Scary Stories For A Rainy Night – Ep. 288: "I Heard Knocking"

Podcast: Scary Stories and Rain
Host: Being Scared (Dane)
Date: November 14, 2025
Theme:
A collection of unsettling, immersive horror tales recounted with calm narration and layered over a soothing rain ambience—designed for restless nights, insomniac listeners, or lovers of spine-tingling storytelling. This episode features two standout stories: one about growing dread during a night shift in an eerily empty warehouse, and another involving an occult mirror ritual with realities more horrifying than hallucination.

Main Themes & Purpose

• Evoking dread from the mundane: Ordinary experiences—a night shift; a cabin getaway; a simple ‘mirror game’—are transformed into vehicles for supernatural terror.
• Doppelgängers and liminality: Both stories emphasize the horror found in reflection—both literal and figurative—with the ‘other’ always lurking just beyond perception.
• Isolation and unreliable reality: Settings are marked by aloneness and uncertain perceptions, forcing listeners to question what’s real.

Key Stories & Discussion Points

1. The Warehouse Night Shift

Timestamps: [02:03] – [19:39]

Story Summary

A temporary Christmas worker at a giant online retailer is lured into the promise of higher pay and a lighter workload on the night shift, only to discover an atmosphere of existential dread and creeping supernatural phenomena.

Notable Insights & Plot Points

• Grind and exhaustion: The “picker” role is described in grueling detail, covering up to 16 miles a shift. The “beepy machine” becomes a hated companion, monitoring productivity with a relentless, lifeless beep.
  • “No sound in history has ever become so irritating as fast as that little handheld.” (A, [04:15])
  • Describes pick rates, deadline pressure, and blisters that burst over 16-hour shifts (“There was blood in my shoes again.”)
• Atmosphere of the night shift:
  • Skeleton crews; supervisors like the strict, cryptic Derek. Sparse lighting is described: strategically-placed spotlights revealing only five feet at a time, turning the warehouse into a “Picker of the Opera.”
• Troubling occurrences:
  • While picking orders, the narrator notices motion-sensitive lights flicking on far down empty aisles—triggered by no visible presence.
  • As tension builds, the lights come on sequentially, as if something invisible is tracking the narrator’s steps.
  • “No time right now, ghosty boy!”—the narrator tries to dismiss the fear, but the sense of pursuit grows. (A, [15:26])
• Climax:
  • Lights flicker toward the narrator, culminating in total darkness, then a monstrous black figure—“A towering, fat black figure blocked the aisle… Hands as big as bin lids fanned out on either side and swam over to grab me.” (A, [17:35])
  • Panic and adrenaline enable escape.
• Aftermath:
  • The mysterious supervisor Derek resets the narrator’s pick rate and, with unexpected sympathy, quietly transfers him back to day shift.
  • “I’ll transfer you to the day shift.” (Derek, [19:35])

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On the job grind:
  • “You don’t become a major online retailer without knackering a few ankles.” (A, [03:48])
• Creeping dread:
  • “The lamps swayed towards me as if pushed by fierce wind, but the chokingly dry air remained still…. I heard a click and was suddenly plunged into darkness.” (A, [16:49])
• Climax:
  • “Beep… Beep… Beep… Every light in the aisle burst with light, with such power it was almost audible. A towering, fat black figure blocked the aisle and arched over me, nearly blotting out the light above my head.” (A, [17:23])
• Resolution:
  • Derek’s rare empathy: “I’ll transfer you to the day shift.” (A, [19:39])

2. The Mirror Ritual – “The Mirror Game”

Timestamps: [20:04] – [51:42]

Story Summary

A pair of friends, Melinda and the narrator, experiment with a viral ‘mirror ritual’: staring at their own reflection in near-darkness for 10 minutes, in the hope of confronting weird visual illusions. The experience quickly descends into nightmare as the narrator’s reflection takes on a life—and intention—of its own.

Key Plot Points

• Atmospheric setup:
  • The friends tidy Melinda’s room and dim all lights except for a candle. The only illumination comes from moonlight and the candle, making the reflection and shadows indistinguishable.
  • Mel explains: “You stare at yourself in the mirror for about 10 minutes, like really look, and after a while you’ll start seeing things... there's nothing specific. Some people see their face change, others see shadows...” (Melinda, [32:21])
• Gradual unreality:
  • The narrator experiences slow dysphoria: “I was smiling, obviously, but somehow even that didn’t look right.” (A, [39:19])
  • The narrator’s reflection begins to blink out of sync, and eventually, stops mimicking the narrator’s movements altogether.
    • “My reflection’s expression began to shift from a wide-eyed, stomach-churning stare to a look of morbid disgust.” (A, [40:23])
  • The reflection rises from the chair; the narrator remains seated.
  • A faint hiss—candle goes out; darkness floods the room.
• Terror and invasion:
  • The narrator watches as the reflection retrieves a makeup mirror—one that exists outside the frame.
    • “It was tangible. Real. The other me’s smile stretched… an expression more fit for a shark than anything resembling a human.” (A, [44:28])
  • When the narrator tries to stand, the reflection throws itself back in the chair, causing the narrator’s legs to buckle.
• Possession and pain:
  • A horrifying sequence: both the narrator and the reflection crush a mirror, feeling mirrored injuries; the narrator tastes blood that isn’t theirs.
    • “Though I didn’t understand how, I could taste the metallic blood in my mouth, feel the cuts appearing across my tongue…” (A, [47:00])
  • Physical sensations cannot be explained: “I wasn’t paralyzed, it seemed, but as long as my doppelganger remained seated, I would be, too.” (A, [47:28])
• The entity attempts escape:
  • The reflection tries to physically emerge from the mirror: “Her fingers began to emerge, pulling through the glass that looked more like liquid.” (A, [48:11])
  • The entity “clamped down on my arm—its mouth large enough to engulf most of my forearm...” (A, [49:18])
  • The narrator manages a desperate move—toppling the heavy cheval mirror backward, shattering it mid-crossing—breaking the connection, sustaining injury but restoring autonomy.
• Chilling twist:
  • Melinda returns—but the narrator notices her signature smiley face tattoo is winking with the wrong eye.
    • “I’d been there when Melinda got her tattoo...it had been winking its left eye. When I arrived home...the tattoo was winking its right." (A, [51:17])

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Fear of reflections:
  • “You never know who, or what, is really looking back.” (A, [51:39])
• On the psychological phenomenon:
  • “Your brain like makes up stuff to fill in what it can’t see properly.” (Melinda, [34:10])
• The other side:
  • “I have spent a lifetime staring back at you... attached to this disgusting form. A lifetime whispering that voice at the back of your head, urging you to cut and trim and break yourself.” (Reflection, [49:04])
  • “It’s cold. Always cold inside. You’ll never know warmth again. Just the cold, harsh touch of the mirror.” (Reflection, [50:09])
• Hallucinatory unreality:
  • “I felt something in my head… almost like another user logged in to the same computer.” (A, [45:26])
• Dreadful revelation:
  • “I don’t know how long my friend has been gone... What I do know is that thing that was there with me that night, who invited me to play that game? It was never Mel.” (A, [51:36])

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:03] – [19:39] – Warehouse Night Shift
  Includes detailed build-up, supernatural occurrences, and resolution with Derek.

• [20:04] – [51:42] – The Mirror Game
  From the Moonlight Pines Resort opener into the full mirror ritual horror.

• Quotes and segment notes

  • [04:15] – "No sound in history has ever become so irritating..."
  • [16:49] – Lights flickering toward narrator in empty aisle
  • [17:23] – Giant shadow entity appears
  • [32:21] – Melinda explains the mirror game
  • [39:19] – Dysphoria, self-doubt begins
  • [44:28] – Reflection no longer just illusion
  • [49:04] – Monologue from doppelganger
  • [50:09] – The cold of the other side
  • [51:36] – “It was never Mel.”

Style & Tone

• Calm, detailed narration: Despite the unsettling nature of the tales, the stories are delivered with a steady, almost hypnotic cadence—amplifying the horror through understatement.
• Darkly comedic: In the warehouse story, quips about “Keanu Reeves on my back,” “pencil munchers,” and life’s drudgery add a sardonic edge that feels relatable and real.
• Claustrophobic and psychological: Attention focuses on physical sensation, creeping unease, and the thin line between imagination and reality.

Episode Takeaways

• The everyday is fertile ground for horror: Whether through the isolation of night work or casual party games, the mundane conceals the profoundly unsettling.
• Beware of what you see—and what looks back: Reflections and doppelgängers serve as potent, terrifying metaphors for the murky boundaries of self and other… and the things that can slip through.
• Not all friends are what they seem: Sometimes, it’s not just the shadows in the night or things from beyond the glass one has to fear, but the people closest—who might not be themselves at all.

Memorable Quote to End

“You never know who, or what, is really looking back.”
— Being Scared, [51:39]

Ideal as a chilling companion on a rainy, sleepless night—if you dare to face your own reflection afterward.