S19 Ep19: A Veil of Darkness Volume 3: The Shadow People Files (Sn. 19 Ep. 19)

Summary

Monsters Among Us - S19 Ep19: A Veil of Darkness Volume 3: The Shadow People Files

Release Date: June 17, 2025

Introduction

In this chilling episode of Monsters Among Us, host Derek Hayes delves deep into the enigmatic world of shadow people—mysterious, dark entities that have perplexed and terrified witnesses across the globe. Titled "A Veil of Darkness Volume 3: The Shadow People Files," this installment features a series of first-hand accounts from individuals who have encountered these elusive figures. Through these spine-tingling narratives, Derek explores the various manifestations, origins, and possible explanations behind shadow people, offering listeners a comprehensive look into this paranormal phenomenon.

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Megan’s Encounter in Detroit [02:31]

Megan from Detroit, Michigan, sets the tone for the episode by recounting her unsettling experience with a shadow person. About a decade ago, while attempting to connect with her spirit guide through meditation, Megan witnessed a shadowy figure in her darkened bedroom. She describes the apparition as “the outline of a person about 5ft tall” that was “darker than the dark of my room” (02:50). This startling encounter led her to abandon her explorations into the paranormal, highlighting the potential dangers of tampering with unknown forces.

"I was so startled and that even within the blink of my eye and me kind of gasping and screaming, like I let out an audible scream, it was gone." – Megan [04:10]

Derek’s Insight on Ouija Boards [05:45]

Derek reflects on Megan’s cautionary tale, discussing the widespread warnings about using Ouija boards. Despite owning several Ouija boards himself, Derek admits he hasn’t encountered anything strange, though he remains skeptical about the casual dismissal of paranormal experiences.

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Phil’s Story from Chattanooga [09:16]

Phil from Chattanooga shares a haunting experience involving a church junior trustee position he accepted when he was 17. While locking up the church one winter night, Phil encountered a shadow figure resembling Clifford, a pastor who had died years prior. The doors began to close on their own, culminating in the appearance of the shadow man at the end of a long, dark hallway.

"He doesn’t know what it is. Could it be Clifford. Or it could be somebody else. I'll let everybody else decide." – Phil [11:30]

Historical Shadow Entities [12:52]

Derek broadens the discussion by introducing other historical shadow figures, including:

• Julia Legra: A young girl from the mid-1800s who was buried alive, with her spirit reportedly seen darting around her mausoleum.
• John Wesley Hardin: A notorious Old West outlaw whose shadow figure is seen leaning against his prison cell at Concordia Cemetery in El Paso, Texas.
• Big Jim and David Mason: Patients from the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia, known for their violent acts and lingering shadows in former hospital rooms.
• The Dark Watchers: A group of shadowy entities observing travelers along the Santa Lucia Mountain range in Central California.

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Jacob’s Experience in Oregon [16:23]

Jacob from Gresham, Oregon, recounts multiple encounters with shadow people in his childhood home and later in his own residence. Notably, he describes a terrifying incident during a snowstorm where a shadow figure approached him while he was locked out of his house, culminating in the figure moving up the side of his home before disappearing as a door opened.

"I started banging on the door when nobody was coming. And as I'm freaking out it starts to move towards me and slowly goes from the fence to the house." – Jacob [15:50]

Brian’s Paranormal Journey [22:31]

Brian from Upstate New York shares a life-long series of shadow person encounters, beginning in childhood and persisting into adulthood. His narratives include:

• Childhood Experiences: Screaming and pointing at unseen figures in his room.
• Basement Encounter: A shadowy figure attempting to communicate with him.
• House Purchase: Observing shadow entities after moving into an old house, leading to eerie occurrences and the eventual sale of the property.

"There's a person that I had known in high school popping up like that. And you just never know, do you?" – Brian [25:00]

Jason’s Story from New Orleans [28:36]

Jason recounts a profound experience involving his friend Gracie and her late husband Joe. After Joe’s ashes were delivered to Gracie’s home, a shadowy fog and dark energy enveloped the house, leading to Gracie’s severe health decline. The shadow presence seemed tied to Joe’s spirit, affecting Gracie’s well-being until the ashes were moved away.

"The whole energy of everything. As soon as his ashes were delivered, the whole thing changed and she got very sick." – Jason [37:45]

Katie’s Vision in Connecticut [52:13]

Katie, calling anonymously from New Canaan, Connecticut, shares a poignant encounter where she believed she saw her deceased friend Hugh as a shadow figure during a nightmare. This apparition occurred on the same date as Hugh’s mysterious death, deepening the eerie connection between the two events.

"The being in my room was this person was completely out of nowhere. I was pretty stunned by it." – Katie [60:00]

Derek explores the possibility of Katie’s experience being more than a mere shadow person encounter, considering the coincidental timing and personal connection to Hugh’s tragic death.

G’s Terrifying Shed Encounter in Texas [63:36]

G from Houston, Texas, ends the evening with a harrowing tale from his childhood. At under seven years old, he encountered a grotesque entity while investigating his grandparents’ shed, only to later learn that human remains had been discovered at the site. The description of the creature—with "glowing red eyes" and a "tail almost 8ft long"—adds a layer of horror beyond typical shadow man lore.

"It looked like it was covered in tar. It had glowing red eyes. And I saw its teeth. Its teeth were all jagged and broken." – G [64:50]

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Conclusion

Monsters Among Us delivers a compelling exploration of shadow people through a series of personal testimonies that highlight the pervasive fear and mystery surrounding these entities. From childhood hauntings to adult encounters intertwined with historical legends, the episode paints a comprehensive picture of the shadow people phenomenon. Derek Hayes masterfully guides listeners through each story, offering insights and reflections that deepen the understanding of these elusive apparitions. For those intrigued by the unknown and the supernatural, this episode serves as both a spine-chilling experience and a thoughtful examination of what it means to coexist with shadows that lurk just beyond the veil of our perception.

Notable Quotes

• "I was so startled and that even within the blink of my eye and me kind of gasping and screaming, like I let out an audible scream, it was gone." – Megan [04:10]

• "He doesn’t know what it is. Could it be Clifford. Or it could be somebody else. I'll let everybody else decide." – Phil [11:30]

• "I started banging on the door when nobody was coming. And as I'm freaking out it starts to move towards me and slowly goes from the fence to the house." – Jacob [15:50]

• "There's a person that I had known in high school popping up like that. And you just never know, do you?" – Brian [25:00]

• "The being in my room was this person was completely out of nowhere. I was pretty stunned by it." – Katie [60:00]

• "It looked like it was covered in tar. It had glowing red eyes. And I saw its teeth. Its teeth were all jagged and broken." – G [64:50]

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Stay Connected

For more spine-chilling stories and deep dives into the paranormal, tune in every Saturday evening at 10 PM Eastern on the Unax Digital Network. Follow Monsters Among Us on social media and subscribe for updates on new episodes and exclusive content. Keep it spooky!

Transcript

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[Derek Hayes]

Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I'm your guide, Derek Hayes. Hello folks. I cannot tell you how pleased I am that you've joined us here this evening. I have quite a list of calls collected for tonight, all centering around one perplexing phenomenon, a shadowy figure that can and will show up essentially anywhere. Here to kick off this All Shadow man episode is Megan from that state up north.

[Megan]

Hi Monsters Among Us. My name is Megan and I'm calling from Detroit, Michigan, and I wanted to share a little bit about my paranormal experience. It was about 10 years ago and I was at my family's home with my parents and I'd recently gotten like really into the paranormal. And apart from watching things on TV and I know me and my friends sometimes would mess around with the Ouija board, I never really understood kind of the dangers of potentially what could happen with using those paranormal tools. So I wanted to try to get a little bit deeper into it. I was learning about spirit guides and potentially communicating the spirits. So I had bought a book and it gave exercises on how to communicate with the spirit world. And I remember reading it right before bed and I was like, you know, trying to meditate and I was, you know, trying to connect with my spirit guide. And I just said, you know, I really want to try to connect with my spirit guide. And I kind of like said that as a meditation and prayer to myself, closed the book and then went to bed, turned off the light. And then sometime during the night, I'm a pretty sound sleeper. But I woke up and you can imagine, you know, it's a pitch black room, but I opened my eyes to see what now I can only imagine to be a shadow person. So in the darkness of my room, I still See the outline of a person about 5ft tall. But what distinguished it from the night was it was darker than the dark of my room. And I was so startled and that even within the blink of my eye and me kind of gasping and screaming, like I let out an audible scream, it was gone. And I remember just being so freaked out I went back to sleep. But just in the morning, like I couldn't believe what I had actually saw and that it actually occurred the previous night. So I was pretty freaked out. So I didn't use the book anymore. I really kind of distanced myself from using the Ouija. And then now on TV you see so much more about the paranormal clips and videos. And that's how I later learned I was most likely a shadow person. I've never seen it again, but I think that that really opened my eyes to like the potential dangers of shadow people and me thinking, what did I potentially unleash into my parents home? So I definitely got rid of that book. No longer played around with the Ouija just because it was such a profound experience. So I just want to caution those out there who are potentially using anything like that or want to communicate with forces beyond them or spirits that sometimes it's just better to leave those aside just for your own safety. But it was definitely something that's spooky that happened to me and I wanted to share it with the podcast. So thank you so much. Love the podcast and keep it spooky. Bye bye.

[Derek Hayes]

Thank you. Megan. Now you hear this sort of warning all the time. Do not mess with Ouija. And of course we often learn of the ramifications when one does quote unquote message with a Ouija board. And I think it's safe that we can add Megan to this list, mess around and find out, as some folks say. But I don't necessarily share that view. I have a number of Ouija boards here in my office studio and I haven't noticed anything strange involving them. That said, I'm also not out here trying to contact the dead with them either. So perhaps I should put my money where my mouth is. I might just have to bust one of these out one day and see for myself. Famous last words of a fool. Perhaps. Either way, we appreciate the phone call. Megan, as you are about to learn, you are in great company. A lot of people have seen whatever this thing is and you'll hear all about them right after these messages.

[Phil]

How can you help protect your ira?

[Derek Hayes]

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[Jacob]

My name is Phil from Chattanooga and this happened to a college friend of mine back in 1978. He was 17 years old at that time. It was the winter time and he belonged to a church, a very large church. And one day the deacons came to him and said, we would like to make you a junior trustee. So he thought it was a great thing. So he accepted the job. And all that job meant was you get to open and close the church, get there early, stay late. So what happened to him? One night he was closing up the church. That meant that he had to go around to each exit and make sure each exit was locked and secure. He also had to make sure that the furnace was off. If there was a heat pump running, the heat pump was off and then he had to turn a light off to make his way out. He had to walk down this long hallway to get out. His hallway was probably 60ft long and he had to turn the light off before he started walking down that hallway. So that meant that he had to walk the entire length of that hallway in the dark. And on each side of that hallway were classrooms. And these classrooms were 10 foot by 10 foot. And he had to walk by these rooms with these doors, some open, some half open, some closed. Well, that night he got everything locked up. He flipped off the last switch. She starts walking down the hallway, and all of a sudden, the doors start closing on their own. Well, he doesn't think much about that because he's thinking that the heat pump is reversing itself, the air handler is reversing itself, causing the vacuum sucking some of the doors closed. But that still doesn't keep him from having the chills. So he continues to walk. He has that don't look around behind you thing going on. He gets to the very end of the hall, to the outside door. He turns around and he looks. And at the very other end, where he just turned the light off, there was a shadow figure standing there, standing there just looking at him. He had his eyes played to it. And just the second or two after he saw, just disappeared. He locked up the church building real quick, ran to his car. And the next Sunday, he told those deacons, I'm not doing it again. And he said, I saw something last week, and I'm not doing it by myself again. And one of the deacons said, you must have seen Clifford. And he asked, well, who's Clifford? Well, Clifford was the pastor 20 years ago, and he died in the hallway of a heart attack. And every now and then, someone will see a shadow or an apparition. And we've come to believe that that apparition or that shadow is Clifford. I don't know what it is. He doesn't know what it is. Could it be. It could be Clifford. Or it could be somebody else. I'll let everybody else decide. Thank you.

[Derek Hayes]

Thanks, Val. How interesting that this particular shadow entity has its own nickname. And, you know, that detail got me a little curious. So I had Delaney dig up a few other shadow entities with no names. And although the list is brief, it makes up for it by being pretty interesting. The first on the list is Julia Legra. According to legend, in the mid-1800s, a young girl named Julia Legree was visiting family on Edisto island in South Carolina when she suddenly fell ill, slipped into a coma, and seemingly passed away. She was interred in a mausoleum the next day. It wasn't until 15 years later, when her family was burying another relative, that they discovered Julia's body crumpled at the mausoleum's. Floor. She had been buried alive. Visitors to Julia's grave report seeing a small shadowy figure darting around the cemetery and hearing the languished cries of Julia begging to be released. Then we have John Wesley Hardin. A staple in the Old west with more than 30 kills notched into his holster, John Wesley Hardin was one of the most ruthless outlaws to roam the Texas plains. Hardin's grave is beneath a prison like cage constructed of stone and iron bars. But according to visitors at Concordia Cemetery in El Paso, Texas, that's not enough to keep Hardin down. Folks have reported seeing a shadow figure of a man in a cowboy hat and cowboy boots leaning up against the ramshackle prison cell. And then we have Big Jim and David Mason from the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum there in Weston, West Virginia. It was a psychiatric facility infamous for its disastrous, unethical and inhumane treatment of patients. Two of those patients were Big Jim and David Mason, who were reported to have killed another inmate by splitting his head open beneath a bedpost. The shadow figures of both men have been reported hanging around the now empty bedrooms and causing a sense of unease and terror to anyone that visits. And this last one is a bit of a stretch. The Dark Watchers not just a single shadow figure, but an entire group. The Dark Watchers are said to appear as a group of darkened, silhouetted entities that observe travelers along the Santa Lucia Mountain range in Central California. Reported to wear large brimmed hats and carrying long walking sticks, the Dark Watchers are most active at dusk and dawn, so there are a few named shadow entities Fel just like your roommate experienced, or at least similar. Thank you again for sharing your story. Now next up, we venture on up to Oregon. Please welcome Jacob to the show.

[Brian]

Hello Derek, this is Jacob and I'm calling from Gresham, Oregon. So I've been listening to your podcast for a little while. I've heard people talking about shadow people. I'm guessing that's what I seen, but I'm not too sure. Anyways, this was probably twin years 02 04, had to be four and I woke one night from sleeping on the couch. I just would pass out in random locations. In my house I was in a family room which was a ranch style house, two car garage, but one of the garages was converted into a family room bar area. Remember waking up in the corner I seen a shadow. The ceilings, I don't know, probably were about 7 to 8ft tall. The shadow pretty much almost reached the ceiling. Nothing weird happened. I just remember waking up and looking at the wall and seeing shadow. Like I couldn't see a face or anything. It's just a figure. Maybe a man. The only reason why I say that is because he would try to talk to me one of the nights. So I used to sleep in my parents bedroom in a crib. There was a three bedroom house. My sister was in one room. My two brothers were in the other room. And then I was with my parents in their room. So they used to try to talk to me. But I can't remember what it was trying to say to me. All I remember feeling was really uncomfortable. Just uneasy. When it would try to talk to me I would hide under the blanket and I would tell it to go away. I don't want to talk to you. Can't remember how many times it happened but there was three or four times I can remember waking up in my parents bedroom and it trying to talk to me. It was like one of those voices. Like really deep, low octave. Just really deep. There's another current. I think this was the last time I seen it. It was during the snowstorm because 04 there was the really big snowstorm here. So the house was in a corner lot just in a regular neighborhood with other houses and duplexes and whatnot. But the backyard was like an L shape. So there is a sliding door from the bar area, family room area and then deck and then to the right it's a little tiny wood shed. Not that big. After the deck there was patch of grass that extended to the far back fence before it would touch the street. I was back there playing in the snow. I love the snow. I don't know why. I always have. So I remember seeing it. It was on the fence and the fence was pretty tall fence. Six foot seven foot tall fence. I've seen a shadow figure. That's all I can remember is just as a shadow figure. It was on the back fence. I tried to go back inside but some reason the door was locked. I couldn't get it open. Started to freak out. As I'm trying to get inside. I start banging on the door when nobody was coming. And as I'm freaking out it starts to move towards me and slowly goes from the fence to the house. It starts going up on the house on the far side and I'm on the complete opposite end. Slowly starts to move up on the house. Still freaking out. Gets closer, gets closer. Probably gets to about five feet away from me. And as it sat close a sliding door open. Boom. Ran side. So I closed it and locked it and just Ran away. That was the last time, I think that I seen it. I remember telling my mom about it and she would tell me if I try to talk to me, to pray to God, tell him to remove it, tell him I don't like it. So that's what I did. After that, I didn't experience anything weird like that again. Anyways, thanks for listening to my story and good luck with the show.

[Derek Hayes]

We appreciate the call. Jacob and I wondered how long it would take for that detail to come up. One of these shadow entities trying to speak to us. For the longest time, I'd never heard of anyone mention that detail in their account. But once I pointed it out, it seemed to have opened the floodgates. But as interesting as it was that this shadow entity tried to communicate with Jacob, that detail pales in comparison to the mental image of one of these things climbing on the side of your house. Boy, I'd like to see the doorbell camera footage of that one. Either way, it was an incredible account. We thank you, Jacob, for calling in. We help shield your property before it's too late.

[Jason]

Plus the best part, you don't need insurance.

[Phil]

First round picks.

[Derek Hayes]

This is kind of of what they're designed to do. Now if you would please journey with me to the Empire State. Brian, go ahead with your shadow man story.

[Katie]

Hey Derek. So I'm new to listening to your podcast, but I've been listening to it all week and my name is Brian. I'm from upstate New York. I've lived here in this area my whole life. But I do have several stories that kind of linked together. After listening to a lot of your podcasts, it's brought back a lot of memories. First one goes back to when I was probably about two years old living in Ithaca, New York in an old apartment building with my parents. And at that time they were into the supernatural kind of stuff. And they told me one night they woke up to me screaming and I was pointing at the corner of my room. I would not stop pointing or screaming. So my father said he just basically sat there and talked to whatever I was pointing at. And after about 10 minutes, I sat right back down and went back to sleep. That's like the first weird thing that has happened to me. Fast forward to when I was about five. We were living in Endicott, New York in a split level house. And I never thought of this as weird until I heard it on your podcast. But I used to see static figures, you know, no features of any kind. They were just human shapes that moved within other I don't know, light. It was just hard to explain. But like people say it was just like a static figure, no real definition. I called them fuzzy people or something back then. And then that changed to shadow people that I would see in this room. And one particular night that scared me, I remember vividly. That's why I'm telling you a story. So I was laying there and there was like a. In my child mind, it was a mother and a father shadow figure, you know, halfway up the wall in a seated position. And there was a littler one. And the littler one came down the wall and came across towards my bed. And it got close to me and I screamed and swung at it and it ran back across the room up the wall. And then I assume was communicating with the other two. They looked down at it and then both of their heads whipped in my direction. I jumped out of bed and ran to my parents room. I don't know if I saw him again after that, but that instance kind of sticks out in my head as something that was kind of profound. And then when I was about 19, living in a different location, I was living in a basement bedroom, no windows. I woke up in the middle of the night one night to go to the bathroom, I think. And I stood up and took a step and I noticed a figure, darker than the darkness, standing in front of me, about two feet in front of me. And I don't scare easy, but every hair on my body stood up. I just stood there looking at it. I was basically paralyzed. And it just kind of like dissolved in front of me. But yeah, that was a pretty spooky story. And then me and my wife purchased a house, you know, about 10 years ago. It was an old house that had gotten moved from one location to another. So it was really, really old. And I did a lot of work in it and I never noticed anything funny. But after our twins were born, my wife swore at night when she was rocking the kids, something was staring at her. She was convinced the house was haunted. And I had never seen anything until probably a month before we sold it. I was in the kitchen one day and I looked at the stairwell and I saw a black figure. And as soon as I saw it, it darted up the stairs and around the corner. And that kind of like sold me on that whole tale. But thanks for your show and keep up the great work. I love listening to this stuff while I'm doing my job every day. Thanks.

[Derek Hayes]

Thank you, Brian. Static figures and shadow people. Perhaps that suggests that this place was some sort of meeting point between the two entities, or perhaps simply a passageway that acts as a bit of a funnel and brings all these entities to Brian. And to come face to face with one like that, almost literally, it's a pretty close encounter compared to most that I've heard regarding this particular phenomena. And if I'm honest about your call here, Brian, it sounds like you might be the common denominator here, not so much the location, but regardless, it's spooky stuff. And we thank you again, Brian, for sharing it with us. Now, folks, if you have a story you would like me to share here on the program, why not give us a call? 888-6089. That's 888-608N I G H E. Or record your story on your phone and email the file to me at monsters among us podcastmail.com trust me when I say that we're looking forward to hearing from you. Now, full disclosure on this next one. I might be cheating a bit because it's not necessarily a shadow man per se, but in its own weird way, I think it still qualifies. Please welcome Jason from the state of Kentucky.

[Phil]

Hey, Derek. This is Jason. I'm currently in north Central Kentucky, and this story takes place in New Orleans. I lived there for 20 years, and obviously New Orleans is very haunted. She's her own entity. This city lives and breathes. When I got there in 2000, I experienced certain things, catching things out of the corner of my eye, hearing voices, but especially I feel the energy around me. You know, when I walk into somebody's house, I say, whoa, you got a loud house. Or oh, wow, your house is kind of quiet. And I worked in the French Quarter mostly as a doorman at a bar, at a couple different bars. And this couple would show up every once in a while. Let's call them Gracie and Joe, because I want to keep their identities a secret, just in case. Gracie and Joe were kind of a weird dyad. Gracie was bubbly and outgoing, and she always wanted to have fun and meet new people. And Joe would kind of lurk in the background. You know, he was really quiet, and he kind of came off a little bit jealous. I didn't know too much about them, but over the years I got to know them. And I kept in touch with Gracie because she was active on her Facebook. He didn't have one. And I was visiting my mother in Tampa, Florida, on Thanksgiving in 2019, and I saw the Facebook post. She had announced that her husband Joe had passed away. I immediately Contacted her and said, hey, look, if you need any help, let me know. Boy, how did she call me back fast? She didn't know what to do because she was married at 16 to Joe, and he basically took care of everything. He expected her just to be at the house and, you know, taking care of this, taking care of dinner and blah, blah, blah. So she really didn't know what to do. I gave her a little bit of advice and told her I'd be on my way to New Orleans from Tampa. That was my plan. Anyway, when I got to New Orleans and I went to her house, walked in her house, and it felt like sunshine when I walked in the house. She had several cats, and she was doing quite well for herself. I had just happened to show up, and I was there for a couple weeks. I was hanging out with her. We were having fun. We were reminiscing and watching TV together and stuff like that. And we were drinking beer and drinking rum. Her favorite was rum. And a couple days later, I walked into the house after a day of work. And I walked in, I said, whoa, the energy here has absolutely changed. This is a very loud house now, and it's very dark. And I said, whoa, what is the difference? And she cheerfully came up and said that Joe's ashes had arrived today. She had him cremated, and his urn was delivered that day. And I didn't say anything because I didn't want to be disrespectful. And I didn't want her to think I was freaking out or think that I had anything negative to say about this. So a couple days went by, and she had gone to bed, and I was sitting on the couch. And just to lay it out for you, the couch pointed at the tv. But then out of the corner of your eye, you could see the bathroom that was right in between the two bedrooms. And I was laying there watching TV. And guess what time it was? About 3:15, 3:30. Just in time, if you know what I'm saying. I saw this big shadowy fog start to fill the area right in front of the bathroom in between the two bedrooms. And I knew better than to look right at it. I kind of watched out of the corner of my eye. I kind of sat there like, oh, boy, what the hell's going on here? The shadowy fog, it didn't look like a person or anything. It was just kind of a fog, like a dark shadow. And it wafted into the bedroom. And it was a couple of minutes, and I kind of just blew it off. It was a Couple of minutes later, I just heard this coughing and gasping, and Gracie was coughing, coughing, coughing, gagging and coughing and gasping. And she came out of the room and sat down on the couch, and she was gasping for breath. I said, what the hell's wrong with you? And she goes, I don't know. She goes, I woke up coughing my brains out. So we drank some rum and drank some beer. And I didn't tell her about the shadow. Like I said, I don't want to freak her out. And I didn't want to, you know, act like I was like, ooh, there's a ghost here, or anything like that. So after that, the house still had that dark energy, that negative energy. I couldn't escape it. She took on a different demeanor from then. She kind of got really quiet, and she would not go back into that bedroom. And by that time, the landlord, who had always, you know, dealt with Joe, decided that it was time for her to move out because she could not pay the rent, and she was kind of waiting on his life insurance and stuff. We don't got to get into that legal stuff. But she had to move out, you know, I said, hey, I'll help you find a new place. We'll get you a new place, something perfect for you, something you can afford. And we did. It was closer to the city than she was. But in the time Covid started, it was just perfect timing for Covid. And she stopped eating, and she was very sullen, very quiet, very, you know, not herself. And she basically just sat there while I did everything to move her out of the place. And then she just kept on drinking her rum and not eating. And two of her cats died in the middle of all of this. By the time I got her moved into her new place, I was like, I'm getting ready to get out of here for the summer. Are you gonna be okay? She insisted that she was gonna be okay, and I told her that, hey, this is my friend Leroy. He helped us move her into the place. If you don't answer twice in one week, I'm gonna send Leroy to check on you because I'm worried about you. You gotta start eating again, you know? And she said, okay, fine. I won't stab him if he shows up. If I don't answer my phone twice, send them over to check on me. So it was a couple weeks before I called her twice, and she didn't answer the phone. So I sent Leroy over there, and the landlord had told Leroy that she got taken by EMS a week ago, and he Wasn't sure where she went, and he was calling for her rent. And you know how people don't care. They just want their money. So I flew from Minneapolis to New Orleans. I did the five things you don't want to do during COVID A, I was in the airport. B, I was on an airplane. C, I was in New Orleans. And D, I was looking in hospitals for my friend. And finally I found her, and she had had a stroke and went into a trapped in state where she was fully conscious. And she knew what was going on, but she could not communicate. She could not move. She could squeeze my hand a little and she could blink. And boy, howdy, could she tell me when she wanted the TV to be on a different channel. So I got a hold of her family. So her sister and her father came from Georgia and picked up all of her belongings, including the urn. Now, I bring this up because the urn got taken from New Orleans to Florida and she started recovering immediately. So I was traveling around the world like I always do, and I got a phone call from her. It was her. She was talking. She said, where's all my stuff? What did you do? I tried to explain to her what happened. She had very little memory. She barely remembered that we moved her into a different apartment. She recovered fully. Remarried to a good friend of mine couple years later. And it was just the strangest thing that I saw their shadow that night and the whole energy of everything. As soon as his ashes were delivered, the whole thing changed and she got very sick. And then when the ashes were moved away from her, she recovered. Anyway, love the podcast. Keep it up, man. Take it easy. Monsters forever.

[Derek Hayes]

Wow, quite the saga there, Jason. Thank you for calling in. So, not exactly a shadow man, but I thought it did sound like a man in the shape of a shadow. Whatever it was, it seemed to have quite the negative effect on poor Gracie. And whatever it was, it seemed to be at least somehow connected to her late husband, Joe. And it's good to hear that Gracie made a full recovery, Jason, because you had me worried there for a while. Thank you again for taking the time to call in. Now, folks, I'm going to take another quick break, but don't go anywhere because things are just heating up. Activation and drainage work, but I always believe it was 25 number one on your car radio.

[Katie]

Pre.

[Derek Hayes]

Like, if not now, if you're not. All right, this next one comes to us anonymously from my state of California.

[G]

Hi, I'm on season six, episode two, and listening to that girl who Was talking about shadow people and it reminded me of a situation that I experienced. I'll try to make a long story short. I never experienced anything like Bigfoot or UFOs or ghosts or stuff like that. Even though living in my prime areas for that type of activity. Born on the northern coast of California and never saw or smelled or heard Bigfoot while living there. And then moved to the Sierra Nevadas in the Lake Tahoe area where the house I grew up in as a kid was backed up against national forest. We had miles of woods behind us and now live in a very rural town. And the Sierra's in California with about 120 people and still have yet to experience anything. One of the places that my wife and kids and I like to visit is the Eureka Dunes in the northern end of Death Valley. And it's pretty up there, there's no people, it's very remote. The sand dunes are there and we usually go in the spring or the fall and the kids can play in the dunes. And it's always warm and you know, not too cold at night. It's just very remote. It's a very pretty place. And also the dunes out there, they sing something about the dry sand on top of wet sand. It makes a humming noise. When the temperature's right and the wind is blowing it like reverberates through the dunes. You'll be sitting out there during the day and you'll get sounds like a distant airplane, but it's really the dunes vibrating. But whenever we go camping at the dunes, we've been there maybe a dozen times. For me, as soon as the sun kind of sets, kind of this eerie feeling, this uncomfortable feeling that you know you shouldn't be there. It's the area is too open or too exposed. This is something that sinks in my stomach and will last throughout the night until, you know, morning. I don't say anything because I know that if I say something like, well, I'm uneasy, I'm uncomfortable or not feeling great, then my wife's going to be uneasy and uncomfortable. And if she's uneasy and uncomfortable, if the kids are uneasy and no one's having a good time. So usually I just kind of push it deep down inside and try not to think about it. But there's this feeling there that as soon as that sun sets, there's just something wrong. After spending so many years in backcountry and backpacking in remote areas, I don't feel that anywhere else. It's only in this location at these dunes and the Last time we were out there, we're there and it's close to a full moon. The nights were extremely bright. And if you've ever experienced a full moon in the desert where there's no trees and very little ground cover, it's just something different than experiencing that where there's light pollution or there's, you know, heavy forest, everything is whitewashed. Everything's this blinding light. Shadows and objects are very crisp and defined. So we're there and, you know, darkness falls and that same uneasy feeling comes. So eventually go to bed, get in the camper and fall asleep. And I remember having this dream where I'm with, you know, the family, and we're just standing and off in the distance is this shadowy and this just feeling of unease and being uncomfortable and this uncontrollable urge to confront that. And in the dream, I end up running straight towards that shadowy black blob. And, you know, it's dreams day, so everything seems super fast and super slow at the same time. But I'm running towards this object because I feel like I need to get to it. And as soon as I reach it, I wake up and I'm shaky and cold and it felt like a nightmare, but it really wasn't a nightmare. And I'm laying there trying to figure out what that meant and to calm myself down. And I have to pee. So I figured now is a good time. I'm already awake. I'm going to crawl out of the camper and go pee. So I make my way and go outside and the moon is out and it's super bright. You can see the dunes and the surrounding mountains. And as I'm peeing, I'm kind of just looking out at everything. So a little uneasy and shaky from the dream and just that general feeling of uncomfortable, something's wrong. And as I'm staring out in front of me, there is this shadowy blob like, I don't know, two, 300 yards away from me. And I'm looking at it, trying to figure out what it is. The bushes out there are very spindly and kind of wiry. You can easily tell because light will shine through them easily. And they look like a bush. And this wasn't. This was darker and denser. Just this silhouette. I'm looking at it. And that same uncontrollable urge to, you know, chase after that and confront it and run towards it to figure out what is going on, what it is. I'm trying to suppress that urge. And it took a lot for me to Calm down and just slowly back away and get back into the camper. You know, after that, it just a really kind of rough night of being kind of on edge and uneasy and nervous and eventually fell back asleep. And, you know, the next morning everything was fine. The feeling's gone. I told my wife about the dream, but I didn't tell her about what happened outside. So that was what now, two years ago. And during that time, and this is what struck a chord with my situation in the caller. There's a religious aspect. At that time, my wife and I were trying to get out of a religion that was unhealthy for us. And I don't know if there's a correlation. Maybe it's all psychological to confront, I don't know. But it seemed to resonate with me and I figured out a good time to share if someone else's experience something similar. Anyways, we're planning to go back to the dunes and I mean, I'm sure the feeling will be there. I don't know, it's just weird. Appreciate the podcast. I really enjoy it. Thank you.

[Derek Hayes]

Well, thanks a lot, caller, for unlocking a new fear, a shadow entity out there in the desert. El Sarah and I spend a lot of time down there, and I already knew to watch for rattlesnakes and mountain lions, but I never thought about running into one of these shadowy entities all the way out there in the barren wasteland. But now I bet that's all that I'll think about. So thank you for that, caller, and thank you for making the phone.

[Phil]

Call.

[Derek Hayes]

Now, running into one of these things is one thing, it's what happens after you see it that can really make your blood run cold. Just ask Archer out of the state of New Jersey.

[Jason]

Hey, Derek, this is Archer calling from New Jersey. Haven't always lived here. I used to live upstate in New York, and I was listening to your last show when I heard Leslie from California's story about being pulled out of bed. It immediately brought to mind some pretty haunting memories from my childhood. Living in a house in upstate New York, which was for sure haunted. I had a bunk bed, but there was no one in the top bunk. Later on, my brother would end up sharing a room with me if he was born. But I have memories, probably from my earliest memories are from that room. I would wake up in the middle of night and there'd be a man, a large black shadow of a man at least, standing at the foot of my bed. And he'd be laughing or smoking a cigarette, and he would Pull me off my bed by my feet. Yeah, I would be screaming and crying. My parents would rush in and there'd be nobody there. So this continued for at least a full year. It was probably longer. I don't remember a lot of my childhood, but this is one of the few things I do remember. I must have been around, like 5 years old or younger. And I would often wake up due to my head hitting the floor at the foot of my bed. Now, I don't know how a kid turns around in a twin bed, but that happened to me all the time. My parents used to joke about it. They're like, oh, yeah, we'd find your, like, feet at your pillow and your.

[G]

Head at the foot of the bed.

[Jason]

They were aware that I would, like, somehow flip over in my sleep. But they also remember coming in plenty of times to hearing me screaming and crying. You know, my head would hit the floor and my feet would hit the floor, and I would look up and above me would be the shadow man laughing at me in this dark, husky, you know, voice, you know, something really, really creepy. And then as soon as that door opened, as soon as the lights in the hallway hit the room, nothing. There was no one there. And I remember how terrified I was to go to sleep in that room. I used to also sleep talk, apparently around this time. And my sister's room was right next to mine. Would come in when she heard me, you know, up at, you know, any hour of the night. I actually remember her running in a few times after I'd been pulled off the bed head first. He would grab my head after my feet. I don't know what was going on, but she comes into the room and I'm sitting both upright in bed. She asked me what's going on. And I just laid back down and closed my eyes and whispered something. She gets really close to me to hear what I'm saying, and she's like, archer, I know you're awake. What's going on? And I whisper, I have to pretend to be asleep or the man will get me. So that kind of scarred her for life. Too scared of her.

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Jason]

So my parents also have some kind of haunting event in that house when they just moved in. But I'll give you another call. Love the show. I'll talk to you later. Thanks so much.

[Derek Hayes]

Thank you for calling. An Archer getting pulled out of the bed. Now, as Archer mentioned, we have heard that detail before. I believe the call he's referencing is Leslie's from California. All the way back on season 17. Episode 15 if you'd like to check it out. But I'm glad we don't hear this detail often, but boy is it interesting when we do. And as wild as that detail is, believe it or not, things continue to get crazier from here. I'll be right back with the proof.

[Phil]

Been reported.

[Derek Hayes]

And it's avoidable. You have a simple trust. We're now down to the last two entries of the evening, and I might be cheating a bit again, but I think it'll be worth it. And to prove it, we work our way to a state we don't visit all that often. Please welcome Katie from Connecticut.

[Advertiser]

Hi there, this is Katie, and I'm calling from New Canaan, Connecticut. On February 29th of 2024, an email went out to our neighborhood saying that there had been a robbery on a street close by. The burglars had come in through the second story and had disabled the alarm, etc. Etc. The email was just to say, be careful, this has happened. So that came through my consciousness on the afternoon of February 29th. That evening I had been experiencing some back pain and I thought maybe it was because of my mattress. My son is in college and so his room is free. And I thought, oh, I'll just sleep in there, you know, to see if a different mattress would make the pain go away. So I was not in my usual bed. I fell asleep normally, and at some point in the early morning, I woke myself up, as I occasionally did do. I'll say this happens about every, you know, three or four months. I woke myself up with a recurring nightmare. The plot's always the same, the antagonist is always the same. Those details don't really matter. But I do always wake myself up from these dreams in an attempt to scream. I will be screaming, but my lips are closed. So there is sound that comes out, but it's not a full screen. The feeling of it is similar to like a sleep paralysis kind of thing. It's happened so many times now that I'm fully aware of what it is when it's happening. And so I'm having this experience and I'm waking myself up with the scream. And I look to the left of my son's bed and there is a person standing there. I don't see the face, I just see, like, what you would see at bed level. I can see the torso and the beginnings of the legs. And I immediately think, oh, it's my husband who has heard this scream. He's also familiar with this. It helps me every time it Happens it will wake him up too. And I thought, oh, he's heard it from his room and he's come in to help me. And then I realized what I'm looking at is definitely not my husband. And your mind works so fast in situations like that. I immediately thought of the robbery, which I hadn't given any more thought to. And then I quickly thought, well, that doesn't make sense, like why the robber would come around to this side of the bed. And none of it makes any sense. And I reach my arm out into the space because the presence is so real, I can see it so clearly. And of course there's no one there. My hand just touches empty air. At that point I just went back to sleep. I wasn't scared at all. I just thought, wasn't that interesting? And I went back to sleep. This is on Thursday night, early Friday morning, in the middle of the night. On Saturday, just following that, the very next Saturday I had a retreat with some girlfriends of mine. And we did these fairly often. And we focus in that we have a leader and we focus in this retreats on generating positive energy and love and heart centered presence and emotions. And it's a really lovely group of people. It almost feels like a religious experience. And after the intro that the guide leads us on, then we have a period of silence where we just drop in and concentrate on our breathing and see what happens. I hadn't given this dream any thought. I hadn't given the robbery any thought. I certainly had not given what I perceived to be a being standing beside my bed any thought since it happened on Thursday night, Saturday. As I'm lying in this silent retreat and trying to think of things and people that make me feel good, I had a series of thoughts that led really randomly but very definitively to the realization this is out of nowhere, that the being in my room on Thursday night, two nights prior, was someone that I had known in high school. Now I'm 51 years old, so this is 30 years ago that I would have seen this person. And by the way, I didn't know him very well at all. He was a little bit older, had an apartment, was in college in our town. And we used to hang out in his apartment and party with him. And I thought he was very cute. I had a crush on him. I remember at one point he kissed me in the hallway. There was definitely a chemistry and a spark there between the two of us. But I didn't give it any thought past like 1991. I didn't see him I didn't think about it. So to have this awareness that this being in my room was this person was completely out of nowhere. I was pretty stunned by it. This person, his name was Hugh, he had also had a tragic and very mysterious death in his early adulthood. So there was definitely the understanding and awareness that it was his ghost in my room. So we went on with the retreat and it was all great, and I was still processing this. And when I came home and discussed it with my husband the next day, I was saying to him, this is so weird. Like, I just am 100% sure that's who was in my room when I was having this nightmare. And I said to my husband, I'm going to look him up. I'm going to see if I can find a photograph online. You know, it was 1991 the last time I saw him, and I could not find a photograph to remind me of what he really had looked like. But I did find his obituary, and I was absolutely stunned that he had died on March 1, I don't know the year. It was probably the late 90s. And he was definitely in my room on March 1, 2024, in the early, early hours of the day. He was a professional scuba diver and had died exploring an unknown new cave system in the Bahamas. Like, super deep in the water. So he was basically lost at sea, is what they would say about a death like that. I was sad when I had heard it happened, but I did think, wow, like, what a crazy way to go, first of all, and what a brave person to be doing that in the first place. But when the matchup came with the date that I saw him in my room and his passing, I could not believe it. Now, a skeptic would say that's a 1 in 365 chance. Of course, this is a leap year, so it's 1 in 366. But when you factor in the fact this person had not crossed my mind in 30 years, and you think about all the people that come and go in your life in 30 year span, to be that sure that that's who it was is really weird. And I love, love, love the podcast and listening to everyone's experience, because when this happens to you, there's not a shred of doubt about what it is that you're experiencing, that it's real. The question is, why is it happening and what is the point? What is the purpose of it? Why would he be standing there? As these past months have come and gone, and I've thought about it every single day and wondered. I can only say that there had been a connection between us when we were young. I'm impressed with anybody that's willing to do that type of thing, that take that kind of risk and really pursue their passion. And of course it's always sad when tragedy strikes like that, but I really am inspired by people like that. I'm also very passionate about the deep ocean. And so the purpose of his life is meaningful to me. And the fact that he would have appeared to me during this nightmare, just be standing right there beside me makes me really know in my heart that he's a protecting energy and a benevolent force to be there with me. And I just wanted to share this story because it has been so meaningful to me as I've processed it. Even though it's a person that's kind of random in a 51 year life to have just pop up like that. And you just never know, do you? And I love your encouragement that we all stay open to these things because that is when they start happening, when more and more often and certainly with, you know, more convincingly. So thank you very much for listening.

[Derek Hayes]

Thanks Katie. You're right, what a way to go. He sounded like an incredible guy though. Now I included this story because I couldn't help but wonder if it wasn't a shadow figure that she saw. She did mention that it had no face and it stood there as most shadow entities seem to do. And if it was a shadow person, how was it connected with Katie's fallen friend Hugh? This is why I bent the rules for this one. It was too good not to include. And just to cover all my bases, I did my best to find a news report about this incident given the clues that Katie left, but I was unable to find anything. But if we do dig something up, I'll be sure to update the show notes. But I think I agree with you here, Katie. It does sound like it's too big of a coincidence the same date and your friend randomly popped into your head like that. But then again, that is what's so notable about coincidences. They stick out because they're unusual. Either way, it was a great story, Katie. We thank you again for ringing in. Well folks, here we are, the final story of the evening. And to close things out here this evening, I offer you a call with a bite. Please welcome G from the state of Texas.

[J]

Hey Derek, I'll just go by G. I'm from Houston. This took place years, years before 9 11. But this involved a house where my grandparents rented out and behind our house, they basically built the shed right there. But when I was a small child, I was flying outside by myself, you know, being dumb, throwing rocks around and whatnot. And I heard knocking coming out from that shed. To give you an idea, the shed is made out of tin. It was made out of those corrugated metal tin panels. But I heard knocking, heard movement there. Me being the young, dumb little kid that was brave and fearless, decided to run over there and see what's going on. The second I got to the door, I want to say it was a shadow person. I'm not really sure what it was. I still remember vividly in my mind. Basically the second I passed the shit door, I saw it jumped out of me, both hands extended out towards me. And I heard a God awful gurgling scream. The thing was black. It looked like it was covered in tar. It had glowing red eyes. And I saw its teeth. Its teeth were all jagged and broken. Yeah. Even to this day, it still scares me. I was less than 7 years old. I still remember it was a clear, cool breeze. It was a perfect summer day. Afterwards, they said they found me in my grandma's arms, inconsolable, crying, asking what happened. And I wouldn't say. It wasn't until years and years and years later when I told my mom about the story, when I finally fessed up to her, she told me before they built the shed over there that it was my grandfather, my father and my uncle building that shed. That shed was basically used for laundry, storage and whatnot. They had told me that as they were digging up, putting a foundation, they had found human remains. But at the time, my grandfather and father were undocumented at that time. So I don't know what was going through their minds. They thought it would be better to keep it quiet and not tell anybody, but to make a big fuss about it. And then she goes on to tell me that it was probably those missing bones. Because when they found the bones, they left them over there overnight. They were discussing whether to call the police or not. And then when they decided to call the police, they went to see if the bones were still there. They were missing. It was just weird. That shit had its own little mysteries. Missing stuff, missing pets or whatnot. And there's more stories to that property they used to live on before it was bulldozed and made into new homes. Basically weird things happening at that property during my short time of me remembering living there. Like I think when mother saw a weird reptilian creature on all fours, basically crawled over the fence crawled in front of our property and then the house that I lived in was literally adjacent to the property where the shit happened. My mom saw the whole thing and I asked her about it and she's like, I don't know what that was or whatnot, but by the time I got there, I happened to see the tell of it. The tail. Well, with age I'm able to tell the size of it. If my memory serves right, that tail was almost 8ft long. It was massive. It went through the shed and as my mom tried to look on the other side, it basically disappeared. It looked like it went to a different dimension. And then like weird stuff happened around nephew's property. I don't know if you ever got any calls about it from Houston, but the houses that used to be there on that street, on 25th street are long gone now. Now it's new town homes, new apartments and whatnot. So you'll be hard pressed to hear anything from over there. But keep up the good work, Derek. Thank you. Okay, bye.

[Derek Hayes]

Thank you. G. The shed from hell and those bones, who knows where those came from? Now the way I see it, at best, someone incidentally built a shed over a few shallow graves. At worst, someone put those bodies under said chat. Other option is pretty gruesome if I'm honest. And the description of that creature, what the hell was that? Does that match what we at least think we know about this Shadow man entity? Or did G have a run in with something else altogether? Maybe something that puts those bodies under the shed? Now, regardless of the explanation, the events made for an incredible ending to tonight's program. So thank you again G for taking the time to call it in. And folks, that's going to wrap it up for tonight. A big old thanks for tuning in. It was a real pleasure to scare some stories up for you. Now. Monsters Among Us podcast is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes. Copyright Red Crow Media. Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes, Delaney Bowers and Connor Ryan. All media used in this production is done so under the protection of fair use. Be sure to give us a like and follow on social media, give us a like and follow on YouTube in a rate and review wherever you can do that sort of thing. And don't forget, you can catch the show every Saturday evening at 10pm Eastern on the unax digital network. Just visit on xnetwork.com to tune in. And finally, tonight's score was provided by Iron cthulhu, Apocalypse Co AG Music and Carl Casey at Whitebat Audio Borregotriangle.com for the movie. That international screening announcement is coming up soon, I promise. We just have to figure out how we're gonna pull all this off first, so please stand by. Also, if you're jonesing for more MAU, don't forget you can get day's worth of bonus content for just five bucks a month and you can scope it out for free with their seven day free trial. Just visit monsters among us podcast.com and click the Patreon tab to learn more. All right folks, I'll see you on Thursday with another amazing episode. Until then, keep it spooky and have a great night. Sa.