Scary Stories and Rain – Ep. 237 – "A Very Large SMILE"

Host: Being Scared
Release Date: September 23, 2025

Episode Overview

In this atmospheric episode of Scary Stories and Rain, host Being Scared delivers his signature blend of eerie, true tales read against a gentle rain soundscape. The theme centers on chilling personal encounters—paranormal brushes, stalkers, and brushes with inexplicable evil—that listeners sent in for maximum shivers. Each story brings a distinct flavor: from haunted bathrooms and predatory strangers to urban exploration gone wrong and relentless stalkers. The host’s calm, immersive narration heightens the contrast between comfort and terror, making these stories perfect for sleepless nights or anyone seeking vicarious thrills.

Key Stories & Discussion Points

1. Childhood Encounter with the "Old Man" ([00:55])

• Setting: Childhood in South Asian apartment flats.
• Incident: The narrator and her sisters are confronted by a hunched, creepy old man holding torn pieces of paper, who asks to play tag with them in a disturbingly high-pitched voice.
• Reaction: The children's panic leads them to flee to a friend's apartment, where oddly, the mother seems unconcerned.
• Aftermath: The experience leaves the narrator deeply shaken, foreshadowing a pattern of weird and paranormal happenings in her early life.

Quote:
"Can I play with you children?" he asked us in a weird way, like he put on a high-pitched voice."
— [01:25]

2. The Woman in the Shower ([04:10])

• Setting: Same apartment; detailed description of a weird, multi-room bathroom.
• Incident: While washing her face, the narrator glimpses a tall, naked, dripping woman peering through the cracked shower door—someone who looks like her mom, but isn’t.
• Atmosphere: The sight is intensely vivid and threatening, leaving the narrator fearful and unsure what she witnessed.
• Aftermath: The family tries to rationalize the event, but physical clues (wet floors) don’t add up. This encounter is one of several “paranormal” sightings that vanish after the family moves to Australia.

Quote:
"I see this tall naked woman peeking through the crack at me. She looked evil and she looked angry."
— [05:15]

3. Knife Under the Viaduct ([07:10])

• Setting: Australia, 2019. Abigail (narrator) and her boyfriend Richard.
• Incident: Walking to a restaurant, they notice a suspicious man following them. The man eventually raises his hoodie, revealing a large kitchen knife hidden up his sleeve.
• Escalation: Phones are dead, so they outmaneuver the man by detouring to the restaurant. Later, Richard spots the same man laying in wait by the viaduct on his solo trip.
• Resolution: They take a long way home. Other girls in the area report similar experiences.
• Tone: Paranoia and palpable panic.

Quote:
"Out of the corner of my eye... I saw the man reach into his right hoodie sleeve and push a large object up his sleeve. Richard and I both saw that it was a large kitchen knife."
— [10:55]

4. Relentless Car Tail & Escape ([15:30])

• Setting: Late-night drive, small town.
• Incident: After leaving his girlfriend’s house, the narrator is followed by a black SUV. Despite taking multiple complicated, illogical detours and backroads, the car sticks to him with high beams on.
• Crisis Point: He finally loses the pursuer by pulling into the police station.
• Aftermath: Fear of what might've happened if he'd driven straight home lingers. Advice to always have self-defense if you drive at night.

Quote:
"No doubt in my mind this person was following me with bad intentions."
— [18:15]

5. Sleep Paralysis and the "Very Large Smile" ([20:10])

• Setting: Teen’s bedroom, post-nightmare.
• Incident: The narrator wakes, unable to move, to the sound of "deep growl-like breathing." A grotesque, anorexic figure with glowing white eyes and a crooked smile crawls onto his bed. It touches him, hushes him, and disappears into the closet.
• Aftermath: The creature returns in later sleep paralysis episodes, always smiling from the bed’s fence, making good days bad.

Quote:
"I was greeted by bright white eyes and a crooked white smile. Its body looked misshapen…"
— [22:55]

6. Urban Exploration Horror: The Abandoned School ([25:00])

• Setting: Two teenage girls in New Jersey/Pennsylvania explore a charred, abandoned reform school.
• Incidents: Recounting multiple visits, including:
  • Finding a blood-stained dentist chair and medical syringes ([25:35])
  • Encountering a basement covered in pentagrams, demon graffiti, and ritualistic paraphernalia ([26:00])
  • A chilling night when one sees a headless horseman, later corroborated by other explorers' stories ([27:40])
  • An encounter with an unnatural deer at 3am, its glowing eyes and enveloping mist increasing the supernatural tension ([30:00])
  • The night a chainsaw revs somewhere in the darkness as the girls attempt to enter, leading them to flee in terror ([31:30])
• Reflection: Recognition that animal instincts protect us from dangers—seen and unseen.

Quote:
"Standing right behind Julia... was a black figure. A man on a large horse. The worst part was his large, broad body seemed as if it had no head."
— [27:55]

7. The School Knight Stalker ([37:45])

• Setting: Hindu cultural gathering in a high school gymnasium.
• Incident: Three teens talk, drink, and joke around after hours until they notice a man in black with a metal pole and school mascot helmet pursuing them. He yells racist threats as they escape.
• Details: The man’s details are vivid—rumpled, burnt hands, greasy hair. His chilling threats and satanic ramblings cement his menace.
• Aftermath: Teens hide in the woods until he leaves and opt to never tell adults, only fellow horror fans.

Quote:
"Heathens from the religion of the east, show yourselves to me before the devil shows himself to you."
— [39:10]

8. The "Banshee" Encounter ([42:55])

• Setting: Late-night, six-mile urban walk.
• Incident: Two friends spot a seemingly harmless older woman making increasingly bizarre animalistic noises as she approaches. Suddenly, she sprints into the road, then right between them, shrieking like a banshee.
• Atmosphere: The juxtaposition between her “adorable grandma” look and deranged behavior is deeply unsettling.
• Aftermath: The friends are left perplexed and nervous.

Quote:
"She looked adorable. She sounded insane.... 'Banshee' is the only word I have for it."
— [44:00]

9. Relentless Stalker Abroad ([47:15])

• Setting: Young woman's experience in a foreign country, just out of university.
• Incident: Stalked by a man who knows her address; he escalates, driving by repeatedly and even involving other men in uniform.
• Climax: A terrifying late-night encounter with the stalker (a police officer) and his friend, who pursue her and her friends—until a Good Samaritan couple intervenes.
• Aftermath: The psychological trauma lingers even after her return home, illustrating deep, lasting terror.

Quote:
"He was a cop. The Jeep slowed, as I knew it would. He rolled down the window to drawl, 'Hey, miss. Nice night, yeah.'"
— [52:10]

10. Hidden Camera Nightmare ([56:25])

• Setting: 2008, family home in Brisbane, Australia.
• Incident: The narrator uses a new AV receiver and accidentally picks up a bizarre live video feed—not from his own home, but from a neighbor’s bedroom. Soon, he, his sister, and mother witness a regular plumber entering, rifling through underwear drawers, and sniffing items. Then, with horror, he notices the plumber looking “right down into the lens.”
• Outcome: The family discovers that the plumber installed a secret camera via a water usage monitor and watched the family at night from his car. The police get involved, but the shock and fear for the family—and audience—linger.

Quote:
"He started getting the wife's underpants and sniffing them, doing all that really creepy stuff. Then what happened next was truly terrifying. He slowly walked over to the camera and looked right down into the lens."
— [58:00]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "I wish it would just leave me alone."
  — Sleep paralysis survivor on the recurring smiling entity ([24:10])

• "My whole body felt like it had been submerged in dry concrete. The only thing I could move was my eyes."
  — Sleep paralysis description ([21:20])

• "This was like no deer I had ever seen. Again, I felt myself with short term paralysis as I felt like I was staring directly into the devil's eyes."
  — Night explorer at the abandoned school ([29:55])

• "There's no other reason why they would have tailgated me... just to go the same place they would have gone if they stayed on the main road."
  — Night drive, black SUV ([17:55])

Episode Structure & Timestamps

• [00:00] - Host's brief intro, then transitions into stories
• [00:55] - Story 1: "Old Man in the Flats"
• [04:10] - Story 2: "Woman in the Shower"
• [07:10] - Story 3: "Knife Under the Viaduct"
• [15:30] - Story 4: "Nighttime Tailgater"
• [20:10] - Story 5: "Sleep Paralysis and the Smile"
• [25:00] - Story 6: "Abandoned School Urban Exploration"
• [37:39] - (Skip ad break)
• [37:45] - Story 7: "School Knight Stalker"
• [42:55] - Story 8: "The Banshee"
• [47:15] - Story 9: "Relentless Stalker Abroad"
• [56:25] - Story 10: "Hidden Camera Nightmare"
• [Approx 65:00+] - Host’s implied wrap-up (cut for summary)

Final Notes

Being Scared delivers another expertly paced episode, heightened by the hypnotic background rain. The stories, though diverse—ranging from the mundane to the truly supernatural—are united by their sense of mounting dread and the idea that horror, sometimes, finds us precisely where we should be safest. Bold, heart-thumping, and at times deeply unsettling, this episode is a masterclass in atmospheric, true paranormal and unsettling storytelling.

Ideal For:
Anyone who loves true unsolved mysteries, encounters with stalkers or the supernatural, and wants their nerves frayed—ideally under a blanket, with rain spattering on the window.