Transcript
Rainn Wilson (0:00)
Hey, comedy fans. The funniest comedians in the world are on tour and you can get tickets to see them live near you. Laugh with the biggest names in comedy like Atsuko Okatsuka, Andrew Santino, Chelsea Handler, Kevin Hart, Ronnie Chang Wang, Sarah Silverman, Sebastian Maniscalco, and so many more. All kinds of shows, all kinds of venues, all kinds of funny. Head to livenation.comcomedy to get your tickets today. That's livenation.com.
Malachi (0:35)
Hate waiting a week for the next episode of Radio Rental. Subscribe to Tenderfoot plus to get early access to episodes, ad free listening and bonus scary stories. Visit tenderfootplus.com for details.
Rainn Wilson (0:52)
The following podcast includes scary stories with content that could be triggering to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.
Malachi (1:06)
Take a break from the same old boring blockbusters and experience a new kind of movie night with Radio Rental. At Radiorental, our videos come to life in your living room, defy all logic and reasoning, and make you question your own reality. This is not your ordinary video rental store. At Radio Rental, we carry one of a kind videos. So frightening, so mind bending. You won't be able to sleep at night. You've gone. Radio Rental. Hi, everyone. Hi, everyone. Welcome to Radio Rental, a video store with this scariest collection of true stories you've ever heard. I'm usually your host, Terry Carnation, but today, as you can probably tell, I. I lost my voice. Must be a change in the weather or, I don't know, something going around. So, anyhow, back by popular demand, Malachi will be hosting this episode. He's very excited. Okay, Malachi, be good. Don't be too good. Or as the kids say, if you can't be good, be careful. If you can't be careful, name it after me. I just got that. I really don't want to lose my job. Not to a cat. That would be a new low. All right, first tape. Pop it in.
Terry Carnation (3:27)
Sorry.
Malachi (3:30)
Didn'T mean to step on your lines.
Macy (3:42)
It was my freshman year of college. I was taking a theater appreciation class. For part of it, we had to watch plays that our school would put on. I usually went with my friends that were in the class. I couldn't go with them this time, so I just decided to go by myself. I walk up to the door and there's this man in his late 20s, early 30s standing by the door. Just kind of smiled at him because that's just what you do with strangers. I got in line to get my ticket scanned, and he got in line behind me. While I'm standing there, I'M not really paying attention. I'm playing a game on my phone. But I can hear him behind me mumbling about where his car was parked. It was really strange. It kind of sounded like he was talking to someone, but it was so quiet that it was just kind of to himself, which I kind of thought was weird, but I kind of just brushed it off. So I got my ticket scanned, and I walk through the doors, and I hear him behind me ask, where are you sitting? I didn't think he was talking to me because I don't know him. So I just kept walking and I sat in my seat. Twenty seconds later, he walks in behind me. Came into the row that I was on. He was trying to get on the seat that was to the left of me. Stuck his leg all the way over my legs and, like, was leaned over me, climbing over my body to get into the chair. And while he's climbing over, he's like, I can't believe I'm sitting right next to her. It seemed like he was trying to get my attention without really saying anything to me. He wanted me to notice him. I just thought, maybe he's just trying to be funny or, like, make me feel comfortable. Maybe he's just socially awkward. I was trying to just write it off. He sits down, turns to me, and asks me for a piece of gum. I didn't have my purse or anything with me, so I didn't have any gum. He starts asking me all these questions. Do you come to these plays often? No, I don't. Oh, well, I come all the time. And my girlfriend's actually in this play. He starts asking me questions about my major if I came to college alone. I told him I was majoring in chemistry. Oh, what do you want to do with that? And I said, I want to be a chemistry teacher. No way. My mom is a chemistry teacher. And I was like, oh, what are the odds that this guy's mom is a chemistry teacher? He started asking if I came to college alone. I lied to him. No. Me and my brother came to college together. Do you read any books? And I said, yes. And I told him my favorite book was the Book Thief. And he was like, my favorite book is the Book Thief. He was asking me what kind of music I listened to. Who was my favorite artist? I told him this artist that's lesser known, Regina Spector, because not very many people listen to her. Oh, I love her. I listen to her all the time. Everything in the small talk, he had the same answer, had the same interests. Everything Was connected to him somehow. Something's weird. Maybe he's flirting with me as I'm talking to him. This woman enters the aisle, and she comes and sits on my right side, and she reaches out and grabs my arm. And I, like, whipped my head around and looked at her. Hey, how are you? And I was like, I'm good. I was thinking to myself, this is so weird. Why are these two people being so talkative to me? And then she starts asking me, do you come to these plays often? She was asking me my major. She asked me what books I liked. She liked the same kind of books, too. They were asking me basically the same questions. I was really weirded out. I felt like I was having deja vu with how similar both of our conversations had been. What's going on? The lights flickered. Play was starting. We're watching the play, and I could see in my peripheral vision that both of them would turn their heads and look at me while the play was going on. The man, especially, would look at me so much, and it made me really nervous. Intermission came. The man looked at me. I'm gonna go get some candy from the concessions if you want anything. No, I'm good. Thank you, though. Are you sure? It's on me. Like, I promise I'll surprise you. No, I really don't want anything. Thank you, though. Okay, whatever. And he seemed kind of frustrated and got up and made that big theatrical show of climbing over me again. The woman turned to me. She started telling me that I have a very beautiful speaking voice. Asked me if I had ever sang before, which I thought was really weird when she asked me that, because people don't just say, oh, you have a good speaking voice. You should sing. That's an odd thing to say. I actually used to sing a lot in high school. Almost seemed like she knew that I had sang before. I told her I used to sing in high school, but I consider myself retired now. And then she just started saying, like, oh, you really need to do something with that. Like, that's so awesome. You shouldn't be retired. We just kind of laughed about it. She kind of made me feel a little bit more at ease with this conversation, But I still had these thoughts going on in my brain that I was like, that's weird. I feel like she knows that I sing. Does she know me? Man comes back, climbs over me again to get into the seat on my left. He's got MMs and Milk Duds, and both of the packages looked like they had already been opened. He was kind of chewing on something. So I thought maybe he was just eating some of the candy from the packages. And he was like, here, do you want some? I surprised you. Anyway, you can pick. No, thank you. Really not. I don't really want any. He put the candy under his seat and then never touched it again. Didn't eat it the whole rest of the play. Didn't look at it. He looks at me and he is like, you have a very beautiful speaking voice. Have you ever thought about singing? Okay, something's really wrong because this is not really a coincidence anymore. It kind of sounds like these two people are going off the same script. And I feel like they know things about me and I don't know these people. He starts saying that I'm beautiful, I have a beautiful speaking voice, I should sing. And then he goes, where do you live? I was really taken aback by that, and so I lied. I told him that I lived in these apartment complexes that are an hour walk from campus. And I told him I lived with my brother. Oh, what a coincidence. I live right beside there, and I'm actually an amateur music producer. I have, like, a whole recording set up at my house, and you should come over and record some songs one day. And I was like, yeah, sure. Absolutely not. That's what I'm thinking in my head. No way. I'm never going over to your house to record anything. While he's explaining this to me in my field of vision, I can see his phone on his lap, and it's kind of dark in there. His phone screen lights up. I read what's on the screen, and it's a text message from an unsaved number. And it said, she's really cute. Do you think she'll do? I felt all the color kind of drain from my face. I almost started to cry because I knew that that was about me. What do I do? Like, how do I get out of this situation? He looks at me. He notices that I saw the text message, and he grabs his phone real quick and kind of turns his body away from me so I can't see. The woman grabs my arm, so I turn around and she goes, do you want to go to the bathroom? Sure, I guess I'll go to the bathroom with you. This woman probably knows that this man is being creepy towards me. She's trying to save me. Like, that's what women do. She's trying to get me out of the situation. Her phone lights up in her lap, and it is also from an unsaved number, and it just says, yes. They were texting each other. Oh, my gosh. I'm trapped between these two people, and I don't know how to get out of the situation. She saw that. I saw her phone, and I just looked at her. I was like, no, I don't have to go to the bathroom. And she goes, okay. She never went to the bathroom. The play starts back up again. This whole second half of the play, I don't even remember what the play was because I was so focused on what was going on with the two people beside me. I need to text my mom. I need to get out of here. I need someone to come pick me up. As soon as the play ends, I'm just gonna climb over that woman and get out of there, go to the bathroom as fast as I can. The play ends, and as soon as it ends, I don't even look at the man. I don't say anything to the woman. I grab my keys and my playbill, and I climb over that woman, and I run to the bathroom. I saw the place where concessions would be, but they had been closed. Nobody had any candy. There was no popcorn. There was no nothing. And I was thinking to myself, there are never concessions at any of these plays. They don't do that. Where did he get this candy? What if he had done something to that candy? What if I had been naive and taken some of that candy? Would I have been able to walk out the door on my own? Okay, I'm just gonna walk out of here. I'll call my mom on the way home and just run the whole way home. I walk out of the bathroom, and I see the man and the woman standing at the other end of the room. They are having, like, a whispered, heated argument to each other that confirmed everything that I had thought. These people know each other. They're working together. They're trying to get me out of here. Every doubt that I had had in my brain was just gone. The woman looks at me, and the man turns around because his back was to me. And he starts walking up to me. He starts to be like, hey, do you want to ride to your apartment? But one of my friends was actually there. She came up, and she's like, oh, my goodness. Hey, Macy. Like, saying my name, waving at me. The man just walked away, Blends back into the crowd of people. I talked to my friend for a second, and I was like, hey, can you walk out with me, please? Can we just walk out the door together? Walk down the road for a little bit, and then we can go our separate ways. Sure, sure we can. And I was kind of looking over my shoulder trying to see if I could see that man or that woman. As we're walking out the door, I hear that man, Macy, hope to see you again. That just made me want to throw up. He had this huge grin on his face and I actually started crying. Me and my friend kind of walk as far as we can together. I call my mom and I am looking behind me the whole entire time, lightly jogging the whole way home and it's dark at night and nobody else is walking. I'm like shaking because I'm so scared. But I finally made it back to my dorm and I could finally breathe. Hung up the phone with my mom and just tried to get myself together as best that I could. Told my roommate about it. Something wasn't right there. To know that he knew my name and was saying something like I hope to see you again. No, I hope I never see you again ever.