Therésa: Hello, my haunting honies. I've been looking forward to getting
Therésa: back in the booth all week. It's been a while,
Therésa: I think maybe longer, or maybe it hasn't been long
Therésa: at all. The linearity of time is hard to grasp here,
Therésa: so we'll just say a week. I've been waiting to
Therésa: tell everyone that I'm finally getting the hang of the haunt.
Therésa: My first few weeks in purgatory, I was so like,
Therésa: where am I I'm dead? Kill me! Oh wait ha-ha.
Therésa: But now I'm really getting my sea legs, kind of
Therésa: like the time I got motion sickness on Leo's yacht.
Therésa: Until the Aparall Sprints' and Dramamine kicked in.
Therésa: Fine. It was a pontoon boat called the DiCaprio and
Therésa: the captain's name was Leonard, whatever. Point is, after being
Therésa: in perg for a while, I've learned you can just pop
Therésa: in on whoever, whenever. Len, do you ever pop in
Therésa: on the living?
Len: (mumbles)
Therésa: Your wife? Okay, sad.
Therésa: I've found it's fun to pop in on the people
Therésa: who are least expecting it. It's like crashing a party.
Therésa: At first, everyone's confused, then freaked out, then they demand
Therésa: you leave but at least the next day they've got
Therésa: a great little story to tell. Like our next guest, Jill,
Therésa: whose weekend in the woods was ruined by a paranormal
Therésa: party crasher.
Story A: We're driving up the mountain and it's so much later
Story A: than we'd expected, and so it was already much darker.
Story A: And then, out of nowhere, this figure all of a
Story A: sudden appears in the middle of the road. All of
Story A: us were terrified.
Story A: I'm Jill, and I felt like I was living in
Story A: a real- life horror film.
Story A: At the time, I was part of an event bartending company.
Story A: We would host events from weddings to Oscars parties, to
Story A: Halloween parties to these retreats, and we would curate cocktails
Story A: specifically for the event and show up and be part
Story A: of the entertainment, per se.
Story A: It was five years ago. We were hired to host
Story A: and provide the bar experience at Camp Navarro for these
Story A: camping and outdoorsy social media influencers. The atmosphere of Camp
Story A: Navarro lent itself to be just utterly stunning. Camp Navarro
Story A: is in northern California, which is right around the Sequoia
Story A: National Forests, where you have the largest trees: redwoods, sequoias.
Story A: It's beautiful. It's perfect weather. It was right in early fall;
Story A: at night, there was just a hint of crispness in the air.
Story A: There were twelve of us going, actors, models and musicians.
Story A: You know, this is one of our side hustles. Nine
Story A: of us rode in the sprinter van, and three rode
Story A: in the front of the box car truck that held
Story A: all the supplies.
Story A: About two- thirds of the way up there, the box
Story A: car truck realized they'd missed some supplies, so they ended
Story A: up pulling off, and so that made everyone start to
Story A: get a little nervous, just because we didn't know exactly
Story A: where we were going, and you don't like to set
Story A: right the group. We were already behind schedule because we're
Story A: from Los Angeles, and we're always late. As we're going
Story A: around the mountain, it's pitch dark, and so you're going, of course,
Story A: quite slowly. Off to the side, like down the slope,
Story A: you start to see these eyes glinting. There's something that
Story A: is staring at us, and it's not just one or two.
Story A: You just kind of see these little flashes just looking
Story A: at us, and it's so eerie. And then out of nowhere,
Story A: three deer jumped across, almost hitting our sprinter van. Everything
Story A: comes to a screeching hall. We all lurch forward.
Story A: There has been an entire herd of deer staring at us.
Story A: They're wild animals in the forest, but this was weird.
Story A: It's like they were welcoming us ominously, which was terrifying.
Story A: We continue driving. It's pitch dark, but at this point,
Story A: we don't know where we are, nor does anyone have cell-service.
Story A: Nobody had printed out a map, so we're relying on
Story A: the old data that is left on somebody's phone to
Story A: make sure that we're kind of going in that general direction.
Story A: We realized we'd passed a camp. Okay, so we back up.
Story A: As we're entering into the main entrance, this shadowy figure
Story A: appears in the middle of the road.
Story A: It was this really old country man with a hat, long
Story A: white beard, cowboy boots, and a trench coat. All of
Story A: us were terrified. We were like, do you have a
Story A: hook on one hand? Are you going to kill us?
Story A: But then he motioned us to enter the camp. He
Story A: was like, are you the bartenders? He was the maintenance
Story A: worker for Camp Navarro, so we were in the right place.
Story A: But truly, this is not a good sign. I was
Story A: sitting in the back of the sprinter ban going, well,
Story A: this feels like at the beginning of a horror film.
Story A: All these really pretty people driving up to this random
Story A: job that nobody knows them. We could just easily be
Story A: picked off.
Story A: The scary old maintenance worker at the camp then directed
Story A: us into the main clubhouse, where we would unload everything
Story A: and finally meet the event organizers.
Story A: We had been told that we were sleeping in the
Story A: main staff house, but we ended up being put in
Story A: the main cabins. They tried to make it sound like
Story A: it was really a step up, but we were like,
Story A: this will be fine. And the organizers said, oh, you're
Story A: cabin number thirteen. Of course we're in cabin number thirteen.
Story A: That old man was terrifying, and now we're in cabin thirteen.
Story A: Sounds right.
Story A: Well, all of us grab our things to trot ourselves
Story A: down to cabin thirteen. It's a traditional camp log cabin.
Story A: Just imagine the creaky door sound as you push the
Story A: door in.
Story A: There are two sets of bunkbeds immediately on either side
Story A: of the door, and then more sets lining the sides.
Story A: Directly across from the open door is a big full length- mirror.
Story A: There was no hallway, no bathroom. You had to trek
Story A: through the forest to get to the large main bathroom,
Story A: and it was a good like two- minute walk in
Story A: the dark with people you don't know around you. Which
Story A: as any woman who has ever been taught anything it's like,
Story A: you don't go anywhere by yourself in the dark with
Story A: people you don't know.
Story A: It's probably like two in the morning. We're finally in
Story A: the cabin. My bunk bed was the first one on
Story A: the right- hand side, right next to the door, and
Story A: I was a top bunk. Everyone's like, we got to
Story A: get up at like eight the next morning. We got
Story A: to call it the night. But because there had been so
Story A: much going on, my brain is just going a mile
Story A: a minute, and I am lying there in the dark,
Story A: taking myself through calming exercises and relaxation exercises to just
Story A: tell my brain to shut off. Even though I'm keeping
Story A: my eyes closed, I am very much wide awake.
Story A: As I start to feel sort of relaxed, I hear
Story A: the door open, and I immediately feel this cold breeze
Story A: wafted over everything. I looked across into the full- length
Story A: mirror at the other end of the cabin. What I
Story A: saw in that reflection was definitely not a member of
Story A: our group. I saw this shadow figure right in the
Story A: middle of the doorway.
Story A: This figure was female. She had a very pointed face.
Story A: Was very slender. Her hair was parted in the middle,
Story A: straight back into a bun. She was wearing round aviator goggles,
Story A: like old- fashioned flying goggles like Amelia Earhart goggles. And a coat.
Story A: She was just standing there. She didn't speak out loud,
Story A: but I could feel her energy shift towards my direction.
Story A: This cold air just kind of lingered there for quite
Story A: a while, even though our heater was on. It shouldn't
Story A: have stayed as cold as it did. At this point,
Story A: I am very scared. As gently and as softly as
Story A: I could, I started to slide my body towards the
Story A: wall and away from the edge of the bunk bed
Story A: so I'd be as far away as possible from whatever
Story A: this was that was coming in. There was a palpable sense
Story A: of her telling me, or yearning to be, like, you
Story A: need to turn your head over and look at me.
Story A: And at that point, it wasn't a friendly energy. It
Story A: was an angry energy. I reached out for my phone
Story A: and just clicked on the home screen, and it said
Story A: 3:14 in the morning, right in the middle of the
Story A: witching hour.
Story A: That lit up our cabin. The entity is no longer there.
Story A: I shut my eyes hard, and I started praying because
Story A: I did not want to let that cross into my world.
Story A: It was almost like this creature was searching for something,
Story A: wanted something, wanted an answer to something, and when I
Story A: didn't respond, it felt angry that I was refusing to
Story A: listen to their command of looking over at them.
Story A: And this sounds weird, but afterwards, I kind of felt bad.
Story A: It almost felt like this lost soul. The lines between
Story A: the living and the dead and the spiritual world, I
Story A: think are probably closer than we'd like to admit.
Therésa: I'd give anything to get drunk in the woods just
Therésa: one more time. And I know what you're thinking, Therésa,
Therésa: there's no way you'd sleep outside. Well believe it. I
Therésa: was something of a girl scout back in the day.
Therésa: That's right, I camped Coachella weekend too.
Therésa: But for our next true tale, we're leaving the wilderness
Therésa: behind and making a beeline for New York City. Our
Therésa: friend Jen got in a little over her head dabbling
Therésa: in the occult when surprise, surprise, she got haunted.
Therésa: But you guys don't invite us in and then get
Therésa: upset when we show up. It's like the time I
Therésa: pity invited my annoying friend Mallory to our Hampton sharehouse
Therésa: for Memorial Day weekend, knowing she was supposed to be
Therésa: in Palm Beach with her family, but then she ditched
Therésa: her family and came with us instead. And it's like, yeah,
Therésa: that was my fault. Sure, I hit her with the non- vitation,
Therésa: but what can you do send an un-vitation?
Story B: Morgan was looking for a roommate, so wethought, let's try
Story B: and live together. We found this really beautiful apartment in Harlem.
Story B: We were right across the street from Central Park. I
Story B: think that's what sold us on the apartment.
Story B: This apartment was very much an upgrade, and I had
Story B: room for a bigger bed. I didn't want to buy
Story B: a new bed, so my parents offered to give me the
Story B: bed that I used in my bedroom when I lived
Story B: with them. I brought this beautiful, old- new queen sized
Story B: bad into my apartment. Everything changed after that.
Credits: My name is Morgan, and I am Jen's roommate.
Story B: My name is Jen, and I invited something evil into
Story B: my home.
Story B: Jen and I actually met at work. We were working
Story B: in digital advertising. We were actually on the same team
Story B: and quickly became fast friends.
Story B: Going to happy hours after work and hanging out. We moved
Story B: into that apartment in January 2017 . The apartment was
Story B: so beautiful. It was in this really old building on
Story B: 110th Street in Harlem. It was a two bedroom and
Story B: the bedrooms were on opposite sides. We had really high
Story B: ceilings with beautiful molding. There was a washer/ dryer, and
Story B: it was right across the street from Central Park North.
Story B: This is actually the first time that I lived in
Story B: an apartment building that was basically back to back with
Story B: another apartment building.
Story B: I am, you know, definitely a spiritual person. Over the years, I
Story B: had gotten a little more involved in some occult practices,
Story B: tarot reading, astrology, meditation and setting intentions and burning candles.
Story B: On the flip side, my roommate Morgan, is a very
Story B: devout Christian.
Story B: I don't really dabble in tarot cards or anything like that.
Story B: Even though we, at the time, were practicing very different things,
Story B: had very different beliefs about the world and God. We
Story B: had really interesting conversations about these very topics, and we
Story B: respected each other a lot.
Story B: I wanted to set an intention for myself for that summer,
Story B: to be more in touch with my spirit guides or
Story B: just more in touch with the universe, and kind of
Story B: be able to see what I'm doing and how that's
Story B: affecting me and how it's affecting people around me. At
Story B: this time, I was really interested in the chakras, which
Story B: are energy centers in your body. One night in 2014 ,
Story B: I did a tarot reading. I lit a candle that
Story B: I had bought that was supposed to allow me to
Story B: get more in touch with these spirit guides. I said
Story B: a mantra that I wanted to be more in touch
Story B: with this, and I went to bed. The morning after,
Story B: I was laying on my pillow, and I lifted my
Story B: head up. I saw immediately a bunch of scratches on
Story B: my headboard that were definitely not there the night before.
Story B: And the scratches were really concentrated in an oval shape about
Story B: four inches tall, and it was all white. I immediately
Story B: thought it looked like that famous painting the Scream, where
Story B: there were two eyes and a screaming mouth.
Story B: They were really, really shallow. I actually tried to use
Story B: my fingernail right next to some of those scratches, and
Story B: it left a much deeper imprint. And the scratches almost
Story B: looked like they had white residue on top of them.
Story B: I had no idea how they got there, and I
Story B: immediately thought that I had a ghost. I've always loved ghost stories,
Story B: and I was like, this is so spooky. I just
Story B: did this candle ritual asking to speak to spirit guides,
Story B: and I wake up and all these scratches are on
Story B: my headboard.
Story B: It freaked me out to my core. So that night,
Story B: I saged the whole apartment, every corner, every room, in
Story B: the cabinets, in the shower, like every single tiny part
Story B: of the apartment. And then, at that point, I said
Story B: basically a prayer and just said, please let this evil leave
Story B: my home. It's not welcome here. This is where I live,
Story B: you have to go.
Story B: I was pretty confident. I went to sleep, and I
Story B: was sort of excited to wake up, and I thought
Story B: maybe the ghost would be gone. The next morning, my alarm
Story B: clock had been unplugged overnight and I was late for work.
Story B: As I got ready for work, I felt like I
Story B: was being watched. I didn't feel like I was alone.
Story B: I was kind of looking over my shoulder. That was
Story B: the first morning that I felt real fear in the apartment.
Story B: I started sleeping on the couch, because I got really scared.
Story B: I would be in bed at night and hear the
Story B: floorboards creak. It would feel like someone was there.
Story B: There was one night I was changing to get ready
Story B: for bed and the light turned off while I was changing.
Story B: I was standing alone in my room with the door closed,
Story B: in the pitch black, getting dressed. I was absolutely horrified, and
Story B: I was so scared, I ran out of the room.
Story B: I was like, I can't ever go back in there.
Story B: So this was around the time that it started to
Story B: really escalate and started to feel really scary. At this point,
Story B: I had not told my roommate. I felt like it
Story B: was my fault, and I was scared to tell her
Story B: because I thought that she was gonna be mad at me. The
Story B: next day, at work, I was really upset, totally sleep deprived,
Story B: and I called my mom for some comfort. She was
Story B: immediately concerned and kind of wanted to help me out.
Story B: She was like, get rid of the bed, tell your roommate,
Story B: maybe go to a local church.
Story B: I was at work getting a text from Jen with the picture
Story B: of her headboard with very clear scratches. I think she
Story B: was kind of looking for a reaction of me being like,
Story B: oh my gosh, like what the heck happened, which just like, oh,
Story B: you must have had a bad dream and you scratched
Story B: your headboard up. We hopped on the phone and talked
Story B: about it was very clear that, you know, something else
Story B: was going on. She was definitely freaked out and was
Story B: very clear to me that she wasn't going to want
Story B: to sleep in that bed again. I said, you know,
Story B: let's plan to meet at the apartment. We'll talk about it.
Story B: Being a born again Christian and very active in my church,
Story B: I was like, I'm not going to allow this to
Story B: bring fear into our apartment. I called up my friend
Story B: who is part of the church.
Story B: Morgan called me back after talking to her friend and said, Okay,
Story B: this is what we're going to do.
Story B: I was like, hey, would you mind coming over and
Story B: helping us deal with what Jen believes to be a spirit.
Story B: When my roommate and her friend came over, we decided
Story B: to do group prayer. We opened the door to my bedroom,
Story B: but we didn't go in and we stood just outside
Story B: of it. Their idea was to use holy oil, and to
Story B: put the sign of the Cross on all of the
Story B: doors and the windows in the apartment. At that point we
Story B: would hold hands and do a group prayer, similar to
Story B: what I had tried when I was alone, saying that
Story B: it wasn't welcome here. This is a place of love
Story B: and light, and it has to leave our home.
Story B: As soon as we say amen. The woman in the
Story B: building behind ours starts screaming bloody murder.
Story B: This apartment behind ours, they always had their windows open,
Story B: all the way open. We could hear her clear as day,
Story B: just screaming like, "help me get me out of here."
Story B: It was really like a blood curling scream. It was disturbing.
Story B: You couldn't unhear it.
Story B: We had goosebumps all over our arms. There was no
Story B: doubt that her wails and her screams of agony felt related.
Story B: We told it to leave, and immediately she's crying and screaming,
Story B: and it was so incredibly chilling. All three of us
Story B: just looked at each other with wide eyes. So we
Story B: go about taking the bed apart while she screaming bloody murder.
Story B: She screamed the entire time we took it down to
Story B: the sidewalk, which was probably ten minutes. I felt guilty
Story B: because I think that this entity was torturing her, and
Story B: I think that I drew it in with my little
Story B: ceremony with the candle. And once I got rid of it,
Story B: I got it out of my space, it was now
Story B: attacking her.
Story B: After we got the bed out, the screaming dies down,
Story B: I'm starting to calm down, feel a little normal. I get
Story B: a phone call from my dad. He said, your mom
Story B: tells me that you're thinking about getting rid of this bed,
Story B: and I was kind of like, "yeah, we already got
Story B: ri d of it. It was haunted." He responded by saying
Story B: that when my grandparents bought their summer house on Lake
Story B: Erie in the fifties, the bed was actually in that
Story B: house when they bought it.
Story B: That house is one hundred percent haunted. Everyone who's ever
Story B: been there has a personal experience of something freaky happening.
Story B: One night, two of my own sisters were trying to
Story B: fall asleep and they both felt that they were being watched.
Story B: One of my other sisters was on the third floor
Story B: and blinds would snap open, we would hear floorboards creek.
Story B: My cousin had friends up one weekend and they fled
Story B: in the middle of the night. And when my cousin
Story B: woke up called them and they said that they were
Story B: trying to fall asleep and a spirit like a ghost,
Story B: walked through the door and charged into their bed and
Story B: then disappeared. They were so scared that they literally packed
Story B: up all their stuff, didn't wake up a single person,
Story B: and just left.
Story B: So for me to find out that the bed was
Story B: already there when my grandparents bought it, it was like
Story B: something clicked. I always believed in the paranormal prior to this,
Story B: and I think it's probably because of my grandparents haunted house.
Story B: I look back now and I think that me lighting
Story B: that candle sort of akin to someone messing around with
Story B: a ouija board and not knowing what they were doing. I
Story B: think that at that time I didn't think that there
Story B: were evil, malevolent spirits. I thought ghosts were just people
Story B: who passed and didn't move on. But now I really
Story B: think that I invited something evil into my home.
Therésa: The second I heard washer/ dryer and a queen size bed
Therésa: in New York, I knew there had to be a catch.
Therésa: They say the West Coast is kind but not nice,
Therésa: and the East Coast is nice but not kind, but
Therésa: foisting a demonic spirit on your neighbor doesn't sound nice
Therésa: or kind. Kidding! I would have done the same thing.
Therésa: Anyway, that's all we've got for now. If anyone is
Therésa: in the mood for a scare, I would absolutely love
Therésa: to be invited somewhere cute. Maybe like a rustic cabin
Therésa: or a haunted chalet moment a little purgatory pied-à-terre for
Therésa: when Len's being a huge bummer.
Therésa: (mumbles)Messing with you, Len, You're the best.
Len: (mumbles)
Therésa: As always, shoot us an email at HauntingThePodcast@gmail.com if you or a
Therésa: friends got a haunting they'd like to share on the pod.
Therésa: Oh Naomi, where are we with merch? What do you mean? Look,
Therésa: let's be ready next week? Okay, because I feel like
Therésa: this isn't the first time I've asked you about it
Therésa: and you said you were on it, remember, or you
Therésa: shrieked it. I don't know whatever that sound is that
Therésa: you make, you did that. It's okay, I'm just I'm
Therésa: saying for next time. Well, stay tuned for updates on
Therésa: merch and we'll see you next incalculable stretch of time,
Therésa: possibly a week, on Haunting.
Credits: If you have a Haunting story to share, please email
Credits: us at HauntingThePodcast@ gmail.com. Haunting is a production of Glass
Credits: Podcasts in partnership with iHeart Podcasts.
Credits: Haunting was created and executive produced by Nancy Glass, Andrea Gunning,
Credits: Ben Fetterman, and Lauren Lapkus. It is hosted by Lauren
Credits: Lapkus as her character, Therésa.
Credits: Haunting is directed by Aleah Welsh and produced by Trey Morgan.
Credits: It is written by Aleah Welsh, with additional writing by
Credits: Nancy Glass, Trey Morgan, Ben Fetterman, and Kristin Melchiorre. Additional
Credits: production support by Todd Gans. Additional voice acting by Trey
Credits: Morgan as the character, Producer Len Walker.
Credits: Editing and sound designed by Matt Delvecchio with additional editing
Credits: by Nico Aruoca. Mixed and mastered by Dave Saia. Operations and
Credits: production support by Kristin Melchiorre. Haunting's theme and original compositions
Credits: were composed by Oliver Baines and Dorry Macaulay of Noiser. Music
Credits: Library provided by Mibe Music. Special thanks to Speakeasy Sound
Credits: Studios in Burbank, California.
Credits: Follow us on social media by searching for Glass podcasts,
Credits: or by visiting glasspodcasts.com. For more shows from iHeart Podcasts
Credits: and Glass Podcasts, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or
Credits: wherever you get your podcasts.