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Narrator
Hey, welcome to Scary Stories and Rain. Before we start this next episode, I just wanted to remind you that you can now become a subscriber to this podcast for the low monthly cost of $2.99. That will get you access to all the episodes with absolutely no ads, no more interruptions. It's a really great option if you use this podcast to relax or sleep. Check out the link in the description to sign up now. Okay, back in 2016, the Xbox One S came out, which was basically just an Xbox that was 4k capable. Now this isn't to be confused with the Xbox series X and S that just came out last year. This is a couple of years ago when that Facebook marketplace had just started. I picked up one of the newer editions of the console, so I was looking to get rid of my outdated one. Facebook marketplace seemed like the easiest place to do that since I didn't have an ebay account at the time. So yeah, long story short, that's how I opened myself up to one of the creepiest experiences of my life. So I post an ad for my vanilla Xbox One, set a reasonable enough price for it at $100, then just sit back and wait for the inquiries to come in. As you can imagine, the Internet didn't fail to bring out all the anonymously abusive weirdos who told me $30 would be a much more reasonable price and could I drop the console off at their house, which in one specific case happens to be in the next state over? Basically no one made any serious inquiries, which figured it was a four year old consul. At that point I was going to be pretty lucky if I could manage to sell it. Which is why when I got a message from a kid's mom saying their kid was really sick and could I perhaps work in a discount for them, I just thought, sure, why not? The first message from the kid's mom was really long and was basically this big sob story about how their 10 year old had this rare disease and they only had a slim chance of surviving. I forget the name of the disease, but I copy pasted the word into Google and it was actually a legit disease with some pretty grim sounding symptoms too. I probably shouldn't have called it all a sob story, but that's exactly what I thought it was at first. But when I messaged back and forth with the lady, then I realized how something that was a throwaway thing for me might actually make her entire family's life so much happier. I went from weirdly indifferent to being seriously invested in this kid Having a Christmas he would never forget. So after a couple of days of talking back and forth with this lady, I decided, screw it, I'm just gonna give it to her for free. I didn't really need the money, and besides, I could just sit pretty on all the good karma I had earned. It's kind of embarrassing to admit how far down the rabbit hole I was with the whole thing. Like, I even went out and bought some bubble wrap and some upmarket cardboard packaging designed for shipping electricals. I wanted to be that kid's Santa that year. It's crazy to admit, but my charitable little scheme really did have me feeling good about myself. Which I suppose is why, when it started to unravel, I just didn't want to believe it. When the time came for me to get this lady's mailing address, there were a couple of inconsistencies that grabbed my attention, but that still didn't raise my suspicions straight away. For example, at first she gave me one address, Then she gave me another When I asked her to confirm, I did actually confront her on it, but she said she was living in an apartment complex where people would steal packages. Obviously, neither of us wanted to risk the Xbox being stolen, so she would give me an address for a friend of hers who could safely deliver it to them. Totally believable excuse, right? She was a single mom living in a rough neighborhood, and I was lending her a helping hand. Or maybe I should have seen the red flags right there, but was just feeling way too saintly and smug to do so. The thing that tripped me up was the lady had mentioned her kid started some kind of medical treatment for their illness. She mentioned a particular date that it was starting, and that turned out to be the very same day I was to post the package. So I have the console all boxed up, along with the controllers, the wiring, and a few games that would be suitable for a kid their age. I figure it must have been a stressful time for her. Seeing her kid getting poked and prodded by all the kinds of medical professionals was probably weighing on her mind. And I thought mailing the console on that particular day might really cheer her up. I tried to keep the whole thing a surprise, but I have never been very good at keeping my mouth shut. And what can I say? I wanted to bask in the glory of my own generosity a little. So I send the single mom a Facebook message that says, hey, posting the package today. Just want to make sure I have the right address. She then replies with, omg, you've just absolutely Made my day. You're such a sweetheart. Cue some blushing from myself, and I reply, no problem. Hope it makes it over to you okay. Then she replies, the timing is amazing because Franklin starts his therapy next month. Next month. I go back through the conversation to find the message where she said it was on the 25th of the month, that same day that we were texting. Obviously, I'm pretty confused by this, and I still don't have any major suspicions, so I'm like, oh, I thought he was starting his therapy today. She explains, no, it's next month. Almost like she never told me the 25th at all. Only when I confront her about it, she says, oh, yeah, we had to move some dates around. My bad for not telling you, but my spider senses are actually tingling at that point, so I decide to ask her if there's anything she's not telling me. She obviously replies with no, but I decide it would be better to just talk to her on the phone, so I insist on calling. She answers her phone so I know she's a real person, and she sounded kind of busy and impatient, so I figured I had just gotten her at a bad time. Everything would have gone off without a hitch if she hadn't made one fatal mistake. Right as I am about to hang up after apologizing for taking up her time, she says, freddy will be so happy with the Xbox. Freddy. She had been calling her kid Franklin for a week now, and suddenly it was Freddy. It's not even like she could blame Autocorrect. It was a phone call. I called back and just straight up called her bluff. I didn't know it 100% at the time, but I sure acted like I did. I told her that I knew she was scamming me and that I would be reporting her to the police. There was some mild resistance at first, a few weak denials here and there, but I could hear the thin veil of wholesomeness beginning to slip with every accusation. And eventually she snapped. And when she did, it was so vicious that it actually shut me up for a minute. It was a complete Jekyll and Hyde transformation from this sweet single mom character she had obviously just invented to the soulless fraud she really was, even though I had just figured her out. She called me a gullible moron for believing her in the first place, called me sad and pathetic and a bleeding heart for wanting to just give away my stuff to a kid that probably wasn't going to live to enjoy it. In this savage tirade, she told me people like Me would always be worthless and pathetic dumb saps that were nothing but marks. I just tried to keep calm and told her I would be reporting her to Facebook, along with sending a screenshot of her profile and display pictures to the police, all before circulating her profile around some of the more populated Facebook groups I was a member of to warn them of potential scams. But of course, it wasn't a real profile. Of course she had like 20 more. At least that's what she said. But my profile was real. Everything I had told her about myself was true. This psycho knew what I looked like, she knew where I lived, she knew all sorts of things about me, and I knew absolutely nothing about her other than she was willing to stoop lower than low to get things that she wanted. And on top of that, she wasn't above making some hideously graphic threats of violence against me and my family. And stupidly enough, this was back when I had my sister and my cousins listed in my profile as my immediate family. That is what got to me the most. That I had been dumb enough to serve up some pretty intimate family connections on a silver platter. The scammer told me I was truly stupid if I thought the cops would be able to do anything about her. And on the off chance that she did hear from the police, she would send her boyfriend after my family. Now, I don't know how genuine a threat that was, but just the fact that she had access to their profiles made me feel anxious and guilty. If they ended up getting hurt because of something I did or didn't do, I don't think I would have been able to live with myself. Obviously, the whole thing ended when I blocked her and got in touch with my cousins and sister, telling them to make their profiles private. I was honest with them, told them how I had fallen victim to a scammer, and I was worried that their personal information might be compromised. After all, this scammer had just assumed someone else's identity in terms of their profile pictures, possibly even their name, too. And the idea of them using any of our pictures to set up a new scam profile made my skin crawl. That whole thing was by far the worst experience I have ever had online. And not only am I really, really careful now when it comes to interacting with Internet strangers, but I seriously advise that you all be as well. I used to work the night shift at UPS as a security guard. The security shed was at the entrance of the gate to make sure no one could get into the facility. The job wasn't hard. I Was mostly checking seals on semi trucks coming in. And when the shifts changed, I'd check in and out the package handlers working inside the facility. Package handlers would have to walk through a metal detector and scan their ID cards in order to enter. Their ID would make a green light go off when they scanned in, and we would let them pass if they didn't have their ID that day, they had to wait with me and my coworkers while one of us contacted a supervisor or HR to let them in. One night, my coworker and I just finished up checking in and out a shift change. I was about to do one of our hourly parking lot checks when I saw someone approaching the shed. I yelled out, late today? He responded, yep, and I walked back in to help my coworker check him in. I don't know why I walked back in. My coworker could have easily checked in one late person by himself, but maybe because I yelled out to him, I felt obligated to finish our conversation. When the late guy walked in, I noticed that I have never seen him before, but new people come in all the time, so it wasn't a big shock. As he scanned his id, I noticed for the first time ever that the green light showed up red, followed by a loud buzz. Shocked because I have never seen an ID fail. Then, as he passed through the metal detector, it went off near his hip. He showed us his belt buckle and said, must be this protocol when the metal detector goes off is the person removes what is setting it off and tries again. And if it is a belt buckle, they need to empty all their pockets against protocol. My coworker lets him in after he removes only his front pockets. But since his ID failed, we couldn't let him in anyways. So my coworker lets him sit down in the shed with us while I call a supervisor. None of the supervisors answered their phones, probably because a shift had just started and they were just busy organizing workers. A few futile calls later, the late guy said, hey, I'm gonna be super late. Can I just go in? I said that he couldn't because I could get fired. He responded, no one is gonna know. But then I pointed up to a camera in the corner of the shed, looking at us, his face almost jolted to look at it. I told him that I would try hr. The night shift HR was a pretty cool guy that would chill with us on our breaks. He told us that a night shift HR worker is pretty much just a human complaint box. People just go to him to complain about Other people. When he answered his phone, I asked him if he could come out and check the late guy in. He said he was talking to someone and if I could just tell me his name and ID number. I gave him the name and number on the late guy's card. HR told me he'd get back to me. While we waited, the late guy asked us if we had ever seen something crazy while working. I told him no, but my coworker told him a story about a guy with a hatchet in the parking lot. I got a call from HR and when I heard what he had to say, I almost froze. HR told me that the late guy was actually an ex employee. He was fired because he was involved in a violent altercation. A supervisor. HR told me to ask him to leave and to call the cops if he didn't. I didn't know what to say, so I made up a lie that there was only a new supervisor working tonight and no one could verify if he worked here. He then said, well, let me go get some co workers that I know so you can tell that I work here. I again pointed to the camera and said, if it's not a supervisor, I would get in trouble. He then responded back, how will I get paid? At this point, I knew we didn't work here anymore. So I told him that I would inform them that he showed up to work and that they will pay him for a full day without him even having to work. Clearly frustrated and out of excuses, he got up and left. As he left, I noticed something in his back pocket. Something that looks like the shape of a small knife. Definitely not a phone or a wallet. The rest of the night was normal. The next day I came to work. My supervisor was there to greet me. He shook me in my coworker's hand and said, good job. He informed us that the guy from last night came back in the morning and crashed his car through the gate. I guess he was on something. So when he crashed, he went unconscious for a while until the cops showed up. They searched his vehicle and found weapons and duct tape and a shovel. Pretty much a murder kit. He was arrested and I never heard anything from it since. I quit a few weeks later. I still can't believe I sat in a room with a would be murderer for over 20 minutes. And I wonder what would have happened if I had just let my coworker check the late guy in by himself. Just over a year ago in October 2019, some real scary stuff went down and I thought I was going to lose My life. I live with my mom in California just outside of Sacramento and I love her so much because she really works hard to take care of me. I am much better now, but a year ago I really wasn't doing so well and I was dependent on an oxygen mask for my breathing. It wasn't like a face mask or anything, it was pretty discreet. I wore what's called a nasal cannula which is like the little clear plastic tube that runs up your nose. It was quite uncomfortable at first, but you get used to it after a while. So I had spent most of my time hooked up by PPAP machine and it was super important that it stayed switched on at all times or I might suffocate. But if it ever did switch off or break for any reason, I could just switch over to my battery powered oxygen tank and voila. Tragic death avoided. The system was flying. Flawlessly safe. Or so I was led to believe. Because what that system doesn't take into account is that all of a sudden PGE might decide it's going to switch the power off to my house. I wake up in the middle of the night feeling like I am about to have a full on anxiety attack and it only takes me a second before I realize that I can't breathe. I brought a hand to my face and felt that my nasal cannula was still in my nostrils. But when I rolled over in bed I saw my PPAP machine was dark. Now under any other circumstances I could just unplug from the machine, walk into the spare bedroom and plug into the battery powered oxygen tank. But since I was so tired and whatever had happened to cut the power had happened when I was asleep, I had lost valuable time to make the transition. So picture this. I feel like I am about to pass out. I can't see a thing because it's pitch black and I have to make it all the way across the hall and into the spare room when I feel like I can't make it three steps in front of me. It was the most scared I have ever been in my life. I had a matter of seconds to get to the battery tank. I am making all these wheezing sounds and I can just feel myself getting weaker and and weaker as I made it out of my bedroom and took my first steps into the hallway. I only make it a few paces before I just feel my knees buckling underneath me. I try to crawl but I can't. And that's about all I remember until the next thing I know I am sucking air through the canula. Like a crazy person coughing and sputtering with my mom's voice in my ear. I must have made a whole bunch of noise on the way out of my bedroom. And thankfully, too, because it woke my mom up. She must have found me lying there, figured out what the deal was, then just dragged me far enough toward the spare bedroom that she could plug in my oxygen tube. I just remember lying there taking these huge, deep breaths until I felt sort of okay again. But that only lasted a moment or two until the memory of that fear came rushing back to me and I just burst into tears. We had to drive to the hospital to get me looked over by a doctor. You can get some nasty health complications if you're deprived of oxygen like that. And it's not just the obvious stuff either. Like, it can cause blood clots in your arteries from the strain, and those can be fatal. But, yeah, I was checked over, and although I was pretty shaken up, I was otherwise okay. But then the whole thing comes out about the blackouts, and that caused a lot of controversy. For those that don't know, here in California, it was discovered that some equipment owned by a bunch of electrical companies was causing forest fires. There was this huge fire where almost a hundred people died, and the fire department found it was started by a power line that had fallen over. Then companies that catch a ton of crap from federal government, and as a result, they basically made the decision to just cut power off to a bunch of people's homes during wildfire season. And unfortunately for us, our home was one of them. We got off lucky, though. Like, one guy actually died because he was on home life support or something. The power went off and boom, massive organ failure. The power cuts affected other stuff, too, like nebulizers, dialysis machines, refrigerators that kept insulin fresh. Power companies said that they had been warning people for months about it and that they should make preparations. But I don't remember hearing anything about it. But, yeah, scariest moment of my life right there. Straight up. Thought I was going to die. But like so many times before in my life, my mom was there to stop me from slipping away. Back when I was in my early 20s, I met a girl who set my entire world on fire. She was smart, beautiful, and had a passion for art. We're going to burn together, she would say. Not in the literal sense, of course. It's just that the romance we got swept up in was without a doubt the most intense thing I have ever been involved with in my entire life. It was like a wildfire just burning out of control. Nothing had topped it before, and nothing has topped it since. But let's just say that neither of us was in a particularly good place in our lives. And as passionate as the relationship was, it wasn't exactly healthy. For the most part, she was very, very possessive. And I am not going to lie, I thought that was kind of hot at first. But that got really old really fast. And her behavior started to cause arguments between us. She would explode at the mention of any other girl I once mentioned, something to do with my sister, and she immediately interrupted to accuse me of being unfaithful. Even after I explained that the girl I was talking about was my sister, she stayed mad. It just defied all logic. But I was in love, so I stayed with her. So we're together for 17 and a half months, and that time included some of the best and worst moments of my life so far. But in the end, the bad started to outweigh the good. And faced with another Valentine's Day with her, I decided I couldn't do it anymore. I made the decision to break up with her. And as you might imagine, she did not take it very well at all. At first, she was in complete denial, saying there was nothing wrong with our relationship and she had no idea why I was breaking up with her. Then she got angry. Like, really angry. Started throwing around accusations and threats, none of which I thought she was capable of acting on. Then came the tears and the final acceptance. By far the hardest part for me, she was crazy, but I didn't think she was a bad person. And it sucked to have to hurt her like that. She insisted on staying in touch, maybe staying friends or something, but I had to go. No contact. It was the only way that we would really get over each other. I felt like a monster, but I did it anyway. About a month goes by, and I'm sitting in my apartment alone on Valentine's Day. I'm sort of over this girl, but I'm also sort of not. And with it being Valentine's Day, I'm thinking about her a whole lot. So when my phone buzzes and I see it's a text from her, I'm, like, rushing to see what it says. I had deleted her number, but you know when you always just remember the last four digits of someone's number? Yeah, that. So all this message says is, we were supposed to burn together. And that just kind of broke my heart right there. I thought about calling her, maybe try and patch things up. And in retrospect, maybe that's exactly what I should have done. But in the moment I just tried to stay strong and stick to the no contact rule. I tried to take my mind off stuff, stayed away from all the romantic movies and Valentine's episodes that the TV networks were trying to force down my throat. But still, I just couldn't shake the lonely feeling I had. So later that night, I'm kinda drunk, just sitting on the couch, when my phone buzzes again. I just know it's her. Like I knew it in my gut and surprise, surprise it was. I debated just quickly clearing the notification and then ignoring the message, but my curiosity got the better of me and I found myself reading it. I knew the first line said we were supposed to burn together again from the notification, but only when I opened up the whole thread did I see that underneath the first part it said, but now you're going to burn alone again. Hit me right in the feels. It was clingy, I know, but at the same time you can't even deny how poetic that is. Poetry, that's all. I thought it was just that old metaphor we used to share, but I didn't think she would take it as far as she did. I didn't think she meant literally burn, because sometime after I'm on my couch and I start to smell smoke, I go through the stages of like, thinking I've drunkenly forgot that I'm cooking, then thinking the neighbors are burning food on accident, then thinking someone is making a campfire outside or something. Just pure denial, really not wanting to believe that the apartment building was actually on fire. Then the fire alarm starts going off. I rush downstairs in no shoes or socks, just a pair of shorts and a tiny shirt, and run out the back of the building to the fire assembly point. And on the way I see smoke billowing out from under the door of the apartment below me. Minutes later, a fire truck is parked up outside the apartment building, spraying water into the apartment below mine, which had been absolutely scorched. It was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. These firefighters are asking me if I'm okay, if I need one of those foil blankets. It was February and it was freezing outside and all that could come out of my mouth is like, I know who did this. One of them tells me to get in touch with the police if the cause of the fire was criminal. So I did, because like I said, I had a really good idea of who set that fire in the first place. Like, I wasn't quite sure how she had done it, but having my ex girlfriend text me you're going to burn alone. And then all of a sudden there's a house fire. That was no coincidence to me. No coincidence at all. Over the next couple of weeks I had to go and stay in my mom's place while some renovation work was undertaken at my smoke damaged apartment. But I did get in touch with the police who thanked me for the tip and said they would get back in touch if the cause of the fire was found to be arson. Only it wasn't. They called a little while later to say that a fire department investigator had determined that some faulty wiring was to blame for the blaze and so they wouldn't need any testimony from me. I brought up the text messages my ex had sent me. How her words seemed to precede the fire in a way that was just too opt to be coincidence. But again, they insisted that no arson was to blame. I even called her and texted her saying I knew what she had done and that she wouldn't get away with it. But as you can imagine, she played dumb like I don't know what you're talking about. You shouldn't be contacting me. It's something that messes with me to this day and there are so many unanswered questions that frankly I am not sure I want to know the answers to. I just know that one moment she's texting me telling me I'm going to burn and the next my apartment building is on fire. I am not saying my ex broke into the apartment downstairs and did something to the wiring, but it's even crazier of me to suggest that she willed something like that to happen or like engineered it or something. I know how paranoid that sounds, so I tend not to put that theory out much. But it had such a profound effect on my mind that I still moved apartments not long after just to be safe. Because to me there's still something very frightening about that time in my life. Something I can't quite explain. And now when I remember that old thing, she said we are going to burn together. It doesn't set me alight anymore. It makes my blood run cold. My kid goes to Cooper elementary here in Vacaville, California. In early October of last year I drove them off to school, arriving as usual at around 8am I gave them a kiss, told them I hoped that they had a good day, and off they went to morning class. Nothing out of the ordinary, just like any other day. Only right as I am about to drive off, I noticed something that immediately got my attention and not in a good way. There's a woman standing outside and she is not coming or going or anything. She's just standing there. She looked middle aged, maybe Latina or Asian extraction. And she's just sort of watching all the kids come and go. Now the morning rush is usually just that. Parents pulling up drop their kids off, then leave as quickly as they arrive to get to their jobs or whatever. But there's this woman really chill just standing there. Then she gets her phone out and starts like pointing it around, almost like she was taking pictures or a video of the whole scene. I got this bad, bad feeling in my gut, like she didn't look like you'd imagine some old creeper to look. She wasn't wearing a trench coat with a ball cap pulled down over her face. She looked kinda motherly actually. And if she hadn't have just been standing there or recording with her phone, I think I would have completely passed her by. So instead of driving off to make it to work on time, I just kind of sat in my car watching her. Better safe than sorry, I told myself. And boy am I glad I stuck around because things were about to get weird. As I'm sat in my car watching her, I notice that suddenly she seems to take a sharp interest in something. She puts her phone away and seems to be staring over towards the other side of the school parking lot. I try to spy whatever's gotten her attention, but the place is so busy with the morning rush that nothing really stood out to me. So again I just sit there waiting patiently as she starts to walk across the street and over towards this parked car. I have to turn around in my seat to see what she's doing, but I am able to watch clear as day as she walks towards one of the cars and opens the back door before reaching in and pulling out this preschool aged kid who was sitting in the back seat. She doesn't pull hard or anything, just kind of takes the kid by the hand and leads them out of the car, leaning down to say something to them before she started trying to walk off with them. So I jump out of my car, locking the doors before I start power walking over to her. I say, excuse me lady, is this your kid? Where are you taking this kid? She turns around all calm, smiles at me and then tells me she's a teacher at the school. I mean it was actually believable for a moment. She had this lanyard around her neck with what looked like an ID on it. Her answer was so confident too, and actually called the Kid by the name Brian. So for a second I felt like I was going crazy and that I had gotten way inside my own head about this playing at being some vigilante or something. So I respond, oh, okay, I'm sorry. She accepts my apology and then goes to walk away from the school again. I don't think I would have done anything else about it until I heard another voice behind me shout, hey, what are you doing? I turn around and see this furious looking guy running towards me and the woman. He runs past me, stops this woman and grabs the kid's arm, pulling him away from her. She then starts giving this guy the same speech she just did to me, telling him she's a teacher and she's taking Brian somewhere, how he's a student of hers, etc. What this guy said next made my stomach drop. Brian. My kid's name is not Brian. Lady. I'm calling the cops. The guy shouts and in doing so draws the attention of everyone coming and going in the parking lot. Once he realized he had gotten something of an audience, he just starts going off saying this psycho is trying to kidnap my kid. Someone get the cops out here. The mood in the parking lot shifts. Every single parent is basically watching their worst fears played out before them. An unsuspecting person trying to abduct a kid in broad daylight. It was honestly sickening. Firstly, the whole act of trying to snatch the kid. And then the kind of mood shift as all these half awake parents just turn into what was basically a violent mob. But the middle aged lady was quick. She moved faster than I had ever expected her to, out of the parking lot, back across the street where she jumped into a car and sped off. Parents are taking pictures of her license plate, screaming about child abusers seriously wanting to rip her apart there and then. I stuck around to talk to the cops, gave a detailed description along with the dad of the potential kidnap victim whose kid was just distraught by that point. There was a PTA meeting called about the incident. It was this whole big drama that rocked the small community we live in. And now, just in case none of you believe me, the woman's name was Eileen Keringle. She was 56 at the time of the incident. And she ended up getting followed and arrested by the cops at her home in the 700 block of Christine Drive. The story was sent around the parents of all the kids attending Cooper elementary in like a matter of hours. And the relief was palpable. I don't think people who don't have kids can really understand Just how terrifying something like that is. We are told there are monsters in the world, but. But knowing they walk among us looking just like sweet middle aged women when they are in fact complete predators is just chilling beyond belief. A couple of years ago, me and my girlfriend, now wife, we're selling some of our old stuff after moving into another apartment and one of these items happened to be our big old tv. We put one ad up on ebay and another on that Facebook Marketplace thing, since it was kind of new at the time, and just decided to kind of wait and see what kind of offers we got. My wife was pretty sure she had found a decent enough buyer who'd come pick the TV up from our flat and save us a job. But I had gotten a message from someone who, although they couldn't quite afford our asking price, made us an offer we couldn't refuse. It was from an older guy who seemed to be living on his own with his dog, whose TV had recently broken and he couldn't afford a new one. He said he could pay about 70% of our asking price and would make the rest up to us in plumbing services should we ever need it. I ended up getting into a long, touching discussion with the guy. He kind of reminded me of an old uncle of mine and I just instantly liked him. He had fallen on hard times and through no fault of his own. If anyone deserved a little kindness, it was him. After a brief discussion with my wife, we decided we would just go drop it off at his house for free. However, we also knew there's no way this guy would accept our charity right off the bat, or at least very little chance of that happening anyway. So when he politely asked us to wait three weeks to drop it off at his house, since it would take him a little time to get the cash together, we were only too happy to oblige him. But still, we make a note of his address and whatnot, then tell him we'll call in a few weeks. A few weeks goes by and we decide we'll drive the TV over to the guy on a Saturday morning. Before we leave, we give the guy a call to tell him that we're on our way, but there's no answer. We try once or twice more, but still the guy isn't answering his phone. Now this might sound kind of selfish, but the TV was all boxed up and just taking up space in our hallway. So even though the guy wasn't picking up his phone, we decided to drive over anyway and possibly leave the TV with a neighbor of his. I mean, that method seemed kind of preferable to us too. If we left it with a neighbor, we wouldn't have to go through all the potential awkwardness or refusing to take the guy's money. Anyway, so we drive over to the guy's address, keeping the TV in the car while we ensure that there's definitely no one home. I get out of the car, walk up this guy's driveway, and knock on the door, which gets no answer. Right then is when I lean back and look into the guy's front room, you know, to check if there are any lights on or anything. Who knows? The guy might have been a little deaf and just couldn't hear his phone or the door. But as I'm looking through his front windows, I see all these little black spots all over the blinds and on the window sill. I'm like, what are those? Thinking they might have been bits of dirt or something. Then one of the little dirt pieces just straight up moves in that lightning quick stop start way that insects do. And that's when it hits me. I am looking at about 50 houseflies, big ones that are grouped together on his window. It's weird how we can see one housefly on a window pane or a window ledge and be like, oh, that's a fly. But when we see so many in one place, it's like our brains just don't quite compute what our eyes are seeing. That kind of brittle sense of perception that humans have never fails to creep me out. Like most people listening to this, I instantly knew what was wrong. And this horrific sense of dread came over me. I think I might have involuntarily let out a oh no. When the penny dropped. You only ever get a concentration of flies like that when there's either a massive buildup of garbage or there's a dead body. And in that case, someone had died. And horrifically, it was the older guy we had grown so attached to throughout the saga of getting rid of our old tv. The whole thing was just horrifying. From having to call the cops, to the fire department showing up with them, having to bash the guy's door down. When they did, the smell started to drift out into the street and it was just about the most stomach churning thing I have ever experienced. I know the guy wasn't exactly my best friend, but I feel like even though we only swapped a few texts and calls with the guy, we got to know him pretty well. He was good natured, independent. I'm pretty sure he was a veteran too. The whole thing really shook me up. Those flies, man, those fat carry on flies that were so big and engorged that I barely even recognized them for what they were. They had been breeding and feeding in the rotting flesh of the same guy I had been having heart to hearts with just weeks before. It's just scary to me how death is sometimes like, yeah, the prospect of what happens to us when we die is daunting enough, but it's how sudden and seemingly random death can be with all its grim little details. Like, I couldn't shake the image of those flying eyes on the window like they were his ghost or something. Maybe we do leave a little something of ourselves behind when we die, but that thing happens to be so very ugly. Brooklyn Farthing was born on August 26, 1994. She grew up in the small town of Berea, Kentucky with her mother, Shelby Walker, her stepfather, Randall Walker, and her two sisters, Tasha and Paige. When she was much younger, Brooklyn had been a Girl Scout and was a loyal and enthusiastic member of the organization for the majority of her life. She received a great deal of praise during her time in the Girl Scouts. She volunteered to make care kits for those affected by Hurricane Katrina, visited the elderly, and spent a lot of her time helping out her fellow Girl Scouts whenever they found things tough. Brooklyn then blossomed into a spirited and lively teenager with a boundless love of the natural world and especially for anything four legged and furry. She also had an aptitude for athletics and was described as a tell it like it is straight talking kind of girl which didn't always prove popular with her peers. Brooklyn also had a huge passion for baking and would spend a lot of her nights baking chocolate chip brownies for the whole family. She was a very family and community oriented person and unlike a lot of girls her age, she actually seemed to enjoy spending time around her mom and dad, two loving parents who thought it was their duty to help pay for their girls driving lessons and eventual tests. On June 21, 2013, Brookland and Paige took their driving tests while Brooklyn passed with flying colors. Paige failed spectacularly, something that became a bit of a running joke among the Walker Farthing family for the remainder of the day. That night, the family attended their grandfather's 70th birthday party as he had been gravely ill in the months preceding his birthday and had only just made something of a miraculous recovery. The occasion was important to everyone in attendance and a great deal of enthusiasm was shown by all. Just weeks ago they thought the man wouldn't see his next birthday, but now here he was celebrating as heartily as everyone else. After what was undoubtedly a rather subdued and emotional birthday party, Brooklyn and Page attended another party on Redlick Road along with their cousin. This was a considerably wilder affair given it was attended by teens in their age group and there was rumors of there being a stash of booze at the party. According to Paige, her sister knew the majority of those in attendance and was extremely excited to get to a much livelier party after hanging out with her grandparents. After drinking and dancing for a few hours, Paige and the cousin decided to leave sometime between the hours of 7pm and 8pm But Brooklyn, who had pre packed her overnight bag, made plans to stay with a friend who was also at the party so they could sleep off their hangovers from the judgmental gaze of Brooklyn's parents. Yet it came time to leave. Brooklyn was disappointed to hear that instead of sticking to their plan of a sleepover, her friend had her heart set on spending the night at her boyfriend's house. Naturally, this made Brooklyn rather angry and an intense argument unfolded as a result of this impromptu change of plans. Other partygoers who witnessed the disagreement claim that Brooklyn was so annoyed that she ditched the party altogether. She had to catch a ride with two men she had never met before that night. The identities of those men are currently being withheld, impending results of a police investigation. But what we do know for certain is that when questioned by police, one of the men said that they drove Brooklyn down to Floyd Branch Road, apparently to look at some horses. After that, the man giving the account was dropped, back off at his house and didn't see either Brooklyn or his friend again. This other guy took Brooklyn home with him to a house located in the 100 block of Dillon Court, just off U.S. highway 421. As the house was actually in foreclosure at the time, there would have been no running water or electricity. At around 4am on June 22, Brooklyn called her sister Paige and asked if their cousin could come pick her up from the address at Dillon Court. But their cousin had been drinking heavily and was in no fit state to be driving. So Paige had to pass on the bad news that her sister didn't have a ride home that night, which obviously put Brooklyn in a very awkward situation. She could either call her mom, waking her up and making her drive all the way out to Dillon Court and possibly having her discover that she had been drinking, or she could contact her ex boyfriend and get a ride home from him instead. Obviously to Brooklyn, the first option was completely unthinkable but her ex was working that night, and it would be a couple of hours before he could drive out to pick pick her up. But it seemed Brooklyn was so terrified of being caught drunk that she chose to simply wait it out in a dark, foreclosed home shacked up with a total stranger. By the time Brooklyn's ex finished his shift and he was able to get back to his phone, he found he had received several messages from her. He opened up the text thread to see that her longer, more drawn out texts had cut down to just a few words. Time after time, her messages said things like, can you hurry? Please hurry up. And I'm scared. But on the drive over to Dylan's court, Brooklyn's extremely worried ex boyfriend received yet another message that simply read, never mind, I'm okay. Going to a party in Rock Castle County. Her ex tried to call multiple times, but she wasn't answering her phone. He then sent her a text asking who she was with, but Brooklyn didn't reply. In fact, she would never reply to anyone's text or calls ever again. Later that day, on June 22, Brooklyn had made plans to attend a car show in Somerset, Kentucky with a few of her friends. But she never showed up and wasn't replying to texts or calls. It wasn't like Brooklyn to miss a car show. So naturally, her friends were deeply concerned and instead called Paige in the hopes that she would know where her sister was. But Paige had no idea that Brooklyn hadn't made it home that night, and when she learned the news, she began to panic. After calling to tell their mom that Brooklyn might be missing, Paige began to frantically call around her friends, trying to learn the names of the two guys who gave Brooklyn a ride. Luckily, she got a hold of one of their numbers and managed to actually speak to the guy whose foreclosed house she had gone back to after looking at horses. He was open about the fact that he had been at the party that night, and he even admitted to giving Brooklyn a ride back to his place. But after that, his story began to get a little weird. He said he had left her alone in a house with no running water or electricity because she had felt uncomfortable sleeping with him. Apparently having only recently broken up with her ex, the guy said he had respected her decision, but instead of giving her a ride home or at least calling her a taxi, he chose to leave his own home to give her space. He said the last he had seen of her, she was sitting on his front porch smoking a cigarette and talking about a party she had heard about in Rock Castle County. Paige was immediately skeptical and planned on giving the man's name and number to the cops should she have to contact them. But just minutes after she hung up the phone, the man called back to tell her that he was scared. He was scared because, according to him, when he had gotten back to his house after giving Brooklyn some space, he found his front porch was ablaze. He called the fire department, who promptly drove over to put the fire out. But when he got inside to survey the damage, he found that all of Brooklyn's belongings had been left behind, but that she was nowhere to be found. Paige and Brooklyn's mom rushed to file a police report, and once it had officially been 24 hours since she was last seen, was formally declared missing, the police drove over to the address at Dillon Court to retrieve the items she had left behind. There, they quickly noted that the only things missing from the collection were Paige's cell phone and the clothing she had been wearing. Their next move was to check her cell phone records, finding that in the 24 hours she had been missing, she had been called more than 100 times by a plethora of different numbers, a measure of just how worried people were about her. And they were right to be worried. According to a statement by the local fire department, the porch fire they attended to at around 7am on the 22nd was extremely suspicious and appeared to be a work of arson as opposed to a lit cigarette. On the Sunday after Brooklyn's disappearance, Kentucky State Police began conducting interviews. The owner of the foreclosed house where Brooklyn was last seen was obviously amongst those first questioned, but nothing about that meeting has been publicly released. In the early days of the investigation, police requested that property owners in Estill, Rock Castle, Jackson and Madison counties check their land for any signs of the missing girl. They were told to pay close attention to freshly turned earth and unusual smells, ditch lines and remote areas, which proves to be a disturbing insight into the minds of police who almost certainly believe she was already dead. Law enforcement officials and volunteers alike searched more than 16,000 acres of land spread out over three Kentucky counties for three weeks. Large scale searches were conducted in the Redlich area and nearby Owsley Fork Lake by police with sniffer dogs who were aided military cadets and volunteers on horseback. A team of highly trained police divers were also called in to help search a few large bodies of water, but still nothing was found. A month into the investigation, a fundraiser was held by Brooklyn's family to help fund a cash reward for whoever could help find their daughter. On Top of that, a local body shop began selling five dollar car deals with all proceeds going to the reward fund. But still, there was no luck finding her. So in July of 2013, as painful as it was to make the decision, the county sheriff declared that all foot searches for Brooklyn were to be called off. And although they wouldn't come out and say it, the police had all but given up on finding her, dead or alive. The investigation and media coverage of the event shifted dramatically when a number of scandals began to severely hamper the efforts to find Brooklyn. A local woman named Amanda Griffey openly admitted to scamming those who wished to donate money to the search. When a number of concerned neighbors were going door to door seeking contributions, Amanda joined them. But all the money she received was funneled into her own private bank account. Amanda only stole a measly $40, but to the local community, it might as well have been a million. Their outrage knew no bounds, and Amanda was shunned by all that knew her after she was arrested for theft of identity of another and theft by deception. But shockingly, it was not the only case of someone exploiting Brooklyn's disappearance. Another person, this one aptly named Randy Gross, was also arrested for scamming coworkers out of money, telling them that he was collecting for the Find Brooklyn fund, yet simply padding out his own account. Brooklyn's parents tried to court the media's good graces again, throwing a benefit at the Madison County Fairgrounds, which featured a car show in honor of Brooklyn's passion for them, a silent auction, and live music. But the scandal had soured the public's affection for the couple's cause, and never again could they get the kind of national attention they needed to make any real progress. Then, In April of 2015, a man scouring the Kentucky backwoods for mushrooms discovered a set of skeletal remains. The police braced themselves for a DNA sample to come back which confirmed that it was Brooklyn. But it was not her, and her family was filled with hope again that she might just turn up alive. The Virginia Commonwealth Attorney's office have confirmed their continued interest in the case and are in constant contact with investigators. They claim that a dedicated team have followed countless tips and examined the case file for things that might have been missing or overlooked during the initial investigation. And they say that all tips continue to be followed up on. But despite their best efforts, the case of Brooklyn's disappearance remains open and active. Perhaps the most terrifying thing is that police seem to believe that someone in the local community has information as to what happened to Brooklyn, but whoever made her vanish might actually still be living among them. But even with a $14,000 reward being offered for information leading to her return or the capture and conviction of those responsible for her disappearance, police are still no closer to getting any definitive answers. No answers, but plenty of theories, most of which revolve around the idea that Brooklyn was kidnapped sometime after 4am she was not depressed and according to her family, had no reason to run away or walk out on her life. In their eyes, the only reason she could now be missing is if someone had taken her. Police have talked publicly of their deep suspicion that the final test sent to her ex, the one that mentioned the party in Rock Castle county, was faked and sent by someone else, and that since her belongings were left at the Dillon Courthouse, it must have been the place she was taken from. But whether or not the homeowner has anything to do with it is an entirely different question. He did indeed leave Brooklyn alone in the dark in a home with no power or water. But does that mean he called someone in to kidnap her in an effort to detach himself from the crime? Or did a gang of savage predators get lucky enough to barge their way into a house with no burglar alarms with a lone intoxicated female trying to sleep in an upstairs bedroom? Only the full results of the police investigation will be able to tell us that in the years following Brooklyn's disappearance from the Kentucky House Party Party, Tasha feels that she needs to be a voice for her sister and as such has taken part in numerous interviews regarding her disappearance. She has taken numerous steps to keep her sister's name in the public eye in the hopes that someone will see the coverage and come forward with information. Currently, her case is classified as endangered missing and she has yet to be declared legally dead. But it is only a matter of time before the clocks run out and we have to assume the worst that through malice or misfortune, Brooklyn Farthing went to a house party one evening and never came home. Electric Forest is an electronic music festival that normally takes place at the end of June in Rothbury, Michigan. Nestled in the very depths of Sherwood Forest, the festival truly is in the middle of nowhere and incorporates all the natural beauty of the towering woodland trees into the experiences of those who choose to attend. By day, fans can roam around the enchanting scenery, hanging out among the pop up installations or the hundreds of hammocks that hang between the tree trunks. But once the sun sets, they can watch as the forest is lit up by the many light fixtures and according to many, that's when the magic really begins. The exhilarating atmosphere combined with jaw dropping light displays and spontaneous secret parties, all matched with a carefully curated lineup, generates a truly unique experience. For one and all, it's this particular music festival that 29 year old Kevin Graves wished to attend during the summer of 2018. Hailing from Oakland country Michigan, Kevin bought tickets for himself and his girlfriend, who was instantly sold on the idea of partying in such a unique and unusual place. Both were fans of electronic dance music, but had found themselves tiring of visiting the same old clubs week in and week out. So Electric Forest provided the perfect way to switch things up a little. But after only a day or two of partying among the trees, the blissful feeling between himself and his girlfriend apparently turned sour and the pair began to argue intensely. Speculation as to the reasons behind these arguments ranges from the couple having run out of money to overconsumption of alcohol, to Kevin having witnessed his girlfriend flirting with other guys. All of the above is up for debate, but what we do know for certain is that after a particularly vicious confrontation, Kevin walked out of the main festival grounds to return to their campsite alone. Fellow festival goers have reported seeing a man leaving the site who was very upse set, possibly even in tears. It's a rather sad end to a tumultuous relationship, but what makes this incident particularly terrifying is that after these sightings, Kevin was never seen again. His girlfriend returned to the campsite several hours later, expecting to find Kevin sleeping off the effects of the drugs and alcohol he had ingested. But when she unzipped the front flap of the tent and peered inside, she found it completely empty. This wasn't exactly a surprise to her though, and she figured either Kevin had gotten lost on his way back, possibly even having found another group of revelers to hang out with to help cheer himself up, or that he had headed back towards the main festival compound to either look for her or party some more. So with that in mind, she simply crawled into her sleeping bag and got some much needed rest. The following morning, Kevin still hadn't returned, but again, his girlfriend wasn't particularly alarmed. It was only when the festival came to an end and she had to find her own way home that she actually began to worry. Kevin hadn't seemed to have returned to his apartment either, and to his girlfriend's knowledge, he was still in Sherwood Forest. It was around then that she broke and contacted his close family regarding his apparent disappearance, who in turn contacted the police to report Kevin missing law enforcement set about scouring the area surrounding the festival site using every asset at their disposal, using dogs, aerial units and dive teams, but not a trace of Kevin could be found anywhere. Then they appealed the public to information regarding Kevin's whereabouts and many people called the Missing Person's hotline claiming to have spotted him in the days after the festival. Callers stated that they had seen him around other cities in Michigan as well as in other surrounding states. In some cases, Kevin was spotted at a motel not far from the festival site, in others at a diner in the same sort of area. There were also suggestions that Kevin had run off to join some kind of religious cult that was in attendance at the festival, given that the colorfully branded bus was said to be present at the event. After some investigation, the group was found to be the Word of God, a charismatic missionary Christian community founded in the late 60s that is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. But a spokesman for the Word of God denies ever being at Electric Forest that weekend, and Kevin's family insist that it's pretty much out of the question that he would run off somewhere without at least telling them first. The behavior of Kevin's then girlfriend have also raised a great deal of suspicion among those that investigated his disappearance. In the immediate aftermath, she posted a few grief stricken posts on Facebook, the kind you might expect to read if Kevin had been confirmed deceased. Yet nobody was ever found and as far as police knew, he wasn't dead at all, just missing. And then instead of cooperating and staying in touch with Kevin's family as one might expect her to do, she proceeded to block most of them before refusing to answer any more questions with regards to what happened that weekend or where he might have ran away to. According to her, their relationship was on the rocks at the time, so also apparently posted a Reddit comment after his disappearance that claims he was suffering from mental illness and that he had a history of threatening suicide when they had previously come close to breaking up. There is every chance that she simply wishes to move on from a painful period of her life, away from drug and alcohol use and away from the pain of knowing that she might have contributed to a tragic and unforeseen event. However, there is also a chance that she is so uncooperative because she knows way more than she is comfortable sharing. Police managed to interview a handful of the festival's staff that were working during the same weekend that Kevin went missing, although most couldn't remember seeing Kevin specifically during their time there, as the event is attended by hundreds if not Thousands of festival goers. Some told stories of revelers going missing year in and year out. One even told police a story how one person went missing after partying too hard and was found as far away as Alabama. Yet another admitted that it wasn't exactly a rarity for people to die at the festival due to excessive alcohol or narcotics use. Often people who mix things that really shouldn't go together. He then told police of a rumor he had heard from a few different attendees of a guy who had actually died sitting up. Others had just assumed he was asleep and continued to drink and dance around an actual dead body, becoming extremely distressed when they realized that he was dead and not just passed out. Other members of staff admitted that sometimes they weren't sure if the location of the festival was a safe choice, and they worried that some might be so messed up that they would wander off among the trees wearing very little clothing, only to be subjected to some stormy weather that night and cause them to pass away as a result of the exposure. There was one member of the festival staff who told the police a story that they were initially convinced was Kevin. A man who seemed to be very upset by something was going around the main compound, giving away all of his possessions, including expensive electronic items and large amounts of cash. These are in line with reports from Kevin's family that he had apparently emptied his bank account in the week before the festival was due to start. So what actually happened to Kevin at the festival? Was it the case that he was simply so grief stricken by the breakup with his girlfriend that he had opted to simply up and vanish from Michigan? Perhaps this grief was something that a religious cult could play upon to induct him into their ranks. Or perhaps such a cult would be able to use the heavy amount of drugs in his system to essentially brainwash him into their way of thinking. Regardless of what happened, we can all agree it's an extremely scary prospect that we could end up basically vanishing from the face of the earth after attending something as seemingly benign as. As a simple music festival. Perhaps we're never truly safe. No matter where we are or what we are doing. It. It. It.