Old Playground

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Scary Story Podcast.

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_00]: The first story, a restoration project goes wrong and the results are haunting.

[00:00:11] [SPEAKER_00]: The second story might have you wondering what your friends are truly capable of.

[00:00:19] [SPEAKER_00]: My name is Edwin, and here's a scary story.

[00:00:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Old Playground.

[00:00:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Since we were stuck at home for most of our time off from school, my brother and I

[00:00:35] [SPEAKER_00]: looked around for things to work on.

[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_00]: My mom appreciated it, but we soon moved from fixing doors and patching spots on the roof,

[00:00:44] [SPEAKER_00]: you know, from being generally helpful.

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_00]: To building things we thought would be cool just for fun.

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_00]: We tried to make a small pond in the backyard, but it didn't work.

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_00]: We made our ramp out of wooden scraps thinking that we would use it to play around with

[00:00:59] [SPEAKER_00]: our bikes.

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_00]: We never used it.

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_00]: I could feel the relief in mom's voice when we agreed to go to my aunt's house by the

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_00]: outskirts of town for part of the summer.

[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_00]: The last time we visited her, I must have been around 8 years old.

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Back then many of our cousins would get dropped off at her house and it would be like a month

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_00]: long camping trip.

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_00]: We had bonfires, we camped outside, we ate what we wanted and my aunt was more than

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_00]: happy to have us around.

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_00]: She lived by herself ever since she moved there, I guess to escape the city life.

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody talked about it, but I think she had a lot of money from the bakery business that

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_00]: she sold.

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Either that or she must have gotten a big check after her divorce because she traveled

[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_00]: for a while before settling into a big farmhouse and she remodeled it.

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_00]: She had fields to grow things on, but she rented it out to a local farmer who

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_00]: used it to grow corn and grains.

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Obviously as a businesswoman, she turned that into an event venue where every once in a while

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_00]: we'd get invited to have these huge meals.

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_00]: At least that's what I remember from when I was younger.

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_00]: My brother complained about the food though.

[00:02:12] [SPEAKER_00]: He kept calling them leftovers, which they were.

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_00]: People hosted weddings, parties and all sorts of food, flowers and balloons would

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_00]: be left over the next day.

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, that was before the incident.

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_00]: The family had rented out the entire place and upon the request, they wanted no services for my aunt.

[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Now she was used to this type of event also, usually from a VIP or a large family wanting

[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_00]: to spend time away from everything and spend it by the fields on their own.

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_00]: But they always let her stay in her own guest house.

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_00]: But not this time.

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_00]: My aunt was staying with us when she got a phone call from the police department.

[00:02:54] [SPEAKER_00]: And even though I was far too young to remember everything, I can recall her being extremely upset.

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_00]: When my dad drove her to her place, she was met by detectives, police officers and people from the coroner's office.

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_00]: My mom came to pick us up when we tried to look past the caution tape around the fields,

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_00]: the white sheets like tiny hills around the playground area and by the edge of the cornfield.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Neighbors had gathered, standing on the edge of the property trying to get a peek inside.

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_00]: That was the end of her business as we knew it.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_00]: But she kept the place.

[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_00]: We stopped visiting though I think we went once to fix up part of the floorboards on the porch.

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Weeds had grown into it and some rodents had made part of it their home.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_00]: That was the last we had seen of the place so we were excited to see what the place looked like now

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_00]: and how my aunt was doing.

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_00]: We even brought along our own toolboxes and sawing kits in case we needed to repair stuff.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Part of me believes that mom senses there for that reason.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_00]: The place looked a lot better than I remembered.

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Aunt Jane had gotten the walls repaired and painted.

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_00]: The field was not overgrown except for a few parts out in the corner of the property

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_00]: where the shed and the old trampoline and playground were.

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_00]: The old golden cornfields were now lined with green vines likely tomatoes or grapes.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_00]: But there was no way for me to tell for sure from a distance.

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_00]: The first days were fine.

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Aunt Jane was still baking all the time and cooked for us every morning.

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_00]: But soon my brother and I started looking around for things to work on.

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_00]: There was an old tree house by the edge of the old cornfields behind the shed

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_00]: and the ladder had completely rotted out.

[00:04:46] [SPEAKER_00]: We had made a sort of a treasure chest back when we were kids

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_00]: with all of our cousins and part of us

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_00]: was still hoping that we'd find our old drawings or hot wheel cars up there.

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_00]: It didn't take long for us to hammer on some more wooden planks along the trunk of the tree

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_00]: and we were able to climb up there.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_00]: The old treasure chest was just an old rotting red toolbox.

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_00]: We found sticks, rocks, bottle caps and a few marbles.

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_00]: The coolest part were the drawings.

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: They were mine.

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Drawings of my cousins playing on the swings

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_00]: and other drawing of us up on the tree house.

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_00]: A few scoring tables that we used to tell you of points for our games.

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_00]: I looked around the playground to see that old swing set over by the shed

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_00]: and figured it would be nice to restore the entire play area

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_00]: even though no children would be around to use it for some time.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean one of my cousins had a child recently

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_00]: so it would be years until any younger children would come and play.

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_00]: But the thought of bringing back something like that for Aunt Jane

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_00]: was a great feeling.

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And without even discussing it, my brother and I went to work.

[00:05:57] [SPEAKER_00]: When Aunt Jane came out later on that day

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: as we were moving around part of the trampoline, she seemed nervous.

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Asking us why we don't simply help out moving things around the attic

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_00]: or to help out with the old barn.

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_00]: But we were so excited about the playground

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_00]: that we simply told her that we'd come back to it.

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_00]: She insisted and both of us could tell

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_00]: that she had trouble thinking about that area.

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Likely the incident.

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that's why this area was the only place that was unkept.

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_00]: So we backed off from the project for a few days

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_00]: and fixed up some other things

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_00]: until we decided once again to go back to the playground.

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_00]: We patched up the fabric of the old trampoline

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_00]: and cleaned off the rust and added some of the missing padding.

[00:06:42] [SPEAKER_00]: We cleaned up the weeds from under it

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_00]: and mowed the remaining part of the property on the first day.

[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_00]: We should have listened to Aunt Jane and left that area alone.

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_00]: That night I had some of the strangest dreams I've had in a while

[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_00]: with laughter and cries from children

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_00]: to the rhythm of a squeaking sound off into the distance.

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I opened my eyes and I could swear that by the edge of the door frame

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_00]: it was a figure of a child in a dress looking directly at me.

[00:07:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Then I turned around and placed a blanket over my head

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_00]: until finally I woke up to the knocks on my door the next morning.

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_00]: My brother had been outside early

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_00]: and had found the old trampoline torn to pieces.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_00]: We went straight for the kitchen to find Aunt Jane

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_00]: and when we told her about what we found

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_00]: she seemed even more nervous blaming it on perhaps an animal

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_00]: but still strongly suggested that we stopped working on that

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_00]: and simply go back to something else.

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_00]: My brother and I looked at each other confused.

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_00]: We didn't have that much work left.

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Aunt Jane left to the kitchen almost whispering to us

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_00]: that breakfast would be ready in 10 minutes to get ready.

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_00]: It was my brother's idea to at least fix the swing set.

[00:08:10] [SPEAKER_00]: We needed a new chain and paint and I agreed.

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_00]: After breakfast we went straight back out to the playground

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_00]: ignoring the fact that the fabric of the trampoline

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_00]: had been completely torn apart right where we had patched it.

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_00]: There were vertical slashes along the seams we had made.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_00]: My brother thought it would have taken some sort of big dog

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_00]: or a wolf to make such scratches

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_00]: but I had a suspicion that maybe Aunt Jane

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_00]: had simply taken a knife or a set of scissors.

[00:08:40] [SPEAKER_00]: That night had gone out to work.

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_00]: We lifted the steel swing set and cleaned up the area underneath it.

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_00]: We tilted it on its side and started sanding off the old blue paint

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_00]: and rust as best we could.

[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_00]: We cut up a new chain and linked it back to the original welds

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_00]: and replaced the seats after we had finished painting it all over again.

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER_00]: It looked awesome.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I even tested it out and it didn't even squeak.

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_00]: That feeling though wouldn't last very long.

[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Aunt Jane sighed when she looked out into the playground

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_00]: and faked a smile

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_00]: saying that the place looked great and thanked us.

[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_00]: But she quietly stepped back into the house

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_00]: leaving us at the porch in complete silence.

[00:09:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Suddenly we heard a scream.

[00:09:32] [SPEAKER_00]: I ran inside first, my brother close behind me.

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_00]: We ran past the kitchen and down the hall

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_00]: only to hear something backed by the entrance of the living room

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER_00]: that fell and broke.

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Aunt Jane had called us from the dining table

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_00]: asking if we were alright.

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER_00]: We had the same questions for her.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Soon after even stranger things started happening in the house

[00:09:56] [SPEAKER_00]: with laughter and cries

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_00]: the sound of things moving around during the day.

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_00]: But one night

[00:10:04] [SPEAKER_00]: both my aunt and I witnessed one of the creepiest things

[00:10:08] [SPEAKER_00]: that still haunts me to this day.

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_00]: It was almost eleven at night

[00:10:13] [SPEAKER_00]: and we were watching the television in the living room

[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_00]: when I heard a sound from the porch.

[00:10:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Someone walking around and lightly tapping on the floorboards.

[00:10:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody else seemed to hear it

[00:10:26] [SPEAKER_00]: yet I still asked my brother to come with me to check it out.

[00:10:31] [SPEAKER_00]: He grabbed his flashlight and we walked out into the porch.

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_00]: I followed that beam of light out from the green fields

[00:10:38] [SPEAKER_00]: and down the dirt path toward the shed.

[00:10:41] [SPEAKER_00]: The light beamed past the old tree house

[00:10:44] [SPEAKER_00]: and by the swing set.

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Then we stopped on the swing on the right.

[00:10:52] [SPEAKER_00]: The young figure of a girl with her head down

[00:10:55] [SPEAKER_00]: dangling her leg so the tips of her shoes

[00:10:57] [SPEAKER_00]: dragged around the tiny rocks on the dirt.

[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_00]: You heard Aunt Jane's footsteps behind us

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_00]: uttering a breathless, oh no

[00:11:08] [SPEAKER_00]: when she followed the beam.

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_00]: My brother yelled out a hello at such a strange sighting out on private property

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_00]: but what a young girl be doing there anyway by herself.

[00:11:22] [SPEAKER_00]: My brother was cautious.

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps the girl wasn't alone

[00:11:26] [SPEAKER_00]: so he ran inside to get an old wooden bat

[00:11:28] [SPEAKER_00]: that Aunt Jane kept by the door.

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER_00]: But while we waited for those three or five seconds

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Aunt Jane and I realized that the girl wasn't looking away from us.

[00:11:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Her dark hair was dangling in front of her face

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_00]: and onto the white lap of her dress.

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_00]: She was swinging in silence.

[00:11:50] [SPEAKER_00]: The squeaking was gone from the new chain.

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Then she stopped.

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Her hands spread out wide as she let go of the chain

[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_00]: and stepped onto the dirt.

[00:12:03] [SPEAKER_00]: She took a step toward us.

[00:12:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Aunt Jane told me to run inside the house

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_00]: as the girl rushed to us at an unnatural speed.

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_00]: We pushed my brother back into the house

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_00]: and I locked the door.

[00:12:16] [SPEAKER_00]: My aunt couldn't explain what happened

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_00]: but then told us about the last time that she hired workers

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_00]: to clean out the playground area.

[00:12:24] [SPEAKER_00]: She was attempting to reopen her business

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_00]: and needed things in order once again.

[00:12:30] [SPEAKER_00]: The workers couldn't finish.

[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_00]: They kept complaining of strange things happening

[00:12:35] [SPEAKER_00]: with machines malfunctioning, nails popping back out,

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_00]: paint buckets being knocked down and finally

[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_00]: sightings of a little girl and a boy

[00:12:45] [SPEAKER_00]: who liked to run around by the edge of the fields

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_00]: wanting to keep their playground unchanged.

[00:12:54] [SPEAKER_00]: We kept a safe distance from the playground ever since

[00:12:57] [SPEAKER_00]: and Aunt Jane somehow managed to make her

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_00]: venue rental business work

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_00]: with the occasional complaint of ghost sightings

[00:13:03] [SPEAKER_00]: showing up on review websites.

[00:13:07] [SPEAKER_00]: It seems to be doing well for her.

[00:13:19] [SPEAKER_00]: The second story in this episode is called

[00:13:22] [SPEAKER_00]: An Old Friend.

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_00]: It begins right after this.

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_00]: This story makes us face a harsh reality

[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_00]: that sometimes we don't fully know

[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_00]: some of the closest people to us.

[00:13:37] [SPEAKER_00]: An old friend.

[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_00]: My roommate showed me the photos of the new place

[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_00]: and of what would be my room.

[00:13:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I really hoped it wouldn't be facing some noisy street

[00:13:51] [SPEAKER_00]: but I wasn't there with them when they did the house hunting

[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_00]: so I was okay with getting the last pick.

[00:13:57] [SPEAKER_00]: They had done the tough part already.

[00:14:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I went through my things once again

[00:14:03] [SPEAKER_00]: and I did this about once a year moving to a new place.

[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I was mostly used to it.

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_00]: What I couldn't get used to was throwing out

[00:14:10] [SPEAKER_00]: all of the memories that I had gathered up until that point.

[00:14:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Most of my high school stuff

[00:14:16] [SPEAKER_00]: and birthday cards I had collected throughout my life

[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_00]: were at my parents home

[00:14:20] [SPEAKER_00]: but memories never stopped coming so I kept gathering gifts.

[00:14:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I think eventually we start running out of space

[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_00]: to keep everything

[00:14:29] [SPEAKER_00]: that we were likely to keep forever.

[00:14:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Pictures and frames is one of them for me

[00:14:36] [SPEAKER_00]: but I had found an exception

[00:14:38] [SPEAKER_00]: a frame photograph that I didn't mind putting in the trash can

[00:14:42] [SPEAKER_00]: along with a greasy pizza box from the night before

[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_00]: and straight to the alley behind my current apartment building.

[00:14:50] [SPEAKER_00]: It was from the night when we walked along the beach

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_00]: most of our other friends had left

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_00]: and I was going to be driving Jessica home anyway

[00:14:58] [SPEAKER_00]: so we got to stay out a little later.

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's sort of when we became real friends

[00:15:03] [SPEAKER_00]: I guess you could say.

[00:15:05] [SPEAKER_00]: She told me a little about her problems

[00:15:07] [SPEAKER_00]: and her parents and her other friends

[00:15:09] [SPEAKER_00]: how they all suddenly decided to ignore her.

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_00]: We had met in our English classes

[00:15:15] [SPEAKER_00]: as part of a group presentation

[00:15:16] [SPEAKER_00]: and then I found out that she happened to know

[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_00]: a lot of my other friends through other projects.

[00:15:22] [SPEAKER_00]: We had lunch a few times

[00:15:23] [SPEAKER_00]: and we did our homework together

[00:15:25] [SPEAKER_00]: and soon everybody started considering her my best friend

[00:15:28] [SPEAKER_00]: since we were always together

[00:15:31] [SPEAKER_00]: and she believed that.

[00:15:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Once we left college I started a job

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_00]: that I really wanted

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_00]: and was lucky to get right after graduating.

[00:15:40] [SPEAKER_00]: It was challenging, different

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER_00]: and it made me think a lot about my past

[00:15:45] [SPEAKER_00]: and where I was going.

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I was very involved in the process

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_00]: and eventually started going to conferences

[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_00]: and doing overtime

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_00]: reading books on the topic

[00:15:55] [SPEAKER_00]: and then I took over my life.

[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Jessica didn't seem to understand this

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_00]: and her clinginess went on overdrive

[00:16:03] [SPEAKER_00]: but I looked at Jessica as one very happy person

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_00]: most of the time

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_00]: just like at the beach

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER_00]: when she set a camera out by the cement wall

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_00]: where the sand in the street met

[00:16:12] [SPEAKER_00]: and she ran up to me

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_00]: and threw on the biggest smile.

[00:16:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I ended up looking awkward in most of my photos

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_00]: but not on this one

[00:16:20] [SPEAKER_00]: I smiled too

[00:16:22] [SPEAKER_00]: I also smiled when I got the photo

[00:16:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Jessica had left a gift bag at my doorstep

[00:16:29] [SPEAKER_00]: after calling about a dozen times

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_00]: asking where I was

[00:16:33] [SPEAKER_00]: or what I was planning on doing that day

[00:16:36] [SPEAKER_00]: I had traveled an hour south to be with my family

[00:16:38] [SPEAKER_00]: and if I had mentioned that

[00:16:40] [SPEAKER_00]: she would have invited herself

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I made an excuse about my phone

[00:16:45] [SPEAKER_00]: and eventually Jessica forgot about it

[00:16:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Before you started thinking horrible things about me

[00:16:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I need you to understand a few things about Jessica

[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't consider her to be a good person

[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_00]: she picked fights between our friends

[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_00]: and she lied about me

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_00]: and even when we all had proof with screenshots

[00:17:03] [SPEAKER_00]: of messages and everything

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_00]: she'd lie and say that it wasn't her

[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_00]: then later she'd apologize

[00:17:09] [SPEAKER_00]: by doing something extreme

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_00]: like somehow getting an expensive gift for you

[00:17:13] [SPEAKER_00]: or writing long elaborate apologies over text

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I think a lot of people felt bad for her

[00:17:20] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean I genuinely did

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_00]: but I knew it was best

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_00]: to have friends once I saw what she was really like

[00:17:27] [SPEAKER_00]: some of her stories are pretty intense too

[00:17:30] [SPEAKER_00]: and even though I didn't want to believe them at the time

[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I started to after about a year of our so-called friendship

[00:17:38] [SPEAKER_00]: she claimed to have been involved in the death of her sister

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_00]: and about how she hated her father

[00:17:45] [SPEAKER_00]: she claimed to have looked things up online

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_00]: about how to quote

[00:17:50] [SPEAKER_00]: get rid of him

[00:17:51] [SPEAKER_00]: but that she chickened out at the last minute

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_00]: even after gathering the money and everything

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_00]: she said the places where this took place were sketchy

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_00]: and that she didn't want to go alone

[00:18:03] [SPEAKER_00]: then waiting for me to say something

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_00]: when Afer's heard it I laughed

[00:18:09] [SPEAKER_00]: and she seemed offended by it

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_00]: but instead of laughing with me

[00:18:13] [SPEAKER_00]: she started telling me of ways that she could actually do it

[00:18:16] [SPEAKER_00]: and if she wanted to

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_00]: she could prove it to me

[00:18:21] [SPEAKER_00]: my smile was wiped away right at that instant

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_00]: the way she looked at me

[00:18:26] [SPEAKER_00]: almost threatening me to never get on her back

[00:18:28] [SPEAKER_00]: and on the bad side

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_00]: made me feel genuinely afraid of being around her

[00:18:34] [SPEAKER_00]: that's when everything started

[00:18:36] [SPEAKER_00]: she knew I was looking around for a new place

[00:18:39] [SPEAKER_00]: and she had said many times before

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_00]: that when I started looking for an apartment

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_00]: to ask her to come with me

[00:18:44] [SPEAKER_00]: that she was looking to move out too

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_00]: and that she wanted to be roommates

[00:18:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I should have told her no right then and there

[00:18:52] [SPEAKER_00]: but instead I simply ignored the suggestions

[00:18:54] [SPEAKER_00]: or played it off as something that might happen in the future

[00:18:58] [SPEAKER_00]: and I would let her know

[00:19:01] [SPEAKER_00]: when she found out that I had already found a place

[00:19:03] [SPEAKER_00]: with two of my best friends

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_00]: she was beyond angry

[00:19:07] [SPEAKER_00]: she sent me messages and voicemails

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_00]: and I used to dread having to read or listen to them

[00:19:13] [SPEAKER_00]: it was taking a toll on me

[00:19:15] [SPEAKER_00]: hearing how bad of a friend she thought I was

[00:19:17] [SPEAKER_00]: and how angry I made her

[00:19:20] [SPEAKER_00]: one of her last messages to me

[00:19:22] [SPEAKER_00]: before I blocked her

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_00]: was that I would pay for what I did

[00:19:26] [SPEAKER_00]: that people get what they deserve

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_00]: and that she'd be making the call

[00:19:30] [SPEAKER_00]: the call

[00:19:33] [SPEAKER_00]: see most people would never understand what that means

[00:19:36] [SPEAKER_00]: but that's what she referred to

[00:19:38] [SPEAKER_00]: actually going for a visit

[00:19:40] [SPEAKER_00]: with the people who would get rid of others

[00:19:43] [SPEAKER_00]: part of the deal online

[00:19:44] [SPEAKER_00]: was that she had to deliver money

[00:19:46] [SPEAKER_00]: and cash to a specific place

[00:19:48] [SPEAKER_00]: to a specific person

[00:19:51] [SPEAKER_00]: this person would not say a word

[00:19:53] [SPEAKER_00]: and accept it

[00:19:55] [SPEAKER_00]: she was only supposed to walk away

[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_00]: to close a deal

[00:19:59] [SPEAKER_00]: and my friends told me

[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_00]: and warned me about her

[00:20:04] [SPEAKER_00]: they said that I should call the police

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_00]: that the messages were threatening

[00:20:08] [SPEAKER_00]: but I don't know what got into me at the time

[00:20:12] [SPEAKER_00]: thinking about making a report

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_00]: for empty threats like that

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_00]: would make me seem like a person

[00:20:16] [SPEAKER_00]: who couldn't handle her own problems

[00:20:19] [SPEAKER_00]: still, the thing Jessica described for me

[00:20:22] [SPEAKER_00]: were serious

[00:20:24] [SPEAKER_00]: she mentioned that empty tunnel

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_00]: by the entrance to the beach walkway

[00:20:29] [SPEAKER_00]: it was part of a dark area

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_00]: that always smelled like algae and dead fish

[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_00]: the place that Jessica described

[00:20:36] [SPEAKER_00]: as a perfect place to dispose of a body

[00:20:40] [SPEAKER_00]: we both laughed when she said that

[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_00]: back when we were friends

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_00]: since then I've gained way more respect for the dead

[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_00]: and I can't imagine laughing at something like that now

[00:20:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I can't tell you that I wasn't afraid

[00:20:53] [SPEAKER_00]: for my life or that I didn't look both ways

[00:20:55] [SPEAKER_00]: when I left my house

[00:20:56] [SPEAKER_00]: for my grave darn shift

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_00]: from her was somehow better

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_00]: than the silence of her blocked phone number

[00:21:04] [SPEAKER_00]: but relief arrived that winter

[00:21:07] [SPEAKER_00]: when I was at work

[00:21:09] [SPEAKER_00]: see, I was numbed by a lot of things

[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_00]: due to the nature of my job

[00:21:13] [SPEAKER_00]: and I felt like I had some type of superpower

[00:21:16] [SPEAKER_00]: that made me unafraid of what was coming

[00:21:19] [SPEAKER_00]: and cautious about what was possible

[00:21:23] [SPEAKER_00]: the most of the jobs I had to work on

[00:21:25] [SPEAKER_00]: were natural and unfortunate

[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_00]: every once in a while

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_00]: I had a violent case

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_00]: people who had been killed for being at the wrong place

[00:21:35] [SPEAKER_00]: at the wrong time

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_00]: and others

[00:21:39] [SPEAKER_00]: like Jessica

[00:21:42] [SPEAKER_00]: who had the wrong intentions

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_00]: when I identified the victim of a stabbing

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I reported her as someone I knew

[00:21:52] [SPEAKER_00]: an old friend that I couldn't work on

[00:21:56] [SPEAKER_00]: a work partner at the morgue

[00:21:59] [SPEAKER_00]: took over Jessica's case for me

[00:22:01] [SPEAKER_00]: to be one of the first to find out when new stories come out

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_00]: be sure to subscribe for notifications via email

[00:22:17] [SPEAKER_00]: over on scarystorypodcast.com

[00:22:19] [SPEAKER_00]: and click follow on your podcast player

[00:22:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Scary Story Podcast is written and produced by me

[00:22:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Edwin Covarrubias

[00:22:29] [SPEAKER_00]: ad-free versions, additional stories

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_00]: and more are coming to the Scary Stories Project

[00:22:34] [SPEAKER_00]: and I want you to be a part of it

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Links to our Discord community, additional podcast

[00:22:39] [SPEAKER_00]: and the website will be on the description of this episode

[00:22:42] [SPEAKER_00]: that you can visit right from your phone or tablet

[00:22:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Any questions or comments can be sent directly to me

[00:22:48] [SPEAKER_00]: with the contact information being listed on the website

[00:22:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you very much for listening