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Hey, this is Dane and this is Scary Stories in Rain. Please join my family and follow this podcast on Spotify or Apple. And if you want the ultimate experience, you can get rid of all of the ads and be entered to win all of my giveaways every month by subscribing for just 299amonth. All of the ads gone, every single giveaway automatically entered. And starting now today, every Sunday, I'm going to release the ultimate episode. 6 to 12 hours long ultimate Scary Stories for a Rainy Night. Subscriber Exclusive and as a reminder, we are now four months away from my first movie release in theaters. Gale Yellow Brick Road A dark and terrifying reimagining of the wizard of Oz. If you want to check out the first trailer, click the link in the description to this episode and if you're not following my other two podcasts, please go check them out. Scary Stories in Fire and Scary Stories After Dark. The links are in the description. Thank you so much for being here and I really hope you enjoy this episode. Diego Prime Big Diotes con grandes oferta sen cocina la grande sestentus manos asiquer adepie te transformara en el principe del pancion. Attention abre pazual Baron del brioche al visco Conde del biscocho y alconde de los cuernitos mi embro de Prime. Juan Hola approvicha horas acuarrenta porciento de descuento in Prime Big deal days. It's okay not to be perfect with finances. Experian is your big financial friend and here to help. Did you know you can get matched with credit cards on the app? Some cards are labeled no ding decline, which means if you're not approved that they won't hurt your credit scores. Download the Experian app for free today. Applying for no Ding Decline cards won't hurt your credit scores if you aren't initially approved. Initial approval will result in a hard inquiry which may impact your credit scores. Experian Upgrade your laundry routine with a durable and reliable Maytag Laundry pair at Lowes. Like the new Maytag Washer and dryer with performance enhanced stain fighting power designed to cut through serious dirt and grime. And what's great is this laundry pair is in stock and ready for delivery when you need it the most. Don't miss out. Shop Maytag in store or online today at Lowe's. I work at a small organic grocery store with a surprising amount of strange customers. We get a lot of conspiracy theorists who for some reason always want to talk to me. There have been multiple people from all walks of life who would love nothing better than to stand in a grocery store for 10 minutes and tell the cashier that Biden wants to behead Christians. Those people are weird and sometimes get slightly aggressive and uppity when I don't respond to their monologues they had prepared for me, but they don't scare me. I am lucky to work at a place with a wonderful group of managers who have no problem taking over a situation if it gets out of hand. The guy who scares me the most rarely ever actually talks to me. He's a regular there, one of the many of the homeless population who will stop in every now and then. Most of them are lovely people, if a little strange. This man works at a store nearby and lives in his car, so he'll often stop in multiple times a day. He has said a multitude of crazy things to my co workers, unprompted and for ridiculously long amounts of time. He told one of my co workers that because he wasn't white, he was the son of the Antichrist, regaled me about how he used to do a lot of drugs and have a lot of sex, but that he doesn't anymore. And I heard him growl at my co worker once because he had to swipe his card again. Even customers have complained about him saying weird things to them. The worst thing he does is he'll just stand and stare at us, specifically the employees. Sometimes he'll just stand in front of the checkout lines, not holding anything, not wanting to check out. He just stands still and stares at us. It's starting to ramp up and I am genuinely afraid of him. The staring and the weird comments were bad enough, but this is the incident that made me fearful of him. I had gotten work done early, so I was doing some grocery shopping around 8pm an hour before closing. There were very few people in the store and of course our scary friend. We have lots of names for him, but I mostly call him Squinty. He's always staring with his eyes really narrowed, was wandering around again slowly as he usually does. I swear to you, every time I looked behind me, he was following me into that aisle. Even if it was starting to hurt and I got the few things I needed, even if it was one he had just been in, he was waltzing right up behind me. My stomach was starting to hurt and I got the few things I needed and left as fast as I could. Later on I was convinced by A wonderfully kind manager to let him send in a report so they could look at the tapes. Ever since then, his behavior has gotten scarier. One night he came in exactly at 8:45. He has been coming in nearly every day for years. He knows what time we close. He also knows that I almost always close in the evenings and I usually work several days in a row. It was right as I was about to go count my till and I swear as soon as I turned around, he was standing at the entrance, hands in his pockets, totally still staring me down. My manager walked me to the office and he did not move until I was in that room. I had the store manager walk me to my car. He isn't the most sensitive person. He wants to see the best in everyone, often times against the wishes of his employees. But even he was telling me he never comes in this late. As I was putting things into my car, he said, oh, that's weird. I look up and sure enough, there he is, standing by his car and staring in my direction. Once I see him, he slowly gets in his car and just sits in it, not moving. He didn't follow me out of the parking lot, but I still took turns and back roads to make sure he didn't follow me. I was feeling pretty good this week. He didn't come in very much and when he did, my manager would see him and tell him to go sit in the cash office before he could even lay eyes on me, then come get me. When he left, I felt safe and thankful for these wonderful people. Then the other night, close to closing, I turn around to get some bags ready and he is standing outside the window right in front of me, staring at me, hands in his pockets, mask on his face so I can't see his expression, just his squinting, glaring eyes. I was shocked. And of course at that moment I had a rush of customers and no other workers around me to help. My manager was on break. The store manager was somewhere way in the back. I was the closing cashier and I was all alone except for the few very disinterested late night customers that were now impatiently standing in my line. I kept going. As he walked into the store, he disappeared for a moment, as is the layout of the store. And later my co worker in another department, also a young female working alone, came up front to tell me he was slowly walking through those aisles, not looking for anything, not looking at anything but her. Finally my manager came back. I quickly told her I needed to go to the back and as I did, the man comes moseying up to the front to stand in front of my register once again staring at me. I turn off my light and she turns hers on and I work to finish the transaction I was on. He has nothing in his hands. He's not trying to check out, but he's standing there like he's waiting in line. I put my closed sign up, he doesn't move. As soon as I finish, I all but run back to the cash office. He was there for another 20 to 30 minutes before leaving. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but every time he enters the store my stomach drops. He's barely ever spoken to me, but I can't help but feel like he knows I reported him and knows that I'm afraid of him. Recently, in one of his long winded one side conversations with a different cashier, he said he often runs out of his medication at the end of the month. As I'm writing this, it's the middle of February. If this is how he's acting on his meds, I'm afraid of what the end of the month will bring I made a best friend in high school named Ayla. Ayla and I were super close and we are still friends today. I just wanted to introduce her as she is an essential character in this story. She was one year behind me in high school and when I graduated I decided to take a gap year before I went to college so that I could help her finish out and be there for her. Her mother regularly left her all by herself in a big empty house so I invited her to spend the night at my house almost every other weekend. This story is one of those times. It was a Friday night and Ayla and I had made our usual plans that weekend for after she was finished with marching band. That evening around 9pm she texted me to come to the school to pick her up and when I arrived she got in the car. I remember she looked rather sad as opposed to her usually upbeat silly self. So I asked what was wrong. Her mom had said she was not going to be home for another three weeks after she had promised she was coming home the next weekend. Obviously Ayla was very disappointed. I asked her what she would like to do and Ayla said she would really like to see her mother's best friend friend who lived about four streets away from my house. It was around 10pm at this point and I was a little bit hesitant to drop by unannounced because she may not even be home. Ayla did not have her phone number and I lived in A bad part of town, but Ayla was so insistent, so we drove to her house. This person was like an aunt to her. We arrived on our aunt Road about 10 minutes later and there was no place to park, so I decided to park on some gravel at the side of the road on the corner so that I was not in the way of incoming traffic. The gravel section was around a block away from her aunt's house, so we had to walk to get there. We began the short walk and I got this really uneasy feeling like something was not right about the place. Even though we lived in a bad neighborhood, you could usually hear cars driving by, people shouting and dogs barking. Even that late at night. On this night you could hear none of those things. The street was dark and quiet save for a single light about 50ft from the entrance to her aunt's home. The house is one of those places that is a single story, has no front porch, so that the door is flat against the house and has a long sidewalk to the entrance. I told Ayla I felt really uneasy and she chalked it up to me being jumpy as usual. Can you blame me with the neighborhood I lived in? I decided not to push it and she was already feeling down. When we got to the door, Ayla knocked a few times and rang the doorbell. She knocked and rang several times for about 10 minutes and I said that her aunt probably wasn't home if she didn't answer. After the first set of knocks, Ayla sighed and decided I was probably right, so we started walking to the car. As we turned around, Ayla and I noticed a short figure wandering into the orange glow of the single streetlight 50ft away. He was what looked like to be a cross between a man and a child. About 4ft tall with a really muscular chest and arms, scrawny but with scrawny pimples. Hansel legs. He was very disproportionate. His head and features were obscured in a sort of blur other than his clothing, and neither of us could make out exactly how old he was. Walking is not a very good way of describing how he moved. He sort of swayed with his shoulders in big, slow, jerky and dramatic movements, letting his arms that were too long and muscular for his body flop beside him and pausing in between strides, he stopped beneath the light. We stood in shock for about 30 seconds and it was not until I urged Ayla to hurry to the car that the short man started to run straight towards us. He was fast and his swaying, jerky movements became swift. Flinging arms that flung violently into the air as he ran and Ayla and I screamed and took off as fast as we could go. I remember hearing the pounding of his feet behind us when I flung myself into the driver's seat, starting the ignition and locking all the doors. I was so scared I couldn't get myself to start driving away because my hands were shaking so badly, and Aayla shouted, he's gone. And he was vanished without a trace. I glanced out the rearview mirror and where before he had been 10ft or less behind us, there was no longer a man. The street was quiet once again. That prompted me to move again and I threw the car into drive and took off around the corner towards my house. We got there, we just sat for a few minutes and then went inside and tried to figure out what just happened. At that time we decided it was probably an addict and tried to forget about it as best we could, but it was by far one of the scary, scariest things that's ever happened to us. Your teen adjective used to describe an individual whose spirit is unyielding, unconstrained, one who navigates life on their own terms, effortlessly. They do not always show up on time, but when they arrive, you notice an individual confidence in their contradictions. They know the rules, but behave as if they do not exist. New Teen the new fragrance by Miu Miu Defined by you Imagine fast hydration combined with balanced energy. Perfectly flavored with zero artificial sweeteners. Introducing Liquid Ivy's new Energy Multiplier. Sugar free. Unlike other energy drinks, you know the ones that make you feel like you're glitching. It's made with natural caffeine and electrolytes so you get the boost without the burnout. Liquid IV's new energy multiplier Sugar free hydrating energy Tap the banner to learn more at New Balance. We believe if you run, you're a runner, however you choose to do it. Because when you're not worried about doing things the right way, you're free to discover your way. And that's what running is all about. Run your way@newbalance.com Running I am 23 and I'm currently living alone. Sleep paralysis and night terrors are so common for me, to the point that I can recognize them instantly and break free from them on my own. But a few nights ago, I experienced something very different. A few nights ago I woke in the middle of the night. I reached for my phone and saw that it was roughly 4am I am a light sleeper, so waking up randomly like this has Always been an annoying, easy yet common occurrence. I sighed. My alarm would go off in two hours. I should try to fall back asleep, I thought. I kept telling myself to stop trying so hard. Let the sleep come to you. I even attempted meditation. But the more I did, the more I began to feel my brain inevitably waking up uncontrollably, racing through all the tasks that I needed to get done the next day. I accepted this fact and decided I should at least rest my eyes. I curled up on my side on one half of my queen sized bed facing the edge of the bed. All of a sudden, clear as day. I felt my mattress sank behind me like someone sat down on my bed. My eyes shot open. I froze, confused and terrified. I felt that sinking spot in the mattress shifted and heard the sheets shuffled as the person was dragging themselves across my bed behind me. I lied very still and shut my eyes tight, trying to regulate my breathing and heartbeat. I told myself as long as I can convince them I am really asleep, they would leave me alone. I felt the person moving closer and closer to me until they touched my back. I did everything to hold in a gasp. I didn't dare open my eyes because I feared what I would come face to face with. I could almost picture a haunting face leaning over mine and I did not want to witness that. As if they've made sure I was really asleep they retrieved. I let out a sigh of relief, disguised as one of those grunts you make when you're sleeping. I could still feel them sitting on my bed behind me. I slowly opened my eyes, but I didn't move another muscle. Trying not to move my head and neck, I looked around the room with my very limited field of vision. It's not real. I thought I was just dreaming. I was sure because I knew if it was an actual intruder, I wouldn't have reacted the way I did. And I wouldn't have tried to pretend to sleep. I would most likely put up a fight, try to escape or scream for help. But why is that spot on my bed behind me still sunken in? I looked at the room again. From what I could see, my room looked exactly like the way it should. You know how when you recall a dream that you had which took place in your room, your room would always look a bit off in your dreams. Well, I was very sure that I was looking at my room with my own eyes, so it had to be real. It wasn't a dream. Then what was? All of a sudden I felt a light tug on my duvet. I flinched, gasped, and closed my eyes but it was too late. The person began pulling my duvet violently once they realized I was awake. I screamed and kicked and cried as I mustered up all the strength within myself to keep the duvet over myself the entire time. I didn't dare turning around to see who it was or what it was. I just pulled, kicked and wailed in the same curled up position, keeping my eyes shut, snot and tears covering my face. For some reason I believed if I let the thing pull my duvet away and expose myself, I'd be a goner. Then, as suddenly as it all occurred, it all stopped. I opened my eyes again and saw that the sky was brightening up. I sat up and looked at my bed and around my room. I was fully covered by my duvet. There was no sign of a tug of war ever taking place. There was no snot or tears on my face. I was sweating and my heart was beating out of my chest. What was that? I was beyond baffled. Usually when I see my room in my dream, I will remember how off it looked once I have woken up. But this time, nothing about the room I just saw seconds ago looked off to me. I was sure I was looking at my room with my own eyes and the mattress sinking. It all felt so real. Perhaps my eyes were really open and looking at my room in reality, but my exhausted brain somehow slipped into that realm between dreamland and consciousness and created this juxtaposition of reality and imagination. But I am open to any other explanations. I have an aunt that lives in a haunted house. The house was built in the late 1800s. The house has a weird setup. It is technically two separate identical houses conjoined as one big house. According to my mom, the house was owned by two women that were twins, with each twin living on their own side and each side connecting through a staircase in the attic. Legend has it the twins had an uncle that did bad things to them. That ended in one of the twins getting pregnant and having a baby. The other twins smothered the baby, ending in both of the twins taking their lives. Weirdly, almost every family member that has had the misfortune of sleeping over at that house has left with a story to tell. To my dismay, I have on two different occasions. The summer after I graduated eighth grade, my older cousin was getting married out of state. Not all the family from our state could go, so just me and my aunt went. We had a very early flight to catch, so she figured it would be better if I spent the night at her house. I asked if I could sleep in her room. When she asked why I was direct and told her because the house was haunted. As usual, she shrugged it off and angrily disputed that there were no ghosts. She said, if it'll make you feel better, you can stay in my room. As night drew near, I went to the bathroom, to the medicine cabinet and took sleep medicine in hopes that it would make me fall asleep before my aunt. Sure enough, it didn't. My aunt dozed off and I lay wide awake and scared, occasionally switching my eyes from looking at the TV to glance at the hallway through the open door. A couple of hours passed and nothing happened. I started to let my guard down and relax a little. I got a little more comfortable in the bed and out of nowhere, the closet doorknob started frantically rotating as if someone was trying to get out. I immediately sat up, wide awake and in panic mode. The remaining hours of the night I stayed awake in fear, watching the closet door, not sure who or what was trying to open the closet. But to this day, I am happy nothing ever did. Years later, the summer after I graduated college, I spent the night over at her house again. Like the previous time, we were traveling out of town the next day and my aunt figured it would be better if I spent the night at her house so we could catch our early flight the next morning. I unhappily obliged. As we retired for the night, I headed to the room where I would be sleeping. It was the room down the hall from my aunt's. I closed the door, put on my pajamas, and sat down on the recliner in front of the tv. I had already mentally prepared myself and had expected to stay awake the entire night. The beginning of the night, I browsed the web on my phone to pass time. A couple of hours passed and nothing happened. As soon as the clock approached 3am, I began to hear what sounded like heeled shoes walking, whatever it was, walked up the stairs, down the hall and stopped right outside the room I was in. I immediately jumped up, went to the heavy daybed in the room and pushed it in front of the door to prevent whatever it was from opening the door. The walking continued again and again. It would start from the base of the stairs, go up the stairs and down the hall, each time stopping right outside the door of the room I was in. Despite barricading the door closed, I was still scared. To lighten up the tense atmosphere, I turned on a channel that had stand up comedy and tried to watch that. But I was still scared. The walking persisted for the entire hour. Eventually it stopped but I kept the door barricaded, remained awake and waited until morning to open the door. Needless to say, I have not been back to sleepover at my aunt's house and never will again. When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn more@WhatsApp.com this episode is brought to you by Jack Daniels Jack Daniels and music are made for each other. They share a rhythm in the craft of making something timeless while being a part of legendary nights. From backyard jams to sold out arenas, there's a song in every toast. Please drink responsibly. Responsibility.org, jack Daniels and Old no. 7 are registered trademarks. Tennessee Whiskey 40% alcohol by volume Jack Daniel Distillery, Lynchburg, Tennessee Limu game Oo and Doug Limu and I always tell you to customize your car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual, but now we want you to feel it. Cue the emu music. Limu Save yourself money today. Increase your wealth. Customize and save. We save. That may have been too much feeling. Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Very unwritten by Liberty Mutual insurance company and affiliates. Excludes Massachusetts Growing up around the age of 13 or 14, my best friend's house was always where I stayed. Spent years practically living in her little trailer for the entire summer. I remember one winter the year was rough and we got around 6 inches of snow during winter break. Of course, I was determined to spend the time off of school at my friend's place and it wasn't surprising when I ended up stuck there for a few days due to the amount of ice and snow covering the roads. The cold weather made for a day of cozy hot chocolate, movies, crafting, and the most important thing, a wood burning furnace. Me and my friend had just finished up making some crafts and as such, night fell on the sky. So to set this story up, the trailer had around seven rooms, a bathroom, four bedrooms, a kitchen, and an extension they built into the back that served as the living room. The room faced the woods that stretched for miles, which I knew because we frequently found ourselves exploring it. The extension held a couch, the furnace, a TV and a stand, a chair and two glass sliding doors that pulled out onto a small deck where her dad kept the logs and her cats sat delicately as they ate. Past the porch and out of view of the glass doors by just a little bit was her father's workshop, where he often spent his days and nights, only coming inside to add another log to the flame. Me and my friend spent a lot of time in the room because her bedroom was small and the couch in the extension could fold into a full sized bed. We kept blankets inside the couch so when it rolled out we could instantly get in bed and go to sleep. That freezing winter night, we passed out under many covers across from the burning wood stove. I found myself hazily awakened by the cold of the door opening as her father walked into the room illuminated by the light of the television, which my friend finds necessary to keep on to fall asleep. Not until he began walking across the floor did I realize that I was beginning to float. I could see my body laying on my side below me next to my friend. I knew that it was impossible to be awake because I could see myself asleep. As I stopped at the ceiling above the television. I could smell the wood burning smell and see the sparks as her dad lay a few logs on the fire, the small bits of snow boot prints melted on the carpet before he stopped to say goodnight to our sleeping figures. Before sliding the door over to go back out into the shed for a night of work. I watched our still bodies lay and the fire crackle for what felt like an hour or so before my eyes shifted to movement. The sight of something slide into view of the glass doors from the side of the bed caught my gaze. The object could only be made out as a black mass, like a shadow. Despite the vivid colors of Turkey television light that danced across the glass, reflecting back, the figure was void of light. Somehow it looked like the spot sucked all the rays into the total darkness of a black hole that was only there in one spot, in one shape. It was a few minutes of complete silence and dead staring at this mass before a shape began to appear, A hand sliding into my line of sight and moving the handle to the sliding door. A slow jerky movement turned the handle and a creak sounded across the walls as the door slid along the frame and cracked far enough open for the darkness to slide through. The familiar cold climate greeted me as my body below my eyes shivered under the covers. The creature had to duck down and bend in order to fit into the glass door frame, which was well above the height of a person. Only as it moved past the reflecting glass did the mass begin to portray the figure of a man. The shape was similar to a human still devoid of features, entirely black, and even the color in the room seemed to have been absorbed into the void of its body. The thing walked unsteadily, as if it was unable to control its body, like a man with slinkies as feet, feet. With each step, its length seemed to stretch and bend like it was unable to control the way it portioned out. It bended back and forth, closer and farther with each inch closer it stomped as the figure began to illuminate what appeared to be the dark shadow of a hat upon its head, rocked back and forth. The figure abruptly stopped and vibrated as it straightened and reached the edge of the bed where I laid closest to the doors. His body stayed straight, but only the middle section bent so the top part of its frame was facing directly down. Face to face with my closed sleeping eyes, the dark hand jerkily pulled up and made a formed line above where the eyebrows would be if the face of the creature wasn't a black hole. As if it was helping shield the TV light to look at my features back better. And just like that, it stayed for another hour. Perhaps. I could see myself shaking below, and sweat reflected pools of light towards me. It was as if my subconscious knew that this mass inflicted pure terror and stillness and worry into my body. And yet I could do nothing but watch myself cold and shaking below. I had no hands to shake myself awake, to pinch myself from this nightmare. All I could do was stare and watch as this thing stared. Not so much as breathe or move the bed frame in the slightest, just observing me silently in the night, when my brain tried to wrap itself around, all I could possibly think of as to how something like this could exist. How was this real, then? Just as insanely and unrealistically as it had appeared, all of a sudden, the creature straightened and hurriedly stumbled toward the door. The frame moved, opened and closed as he slid sideways out of view of the porch door. A slam echoed outside as the workshop door opened, hitting the wall. The familiar bootstps walked onto the porch, stepping in the ghosts of where the creature's feet had stepped. The sound of the boots were marched to the door. Inside, my friend's dad, unbothered, peered into the reflecting glass before sliding to open the door. Adding another log to the wood stove. He left the room after completing his task and headed toward his room to sleep for the rest of the night. I watched as this familiar scene calmed my sleeping face. As the snow once again melted into boot prints on the floor, realizing that the thing had never left a mark in or on the carpet. I sat floating for hours as the daylight lit the room and the darkness faded before I slid back into my body below to wake. I sat up as my dream was vivid and before I said a word to my friend who was stirred by my abruptness, said that she had a terrible dream a few nights back and she knew that I had seen it too. My friend spoke about a man who peered out of her closet and was gone when she went to check it out. I was baffled by this entire experience, but I have never had sleep paralysis like this before or after. And a mutual friend of ours had claimed to see the same man growing up in that house before we even mentioned our story while we were camping. I know it seems crazy, but I am convinced that the house, the extension is built somewhere it shouldn't have been. The creature was not just a physical energy, it was full of dread and malice and it was looming off of it as it stood near me. I just know that it did not want me to be there. It's been many years since I've been back to that house and I don't talk to that friend as much anymore. I can only wonder if it ever came back. Well, I was down on my last dollar Then I started saving because the bank said fiscal restraint is what you're craving so I put my earnings in a high yield account let the savings compound and the interest mount. I'm optimizing cash flow putting debt in check now time is my friend and not a pain in the neck and we've got a little cash to rebuild the old debt Boring money moves Kind of lame songs but they sound pretty sweet to your wallet. Brilliantly boring since 1865@blinds.com, it's not just about window treatments. It's about you, your style, your space, your way. Whether you DIY or want the pros to handle it all, you'll have the confidence of knowing it's done right. From free expert design help to our 100% satisfaction guarantee, everything we do is made to fit your life and your windows. Because@blinds.com the only thing we treat better than Windows is you. Visit blinds.com now for up to 50% off primetime deals and free professional installation rules and restrictions apply. This was over a year or two ago. I'm young, living in Southern California in the San Diego area and live with my family, including my older sister. We'll call her Eliza. We had a cousin who we'll call Jerry visiting us from out of country, and as he and my sister are particularly close due to them being closer in age, she took it upon herself to be his tour guide, since he hadn't been to California since he was a small child. Eliza and Jerry are big fans of pop culture, particularly pop music. There was a fairly famous pop singer performing in Los Angeles, which is a bit of a ways away from where we live. Eliza was a particularly big fan and she actually bought tickets specifically for Jerry and her so they could go during the visit. At first I was a bit salty that I wasn't included in the invite, since I am somewhat of a fan too, but whatever. Not wanting to miss out on a fun day trip, I decided to invite two of my close friends who we'll call Savannah and Eric, who were something of a couple at the time. I don't have my license, but both of them do. So that way, once Jerry and Eliza go to the show, we could still drive around and do whatever. My sister drove the five of us to Los Angeles, she and Jerry in the front with Savannah, Eric and me in the back. Despite being a casual fan of the artist they were going to see, Eliza and Jerry played the artist on repeat the entire time we drove with traffic. It easily was a three hour trip. Mind you, the artist only had like three albums out at the time and one of them was very loud and a bit depressing. My friends and I tend to like softer, more rock type music, so you can assume we got tired of this pretty quickly. Not only that, but both Eliza and Jerry felt the need to screech the lyrics out the whole time, and unfortunately neither of them had the most pleasant voice. Once we got in Los Angeles around noon, we were all hungry and in need of a restroom. Being in Los Angeles, it's hard to find available clean restrooms to use whenever. I suspect it's due to the constant use of the homeless and thus many places aren't open to the public or available to use without purchasing something. So not only was the constant need to find restrooms a bit frustrating, but finding food we could all agree on was also adding to the stress. Jerry had never tried ramen before since traditional Japanese food isn't easily found where he lives, so we did our best to accommodate him. However, Eliza is staunchly gluten free due to health problems, and Savannah has a severe peanut allergy, which caused us to have a little trouble finding somewhere we could all eat. These aspects aren't necessarily key to this story, but I want to build up the chain of events that led to my mood and later actions. Jerry and Eliza were totally in their own world, likely getting pumped for the show later that night. Eliza would ignore whatever my friends and I requested we do during our time there and definitely played up the I'm older than you and therefore what I say goes hard with me. So at this point I was already getting pretty sick of being around her and Jerry and couldn't wait to drop them off at the show to be rid of them for a while so just my friends and I could hang out once we dropped the two of them off. The rest of the night was fun, just as it always is when the three of us hang out. We went to Santa Monica and watched the sunset. It walked around a bit and by the time we started getting hungry we checked out Yelp and found a burger place that looked amazing and was well suited for our tight budget. I don't go to LA often, so when we pulled up the directions and got there, I wasn't aware of which part we exactly were in. We were looking to park, but a group of what seemed to be gang members stood in front of the spot we were going to park and started approaching the car and putting their hands on the exterior while looking into the window. Eric was driving and said something to the effect of you guys fine with parking here, not fine with parking there. Both Eliza and I told him we needed to pack it up and find somewhere else. I have always been extra cautious, especially in la, since I've had a few other unsavory experiences, including the time a man followed me and my friend into our car and we had to shove him out so there was no way I felt good about parking there. So we drove a few blocks, starving and ready to just forget it until we found a clear spot in a well populated area. The food was great and all was well aside from the bunches of homeless people I saw around me, pretty common in any part of LA you find yourself in. I didn't even realize that we had been in the heart of Skid Row. Once we made our way over though, we discovered that the place we wanted to eat was in the midst of Skid Row. For those who don't know, Skid Row is a neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles that extends about 50 city blocks and is mostly home to the homeless. There are also a lot of dealers and ladies of the night that hang around there too. We were walking back to our car and I looked up to one of the taller buildings along the block and the sign at the side of the top of the building read Hotel Cecil. Low weekly rates 700 rooms the Cecil Hotel could be a post in and of itself, but in short, it's an old hotel that briefly was in its prime back in the 20s and 30s. But as the Depression struck, the hotel and its ambiance went down with had been known for housing some of societies unsavory such as the homeless and those in the drug and sex industry, along with a few infamous guests such as the Night Stalker Richard Ramirez. It's supposed to be vacant as of now, but as far as I could see, I'm pretty sure there was ongoing activity within the building and around it. Squatters, I'm assuming. I don't believe in the paranormal or anything like that, but I can definitely confirm the unanimous thought that the place gives off really sketchy, creepy vibes. Once I realized that's where we were, my friends and I booked it to the car on the other side of the street. We saw people looking into another parked car and they looked our way once we approached the area, but thankfully we took off in time. Thankfully nothing happened to us there, but naturally I was on edge a bit. After that. We stopped to pick up some pie from a pie shop Eric was obsessed with. Since it was on our way to the venue Eliza and Jerry were at, we thought we had plenty of time, but by the time we got to eating, Eliza called me and demanded we come over immediately. I knew nothing was wrong, so I did hurry a bit, but we decided to finish our pies before heading off. Eliza kept texting me with impatience, saying things like waiting here is boring and where are you? We're tired, we want to go now. Typical bossy older sister things. She was kind of a jerk to me the entire day, so I guess I used that to justify my jerkiness back. But then we had another bump in the road. The pie Savannah tried had peanuts cooked into the crust and she got so sick we rushed out of there and tried to stop somewhere for water and an antihistamine. Since she didn't have her EpiPen, she started feeling a bit better, but she was still still really sick and I was really stressed and worried. Once we got to the venue, Eliza and Jerry took forever to come out. I guess they started waiting to see if they could meet the artist as she came out. Once they finally came in and Eric and I shuffled to the backseat, Eliza had the nerve to yell at me for taking so long. We had to stop a few times so Savannah could throw up and rehydrate too. On top of that, Eliza and Jerry continued to play the same artist on repeat again, along with their choppy videos of the show. Oh, and of course they were singing. With Savannah sick, Eric as aloof as ever and me stressing and on edge about everything that had happened thus far, I was ready to bang my head against the window. I know in the scheme of things these aren't big deals, but by the time they all added up, especially my sick friend and the bad attitude of my sister, it drove me up the wall. We dropped Eric and Savannah off first, since their town was on the way before ours. It was around 1am at that point I was sick and tired of the music and loud talking and cackling and just overall annoying conversations in my city, sister and cousin. I was that level of mad where you're quiet angry. So once the two left, I got out of the car and demanded that I drive home the rest of the way, mostly so I could dj, but also so I wouldn't have to hear them be jerks to me and talk so loudly. Eliza made a fuss about it, but ultimately, due to Jerry's cooperation, went to the back seat. Once again, I am up the wall, very on edge from this. I play my music as I drive us home and everything seems fine. It's when I'm almost home that something happens. Our house is off the major freeway in town, though it's a bit of a lonely, desolate area. To get to our place, you have to pass a hilltop with other houses on it and make a turn around it to get to our neighborhood. There's a cemented patch of grass between a stretch of concrete between the hill and the turn that's used as a divider between oncoming and ongoing traffic. As I'm approaching, coming up to make the turn around the hill on my left, I see something that's creeped me out and been on my mind ever since. At this point, it's like 1:45 or 2:00am this area isn't too busy this late at night or this early in the morning, I guess you could say. On the grass divider and along the cement, there are people lined along the thinner cement part of the divider and on the grass patch, a small crowd of people. There were at least 15 people and they were all wearing white. I could see them perfectly with my lights on and the brightness of their clothes, and they were moving around almost doing a jig when I came up. But as I was driving next to them, unable to take my eyes off of them, they Started raising their voices and all talking at once. I could hear it through the window and over my music. And they started sprinting towards me, trying to get my attention and following along. As I pulled to the right to make my turn, they literally were following me and talking at us. It was the most bizarre, creepy thing. I can't say for sure, but they were dressed similarly to KKK members, though I'm not too sure if that's what they were. And I'm obviously having a WTF moment. I didn't have a clue about what I saw, but I knew I did see something. I scream and panic and ask Eliza and Jerry if they saw, and of course they had been dozing off and groggily said no, but I know I saw whatever they were. Some of their faces weren't covered and I know I saw a man with a mustache, one of the many people, and they were rushing over and I got the feeling they wanted me to stop the car or something. I know people sometimes cross create diversions or distractions like that for their own nefarious reasons to target drivers. So I'm not sure what that was or what they were doing. The town I live in is small, old, and somewhat rural. We are known as one of the most conservative towns in the usa. So I guess it could have been something like the KKK due to the way they were dressed. There are also some known observers of the occult Colt in the area too, though not so common these days. Eliza and Jerry got irritated with me because I drove around the block past our own a few times rather than immediately pulling into our street. I was pretty sure they weren't following anymore, but I just was so creeped out. I felt like I had to do something just to be safe. I told our mother about this. She believed me, I think, to an extent. But I mean, it does sound really absurd. And my sister to this day claims that it never happened. She even refuses to believe or acknowledge that I was the one driving. Sometimes it makes me feel crazy, but I know at the very least I was the one driving. She says she was, but I 100% know it was me. I am 100% positive. Positive. I did see something. Some mysterious group doing who knows what. Be careful, guys. When you go out of town, especially to a place like Los Angeles, you can expect some weird encounters. But the strangest and possibly the most dangerous one was just a little over a block away from my house, just lurking in the dark, waiting for some passing motorist to stop and talk to them. Or maybe something far more sinister than just talking. The events of this story took place around the Autumn months of 2014. I am not sure what would have happened if my mom hadn't heard this person, but either way I am grateful she did. To help paint a better picture of the events I am about to describe to you, I must firstly briefly explain the basic layout of my home. There are three entrances to my home, the front side and the back door which was located in what was my bedroom at the time. The back door has a glass window that allows the perfect view of our quarter acre backyard from my room. This might not seem like much, but living in Salem, Oregon, that's as good as you're gonna get. To access the backyard, you must first walk down the driveway on the left side of the house, leaving you visible to our next door neighbors. This is also where our brittle side door from the 1940s lies. At the end of the driveway is our garage and to the right of that our backyard as unfortunately there was no gate at the time. But this incident and several others like it led to us putting up a roughly seven foot fence. So now that you know the basic layout of my home, you're probably noticing the potential for something sinister to happen. And happen it did, my friends. But one thing is for certain, it could have gone a lot worse. This particular incident took place in the early morning hours of 2 and 3am as I've always been a hardcore insomniac. I was watching YouTube on my tablet as most 13 year olds do, when I am startled by a beam of light illuminating the garage doors in my periphery. Before I even turned my head to look, I had already come to the following 1 the familiar circular beam of light was that of a flashlight and two I had a weapon under my bed that I use for target practice just in case I decided to wait and see who this light was illuminating from. As it wasn't uncommon for our neighbor to come into our yard looking for his cat, it's a good thing I did too, because the flashlight was attached to the end of a weapon held by a uniformed police officer, complete with a ballistic vest, taser, baton and radio. Confused, I leave my bedroom expecting to see my mom sitting on the couch watching her favorite TV show, Bones. Instead, I saw my mother on the tips of her toes leaning over the kitchen sink, looking out the window and peering, trying to get a view of the officer slowly and methodically creeping his way up the driveway and into our garage. Yep, he was definitely here for us, I thought as I began to ask my mom what was going on. Apparently, less than 15ft away from my bed, a homeless person on who knows what had snuck into our backyard and accidentally kicked our glass recycle bin. Alerting my mom, who was in the basement doing laundry, my mom tells me she then looked out the basement bathroom window, where she saw the person making the kind of stuff stance that one would trying to balance on a board. Almost like the stance of a child would do when they are out of bed at late hours of the night trying to be sneaky to fetch a snack. Regardless of their feeble attempts at being stealthy, my mom had seen them. And they must have caught on, too, because by the time my mom went upstairs to retrieve her phone, dial 911 and an officer arrived, they. They were gone. The cop told us that no one was in the garage or the backyard, and I could almost feel the anxiety lift off my mother's shoulders. Even more so when the officer offered to send someone over and survey the house until sunrise. So, just to clarify, yeah, someone who wasn't supposed to be here was here. And not only that, but if they had gone one or two more steps forward, forward, there's no doubt they would have seen me and I would have been none the wiser. You may be glad to hear that I'm much more cautious nowadays. I have since updated my arsenal. We have also installed several security cameras, a fence in the backyard, and a motion detector light.