Scary Stories For A Rainy Night - Ep. 304 — 2026 Kill List

Podcast: Scary Stories and Rain
Host/Narrator: Being Scared
Date: January 4, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode of Scary Stories and Rain combines haunting true accounts with calm, atmospheric narration beneath the steady ambiance of rainfall. Episode 304, titled “2026 Kill List,” delivers four chilling stories recounted in the first person—each exploring the terror lurking in everyday settings: a childhood home’s unsettling basement, a midnight encounter while camping, inexplicable nighttime visitations, and an ominous knock in an empty house. The stories are bound by common threads of innocence upended, deep-seated fears, and the unresolvable presence of something malevolent—human or otherwise.

Key Story Summaries & Discussions

1. The Basement Horror

Timestamps: [02:36] – [26:09]

• Setting: A narrator recalls moving into a seemingly perfect childhood home that becomes a locus of terror centered around the basement.
• Early Unease:
  • The basement is described as cold, metallic, sterile, and unsettling, with one section of drywall distinctly discolored and hollow-sounding.
  • Creepy noises—tapping and inexplicable whispers—emanate from beneath the stairs, ignored by parents as “the house settling” or the hot water heater.
• Inciting Event:
  • The narrator’s infant brother Jonathan is kidnapped after a ransom note appears, shattering the family’s happiness ([11:45]).
  • Despite searches, Jonathan is never returned, and the family is destroyed by grief—parental divorce and the mother’s subsequent suicide ([14:11]).
• Revelation:
  • As an adult, the narrator breaks into the childhood home and, emboldened by frustration and alcohol, smashes through the mysterious drywall. Inside: the skeletal remains (skulls missing) of 20–30 children, including identifiable evidence of Jonathan.
  • Discovery of a trapdoor and crawlspace beneath the stairs leads to further terror, capped by the arrival of an unseen, whispering presence ([22:46]).
  • The narrator escapes, informing the police and providing closure for multiple missing children’s cases—but no perpetrator is found.

Notable Quotes

• “My childhood died that day. I remember contemplating taking a hammer and exposing whatever was under the stairs myself, but the fear of childhood was just too overwhelming.” [13:44]
• “Bones. Bones everywhere ... There must have been the remains of 20 to 30 children. My fright reached a crescendo when I realized that with no exceptions, they were all missing their skulls.” [20:12]
• “The thing that keeps me up at night is that whoever did this is still out there. The question that plagues my mind is whether this monster is literal or figurative. Either way, I hope I never find out.” [25:32]

2. The Camping Voice

Timestamps: [26:11] – [33:52]

• Setting: Three teenage boys on a foggy, isolated campground in the Pacific Northwest.
• Encounter:
  • In the dead of night, a disembodied voice inside the tent repeats, “Hello? Can you hear me?” directly between their heads ([28:17]).
  • Frantic, they search for a logical explanation but find all phones untouched in the car—none in the tent, no cell signal.
  • The terror renders them sleepless until dawn, and the unexplained voice remains a lifelong chilling memory.

Notable Quotes

• “There’s nothing like sheer terror to make three teenage boys lose their minds. We scrambled around the tent like maniacs ... But there was nothing there. It was just us sitting there in our socks and PJs and panic.” [29:45]
• “To this day, I don’t know what happened. Maybe it was a prank. Maybe it was some weird sound carrying through the fog. Or maybe the woods were just screwing with us for fun.” [32:55]
• “Every time someone says ‘hello, can you hear me?’ on a phone call, I get a little chill that runs down my spine.” [33:17]

3. Classroom Intruder

Timestamps: [33:55] – [41:10]

• Setting: Narrator, eight years old, describes repeated “visits” in the night from his third-grade teacher.
• Experience:
  • The teacher appears standing or sitting in the narrator’s bedroom, never speaking, only staring or making a ‘shh’ gesture. Escapes via window, always replacing the screen.
  • Parents dismiss the experiences as nightmares caused by an overactive imagination ([36:47]).
  • For nearly a year, the night visits persist until the narrator changes grades and teachers—the encounters stop but memory haunts him.
• Impact:
  • The story blends the supernatural with psychological fear: Was it a dream? Was it real? The teacher’s subtle, knowing grin in the classroom is particularly upsetting.

Notable Quotes

• “He didn’t say anything. He didn’t even move. He just stood there, completely still, staring at me with this blank, almost calm expression. His eyes, though, made my skin crawl.” [35:20]
• “He never touched me, never said anything beyond ‘shh.’ And then one day it stopped. When I started fourth grade and I got a new teacher, no more late night visits.” [39:46]
• “Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, half expecting to see him standing there, watching me, waiting for me to wake up.” [40:58]

4. The Shower Note

Timestamps: [41:13] – [47:58]

• Setting: The narrator retells a story from their mother’s youth—living alone in a trusting small town.
• Incident:
  • Before a friend’s visit, the mother leaves a note on the unlocked front door (“I’m in the shower. Come on in.”).
  • In the shower, she hears a distinct knock on the bathroom door. She calls out, receives no answer, and eventually finds her house empty; the front door, note, and everything else undisturbed ([43:14]).
• Aftermath:
  • The mother’s friend arrives later, confirming they had just arrived and hadn’t been inside before.
  • Lingering fear compels the mother to lock doors and wedge chairs under knobs, never truly knowing who or what knocked.

Notable Quotes

• “These days the thought of leaving your front door open with an invitation like that seems insane, but back then it felt normal.” [41:45]
• “She told me later that she half expected it to still be warm, like someone had just been leaning against it. But it wasn’t. It was cold.” [45:00]
• “She never got an answer to what happened that night ... But she swears she heard that knock clear as day, and I believe her.” [47:41]

Memorable Moments & Tones

• The calm, direct storytelling heightens the horror; there's no sensationalism—just chilling matter-of-fact recollections.
• The recurring motif of adult doubt (“the house is settling” / “it’s your imagination”) amplifies the sense of isolation and vulnerability in the child narrators.
• Each story concludes with lingering unease rather than resolution—evoking classic horror’s power to unsettle rather than shock.

Important Timestamps and Segments

| Segment | Start | Notable Moment / Quote | |------------------------------|---------|-----------------------------------------------------------| | Story 1: The Basement Horror | 02:36 | “I remember seeing the house for the first time...” | | Ransom & Disappearance | 11:45 | “The night of July 2, 1991. That is the day Jonathan went missing.” | | Breaking Into Old House | 17:39 | “Twenty years later, I began to think long and hard...” | | Discovery of Remains | 20:12 | “Bones. Bones everywhere...” | | Aftermath & Open Ending | 25:32 | “The thing that keeps me up at night is that whoever did this...” | | Story 2: Camping Voice | 26:11 | “Years ago, back when we thought we were invincible...” | | Disembodied Voice | 28:17 | “Hello? Can you hear me? Hello?” | | Aftermath & Reflection | 33:17 | “Every time someone says, ‘hello, can you hear me?’” | | Story 3: Classroom Intruder | 33:55 | “When I was in third grade, my life felt as close to perfect...” | | Teacher’s Visits | 35:20 | “He didn’t say anything. He didn’t even move.” | | Final Encounter | 39:46 | “He never touched me, never said anything beyond ‘shh.’” | | Unanswered Fears | 40:58 | “Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night...” | | Story 4: The Shower Note | 41:13 | “This is a story my mom told me once...” | | The Knock | 43:14 | “But just in case her friend got there while she was still in the bathroom...” | | Revelation | 47:41 | “She never got an answer to what happened that night...” |

Final Thoughts

Scary Stories and Rain continues to master the art of true-scary storytelling, using relatable, “could-have-been-me” scenarios and calm, immersive narration to leave listeners deeply unsettled. This episode, “2026 Kill List,” stands out for its tragic undercurrents, unresolved mysteries, and the way ordinary settings—basements, tents, bedrooms, and bathrooms—become arenas of existential dread.

“The thing that keeps me up at night is that whoever did this is still out there. The question that plagues my mind is whether this monster is literal or figurative. Either way, I hope I never find out.” [25:32]

Let the rain sound soothe you; the stories may not.