Listener Stories: Vol. 111

Summary

And That's Why We Drink — Listener Stories: Vol. 111

Date: January 1, 2026
Hosts: Em Schulz (subbing solo, as Christine Schiefer is out for the holidays)
Guests: Taylor and Morgan from the "Creeps in Crime" podcast
Episode Type: Listener Stories (with a Christmas theme plus an extra-large dose of hauntings, family ghosts, and a couple of true crime chills)

Episode Overview

This special holiday listener stories episode is a crossover between "And That's Why We Drink" and "Creeps in Crime." While Christine is out, Em welcomes back Taylor and Morgan to help read a new round of spooky, heartwarming, and chilling stories submitted by listeners—many with a Christmas or family twist. The trio kicks things off discussing holiday plans, self-care in podcasting, and their traditional “why do you drink?” segment, before diving into several vividly retold listener tales (and one spine-tingling audio recording).

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Holiday Chit-chat and "Why We Drink" Segment

Timestamps: 02:05 – 19:00

• Christine is out: Em is flying solo for the main host role, bringing in Taylor and Morgan (Creeps in Crime) as special guests.
• Holiday plans: The trio discuss upcoming travels, spending time with family, and Christmas traditions.
• Why do we drink? Each shares reasons for reaching for a drink—ranging from family logistics to the pain of adult tonsillectomies and overenthusiastic Pilates classes.
• Notable exchange: On navigating overwhelming family obligations:
  • Morgan: "Everyone's like, well, we got this plan, this plan, this plan, this plan... Christmas is one day, but then for four days, you're arms stretched out — this house, then this house." (09:48)

2. Podcast Mental Health & Taking Breaks

Timestamps: 16:45 – 20:29

• Announcement: The show is taking official breaks for hosts' wellness in January, starting Jan. 4th.
• Vulnerability from Em: Em shares their struggles around letting go of a perfect release schedule, worrying what listeners will think.
• Listener & guest support: Morgan, Taylor, and listeners express support, highlighting the importance of rest in creative work.
  • Taylor: “… as a listener, I really am grateful you guys are taking the time to do that. I think everyone wants you to come and be your best selves and be rested.” (19:54)

3. Getting Ready for Listener Stories

Timestamps: 21:00 – 23:00

• Story sources: Most stories are selected from the "Creeps in Crime" inbox (including some previously sent to ATWWD), with two additional stories from the ATWWD inbox (thanks to Eva).
• Themes: Several tales are Christmas/holiday-themed, and a few are general paranormal or true crime.

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Listener Stories — Main Tales

1. Danielle’s Angelic Christmas Dream

Timestamps: 27:59 – 38:26

• Story: Danielle shares her cherished family tradition of Christmas Eves spent with her large extended family. After her beloved grandfather’s passing, she and her sisters share the same vivid, comforting dream every Christmas Eve: reliving a day with him, complete with the aromas, laughter, and rituals of their childhood. After their grandmother passes, she joins the dream too.
• Memorable quote:
  • Danielle: “That’s when each of us described the dreams we had. Moreover, the same dream. We each experienced the same exact dream in every single way…” (36:39)
• Hosts’ reactions: Awe, chills, and tearful appreciation; a reflection on the beauty of shared dreams as possible spiritual contact.
  • Em: “That is what all of us can only hope to experience if there were ever a tragedy.” (39:34)

2. Timber’s Mama Died on Xmas

Timestamps: 39:45 – 46:27

• Story: Listener Timber recounts a bittersweet holiday: after their “mama” falls seriously ill just before Christmas, Timber drives to Indiana for a final goodbye, managing both grief and guilt over enjoying time in Chicago with chosen family. The night their mama passes, Timber hears her signature laugh during a solitary walk. Returning home, Timber finds her favorite movie ("Flowers in the Attic") playing—a final sign that mama is still near, her humor intact.
• Hosts’ reactions: Lighthearted ribbing about regional “Kentucky mama” energy, but also heartfelt appreciation for a subtle, goosebump-inducing haunting.
  • Taylor: “I believe that she did come and cackle—like, 'wait 'til you get back home and see what I put on the TV for you.'” (46:18)

3. Lenny's Decade-Long Demon Stalker & Exorcism

Timestamps: 46:58 – 79:58

• Story: Lenny details a terrifying saga: after making a DIY Ouija board at a slumber party in eighth grade, a spirit attaches to her—spawning sleep paralysis and years of escalating supernatural torment, including hat-man apparitions and tactile hallucinations (like being licked on the ear at night). After gaining spiritual support from a church group and exercising her own discernment, Lenny disables the attachment for several years. It returns with a vengeance when her boyfriend moves into an old haunted house, culminating in a genuine audio recording of him uttering inhuman, guttural phrases in his sleep. Lenny prays over him and the house, and peace is restored.
• Memorable moments:
  • Sleep paralysis auditory nightmare: "This thing crawled onto my bed, got right behind me, and it began to lick my ear..." (55:11)
  • Hosts react to audio recording: [Listen at 70:06 – 72:58]
    • Em: “I've actually never had chills quite like that. That was... I didn’t know how to [expletive].”
• Quote:
  • "After he said the last line of the video ... He had no recollection of the past 10 minutes and went upstairs and went to bed where I continued to pray over him and his soul.” (78:46)

4. Marigold & the Interactive Haunting

Timestamps: 82:43 – 91:38

• Story: In a 100-year-old childhood home, Marigold and family encounter increasingly odd phenomena: a singing toy that won’t die, a 10-year-dormant radio blaring at night, and (most chilling) a moment where Marigold, home alone, feels a cold presence pass through and is struck by an instinctive, unexplainable urge to run toward the light. Bonus cameo: group panic over Google Docs as text is mysteriously highlighted—until Em confesses, "It was me. Sorry!" (91:07)

5. A Christmas Ghost Story (from Abrah)

Timestamps: 93:43 – 97:36

• Story: Abrah describes seeing, for the first time, the little girl ghost haunting her mom’s house—a pale-skinned child with enormous eyes who appears on the stairs during Christmas 2017. The sighting is accompanied by sudden, violent illness lasting yearly on Christmas. Abrah’s then-partner later confirms the shared vision, cementing the home’s haunted status.
• Hosts’ reactions: Discomfort at ghost-induced vomiting, but admiration for how partner Josh believes and validates the experience.

6. Teddy’s True Crime: Grandpa Survives a Christmas Shotgun Ambush

Timestamps: 99:22 – 104:01

• Story: Set in rural Canada, 1977: after a tense home situation, Teddy's great-grandfather is mistaken for a romantic rival and shot through the window by an abusive partner. Astonishingly, he survives the point-blank shotgun wound. The children are kept in the dark, but the assailant even casually approaches the family at a hospital Christmas show afterward. Years later, Teddy's mother recounts seeing x-rays of shrapnel still in her father’s chest.
• Notable quote:
  • Teddy: "If you ever get shot in the chest with a shotgun, I hope you live. Cheers, Teddy." (103:49)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “Is it dark out yet?”: Danielle’s cherished Christmas anticipation phrase, associated with her grandfather’s magical presence (29:54).
• “You know, sometimes I think about getting baptized just to avoid some stuff…”: Em, after hearing about Lenny’s exorcism-by-prayer story (75:18).
• Hat Man kink:
  • Morgan: "The kink of Hat Man." (55:14)
  • Em: “I didn’t know he had a tongue and knows how to use it.” (55:42)
• Hosts' group panic over a haunted Google Doc (91:07), as text highlights and everyone thinks it’s the ghost in the machine, before Em admits to highlighting by accident.
• Generational Heart Hands Debate: Wrapping up, the hosts riff on how Gen Z forms hearts with their hands, complete with visual confusion and finger contortions (104:42–106:25).

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Notable Timestamps for Key Segments

• Holiday & “Why Do You Drink?” catch-up: 02:04 – 19:15
• Announcement re: Show Breaks: 16:45 – 20:29
• Listener Stories Begin: 27:59
• Unnerving Audio Recording (“Lenny’s Story”): 70:06 – 72:58
• Ghostly Tech Malfunction & Google Doc Hijinks: 91:07
• Closing Banter/Heart Hands/Wrap-up: 104:01 – end

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Final Thoughts and Tone

This episode delivers the classic, irreverent, and deeply empathetic ATWWD atmosphere—balancing light banter, personal anecdotes, and truly spooky listener stories. The guest crossover keeps energy high, while real moments of grief and connection (especially in stories of lost loved ones returning at Christmas) add genuine depth. There’s vulnerability, gallows humor, and a willingness to get existential about family, trauma, and fandom—punctuated by expletives, lots of giggles, and the occasional on-air group therapy session.

If you love:

• True stories of family ghosts and signs from beyond
• Relatable banter about holiday/family stress
• Paranormal stories with confirmations from multiple witnesses
• The messy, heartfelt chaos of millennial and Gen Z podcasters keeping each other afloat

…then this is your episode.

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Why Do They Drink (This Week):

• Holiday stress, overbooked family plans, and tonsillectomies
• Home renovations, surprise houseguests, and fitness class regrets
• The emotional challenge of setting boundaries and taking breaks—even on a beloved podcast

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Bottom line:
This episode is a festive, spooky, and occasionally hilarious celebration of the stories that haunt us—and the chosen family we lean on to make it through another year. And that's why they drink.

Transcript

[M]

The holidays mean more travel, more shopping, more time online and more personal info in more places that could expose you more to identity theft. But LifeLock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our US based restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed your money back. Don't face drained accounts, fraudulent loans or financial losses alone. Get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with LifeLock. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com podcast terms apply. I got a lot of friends back home and with the holidays that have just rolled in, a lot of them wanted to get some clothes that made them feel good. And I said, hey everybody, why don't you check out Honey Love? They have not only wonderful bras, they also have wonderful shapewear. It's going to make you feel good about yourself. Honey Love is now offering a crossover triple bra bundle. So if you want a full refresh on your top drawer, you can get huge savings by buying three at once. So bada bing, bada boom. If you're looking to do like a last minute gift or if you want to suggest something for someone that on a day where they want to feel good about themselves, throw that their way, see what happens. They've also built a full line of tanks, bodysuits, underwear for supportive structure, smoothing fabrics and premium finishes. I don't know anyone who has gotten Honey Love and then hasn't immediately switched all of their all their undergarments to Honey Love. It is Allison's favorite. I know Christine has bragged about it, saying it is just so, so wonderful. So give it a shot and treat yourself to the most advanced bras and shapewear on the market. Use our exclusive link to save 20% off [e-mail] drink that's honeylove.com drink and after you check out they'll ask where you heard about them. So please support our show and tell them that we sent you. Experience the new standard in comfort and support with Honey Love. Foreign. Everybody, it is January 1st. If you're listening to this right away, it is now 2026. Thank God. I'm so done with 2025.

[Taylor]

Me too.

[Morgan]

God, thank God.

[M]

And we have here, unfortunately we are recording this right before the holidays. A lot's going on so Christine was not able to make it. But we have our saving graces. Creeps in crime are here to do some listeners episodes. Listener stories with me for our listeners episode. So thank you for being here.

[Morgan]

Hey, thank you for having us.

[Taylor]

Thanks so much. We're so happy to be back. We Missed it over here.

[M]

You really are our go to people to text now if we're ever in a crisis. So thank you for helping out that me.

[Taylor]

That is my heart.

[M]

Especially because we're. We're so close to the holidays. So thank you for also taking time away from your holiday situation. What are your holiday plans this year, Morgan?

[Morgan]

I am going to Pennsylvania. So I am still in Tennessee right now, but on Tuesday because it's a Sunday before Christmas. On Tuesday, I'm going to my mother's house. My mother and father. I always.

[Taylor]

She only says her mother's house and.

[Morgan]

Like, they're together, like, happily married. Like, I have a great relationship with my dad, but like, it's always just about my mom. Anyway, so, yeah, we're going to Pennsylvania. We'll be there until the following weekend, so hopefully it is not freezing cold.

[Taylor]

But we'll see fear and an inkling that it might be. Actually, it's gonna be like 65 degrees down here on Christmas, and I'm definitely.

[Morgan]

Getting a shorty's hot dog, so stop gonna be nice.

[M]

For those who don't know, Morgan and I have a bit of a. A love affair. Our first common bond was over a shorty's hot dog in Pennsylvania, so.

[Taylor]

That's true.

[M]

And Taylor, Christmas. What are you doing?

[Taylor]

I'm just gonna be, you know, dipping on down about an hour south of Cleveland, and I'm gonna go run around that meeting everybody, seeing everybody, seeing all the mamas, grandmas, and all the family. So it's going to be fun. And then we're going to come back. We literally only go down Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but I think this year we. We're going to spend the night Christmas Day because my little sister, she's 18. I think we talked about her last time we recorded with you guys, but she, she's. It's her freshman year at UT up here, so she's been home since Thanksgiving. And I don't know if I've told you this yet, Mor, but she's getting her freaking tonsils out.

[Morgan]

Oh, no, I didn't know that.

[M]

That sucks.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[M]

Have you had them out?

[Taylor]

No, I, I haven't. They always told me I should, but then I was like, just so old that I was like, it's gonna kill me and kind of be horrible for my job. So it, it.

[M]

I got them out as an adult as well. I think I got them around the same age as her. I was like 20. It is they the reason they want you to do it when you're A kid is. Because it hasn't built its own, like, circulatory system yet or something, or vascular system. And so as an adult, it's much more painful. And I've heard them say it's like, one of, like, the top 10 worst recoveries, which.

[Morgan]

Oh, my gosh.

[M]

I don't know about all that, but I will tell you, up until that point in my life, it was, in fact, a really horrible. Because it's. Do you think. Oh, sorry. If your sister's listening, she's not going to like this part.

[Taylor]

She's not. Trust me. She doesn't like me that much.

[M]

Earmuffs. Earmuffs. But no, the. The first few days, you actually are like, this is not that bad. You're talking normally. You're like, what was everyone complaining about? It's fine. And yikes. So sorry, everyone. It's like day four or five where, as you're sleeping, a scab forms on the wound and then. And then falls off, and now it's a raw wound again. And that's the painful part.

[Morgan]

Oh, no. Hell no. A scab on the inside of your throat, which you.

[M]

I'm so sorry. How does it fall off you? It goes.

[Morgan]

That is enough.

[Taylor]

No. Oh, my God. He's gonna need this brodo. She's gonna need it.

[M]

Don't tell you. She's really gonna need.

[Morgan]

Give her my box.

[Taylor]

I never have to give her a box of broth.

[M]

So it's day four or five that sucks the most because it's now, like, reopened, and it. That's the painful part. But then after a few days, it really goes away. It's just that experience that's the worst.

[Taylor]

Holy. That's gonna be New Year's for her.

[M]

Today. Oh, girl, you're feeling it today. I'm so sorry.

[Taylor]

Oh, she's hurting today. I'm gonna be like, did foresee this coming? I just gave you no warning. Yeah, I'm not gonna tell her. I'm just not gonna tell her until after the fact.

[M]

Oh, I know. That's so gross. I'm so sorry, everyone. But if you've had your tonsils out as an adult, you know exactly what pain I'm talking about. It's. It's an experience, so. I'm so sorry for your sister. That's terrible.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[M]

And her loss. The throat.

[Taylor]

Yeah. What are you doing for Christmas? M. Are you staying in la? Where are you headed?

[M]

No, I was told multiple years in advance that I was not going home for Christmas to see my family this year because Allison Is hosting. She's the host of the entire family reunion. And so I heard him back in like 2022, she was like, you cannot. You have to come home with me on 2025. That's the. That's my only request. So I've had a while to plan this, so I'm very excited. I'm very eager to see what she's concocted because she made all of us like form teams and there's going to be games and all this. So. And. And that's gonna be fun teams with people that we don't usually hang out with in the family. So I have Aunt Judy, who I don't totally know all that well, but I do know that she's cracker. So I'm very excited to hang out with her.

[Taylor]

I mean, her cam. Her name cannot be Aunt Judy without like having that Aunt Judy energy. And it's giving like Judge Judy.

[M]

Yeah, she's a dino. She's a full dino.

[Taylor]

Yes.

[Morgan]

Where is home for her?

[M]

Florence, South Carolina. But she is gonna be in our.

[Morgan]

Neck of the woods.

[Taylor]

Low down, baby.

[M]

I think we're doing it in Charlotte, though, which is where some of the family has moved to. So anyway, very excited. I'm actually. I was supposed to meet her there next week, but she actually surprised me a few days ago. And so she's here and we'll be flying there together. Which I will say that's the reason I drink this week is I did not know Allison was coming home. And if anyone has been listening since like August. So what I'm not sure on how much you know. Allison and I have been long distance since April. She's been with her sister and helping with the baby that. That her sister had. So since April, we've been long distance and I've been redoing the entire house to surprise her when she gets back in February. And then she surprised me the other night and she showed up at my door and I was like, you can't come in here. I.

[Taylor]

You have to leave.

[M]

You like literally the place doesn't. You gotta leave. I really caution tape. It was the happiest I've been in a while and the most horrified because I was like, this house actually arguably looks worse than when you left because it's in the middle of construction and there's like sawdust everywhere. And so anyway, the reason I drink is like, she really knows how to ruin a like five month long surprise. Yes. Happy New Year. So why do you drink? Do you have a reason? I don't Mean to catch you off guard here, but.

[Taylor]

Oh, no, don't worry, we came prepared. I said, yeah, Texas said, don't Forget you need 10 minutes, a little drink.

[Morgan]

10 minutes.

[Taylor]

Before it was 20 minutes, it was 1240.

[M]

You said, tick tock.

[Morgan]

It's coming up 40. It was 1240.

[M]

Clean this.

[Morgan]

Put this together.

[M]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Put some clothes on me at 12:54, putting this together. I was like, you would have thought I haven't been awake all day.

[M]

Like, well, why do you drink?

[Morgan]

Well, because it's the holidays and we. I always thought that, like, marrying somebody from the same town, but living out of state would be easier because then you don't have to split holidays. Like. Like, say he lived in. Say he was from Texas. I don't know.

[M]

Yeah.

[Morgan]

Oh, yeah.

[Taylor]

Russia or Russia.

[M]

You get it? Yeah, they're the same. Yeah.

[Taylor]

Sort of Russia. And you have to split it.

[Morgan]

But honestly, I think it's worse being from the same town.

[Taylor]

It is.

[Morgan]

Because then everyone's like, well, we got this plan, this plan, this plan, this plan, this plan, this plan. And then for Christmas is one day, but then for four days you're like, arms stretched out. This house, then this house.

[M]

Yeah.

[Morgan]

And so I'm trying to mentally prepare for that. And that is why I drink. And what am I drinking, you may ask? Well, I really wanted a, like, Jack Frost.

[M]

Oh.

[Morgan]

Sort of drink. However, it's turned a little purple.

[M]

Oh, but by the. But by the neon light. It's giving a little Halloween. It's black. It is, yeah.

[Morgan]

Yeah. Well, it is. Vodka, pineapple juice.

[M]

We're getting hammered.

[Morgan]

I didn't know blue Curacao. Yeah, Curacao. And then I was like, tastes like pineapple juice.

[Taylor]

So I put.

[Morgan]

I had a little bit of that pomegranate left over Taylor. Oh.

[M]

And triple sec.

[Morgan]

And I was like, I'll put a little pomegranate juice in here. And it went from this beautiful Jack Frost blue to. Looks like a absolute hangover in a cup.

[Taylor]

Yeah. It looks like we're. I'm gonna be dragging you off the floor of that studio.

[M]

I'm glad someone's. Look at your dark blue black drink. Yum, yummy.

[Morgan]

Look at my bruise. This is my Christmas bruise, everybody.

[M]

It is.

[Morgan]

It's actually not bad.

[M]

You could call it a lump of coal.

[Taylor]

Oh, lump of coal.

[M]

Yeah. I love that you came here prepared to get drunk. I'm so excited. Really? Bring it back.

[Morgan]

The OG And I'll probably about halfway it.

[Taylor]

Well, don't worry, I will join you a little. It's a little blue.

[M]

She's showing signs. What about you, Taylor? Why do you drink and what do you drink?

[Taylor]

Well, M, you'd never told us what you drink.

[M]

Oh, I drink. Okay. I forgot to get a glass. I'm drinking an entire bottle of blood orange soda.

[Taylor]

Oh, yes.

[M]

Which I'm sure would go great in your little, your little.

[Taylor]

It was to me.

[M]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

You know that, that like TikTok comment picture where it's like the hands coming through, escaping.

[Morgan]

It's like escaping the fourth wall.

[Taylor]

Or it's like holding the hands and it's got like long acrylic nails and it's like, I just want to hold your hand right here, babe.

[M]

I'm holding your hand when I say this. Yeah. Yes.

[Taylor]

I drink what I drink. Of course. Adhd. More I have actually add. I'm not as like hyperactive outwardly as I'm hyperactive.

[M]

Interesting.

[Taylor]

In this brain of mine, my husband's very textbook adhd. Like, can't sit still. And I would argue that, like, I have to move a lot when I'm talking, but it just helps me multitask and pay attention. But everything that's hyperactive is.

[M]

Or your mouth is the hyperactive part. And I mean that with love. I mean, that's how we're all.

[Taylor]

And I take it with love. Don't worry, we all got. So I have three drinks per us. I've got three drinks. Three drinks.

[M]

That is adhd. All right, There was ADHD right here.

[Taylor]

I've got a Wawa one for hydration. For hydration. Then I have a coffee, caffeine, and then I have a health benefit, which is my broth from Brodo, which our link goes live on the sixth, so come and hit us up over there. But I'm loving it.

[Morgan]

Not the sly ad placement.

[Taylor]

Yeah. And then if you want to try, hey, at the end of the day, you know, M's our boss, everybody, if you didn't know. So M's acts like it's very kind that we showed up here, but at the end of the day, they are our boss.

[M]

Oh, no, I, I promise. I, I, it is truly out of just enjoying. The reason that we we asked you to join us is because we like you guys so much so.

[Taylor]

And we love you guys. So the reason why I drink all three of my drinks is because this morning yesterday I was feeling really motivated. So I was like, I'm going to go to a Pilates class and I do Pilates pretty often, but I do reformer Pilates, which means you don't sweat. And you don't really do that much because you just sit with. It's a m. It is amazing. You just, like, get your hand in, like, some loops or your feet in some loops and you just pretty much go back and forth on a seesaw. Like, it's more fun to me than it is like, a workout. It's a good stretch, so I really enjoy it. And I'm never sweaty after. Like, sometimes if I do like a high intensity class, but I don't like getting too sweaty.

[M]

Nope.

[Taylor]

But my girlfriend was like, hey, I went to this matte pilates class and it was really good. Like, I. My. I'm really. I feel really good after I got really sore. But, like, it wasn't too much that I wanted to, like, throw up in the middle of the class. And I was like, oh, I could do that. So I booked this class at this Matt Pilates place and I thought I had this in the bag because I've done reformer Pilates for so long, guys, I couldn't even press the brakes in my car leaving there really sitting here. When we clapped before we started recording, I had to put the mic between my knees. My knees are shaking. And now I'm like, why the hell am I holding this mic? Because I am getting a shake in the back of my arm right now and I'll never go work out again. So that's that.

[Morgan]

And now you're done for two months?

[Taylor]

I'm done for the next two months. But I did the. The lady was really nice, and me and her just, like, chatted a little bit before and after class, and she gave me two weeks of unlimited for, like a discount. And so I was like, I'm not gonna be like, no, I'm not taking that. So I was like, yeah, sure, definitely. And I'm crying because now I have to go back because I spent 20 bucks. Like, I have to go get at least 20 bucks.

[M]

The holidays you give. You give that as a gift. You give it to somebody.

[Taylor]

You're so right. M. I'm going to give this. My girlfriend that told me about this.

[M]

Give it to someone. It sounds like.

[Morgan]

Don't give it to me.

[Taylor]

I would never. Morgan, I would never give this to you. I will not be there.

[M]

Give it to someone with, like, upper arm strength. So me and Morgan are out, guys.

[Taylor]

They had me doing push ups. Like, when. When have you done a push up in a class? Now, granted, I had the, like, I don't know if you guys know what a pilates ring is, but it's like a. An elastic ring that, like, bends in together. Like, you can put your arms on either side and push it in. It's like a big circle. And they had it. You put it between your boobs. Okay. And then you did a push up like that. So you had help. So I was able to do like a good 20, but then they kept going and I was like, okay, I.

[M]

You sound. You sound like such a. Like a. A jock, bro. Just now being like, I did, like, a good 20. It's like I couldn't do a good three. What are you talking about?

[Morgan]

Yeah, I don't think I could clear, like a solid, perfect form. Push up. Push up?

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[M]

For a billion dollars, I couldn't.

[Morgan]

Like, I don't.

[Taylor]

Guys do too. I was on my knees. I had that thing between my boobs and that springs you back up, so you don't really have to.

[M]

You're supposed to snap that. Oh, my God.

[Taylor]

And I think I did it, like, slipped out of the. The thing, like, slipped out of the other side. Like, the ring, like, was coming apart. And I put it back together.

[M]

Okay, that's so humbling.

[Taylor]

I need to leave this class immediately. And then she announced to the class. Yeah. And Taylor's a true crime podcaster. And then a criminal defense attorney came up to me.

[M]

Oh, well, okay.

[Taylor]

That's why I drink. Yeah, that's why I drink.

[M]

And what do you drink? Oh, well, you have your three drinks.

[Taylor]

Sorry. Yeah, my three drinks.

[M]

The.

[Taylor]

The trio.

[M]

The Triad. Yeah. Yeah.

[Taylor]

Yes.

[M]

Well, I'm. Thank you again for being here. And before we get into the stories, Evo will rip my head off if I don't mention this.

[Morgan]

I was about to remind you.

[M]

Thank you so much. Yeah. So this. This upcoming year, we are building in some days off on the podcast, which I know a. People have mentioned in passing, like they would not be offended if we took a couple days off here and there. I mean, obviously Christine is a mom and we're all very busy, so we are doing that. We're not going to throw too many days out there just yet, but the first one that we're going to do is January 4th, which I think is the. The this week. This week coming up. So in a couple days where there would be a usual episode, we are going to be taking a day off. I hope everyone's okay with that. We're just going to enjoy the holidays and get ready for our next recordings. And if we ever do another. When we do another episode where. Or if we take another day off, we Will let you guys know in advance also, so I think that's the only thing I definitely needed to say. Everything else is just improv at this point, so.

[Taylor]

Well, I'm really proud of you guys for doing that. Yeah, that's a big move. That's something that me.

[Morgan]

I'm over here.

[Taylor]

Like, Morgan's giving me mean eyes.

[M]

Like, well, are you going to do that?

[Morgan]

If they do it, then we.

[M]

Well, I will say I. I fought Christine on this. Christine was the one who has always been a bigger advocate for this. And I always was paranoid that it would give the wrong idea. Nobody would. I'm aware, logically, that people would just be happy for us that we're taking breaks and.

[Taylor]

Yes.

[M]

And it's not that Christine and I don't deserve breaks or anything like that, but I know Christine for years has suggested it, and I've always been really hesitant, and so. And then I realized that I really actually didn't have a good reason to keep fighting it. And so anyway, this is. This is all for Christine rooting for, like, letting us have peace Mental health days.

[Taylor]

Yes.

[Morgan]

You guys have a timeline that I have known you guys. I am Christine and you are D.

[Taylor]

This is the first time it's ever switched.

[M]

Wow. Well, no, I know. Well, I've always been paranoid that people would be like, what does it mean? What does that look like? Like, I. I don't know. I was in my head about the. The negative comments we would get from it.

[Morgan]

Me.

[M]

And also because I thought, like, well, we've been doing this for so many years and we've never missed an episode. Or if we have, we've had, like, you know, we've put a live episode out or something like that. And so I've always thought we've always put out content every week. So if we're now breaking the chain, this later, this much later on, like, I was always paranoid about what people would think or.

[Morgan]

I don't know.

[M]

I was just in my own head.

[Taylor]

About over 400 and what, 50 episodes? Like, you're well over. And I mean, that makes total sense. I mean, Morgan, when we get into the four, not. I. I'll. I'll put. I'll put my shackles down. We're only in the twos. They've been. We've got years on us.

[Morgan]

Just come.

[Taylor]

We.

[M]

We. I. I know. I know your anxieties on this, Taylor, because I had them for so long. And I remember there being a conversation forever ago where Christy. I remember Christine and Eva, who. Eva was also on this side, too. I was. I was the. I was the villain here. Being like, I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't know. I didn't really have a good answer, but I was just digging my heels in.

[Taylor]

No, it's finally happening.

[M]

And I'm actually very happy about it.

[Taylor]

They were right along.

[M]

So.

[Taylor]

Yeah. 100 as a listener, guys, I really am grateful that you guys are taking the time to do that. And I think the majority of everyone would agree that we would want you to come be your best selves and be rested and be able to, you know, research cases and come with energy rather than. I mean, you guys have been doing this for so long. You got so many things on your plate. I mean, two books. I mean, hell, take a month off if you need.

[Morgan]

Seriously.

[M]

Very sweet. Yeah. And also, Christine, keep in mind, Christine has been touring for, I think, a full year. Like, she finally. She stops in October. But, yeah, that. That's. I can understand why she'd be like, can I please have a break? And so just one weekend, please.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[M]

Anyway, so that, yes, January 4th will be our first time taking a day off. And. And there will be more. We'll just let you know when it happens. But yeah, so that's it.

[Morgan]

And on January 4th, M. You need to put your computer, your cell phone, any electronic you have aside. You're not allowed to look at anything.

[M]

Fine.

[Taylor]

Oh, my God. Okay.

[M]

I mean, I'll be needing my phone for TikTok, so.

[Taylor]

Okay.

[Morgan]

You. You're allowed to doom.

[M]

Scroll.

[Taylor]

You're allowed to do scroll.

[M]

Well, other than that, we just got some stories to tell everybody. We have six. And again, shout out to the both of you for handling most of the stories. These come from your email. Yes. These come from your.

[Taylor]

Your.

[M]

Your followers. And then we also have two more that Eva pulled. So we've got a mixed bag over here. And you said they're Christmas themed. Is that what we're doing here?

[Taylor]

So we've got two or three of them that are Christmas themed, and then the majority of them are actually people who have written these exact stories into you guys. They're. They're your listeners first. And so we were like, okay, we're going to. We're gonna mix this bag. We're gonna make it in everyone's favor. So that way their stories get to be read that are lost in yalls inbox that have been going for, what, how many years now have you guys been doing this?

[M]

We've been doing this since 2017.

[Taylor]

So, yeah, this year we were sophomores in college.

[M]

Yeah, I just. Hey, now I'm 90, 000 years old, so that's how that feels.

[Morgan]

We were just little girls.

[Taylor]

Me and Morgan met that year actually, so. Yeah, we did.

[M]

Really? Oh, well, yeah. You're just a twinkle in our eye, I guess. Look at this.

[Taylor]

Your two daughters just walking in.

[M]

You know, my mom's finally so proud of me. As the desperate for me to have give her grandchildren. I'll be like, I don't know. You've got Taylor, Morgan. Deal with it.

[Morgan]

We can send her a Christmas card or, like a holiday card.

[Taylor]

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Grandma.

[Morgan]

And then we can Photoshop our heads.

[Taylor]

Into your arms, and it's Leona's in Christine's arms, and it's me.

[M]

Do you know what my mom calls herself, by the way? She doesn't even have grandkids, but she's decided what her grandma name is. Her name is Linda. And given the pop culture of the last few years, she's going with Glinda. And she also already unironically owns three tiaras, so.

[Taylor]

And I would expect nothing less from a queen.

[Morgan]

What? A queen.

[M]

They're. They're real ones. So if you would like. I'm just giving you inspiration for. If this Photoshop happens. Just know that if you threw it in a bubble, she'd be very excited about it.

[Taylor]

I'm gonna make it happen.

[M]

I am.

[Taylor]

Say less.

[M]

Got it.

[Taylor]

I'll be on Canva all night.

[M]

Well, so who wants to read the first story? Would anyone want to volunteer?

[Taylor]

Not I.

[M]

Do it perfect. Okay. Unless you want to go m. I am happy to. I. As the host, I feel like I should offer you to.

[Morgan]

As the host. You should go first.

[M]

Okay, fine, I'll go first. But I'm gonna read one of your stories.

[Taylor]

Okay. Do it.

[M]

As people who are very, very proud to be mental health advocates, we do know that a lot of people are going through stuff, and a lot of people that listen to the show, Christy included, go through some ocd. There's quite a range of experiences with ocd, but one of the things that people don't know about it is that OCD is so much more than its stereotypes. It's a serious and highly misunderstood condition that causes people to get stuck in a cycle of stressful, unwanted thoughts and repetitive physical behaviors. And those unwanted thoughts can be scary, disturbing, or completely out of character. It can be pretty rough. And not every therapist understands OCD or is qualified to treat it effectively, which can make it even more difficult to find the right help. But OCD is highly treatable with a specialized type of therapy called ERP or Exposure Response Prevention. Christine has done it. She said it has absolutely helped her. And with no CD you can do live virtual ERP therapy with licensed therapists who specialize in ocd. No CD therapists are highly trained so they really understand OCD and won't judge you no matter what your thoughts are about. And no CD therapy is covered by insurance for over 155 million Americans. Again, Christine has said that it has been so helpful to her. I know it's been helpful to other people that that go through this. So if you are struggling with OCD or if you think you or someone you know might be struggling with ocd, please don't wait to get help and go to NOC and book a free call with their team to learn more. That's nocd.com to schedule a free call and learn more. If you're going with the New Year New Me vibe and you want to add New Year, New me, New closet to that little mantra, then luckily we are partnered with Quince. They are incredible. They have made any ability for me to look fancy possible and not breaking the budget at the same time. I recently just got their cashmere Henley sweater and then also their cotton ribbed crew neck sweater. Love a texture felt very winter cozy. It was very, very wonderful. And Quince has all the staples covered so from soft Mongolian cashmere sweaters that feel like designer pieces without the markup to 100% silk tops and skirts for easy dressing up. So really, if you are trying to feel good about yourself and feel fancy and make yourself look really glam and you also don't want to spend a million dollars, go to Quint. I mean it. The quality shows in every detail. The stitching, the fit, the fabrics. Every piece is thoughtfully designed to be your new wardrobe essential. If I were to go out on a F night tonight, hands down, no questions asked, I would be wearing Quin. Refresh your wardrobe with Quint and don't wait. Go to quint.com drink for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. Hey Canada, that's Q-U-I-N c e.com drink to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quint.com drink okay, so this is from Danielle who uses she her pronouns. Thank you for normalizing pronouns Danielle. And the title is Is My angel.

[Taylor]

Oh my God, that's me. That was my type of my angle.

[M]

Do you want me to. You want me to read Danielle's because she's an idiot.

[Morgan]

No, my 90 degree right angle.

[M]

Okay. Sorry, Danielle. I don't know who wrote that. I'm assuming Taylor. Okay. My angel that visits me every Christmas. And Danielle says, hey, besties, I wanted to share this with you and I know you will immediately tell me to call Susan. For those who are. And that's very. Drink followers. Susan is their wonderful, wonderful medium. Which does she prefer?

[Taylor]

Medium, I don't know, psychic, angelic, medium, White light only.

[M]

And she is incredible. She has helped me and my own family stuff. The second that my aunt had some weird stuff going on, I was like, I know just who to call. So thank you for Susan constantly sending us connections there.

[Taylor]

Of course.

[M]

So yes, Danielle's. Apparently we're gonna want to call Susan after this. Danielle says you don't have to re. Oh, okay.

[Taylor]

You can read this because it's what's funny about being on here.

[M]

You don't have to read this part on the pod, but I've also wrote this into. And that's why we drink. Oh. For three years. But I still shot my shot this year. So each of you are getting the same story because you are my 2 all time favorite podcasts. Well, thank you and sorry, but it's finally happening. It's happened. My name is Danielle. I'm a huge fan of the podcast. This year I asked my husband to become a Patreon or a patron on Patreon as my gift. So fingers crossed. And this is pretty emotional for me as I'm highly sensitive and intuitive, but honestly, it's my favorite story to tell. Okay, hit it. Cool. Throw that on cruise control. Or that. Thank you. I was gonna say, I feel like I'm stealing your line here. Do you want to do it or should I give it a shot? I'll give it a shot.

[Taylor]

M. Give it your all.

[M]

Give it.

[Morgan]

Give it your all.

[M]

Okay, hit it, lady. Okay, no, throw that on cruise control. Pour that up and let's get Christmasy. Is that fair? Yes.

[Taylor]

Killing me.

[M]

Hit it. Don't get 1, 2, 1, 2, 3.

[Taylor]

Release them like oh.

[M]

I wish that heaven had. Okay. I'm so humiliated. Okay, okay. I come from a rather large, close knit family and every Christmas Eve would consist. Every Christmas Eve would consist of my immediate family traveling about 45 minutes out to Chicago to spend the holiday at my grandparents house with all my aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, etc and growing up, my family would go to my grandparents on most weekends, spending the Night. Saturday to Sunday. On Sunday mornings, everyone would get together for breakfast. My grandpa would make his signature apple pancakes. Yum. Along with bacon, eggs, sausage and biscuits. And gravy.

[Morgan]

What a chef.

[M]

Biscuits and gravy really get me talking, I'll tell you.

[Taylor]

Me too.

[M]

Yeah. The house would be filled with the aroma of hearty food, coffee, stories of the good old days. And laughter. Lots and lots of laughter. But Christmas Eve was the most special day of the year as we would all gather at their house from breakfast to dinner. The adults would gather in the kitchen chatting and laughing while us kids would run around playing, counting all the presents under the festive glow radiating off of the Christmas tree and giggling. When we would see our name on a gift, of course, we would shake our perfectly wrapped boxes to guess what mystery items we would soon discover. Every year we would beg my parents to open presents. And the answer was always the same. Is it dark out yet? Now usually on any other day of the year, that statement would probably be terrifying to say the least coming from anyone else. But on Christmas Eve, those words were magical. That's true. Is it dark out yet? Is it?

[Morgan]

Is it dark out yet?

[M]

It would keep us in a excited suspense all day long until we could finally unwrap our presents. Looking back, it was probably just an excuse to keep us out of the adults hair so they can enjoy their Brandy Alexanders. And anyway, and once. I'm sorry, dirty charcoal drinks that Morgan makes or something.

[Morgan]

Easy.

[M]

Anyway, once it was finally dark out, we would all hand out the gifts, tear them open one by one and finally reveal their contents. When a present would have a bow, we would leap over our grandpa and stick them onto his face and flannel until there were none. One left. Precious. So sweet joy would fill the room when he would take off each bow and chase us to put one on each of our foreheads. The night would slow down as we ate desserts and the adults would sit around the dining room table and us kids would play with our newest toys until it was time to drive back home. All the while searching the night sky for the glow of Rudolph's nose. And the sound of Christmas songs lulled us to sleep. My God.

[Taylor]

Magical.

[M]

I know. And also. Hello. Writing.

[Morgan]

Like really though?

[Taylor]

And we're there. We're here.

[M]

I'm locked the in.

[Taylor]

Actually, I am listening to the music and looking for Rudolph.

[M]

I'm in the car. The sky is right above me.

[Taylor]

Yes, I'm looking out the window.

[M]

I'm drinking Brandy Alexander's. Unfortunately, when I was a teenager My grandfather was diagnosed with stage four cancer, and watching this giant of a man during his fight was inspiring. Although he was 6, 8. Oh, really? A giant. Okay. Although he was 6, 8 and built like a brick house. A shit brick house.

[Morgan]

Brick house.

[M]

His personality was even larger than his physical form. After a few long years battling, he succumbed to the illness. Fighting all the way until the very end. For anyone who's ever lost someone, the firsts are always the hardest. The first Christmas without him, there wasn't as much laughter as before, and it was more somber, and the stories told were more so. Reminiscing of what once was and talking of what it would be like if he was still there with us to celebrate the holiday. There was no one to tell us to wait until nightfall to open presents. No one to place all of our bows and chase us to return the favor. Favor. And the whole night, I just remember waiting and wishing for him to give me a sign that he was with us on his second favorite holiday. His first being St. Patrick's Day, of course.

[Taylor]

Yeah. That is out. Mine and Morgan's favorite holiday. Is it. If you. It is. We do an entire special where we get up on the podcast and we tell Irish lore every single St. Patty's Day. It's our favorite holiday because the lore goes deep.

[Morgan]

Deep.

[M]

Was it deep? Well, was it your favorite before the podcast? Or is it just like, oh, drinking and drinking. You know what I mean?

[Taylor]

Unfortunately, it's drinking. And I love Ireland.

[Morgan]

Taylor did. Taylor did a study abroad semester in Ireland.

[Taylor]

Let me talk my tail.

[Morgan]

It became her entire personality for the next three years.

[Taylor]

Really? And for the. Well, actually more than that now, because look where we're at. And I'm still making my life all about it. I made an entire day dedicated to it on our podcast. Like, I went in 20. What? 2018. 2019. And it was just so awesome. And I loved all the lore. Like, I got to go to, like, storytelling, like, seminars with, like, true Irish storytellers that went to, like, mythological history. It was the best. So anyways, we really relate with grandpa. Obsessed with him.

[M]

Love that. My. Actually, my grandma, my gammy. Her favorite day was also St. Patrick's Day, so I don't know if.

[Taylor]

Did you know that? Yeah, Halloween's also an Irish holiday, so, like an Irish base. So like, two favorite holidays.

[M]

It fits. If it's. If it's.

[Taylor]

It does.

[M]

Good to know. Okay. The whole. The whole night, I just remember waiting and wishing for him to give me a sign that he was with us. But I Didn't feel his presence, just his absence. No signs, no smells. Smells, Nothing. And the night when we got home, I was mentally and emotionally exhausted. And I don't even remember falling asleep. Then, out of nowhere, I was suddenly back at my grandparents house. In the guest room where I had slept countless nights. Confused, I peeked out of the room down the hall, only to realize that it was now daylight. As I walked slowly through the hall to the top of the stairs, my sense of smell was heightened by something familiar. And it was the delicious smell of apple pancakes.

[Taylor]

No.

[M]

Cautious, I slowly walked down the stairs to see my entire family gathered and laughing around the table, passing my grandpa's famous food spread to one another. And as I turned to face the kitchen, I was downright floored by what I saw. There stood my grandfather, frying bacon with a warm smile on his face.

[Taylor]

I'm gonna cry.

[M]

I heard him give a thunderous hearty laugh at something that must have been said around the table. But I was too shocked to pay attention to what was actually said said. It was like I was watching my previous memories play out in front of me as if it were a movie. And I stood frozen in awe. And I stayed that way for what seemed like hours, watching the scene of the entire day play out before my eyes. I didn't even know how this was possible. And from breakfast all the way until dinner, I watched my lively family go through the motions of the Christmas Eves we've celebrated for so many years, beginning with breakfast all the way past dinner. Finally, the kids slowed their play to ask my grandpa if it was time to open presents. And he said yes. Yes. I literally have full blown goosebumps. Casually, everyone walked to the living room, out of my view to flock to their seats for gifts to be opened. And I realized I was the only one left in the kitchen. Finally, I willed myself to move. The fact that you were standing there for arguably 12 hours, maybe you're now moving.

[Morgan]

Yeah.

[M]

I made my way into the living room, expecting to see the room full of people, only to find it was empty. Except. Except for my grandfather. Oh. Oh, man. As I looked at the man I adored my entire life, he gently smiled and rose his arms out to his side. And a dim white glow radiated from behind him as he spoke. Oh, hang on. I love my family. It's all right, hon. It's beautiful over here. Oh, God. Oh. That's when I shot up from my sleep, feeling hot tears streaming down my face. And although I realized it was all a dream, it felt too entirely real. Like I had really, really, really relived that moment in time. As I looked over at the clock, it was 4am and as hard as I tried, I couldn't get myself to go back to sleep. So I laid in bed until about 8am My two sisters and I met in our own living room. I could tell my oldest sister had already been awake and she looked exhausted. She grabbed us each a mug of coffee, which she rarely did. We sat down waiting for our parents to wake up and I could tell she'd been crying. So I asked what was wrong. As the three of us sat on the couches, she said said I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep. I had the weirdest dream and I can't shake it. My other sister said that she had one too, and I also shared that I had one as well. That's when each of us described the dreams we had. Moreover, the same dream.

[Morgan]

Oh my God.

[M]

We each experienced the same exact dream in every single way. From the smell of the pancakes down to the end when my grandfather spoke the same words. Oof. As we. Wow. As the shock wore off, we felt a sense of comfort rather than fear. It confirmed that he was there alongside us the entire night before. But here's the kicker. Every single year since, all three of us have had that same dream on Christmas Eve. Except for the year we lost my grandma. That year, at the end of the dream, it wasn't just him covered in light. Oh my God. In that dream that year, my grandmother was at his side, head resting on his shoulder, sharing the same gentle smile. And as you can guess, my sisters each saw the same thing as well. Well, call it supernatural or sensitive intuition, but we are visited by the both of them year after year. I know it's crazy and hard to believe, but it happens every year without fail. And we look forward to seeing them each time. Now I have children of my own. It's always bittersweet to imagine how much they would have loved them. And I'll always cherish the memories I have with my grandparents and continue to live every day hoping to make them proud of the mother I've become. Now I'm the one who makes apple pancakes for my kids on Christmas morning and place extra bows on every Santa gift. I'm sorry this is so long, but I hope I by sharing my experience, it brings some comfort to those missing a loved one. A little extra this year, I believe they're always with us, even if we can't see them. And I don't exactly know what happens when our time comes to an end. But if it. If this has shown me anything, it's that there must be something or someone waiting for us on whatever the other side may be. Oh, my God. That's. Thank you, Danielle. And also, wow. That a really. How. First of all, just. Just in a world of, like, Christine and I are always talking about how we wish we could control our dreams. To just know confidently you're gonna have the dream is so cool.

[Taylor]

That is.

[M]

And to feel like you're really transported into a whole day. You get to experience a whole day every year with your grandparents. That's sick. Because it's not just like, oh, I get a glimpse of him. It's from morning until night. I get to spend a whole day with him every year.

[Taylor]

Yeah, like, you get to actually do exactly what you guys would be doing that night.

[M]

And.

[Taylor]

And, you know, it's so. It's so sweet to think that he loved this holiday so much and so did Grandma. That, like, they save up so much energy to. To perform everyone. I mean, that must take a ton of energy. And then, you know, it comes down back to. We always get back to it. The very least, somehow. It's like, what exactly is a dream? What is going on, like, in our heads with these dreams? And how does spirit know how to manipul. Manipulate them? And it's so, like. Like powerful that they are able to put you there with the smell, with the look of everything, the lighting of everything. Like, it takes so much energy and so much time. It's such a beautiful story, Danielle. Thank you for that one.

[M]

That's incredible.

[Morgan]

Beautiful.

[M]

And it's also. It's what all of us can only hope to experience if something were to ever. If there would ever be a tragedy, like.

[Taylor]

Exactly.

[M]

Very jealous of you as well, Danielle, and your whole family. So anyway, someone else go. Someone else go.

[Morgan]

Thank you, Danielle. Okay, the next one we have is from Timber using they he pronouns. And the title is Mama Died. Mama.

[Taylor]

Right, Mama. Okay.

[Morgan]

Mama died on Xmas. Hey, besties. Timber here. I used to go by.

[M]

Does it say ankle or something? Or angle?

[Morgan]

No, it doesn't. Okay, I have permission to say this. I used to go by Jake. I had the insanely creepy account and about being haunted in rural Indiana. All of this is fine to say out loud. Okay, I remember that. Okay.

[Taylor]

Okay, I remember you.

[Morgan]

I don't really feel really festive anymore as an adult due to some childhood stuff, but I decided last year to go spend Christmas with my best friend and her husband's up in Chicago. Go. I'm so sorry, guys. One of these has to come out because the way I'm talking myself.

[M]

Yeah, talk. I'm going to Morgan has been trying on some new extra suctiony AirPods and I think the. The voice in your head was a little too insane. I would.

[Morgan]

And my tongue's blue, so it's even worse.

[M]

Okay, let me back the up. Okay.

[Morgan]

Sorry. Timber. Okay. I don't really feel really festive anymore as an adult due to some childhood stuff, but I decided last year to go spend Christmas with my best friend and her husband's up in Chicago. They are my chosen family and I love them to the moon and back. I'm moving there next year.

[Taylor]

Hey, Timber.

[Morgan]

The morning I was going to leave after work, I got a text from my mom at 7:30am saying mama is in the hospital. I responded asking if it's serious and if I need to leave work.

[M]

Work.

[Morgan]

The lady leaves me on read for an hour saying, yeah, I would, and then doesn't respond with any details.

[Taylor]

Is this Bethan Timber? Is your mom named Bethann Mouse?

[M]

No, Literally.

[Morgan]

My mother would be like, I mean, yeah, I would.

[Taylor]

Like, yeah, I mean, sure.

[M]

You want to see me? There's respond for an hour. There is that trend of like, sometimes you just have to read your mom's text and keep moving on because, like, my mom would be like, oh, yeah, someone got hit by a car and is now like they're inside out. But I don't know. I don't know if that's important to you. It's like, yeah, girl, it's so, yeah, mom, for sure. Yeah, so, okay. My mom would do the same thing of going if you want. And it's like, yeah, absolutely.

[Morgan]

Should I call my brother? And he tells me the information that I need. I look at my boss and I say, I my grandma is dying. I got a mosey on out of here and I drive like a speed demon to the hospital in Indiana, cursing and screaming at anyone who cut me off. Probably looking insane as my face is red from crying. I get to the hospital, no one is there. So I find a nurse and she kindly points to me me, points me to where she is and gives me a few minutes with her. Mama had some sort of infection, so I couldn't touch her to say goodbye. And she was unresponsive at the time of my arrival. I stand there trying not to cry and tell her that I'm sorry for all the holidays I didn't come to and that I missed her and that I loved her. Obviously nothing happened so I leave and run into my aunt and catch up for a while before leaving for Chicago. Crying the whole four hour drive there listening to Em and Christine and y' all to get through the 4 1/2 half to 5 hour drive through Indiana from Louisville to Chicago. I had a wonderful time in Chicago, feeling a hair guilty enjoying my time knowing my mama was dying but I knew she'd be pissed at me if I canceled. Fun to fuss over her in a hospital waiting room. My mother also this is like your.

[Taylor]

Mama is such a Kentucky mama that like I I I'm reading her so like exactly she would be so pissed like you're going to go what you.

[Morgan]

Doing here wasting all time of year.

[Taylor]

Go hang out with your friends in Chicago. I'll be all right.

[Morgan]

She always said I was gonna fuss myself to death if I didn't have a little fun now and then. I'm her oldest, the firstborn, the golden child. I'm also her step grandkid and whenever I'd get teased or one of the nasty ladies on the hill would bring it up, she'd tell them to hush up. She'd always tell me that I was 100% hers and that God just got me to her a little late date. It's Christmas double Eve. So is that Christmas Eve Eve and I drive back home so I can go back in on Christmas Eve as she still hadn't passed and I didn't have the day off. Cut to Christmas day and I feel like still so I lay around the house drinking Moscow Mules, eating orange chicken and gingerbread cookies. What a mix there.

[Taylor]

Line up right there.

[M]

Your tummy's gonna feel crazy.

[Morgan]

Yep I bought like 20 rolls of dough from Kroger the week before oops. And watching whatever semi trashy Investigation Discovery show I could find on HBO Max before just throwing it on tub some noise, whatever. I didn't care. It was around 5pm and I step out to start my Xmas night walk about getting to the back half of my route to come home when I hear her distinct laugh around me thinking I was just drunk and sad. I brushed it off. I come back home to my cat curled up on the couch and flowers in the attic playing on tv. Have you guys seen that movie?

[M]

Yes I've heard it of it but.

[Morgan]

Not I I don't know what was up with me as a child but I really love those books and the Lifetime movies especially when up you as.

[M]

You were meant for this to be a podcast Born to do this.

[Morgan]

Yeah. Because it was, like, all about incest. Flowers in the attic. And I was like, this is awesome. They're making into a Lifetime movie, Mom. And she's like, oh, that's great, honey.

[M]

You know when I was your friends that when I was a kid, one of my most bonding experiences with my mom was watching the most up lawn order SVU episodes. And if it wasn't incredibly up, we wouldn't even turn it on that night. But we would. You know, it'd show you, like, a little blurb about what it was about. If it wasn't about some, like, child ring, like, we would be like, ugh, boring. Like, boring.

[Morgan]

Boo.

[M]

Boo.

[Taylor]

Tomato, tomato, tomato.

[M]

No.

[Taylor]

Next.

[Morgan]

For some reason, this was my mama's favorite movie. I am your mama. She always made us watch it with her. Even though it's about a grandmother who locks her grandkids up in the attic, plots to kill them with rat poison, and then also the grandkids are.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Morgan]

You know, having children. I check my phone and there's a missed call in voicemail from my mom that had come in while I was on my walk to tell me that mama had passed away. I knew then that I did hear her laugh on the walk and that she had put the movie on in her own sense of humor to let me know she was here and thinking about me. Sorry this is so long.

[M]

I hope you have a.

[Morgan]

Both have a. Hope you all have a very merry Christmas. Much love from a Kentucky and Maryland Timber.

[Taylor]

Timber.

[Morgan]

Timber.

[Taylor]

Mama. I love your mama. And yeah, 100%. I believe that she did like coming cackle and was like, wait till you get back home.

[M]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

And see what I put on the TV for you.

[Morgan]

One last Enjoy your little walk.

[M]

One last laugh.

[Morgan]

Oh, that was good. Thank you, Timber, for sharing that.

[Taylor]

Thank you timber.

[M]

By the way, we never even talked about this thing. Exploded in my face.

[Taylor]

Where'd you bring it from? Like, do you like what happened?

[M]

I don't know what happened. I got it from World of Market. I just. But it just. I went to open it and then just.

[Taylor]

Oh, my God.

[Morgan]

Blinded you.

[M]

Whatever.

[Taylor]

You know what? M. How about I let you take Marigold and I'll take Lenny, because Lenny's very long, and you already did the longest one outside of this one, so I'll go ahead and do Lenny instead.

[M]

Perfect.

[Taylor]

Okay, so the next one we have is from Lenny using she her pronouns, and the title is my decade long demon stalker. And how I exercise my boyfriend love.

[M]

And I've always.

[Morgan]

So this one's not Christmy.

[Taylor]

This is one of the non Christmy ones as you can tell so far. So Lenny says, hey besties, I hate my name being on the Internet anywhere so you can just call me her. Obviously I have to start out by saying I love you guys in your podcast and I think I found you from and that's why we drink. I have been listening non stop and personally love when you guys ramble at the beginning. A 70 minute creepy account. Sign me up.

[M]

You know what I'm My favorite thing about the two of you is that you will never stop talking.

[Taylor]

I We will never stop. We will never stop. You need us to fill space, we got you. Anyways, the title of this is actually not Clickbait. So side note, for anyone who doesn't listen to our show, we ask that you clickbait the hell out of us in all of your creepy account and your listener stories. Because like if it just if they all said we're like, okay, cool. But if you say my demon stalker who and I had to exercise my boyfriend, I'm in it. Like I'm on it. I'm in it. I'm all around it.

[M]

Smartest thing you could ever have asked anyone to do.

[Taylor]

So that's why you hear a lot of us talking about like clickbait. Anyways, this title is actually not clickbait and is the decade long story of a demon that has been stalking me from 13 to 25 years old. So please bear with me because this will be a long creepy account and I really hope you guys read it. Mostly because I just love to hear your commentary on everything. I'm also going to try and write this in a way that is pleasing to Taylor. So all of our ADHD friends, let's go.

[M]

Love that.

[Taylor]

So grab a drink because this is fried as oh okay, I'm scared. This section is called the Beginning. All this started at 8th grade at an 8th grade sleepover. Can you guess what we decided would be a super fun idea? That's right, a good old Ouija board.

[Morgan]

Yep, it's a great idea.

[M]

Every time.

[Morgan]

Never fails.

[Taylor]

Oh it was my and three. It was me and three other girls, J, K and A. We got some cardboard, a Sharpie and a medicine bottle cap and we were ready to connect with whoever would talk with us. We looked up the rules beforehand because were that stupid and then got to it.

[Morgan]

How to use Ouija board.

[Taylor]

How to make and use one. And I'm sure it's like disclaimer demons.

[M]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Of course we started out asking Is anybody there? And to our surprise, the began to move. We didn't believe that that though clearly one of us was just moving it to be funny. So we thought the smart thing to do would go around taking turns taking our fingers all off the quote unquote plan, chat medicine bottle cap, and asking questions only we knew. So Kay took her fingers off and asked, when is my mom's birthday? And the board got it right. Then a took her fingers off and asked, what brand of underwear am I wearing? And it got it right.

[M]

Okay. Free God.

[Taylor]

Holy question.

[M]

Okay, just a little freaky.

[Taylor]

Okay, a little freaky. We all took turns doing this, and we were and were decidedly convinced that we were actually talking to something from the other side. Now it was our turn to ask it some information about itself. So we asked, what's your name? And yes, friends, it was none other than the infamous demon we all know. Oh, I don't. I don't say that name anymore because I believe it opens a door for it to re enter my life. So I'll just say Jojo. I know you know what that means. Oh, yeah, the one that M just said very openly on our podcast, Pass. One time during the. What was that? When we played Hot Ones, we did the Hot Ones trivia, and we were talking about demons, and you were like.

[M]

Yeah, the one zippity zood. And we were like, hey, I would. I would apologize. I. And I. I guess I will if it helps, but I like the theatrics. I don't know what you're saying.

[Morgan]

You do.

[Taylor]

And we live for them too.

[M]

I like the flare. And if. If anything ever happens towards me, that is that. I'll take the karma. I'll take it.

[Taylor]

So we stayed on with Joe for a little longer, said goodbye, and then went to bed. Well, I can't remember the exact dream, but I know I had a nightmare that night. I woke up the next morning and told my friends about it. My friend Jay said, no way. I had a nightmare about you too.

[M]

Me? Yeah. We pull.

[Taylor]

We pull that damn board back out and asked if it was in our dream last night. And it said yes.

[M]

Oh.

[Taylor]

We then have this if it was attached to one of us, and that spelled my name out for everyone to see.

[M]

I, first of all, hate it. Second of all, I love how Lenny. Surname Lenny.

[Taylor]

Lenny, yes.

[M]

Went to the friend and said, oh, I had a dream, blah, blah. It was terrible. And they went, yeah, me too, about you. And I'm like, oh, okay. Like, I thought we were sharing that. We all have the same dream, but I guess I'm the main character everywhere.

[Taylor]

I guess it's me.

[M]

Yeah.

[Morgan]

Energy.

[Taylor]

We said goodbye and we burned the. This next section is called sleep paralysis. Not long after my encounter with Joe, I began having sleep paralysis. The first occurrence, I was laying in bed facing my door, which I kept open to sleep and began drifting off. Next thing I knew, I was paralyzed and a dark figure was at the end of the hallway, just standing there.

[M]

And that's what he said.

[Taylor]

JoJo got me.

[M]

JoJo got me.

[Taylor]

Oh my God. I was getting choked.

[M]

I'm scared. Thank God you have all three drinks there.

[Taylor]

I know. One of my three. Okay, so JoJo, please off away from me. Goodbye.

[M]

Goodbye. Goodbye.

[Taylor]

Where was I at? Okay. Standing at the end of the hallway. Just. It. I can't even say it without choking. What the hell?

[M]

It feels a little real. A little too.

[Taylor]

It does. This figure was shorter, a little heavier set and had on a short top hat. I'm sorry. All I'm envisioning is the little rat from Cinderella that's got Gus. Gus. Is that Gus Gus? That's all that I'm seeing at the end of your hallway. Just so you know.

[M]

And horrified.

[Taylor]

I. I always said that he kind of looked like Al Capone. Okay, sorry.

[Morgan]

Hat man's son.

[M]

Yeah, like a little. Like a short, pudgy, 10 year old version of the hat man. Yeah.

[Taylor]

The next night I was trying to fall asleep again and the same thing happened. However, this time the figure was in my doorway and was the more typical hat man that everyone sees. Any top hat. The figure began to walk into my room towards me. I heard something crinkle by my bed and then the figure began to climb onto my bed, placing its hands at the foot of my my bed. However, the weight of the hands on my bed caused my leg to fall and I quote, woke up.

[M]

Oh my God.

[Taylor]

I looked around my bed and that crinkling noise I heard was a. Was a plastic bag by the side of my bed that now had a foot sized indent in it.

[Morgan]

Ew.

[Taylor]

Ew.

[Morgan]

Ew.

[Taylor]

I knew I wasn't dreaming and I told my mom everything. But of course she said it was just a nightmare. Go back to bed, babe. You're fine.

[M]

Mom. Get out. Mom.

[Taylor]

The third night, I thought to myself, maybe if I fall asleep away from the door, it won't happen. So that's what I did. It did not work. Besties. I was paralyzed. Knew something was in my room and couldn't see what it was. This thing crawled onto my Bed got right behind me, and it began to lick my ear.

[M]

Yes, my ear.

[Morgan]

The kink of hat man.

[M]

Okay, so everyone's got one. Like, please be responsible. Underwear.

[Taylor]

Hat man licking ears.

[M]

Okay, okay.

[Morgan]

No.

[M]

So I thought the worst thing you could possibly say is that she felt a climb back into the bed. And then I thought, well, surely if that's the worst thing, maybe it, like, tries to, like, spoon her.

[Taylor]

That's what I was thinking we were gonna do. Little spoon.

[M]

Yeah. Now. But in the same moment that all of that is actually nothing compared to how bad it is, I'm finding out he has a tongue and knows how to use it. You know what I'm saying?

[Taylor]

And, guys, pointy tongue. Tongue.

[Morgan]

No, I'm thinking like snakes. Snakes.

[M]

Like, it's flat and thin and light. Yeah, light as a feather. Do you. Do you think it was a slow lick or just like.

[Taylor]

I think it was like a.

[M]

Oh, God.

[Taylor]

That's what I think.

[Morgan]

I hate that.

[Taylor]

A drag up.

[M]

Oh, yeah, certainly.

[Taylor]

How did someone give me a cigarette? I need a break.

[M]

But I need a break. I do have to ask. How do we know it was a lick and not just, like, maybe his hands are like. Like, wet, wet.

[Taylor]

So what I'm thinking is that there had to be a sound effect by it for. For Lenny to know that it was a lick or ear feeling hot breath. I was about to say.

[Morgan]

I'm sick. I'm sick.

[M]

I hate this.

[Taylor]

And it happens again because the fourth night. Yes, besties. I was tormented four nights in a row. I didn't see anything. I have since learned that people can. Can have auditory sleep paralysis. And this is something I also experience. I was laying in bed, starting to drift off. Heard something clap twice right by my ear. It was us testing to get the mics working.

[M]

Y'.

[Taylor]

All. Y' all ever seen the conjuring in that clap game they play? And the mom gets two claps by her ear? Yeah, it was exactly that. I'm sorry, we can't talk about the conjuring and sleep paralysis.

[Morgan]

How would be thy name?

[Taylor]

We're like, no, we're not.

[Morgan]

No.

[Taylor]

After this, I was terrified to sleep in my room and began sleeping in the living room. I would stay up all night until the sun rose. Began. Until the sun rose, began. No. Until the sun began to rise and then would fall asleep on the couch. This went on all summer. And when my oldest brother went to college, my mom moved me into his room, hoping that it would help. It did somewhat. But I still needed melatonin to go to sleep every single night. I was about 15 when all this began.

[M]

It was then the brother wasn't having any of this. I guess it was a attached to her and she was the one who.

[Taylor]

Was playing with Ouija board.

[M]

But imagine being. I would at least team up with my brother and be like, all right, one of us has an attachment, the other one doesn't. You have to play investigator and like, do you see anything from your end? Is the door opening? Do you also hear licking? Like, you have to be really, you have to be the objective.

[Taylor]

Did you see the, the indent plastic bag?

[M]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Like all that stuff.

[M]

Or like, can you, can you stay up late one night and just watch the hall and stuff, see if you experience anything or anything? I, I you do you guys remember.

[Taylor]

That app called Sleep Bot and it would record like anytime it heard a sound in the middle of the night?

[M]

Yeah.

[Morgan]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

So I had to do that in high school for like one of my health classes to like, see if, like how we slept at night, if we talked in our sleep. And I'm a very active. Especially when I was younger, the older I get it kind of like little by little goes away, but I, the physicality of it. But like I used to sleep walk and talk and like move all night, like sit up and like clap and do all the things. Now I, I sometimes will slee, but. And sometimes I'll sleepwalk, but it's very, very rare. For the most part. It's all just like very active dreams that I'm having. And I roll around a lot. But when I was younger and I had this Sleep bot, it was me talking in my sleep and I was saying like, I want to. I was talking like, you know when you talk gutterly, like when you're sleeping, like, that's what it sound like. And I didn't know it was me because it didn't sound like me. So I was screaming in the middle of the night when I listened to my mom came running up the stairs and she was like, taylor, that's you. That's what you sou when you talk in your sleep. Psychics could only imagine what that lick would sound like on Sleep Bot anyways.

[M]

Something disgusting.

[Morgan]

So this next we're giving her poor ptsd.

[M]

Yeah, I know. Lenny's like, Lily has fast forwarded. Burnt the phone. Yeah. Although I would say back to the the wondering if I'd ever again. Like, if on night three are getting licked in the ear. What's next? Like, what's what? What do you assume day Four is gonna be like, you're wearing ear muffs. I'd have a whole parka on. I'd zip my face up. Like, I'd be like, nobody's touching me.

[Taylor]

Nobody's touching me.

[M]

Oh, my God.

[Taylor]

I'm gonna get one of those really expensive, like, camping sleeping bags that, like, you turn into a cocoon and had your hat out like, that way. But then am I trapped? Like, it Am I. I would have.

[Morgan]

To lay face down.

[M]

Yeah.

[Morgan]

The horror movie is that kind of with, like, a. A straw out of my.

[M]

Or something. The worst part would be, like, if the new horror is that he appears inside your jacket and, like, is in there with you. You know what I'm saying?

[Taylor]

Licks your ear inside the jacket.

[M]

But if you see. If you can see an imprint on the ground, that implies you can do the flower on the ground Santa boots technique.

[Taylor]

Yes.

[M]

You know, like, leave flower on a trail and see if, like, you see.

[Taylor]

Where he's walking, if anything happens. That's a good idea, Lenny. The next section is called Enter Church. My sophomore year, we got a new assistant volleyball coach. I didn't know who he was or anything about him. We were on our way to a tournament one morning when I heard him talking to a few of my teammates about sleep paralysis. I wasn't involved in this conversation, but I overheard what he was describing, shot out of my seat and said, I have that. He listened to my experience and told me that there were some people at his church that could help me. So. So I went, sorry, Lenny. From my personal trauma, I'm a little scared.

[M]

I'm a little scared.

[Taylor]

The following Sunday, I met with some people at his church who also struggled with sleep paralysis. Love. This church prayed over me and gave me a prayer to pray over my house in each room in it. So they're essentially teaching you how to cleanse it in, like, in whatever, you know, denomination or religion. This says. They told me that I had what was called the gift of discernment. Yes. Which is one. And if you don't know what the gift of discernment is, it's kind of like what in Christianity specifically is like, kind of like your gut instinct. Like, when you get, like, a spiritual message. Like, a gift is like saying that, hey, like, I know that something's off about this. Just trust in your gut, essentially. Which is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and why I was more in tune with spiritual things happening around me. They also taught me about how some things open doors for demonic activity, like demonic movies or The Ouija board. The Ouija board, Yeah, I would say that.

[Morgan]

Eighth grade slumber party.

[Taylor]

Yeah, I, I cut all that out and I said a prayer from room to room. Stop watching scary movies. And still don't. And it worked. I haven't had sleep paralysis anymore. Well, congratulations, Lenny. I'm so glad that happened for you.

[M]

Oh my God. Finally. Okay, church.

[Taylor]

Like maybe church. How about that?

[M]

Second guessing everything I've ever said. Okay.

[Taylor]

Since going through this as a young team teen, I have always been more in tune when something just doesn't feel right. And this is where the story gets really freaky. So the title of this section is called the Lead Up. Present day, I'm now 24. I just have to let you guys know that I have my legs crossed and they're violently shaking from how sore they are. And I will never be returning to that Pilates class. So we're gonna keep going.

[M]

Thank you for inserting a different horror into this.

[Taylor]

Um, I just. I don't know what I was thinking. I don't work out like that. I am now 24 years old and am with my boyfriend of three years. He recently moved into an 1800s house with his sister. Okay, 1800s houses stand up.

[Morgan]

Me, Christine wear because that's terrifying.

[Taylor]

Also say a prayer. The first weekend staying there, I had the house. House. I said the house gave me a weird feeling, but I just didn't know why. After about a month, me and my. Me and his sister started noticing things around the house. I felt uneasy sleeping there and she had things moving around her room. One night my boyfriend had left for work early in the morning, like 2 or 3am and got. I got one of the dogs in the room so I could try and go back to sleep. As the dog and I were laying there, I began to hear footsteps walking, walking down the hallway to the closed door I was behind. I opened my eyes and was peering at the door thinking maybe I just imagined it all. Until I looked at the dog and her head was also up and cocked at the door, implying that she heard it too. Another time I was in the room by myself and my boyfriend was downstairs and something jiggled the doorknob like it was trying to beginning. Finally, his sister and I began telling each other all of our experiences and told my boyfriend what was happening. Boyfriends just always are so. Just like what?

[M]

I mean, just another opinion I have about men where I'm just like, can you please, for the love of God, believe me and also be scared or at least get it together. Can you save me. Since it's not a big deal.

[Morgan]

Can you act like you're scared?

[Taylor]

Can you just, like, you know, give me a little theatrics here?

[M]

I'm admit that you're just pretending you don't notice because of how petrified you also are. I'd like to not feel alone here. Thanks so much.

[Taylor]

Exactly. While my boyfriend does believe the. In the demonic like his sister and I do, he doesn't take it as seriously as we do. We were all downstairs and he had had a cup. I know where this is going. He had had a couple of drinks and began provoking whatever was in the house. Such a man thing.

[M]

Then the end.

[Morgan]

Let us tell you this story briefly. I'll get it done in three minutes. Taylor and I were in the car with our husbands, and we were going to Helen, Georgia, for October Fest.

[Taylor]

October Fest.

[Morgan]

And this is like, through. What are those mountains called?

[Taylor]

That's a Blue Ridge.

[Morgan]

Through the Blue Ridge Mountain.

[Taylor]

It's like Appalachian Blue Ridge. Yeah.

[Morgan]

One lane road. It's dark outside. They have the windows rolled down and they start screaming, dude, G. Walker.

[Taylor]

Me and Morgan are in the front seats. I'm driving.

[M]

Driving. It's even worse. I would have just stopped the car. Then I just stopped the car and been like, okay, we did.

[Taylor]

We. We literally threaten them like you do. Like your kids, actually.

[Morgan]

This is funny. Then get out.

[Taylor]

Then get up and walk the rest of the way. How about that? You. You could take them. And then me and Morgan are like, they're choking.

[M]

They're choking. They're choking. We don't claim this. We wash our hands. Hands of this.

[Taylor]

Goodbye.

[M]

Yeah. Oh, my God. Oh, man. No. I couldn't tolerate that. I'd be like, I'm checked. I've checked the out. We don't speak.

[Taylor]

I'm done. And you're pulled over and you're walking the rest of the way.

[M]

If anything happens, I'd be like, if the car breaks down at all, you have volunteered to get out by yourself. I'm never helping.

[Taylor]

Yeah, no, I know.

[M]

I'm not getting out.

[Taylor]

I'm not getting out.

[Morgan]

Matter of fact, I'll hang blankets on the windows.

[M]

Yeah.

[Morgan]

So I don't even know what's going on out there. And I'm.

[Taylor]

I'm gonna put up those, like, baby screens that you do so they can't see. I'm gonna, like, roll it up on the.

[M]

The thing.

[Taylor]

We were all downstairs, and he had had a couple of drinks. He starts provoking whatever was in the house, saying things like, if something is really here, then just show yourself. I'm not really scared of you. That's Morgan, actually. Morgan, show yourself.

[M]

I feel like Morgan could just be like this the whole time. Like, come on, come on. Just throw up a punch it at me.

[Taylor]

Show yourself. I dare you. At that moment, the drum in the other room let off one soft bang. And then his phone began to play music. And his. His pocket. He wrote it off as a coincidence, but his sister and I did not. Because it wasn't. It was not.

[Morgan]

I'd love to know the song, just out of curiosity.

[M]

Oh my God.

[Taylor]

If it's tiptoe.

[M]

Just. Just faint Ukulele's trumps. So you know it's coming. Yeah. You know that. Oh man, I really have full blown. Full blown shells. Because the. The second your phone starts playing music, just. I mean, it's too late. It's in. It's in the system. It's in the main frame.

[Taylor]

Yeah, it's happening now. Like, and the. The. The soft drum set, like, who the touch my drum set? Like in the next room over. It's like.

[M]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

And then you can't even be mad about the drum set because all of a sudden, boom.

[M]

What I would.

[Taylor]

It's in your pocket.

[M]

What I would like to know that I feel like I'm not gonna hear is what was his first response moments later? What did he say? Did he go, oh, that was kind of creepy?

[Taylor]

No. I bet he was just like, oh, no, no, no, no, that's me. That was my.

[M]

My man.

[Morgan]

Like, I did that on purpose.

[Taylor]

He doesn't seem bothered by it at all. Like at all.

[M]

Wild.

[Taylor]

Okay, this section is titled the most up I've ever Witnessed. Present day. A couple of weeks go by. Nothing crazy really happens. Until I was staying the night with my boyfriend. He was laying on his back and said three separate lines that sounded like a language I hadn't heard before. I thought it sounded like Latin.

[Morgan]

Oh no.

[Taylor]

He is a pretty regular sleep talker and is not always coherent. So I just tried to write it off. Off as I as sleep talking, mumble. Okay, besties, I know this has been a long story, but it's about to get crazy. The next week, I'm laying in bed next my boyfriend, and he's been asleep for about an hour by this point. He rolls over to me and starts sleep talking. However, it wasn't like his normal sleep talk. His voice was deeper and it was like he was. It was like he was aware of his surroundings. Asking. Asking me why wasn't I asleep yet? I. Sorry, I thought that was about to go dark and I'm gonna. Aren't you asleep?

[M]

Why are you asleep, man?

[Taylor]

I began to get a really weird feeling. Grabbed my phone and started recording him because something didn't feel right. I have attached the video so you can play it now or at the end because I won't be able to explain it as well. Let's put it up, please.

[Morgan]

I'll send it. Taylor, Keep going.

[Taylor]

I'll get it. Okay. After he said the last line of the. Okay, wait, we need it. We need it here.

[M]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

I love your name, Lenny, by the way. L, Y N N I E is really cute. I know it's not your real name, but I really like it.

[M]

It's a good fake name. It's also. It's. If you're going with a name that has nothing to do with your name and you just pick that out of thin air. It's real enough I could believe it, but it's also fake enough that. I don't know. You're getting exactly what you want. Is very. It could be like in a book. You know what I mean?

[Taylor]

It could be.

[M]

Yes.

[Taylor]

Yes, exactly.

[M]

Let me.

[Taylor]

Morgan, play it and see if we can hear it through your mic because yours is.

[Morgan]

Actually. No, I can't guys. I can't hear anything cuz I have noise cancellation on. Was it crazy? Can someone else play it?

[M]

The fact that you're not reacting is like the most crazy part of this. Wait. Yeah, we could.

[Taylor]

Hold on. This is stuck to my phone. Okay, here we go again.

[M]

I'm sc. I'm not tired yet. I'm scared.

[Taylor]

Vecna.

[M]

You pissing me off. I'm not doing anything.

[Taylor]

You're pissing me off.

[M]

I'm not sleepy yet, bub.

[Taylor]

I'm sorry.

[Morgan]

I'm laughing because that is terrifying.

[Taylor]

We're not even halfway through it, guys. We're not even at through it.

[M]

We have. We have got 30 seconds left. Okay, wait, but to clarify, we. It was. It was. Why aren't you sleeping yet? You're pissing me off. Go to sleep.

[Taylor]

And then something else. Hold on, let me. I want to back it up and hear what that last part was.

[M]

I'm really trying to keep it together. I promise I'm not trying to huff and puff through this, but that's the scariest thing I've ever heard in my life. Yeah, baby.

[Taylor]

I. I don't. I don't like you. Stand. Stand or something. I don't. I don't understand.

[Morgan]

I don't understand or why aren't you.

[Taylor]

It says, why are you not asleep yet? You're pissing me off. I don't understand. I think it's. I don't understand.

[Morgan]

And then I kind of hear, why aren't you scared?

[Taylor]

Okay, okay, okay. Here we go.

[M]

I'm not sleepy yet. Wait, what did he just say? Why did you do that? I'm sorry. I had. I had to throw in a lick.

[Taylor]

I had to throw in the leg. Okay, hold on.

[M]

Let's. Let me turn that back up.

[Taylor]

Hold on.

[M]

Here we go.

[Morgan]

Computer.

[Taylor]

What'd you say? Okay.

[M]

Wow. I hated that. Hey, so that was actually. I've never heard. I mean, that's an actual demon that came.

[Morgan]

That came out of a movie, so.

[Taylor]

So.

[Morgan]

No, so that's actually a demon that.

[M]

Was actually from the bowels of hell. I mean, so. Okay, wait. You might be the expert on site here though, Taylor, because with your sleep app and it sounded really crazy. Was it that level of. Could it have been that level of guttural from, like. It sounded crazy to you when. On your recording. When it sounded technically guttural compared to.

[Morgan]

I wish I could hear his normal voice.

[M]

Yeah. Do you think it could sound like a grown man just being guttural?

[Taylor]

No, because here's the thing. It's the end of the words. I. And I don't know if you guys could hear it exactly, but the end of his words are like. Like a different. Like a. You know what I mean? Like, the mouth is golf balled. You know how like in choir, where. Whereas mine was like my regular sleeping voice, but just like real.

[M]

Like, like really vocal.

[Taylor]

Like, I'm not opening my mouth. And if I. If I was sitting there beside him, it feels like he's like opening his mouth and like talking with like a sleep.

[M]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Yes. And that's like not a sleep talk. A sleep talk is mumble.

[Morgan]

If that isn't proof of a demonic possession, then I don't know what is.

[M]

And you first, folks. Wow. I. I fully. I've actually never had chills quite like that. That was. That. I didn't know how to fucking also.

[Taylor]

So.

[Morgan]

Yeah, the way we all laugh because.

[M]

We were like, what? We hated it. That was like.

[Morgan]

We had no other reaction when you.

[M]

Were first playing it and you couldn't hear it like, Taylor, Like, I've never. Like our eyes, like, holy.

[Morgan]

Like, wait, I heard. Was it crazy?

[Taylor]

What do you say?

[Morgan]

Was that scary, guys?

[M]

You're like. Can you hear it? Like.

[Taylor]

Yeah, yeah, we hear it. Okay, so after he Said the last line in the video. I got up, went downstairs and played the video for his sister. She ran upstairs and immediately began trying to wake him up. Yeah, he is a deep sleeper. So it took us a couple of minutes. We woke him up, and I played the video. Video for him. He agreed that it was weird. We all stayed up for another hour praying over the house, praying over him and ourselves. This is a good spot to insert here that my boyfriend is the only one in the house who is not baptized.

[M]

You know, sometimes I think about getting baptized just to avoid some stuff.

[Taylor]

This is like a, you know, just like a protection thing.

[Morgan]

Cautionary.

[M]

Yeah, just. Yeah, I agree.

[Taylor]

You know, m. Technically, anyone can baptize you, so you could have. Alice.

[M]

Hey. What do you.

[Taylor]

Drown you for a second?

[M]

I was gonna say. Can you, like, right now? Let me see.

[Taylor]

Yeah, Here, I'll come. Waterboard.

[Morgan]

You realize, I feel like. I feel like we all need it.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[M]

I would love to do just like. Like a. Like a company retreat where we just all go get baptized. Just in case. Just in case.

[Morgan]

A little cleansing.

[Taylor]

Just a little cleansing ceremony for us here. And then when you come up, we do like, 13 other versions of baptism. So we just cover everything.

[Morgan]

We'll be the topic on someone's Reddit thread. If we're, like, in the mountains, they're.

[Taylor]

Like, came across this really weird cult.

[Morgan]

That was drowning themselves in the creek bed.

[Taylor]

They were drowning each other. And then they would come up and they had, like, sage, and then they were doing, like, camera.

[M]

I could see all of us crazy. I could see all of us having a different, like, PowerPoint presentation on, like, a different religion and how we're going to protect ourselves from there.

[Taylor]

And this is how we will baptize each other within that religion. Yes, of course. So he's the only one who is not baptized. I kept praying over the house while also reaching out to that old friend from my church. He provided me with some relief and told me to keep praying over the house and don't let whatever was happening scare me, because that's the demonic. That's what the demonic does, is trying to instill fear. I stopped being afraid and relied on Jesus to protect us. This section is called Almost Done. I was at his house one night, and we were staying up late downstairs and talking in the kitchen. It was during this conversation that I once again began to feel weird. I noticed that that's the discernment in you, Bessie. I noticed my boyfriend's eyes began to change into a more menacing look.

[M]

Oh, my God.

[Taylor]

And he started to ask me, are you afraid of this? This house? You need to get rid of him.

[M]

Actually, I'm afraid of every living creature in this house, including you. Got to go.

[Taylor]

Sorry. And when I said, no, this house is covered and protected by Jesus, he said, I like this house. I'm not leaving. This is my house. At this point, I knew I wasn't talking to my boyfriend.

[Morgan]

Actually, you don't pay utilities, so actually.

[Taylor]

You don't pay the rent, so you can truly suck my dick on that point.

[Morgan]

Cut a check and then maybe.

[Taylor]

And then it's just like, absolutely trolling the demon is like, so classic. Like, that's so funny that you said that, in fact. So. Okay, I'm sorry. I looked in his eyes and said, let's pray right now. I forced him to give his me his hands and began to pray things along the lines of whatever is here. If you are not of Jesus and bow to Jesus, you are not welcome only to. Spirits of the Lord and of heaven are allowed in this house. And things that are not have no authority here. And I demand you to leave in the name of Jesus Christ.

[M]

I'm getting chills.

[Taylor]

Amen.

[M]

I say that. Amen. Amen. Me too, actually.

[Morgan]

Amen.

[Taylor]

We'll take that prayer here as well. Thank you. I'll take any prayers I can get. Okay.

[Morgan]

Please.

[Taylor]

I finished praying and looked up at my boyfriend. He looked woozy and said, I don't feel too good. And then collapsed onto the floor and passed out. I went over to him and I placed his head in my lap as he was whimpering and kind of moving back and forth. He then woke up and asked what happened. I had no. He had no recollection of the past 10 minutes and went upstairs and went to bed where I continued to pray over him and his soul.

[Morgan]

Okay.

[Taylor]

And since then, there has been no issues in the house. Okay. I know this took forever to write, and if you're actually read it all, God bless you. And I do believe that whatever was in him very well could have been JoJo, especially since referring. It was referring to me by name. But yeah, that's sort of how I began being stalked by JoJo for a decade. Exercise my boyfriend's house.

[M]

House.

[Taylor]

And then my boyfriend. Thanks, Vess. Okay, Lenny. Damn.

[Morgan]

It was really the case of, like, he was attached to you. You got rid of him. Came to the next. Or like, he couldn't get to you into, like, a more possessive level, so he just jumped right where he could.

[Taylor]

And that house is so old, the Energy in it would like allow for a demonic to take over.

[M]

Yeah, man.

[Morgan]

Oh my God, that is sickening.

[M]

And you know, for the rest of your life you get to hold that over your boyfriend that you saved, actually. So clean the gutters. I don't know.

[Morgan]

You actually owe me money because you had two people with you.

[M]

Yeah. So splitting the rent. Yeah.

[Morgan]

Three ways. And you're. No, I'm just kidding.

[Taylor]

You're taking two.

[Morgan]

But that is crazy.

[Taylor]

That is crazy, Lenny. I hated every single second of it. But wow, me too. Crazy, crazy story. Sorry.

[Morgan]

Thank you for submitting that and sharing.

[Taylor]

Yeah, Lenny, love you.

[Morgan]

It's really hard to write out actually.

[Taylor]

Hope you're okay. Okay. Yeah, you sound okay. But you wrote us a book and I think you should submit that to the Conjuring franchise. They might buy it off of you.

[M]

Absolutely.

[Taylor]

Absolutely.

[M]

The holidays are over, so we have all spent a lot more money than we planned on spending. So I'm sure you don't want to really touch money for a second and like let it build back up. And while you're feeling like that, luckily Mint Mobile is here to help you cut back on overspending on wireless this January. With 50% off of unlimited premium wireless. Mint Mobile's end of year sale is still going on, but it's only until the end of the month. So if you have thought about joining Mint Mobile, this is the time to do it. Very lucky that we had Mint Mobile really saved our butts while we were on the road. And we, we can't say enough about it. We, I'm telling you, please get it. If you're even wondering, it is so, so helpful. This January, quit overspending on Wireless with 50% off unlimited premium wireless and plans start at $15 a month at mintmobile.com that's mint mobile.com ATWD Limited Time offer upfront payment of 45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for 12 months. Plan required, $15 a month. Equivalent taxes and fees extra. An initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. Capable devices required. Availability, speed and Coverage varies. Cement mobile.com as much as I used to make fun of everyone else in my life for it, I officially and unfortunately in a devastating blow, am a victim of my hair starting to thin and I am not happy. But thankfully we have Neutrophil. Nutrafol is the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand trusted by over one and a half million people. And now one million and A half plus one because of me. Neutrophils hair growth supplements are peer reviewed, NSF certified for sport and clinically tested to measure improvements in growth, quality and strength. And now with Nutrafol, I'm feeling a lot better. I am feeling more confident. Confident. And if you are in my position, try Neutrophil. See thicker, stronger, faster growing hair with less shedding in just three to six months with Nutrafol For a limited time, Neutrophil is offering our listeners $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping. When you go to nutrafold.com and enter the promo code DRINK. Find out why Nutrafol is the best selling hair growth supplement [e-mail] spelled by the way N U T R a f o l.com promo code code drink that's neutrophil.com promo code drink well, in a devastating blow, we've got more to read. So here is Marigold who uses they them pronouns. Thank you for normalizing pronouns. Love a baby and the title is Ghost walked through me and an instinct to run.

[Taylor]

Let's go.

[M]

Marigold says, hi guys. I've been listening for a while and I'm a huge fan. My name is Marigold. My pronouns are they, them and I. You are totally free to use them. I. Oh, sick. Thanks. This is a dream come true. So thank you if you're even getting to me. I'm not on Patreon. So pretty. So please, pretty please for my sanity, put this on the main podcast Surprises.

[Taylor]

On that's what we drink.

[M]

Okay.

[Morgan]

Surprise.

[M]

Oh. Anyways, this takes place in my 100-year-old childhood home. I was 9 to 12 when this happened. And as a child, I never believed in ghosts. But even after the start of the, let's say, activity, I started to to believe. Very Zach Bagans. I didn't believe. Oh. So I came face to face with one. So we had a closet full of children's toys. Problem number one. Yep, Red Flag and One made a song like the ABCs or something. I can't remember music.

[Morgan]

Problem number two, like I there's guess.

[Taylor]

There'S a rocking chair nearby.

[M]

I don't even let my dog have squeaky toys. Like I don't. If you make a sound, you're out of here. You're out of here. In the middle of the night. I was trying to go to sleep and I heard the song loudly from downstairs. Horrific. My mom came in and said it was probably one of the toys in the closet. And she checked and yep, she turned it off. But the very next night, the same thing happened. This went on for six to eight nights until my dad put it in the garage. This thing's a Furby.

[Taylor]

Oh, my God.

[M]

That's all it is. I. I don't. I. Maybe it took six to eight nights.

[Taylor]

For dad to put that. Put it the hell away.

[M]

I'm telling you, with my Furby, it put my. Gave my dad five minutes. He was like, this thing has to go.

[Taylor]

It's gotta go.

[M]

Were you of the Furby era, or do you need me to tell you.

[Taylor]

How horrible I was of the Furby era? I never had one.

[Morgan]

I never had one either.

[Taylor]

So my mom didn't.

[Morgan]

Siblings did.

[M]

It was. It was. It was a horrifying experience. The Furby wouldn't shut the up. My dad beat it with a baseball bat and put it in the freezer, and you would still hear it singing in the middle of the night, and it'd go. And it's horrific. Horrific.

[Morgan]

Today's Labubus, if they spoke.

[M]

Yeah. But truly, there were stories across the map of dads trying to break these things, and they wouldn't shut the up. And so then it turned into this whole lore of like, oh, they're demonic, and there's no Furby language they're speaking is actually Latin. And the Furbies were built to be able to. If you put a Furby next to another Furby, they would talk to each other. So then it sounded like they were, like, doing a ritual. It was horrifying.

[Taylor]

It's actually just me. It's just the three of us sitting there.

[M]

It was actually just like the first signs of a podcast. Yeah. So, okay. This went on for six to eight nights until my dad put it in the garage. But when the activity continued, after powering it off, we donated it.

[Taylor]

Great. That's very nice.

[M]

The next prominent time was a year or two later, and my mom experienced this one. Not me, by the way. So my mom has a bedside little digital clock. And my mom went to bed as usual and was reading when the radio started playing super loudly on the clock, like the. On the nightstand next to her. Oh, my God.

[Taylor]

Gotcha.

[M]

She turned it off. But key detail. We haven't used the clock radio in over 10 years. Ooh. So my mom turns this thing off. It was just playing for the first time time in a decade. This happened once more a few minutes later. And then somehow, crazy brave, she went to bed.

[Taylor]

Yeah, Mom's crazy for that.

[M]

I Literally the same thing. Moms and boyfriends are the same I'm like, how do you just rest your eyes?

[Taylor]

Like, I just don't know what we're going to be like. Like what? Like what as parents. Like what's going to happen? Because like I'm going to be like, oh my God, we have to move. Like we really got a ghost. I gotta move.

[M]

I think it's for the best that I don't want kids because I'm going to be the reason the kid has to go to therapy because of the assumed demons that were never there that.

[Taylor]

Were never actually there. Like if my kid comes to me and it's like, hey, something's under my bed. I'm like, well now guys, we can.

[Morgan]

Just put in noise canceling headphones, just.

[M]

You don't hear anything. Well she, so she goes to bed after the radio that never turns on but turned on twice. She woke up at like 3:15 that night when the clock's numbers just started going crazy and doing different numbers switching super fast. So now the clock is like out of a horror movie and then started doing numbers that do not exist and then no numbers at all.

[Morgan]

Numbers that don't exist. Like symbols.

[M]

I. I guess so.

[Taylor]

I'm gonna need, I'm gonna need help.

[Morgan]

Or like I don't even know what.

[M]

To imagine if they don't exist.

[Morgan]

Like 3, 6, c. 3.

[M]

Oh yeah, like three times military time. Ah, I don't know.

[Taylor]

Oh no, I can't tell what that means. Roman numerals. Oh no.

[M]

Oh no, no, no, no.

[Morgan]

3. It's like 396. Like 96 minutes.

[M]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

If my digital clock started showing me Roman emeralds, I'd be like, I have to check out because I don't even know.

[M]

I know V. What? Like. Five. It's a five.

[Taylor]

Wait, do you guys know, know where? It's like, it's like. No, I, I want two. And it's like no, like two minutes.

[M]

You have to.

[Taylor]

You know that trend on tick tock where it's like my, my two. Yeah, two minutes going. And like that's me with the, with the Roman numeral V. High five, girl.

[M]

Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. So apparently the numbers then go to numbers that don't exist. I can't even begin to fathom what that means. And then no numbers at all. And then just green since the numbers were always green. Like so now it's a straight, straight line as if it just flattened itself out.

[Taylor]

Great.

[M]

So the numbers, they start showing numbers that do not exist, which I don't even know what that means. And then it goes to no numbers at all. And then it goes straight to just a flat green line as if it just, it just stops. It just halts itself immediately. Horrifying. I heard the story so I went up to the room and I clicked the radio button and especially since I was doing homework on their bed and wanted to have a look little music while doing it. Since I didn't bring my phone up, I kept clicking it but the radio would not turn on like it should have. So now it's just not working at all. Right, well that's the end of my little mini story. But a few days later I was home alone after getting off the bus and my parents usually got home from work around 5 5:30 and now it's 6. I went into the long hallway on the first floor and I was there just kind of walking around and I only had a light on in the kitchen which was connected to the very start of that light long hallway. But then I felt something cold wash over me and I froze like a deer in the road. A hard, a pure hard instinct to run as fast as I could toward the light happens. And once I was in the kitchen I was super shook up, just unhappy. And it was 5:45 which was a little weird, but I thought maybe my dad might be in a meeting and my mom might just be closing up at her work. So she had only one light on. Then she had this huge rush. Her parents are still not home when they should be. One thing to note is the sun sets around like 5:20 in the winter here so it was already dark out and I was getting over it like oh man, that must have been our ghost. Thinking there must be a ghost there. He seems friendly enough playing with children's toys and making noise. And I was still scared of him though. But then I thought I heard footsteps and talking on, on the other side of the house. I was really scared and I don't know why but unlike most 11 year olds just going and hiding, I picked up a humongous kitchen kitchen knife and.

[Morgan]

Are you anonymous cat?

[Taylor]

Who is that?

[Morgan]

Who is that?

[M]

I.

[Taylor]

Who is that?

[M]

I picked up a humongous kitchen knife and started just quietly scouring the home and then singing some sort of pop music as loud as I could as like a distraction I guess. Then once I got to the windows in the front of the house I saw a bunch of joggers in a group wearing glowing vest and shouting. Recognizing the voice, I calmed down and my mom locked up. Pretty soon now that I think about it, back to the first Story. I should have checked.

[Morgan]

I'm sorry. Are you highlighting the words? I'm geeking out over here.

[M]

No.

[Taylor]

Who the hell is doing that?

[Morgan]

Is it Eva?

[M]

I don't know what's going on.

[Taylor]

Do you not see it on your end?

[Morgan]

M. On the Google Docs. It's like, word in purple. It's Eva.

[M]

It's Eva.

[Morgan]

Guys, who the is it?

[Taylor]

Wait, Morgan, someone is in here.

[Morgan]

No one's highlighting anything right now.

[Taylor]

It's exactly what you're reading.

[M]

I.

[Taylor]

Look. Oh, it's happening right now. Hold on. Wait. Everyone put your hands up right now.

[Morgan]

Wait.

[M]

It was me. It was me. It was me. It was me. Oh, it was me. Sorry. Sorry, everybody. Okay. It was me. It was me. Everyone chill the out.

[Taylor]

Sorry.

[M]

I was like. I am like, it's here. Get the water. It was me. I'm so sorry.

[Taylor]

We were like, anonymous cat is highlighting everything in purple and, like, exactly what you were reading.

[M]

No, we were like. I. No, I was not even. I just wasn't even thinking about it. And then by the time you mentioned it, I had clicked away and I was like, no, I'm not highlighting anything. Okay. No, it was.

[Taylor]

I'm so sorry. Am I so sorry. Okay.

[M]

No, no, no, no. Okay. It was 100% me. Okay. Anyway, that was pretty much the end of it anyway.

[Taylor]

Way.

[M]

I. That was the. The end. The end. Holy.

[Taylor]

I'm sorry. I thought we were just about to.

[M]

Sorry. We.

[Taylor]

There was a lot going on within that, and I just need to break it down. So essentially, this house is very haunted. There's a lot of things, especially with, like, digital clocks and stuff like that that are going on. Just like, a lot of stuff going on all the time. And then. So you kind of went into a time warp. I'm. I'm getting.

[M]

It feels like a time warp. It feels like the electronics were all bugging out, and then the parents were at home. So during a super creepy moment, it felt like an immediate rush to have to run down the hall. Like something was behind you.

[Taylor]

Yes. And that. Yes.

[M]

I mean, the thing that freaks me out the most is the. The radio obviously freaks me the out.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Morgan]

Especially, like, symbols, if that's what it was.

[M]

Yeah.

[Morgan]

And especially interpreting in that way.

[M]

And shortly after, the toys start going off by themselves. Like, I don't like that it's playing with. That's what. That's the thing I hate the most. Everything else seems to be, like, feelings, which I are absolutely valid, and I've had them, and they're horrifying, but The. The proof of electronics freaking the out. Totally out of your control. Hidden in a closet, not working for 10 years, and now they're working. No, thank you.

[Taylor]

No, thank you. Oh, I forgot. I forgot that the. The toy in the closet. Yeah. You know, in 100 year old house. Let's get rid of the toy closet.

[M]

Yeah. I think that's fair. I think if you have. There's certain boundaries. If your house is from the 1800s, let's say you just don't get to have an attic.

[Taylor]

Yes.

[Morgan]

I mean, we're actually not allowed.

[M]

You shouldn't have a cellar unless it's completely finished. You shouldn't have a basement. You know what I mean?

[Morgan]

Yep. I agree.

[Taylor]

That.

[M]

Or a shed out back. No, thanks.

[Morgan]

If anyone builds a new home and you have a crawl space.

[M]

Yeah.

[Morgan]

In a. In an unfinished basement, you're not allowed to have it. Yep. You have to board it up. Actually, the.

[M]

The last two that we have are ones that Eva picked from our email, and they are both super short. So if you each wanted to take one to finish out the episode, that'd be great. Perfect.

[Taylor]

We got it.

[Morgan]

Em, why can't I get them to open?

[Taylor]

I just got them.

[Morgan]

Oh, it's like a picture. Okay.

[Taylor]

Okay, okay, okay.

[M]

Okay.

[Morgan]

All righty. Am I up?

[M]

Yes.

[Taylor]

Yep. Okay.

[Morgan]

So this is called A Christmas Ghost Story. And this is from Abrah using sh. She. Her pronouns.

[M]

I'm not.

[Morgan]

I love this submission form that you guys have going on, by the way.

[Taylor]

Oh, nice.

[M]

It's on our website. And that's why you drink dot com. And Eva's one who made this, I think. Eva. Yes. I think he was one that made this our website.

[Morgan]

Submissions look crazy.

[M]

It's just a nice little submission form. It's very cutie.

[Taylor]

I love it.

[Morgan]

Love. I'm not sure how else to start this besides saying with no doubt in any of our minds, my mother's house is haunted as like poltergeist. And they've always loved me. I'm assuming the ghost.

[Taylor]

And your parents.

[Morgan]

I'm assuming from the first time we stepped foot into what would be my room. Great. We've heard a little girl. But in all the years I lived there, I had never seen her. Until Christmas 2017, I was the first of my family to be done getting ready a Christmas miracle.

[Taylor]

To be honest. Truly.

[Morgan]

Sitting alone downstairs in our living room, which displays the staircase bridge prominently, something caught my eye. There was a little girl sitting on our mother staircase. She didn't seem to notice me at first, and as I was Sitting there trying to figure out if she was real or not. She looked up at me with an in no exaggeration. The biggest eyes I have ever seen. They weren't all Black shout out BK's but they were a special kind of dark against her pale skin and long dark hair. When our eyes met, I immediately got violently ill, vomiting for the rest rest of the night. I would get the same random violent sickness for years after this. No matter how healthy I was prior. But only on Christmas.

[Taylor]

Oh my God.

[Morgan]

This is like the Christmas witch.

[M]

Yeah, Krampus's daughter or something.

[Taylor]

Yeah, literally.

[Morgan]

While this really sucked as I loved Christmas, it did get me out of midnight mass a few times. So Sleigh as in rainbow dear slay. But our story doesn't end there. That next year my partner at the time, Josh, he him came to live with us for a while. He went across the hall to our bathroom that was equally as unsettling as my bedroom. When he came back, he looked shook as hell. I asked what's the matter? And he said I know this sounds crazy, but I swear to God I just saw a girl in your bathroom.

[M]

Ew.

[Morgan]

I asked what she looked like. He said she had long dark hair and she was really pale. But her eyes, dude, they were massive. Okay, first things first. John passes our boyfriend list.

[M]

Absolutely. His name is Josh though.

[Morgan]

Oh, Josh.

[Taylor]

Sorry.

[Morgan]

I literally looked at back at it and I still read John.

[Taylor]

My good buddy John.

[M]

Josh is for the girls. He's for the girls for sure.

[Morgan]

For the girls 100. And he's like, yeah, I saw that. And that was creepy. As aver said I never told him that story. Spooky Christmas to all and to all a good night.

[M]

Oh my God. God. Well great.

[Morgan]

That's terrifying.

[Taylor]

And I don't think you throw up every Christmas.

[M]

Like yeah, my. You know like December 23rd, 24th. She's like, oh no, here we go. I don't like that there's. She said somewhere in there that the bathroom was just as spooky as the bedroom. And I'm like, can you. I. There's nothing more horrifying than like having a drop trowel in a bathroom that frank freaks you the out. Like right? I. When Christine and Eva and I investigated the Sally house, I ref. The bathroom there like freaked me out. And I made Christine stand in the bathroom with me while I went because I was so. I was like something is in here. I was like, I don't know what it was.

[Taylor]

Me and Morgan do the same thing.

[M]

Oh, it's so scary.

[Morgan]

We did that in LA actually.

[M]

It's so vulnerable. I feel like a dog outside. You know when they're going to the bathroom, they're like looking everywhere, like terrified that something's gonna get him. That's how I felt the whole time. There's a haunted bathroom. Really gets me anyway.

[Taylor]

Yeah, no, a haunted. Here's where like I really have to draw a line is like when I. There's been a few times. The last time it happened to me I was in Savannah, Georgia and I had gone to like a really old building. There was like a speakeasy underneath and I had to go to the bathroom. And like right. Like a year before I went, me and Morgan had read a creepy account on the podcast about one of our listeners who like got on this elevator and got lost. And this like in this Savannah, Georgia, like speak easy and like they went upstairs to go to the bathroom and then they came out on their right floor and no one was there and their boyfriend was looking for them and it was crazy. So I was already on edge. But I got a little bit of liquid courage. So anyways I had to. I had to open the hatch cuz I drank so much I need to go pee. So I. And I was in guys like I am today cuz I stay in one a bodysuit. So not only am I in a haunted bathroom.

[M]

That's cold.

[Taylor]

I'm getting butt naked.

[M]

Fully, fully, dude.

[Taylor]

I'm just titties out on the toilet like seriously freezing my ass off. And I'm scared to death. And it was just like so, so violating the entire time. I just was going as fast as I could and when I came out like all my straps were all messed up and was like are you okay?

[M]

Like well also like even if it's not a ghost, if like someone wanted to kill you, the most embarrassing way would be like on a toilet with yes, I. You know, I live in California, we have to worry about earthquakes and I. I've always thought the most embarrassing thing would be a post bodysuit on a toilet. And the earthquake hits and you're just splayed out nude and someone finds you that way.

[Taylor]

Tragic.

[M]

Like there's no escaping in time, you know, there's none.

[Taylor]

Oh, that is so good. Yeah, well, love that story. Hate that you throw up every day.

[M]

Love your hair.

[Taylor]

Hate you guts. But.

[Morgan]

I do feel like it was a little girl that got like yes, sick and. Or died right before Christmas or something like that.

[M]

Yeah, we're just all. We're all having to Experience with pain now.

[Taylor]

Yeah, yeah. She's like, I want someone to know what I went through. The last one we have is from I'm sorry. Okay, we go Teddy using they them pronouns. And the subject is where did he get the gun? And the worst person to run into at a hospital. Kids Christmas show.

[Morgan]

That is clickbait. That would have got me a Teddy.

[Taylor]

Yeah, you would have got cuz what?

[Morgan]

I'm intrigued.

[M]

They already have me at the children's hospital on Christmas. But the gun. What? What's happening?

[Morgan]

I'm really concerned here with the title. Not gonna lie.

[Taylor]

Hey squad. My name is Teddy. They them shout out M. I've been. That's what Teddy said. Not me.

[M]

Another non binary. You must know all of them. Yeah, I know, I know. Could you imagine if I said that? You know all about that, don't you?

[Morgan]

Shut it up.

[Taylor]

I'm sorry. I'm gonna take together. I've been a listener since the summer of 2021 when I was working at a haunted museum in rural Canada. Shout out him again. While this story is not about that lovely museum, if you're interested, I can send it in a later. I can send it later along with my summer of ghosty experiences. But the story I will be sharing this time leans towards Christine and Taylor. Hey, that's me. And T.R. true Crime. This story takes place circa 1977 when my mom was a kid. She was raised in extremely rural Canada. I wish I could be more specific, but I don't want to out the lore I was given.

[M]

Sure.

[Taylor]

And like many true crime cases, sadly my great aunt was in a relationship with an abusive. I don't know a lot of specifics other than this story, but it was the 70s in the rural land, so I can't imagine it was great. So one day around Christmas time, this comes home and sees another guy in the house with my great aunt. Long story short, the guy pulls out a shotgun. Honestly, I don't know where he got the gun. Maybe a shed. Who knows? It was the 70s. And shoots the man in the house through the window into his chest. What this would have realized if he had waited 30 more seconds. Was the guy in the house. House was my great grandfather, my aunt's dad.

[M]

Oh my God.

[Taylor]

Holy.

[Morgan]

Oh.

[Taylor]

Well, as you can imagine, went south. Ambulance and police were called and my great grandfather was rushed to the hospital. And against all odds, he lived this.

[M]

Wow.

[Morgan]

Amazing.

[Taylor]

Crazy because they lived over an hour away from the nearest hospital and he.

[M]

Shot it, essentially point blank range, it.

[Taylor]

Seems, through the window directly into the chest. During this time, a shotgun, which means. Means it was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. During this time, my mom, who was around 7, was quite sick and was stuck in the hospital for Christmas. And that evening, my grandma took my mom down to see the Christmas show that was being put on for the patients at the hospital. Oh, how sweet. And who comes up to chat with my grandma like nothing happened? Oh, the guy who shot her down.

[Morgan]

Oh, my God.

[Taylor]

He comes up and talks to her like nothing happened. And my grandma. My grandma quickly ushers my mom away from what I've been told there were no charges because he was deemed mentally ill. And I'm not sure what happened to him after that.

[M]

Oh, my God.

[Taylor]

I had never heard this story until I was in late high school talking about CT scans with my mom. She told me the story of taking my great grandfather to get a CT scan when she was in her first year of university and him showing her all the shrapnel still inside his chest from the incident. He passed away a few years later from what I understand was un from something that was unrelated to the shooting. While that side of my family is full of crazy stories, this definitely is one of the most unbelievable. Thank you for reading. I am currently on my second listen through as I've gotten a lot of time on my hands for the first time in a while and appreciating the evolution of the pod. Thanks again. Good luck and I hope that if you ever get shot in the chest with your a shotgun, you also live. Cheers, Teddy. Teddy.

[Morgan]

Thank you for those good wishes, Teddy. I hope so too.

[M]

And let's bring that energy into 2026.

[Taylor]

And we'll be taking that into 2026 with us, Teddy. So that's the new motto. You get shot in the chest. I hope you live.

[M]

You live so well. Thank you everyone who submitted stories. And thank you again, both of you, for coming on and telling the stories with me. Of course.

[Taylor]

It's so much fun, guys. We love coming over here and hanging out with you. Any chance that we get, we is. Taylor, I'm over here.

[M]

But y' all are broken. You gotta do it the other way, girl.

[Morgan]

Oh, really?

[Taylor]

Are you in the middle?

[Morgan]

Oh, I'm in the middle. Oh, wait.

[M]

Oh, my God.

[Taylor]

Oh, now M. Do it with M. Now, Morgan.

[M]

I. Where are we? I.

[Taylor]

We're all in spots M. Yeah, you're right. No, M, go back to where you were now. Go up a little. Oh, no, not the Gen Z1. You're showing. You're showing our, like, definite right you guys. Yeah, that's right. Y' all are together.

[Morgan]

Looks like seeing.

[M]

No, you have to point the thumb down so it does the little. The little. The thing.

[Taylor]

My son doesn't go down like that.

[M]

Not all of us can do. Is that why all of you people started doing this or whatever it is? What is.

[Taylor]

Okay, but we never did that. I did the one with the fire.

[M]

The fire. Oh, my God. And by the way, for people listening and not knowing what's going on, we're trying to figure out between our generational gap, what the hell we make a heart look like with our hands.

[Taylor]

We're like, like five years younger than you. Like, like. Okay, come on.

[M]

You're on the cusp and you know it.

[Morgan]

Thumb down, though. Like that. That really hurts.

[M]

You have to do it like this. That's the heart. That's.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[M]

Is that. Does that not look like a heart, too?

[Taylor]

This is how I grew up doing it.

[M]

Okay. That's how I always do, too. But now. What's your little, like, weird blood sign or whatever? Is that it?

[Taylor]

This is what people do these days. This is what my little sisters do.

[M]

Which I get it. It looks.

[Morgan]

M. Said it.

[M]

Morgan's like, well, I mean, I remember doing that too, and thinking I'm so cool. That actually, I love how the true crime one's like, you better knock it off.

[Taylor]

I'm like, please wrap it up.

[M]

I don't want to be a part of that.

[Morgan]

Well, who taught us that?

[Taylor]

My middle school teacher, I guess. I don't know.

[M]

My fingers can still muscle memory into that, which is me too.

[Taylor]

I could just definitely do it if I was feeling like it, but I'm really scared, so it's like saying the. The demonic name. I don't.

[M]

I don't want to.

[Taylor]

I don't want any of that smoke. I don't want any.

[Morgan]

I don't even think it's like their symbol, though.

[Taylor]

It's definitely not any. Not anymore. At the very least, they for sure had a brand change after.

[M]

Once they realized 12 year olds could do it, they were like. Like, I think we should, like.

[Morgan]

It was like our 6, 7 to do that.

[M]

It was.

[Taylor]

I hate 6 7. It really pisses me off.

[M]

Man. I don't know how we got here, but anyway, I guess imagine a heart in your head, everybody. Whichever way it looks in your head.

[Taylor]

That'S what looks in your head.

[M]

That's what we were doing. No. Thank you for coming on. Thank you, everyone who submitted. Good luck, everyone in 2026. I just. I don't want to make any expectations is just good luck to all of us and reminder that January 4th, where usually there would be an episode, we are going to be taking our first day off and very excited about that. Thank you to everyone who is going to be understanding and kind in the comments. So my paranoia is not justified, which.

[Morgan]

Is going to be everyone or Morgan and Taylor are going to come after you and y'. All.

[Taylor]

We don't play that. We really don't. Show yourself. Show yourself. Power Rangers.

[M]

I I don't know how to do the and that's why I drink amongst three different people. But and that's why we dream. Okay, great. Thanks.