Scary Stories For A Rainy Night - Ep. 297 - Deck The Halls With Bowels

Podcast: Scary Stories and Rain
Host: Being Scared (Dane)
Date: December 1, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode presents a chilling collection of true, first-person horror accounts, compellingly narrated over a backdrop of soothing rain. Featuring three stories—encounters with an ex-convict with a dark past, a tense standoff with a mountain lion in the wilderness, and a series of hauntings and sleep paralysis episodes—the episode explores the fragility of safety and certainty, whether in public, deep in nature, or in one's own home. The tone is confessional and atmospheric, each story layered with unease, introspection, and moments of genuine terror.

Key Stories & Discussion Points

1. The Man in Line: An Encounter with a Possible Killer

• Timestamp: 01:37 – 08:00

Summary:
A young woman recounts a disturbing encounter she and her mother had at a Walmart checkout line, where they meet a recently released convict named Donald Whelan. He claims to have been imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit—the murder of his own father—but his behavior raises red flags for the narrator.

Notable Moments & Insights:

• Immediate Dread: The narrator describes an instinctual aversion:
  "I immediately got a terrible feeling about him. It wasn't really anything about his physical appearance that scared me, it was just his eyes." (01:49)

• Whelan Volunteering His Story:
  He admits to being newly out of prison for "a crime I didn't commit," and steers the conversation toward his infamy, almost "proudly" discussing his case.
  "He seemed almost proud of it, which also threw me off." (03:00)

• Diverging Parental Opinions:
  The narrator's mother is empathetic, trusting Whelan's story, while her father later confirms local rumors—casting Whelan as a guilty party.
  "I feel like he's definitely done something evil, whether it was murdering his father or not." (04:26)

• Post-Release Behavior:
  Whelan eventually returned to prison for violating his bond and being charged with domestic battery and unlawful restraint, validating the narrator's gut feeling.
  "Those charges he accrued in just a few months of being out of prison proved he's someone who probably deserves to stay there." (07:51)

Underlying Theme:
Trust your intuition—unease is often justified, and darkness can wear a disturbingly mundane face.

2. Stalked by a Cougar in the Olympic National Forest

• Timestamp: 08:07 – 15:41

Summary:
A self-described "lanky" outdoorsman details a terrifying brush with a mountain lion while camping with friends and family in remote wilderness. Despite initial confidence in his outdoor skills, he is confronted by the blunt reality of being prey.

Key Events & Quotes:

• Preparation & Pride:
  After preparing a site and guiding friends into the woods, the narrator explores a potential path alone, only to hear "a sound that shook me to my core"—the unmistakable scream of a mountain lion.
  "You ever hear a sound bite of a mountain lion for a movie or a show? ... I'll be damned if what I heard less than 10 yards from me didn't sound exactly, exactly like that." (11:06)

• The Not-So-Top Predator:

  "I had officially been slapped with the reminder that humans aren't at the top of the food chain out here." (13:49)

• Lingering Fear:
  That night, upon seeing the cougar crossing the road by moonlight, he acknowledges the vulnerability of humans outdoors—even with weapons, companions, and experience.
  "The realization that the saying they are more afraid of you than you are of them is something only said by someone who hasn't been stalked for several miles and several hours later..." (14:33)

Underlying Theme:
Nature is beautiful but indifferent. No matter your experience, you are a visitor—and sometimes, potential prey.

3. Mimics & The Smiling Woman: Sleep Paralysis and Hauntings

• Timestamp: 17:10 – 28:17 and 29:45 – End

Summary:
An extended, deeply personal account describes a progression from unexplained noises and voices in the night, to harrowing episodes of sleep paralysis and recurring visions of an entity known only as "she" or "the Smiling Woman." These hauntings take the form of sleep disturbances, encounters with mimics, and a persistent, nearly omnipresent specter, culminating in a nightmarish visitation.

Key Experiences:

• Childhood Hauntings:
  The narrator and their mother both hear each other’s voices when no one was speaking.
  "There have already been two different times where my mom has come to me and said that she heard me calling her name when I hadn't." (17:44)

• Escalating Night Terrors:
  The narrator is beset by sleep paralysis; strange buzzing, warping shadows, and a black hunched figure with wiry hair that giggles in their mother’s voice.
  "Kneeling beside the head of my mattress was a black figure... it giggled. If that wasn't enough to make matters worse, it sounded exactly like my mom." (18:43)

• The Intrusive Entity:
  Described as a faceless, sallow woman, she appears both in sleep and, unsettlingly, in waking moments.
  "As the sense of approaching death comes to me, a... mass of... hellish void start to materialize into a face, the face of a grotesque, soulless husk of a girl or woman..." (20:49)
  "You do not rest. You do not sleep. You do not dream." (22:15)

• Recurring Visitations:
  The entity appears day and night, taunting the narrator’s sanity and sense of safety:
  "As soon as the night comes... she will be there, waiting. Even during the day... I can still feel her in my periphery, peeking at me from the other room." (24:21)

• A Dream Turned Real?
  A man describes dreaming of seeing her at a bus stop in an orange raincoat. She later invades his home, crawling into his bed and rocking him while singing an eerie lullaby.
  "She climbs into my bed. I can't move. I can't scream... She looks into my eyes blankly. No smile, no blinking... She lies beside me, wraps her arms around me and rocks me back and forth, singing that same disturbing song." (29:45+)

Underlying Theme:
Isolation, vulnerability, and the inexplicable nature of some hauntings—made worse by the inability to find solace or validation from others. The entity’s capacity to mimic and to intrude into reality underscores profound feelings of powerlessness and dread.

Notable Quotes

• On trusting intuition:
  "Always trust your intuition." (07:59)

• On being prey in nature:
  "Out there, you are nothing more than a visitor in someone else's home." (15:40)

• On sleep paralysis and the inescapable entity:
  "You will not wake. You will come with me." (22:25)

• On the terror of the smiling woman:
  "She continues to stare at me with her face contorted, just as still as I was as I lay, unable to move or break out of paralysis." (23:25)

• On lingering fear and helplessness:
  "As soon as the night comes... she will be there, waiting. Even during the day if I try to get some rest, I can still feel her in my periphery..." (24:21)

• On the reality-blurring experience:
  "It's as if nothing happened last night. My window is completely locked and everything is just as I left it. So what do you think this was? Sleep paralysis? It all felt so real." (End)

Timestamps for Major Segments

• Introduction & Announcements: 00:00 – 01:37
• The Man in Line / Donald Whelan Encounter: 01:37 – 08:00
• Olympic National Forest / Cougar Story: 08:07 – 15:41
• Haunted House & The Smiling Woman: 17:10 – 28:17; 29:45 – End

Tone and Style

• Narrative Tone: Calm, confessional, vivid, with mounting anxiety and eeriness.
• Atmosphere: Rain sounds, measured delivery, escalating tension.
• Language: Direct, sensory, occasionally introspective and philosophical.

Key Takeaways

• Trust your instincts—danger can be read in body language and “bad energy.”
• The wilderness is wild—hubris means little when confronted with a true predator.
• Hauntings and sleep paralysis can erode boundaries between dream, memory, and waking life, fostering a persistent terror that cannot be easily explained or escaped.
• Sometimes, the scariest stories are those you can’t rationalize or share—the ones that linger in the silence of night.

For listeners seeking true horror for a restless mind, this episode delivers not through shock, but through the slow, gnawing sense of uncertainty and vulnerability that can haunt any of us—in the checkout line, the forest, or even safe in our own beds.