out when she saw how
39:56
Speaker 1: swollen my arm had become. Her boyfriend took me and
39:59
Speaker 1: Laura to the hospital to get my arm checked out
40:01
Speaker 1: and on the way, I tried to explain what had
40:03
Speaker 1: happened but kept being interrupted by Laura who was convinced
40:06
Speaker 1: our parents were going to kill us. Apparently, Halloween isn't
40:11
Speaker 1: the best night to visit the emergency room. It was
40:14
Speaker 1: at least six hours before my furious parents were able
40:16
Speaker 1: to take me home after they finally showed up. My
40:20
Speaker 1: little adventure was rewarded with some strong medication, a few x-rays,
40:24
Speaker 1: and a new cast for my seemingly fractured arm. Now,
40:28
Speaker 1: you aren't allowed to just visit the hospital for an
40:30
Speaker 1: injury severe as that and not answer any questions. I
40:34
Speaker 1: wasn't really honest with the doctor because I felt like
40:37
Speaker 1: I was a little guilty for the whole situation, and
40:40
Speaker 1: I had a newfound sympathy for Mrs. Ratched. And then eventually,
40:44
Speaker 1: maybe the next day or the day after, I had
40:46
Speaker 1: to tell my parents, a couple of police officers... and
40:49
Speaker 1: some social service workers exactly what happened in that lady's house.
40:54
Speaker 1: My doctor had picked up on the fact that I
40:56
Speaker 1: wasn't being 100% honest. He probably assumed that I was
40:59
Speaker 1: some victim of family abuse, and at first I really
41:03
Speaker 1: was hesitant to say anything. I didn't want to get
41:05
Speaker 1: that lady into trouble, no matter how much she'd hurt
41:08
Speaker 1: me or scared me. They told me that she would
41:11
Speaker 1: be looked after, and that telling them what happened would
41:13
Speaker 1: get her the help she needed. And so I told
41:16
Speaker 1: them everything. from her assaulting and chasing me to the
41:19
Speaker 1: shrine that I found in her basement. When I grew older,
41:22
Speaker 1: I found out some more about Mrs. Ratched. She hadn't
41:26
Speaker 1: always been the neighborhood crone, and after her husband passed
41:30
Speaker 1: away from cancer, Mrs. Ratched started drinking. She became belligerent
41:34
Speaker 1: and unapproachable, and one time she did ding a couple
41:38
Speaker 1: of cars while driving drunk and lost her license because
41:42
Speaker 1: of it. She didn't have any family to look out
41:45
Speaker 1: for as she grew older and the neighborhood turned her
41:47
Speaker 1: into a villain. They turned a blind eye when kids
41:50
Speaker 1: would throw rocks through her windows. They pretended not to
41:53
Speaker 1: notice when she was seen late at night digging through
41:56
Speaker 1: the neighborhood trash cans to add more junk to her collection.
42:00
Speaker 1: Nobody checked on her and everyone avoided her. And a
42:03
Speaker 1: few years after her incident with me, she unfortunately passed
42:06
Speaker 1: away in a nursing home for the mentally unwell. And
42:10
Speaker 1: eventually I left that neighborhood for college and I never
42:12
Speaker 1: moved back. I didn't feel like I was escaping from
42:16
Speaker 1: a place where a witch had once lived, but I
42:19
Speaker 1: did feel like I was finally getting away from a
42:21
Speaker 1: neighborhood that I'd learned to hate. Not because of Mrs. Ratched,
42:24
Speaker 1: but because of how everyone treated a sick old woman
42:26
Speaker 1: who probably could have been saved. Even my own parents
42:30
Speaker 1: ignored her circumstances. It wasn't the community's duty to look
42:34
Speaker 1: out for her, but knowing her story, I know who
42:37
Speaker 1: I was more afraid of. The people who ostracized a
42:40
Speaker 1: woman in need. They say it takes a village to
42:43
Speaker 1: raise a child, but it also takes a community to
42:46
Speaker 1: protect the vulnerable. My neighbor's apathy revealed their darker sides
42:50
Speaker 1: at the expense of someone who I don't think deserved it.
43:18
Speaker 1: A few years ago, I decided to say, screw it,
43:21
Speaker 1: and went to live by myself in a lakeside cabin.
43:24
Speaker 1: I'm in my 50s, and I've done pretty well for
43:27
Speaker 1: myself working in finance, so I decided to treat myself
43:30
Speaker 1: to an early retirement. I knew I'd probably get bored
43:34
Speaker 1: of having no work deadlines, but I really needed some
43:37
Speaker 1: kind of change. Buying a cabin on a lake that
43:40
Speaker 1: I could potentially turn into a bed and breakfast seemed
43:42
Speaker 1: like a fun investment. The area was absolutely stunning. The
43:47
Speaker 1: cabin is on the shore of one of the Great Lakes.
43:49
Speaker 1: Idealik doesn't even begin to cover how it sits off
43:52
Speaker 1: the lake. I had a small motorboat that I could
43:55
Speaker 1: take out and relax. One of my buddies begged me
43:58
Speaker 1: to get a jet ski so he could come up
44:00
Speaker 1: and try it out, but I was kind of nervous
44:02
Speaker 1: about riding one of those, so I stuck with the boat.
44:05
Speaker 1: I typically had a gentle sail around early evenings, and
44:09
Speaker 1: I didn't go out too far, just a mile or
44:11
Speaker 1: so with my little dock. I'd sit in the boat,
44:15
Speaker 1: read for an hour or so, and crack a few
44:17
Speaker 1: beers if I was feeling froggy. No phones, no laptops,
44:21
Speaker 1: no stock markets or Wall Street chaos. Just pure bliss
44:25
Speaker 1: heaven on earth. Now one night, the lull of the
44:29
Speaker 1: lake and gentle rocking of the boat caused me to
44:31
Speaker 1: drift off to sleep for about 20 minutes. I don't
44:34
Speaker 1: think the beers helped either. It wasn't long, but it
44:37
Speaker 1: was enough for the sun to have just dipped below
44:40
Speaker 1: the trees. It looked like I was in for a
44:42
Speaker 1: night sail, which I hadn't done on this lake yet,
44:45
Speaker 1: so I decided to indulge a little and take a
44:47
Speaker 1: bit of a trip around the area. And that's how
44:50
Speaker 1: I first saw my neighbor. Now, I say neighbor, but
44:54
Speaker 1: the guy's lakeside cabin must have been about three or
44:56
Speaker 1: four miles away from mine if you followed the shoreline.
44:59
Speaker 1: I saw lights on outside the cabin, and I was
45:02
Speaker 1: a little alarmed when I woke up because I hadn't
45:04
Speaker 1: turned on my boat's lights before I drifted off to sleep.
45:08
Speaker 1: If the neighbor spotted me, I would probably come off
45:10
Speaker 1: as a little creepy sitting out there alone in the dark.
45:14
Speaker 1: Although I had moved to the lake to get away
45:16
Speaker 1: from it all, the past few weeks have been really
45:19
Speaker 1: boring and uneventful. The idea of scoping out one of
45:22
Speaker 1: my neighbors seemed to be just the thing to do
45:25
Speaker 1: at the time. Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't
45:27
Speaker 1: trying to be a creep, I just wanted to see
45:29
Speaker 1: if the dude seemed cool. And if so, I'd make
45:32
Speaker 1: myself known, maybe offer up some drinks and introduce myself
45:35
Speaker 1: to the guy. When the man turned on another light
45:39
Speaker 1: out by the dock, I got a better look at him.
45:42
Speaker 1: He looked to be about 30. His clothes were kind
45:45
Speaker 1: of odd, they almost looked like military fatigues, but they
45:48
Speaker 1: weren't ones I could recognize. It was hard to make
45:51
Speaker 1: out more details with the limited light, but his outfit
45:54
Speaker 1: didn't scream, hey, let's party. I started to wonder if
45:57
Speaker 1: he was a burglar or something until he made his
46:00
Speaker 1: way down to the dock and settled into a deck
46:03
Speaker 1: chair with a beer in hand. It just didn't seem
46:06
Speaker 1: like something a burglar would do, you know, kick back
46:08
Speaker 1: for a brewski. And I damn near fell out of
46:11
Speaker 1: my seat on the boat when I heard him yell.
46:14
Speaker 1: The yelling wasn't at me, to my relief. I realized
46:17
Speaker 1: that he had started a heated phone call with someone.
46:21
Speaker 1: I couldn't exactly make out what he was saying, but
46:23
Speaker 1: the dude seemed pissed. The whole introduction myself to the
46:27
Speaker 1: neighbor thing wasn't going to happen, and the man gave
46:30
Speaker 1: off the opposite of chill vibes. So then I was
46:34
Speaker 1: stuck in a pretty crappy situation. I was idling my
46:37
Speaker 1: boat out there silently in the dark, and I was
46:40
Speaker 1: far enough away that he couldn't see me, but close
46:42
Speaker 1: enough that if I gunned the engine and hit the lights,
46:44
Speaker 1: I'd look like a weirdo who'd been spying on him,
46:46
Speaker 1: which I guess I had. And so I decided in
46:50
Speaker 1: my infinite wisdom that my best course of action was
46:53
Speaker 1: just to wait on the boat in the dark like
46:55
Speaker 1: a total creep. But I'm glad that I did. If
46:59
Speaker 1: I'd have alerted him to my presence that night, it's
47:01
Speaker 1: likely that I would never have been able to share
47:03
Speaker 1: this story with anyone. I'd almost drifted off to sleep
47:06
Speaker 1: again when I heard the distant sound of an engine
47:09
Speaker 1: coming from the direction of the cabin. From the looks
47:12
Speaker 1: of the vehicle, it was some kind of jeep. Almost immediately,
47:15
Speaker 1: I knew something wasn't right here. The vehicle was backing
47:19
Speaker 1: down the driveway to the side of the cabin, but
47:21
Speaker 1: a few things stood out. The vehicle's lights were cut off,
47:24
Speaker 1: even though it was getting really dark. Despite reversing, The
47:28
Speaker 1: rear lights weren't lit up at all. Secondly, the license
47:32
Speaker 1: plate had been either taped over or removed entirely. My
47:36
Speaker 1: boat had drifted a little closer to the property while
47:39
Speaker 1: I was waiting, and I wasn't really comfortable with getting
47:41
Speaker 1: any closer, but I was sure no one could see
47:44
Speaker 1: me with how dark it had gotten. The only sources
47:47
Speaker 1: of light were now coming from outside the cabin and
47:50
Speaker 1: the interior of the Jeep when the driver's side door
47:53
Speaker 1: opened and a guy hopped out. And I mean hopped.
47:57
Speaker 1: He looked to be around five feet tall, if that,
48:00
Speaker 1: so he had to hop down before his feet met
48:03
Speaker 1: the ground, and he kind of reminded me of Danny DeVito,
48:06
Speaker 1: except he had a huge beard. He was wearing the
48:09
Speaker 1: same getup as the dude who had been yelling on
48:10
Speaker 1: the phone. I remember thinking to myself that maybe they
48:14
Speaker 1: were some kind of LARPers or those airsoft guys or
48:17
Speaker 1: paintball or something. And the guy who I had taken
48:20
Speaker 1: to be the owner of the cabin stood up, and
48:23
Speaker 1: I got a better look at him when he approached
48:24
Speaker 1: the jeep. He towered over the other guy, at what
48:28
Speaker 1: I would have guessed was easily over six feet tall,
48:30
Speaker 1: and had a much more muscular physique than I realized too.
48:34
Speaker 1: But short stuff seemed to be giving cabin guy a
48:37
Speaker 1: dressing down, yelling and gesturing and stomping around on the
48:41
Speaker 1: spot in anger. I couldn't make out anything he was saying,
48:44
Speaker 1: but I could at least hear little snatches of their conversation,
48:48
Speaker 1: enough to realize that they were speaking in a language
48:50
Speaker 1: I wasn't familiar with. Something European, I realized. and they
48:55
Speaker 1: made a kind of comical pair, standing next to each other,
48:58
Speaker 1: especially when the Danny DeVito type started smacking Tallboy on
49:01
Speaker 1: the arm with increasing fervor. The cabin guys seemed determined
49:06
Speaker 1: to calm short stuff down, and it was very clear
49:08
Speaker 1: who wore the pants in this relationship. Eventually, the shorter
49:13
Speaker 1: guys seemed to calm down after being placated by something
49:16
Speaker 1: the cabin guy had said. He waddled over to the
49:19
Speaker 1: back of the Jeep, and popped open the rear door
49:22
Speaker 1: i was almost expecting the reveal of a body or
49:24
Speaker 1: a briefcase full of god knows what it wasn't that
49:28
Speaker 1: but it wasn't too far off the light from the
49:31
Speaker 1: cabin revealed that the interior of the jeep had been
49:34
Speaker 1: kitted out with what looked like plastic sheeting you know
49:37
Speaker 1: the kind that you'd put down if you didn't want
49:39
Speaker 1: to mess There was no corpse though, praise the Lord
49:42
Speaker 1: for that, but my praise was short-lived as I stared
49:46
Speaker 1: in horror at what this cabin guy did next. He
49:50
Speaker 1: walked back to the end of the dock and grabbed
49:52
Speaker 1: a rope that was tied off there. He slowly struggled
49:55
Speaker 1: to pull the rope out of the lake, arm over arm.
49:58
Speaker 1: When the rope had been reeled in enough, a bundle
50:01
Speaker 1: crested the top of the water, and the cabin guy
50:04
Speaker 1: reached down and lugged the full sack over his shoulder
50:07
Speaker 1: with excruciating effort. Now at this point, hardly any light
50:11
Speaker 1: reached the end of the dock, so most of what
50:13
Speaker 1: I was getting was silhouettes. If you're wondering what the
50:16
Speaker 1: package looked like out there in the dark, this is
50:19
Speaker 1: the best way I can describe it. Take a sleeping bag,
50:22
Speaker 1: toss some unfortunate bastard in it, along with some rocks,
50:26
Speaker 1: zip it up and leave it in a lake for
50:28
Speaker 1: a couple of hours. Originally, I'd been keeping quiet out
50:32
Speaker 1: there to avoid any awkward interaction with the neighbor. Now...
50:36
Speaker 1: I felt like if I made any sound I would
50:38
Speaker 1: be forfeiting my life to whoever the hell these operators were.
50:42
Speaker 1: The cabin guy lugged the sack up the dock and
50:45
Speaker 1: to the back of the jeep. He rolled the sack
50:47
Speaker 1: off his shoulder and onto the plastic wrap. Shortstuff climbed
50:51
Speaker 1: back into the driver's seat while cabin guy shut the
50:53
Speaker 1: porch light off and hopped in the passenger side. My
50:57
Speaker 1: heart almost exploded when the large man leapt back out
51:00
Speaker 1: of the passenger seat and started running back down the dock.
51:03
Speaker 1: I was sure that I was spotted. And just before
51:06
Speaker 1: I cut on the engine to flee, I saw the
51:08
Speaker 1: man reach out for his deck chair. He snatched up
51:11
Speaker 1: his chair, ran back up the dock, and unceremoniously threw
51:15
Speaker 1: it on top of the sack in the back of
51:16
Speaker 1: the Jeep. After slamming the rear door, he climbed back
51:20
Speaker 1: into the front passenger seat. And then, with the sound
51:23
Speaker 1: of the engines, but absolutely no lights emitting from the Jeep,
51:26
Speaker 1: the vehicle drove off. What the hell did I just witness?
51:32
Speaker 1: I know what I think I saw, but what was
51:34
Speaker 1: I going to do about it? And so I waited
51:37
Speaker 1: ten minutes before I gathered enough nerve to start the
51:39
Speaker 1: boat and get the hell out of Dodge. And once
51:42
Speaker 1: I got home, I left everything I brought with me
51:44
Speaker 1: in the boat and rushed inside my cabin, making sure
51:47
Speaker 1: to lock the doors. I figured the best course of
51:50
Speaker 1: action now would be to call the police. My adrenaline
51:54
Speaker 1: was still pumping and the operator had a hard time
51:56
Speaker 1: calming me down enough where I could explain my story decently.
51:59
Speaker 1: And after about five minutes of describing what went down,
52:04
Speaker 1: the operator said that They had all the information needed
52:07
Speaker 1: and would send an officer out to my cabin to
52:09
Speaker 1: get further details. I sat back and waited, pretty sure
52:13
Speaker 1: that my odd happenstance of being in the wrong place
52:16
Speaker 1: at the right time would lead to a pretty easy arrest, maybe.
52:20
Speaker 1: The place had to be filled with forensic evidence, I imagine.
52:24
Speaker 1: It had to be easy to spot a jeep with
52:26
Speaker 1: no working lights and no license plate, I think. Except
52:30
Speaker 1: it didn't play out like that at all. The cops
52:33
Speaker 1: seemed to double team it. A pair of uniformed officers
52:36
Speaker 1: came to my place to grill me while a team
52:38
Speaker 1: investigated the other cabin. And presumably more cops still went
52:43
Speaker 1: searching for the jeep. The cabin was unfurnished, locked, and empty.
52:48
Speaker 1: There was no forensic evidence that anyone had ever been inside.
52:52
Speaker 1: And I realized that I hadn't actually ever seen the
52:55
Speaker 1: cabin guy enter or exit the cabin. But he definitely
52:58
Speaker 1: switched on the porch light and then switched it off again.
53:02
Speaker 1: I kept telling them to check that for fingerprints, and
53:05
Speaker 1: the cops insisted they had and that there was nothing.
53:09
Speaker 1: I asked about vehicle tracks and was told that the
53:11
Speaker 1: investigators knew what they were doing. I was also told
53:14
Speaker 1: that there was no sign that anything had been tied
53:17
Speaker 1: to the dock and no reports of any missing persons
53:19
Speaker 1: in the area. It ended up being the most frustrating
53:22
Speaker 1: night of my life. Eventually, one of the investigators became
53:26
Speaker 1: so fed up with me that he all but accused
53:29
Speaker 1: me of making it up for attention. and it was
53:31
Speaker 1: so livid that I wanted to rip my hair out.
53:35
Speaker 1: I waited for days, but there was no update. No
53:38
Speaker 1: trace of a crime, no evidence backing up my story
53:40
Speaker 1: of any kind, only my word that it happened. I
53:44
Speaker 1: called the local station every day, and I kept checking
53:47
Speaker 1: the news, but the events of that night just fizzled
53:49
Speaker 1: out of existence. But I know what I saw. My
53:53
Speaker 1: neighbor and his bizarre little boss had someone murdered, stashed
53:58
Speaker 1: them in a lake, and then drove the remains away
54:01
Speaker 1: in a jeep. The conspiracy brain part of me can't
54:04
Speaker 1: shake the idea that there had been some kind of cover-up.
54:07
Speaker 1: The local cops seemed too eager to tell me that
54:09
Speaker 1: I was wrong from the get-go. Am I just jumping
54:13
Speaker 1: at shadows? Did I manage to completely misread a harmless situation?
54:18
Speaker 1: I said earlier that I wanted to turn my cabin
54:20
Speaker 1: into a bed and breakfast. The funny thing is, that's
54:23
Speaker 1: what the cabin is now, I'm just not the one
54:25
Speaker 1: who's running it. The place was soured for me after
54:29
Speaker 1: everything that happened that night and it didn't help that
54:31
Speaker 1: whenever I'd go into town I'd convince myself the cops
54:35
Speaker 1: were giving me weird looks or that I saw someone
54:38
Speaker 1: who I was certain was the cabin guy. I really
54:41
Speaker 1: was just jumping at shadows at that point and I
54:44
Speaker 1: couldn't stay there anymore no matter how beautiful the area was.
54:49
Speaker 1: And so I sold, moved multiple states to the town
54:52
Speaker 1: my elderly parents were living out there last years and
54:55
Speaker 1: Now I work as a freelance financial consultant. It's a dull,
54:59
Speaker 1: calm life and I absolutely am fine with that, really.
55:03
Speaker 1: But it will never ever stop driving me nuts wondering
55:05
Speaker 1: what happened with those dudes that night. I doubt I'll
55:08
Speaker 1: ever get the answers I need. Hey friends, thanks for listening.
55:36
Speaker 1: Click that notification bell to be alerted of all future narrations.
55:40
Speaker 1: I release new videos every Monday and Thursday night at
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Speaker 1: 9 p.m. Eastern Time. And there are super fun live
55:47
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55:50
Speaker 1: be sure to submit them over at my email at
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Speaker 1: of the channel. And check out the Let's Read podcast
56:13
Speaker 1: where you can hear all of these stories in big compilations,
56:15
Speaker 1: located anywhere you listen to podcasts. I also have a
56:18
Speaker 1: true crime channel called Saturn Soul. All links in the
56:22
Speaker 1: description below. Thanks so much, friends. And remember... I always
56:27
Speaker 1: feel like... Somebody's watching me! Wake up.