Episode 220: Your Urban Legends XLVII - Expanding the Spirits Canon
/The lore of Spirits is expanding with more stories about the man with the trenchcoat and the dog, the origins of the Silent Hill movies, and more terrible choices by college students. Also featuring our love for real life Scooby Doo, the Hot Tall Lady from Resident Evil, and more!
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of Covid-19, bodily functions, nightmares, death, martyrdom, bodily harm, underage drinking/partying, masturbation, domestic neglect, child endangerment, ableism, parent death, alcoholism, burns, natural disaster, mine fires, sinkholes, eviction, immolation, hallucination, arthritis, and grandparent death.
To skip Amanda’s story involving domestic neglect, child endangerment, and disability, go 34:36.
Housekeeping
- Recommendation: This week, Amanda recommends Stardew Valley 1.5
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
- Call to Action: Check out our Patreon at patreon.com/spiritspodcast, or text a friend about the show!
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Find Us Online
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Transcript
Amanda: Welcome to Spirits Podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. Every week, we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Amanda.
Julia: And I'm Julia.
Amanda: And this is Episode 220: Your Urban Legends #47.
Julia: Oh, man, it's nice to hit those urban legends again after January. January was a blast, but it's nice to kind of spread them out now and, like, you know, savor the ridiculousness that are our urban legends episodes.
Amanda: Absolutely. And we still get the chance to do another urban legends episode, a bonus one, every dang month for our patrons at the $4 level and higher. Thank you very much patrons. And we would love to welcome those of you who have just joined. Thank you Kelda for becoming a patron. You join the ranks of supporting producer patrons; Uhleeseeuh, Allison, Debra, Hannah, Jane, Jen, Jessica Kinser, Jessica Stewart, Keegan, Kneazlekins, Liz, Megan Linger, Megan Moon, Phil Fresh, Polly, Sarah, Skyla, and SamneyTodd, and the legend level patrons, Julia; Audra, Drew, Jack Marie, Ki, Lada, Mark, Morgan, Necroroyalty, Renegade, Sanna, and Bea Me Up Scotty.
Julia: These are all people that I just want to go on a ghost hunting trip with.
Amanda: I know. I feel like, when – if and when we meet each other in person, I will be like, “Oh, yeah, like, well – like, oh, yeah, Jack Marie in the patron list.” And I'd be like, “Oh, my god!” I would be so excited. Like, what – meeting somebody whose username you know as a person for the first time. I feel that way about all of you guys. Thank you for, for supporting creators that you find worth supporting.
Julia: We really appreciate it. And, the fact that we get to do this all the time, it's fantastic. I love it. I love that this is my job.
Amanda: Me too. And, Julia, I spent the last two days thinking that farming mangoes and bananas is my job because I would love to just recommend that, anybody who has played Stardew Valley, pick it up again because they released a giant update over the last couple months at first to other platforms and then to Switch, which is what I play it on a few weeks ago. And I put, like, maybe 300 hours into Stardew Valley overall. It's a lot of time. It's extremely fun. It's extremely relaxing. And I loved to pick it up for the first time. And, basically, just when I had, like, finished the game, more or less, the new update came out, which gives you, like, so much more to do. And I was like, “Perfect.” But I imagine that, for anybody who played it ages ago, it's like a sequel. Like, it's a whole new game, basically, that came out for the same price of the one you already own. So, Stardew Valley, pick it up.
Julia: I genuinely didn't know that you could win Stardew Valley. I felt like it was just one of those things like Sims where you continue to keep playing it and there's new stuff to unlock. But there's no end. But that's fascinating.
Amanda: Yeah, there's no end, but there is an end to stuff you can unlock.
Julia: Oh, okay.
Amanda: And, so, it's more like when I had, like, done all the things except for catch all the fish because fuck fishing in Stardew Valley. It’s so hard. Fuck. I had, like, four that I haven't caught and it's just I'm never going to do it. And, so, like, when you hit all the achievements, you know, like, get all the things. You can still, like, go on and live your life and, like, do stuff. But having new quests, and, like, new items, and new reasons to do things the game wants you to do is just so enlivening. It's great.
Julia: That sounds nice and relaxing, but also exciting.
Amanda: Absolutely. I played Stardew all day on Sunday while watching speedruns of Spyro the Dragon Reignited Trilogy and, you know, I'm just living my best life.
Julia: Nice.
Amanda: So, anyway, thanks again to our patrons. Thanks to everybody who's recommended the show to a friend. That is the best way to help keep us growing. It brings new listeners, which means we can get new advertisers, new patrons, you know, new people checking out our merch store. It's just a great way to help keep these old bones young. So, if you could pass the podcast and text one friend who you think would love Spirits, that would just mean the world to us. Here, I’ll – I'll give you a second. Okay. All right. Go ahead. Pass it. Okay. Thank you so much.
Julia: Thank you for texting that spooky friend of yours.
Amanda: Everyone has a spooky friend. You know you do.
Julia: That's true.
Amanda: And we're glad that you texted them. All right. So, without further ado, please enjoy Spirits Podcast Episode 220: Your Urban Legends #47.
Intro Music
Amanda: Guys, I have a question.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: Okay.
Amanda: How do you think ghosts have coped with everybody being home all the time?
Eric: Hmm. I mean have we gotten – are you suggesting a possible, like, influx of hauntings or influx of supernatural experiences by ghostly home – well, homeowners with ghosts? Or are you just asking, like, how do you think ghosts are dealing with it? Do they like all the people around?
Amanda: How are they dealing? Do they like it? Pets have had this reaction too, right? Where, like, some pets are really stoked that you're around and some of them are like, “Get out. I need my 10 hours a day by myself.” And I just wonder. I'm sure every ghost is different, right? But, like, I just wonder how the ghosts are doing right now.
Eric: Every ghost is different.
Julia: Yes, I think ghosts feed off of, like, living energy and, like, the energy of human beings. So, I think they're all about it.
Amanda: Ooh, they're getting stronger then.
Eric: You're suggesting we're gonna need the Ghostbusters at 2021 to 2022 because the ghosts are getting all of that ghosts juice.
Julia: They're getting stronger.
Amanda: Yeah, we have to really continue to stay home, but also be wary.
Eric: Ghost caused COVID. They --
Amanda: No.
Julia: No.
Amanda: No. No.
Julia: That is not --
Eric: They put it – No. No, no, no, no, no. Listen, listen, allow me – here – here's my extrapolation. The ghosts caused COVID and, now, we all have to stay inside. And that's why the general malaise of mankind has, has gotten – has happened over this year. It's not because we're, like, psychologically having to deal with the stress of being in our – in our little bubbles all the time. It's because ghosts are draining our energy and this is all a giant ghost conspiracy.
Julia: I would like to preface this by saying that this is not a thing that we believe because I don't want our podcast to get flagged as, like, COVID misinformation. So, no.
Amanda: Also, Schneider is double fisting coffee and black cherry seltzer right now. So, I think he is just in a space of his own.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: My only thought here is, like, you know, someone should ask how the ghosts are doing. And that's basically what I want to know. Have your – have your ghostly experiences changed over the last year? But, also, you know, maybe we are reaching a new symbiosis. Maybe it took this force togetherness for us to be like, “You know what, ghost? You can live off my energy. I can deal with my home resale value being lower and just, I guess, having company around. And, like, we can all just make it work.”
Julia: Eric, how, how is your ghost that you deny is in your home doing? Is he – is he good? Is he chill?
Eric: I have not – I will say – I will say this is the first sign of any haunting-esque behavior.
Julia: Ooh?
Amanda: Ooh?
Eric: I will – I will give you, you guys this one. I think it's just, once again, an electrical issue or my lightbulb is going out.
Amanda: That’s what they all say.
Eric: The lightbulb in this room, the last two days, they just flicker a bit. And then, if I just, like, kind of twisted the light on the fan, it stopped. So, I think there's just, like, a loose wire that happened somewhere along the way. This fan was installed quite poorly. It makes a loud clicking sound and has never been turned on because of that. So, I think that's just shoddy wiring by, by the flippers more than a haunting. But I will admit, twice yesterday, I had a, a short light flicker experience.
Julia: And you say that this is the first experience that you've had, but we, on camera, saw your chair move. So, I stand by the fact that your house is haunted.
Eric: That was just gravity.
Julia: Uh-umm.
Eric: That's just the great smooth gears of the Steelcase Gesture.
Julia: All right. Now, guys, speaking of recurring hauntings like Eric's home, I have a very important update in an email that I saw this morning.
Amanda: Oh?
Julia: And I, I need to tell you all.
Amanda: Yes, I love the updates as a recurring feature. More updates to urban legends, please.
Julia: Now, you, you might recall, during our extra large, extra spooky month of January, that someone wrote in to let me know that they also had the same experience that I had with the man in the trench coat with the hat and the dog.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Mhmm.
Julia: Another person has written in.
Eric: Oh, my god.
Amanda: Nooo.
Julia: So, this is from Grace and she wrote, in the title of this email, I also know the man in the trench coat and the hat with the dog.
Amanda: I don't like this.
Julia: Here we go. The other day when I was listening to the XL episode, I nearly peed my pants when I heard you mention the man in the trench coat and hat. Why? Because I know him too. He showed up in one of my dreams. And, to this day, it is one of the most terrifying nightmares I've ever had.
Amanda: I hate it. I hate it. Tell me more.
Julia: In my dream, he had a small dog with him, not a large dog. So, it is a little departure from what seems to be the canon, which I love that we have a canon now. That is great.
Amanda: For better and worse, you are the keeper of the man in the trench coat with the dog, Julia.
Julia: I – you know what? I take the title proudly. Thank you. But, in my dream, he was basically following me around, but, get this, while floating. He would follow slowly and, no matter how fast I ran, he would always be somehow right behind me.
Amanda: Oh, no.
Julia: The abject feeling of dread that I got from this thing gives me chills even now. He followed me through gardens, into buildings, everything. The dream ended when I ran up the staircase of this industrial-like building and barricaded myself in the top room, my fear growing as I knew he was approaching. Fully in panic mode, I decided to get out by launching myself at the door and throwing myself down the hole in the staircase all while screaming at the top of my lungs. My go-to get away factor was the element of surprise. Haha. So, I land safely at the bottom of the stairs, because, yay, dream physics, and run out into the street where I run into a boy with golden hair that I just know is going to protect me. So, new, new canon here.
Amanda: Hmm.
Julia: And, adding to the canon here, there is now --
Eric: That's a very provocative image.
Amanda: Yeah, it is.
Eric: Boy with the golden hair who was clearly a protector. Like, just – it's really something.
Amanda: A real Aslan situation.
Julia: Yes, we have these, now, like, dueling forces; the man in the trench coat with the hat and the golden-haired boy.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: This is like a good version of Day Man and Night Man in It’s Always Sunny.
Julia: This is a better version of whatever was happening in Stephen King's The whatever Tower series. Seventh Tower? Is that it?
Eric: Wow. Put up the Last King.
Julia: It's not a good series. Sorry. Whatever. A warm feeling of safety came over me and I knew I was going to be okay. So, shout out to the Dream Prince. Hahaha. The Dream Prince is a very good title. I love this. Anyways, yes, I thought I would share this story because I hadn't thought about that in forever until I heard the man mentioned in the episode the other day. Mine was a little pudgy with a small dog though. So, maybe they're like cousins. Who’s to say? Any way you look at it, fuck that. Thanks for taking the time to read it. And, even if you don't read it on the show, just know that I feel your pain, Julia, because this man is scary as bejesus.
Amanda: Wow. I, I’m floored.
Julia: So, now, we have the man with the dog and we have the Dream Prince.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: And, now, I need a three-part fantasy series about these two.
Eric: Well, I --
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: -- might have --
Julia: Hmm?
Eric: -- the origin story.
Amanda: What?
Julia: I'm sorry. What? How?
Eric: I don't know. I'm just – I'm just suggesting that this story that I am about to read titled Dragons, Dogs and the Dinging of the Bells in the Sea --
Julia: Okay.
Eric: It does have a dog in it, obviously. And it is a black dog. So, maybe this dog is related.
Julia: Perhaps.
Eric: I don't – there's not a ton of exact similarities with the dreamscape and everything, but this is a spooky dog. So, perhaps, we've got something.
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: Maybe this is a real wishbone situation, where one extremely adventurous black dog is getting into keepers of all kinds all over the dream realm.
Eric: Well, the reason – the reason I'm suggesting this could be an origin story is because I, I honed in on a date that I could see in the email that is 1577. So, it's a – it's quite an old dog.
Julia: Mhmm. Mhmm.
Eric: So, I'd say maybe this is the, the origin. And then, now, we're dealing with the future ramifications of this dog.
Amanda: Hell yeah.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: But we'll – we'll just get into this story from Ellen and she writes, “I love the show and wanted to share some legends near to where I live and that are close to where my family comes from. I live in the South East of England and, near to where I live, there is a forest called St. Leonard's Forest. I don't know much about the actual legend. So, this is all I could find. This name comes from St. Leonard, the Dragon Slayer, who was said to have retired to live in the forest after having a life with things that saints tend to do.”
Julia: Described. Let's – let's all take turns and name one thing a saint tends to do.
Amanda: Getting buried in pieces and having your bones stolen.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Die horribly was going to be mine. So, on, on brand.
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: I feel like, at least, one of your miracles need to involve an animal.
Julia: Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: A lot of times, they'll get married but also be like, “I'm being celibate for god.” And they're like, “All right. Cool. So, we won't have a child.”
Eric: Definitely true.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: Definitely 100 percent accurate there.
Amanda: Yeah. And definitely probably not appreciated in your lifetime at all.
Julia: That's the big one.
Eric: Oh, for sure. If anything, evidenced by the horrible deaths.
Julia: Yep, that'll do it usually.
Eric: Well, often at the hands of the people they are trying to help from my understanding.
Julia: Almost always, huh?
Eric: At this time, there are also rumors of a creature that lived in the forest that was nine feet long and had an appearance of almost red and black scales, which made the public stay away from the forest at the time.
Amanda: I'll say.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: I don't like something being described as nine feet long.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Nine feet tall, we can handle that.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Like, just – like, like, the hot woman from Resident Evil 8 everyone's talking about on the internet. She is canonically nine feet tall --
Julia: Yes.
Eric: -- as of this morning.
Julia: Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm. I like that specification. Nine feet tall, hot. Nine feet long, scary.
Amanda: Yeah, agreed.
Eric: St. Leonard decided to take it upon himself to slay the dragon. Whilst fighting the said dragon, he was wounded and where his body fell Lilies of the Valley grew. To this day, there are large patches of flowers. I am unsure if they are actually Lilies of the Valley, but I definitely know bluebell patches bloom there in the spring. He slayed the dragon. And, as a reward, he was asked to banish all other dragons from the forest.
Amanda: As a reward.
Julia: As a reward, he was asked to do more work.
Amanda: Oh, I hate that so much. It's like when your unpaid internship ends in a job offer of unpaid probationary period.
Eric: Now, you're a fellow.
Amanda: Oh, brutal Eric. Brutal.
Eric: There is also another rumor that there was a headless Phantom who rode on horseback through the field at night and it was also said to keep the public out of the forest. Later, it was realized that these legends were probably made up by smugglers simply to keep the public away from naturally occurring rich resources or iron in the forest. However, I still like to think that the legend lives on as the dragon has been immortalized as a bronze statue with stone eggs in a hedge maze in the town near the forest.
Julia: Oh, it had eggs.
Eric: That's how you get all the other dragons.
Julia: I love eggs. I love Amanda's knows a lot of character eggs.
Amanda: Thank you. In House Breakfast, we have a thing with protagonist eggs.
Eric: Now, we have the story about the dog.
Julia: Oh, yes, I forgot about the dog. Go on.
Eric: Another myth I would like to tell you about is the legend of the Black Dog of Blythburgh. Blythburgh is a small town in Suffolk near where some of my family lives. And this story is always told when we drive past the church on our way back home. The legend goes that, in the 16th century, a priest was giving a sermon in the Holy Trinity Church when, suddenly, a clap of thunder struck the church. The door burst open --
Julia: Uh-oh.
Eric: -- and a seven-foot black dog came into the church.
Julia: Yeah. Again, again, is it seven feet long or seven feet tall?
Eric: Now, this is a seven-foot tall black dog. So, it's okay.
Julia: Okay. So, it's hot now.
Eric: I was just saying everyone's talking about how the woman is hot and tall.
Julia: I'm just saying by the logic we established.
Eric: A lot of people might find the Resident Evil vampire lady hot because she is tall, but I think a lot of people think she is hot despite her size and also tall.
Amanda: No. No. No.
Julia: Umm, I disagree.
Amanda: No. No. No.
Julia: I think the internet likes a tall woman.
Eric: Oh, no. Oh, no. I’m just definitely say 75 percent of the thirsty posts on Twitter are definitely because she's tall.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: But I think, if she was also just six feet tall, which is normal tall lady height, people would still find her hot.
Amanda: Thank you for the clarification. I was gonna say that is the straightest thing you've ever said and I'm offended. But I'm glad that you recognize, at least, that most of us just want her to crush us.
Eric: Yeah. No. I, I wonder – it's – it's very cool. I'm just tried to maintain an appropriate level of horniness on the podcast.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: So, I don’t want to talk about why explicitly people find the vampire woman in Resident Evil hot. Demo out now. You want to check that out.
Julia: I will say I specifically saw several tweets where people were like, “Yeah, I saw the video.” And I was like, “Yeah. Yeah. Okay. She's – she's hot. And then she stepped up and you saw that she was nine feet tall.” And they were like, “Yes, fuck me up.”
Eric: I specifically shared it at our Slack and almost tagged you, Julia. But it felt like I would – yeah, I would be calling you out too much if I did that.
Amanda: Fair.
Julia: You know what? I would have been offended, but it would have been right.
Eric: I just shared it for anyone to comment on our games channel at Slack. But I did almost go like, “I, I could do this, but it feels – it feels inappropriate to do if I tag someone in it.” Anyways, back to this black dog who is seven feet tall. Not long.
Amanda: Hot.
Eric: So, anyways, the dog comes into the church, yada, yada, yada. This dog was said to have terrorized towns throughout Suffolk and had just arrived to this church. It had run through the church killing a man and a boy and causing the steeple to fall through the church roof. This is a very intense dog attack.
Amanda: Big yeah.
Julia: Bad dog.
Eric: And, very recently, a seven-foot tall dog skeleton was excavated that was dated to 1577 because the pottery had also been found there. The bit where it gets interesting is that, as the dog fled, it left scorch marks on the church doors as it fled. And those marks are still there today.
Julia: Huh! Well, we know --
Eric: I’m just saying.
Julia: We know that it's a tradition to bury a dog in a graveyard of a church in order to protect it. We've talked about the church grim before. But seven feet?
Amanda: That's a lot of dog.
Eric: That's got to be like some direwolf shit. That's not like a domesticated dog.
Julia: That's a big dog.
Amanda: That's a very big horse even.
Eric: You ever see – you ever – you know what I love seeing when I think about a big dog? I love seeing a Great Dane that's got a Scooby Doo colored collar on.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Eric: Always a delight. I saw one a few weeks ago.
Julia: Delightful.
Eric: It’s just like, you know – I mean, if you got a Great Dane, especially if you've got a brown Great Dane, you got to put that blue collar on. [Inaudible 18:08]
Julia: You're obligated.
Amanda: There's a pair of extremely adorable white Great Danes with black spots who look like adorable cows in my neighborhood. And I, I treasure them.
Eric: Very nice.
Julia: I love them.
Eric: We do have one final quick short story from, from Ellen and I'll read it real quick. I couldn't find any sources on this one. So, I'm going to tell you what I have just been told directly. The coastal town of Dunwich in Norfolk is on cliffs. And, due to storms and coastal erosion, the majority of the town has been destroyed or crumbled into the sea. And, today, there are only a couple of buildings left on top of the cliffs. It is said that a church fell into the sea. And, sometimes, you can hear the bells tolling from the bottom of the sea.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Hope you enjoyed these stories and hope you all have a great day.
Julia: I like that.
Amanda: I do, too.
Eric: Talked about the tall woman a lot more than I expected to during a lot of this episode so far, but, specifically, during this story as well.
Julia: Oh, well, you know what? It happens. Amanda, how about you? What’d you got?
Amanda: Well, from the stormy climes of Southern England all the way to one of our favorite places, the Philippines.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: I have a story here from Wewin. This story does mention drinking and, like, describing partying. So, just take note of that. And she writes, “We may have angered a sanctuary guardian.”
Julia: Whoops. Our bad.
Amanda: I was listening to your most recent urban legends episode with XL stories and got really excited when you started talking about the Wakwak and about the sigbin in the Philippines. I've always loved folklore ever since I was child, but I've never believed it to be real until one fateful night. It was late October dangerously close to Halloween and the first semester of Junior Year just ended. Like, most college kids, my friends and I decided to go on a trip to a marine sanctuary that allowed overnight stays so we could drink our stresses from the school away. We should have taken the storm as a warning sign. The heavy rain hadn't stopped till morning. The day was dark and gloomy and no one in their right mind would think it was a good idea for any trip at all, but we were just college kids. Besides, what would we do with all the food and drinks we'd already bought?
Julia: Good point.
Eric: That is the ultimate problem with college. You're like, “I've got food. I’ve got the rain. Let's just get this done.”
Amanda: I can't return these beers because I've had one and it's a 24-pack. And where's the band kids? The band kids will come.
Julia: Band kids always come.
Amanda: Ooh. A little – a little too sexy here. All right. Let’s go back to the story.
Julia: I didn't mean that way, but yeah.
Amanda: I think band kid’s also fuck.
Eric: Welcome to the Revised Urban Legends XXX, the unintentional horniest episode so far.
Julia: God.
Amanda: All right. All right. So --
Julia: How is this hornier than the one where we asked if ghosts could masturbate? How is this happening?
Amanda: That was a scientific inquiry. Okay?
Julia: Okay.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: All right. The sanctuary was four hours away from the city. It was located beside the road and there were no other establishments in a half mile radius; only mountains, trees, and the open ocean. Coincidentally, when we saw the sign pointing to the sanctuary, there was a sudden roar of thunder and the rain started to pour again.
Julia: No shit.
Amanda: It was as if something straight out of a horror movie. Another warning sign, perhaps?
Julia: Yeah. Yeah, I know hindsight is 2020, but come on.
Amanda: The caretaker originally didn't want to accommodate us but felt sorry since we came all the way from the city to get there. So, she let us stay anyway. We rented a little bamboo cottage between the beach and the picnic area. And we had the whole place to ourselves. Right off the bat, the place gave off an eerie vibe. The aura at the caretaker’s cottage at the top of the sanctuary was friendly and welcoming. But, as we walked down the set of stairs that led to the water, it became quieter. And it was like we had entered an entirely different dimension. The rain wasn't pouring as hard as it did at the top of the stairs. You couldn't really hear the sound of thunder. The trees didn't sway to the harsh wind like they should. And the big waves hitting the rocky beach sounded softer and almost muted. Obviously, another warning sign, but, being the college kids that we were, we paid no attention to any of that.
Julia: Oh, boy.
Amanda: Fast forward to nightfall, my friends and I drank, partied, play games, and we're just overly loud. Being someone with a higher tolerance and, also, really good hearing, whenever I remember the events that followed, I wish I'd tried a little harder to get drunk.
Eric: I like that combo of two things.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: I have a high tolerance for alcohol and great, great hearing.
Amanda: Yeah. Well, we've been drinking since 9:00 PM and, by 12:00, almost half the group was no longer functional, which, by the way, that's when I decided to read this email. So, I was like, “That is just such a wonderful phrase and a very evocative one. And, also, I missed being at parties.”
Julia: Yep.
Eric: Mhmm.
Amanda: Everyone was talking loudly while others were just plain asleep. The entire time we were occupied though, a friend and I had been hearing a sound of someone or something encircling the cottage.
Julia: Uh-oh.
Amanda: It sounded like chains being dragged around or coins being tossed from hand to hand. I didn't mind it, though and thought it was just the caretaker making rounds. I get that once. But, the second time, a few moments after I noticed the sounds, a harsh knock came from the door. “Can you quiet it down?” said a man's voice. It was deep and had almost like a strange echo or resonance to it. We all apologize for the noise and promised to lower our voices. But we kept our eyes on each other. No one dared to look through the cracks to check whether it was human or not. The voice itself gave enough clues on what it could be. When things died down and the drinks were empty, we all decided it was time to sleep. I slept sitting up beside my friend with our backs against the bamboo cottage door. But, when I fell asleep, I kept having this dream of my friends and I crossing the footbridge in the sanctuary. And, every time one would slip and fall, then I would wake up. This happened over and over until my friend beside me woke up all of a sudden and asked, “Did you feel that?” “No. Feel what?” I said very confused. “The door. Someone's trying to open it.” I had the audacity to say, “What? Let me feel it.” And I pressed my back onto the door and there it was. I felt shivers down my spine and all the hairs n my arm shot up as I felt a forceful hand pushing on the door. Take note, this was a bamboo door and you could see through the cracks if there was someone there. But, I shit you not, there was nothing there. No shadowy figure. No creature shaped blob. No nothing. We informed the others and they told me to get some sleep on the other side of the room. But, right when I was about to close my eyes, I heard my friend whisper to another one, “Please sleep next to me. I think someone's looking at me.” Right when she said that, we heard it. There was a sound of heavy wings flapping and a faint wak, wak --
Julia: Oh, no.
Amanda: -- almost similar to a person gagging but really, really slowly. It was the Wakwak. We didn't know what to do. Half of us were knocked out and the rest were just way too tired. We've never encountered anything like this before and we were so close to screaming. But we took the very effective Eric route and feigned ignorance.
Eric: There you go.
Amanda: Fortunately, we were able to sleep and, by morning, we were all still alive and complete. We woke up at around 6:30 AM and told the others about the happenings that took place thinking it was all over since we were already in the safety blanket of daytime. We, naturally, were wrong. But that's a story for another time. There are many other eerie things that happened the same night, but I felt like this was the most relevant. And, since it's already a very long email, I'll stop here. This incident was only the first in a series of weird and creepy encounters that almost always happens during our trips together. Hope you enjoyed my story. Have a lovely day. Hoping you guys get to see the Philippines. Love you all.
Julia: Listen. Listen.
Eric: Mhmm.
Julia: I'm not here to victim blame. I'm not here to victim blame.
Eric: Excellent.
Julia: There is a reason that nearly every horror movie or horror story features high school or college students and it's shit like this.
Amanda: Yeah. This is scary. I'm amazed nothing happened. But I'm very glad no one opened the door.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Me, as team investigate, I'll say right here, “You made the right choice.”
Julia: Team investigate. But, also, the idea of you feeling someone trying to break into the place where you are and your friend's advice was, “Hey, go sleep on the other side.”
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Like, don't sleep against the door anymore. Go sleep on the other side.
Amanda: When the friend was the one who said, “Do you feel that?”
Julia: What?
Amanda: Terrifying.
Julia: Oh, boy. I need to go the route of these college students and go get another drink.
Amanda: Let's do it.
Midroll Music
Julia: So, Amanda, 2020 was a lot and 2021 is not quite shaping up as terrible, hopefully. But I have been sleeping so much better since the change in the new year. And it's not just because I got some new sleep stories from Calm. So, if you haven't heard of Calm on our show before, it is an app designed to help ease stress and get the best sleep of your life. You can relieve anxiety and improve your sleep. And it makes you just feel better all around. Over 85 million people around the world use Calm to take care of their minds and get better sleep. They got soundscapes. They've guided meditations. And they have over 100 sleep stories. I really liked the Laura Dern ones. We always love Laura Dern on this show. And --
Amanda: We love Laura Dern.
Julia: -- it's just really relaxing to listen to her to fall asleep. So, for listeners of this show, Calm is offering a special limited time promotion of 40 percent off a Calm premium subscription at calm.com/spirits. That’s C-A-L-M.com/spirits. And that's 40 percent off unlimited access to Calm’s entire library. And new content is added every week. Get started today at calm.com/spirits. Again, that's C-A-L-M.com/spirits.
Amanda: Julia, there is nothing I like better than, just as a treat to myself on, like, a Friday night, ordering takeout, but I order two meals of takeout because then the delivery person just has to come once but I still get two meals worth of it. And I have leftovers for the next day – maybe for the whole weekend if I stretch it. And I often use Doordash to do that. Doordash connects you with the restaurants you love right now and right to your door. You can also get grocery essentials now as well; drink, snacks, other household items from grocery stores or convenience stores. So, if you need that, that is a really good option to have in mind. When you open the Doordash app, ordering is super easy. You can choose what you want from where you want and then your items get safely left outside your door. They have 300,000 partners in the US, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Australia. So, you can support your neighborhood go-tos or choose from your favorite national chains.
Julia: Like Cheesecake Factory for Amanda. And, for a limited time, our listeners can get 25 percent off and zero delivery fees on their first order of $15 or more when you download the Doordash app and enter the code creepycool. That's 25 percent off up to a $10 value and zero delivery fees on your first order when you download the Doordash app in the App Store and enter the code creepycool. Don't forget that code creepycool for 25 percent off your first order with Doordash. Subject to change. Term apply.
Amanda: And, finally, if there is something bothering you, if there's something interfering with your happiness or preventing you from achieving your goals, or focusing at work, or falling asleep easily at night because of all, all the thoughts up there, BetterHelp is a real resource that I would love for you to check out. They assess your needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist with whom you can start communicating in under 48 hours, which is amazing. They have a broad range of expertise available which might not be in your area. They're also more affordable than traditional offline counseling and available for clients worldwide. I love that I can log into my account anytime and send a message to my counselor. So, if I ever have to, you know, delay or change an appointment – I used to hate having to write a formal email to my therapist or call them. But, instead, I can just message my therapist in a chat window that looks like iMessage and be able to, you know, correspond with them outside of our normal scheduled hours. So, listen, this podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and Spirits listeners can get 10 percent off your first month of counseling at betterhelp.com/spirits. More than a million people have taken charge of their mental health with the help of an experienced professional and you deserve to as well. So, go to betterhelp.com/spirits for 10 percent off your first month. And, now, let's get back to the show.
Julia: So, one of my favorite breweries here on Long Island which is the Great South Bay Brewery has – I think it is made for me specifically as, as a person, as, as me, Julia.
Amanda: Oh, wow.
Julia: Do you guys remember that drink Hi-C?
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Ecto Cooler, baby.
Julia: Ecto Cooler. Well, this is the Hi-Sea, S-E-A. And it is a fruit punch sour ale.
Eric: That sounds great.
Amanda: That sounds so good.
Julia: It is the most me thing, I feel like, any brewery has ever made. So, I am here for it.
Eric: I – as Amanda alluded to, we started recording this just before noon and I was finishing up my morning coffee. But, as, as we’ve said, I also have a White Claw ready to go.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: So, it is – it is time. There are no longer laws because there ain't no laws when you're drinking Claws.
Amanda: That's what I heard.
Eric: And that's the energy I am bringing into this second half.
Amanda: And I am enjoying, from my neighborhood brewery KCBC, Kings County Brewing Company here in Brooklyn – they did a collab with Rockaway Brewing, which was right near my old house in Astoria, another great local here. It is a blend of dark English malts with flaked oats, flaked barley, and flaked rye. Four layers of smooth cocoa, dark roast, black molasses, and a hint of vanilla and that's called Strictly Plutonic.
Julia: It's really cute. I like that a lot.
Amanda: Well, I'm gonna to start us off here with a wonderful email from Della. And she included some content notes, by the way, for children, domestic neglect, and disability. So, we'll put in the show notes the timestamp of when this story finishes if you prefer to skip forward. She writes, “Hi, all, and best wishes from Germany. Thank you for your awesome show. I'm a listener since the start and I love every episode. So, here's my story. I have marble bone disease and, therefore, I'm about 100 centimeters tall. So, even though I'm 30 years old, I could be easily mistaken for a kid at first sight. I always said I'm not too rooted in the physical world as my disease had me experiencing some life-threatening moments. And I think this is why I had strange experiences with the other realm ever since I was a kid. I also had my fair share of broken home. So, I guess I'm an easy resonator for this kind of stuff. So, at the time of the story, I was dating a guy who had just moved into his mother's birth house. Not suspecting anything odd, I went to the other side of Germany to visit him.” Oh, how these stories begin.
Julia: Oh, yes.
Amanda: He greeted me at the door and the second I went in I felt an overwhelming feeling of dread and fear.
Julia: Uh-umm.
Amanda: But, hey, if you're freshly in love and miles away from home, you tend to ignore things.
Julia: Love makes us all do very, very foolish things.
Amanda: Yeah, I will say nothing wrong with the boyfriend here. So, don't – don't worry about that.
Julia: Okay. Okay. Good.
Amanda: So, I went in trying to make myself feel comfortable. Bad idea. Whenever I was alone in a room, I heard the voice of a kid running around on its toes trying to make the least sound possible. I also heard in my head repeating, “Go away. Go away. You don't belong here. Something bad will happen. He'll be mad.”
Julia: Uh-umm. Uh-umm.
Amanda: Once again. I tried to ignore but felt like a, a dog that was ignoring warnings of what I knew would happen. I desperately followed my boyfriend around just to not be alone for any second of the day until he stepped inside this one room. Right at the door, I felt like I'd been slapped almost. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I had a full panic attack. This was the moment when I fled that house shaking. Of course, my boyfriend was confused and asked what was wrong as he took me to the nearest hotel.
Julia: Mhmm.
Amanda: Finally, I told him what I'd experienced. He tried to laugh it off, but, to assure me everything was fine and I was just, you know, making things up, he called his mom who'd grown up in the house to ask her if she'd ever felt anything strange. As I told her about my experience, we could practically hear her grow pale. She asked me to describe the room I wasn't able to enter. And, when I did, there was a long silence. She then broke to me and her son who had no idea of this, by the way --
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: -- that she had a family secret. That she had a little brother and their dad was alcoholic and violent. Their mom passed away soon after they were born. And, one day, her little brother was home alone with his dad and the dad was reluctant to get him some food. So, the kid tried to make his own meal and, unfortunately, slipped and got burned by some boiling water. As far as I know, the kid survived that ran off as soon as he was old enough never to be seen or spoken of again. And the room I wasn't able to enter was the kitchen.
Julia: Oof.
Amanda: I can – now, I can only assume that the boy’s energy mistook me for a child his age and warned me not to be home alone with anyone who was male in the family. And he feared me experiencing the same hurt he did. So, thank you a little friend for your warning and your solidarity. And I hope it helped you move on as silence has now been broken. My boyfriend never laughed about my feelings again, but I also never visited his house again.
Julia: A good choice.
Amanda: This is my personal haunting story. And I hope everyone who's in a dangerous situation at home gets out of their fine one day. I'm sending you all of the strength I can muster. Take care. Stay safe. Survive. One day, you'll be free and happy just as I am now. Best regards, Della.
Julia: Aww. That was very sweet.
Amanda: I know it's a – it's a serious thing. I so appreciated how she wrote, how she ended it. So, thank you so much, Della.
Julia: Yeah. And I think this is another instance of strong memories imprinting on a place rather than being a ghost. Like, for all we know the “spirit” in this story is a person who, hopefully, is still alive.
Amanda: Mhmm.
Julia: But, yeah, the, the fact that, like, such strong emotions and memories can leave an impact is something that I really truly believe in.
Amanda: Absolutely. And, you know, we, we love a protective ghost. So, I thought that the title of Ghost Child Solidarity was a really apt and beautiful one.
Julia: It's very cute.
Eric: I've got a little jumping off discussion story that's also a light follow up to our All-Stars episode.
Julia: Let's just remember – let’s just remember what happened when we did a light discussion one last time.
Eric: Do you mean just – oh, yeah. Right, of course.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: This is also about a video game about the Sony PlayStation which Resident Evil first came out. So --
Julia: Yes.
Eric: So, we're – so, we’re wading into a difficult territory, again, possibly.
Julia: Hmm. Here we go.
Amanda: All right. I'm ready.
Eric: This comes to us from Jamie and the story is titled Real World Silent Hill.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: And she writes, “Hey, Spirits crew. I just finished listening to the All-Stars episode and just had to write when Julia mentioned how she felt that Silent Hill was more Appalachian than Northwest. Well, I have news for you. The screenwriter for the Silent Hill movie use the near ghost town of Centralia, Pennsylvania for inspiration.
Julia: Oh, hey.
Amanda: Ooh.
Eric: That town now hosts 10 residents and used to be a coal town until May 1962 when a controlled landfill fire was not properly put out and ignited an underground coal vine which quickly spread throughout the mines.
Julia: Oh, boy.
Eric: The first sign of the fire didn't become apparent until 1979 --
Julia: What?
Eric: -- when the mayor was checking gasoline levels, which is a wild thing for the mayor to be up to.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I mean it was – it was presumably not a huge town before.
Julia: Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. But still.
Eric: But, like, I mean I guess some of these towns have mayors with jobs that are also not just mayor.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: And found that the dipstick was hot of the gasoline levels he was – he was checking.
Julia: The dipstick. What a – what a wonderful --
Amanda: What a good word. I know it’s – I know it's a real thing.
Julia: I know.
Amanda: I know, but, also --
Julia: It's still very good.
Eric: He then lowered a thermometer into a tank of oil only for it to read 172 degrees Fahrenheit.
Amanda: That's too high.
Eric: That's far too hot. Two years later, a 12-year-old boy fell into a four-foot wide by 150-foot deep sinkhole before being rescued by his cousin.
Julia: Okay. Okay.
Eric: Sinkholes are actually – this is not in the email, but sinkholes are surprisingly serious problem in Pennsylvania because of all the vines. Like --
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: -- they just happen somewhat regularly.
Julia: I'm glad this child is safe, but, also, I'm very curious as to how the cousin managed to get this child out of 150-foot hole.
Eric: Yeah, a plume of toxic steam spout out from the hole. And it was tested to reveal that it had lethal levels of carbon monoxide. This event led the town folk to discuss options on what to do. This soon led to the state offering to buy out residents so that the town could move. More than 1000 people took the deal leaving only 63 by 1990. Then, in 2009, the governor signed the eviction for the remaining residents.
Julia: God.
Amanda: Industry is so dark.
Eric: But the fire isn't the only thing Centralia is known for. The Old Main Road is now known as Graffiti Highway. The abandoned section of Route 61 took on a new life when adventurers began to tag the concrete. But, as time has gone by, the ground has cracked and fallen into the mines. But the last straw for the owners came during 2020 when tourism from out of state residents surge in the wake of COVID. Owners have now closed the road to the public and began the process to cover the road with dirt. Sadly, I was never able to see it in person. Love the podcast, Jamie.
Julia: Okay. Who are the 10 people living there then?
Eric: Well, let me tell you because I have been to Centralia, Pennsylvania.
Julia: What?
Amanda: What?
Eric: I've been to Central Pennsylvania. I have walked on Graffiti Highway.
Julia: Oh, my god.
Eric: There is – and, I shit you not, there's cracks all over this highway, which is in fact covered with graffiti – now, covered with dirt. There's, like, spots where, like, you put your hand into these cracks and the rocks in there are just warm. They're just warm. There's a few spots where, like, smoke is rising out.
Julia: What?
Eric: Like, this mine has just been on fire for decades.
Julia: And they can't do anything about that? That seems wild.
Eric: No, because the hole is just going to keep burning and burning and burning and burning until there's literally nothing left because of the way the veins are just all burned up essentially, which I, I've read what the estimation is. I can't remember it off the top of my head. But I think it's, like, hundreds of yours they think this fire could potentially burn for.
Julia: That's wild. Wild. So, no, no, to go back to my original question --
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: -- who are the 10 people living there?
Eric: Yeah, there's just literally – like, there's a bunch of abandoned buildings. Most of the, like, town is kind of like been demolished in one way or another. But, like, there's – like, you drive through and there – this was probably six, seven, eight years ago I was there.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: But there's just a handful of houses where people are just living there because that's where they've been living for decades. And they just don't want to sell their house and move. And, like, presumably they think that their part is safe enough. And they're not, like, right by the mine and everything. But, like, yeah, I don't know. I assume it's just some people that are wanting to live out their, their final years where they – where they've settled down.
Julia: See, I, I can understand. Like, I know that, like, financially, you can't just move if you feel like moving. I get that. But, at the same time, like, if the government is subsidizing to pay for you to leave this very dangerous place that you're living in, I would probably leave.
Amanda: It's so fucked up that that has to be an individual's choice and, like, there is – people are not stewarding the Earth properly. Hey, everybody, support the land back movement. Let's go back please and listen to people who are experts in --
Julia: Mhmm. Mhmm.
Amanda: -- stewardship of land that we have fucked up a lot over the last couple of centuries. Jesus, that is a living nightmare.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Yes, horrifying.
Eric: It really is.
Julia: Great story, but horrifying.
Eric: Yeah, it's a – it's a truly wild place. It's – I mean I don't know if it's good or bad morally or ethically that it's gonna no longer become a tourist spot. I mean it's literally in pretty much the middle of Pennsylvania. So, it's not by, like, much else. So, like, tourism there is probably not a huge thing to begin with. But, like, obviously, it was somewhat something.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: So, yeah, I mean it's a – it's interesting that it's being, being shut down so, so to speak.
Amanda: Well, I do think that feeling with your hand, like, an extremely unnatural phenomenon --
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: -- that can show you or maybe help you understand in your body in a way that you didn't before. You can't from just reading, you know, impacts of destructive choices and, and fossil fuel and such.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: You know, maybe that, at least, not a silver lining exactly, but a consequence that, hopefully, can, you know, radicalize some people who have visited.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: All right. So, that leaves me for the final story. Would y'all prefer the Mysterious Ringing Noise or would you prefer Ghost Roulette, good, bad, or grandpa?
Amanda: Ghost roulette.
Julia: Ghost roulette.
Eric: Yeah. Yeah, ghost roulette. I, I wanted to go with the ringing noise at first, but the subtitle, the subheading of the second one really, really got me – got me good.
Julia: Good, bad, or grandpa.
Amanda: It really got me there.
Julia: All right. So, this was sent in by Kat and she writes, “Hi, Amanda, Julia, and Eric. I've been listening to Spirits since 2017 and can't thank you enough for creating what has been my comfort show for the last three years.”
Amanda: Aww.
Julia: I've wanted to submit my own stories for ages, but it was the latest urban legends episode that finally got me to sit down and write this out, Episode 210. The final story of the episode came from Anna and was a story about her grandmother coming to her in a dream then waking up to find that her grandmother had sustained a head injury moments before. I knew I had to finally sit down and write this out because I have a very similar story. I should preface this with the fact that I grew up in a house that we, to this day, believe was haunted. I tried to be a skeptic and tried to rationalize what happened often, but some things just are unexplainable. After my great grandfather died, my mom got very into spirituality and trying to connect with those who had passed on, which is a pretty common coping mechanism, all things considered. She meditated and tried regularly to contact him. With him, came many other entities, beings, or whatever you want to call them. It seemed like, every other month, we were introduced to a new spirit. At first, it started with electrical disturbances while she tried to contact my grandfather. Eric, I'm looking at you right now.
Eric: I am aware you are looking at me.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: And I'm ignoring you're looking.
Julia: A tube in our old computer monitor exploding and sending an otherwise pitch black room into bright blue light waking up even my stepfather who didn't believe in the supernatural. Sometimes, they were just neutral, powerful occurrences like that. Other times, there would be more corporeal-looking apparitions. Like, the time that my mom, her best friend, and our pet cat who did the whole puffy hiss scream kind of thing that cats do when they're frightened to their core.
Eric: Mhmm.
Julia: All saw an elderly men walk up the stairs and vanish into nothing.
Amanda: Geez.
Julia: Or my childhood friend, Sierra, who my dad was sure was an imaginary friend, but my mom believed was a ghost. Sierra was a 12-year-old girl who always appeared in a floor-length brown 1840s dress.
Amanda: Mhmm. Mhmm.
Julia: She had flowing golden blonde hair that was kept in waves as though she had just taken out braids. And, each night at 2:00 AM, I'd wake up to her standing at the foot of my bed and we talk. I was never afraid of her and she just wanted a friend. She told me she died in a fire and there was one instance in which I came into my room to find charred oak leaves on my floor in the middle of spring --
Amanda: What?
Julia: -- on the second floor with the windows closed.
Amanda: Nooo!
Eric: Yikes. Yikes.
Amanda: Oh, yikes.
Julia: Maybe that was a mischievous friend playing a prank on me after I told her about Sierra at a sleepover. This friend and her mom lived in our downstairs apartment. So, she would spend the night with me often. But I don't know how she would have gone outside, gotten charred leaves somewhere, and then went upstairs to my room without me noticing.
Amanda: Or just got leaves and then had the wherewithal and planning as a child to char them without burning something else down.
Julia: Precisely.
Amanda: Jesus.
Julia: Still, other times, the being seemed uneasy or malicious. We had one who would create auditory hallucinations in me, my mom, and even my stepdad. There was a time in which my parents were hanging out downstairs and I was in my room on the second floor headphones in doing homework. After a few minutes, I took my headphones out and heard them yelling my name. I rushed downstairs apologizing for not hearing them through my headphones. They were shocked to see that I looked perfectly content and normal when they just heard me sobbing and yelling for my mom in agony moments before.
Amanda: Holy shit.
Julia: Which, side note, if you think you hear your child sobbing in agony and they don't respond when they call your name, why wouldn't you go upstairs and check on them? What the fuck, mom?
Amanda: Unless there was just some kind of like paralysis, you know, involved with the hallucination.
Julia: Yeah. A few months later, I was hanging out in my room when I heard my mom's meditation music playing from the living room. I thought it was weird that, one, my mom would play meditation music that loudly, and, two, that she'd be home by 4:00 PM when she never got home from work before 6:00, and, three, that she would come home early and start meditating without announcing her arrival with her usual door slam and greeting. When I approached the staircase, the music came to an abrupt halt.
Eric: Ooh.
Julia: Anyway, none of those experiences can measure up to what I recall being the final and most visceral paranormal experience I had in that house before moving out for college. So, this is all leading up to the pièce de résistance of spiritual hauntings. Before my popop’s passing in 2008, he and I were extremely close. I recall that one snowy afternoon, a few years after he passed, I was watching TV on the couch when I suddenly realized my right hand was curled in a very unnatural and uncomfortable position. I immediately thought about how it looks like popop’s hand whose fingers had been paralyzed into a permanent grip from arthritis. I tried moving my fingers, but I couldn't unfurl them no matter how hard I tried. I suddenly had the overwhelming urge to call my grandmother panicking out of nowhere that she'd been hurt or, god forbid, died. I called her and immediately my hand relaxed to its normal arthritis-free self. But, when my grandma picked up she sounded extremely weak, she told me that she had had the worst case of flu she could recall having and was planning on having my dad drive her to the hospital that day. When I hung up the phone, a confusing wave of both comfort and anxiety washed over me. I quietly thanked my grandfather for telling me to call and check in on his wife and spent the rest of the afternoon shaking as I mentally recovered from the experience.
Amanda: Wow.
Julia: That was back in 2011 or so. And I'm happy to report that, nearly a decade later, my grandma is still doing well at 88 years old. Very sweet.
Amanda: Yay.
Eric: Nice.
Julia: She and I have talked pretty much every week since that happened. I, of course, call because I love her, but, also, because, somewhere in the back of my head, I recall that day my popop urged me to make sure she was doing okay. Anyway, thank you for listening to this super long and rambling story. Stay creepy, stay cool, and stay well, Kat.
Amanda: Kat.
Julia: Kat.
Eric: Very nice.
Julia: What's a good story.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Man, imagine like just keep showing up all these ghosts. Your mom just keeps contacting all these ghosts to contact your great grandfather. And then all these spooky, spooky ghosts happen and you have a 12-year-old 1940s ghosts that keeps dropping off burnt leaves in your house. That's not fun.
Eric: I don’t like the leaves. That's also got to be a pain to clean up because they crumble.
Julia: Yeah, not, not good.
Eric: That’s not good.
Julia: Bad actually.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: The rest isn't great either, but, like, the leaves, ugh, terrible.
Amanda: Even the leaves themselves I would find creepy, but the burned ones. Like, it implies violence. It's like finding a impaled object or like a broken pot or something.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: I think it's almost like it was like maybe she said something or one of her parents said something that implied like, “Oh, this ghost isn't real.” And this ghost is like, “Look at the burnt leaves. Look at them. I'm real.”
Amanda: Tell me I'm not real now when you're cleaning ash off of your carpet.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Oh, man. Well, that was a wild one.
Amanda: Well, this has been a journey. I feel like we have gone on so many rides, all of which ended pretty okay. And I, I value that in an urban legends episode.
Julia: And much hornier than we expected, which is always par for the course for urban legends episodes.
Amanda: Hornier than we expected, more poignant than we expected. The --
Eric: Mhmm.
Amanda: This show, you guys know this is what it is. We, we bring you everything.
Julia: We do our best to at least.
Amanda: So, thank you for writing in. Thank you for sending your updates. We love it. And we'll see you, of course, next week for the whole new episode.
Julia: If you have also seen the man with the hat and the trench coat and the dog, let me know. I am building the canon for this.
Amanda: Or the Dream Prince.
Julia: Dream Prince.
Eric: Dream Prince.
Julia: Do you think Crince was one of the dream princes?
Eric: Nope. Absolutely, not.
Julia: Damn it.
Amanda: Crince is like the, the Royal account keeper of the Dream Prince and is like, “I got this fucking coupon and no one is going to leave until they use it.”
Julia: Yep, that's about right. All right. Stay creepy.
Amanda: Stay cool.
Theme Music
Amanda: And thanks again to our sponsors. At calm.com/spirits, you can get 40 percent off a Calm premium subscription. In the Doordash app, you can use code creepycool to get no delivery fees and 25 percent off on your first order of $15 or more. And, at betterhelp.com/spirits, you can get 10 percent off your first month of counseling.
Transcriptionist: Rachelle Rose Bacharo
Editor: Krizia Casil