The Sleepover

[00:00:00] Welcome to Scary Story Podcast. You were asking for these, so today I'll be telling you ghost stories. These seem to be my favorite too. Are you ready? My name is Edwin. And here's a scary story. The Sleepover.

[00:00:25] Over winter break, my family and I got to talking about old friends. Probably because over the holidays we got calls and Facebook messages from people that at one point were very close friends but we had lost touch. It's sad how it happens, people fading like that.

[00:00:42] But we started reliving all of those stories and it even got us to pick up the phone and call some of our friends. Somewhere along the way, we started talking about my old friends from elementary school and about where they could possibly be.

[00:00:57] I remember when I was little, I would go to the store with my dad. And he would bump into an old friend of his and he would be so excited to tell me that they had been friends in elementary school.

[00:01:07] I wish I were like that because whenever I bump into somebody I know, I try to avoid them. But anyway, that's how we all remembered this story. And I didn't know it then.

[00:01:19] But it turned out to be one of the creepiest things that has ever happened to me. Back when I was in second grade, I had a friend named Stephanie. Her mom used to buy her the coolest things and I used to love going over to her house.

[00:01:33] We would play with the newest toys and Barbies that she would get. She had a whole collection of cars for dolls along with houses and boats. So one time, I asked my mom if she would let me go over and sleep there at her house.

[00:01:48] Stephanie and I both made plans on how we were going to tell our parents. And it took like four days to figure it out. First, she would ask her mom. And then if she said yes, then I would ask mine.

[00:02:01] I was too excited to wait, so I just asked that same day and my mom said yes. That she would like to talk with Stephanie's mother after school and to ask if that was okay.

[00:02:13] It was a Wednesday when Stephanie came in with her huge purple backpack into the classroom. The teacher had already started talking and I could see her signaling that her mom had also said yes. I was so excited for that.

[00:02:28] The next day, both of our moms got to meet each other by the exit where they picked up the kids. They started talking. We were joking, saying that they would also become best friends. And so we sat there, outside of the school for a very long time.

[00:02:44] I remember the school being empty. And with the gates wide open, Stephanie and I just ran inside toward the fields. We had them all to ourselves. We didn't have to wait our turn for the monkey bars, didn't have to count for the swings. Everything was quiet.

[00:03:05] Neither of us had said anything until Stephanie broke the silence with something like, This is really nice, huh? And to this day, I think that's the first time I was able to acknowledge that very special moment.

[00:03:19] The one where everything seems perfect and all you want to do is sit there and look up at the sky. Calm and completely happy. With the soft breeze and the sun being dimmed by the trees at the edge of the field.

[00:03:34] Our moms called us from the gate, saying that we were leaving. And then we started walking back, with Stephanie suggesting that it would be cool if she could invite another one of her friends, Betty. I didn't know her, but I said yeah, that it would be very cool.

[00:03:49] And with smiles on our faces, they got in their car and mom and I walked the two blocks home. I couldn't wait for Friday to come. Mom had even gotten me a new set of pajamas to use at night.

[00:04:02] And she packed them along with my toothbrush and a comb for my hair. She told me to make sure that I cleaned up after myself. That if I changed my mind about spending the night, that Stephanie's mother had her phone number.

[00:04:14] That all I had to do was ask to be taken home and my dad would come and get me. There was no way I would call to be taken home. Stephanie's house was huge and she had one of those outdoor playhouses right by her bedroom window.

[00:04:29] They said that at one point it had been a shed, but it didn't look like ours. Her parents had painted it with white and pink. And it was like a real house with a window and everything. I remember thinking that she was so lucky.

[00:04:45] Then again, I didn't know the whole story. We got there and Stephanie's mom had already set up the television room for us with snacks. Then she asked what movie we wanted to see because her dad was going to go to the video store for us.

[00:05:04] We wanted to see a cartoon movie, but we didn't know many of them. I think we finally settled on Aladdin, but I don't remember because we spent the whole time talking and playing with other things while the TV was on.

[00:05:17] We went up to Stephanie's room where her parents had set up the fold-out bed from the couch that she had in there. But it was still early, so we got out some of her board games.

[00:05:29] I was setting up one of them when Stephanie got up to open the door and another girl came in. It was Betty. She had a tiny backpack in her hand, although it looked empty, and she looked right at me, smiling.

[00:05:45] I used to be awkward back then, so I didn't speak much to her, but I remember thinking that she didn't seem to want to speak with me either.

[00:05:54] It was the way she looked at me, but she still joined us for a couple of rounds of trouble, board game. Even though she didn't speak, I still managed to have a lot of fun.

[00:06:06] When it was time to go to bed, Stephanie opened the door for Betty and she left without saying anything else. But I did ask Stephanie where Betty was going to sleep. I couldn't understand why she got to sleep out in the playhouse by herself and we couldn't.

[00:06:23] And so through the window I remember peeking out there. I never saw her go inside. I just let it go. It was weird to see how another family lived. I mean, I think our first sleepovers have that kind of shock as well, right?

[00:06:39] The plates are different, the cups are different, the color of the carpet is different, and the way they treat each other is different from family to family. I don't remember at what time we fell asleep.

[00:06:53] We just kept watching late night cartoons and cable, something that I didn't have at home. It's actually how I discovered Nickelodeon now that I think about it. The next morning we had McDonald's for breakfast and got to play out in Stephanie's playhouse.

[00:07:10] Betty would supposedly be coming by later. But at around noon my dad was outside ready to pick me up and I told him all about my night on the way home. He just nodded and asked me questions about what the place was like and stuff.

[00:07:27] I couldn't stop talking about it for that next week either. It was like Stephanie and I had something to talk about with our friends that everyone wanted to do as well. It was another Wednesday when my mom asked me something on the way home.

[00:07:43] She said that she had been talking to my dad about the sleepover and that she wanted to ask me why I hadn't told her that another friend had been there with us. She said that I was supposed to tell her everything

[00:07:55] and that she was going to have to call Stephanie's mom and ask her about it. But I wasn't sure why it was a big deal. But I guess now as a mom, I kind of get it. Anyway, she called her and asked about Betty and everything.

[00:08:10] But I was glad that I wasn't in trouble. But while we were talking about it recently, my mom said that it was such a bizarre story for her, knowing that I had gone to stay at a friend's house and played with Stephanie's imaginary friend.

[00:08:25] That's what creeped me out. Mom swears that she had told me about Betty and that I didn't care too much about it as a kid. Although honestly, I couldn't remember her telling me. It turns out that after she called Stephanie's mom,

[00:08:44] she explained that Stephanie had an imaginary friend named Betty that she claimed to have lived in the shed outside. The shed that was then a playhouse. Stephanie's parents had taken her to a doctor to talk about it, and eventually they determined that she was imagining the whole thing,

[00:09:04] basically an imaginary friend. But I had seen Betty also. And even though it's been a long time since then, she did seem to be just like any other little girl our age. The details I remember about her are that she was very quiet when she spoke,

[00:09:23] just those few times she did. Her hair was dark and oily, and she moved with an odd slow motion, even when she walked. She didn't laugh, and she had that stare, one with a smile that Stephanie and I talked about at school at some point.

[00:09:44] My mom, relieved at the thought that it had only been us two, she let it go and forgot about it. And so while we were there, talking about these stories, I thought about sending Stephanie a message on Facebook, just to see how she was doing. And I did.

[00:10:03] We caught up a bit, and then I asked her about Betty, which obviously she remembers. But she said that, yeah, it was her imaginary friend, and as she grew up, Betty sort of went away.

[00:10:18] She thought that I was asking her about Betty just like her parents and doctor had done so back in the day. Throughout the whole conversation, I don't think Stephanie remembers that I had seen her too. I figured it would be better to just leave it that way.

[00:10:49] The next story is called Apartment Building, and it's coming up right after this. Stay with me. It was at an apartment building back when I was in Mexico. I didn't have a lot of money, and I moved to the city to work and go to school.

[00:11:09] So I found an apartment sort of on the edge of town, along a dark street. It was cheap, and the owner was a parent of one of my classmates, so he gave me a discount while I was in school. The area itself wasn't bad.

[00:11:24] I mean, it wasn't terrible. It was just dark at night. The road to get there was still dirt, but the neighbors were nice, and they all watched out for each other. This building had two floors above the base floor, so three in total.

[00:11:41] Each floor had its own dedicated staircase on opposite sides of it. It's a weird thing to imagine, but that's how it was built, and honestly I didn't give it much thought. It just seemed like I had a nice private entrance to my unit, the entire second floor.

[00:11:58] Which I know I make it sound like it was a huge space, but really, the brick and concrete building was skinny, built up to the edge of the lot, where there was a house that they were tearing down to build something else. It was fine for me.

[00:12:13] I didn't have a lot of furniture or guests over, plus I was mostly there at night because of work and school. One day, I found out that the owner of the ice cream shop where I worked was going to close it down,

[00:12:27] and I found myself scrambling for another job. At the time, the landlord of the building where I was living was setting up a sandwich shop right at the base floor, and it was looking pretty nice. When I found him in there one day, I asked him

[00:12:41] if he needed someone to look after it, because I needed a job. He said that he did, but that he had just hired someone else, and that if he needed the extra help once everything got set up,

[00:12:54] that he would let me know and that for sure I'd be able to work there. A couple of weeks passed, and I was getting worried about the job situation because I needed to pay for a few things more than just the rent.

[00:13:07] That third week brought along some good luck. The girl who had been hired at the shop downstairs had quit suddenly, but the owner didn't want to tell me her reasons and kept changing the subject. Anyway, the job would be mine if I wanted it.

[00:13:25] I agreed and met up with him to figure everything out, and soon enough, that same day, I was in charge of Jorge's sandwiches. It was simple, and I could manage it all on my own, and it started doing very well.

[00:13:39] People would come in and out during the morning rush and then again at lunchtime. I stayed working that shift for a while, until the end of the semester when my classes would be in the morning and afternoon instead of the evenings.

[00:13:53] That way, I would have to change my schedule to work at night. We didn't have an evening schedule for the shop, but I convinced the owner to try it out and to find someone to help me in the mornings, and he agreed.

[00:14:07] Another girl, Barbara I think her name was, joined me one evening so I could teach her how to place orders and make everything, how often to clean and all that stuff. I had to figure out how to close the shop down on my own at night

[00:14:21] and deal with the danger of possibly getting robbed. I mean, I didn't think it would happen, but again, those streets were dark, and I wasn't too familiar with that neighborhood. But I caught on right away. It was nothing different, just a dinner rush,

[00:14:38] and every Friday and Saturday I would get a couple of drunk people coming in and ordering bags of chips and sodas. I remember thinking that maybe I should set up one of these for myself. It was a good business. Almost immediately after I started working at night though,

[00:14:56] I started noticing that this woman just kept passing by in front of the window, and she would wave. Her clothes looked old and a bit torn, so I figured she was homeless. And once I saw her, I kept seeing her.

[00:15:13] Every night at around 11 or so, just when I was about to close, I would see her dark hair coming across the path right in front of the property, across a glass door. Sometimes she would look at me and wave, but others she would just keep on walking.

[00:15:33] One night, I was clearing out the refrigerator and had some bread and ham in a bag. It was on top of the counter, and ready to offer them to this woman. And it was until I was unlocking the metal gate outside,

[00:15:46] when I saw her coming up around from behind the building and toward the shop. I stepped inside and grabbed the bag as this woman walked in front of the building and then around it. I asked her to wait that I had something for her,

[00:16:02] and if she wanted it, but she simply looked at me, waved, and kept walking. With the bag in my hand now, I stepped out and saw her turn the corner of the building. So I walked behind her, saying that I had something for her.

[00:16:18] She just kept on walking away, very slowly. And so I turned the corner of the building to where she had gone. That property had a fence there, right next to the staircase that led up to the third floor of the building. There was no other place to go.

[00:16:35] She had been my upstairs neighbor the whole time. I thought it was strange how I had never heard anyone upstairs and never even seen those lights on. I simply took the bag with me to my own apartment after locking everything up and went to sleep.

[00:16:53] The following night, and for the next several nights, I kept seeing her, again, walking in front of the apartment building and going into the staircase that led to the third floor. Eventually, I asked the owner about it, and he surprised me

[00:17:09] by asking if I was going to quit too, because that's why Marcela, that very first employee, had left the job. I laughed, saying that no, that I was just curious as to who she was and if she was okay.

[00:17:25] Without saying another word, he signaled me to follow him around that building, and I walked behind him all the way up the staircase that led to the third floor. Look, he said, the door is blocked off. And literally it had been practically cemented shut with concrete blocks.

[00:17:46] He further explained that homeless people at one point had used the place to sleep and to stay away from the cold, and that Jorge had let them use the place since they hadn't caused much trouble. He simply pretended like he didn't notice.

[00:18:02] But one day, there was an accident there, and a homeless woman had died. Jorge had been investigated as they tried to sort everything out, so he decided it would be best to just close off that area,

[00:18:16] at least until he got it set up to rent it out again. The superstitious neighbors would never let that happen, scaring off any potential renters. I stayed there throughout the entire time I was a student, and eventually I moved out.

[00:18:33] I still manage to see that woman out in front of the property every once in a while, though not as often. But it has opened my eyes to wonder how much we don't know about the places we live in.

[00:18:46] And if death is the end for us after all. This episode of Scary Story Podcast was produced by me, Edwin Covarrubias. If you have an idea for a story, let me know over on Instagram or via email at edwin at scarystory.com.

[00:19:13] Up next, check out Dark Memory, where I talk about creepy stories of ghosts, legends, and mysteries. You can find it by searching for Dark Memory right here on the app. Thank you very much for listening to my stories. See you soon!