Two Nights at Grandma's

[00:00:00] Hey there, it's Edwin, and this is Scary Story Podcast. Two Nights at Grandmas. I got settled in at the old dusty room that mom used to sleep in. What a fun Friday afternoon. Things had been moved around obviously since mom was a teen and had moved out.

[00:00:35] Can you believe she got married at 19? That would be in a few years and it really bothered me. I had fallen behind in everything already. I'd never taken a bus, had never gone on an airplane without my family, and had just barely

[00:00:51] gotten a cell phone at the time. Now things were getting better. I think visiting my grandma and being able to have some room away from mom and dad for a bit would help me out.

[00:01:05] Whenever my friends at school talked about going out of state to visit a family member it always seemed to be a blast. For me though, it was just boring. But not this time.

[00:01:17] I was determined to make the most of it, especially since mom said that grandma was forgetting things and that if I didn't spend time with her she would ask me to introduce myself whenever I would visit. Kind of sad, but it happened sometimes.

[00:01:31] And even though mom said it as a way to make me feel guilty, I took up the opportunity. I mean what else was I going to do this summer? As always I looked through the things in the room.

[00:01:45] The window faced a large empty field so the light was making a bright beam of dust directly across the room. I took out my phone and snapped a picture. It looked terrible but I wasn't going to post it anywhere anyway.

[00:01:59] So I sat on the bed, finally relaxing my back from wearing that enormous backpack. I don't know if all grandma's houses sound like this but this one had the creakiest floors I had ever heard.

[00:02:13] Ever since my grandpa passed away, grandma had been mainly by herself with the exception of the kids from the Y and from the nearby schools that they had programs. You know, the ones where they have to help old people with things around the house.

[00:02:28] I thought grandma would absolutely love the idea of having people around but as the years went by, especially after grandpa died, grandma changed. She smiled but not in the same manner. She would casually mention the visits she would get to the house and then her gaze would

[00:02:47] muffler her voice and suddenly she would be staring out to a corner of the room. I think that's why mom thought that grandma was losing it. Grandma called me from the kitchen.

[00:03:00] I could smell the apple pie from the room so I knew she was making it but still I loved to act surprised whenever I saw her bringing it from the kitchen.

[00:03:10] She knew it was my favorite and always wanted to surprise me with one but she did it every single time so the surprise factor was gone I guess you could say.

[00:03:20] I looked around for my phone, I swear I had just used it a second ago but couldn't find it. That's when I heard grandma's voice again. I decided to be away from it for a bit and I just walked over to the door and went downstairs.

[00:03:37] Grandma was taking out the pie from the oven when I walked over to the kitchen and it was absolutely magnificent. When I say that an apple pie can have a golden color, no one believes me but I think the lights from the windows really helped put everything together.

[00:03:53] I put my hands on my face and smiled as I ran up to grandma. She set the pie down then I wrapped my arms around her back. Now bony but still strong. She made me an apple pie she said, my favorite.

[00:04:12] Her smile suddenly faded as she walked over to the living room. She opened the door to the front porch and stepped outside. I could hear her steps as she made her way to the chair she had out there. The pie was still very hot.

[00:04:28] I couldn't even touch the plate yet. So I just sat there in silence as I looked around the old house, the sun now setting. Flies in the kitchen were starting to go through the bowl, still sweet from the stuff she used to make the pie.

[00:04:46] I pulled my chair back from the table and walked over to the living room to spend some time with grandma outside. Did I ever tell you about the sleep incident? She asked me. She had but briefly, mainly because mom didn't like remembering

[00:05:03] what happened back when she was younger. It's a crazy story. You see, back when mom was in junior high, she used to suffer from insomnia. I mean, she couldn't sleep. Mom's first question to me when I tell her that I'm feeling

[00:05:19] something as always, have you been sleeping well? For everything. Headaches, stomach aches if I'm upset over something and even when I scored a 40% on my math test. Grandma says that mom would wake up in the middle of the night, screaming her lungs out.

[00:05:38] Grandma made her sleep with a nightlight on for a few nights because she was terrified of her own room at one point. From what I remember, here's what happened. It was a Friday night and she had just gotten home from school after a flag football game

[00:05:57] that she had gone out to with some of her friends. She had been tired but nothing out of the ordinary. It was good for her, you know, for her sleep issues or whatever. She had chicken soup for dinner and watched television

[00:06:11] for a bit until her dad started snoring in front of it. Then she said goodnight to her mom and went upstairs. She got into bed and according to grandma, my mom was actually able to fall asleep right away. But at around two in the morning,

[00:06:28] screams were heard coming out of her room. Blood curdling screams. My grandpa was the one that heard it first and woke up grandma. They both ran to the room and as soon as they opened the door, they found her fast asleep. Confused, they looked at each other

[00:06:50] and then walked up to my mom, making sure that she was indeed asleep. Everything checked out. Quietly, they walked over to the hallway again and made their way to the room once again, this time so slowly that the creaks of the floorboards sounded like soft continuous groans

[00:07:11] from the tired house. It was then when they heard something hit the tile floor of the kitchen. Grandma ran toward the staircase and grandpa ran to the room to grab a shotgun. When he met grandma at the top of the staircase, grandpa stepped into the darkness

[00:07:30] as grandma tried her best to split her eyes between mom's room and the fading image of grandpa stepping downstairs with a shotgun up to his shoulder. She could see as grandpa's shadow walked over to the corner of the kitchen area

[00:07:45] and then lost him when he flicked on the light. A few seconds that passed seemed eternal. She could wait no longer so she called out to him. Everything's all right, she heard grandpa say. She waited for a silhouette to come around the corner again

[00:08:04] but instead she gasped at the sight. Two figures were there. Grandpa had his arm over my mom's shoulder as he carefully led her back to the staircase. Upon seeing this, grandma brushed over to mom's bedroom once again instead of frozen while standing at the door frame.

[00:08:28] Grandpa was making his way down the hallway with mom now, having recently woken up from her sleepwalking episode. But grandma was still staring at the bedroom. The bed was empty now and the window was open. Something both of them had witnessed and agreed that simply couldn't be.

[00:08:57] Grandpa stayed with my mom as she fell back asleep in her room. Grandma made her way back to the room down that long tunnel of a hallway they had. They said that they talked about it a few times. Grandpa casually saying that people do strange things

[00:09:13] when they're sleepwalking, that opening up a window and walking downstairs was far from something they should be afraid of. What about the screams? How does she get downstairs so fast? Mom acted strange for a few days walking out of conversations randomly, staring into nothingness.

[00:09:36] She would talk to herself while my grandparents thought it had something to do with her. Supposed lack of sleep. The most mom had said about the situation was that she would see dark figures around her room when she was growing up.

[00:09:56] I don't know why grandma decided to tell me this story, especially when it would only be me and her at the house. That creepy old house too. But like nothing, grandma stood up from the porch and walked over to the front door.

[00:10:12] She then stepped inside toward the living room and then made her way to the kitchen. Finally she disappeared into the house. It was getting cold out, so I made my way to the kitchen. I grabbed some pie and I heated up some milk.

[00:10:28] I just sat there for a while alone. Everyone had avoided talking about how grandpa died Maybe that's why they didn't come to this house anymore. But all I could think of was just the many laughs and jokes he would play on my grandma

[00:10:43] and on my sister and I when we were children. We used to love coming here because of him. I put the pie away and placed a glass in the sink before making my way upstairs to get ready for bed. That room was cold now.

[00:11:01] The wind had picked up, so I put the window down and then finally saw the curtain stop moving. I flicked off the light and I put myself under the covers and I could feel myself drifting off to sleep. And suddenly, I felt a hand in my shoulder.

[00:11:19] It was suddenly so cold that I could feel it in my bones. I feel my hair moving with the wind as I heard a distant voice coming from my left ear. I kept asking me to wake up, reassuring me everything was okay.

[00:11:37] I opened my eyes and held back the urge to run, standing in the front porch. Grandma said that it was okay as I looked around completely confused. My heart was beating so fast that I could feel it up by my ear.

[00:11:55] Grandma gave me a light push to go inside and shut the door behind us. All while telling me that everything would be all right. She walked with me as we went upstairs. I went back into the room. I could hear as grandma walked over to the window

[00:12:12] and closed his shut. They started at the ceiling with the moving shadows of whatever was outside reflecting on the ceiling until I could hold my eyes open no longer and fell asleep once again. That morning, grandma called me downstairs to have breakfast and told me

[00:12:35] that my mom would be coming over to pick me up as she was pulling out the last slice of apple pie from a plate on the fridge. Mom was going to be out of town, I told her. She's supposed to come pick me up tomorrow.

[00:12:49] But tomorrow's Monday, grandma said. You have practice tomorrow morning, don't you? Say what you want to say about grandma but she never messes up with dates. I checked my phone to see that in fact, it was already Sunday morning. What happened to Saturday? Her smile suddenly faded again.

[00:13:13] She locked eyes with mine. She was waiting for me to say something but instead she looked away and whispered you were acting a bit strange yesterday. The following story is called An Old Doll. And it's coming up right after this. I used to hate my friend.

[00:13:56] I know it isn't nice to say that or whatever but she never thought things through and I hated how she would always be around asking for money. Especially when she used to spend it on going out and buying dumb things every weekend

[00:14:08] and now could not afford her car payment or her electricity bill. She always had some excuse for it too. Like, oh I didn't know it was gonna be like this. Oh I didn't know it was gonna be do this month

[00:14:20] or I never thought it would be this much otherwise I would have saved up for it. Otherwise I would have not spent it. Something ridiculous like that. But one of the worst things she would do was to buy pets and then not take care of them.

[00:14:35] Like her fish tank that she was supposedly going to take care of every single day. She promised when we went to pick it up. She bought all the stuff for it which, let me tell you is a ton of money.

[00:14:47] And then she ended up buying fish that were not supposed to be in the same tank together and one of them, an $80 fish, died not even a month later. And I used to buy things on impulse too of course but they were usually little things

[00:15:01] like gum at the grocery store or a bag of chips. Most of my purchases were clearly planned even the ones that I knew were not necessary but I would really like and want to keep for a long time. That's something that my friend used to tell me too.

[00:15:16] That I buy dumb things as well so that she didn't know what I would be complaining about. She always brought up the time when we both went to an antique shop across the street from where she got her nails done

[00:15:27] and I bought what she called a creepy doll. But I didn't find her creepy at all. I mean, at first. She was made from composite material but wore one of the most elaborate dresses that had ever seen on a doll before. Green and with shiny black shoes.

[00:15:49] The whole thing was well kept for over 150 years according to the shop owner who actually struggled to give me a discount on it. $80 was too much for it but when we were about to walk out she sighed and said that she would take 30 for her.

[00:16:06] The employees were going to be happy about this, she said as she put her in a paper bag. The doll's eyes now almost completely closed. And you should have heard my friend Kathy when I bought her. She wouldn't stop talking about how much I had spent

[00:16:23] as if she just hadn't paid almost $100 for nails and whatever else she had gotten done at the nail salon. It must have been a few weeks after that when she showed up to my house with a large basket, with dog toys and a blanket.

[00:16:38] She was holding on to a leash. It was a puppy. A tiny Labrador dog that I knew was going to be like dealing with a tornado. I looked at her suspiciously until she finally said that she had bought a flight to Las Vegas for a weekend

[00:16:55] and needed someone to take care of her dog that she was supposedly given as a gift from some guy she was dating. I just let her have it right there. Everything I had been wanting to tell her just came out like vomit to her face.

[00:17:10] I was tired of it. She was irresponsible and always had other people taking care of her mistakes, always picking up her slack. I asked her when she was going to get her act together and she stayed quiet with tears about to start coming out of her eyes.

[00:17:26] I felt bad for a second, quite literally a second because I simply let go of the leash inside of my front door, set the basket down and left. I cannot believe this girl, honestly. The puppy started biting at the carpet and then rolled around on it

[00:17:44] before I let it out to the tiny patio in the back of my house which had a gate to the outside. I made sure that it was shut and used a couple of Tupperware dishes to put water and some of the dry food that was in the basket

[00:17:58] and then I let the patio door open to my kitchen just to crack in case he wanted to come back inside. I was in the bathroom when I first heard the dog come back in. His paws were heard down the hallway and then toward my bedroom.

[00:18:13] All I could do was listen and hope but it wouldn't poop or bite some of my chargers and electrocute itself. But then something worse happened. They started barking, growling aggressively towards something down the hall. I waited for him to stop for about a minute

[00:18:34] until I heard him whimpering and then him running across the house and then keep barking. I ran out of the bathroom and went straight for the source of the barking. The dog was now standing at the edge of the hallway barking at the other end of the hall.

[00:18:51] He completely ignored me as he would inch his way down the hall and then stop. I looked around the hallway but there was nothing there. I mean, the only thing there was was a small table with a couple of books, some decorations and the old doll. The doll.

[00:19:13] I walked up to it and grabbed it holding it closer to the dog to sniff and finally stopped barking. His paws were shaking as he got closer to it. He sniffed it a couple of times and then looked up at me. Out of nowhere he started barking

[00:19:30] even more uncontrollably at it and ran at full speed toward the other end of the hallway. I knew I was going to have a pretty bad weekend already. With the doll in my hand, I walked over to one of the boxes I had by the kitchen

[00:19:45] with some pots and other things that was reorganizing. I placed the doll inside. I could see its dead eyes wide open staring right at me as I closed the cardboard flap over it. The dog looked at me as if it had done something good

[00:20:04] wagging his tail and bouncing all around me. I just sighed, wondering how I had gotten myself into this. I took him out for a short walk around the block and I stared awkwardly in the other direction as he decided to poop on the grass

[00:20:20] in front of the neighbor's house. I didn't have any bags to pick it up with. The dog tugged and pulled on the leash the entire way but at least it was burning some of its endless energy. When we got back, I checked the back gate to the patio

[00:20:36] and decided to let the dog stay outside with a little crack in the door so that he could come inside if he wanted to at night. It would get very hot in my house in the middle of the night but it would be a while

[00:20:48] it was still some time in the late afternoon early evening so the dog had some time to get familiar with the place. I went into my bedroom to lay down for a little while when I heard the dog making noises around the cardboard box in the kitchen.

[00:21:04] I grunted as I got up and peeked out the door. Fortunately I could see the dog biting out one of his toys through the sliding door that led to the patio. I was suddenly so tired. Friday nights were typically like this for me.

[00:21:20] I just wanted to get into bed put on the movie and fall asleep. So I walked over to the patio checked the water and food dishes for him and walked back to my room. I closed the door and got into bed to possibly one of the strangest nights

[00:21:36] of my life. I started imagining so many things as I was in this half asleep half awake state. I remember opening my eyes and seeing an older woman combing my hair pulling it tightly away from my skull as she firmly whispered to me not to move.

[00:21:56] The mirror in front of me showed her silhouette but not her face. Her dark brown dress that went all the way down to the floor but still showed those dark boots against the red carpet. I realized that I was no longer in my room not quite a nightmare

[00:22:17] not quite a dream and the images kept coming we were staring at a small casket as the woman cried next to me. Two large crows were above the tree where the swing was as it looked at my brown shoes in front of me the fire suddenly going out

[00:22:39] as the thunder rumbled across the entire dark house. It was then when I woke up noises footsteps coming from outside my room my heart began to speed up and beads of sweat formed on my forehead before the rush turned cold when I realized that

[00:23:02] I had been taking care of the puppy tiny little footsteps in the kitchen area slowly at first but unnatural I know how a dog walks I know what it sounds like these were little taps against the floor and they made their way from the kitchen area slowly tapping

[00:23:26] sometimes against the wall but mostly against the wooden floor until the sounds were directly in front of my door I looked at the area underneath it a tiny shadow worked its way closer to my door and then just kept walking weird dog I thought to myself

[00:23:50] that morning I woke up feeling much better I opened up my door and stopped myself before going to the bathroom and turned toward the patio door I called the dog over and waited but I didn't hear him I stepped past the kitchen and into the patio

[00:24:06] and searched around the dog's toys were gone the dog the dog was gone too I called for him whistling and making calling noises since I didn't even know its name the dog was nowhere to be found I ran back to my room to grab my phone

[00:24:26] and call Kathy who answered with a what do you want almost right away I asked her if she had come by to pick up the dog or what had happened she called me irresponsible before quickly saying that she had stayed home

[00:24:40] and had gone to pick up the dog that same night from the patio she said she had knocked on my door but I didn't answer I sighed relieved this time while standing in the middle of my living room Kathy hung up on me

[00:24:55] but I didn't care too much she would get over it I walked over to the hallway to go to the bathroom again when I felt that something was off one step two steps in and I started feeling a little strange by the third step I noticed it

[00:25:20] the dog was sitting right under the table at the end of the hall its dead eyes staring right at me scary story podcast is written and produced by me Edwin Colarubias Ad free episode as well as some of the bonus content is available by going to scaryplus.com

[00:26:00] you'll also get early access to the stories as well as helping out the production of this and the other shows if you can't join no worries you can still help out by leaving a five star review and following on your favorite podcast app Up next

[00:26:13] be sure to check out my other show called true scary story a podcast where people tell their scariest experiences find it on your app right now thank you very much for listening see you soon