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This Father's Day. Do more with dad and spend less with low prices guaranteed at the Home Depot. Get him fired up with a new grill and accessories like the next Grill 5 burner for just $299 so you can spend more time together while he becomes the grill master he was always meant to be. Or build memories with savings on top brand power tools so you can tackle projects side by side, gift more and do more together this Father's Day with help from the Home Depot. Exclusions apply. Seehomedepot.com Pricematch for details. So good, so good, so good.
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New markdowns up to 70% off are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. Stock up and save big on shoes, tops, dresses, accessories and more must haves for summer. Join the NordicLub to unlock exclusive discounts. Shop new arrivals first and more. Plus buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you Rack,
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study and play come together on a Windows 11 PC and for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the unreal college deal everything you
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need to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs.
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Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 Premium and a year of Xbox Game Pass ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn more@windows.com studentoffer while supplies last ends June 30 turns at aka mscollegepc hey, before this episode begins, I just want to let everyone know that my film that I've been producing for the last two years, Gale Yellow Brick Road, is now streaming on Chilling. So if you weren't able to go see it in theaters a couple months ago, no worries. Click the link in the description to this video or just search Chilling in your app store and you can watch Gale Yellow Brick Road tonight at home. I really hope you enjoy. Please leave an honest rating and review on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. Thanks again. Hey welcome back to the podcast. I really hope you enjoy this episode and if you'd like to hear more stories like these with a different background sound, please check the description to check out my other two podcasts and if you want to get rid of all of the ads, you can subscribe for just $2.99 a month. Last thing I really appreciate you being here and I'd really love if you would follow the podcast and come back again soon. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoy. This happened just September of last year. My friend, let's call her A told me that she had a friend B that needed a Dog sitter because friend B and her husband were going on a vacation to California. Friend A knew that I dog sat on an app called Rover, which is by the way, an app where you house sit random strangers, dogs walk them, you name it. I thought it was the perfect opportunity since I was in need of some extra cash. $200 to dog sit for five days. Why not, right? Friend B showed me around her house a week before I dog sat for her while also letting me meet her here huge husky named Bear. I'm not going to lie, it was a big husky, a little overweight too, but still adorable. Friend B told me I was welcome to help myself to whatever food I wanted. Perfect. The front door also included a lock where you punch in a number code to get in. So pretty secure. So a week rolls around and I show up later on a Friday night, not too long after friend B and her husband left the house to go to California. Things were pretty chill for the first two days. I was at work most of the afternoon, went to feed the dog on my break and then went back to work. Came back later at night and would take Bear for rides in my car. I stayed up late watching movies, then let Bear sleep by me when it was time to go to bed after work On Monday night, I hear a knock at the door. I look through the peephole and it was a guy that looked like he was wearing a black police uniform. I thought it was a bit odd, but I opened the door to see what was up. Hello, I'm looking for Jorge. He said, oh no, there's no Jorge here. I'm dog sitting for a friend. I've been here since Friday. Looking back, that was pretty stupid to tell a random person at the door. I didn't know that I was alone. Okay, how long are you here? He asked. Till Wednesday, I responded. Then he said, oh, that's cool. Okay, sorry to bother you. And he left. I was slightly weirded out and I locked the door. I texted friend B about what had just happened. She told me, oh, don't worry about it and shrugged it off. I thought that was weird too. Things were normal again up until I went to bed. Wednesday at midnight, as I was laying in bed, the thought kept coming to my mind that I should make sure the front door was locked. So I got up and checked. Luckily it was, but I still had a weird vibe. I fell asleep and then Woke up at 3:05am to the dog barking like crazy. It scared the heck out of me. I thought someone had broken in. I got up and went to the living room where I saw Bear was growling and barking at the front door. I looked through the peephole and saw the same guy with another guy, this time standing there in the dark, both in security guard uniforms. At this point I was creeped out. Why would the same guy come back when he knew I was alone with my car in the driveway? I didn't even bother opening the door. Two guys I didn't know dressed like security guards. At 3am I made sure all the doors were locked. Then I saw that they had walked off. I opened the door and didn't see any type of security car anywhere. I still have to thank Bear. I think his barking could have scared them off. I went back inside, returned to bed and fell asleep. I didn't bother telling Friend B because she was in California anyway. What was she going to do? I'm glad to say I only stayed one more night after that. To this day I still don't know who those guys were or what they really wanted. And I haven't been back to dog sit since that inc. Many years ago when I was young and fit, I was out exercising before dawn. Our local cemetery was high on a
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hill and I Ready to soundtrack your summer with Red Bull Summer All Day Play. You choose a playlist that fits your summer vibe the best. Are you a festival fanatic, a deep end dj, a road dog, or a trail mixer? Just add a song to your chosen playlist and put your summer on track. Red Bull Summer All Day Play. Red Bull gives you wings. Visit RedBull.com BrightSummerAhead to learn more. See you this summer.
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Do you hear that? Sounds like breakfast is ready because Quaker's coming in hot with morning nutrition 100% whole grain oats and a good source of fiber to fuel the rhythm of your morning and kickstart your day. And that sounds absolutely delicious. Fuel to start whatever's next. Quaker Official sponsor of FIFA World Cup 26I out. Let's go. We gather here tonight to bring women back to their rightful place.
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The Testaments a new Hulu original series from the executive producers of the Handmaid's Tale. It's easier to accept a story than believe that the people around you are monsters. The battle isn't over. There comes a time when you have to take action, when you have to choose your own destiny. Never quite as it seems. Watch the new Hulu original series, the Testaments, streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney plus for bundle subscribers Terms apply.
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Would walk up the hill, then Jog all around the concrete and gravel roads that wound in and around the graves. I had done this many prior mornings and I was not afraid of being in the graveyard pre daylight. I had family and friends buried there. It was isolated and I felt safe. One of the individuals interred there was a little girl named Kay. Kay was only 12 and starting junior high when an impatient idiot behind the wheel of a car killed her. On my frequent runs past K's well kept grave, I often greeted her, wished her well, expressed my sorrow regarding her short, sweet life. On this particular morning of which I speak, I jogged past Kay's grave and called out my greeting. In my head she spoke urgently to me. It's not safe up here. This morning I jogged on a bit startled, of course I glanced about, but all was normal. A few minutes later K spoke again. There's a man up here. This time I stopped suddenly. The dark hilltop seemed fraught with danger. My blood ran cold and the hair on the back of my neck stood up were no longer cliches. Still, I saw nothing. No man, no movement. But by now every nerve in my body was screaming for me to get out of there. I turned and ran. It was no longer a casual morning jog. It was a sprint for my life. I ran past K's grave and back down the steep hill, caring not that my quadriceps complained as I fled. I listened for any pursuers and I heard none. But that did not lessen the overwhelming sense of peril that kept me running hard even after I exited the steep part of my route. The rest of that day, and even the remainder of the week, I listened for news of an escaped convict, a murderous madman, or anything that would explain K's urgent warning. But there was none. I had no doubt then, nor do I, many years later, that I was in peril that morning. From whom I do not know. But 15 years have passed and I can still recall with cross crystal clarity those two sentences from a poor child put much too early in her grave. It's not safe up here. This morning. There's a man up here. Thank you, sweet K, for warning me. So let me start this by saying we made some poor choices in this story, so please don't judge me and my family around. Every start to the summer, my family and I go on a three week vacation around the usa. It's always a blast and I have very fond memories of the trips. But I will always be more alert next time we do it. We were more than halfway done with our vacation, so we had to head Home. That meant that we had to go through the whole state of Texas. My dad wanted to drive through the night instead of stopping. So I got some rest. I woke up around the middle of the night and noticed the car had stopped moving. I sleepily rose from where I was sitting and looked out the dash window. I saw my dad standing next to a random guy under the hood of said guy's car. Now I thought no big deal, until something caught my eye. There was a ditch beside the road. And in the ditch, barely, just barely, I could see the top of a couple more guys heads and they were holding something. My blood ran cold. I had to warn my dad because I don't think that he had seen them. He had his back to them, I thought quickly and kicked my door open and yelled hey dad. It fell out of its holster again and I don't want to touch it. This was a lie of course, that I just made up to make them think we were holding. Both the man and my dad looked confused. I waited for my dad to come to where I was. I then explained the situation and for the first time in my life he looked scared. He finally turned and said to the man that he was going to move his car closer. The man said that was fine and he jumped back in the car. My dad floored it down the road that was not blocked by this person's car. We did notice a car's headlight in our back window. But after a while it disappeared. We drove the rest of the night and in the morning we weren't tired at all. We made it home safe and I did a little research for that area. It turned out that a few months before a couple were kidnapped and are still missing. I have no idea if what happened to those poor people could have happened to my dad and our family if I did not see those men crouched in the ditch. I deliver pizzas and I had been having a really busy night. Non stop back and forth without any time to even pause and take a leak. I had been so busy that I wasn't really thinking about bathroom breaks. But we were also going through a bit of a heat wave in our area. So I have been drinking copious amounts of water. All of a sudden as I was driving to this particular delivery, the urge to go hit me like things went from 0 to 60 in an instant. Thankfully I was close to the customer so so I could get this one over with quickly. Or so I thought. I pulled up to the house and it was an area I had delivered in before so I could immediately see that something wasn't right. All the lights were off in the house, not even the glow of a television or anything. It was extra apparent because the streetlight closest to the door happened to be out of order. And on top of it all, the block was dead quite quiet. This is a big university area, and obviously there aren't many student renters in July, but there had to be at least one person because someone ordered this pizza. Maybe they just liked sitting in the dark. Or they were in the backyard. Whatever. I just didn't want to get out of my car and knock on a quiet house in the middle of the night without first checking that I had the correct address and the customer was inside. It was scorching that night, even after sundown. My car's AC is a joke and the piping hot pizzas don't help things much, so I have to try and open the car door as infrequently as possible to keep any cool air in. I called the number the customer provided and the voice on the other end said, kind of brusquely and out of breath, yeah, I just tried to keep it clear and concise, hey, it's your pizza out front. But there doesn't appear to be anybody home. And the customer replied, still gasping for air, yeah, I'm not at home. I had to pee so badly by that point that I was much less patient than I would otherwise be with a customer right out of the gate. Well, then we're going to have to terminate the order because I have arrived in the stated delivery window and you were supposed to pay in cash, so I don't know what to tell you. Plan ahead next time. I instantly regretted letting my bladder do the talking for me as the voice on the other end came through more clearly as a young, bubbly and very distraught girl who couldn't have been more than 20 or 25. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I was running down the street so I could barely hear you. She cried. I just switched you out of my AirPods. Is that better? I'm sorry, I completely lost track of time at work, but I knew you were coming. That's why I'm literally running home right now. Please don't leave. I'm starving and I don't have a car. Seriously, please don't leave. Five minutes tops. Okay. I know what it's like to be hungry and running late and have no car and not live near any restaurants. Plus, when I heard her voice, I began to remember more specifically having delivered to this place a couple times before and she had always been perfectly nice. Now I felt bad for snapping at her. I tried to walk it back while simultaneously looking out my window for potential spots to pee. No, no, my bad. I'm letting the heat get to me and it's not your fault. No need to rush. I'll see you when you get here. I hung up and while surveilling the area, was starting to think I was really out of luck. All the other houses had people in them and were close together, so there were no clumps of trees or out of the way patches of land or anything. Of course I had just tossed my empty water bottle at the last delivery because I'm an idiot. Finally I decided it was escalating to the point of an emergency and the safest bet was to use a bush in front of the woman's house. She wasn't home. The street light was out so no one would see me. The people who were home were inside. My car was parked across the street, and we're a small shop and we don't wear uniforms, so if someone did spot me, they would have no way to connect me to my employer. Animals pee outside all the time. Humans are animals. This is fine. I scurried over to the tallest bush in her front yard. She didn't really have much of a yard, more just a walkway lined with bushes and flowers that ran adjacent to her front door. The biggest cluster of bushes, the only one where I could be sure there would be no visible splatter on the side of the house, was about 4ft from her door. I looked both ways, unzipped, and let it fly. After the initial millisecond of relief, I noticed the sound was way off, more like pitch hissing on something solid, then something leafy. I started panicking, thinking I had aimed wrong, but once I start, I can't stop midstream, so I kept squinting into the darkness to see if maybe I was hitting a key rock or something and could just move a few inches over. Instead, all of a sudden I heard a way more concerning noise. A deep voice exclaiming what the heck? And before I could turn around, assuming I had been caught by a neighbor, a man came leaping out of the bushes. He blew by me, brushing my golden shower off him. As he did. He spit pretty emphatically on the ground, so I think I might have beaned him right in the face. I didn't see where he went after a few paces, but though this next part is kind of a blur, I do think I Remember hearing a car screaming reach out from a bit further away after a minute. I had gotten some night vision by that point, so I was able to make out his height, build and outfit, but only the most general details of each. I was in such shock that I didn't even put my thing away. I just stood there trying to figure out what had happened. The reality was so terrifying that my mind refused to accept it and impulsively searched for a reasonable explanation. Explanation that could make everything okay, I thought. Could these bushes lead to some backyard area and just looked like they were against the house? Could they have been obscuring an open window? My inner voice was desperately screaming, bro, that man was wearing a hoodie in 90 degree weather. That was a bad man. You're in a bad situation. But the very idea that I was within inches of a guy who would be hiding in bushes at all, let alone in front of a young woman's house at night, just wasn't something I was ready to grapple with yet. I was coping by not coping. My fight or flight response totally failed me at that point because my idiot self did the absolute last thing I should have done and approached the bushes to try and validate this. There must have been a good reason for a man in a hoodie to be behind these bushes in the middle of the night. So I walked over to the side, turned on my phone flashlight and tried to peer around the line of shrubbery. Pro tip as scary as things may look in the dark, seeing them with a single beam of your flashlight can sometimes make it even worse. That's when I saw the bag. There was a tattered drawstring bag sitting behind the bushes, slightly splashed with peel. But I was in such moronic daze from shock that I groped around for it thinking, see, this is it. This will explain why he was back here. It explained it. Once I maneuvered it over and pulled it open, I saw a sharp knife, a roll of duct tape and a bottle of pills. The delusions officially broke at that point and all the adrenaline, endorphins and self protecting preservation instincts that had been suppressed kicked in 10 times over. I became whatever the opposite of dazed is. More laser focused than I had ever been in my life with one singular goal. Get back to my car. I dropped the bag, booked it across the street, got in my car and slammed the pedal to the floor before the door was even all the way closed. I went as far as I could, as far, as fast as I could, until I hit a red signal. Then I pulled off to the side and realized I shouldn't be driving any more than necessary in the condition I was in. I pulled into the parking lot of a 24 hour drugstore and took a breath. I was finally calm and coherent enough to zip up and formulate a plan of action. My first lucid thought was who do I call first? The police or the girl whose house that was? Was. I thought about it for what couldn't have been more than 10 seconds, but felt like an hour and decided, okay, I'm in my locked car with my engine running. If trouble starts, I can drive away. I know something's up. She might not. She needs to know
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Ross.
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Work your magic
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not to keep walking in that direction, but as I was dialing her number, it occurred to me, what if there was no girl? I thought I remembered delivering to that house before, but what if I was wrong? What if the girl on the phone was just a decoy to get me there to rob me? Or worse? Every pizza guy on the planet has seen the Evil Genius documentary by now, so I thought. She called me all out of breath. She wasn't home. The whole thing was off. I can't risk it. I'll start with the cops. I called 911. The operator was very helpful in keeping me calm because I was a complete wreck by this point. He kept assuring me that someone would be there soon. I kept telling them that they had to get there before the girl did, but I was trying to express three thoughts at once and really damaging my own credibility. It came out more as you've got to save this girl because he wasn't after me. I was just delivering a pizza. Unless they were after me, in which case there might not be a girl, but I talked to one on the phone, so. Then you should find that girl, because they used her to lure me there. But if she's real, she doesn't know about the guy who was also real. And there could be even more guys if there's actually a girl. And you know what? Even if there isn't a girl, there might actually be more guys. I only checked one part of the bushes, so I don't actually know. But we'll know which guy is the one I saw, because I pissed all over him. You know, I didn't mean to. This was back when I thought the girl was real but not home. But she might be real. So you really need to find her if she is, because the guy was real. Finally, they basically just asked me to stop talking and stay on the line. But that was when I saw an incoming call from the customer. I couldn't answer it without disrupting my 911 call, so I just ignored it. But then she sent me this text, like, hey, I'm here. I don't see you. I told 911 she was there, and they said officers were only minutes away, but who knows how long that meant, especially after I had given such a scattered account of the events in my panic. I just felt overwhelmed with guilt because my rational mind said the odds of her being a decoy girl for some large scam targeting pizza guys were low, and the odds of her being the intended victim of a predator were high. So I put my 911 call on mute and turned back, heart absolutely pounding out of my chest, compulsively muttering crap, crap, crap, crap, crap the entire way. Then I took 911 off mute and told them I had returned to look for the girl. They weren't happy about that. But I saw her meandering past the parked cars in the street, looking to see if one was mine, and I waved her down, flashing my brights. She bounced on over to the window of my. My car. Happy? Go. Lucky. I figured that was a good sign that she wasn't in on whatever this was, but I was just so scared to be back in the general area and to not know what had just happened or what was going to happen. I kept whispering, get in, get in. And she was like, get it, get it, get it. Huh? Oh, you want me to get the pizza from the back? I didn't want to make the same mistake with her that I had made with 911. So instead of trying to tell the whole story, I stuck to the bare basic facts. There was a man in your bushes. I'm on the phone with the police. I don't know where he is right now. Please get in the car so we can lock the doors. I was barely able to get even those sentences out and I was shaking like I had had 10 cups of black coffee. I held up my phone phone with 911 on the call screen to verify it for her. I thought that was why she got in the car with no further explanation, but it turns out that wasn't entirely it. You still there? Is she with you? Are you safe? Is Anyone else there? 911 kept checking in not knowing who the third party I was talking to was. I reassured them and we drove more cautiously this time to a location 911 instructed us to wait at to speak with the police after they cleared the area. I didn't actually have to do much after that. The police came. Pretty soon after a police car met us. I gave a statement telling them everything I observed and she went to go speak to more officers in more detail than they needed me for. It turns out the reason she got right into a strange pizza guy's car without probing any any deeper into my story is because she knew who the man was right away from my description. She had an abusive ex boyfriend who was apparently psychotic enough that he immediately came to mind from hearing there is a guy in your bushes. She later called us to thank me and insist on leaving a huge tip. I wasn't there when the call came in, so the kid who answered didn't know to refuse to accept the money. But the manager already printed promise. The next time that we see her we can load her up with enough 1 free pie cards to last a lifetime. Easily the scariest thing that has ever happened to me on the job or off. I don't get the chance to tell the story much because I try to avoid sharing it with anyone who could possibly know the girl or know of the event. But I'm still not the same since even though I know he didn't even have any anything to do with me directly. This truly shook me to my core. Romania is a country where people might get kidnapped, murdered, disappear and such. So yeah, my parents were legitimately afraid for me and were against me. The idea I had to lie to them that we would stay in a hotel near Koa national park so they would get off my back. Obviously that's not what we did okay, long story short, we had to travel from Bucharest to this park, which is around 200 km in two hours by train. We got our immense backpacks, everything we needed, and went on our way. Nothing specifically happened in the train except the fact that the train was overly crowded, with the exception of our train compartment being completely empty. That is extremely rare for Romanian trains. I got excited thinking that we would have the whole compartment to ourselves. As I said, it is a very rare thing to happen. And of course, after 10 to 20 minutes, it got occupied by a man entering our compartment, accompanied by a beautiful German shepherd. I love all kinds of animals, cats and dogs in particular. I usually find my way around all animals, even those that don't like people. Not this dog. No. This dog was otherworldly. He looked so stiff, as if it was a stuffed animal. He would listen to his owner's every single command. I was impressed by it. Obviously. I start asking the man about his dog, since it would be a long and awkward trip to be in complete silence. The man was exactly like his dog, except the commands he would give to his dog, no other contribution to the conversation. He told me the dog's name is UCI Ghul, which in Romanian means the killer. It's a very weird name to give a dog, because for this particular example, he would use the English word as it is, not translate to the word Romanian and name the dog like that. But I thought, to each their own. I asked him why such a scary name, and he bluntly replied, this dog is trained to kill. It's the only thing he likes and is good at. Now I personally consider that the dog will grow up to have sex, similar personality to his owner. And most of the time, I would judge people with dogs and how the animal reacts to the world and to his owner. And let me tell you guys, these two did not give a good vibe. In return, I brushed everything over, thinking to myself that maybe this guy is training his dog to hunt in the woods. Then I started thinking, which woods are legal to hunt in our country? While I was thinking of that, the guy out of nowhere asks us if we are traveling to the Cogia National Park. That was surprisingly accurate, considering that the only time we mentioned the place was in the train station, long before we found our seats, and way longer before we even met this man again. I thought it was nothing, because in my country, people who happen to go in the same direction will try to make small talk and guess where you are heading. Of course, you can just lie to keep safe of your destination or be Honest. I took the honesty route and I am judging myself for that. Never be too honest with strangers or honest at all if you listen to this story. We confirmed we are going to that place. Asked what else is to see around since he started talking about the area and well, considering we knew nothing about the place place, we took it all in. He told us about the woods, the vegetation, the animals we can encounter. Told us about the beautiful monastery right at the bottom of the mountain that we need to climb. Advised us to visit the Lotri Shore waterfall and explore the caves behind it and try out the local restaurant. When this guy started talking about the wilderness and nature, his eyes glowed as if he was experiencing, sensing a pleasant memory. But he also grabbed his dog's collar from the neck, squeezing it tight. The collar made a loud clink sound. What surprised me was that the dog made no move, no whimper, no twitch, nothing. Just like a stuffed animal. Anyway, we reach our destination, say our goodbyes. The man waves at us and we faced against him to go on our way. I turn around back right away because I wanted to ask where exactly the restaurant was and the man and the dog were no longer there. Not just that, but also his luggage was gone. That creeped me out a bit, but who cares? We were too thrilled for our first camping experience. We start walking with our backpacks on us and reach a tunnel digging into the mountain. It looked amazing, exactly like those horror movie tunnels which if traveled during night, would make your hair stand straight. Lucky for me, we traveled during daytime. It wasn't a long tunnel, we could see the end, but by the time we got to the middle of it, we hear a whimper in the distance. It sounded like a dog crying in desperation for its life. We stop. My boyfriend looks at me with his oh no, you're not going to me tell take that dog with us type of face and tries to convince me to take a different route. We don't. I hear the dog. I go right towards the sound and in the middle of the road I see a chubby puppy with lots of white and brown circles on his butt, crying so hard and laying on the cement looking really hurt, as if hit by a car. I freeze and think to myself that our trip is over. I must save this dog. We call for him. He looks at us, pointy ears up, gets up and like a doofus, starts running desperately to us. He was alone and afraid. We called him Rudolph and now he was our camping buddy. Like 1km further we find another puppy, probably his sister, which we dragged from the nearby river all wet, cold and hungry. Of course we take her to too. So here we are. 10 kilogram backpacks each. Two puppies at my chest. Boyfriend with map, trying to find a spot to camp. The first night we passed by the monastery the man in the train mentioned. But because we had these puppies, we couldn't enter inside the building. The priests wouldn't allow us. So we just walk around the property through the gardens until we reached the base of the mountain we had to climb. I'd like to mention that these puppies were two tiny little brats because the second you put them down and forced them to walk on their own, they would slam their butts to the ground and cry. Such drama. We walk and walk and walk until we decide to stop. Because it was getting late and I was beginning to get cold, we found a spot next to a small landmark type of cottage in the middle of the wood. We call it Troy Unitsa. It's like a scouting post but for the church, where they place religious icons or a Bible, stuff like that inside to bring good energy to the area. It belongs to the church. It wasn't like a house. It was basically a roof with four small walls and an opening, not a door you could go in to like hide from the rain. There was an icon inside and a Bible with pages ripped from it. Curious as I am, I opened the Bible, was really annoyed to see that people would write down their names in it like couples do on trees. But on one particular page the words I will find you stuck out. It was written in red ink again. I thought to myself that it was probably someone who wanted to scare travelers with silly messages. I put the book back and gave it no second thought. We put up the tent, make the fire, unpack, make food and eat. We feed the puppies, which now are cuddled up in our tent. And finally darkness starts to rise all around us. My boyfriend always kept the fire up every hour because when it went off, it felt as if the sounds in the woods were louder and closer to us than in reality. Now it's around 12am we are all in the tent cuddling to keep warm. The puppies wake up and start crying. I get up and unzip the tent to put them out to pee. They do and I get them back in. They cry some more and the smallest one starts shivering. At the same time, I hear grunting from behind our tent. My boyfriend is up too.
- [38:26]
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Plan B is a backup birth control option that's there for you when things don't go according to plan. It specifically works after unprotected sex and before pregnancy occurs by temporarily delaying ovulation. Plan B is available nationwide at all major retailers and through delivery apps like DoorDash. No ID, prescription or age requirement. It's the number one OB GYN recommended brand of emergency contraception and it won't impact your future fertility. That's Freedom to be Use as directed this Father's Day when you ship UPS Air at the UPS Store, your items arrive on time with your money back guaranteed at no extra cost. It's like the father of all shipping services, it shows up to the airport way too early just to play it safe. It's overprotective about all the things that truly matter and it's always prom especially to be with family. Make it your first choice to celebrate your dad. Ship UPS Air with our money back guarantee exclusively at the UPS store US retail locations. Visit the upsstore.com airshipping for full details. Terms and conditions apply. Capture your favorite summer feeling with Pandora Jewelry Discover a collection inspired inspired by the sunshine, freedom and moments that make the season unforgettable. From sun kissed metals to personalized pieces ready to be engraved with your summer mantra, each design moves with you from beach days to golden nights and every memory in between. Shop Pandora Jewelry's new summer collection in store or online@pandora.net and let your summer unfold. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. You know those friends who support your preference for podcasts over music on road trips? That's the energy State Farm brings to insurance. With over 19,000 local agents, they help you find the coverage that fits your needs so you can spend less time worrying about insurance and more time enjoying the ride. Download the State Farm app or go online@statefarm.com like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Who cares about your poops? Ollie does. That's why Ollie's science backed Gut Health lineup helps support your family's regularity. From daily probiotics to fiber gummies your kiddos will love. Find it all on olli.com that's o l l y.com these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
- [40:50]
A
He hears it as well. The fire is fading. The moment he unzips the tent and steps out, the sound disappears into the woods. It sounds like a snake slithering through the fallen leaves on the ground, but with unimaginable speed. I ask him, was that a snake? He says, up to this day, that he cannot explain what he saw. He says it was a slithery figure with feet that made a snort like sound when the light hit it. The puppies calm back down. After this creature disappears into the woods, we try to go back to sleep. After we reignite the fire. It's 3am by this time and we wake up to the puppies being fussy again. The fire is nearly dead. My boyfriend gets up to search for firewood and I get out as well. I stare into the darkness and I swear I hear whispers coming from between the trees. I look up at the sky, consider it's 3am and hear birds being very loud and fluttering their wings. Now I'm no expert in birds, but don't they usually sleep around this time? Well, these weren't. They were very active, very vocal and very frustrated. I look at the fire and follow the red sparks popping out of it into the sky and become fascinated with something. The spark doesn't seem to die. It goes on and on, changing color from hellish red to green. This was very out of the ordinary for me because it created an illusion. Hard to explain. It looked as if the fire sparks were going into the woods, creating a track for me probably to follow. I kept looking after each spark to see when it burns out. None of them did. They would levitate, turn green and flow into the woods. At that moment I began to get goosebumps on my skin. The birds being agitated, the mysterious light pointing us to go deeper into the woods. And all the trees around us have eyes on them. The trunks had a distinguished shape that looked exactly like eyes. I know this is nothing paranormal since someone explained that those shapes form when a branch is ripped from the root and that's the shape that is left over. But there were way too many, like a hundred eyes all looking at the exact same spot. We were camping, having only that religious tiny landmark to mentally protect us. And as I inspect my surroundings, I hear movement in one of the bushes in front of our tent, like 10 meters away from us. Obviously I stand my ground but don't go near it. Suddenly a dark bent over silhouette comes out of it and half inside the bush and half outside stares at us. I call my boyfriend and we are both like, what the heck is that? Is it a bear cub? A wolf? A pig? The creature shakes its head the same way a dog does after a bath and I hear a distinguished clink like a dog collar. At this time, my boyfriend manages to light up the fire really big, which scares this animal to run back into the woods. Through the bush from which it initially came out of. That calms us down, but not enough to ever close our eyes again. During that night, going back into the tent, my boyfriend falls asleep. The puppies are sound asleep, but not me. I keep the zipper on the tent opened a little, just enough to have my eye peek through it right at the early mentioned bush. I think I spent a solid hour staring in of front falling asleep to that bush. All of a sudden I hear a noise coming from that direction and I immediately wake my boyfriend up who is now peeking through the hole in complete darkness with me. What we see next still haunts my dreams. From that exact same bush, we see a human head popping out and looking towards our tent. Note that our peeping hole was small enough to not make it look like you were being watched from the inside of the tent. This head is slowly coming out of the bush, skin so white we thought it was a ghost. After that, a shoulder, another shoulder, a full torso, a leg. Bit by bit, an entire man emerges from the bush completely naked, lighted by both the moon and our fire. What he did next was excruciatingly scary for me. He comes so close to our tent and begins to remove branches, rocks, etc from our fire, Basically extinguishing our fire by dismantling it. This all happening like two or three meters from our tent. I look at the man with horror because I recognize him. And now the clink I heard earlier from that animal is explained. It is the same man from the train with his dog too. I don't know if he followed us. I don't know if he just went the same route as us and found us and decided to stalk us. But this guy was there since 12am at least because our fire would be dead every two to three hours and we would be woken up by the sound of branches being cracked, rocks being moved, which we internally explained as animals crossing the land. After he successfully managed to put out our fire, he slowly crept back into the same bush, submerging into it bit by bit until only his head would be out, with a disfigured looking mouth looking like a moaning ghost. You try going back to sleep. After that we didn't know what to do. So we just got back out, reignited the fire, lit ourselves some torches and stayed near near the campfire until the first rays of sun came up. I admit I did fall asleep while sitting down next to the fire and so did my boyfriend. But any sound would wake us up. I was too afraid to go near that bush. I did not need any answers? Any explanations? I just wanted Daylight to get the heck out of there and we did. We packed our stuff and we got out of there. We planned a four day camping trip and this experience made us give up after the first night. It was a risk we did not intend to take. If that guy followed us or it was just a coincidence, it was enough to ruin it all. As a conclusion to my story and advice to any first time campers out there. Never tell your location or even areas remotely close to your destination. To strangers. You don't know where their minds take them and what they plan to do. Always stay safe. Always be aware of your surroundings and any changes that come to you under the form of sounds, movements, changes of temperature and so on. Always protect yourself. I may not be any kind of expert, but I believe there's more to this world than we mere humans can hope to understand. I have always had a very fine tuned sense for what I believe to be those unexplainable things. Moments where I feel something. Something I can't quite explain with any rationality. Later in life I would be told to have what can most easily be explained as some kind of weak psychic or supernatural energy by a Wiccan witch. Nothing too impressive, but just enough to let me feel those entities even if I cannot see them. Like the ghost in my grandparents guest room or the malicious entity haunting the stairs and basement garage. The same uncanny sixth sense that my mom observed when my younger brother was born. Stronger than her own maternal sense. To the point that I understood when my brother needed something before even he knew and could make a sound even waking minutes before him in the middle of the night without fail. But I think there may be more to it than that as this incident leads me to believe. My family had recently moved to British Columbia, Canada that winter. Winter? I was 10 at the time. While we were no means in the boonies, we moved to an older trailer near a well known hiking trail and a small Christmas tree farm. Immediately there was something off about the area. Something that my parents waved off as the new home. Anxiety or just not being used to the place. I did my best to put it out of my mind. But within two. Within two weeks of the move I began to notice strange happenings. Firstly the unsettling aura I just couldn't shake. Sleepless nights where I felt like I was being watched by someone at my window. Strange shadows there one second, gone the next. Voices soft, whispering my name. And only when I was alone and only in my room near the window. However, whenever These incidents happened soon after. I would feel something brushing against my shins and ankles, something that lessened the aura, at least for a while. These instances would be near constant until I struck out on my own eight years later. It all came to a head that fall, months after the move, my parents insisted we take a family walk on the mountain trail. And though I didn't want to because I am by no means an outdoors man, something in me screamed not to go, that it was dangerous. But being barely 11, of course my parents completely dismissed my concerns as being lazy, and we were off to the trail's main entrance. As soon as I set foot out of the car, the warning bells in my head were blaring louder. Something in me kept saying that we had to leave, that something bad was going to happen. The little voice in my head kept focusing on my diabetic mom, who at the time had a weight problem. Dad with his disability that made him outright unable to run, that my bad lungs would make it impossible to run myself, that the three of us were sitting ducks. I didn't know why I was so. So hyper focused on running, on needing to get away. We were halfway through the walk when suddenly I froze. The apprehension I had felt about the whole event ramped up to 11. My parents thought that I had stopped because I was tired and took the opportunity to take pictures of the lovely fall leaves and dappled sunlight. It was a gorgeous sight, But I knew something was there. What? Watching us. And it was not something we wanted to meet. I looked around, trying to find whatever was setting me off. All I saw was an occasional fleeting shadow. I could feel the brushing, but the feeling of dread and fear only got stronger. The familiar touch unable to drive it away as it normally would. Whatever it was, it was close. If it came at us, we wouldn't stand a chance. My parents still hadn't noticed something was wrong. And I felt my voice catch in my throat, not out of fear, but as if something wasn't letting me speak. I heard the leaves rustle. It was close, so close. I glanced where the noise was coming from and saw a shadow for a split second before it vanished behind a tree. And as it vanished, vanished, something changed. Hot. It felt like a volcano had erupted in my chest. Not like the slow, gentle ooze like one might see in Hawaii, but explosive, angry, spewing, burning clouds of toxic gas and ash, spraying molten rock and fire. I was still afraid, but I wasn't frozen. I was angry, eyes locked on the area I had seen the shadow I was no stranger to anger, I am aggressive and always have been. But this rage was entirely new. The feeling against my legs stopped, but the fire was burning hotter.
- [53:18]
B
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- [53:48]
A
thing, the dangerous thing hiding just outside my field of view. I felt it lock up in flight. Fear all its own. I felt like my body was controlled by something else. Still me, but different. I convinced my parents to pick up the pace, practically speed walking to the rest of the loop, not daring to let the fire sparked in my chest die out until we were safely back at the car. The strange presence lingered much further off but still watching. Still malicious, anxious, but almost curious now we left the trail and never went back. A few weeks later, my mom found out she would be having my brother. As time passed, the whole incident kept nagging at my mind and I found myself doing research from time to time to try and piece whatever happened together. And while I may never fully understand, I think I finally have part of an answer. I think I was protecting my brother. As I stated earlier, I have always had an unexplainable connection to him, despite being so much older and a terrifyingly vicious protective streak over him. When this happened, my mom would have been a month or so into her pregnancy. I think that whatever is in me that allows me to feel these presences so clearly that was so immediately focused on not me getting away, but my mom and dad with myself as the afterthought, knew he was there long before anyone else did the phantom touches. As ridiculous as I feel saying it, I believe it was a guardian angel of sorts, or more accurately my protective than long dead childhood cat keeping up his station even in death. The brushing feeling was identical to the feel of a cat weaving around your legs and only stopped entirely when I moved out and got my own kitten who just as suddenly and uncharacteristically adopted the same guarding behavior. What that fire is, I may never know, but I know for a fact it is what kept that thing away. What was that thing? I don't know. I believe it had been hunting me. Me and continued to hunt me since we moved to that town and until I moved away. The voices, the feeling of being watched, the fear of fire. While I know the creatures will stalk their desired prey for a long time, that thing always comes back whenever I visit my family. Regardless of what it is, it is fixated on me. It seems I am safe so long as I have no this fire, at least from it. But I wonder why, after so many years, it still follows me whenever I enter what must be its territory. Remembering that feeling of malice, I pray I never have to find out. My name is Rory and I'm a security guard here in Scotland. The company I work for mainly does nightclubs and construction site security. But for some reason I always end up getting the weirder jobs. But that suits me because they tend to be in the daytime and I am just not cut out for night shifts anymore. Anyway, so my boss asks me if I wanted to work a Saturday shift over at the Mercure Hotel in Livingston. Told me it would be a solid 10 hour shift providing security for a convention they had on easy money. Basically, I asked him what kind of convention needed security guards, but all he knew is that it was called Scotiacon. There were no clues in the name. So needless to say, I was a bit curious about what the whole thing was. Turns out it was a big, big meetup for people called furries. What I'm about to tell you is all learned on the fly, so don't hold me to any of this, but furries are basically people who think they are animals. So they dress up in these big suits and wiggle their behinds. Don't get me wrong, they all seemed lovely, but the whole thing was kind of unusual. They were selling each other all kinds of artwork, clothes they had made, made. Some of it seemed a bit inappropriate, but there were no kids there, so no harm done, right? Like I said, lovely people. But there was one person who I would call an exception. There were a good few hundred people there. A lot of younger people too. Hardly the kind of thing I picture when I hear the word convention. They didn't seem too leery or anything. There was just a lot of them. Them, hence why I was there. But I really didn't see anything kicking off. So when I got the call that the security team was needed in the main convention hall, I was shocked, I'll be honest. So I am following this other guy that I had not worked with before down a corridor and into the main hall and immediately you can see where the trouble is. Everyone is looking over into one particular corner where you can hear this argument going on. My colleagues and I make our way through the crowds of oddly dressed but well meaning folk until we came across the culprits. Most of the noise was coming from one guy with a dog collar on. He had ears on all sorts of dog themed stuff on his backpack and clothing. Basically dogs were the kid's thing. I start asking what the big song and dances about and he told me he had been arguing with this stall owner over the price of a piece of artwork. But the guy that owns the stall just wants him out. Says he's been threatening him. All this other stuff, all I do is try and separate them. I can't really be throwing people out, but this guy's causing trouble so I start trying to move him away. At first the dog boy seems like he's just going to walk away, but suddenly he doubles back and throws a kick at the guy's stall. Not just that, but he seriously starts barking at this guy. Like really loud, rough. Ruff ruff ruff. It was intense, man. Naturally I then go to grip him and the kid actually bites me. I went to throw an arm around his neck to get control over him, but he just caught my arm and sank his teeth into it. Now luckily I'm wearing my branded security jacket and the fabric is just tough and plasticky enough to have this guy's jaw grip slip off the meat of my arm. But man, if he had gotten a grip on me, I might have had a chunk bitten off. The guy was near rabid. As the other security guys are dragging him off, I can see him trying to bite him, but I can hear this noise too. And it actually took a second for the penny to drop that it was the sound of his teeth clapping together like this sharp snap, snap, snap sound. Honestly, it was really scary. I get my arm looked at by the medics, police turn up and take the guy away. Definitely the most eventful thing that happened. The rest of it was kinda boring after the initial furry shock. Nice people though. I wouldn't mind going back. It came out more as you've got to save this girl. Because he wasn't after me. I was just delivering a pizza. Unless they were after me, in which case there might not be a girl, but I talked about to one on the phone. So then you should find that girl because they used her to lure me there. But if she's real, she doesn't know about the guy who was also real. And there could be even more guys if there's actually a girl. And you know what? Even if there isn't a girl, there might actually be more guys. I only checked one part of the bushes, so I don't actually know. But we'll know which guy is the one I saw because I pissed all over him. You know, I didn't mean to. This was back when I thought the girl was real, but I didn't mean to. This was back when I thought the girl was real but not home. But she might be real. So you really need to find her if she is, because the guy was real. Finally, they basically just asked me to stop talking and stay on the line.
- [65:15]
B
Chronic migraine 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting four hours or more, can make me feel like a spectator in my own life. Botox Anabotulinum toxin a prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine. It's not for those with 14 or fewer headache days a month. It's the number one prescribed branded chronic
- [65:31]
A
migraine preventive treatment prescription Botox is injected by your doctor. Effects of Botox may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. Alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems or muscle weakness can be signs of a life threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue and headache. Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms and dizziness. Don't receive Botox if there's a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions including als, Lou Gehrig's disease, Myasthenia gravis or Lambert Eaton Syndrome, and medications including Botulinum toxins as these may increase the risk of serious side effects.
- [66:09]
B
Why wait? Ask your doctor, visit botoxchronicmigraine.com or call 1-844-BOTOX to learn more.
- [66:15]
A
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone Paying Big Wireless Way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment
- [66:37]
B
of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full terms@mintmobile.com are you one of those media strategy people clicking through slides scrolling spreadsheets? Yes.
- [66:50]
A
Good.
- [66:50]
B
This is for you because on Spotify there's an audience. That's different. Locked in, loyal, invested. They're called fans. Fans don't just listen to music. They feel seen by it like it belongs to them.
- [67:03]
A
So when your brand shows up on
- [67:05]
B
Spotify, that's who you're talking to. And you're right next to artists like me, Lizzo. So are you ready to talk to fans? Spotify advertising, you're among fans. The most memorable gifts aren't found, they're made. Zazzle is a custom marketplace where you pick any, any product, A mug, a card, a tote, a phone case, and make it personal. A photo, a name, an inside joke. The kind of gift that actually fits the person. That's what 30 million customers have been coming back to Zazzle for over 20 years to find right now. Save 25% on your first order@zazzle.com that's zazzle.com. make it zamazing. Hey guys. I found the only gift that dad wants this Father's Day Goldbelly. Goldbelly ships the most iconic foods from the best restaurants across the country straight to his door for free. Let him relax and enjoy. Award winning barbecue from Texas, Epic deep dish pizza from Chicago, or colossal pastrami sandwiches from New York. Make dad feel like an absolute legend this Father's Day. And go to goldbelly.com to get 20% off your first order with promo code DAD. That's goldbelly.com, code DAD.
- [76:26]
A
It's.