WEBVTT - SYSK's 2025 Shocktober Halloween Spooktacular 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:13.800 Welcome to stuff you should know a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:22.440 Hey, and welcome to the Spookfest. I'm Josh and there's 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:26.800 Chuck and we're flying solo today. I should probably stop 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:29.800 speaking like this because I'll bet it's getting annoying. 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:34.520 That's right, Welcome to the One of our most fun 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:39.000 traditions are ad free Spooctacular, where in which we read 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:42.720 two stories, one of your choosing and one of mine, 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:47.199 and yours is up first by Edward Frederick Benson, Is 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:47.720 that right. 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:51.600 Yeah, better known as EF to his friends. 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:54.720 Yeah. Did you see where this was published? Should we 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:55.600 give a shout out to that? 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:58.280 It was published in one of his books? He wrote 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:00.720 several books, but this one comes from ninth Team twelve. 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:03.840 And I don't remember the name of the book, Chuck, 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:04.319 thank you. 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:06.800 Well, I have it, sir. It was first published in 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:10.040 an anthology called The Room in the Tower and Other Stories. 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:10.959 That's it. 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:12.680 And this is not The Room in the Tower. So 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:17.160 this is and other Stories, but it's called Caterpillars. And 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:19.640 at first I thought, by the way this was going 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:22.319 to be you know, we read stuff in the public domain, 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:24.360 so a lot of these stories are sort of like 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:29.520 you know, the creepy house and the you know, there's 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:31.720 not actually a creature or monster. It's like it was 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:35.600 within me all along. Sure that was the direction of 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:37.560 a lot of these stories, but this one actually has 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:40.360 a nice little payoff with some real creep stuff. 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.960 Yeah, it is a creepster for sure. And before we 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:48.160 get started, Chuck, I want to tip our hats to Ben, 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:53.360 guest producer, Ben that's right, who last year just laid 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:56.440 a smack down with his first version of editing one 0:01:56.480 --> 0:02:00.559 of our Halloween spectaculars, and I expect to do it again. 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:04.920 Yeah, I agree, and we plugged it recently. But Ben 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:06.480 is a musician, so we might as well plug it 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:09.120 again here since everyone's listening here at the top. Ben 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:12.280 has a new collection of songs out called Songs for 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:16.600 Sleeping Dogs, and it is great. It's instrumental, it's very 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.480 biby and cool, and you can find it wherever you 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:20.200 find any music. 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:27.160 Yep, wait to go, Ben, Okay, I say we get 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:30.959 started as per usual. We haven't talked about this at 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:32.880 all up until this very moment. 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:33.400 That's right. 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:35.800 I didn't even know you knew the name of the 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:39.440 anthology until you busted it out. It was spectacular. 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:40.239 That's how we roll. 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:44.320 So who wants to read first? You or me? 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:46.520 I mean your story? So I say you kick it off? 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:49.080 Okay, all right? Are you ready for this? 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.400 Yeah, let's do it. Do your cheeks, Oh wow, it's 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:54.320 been a while. Let me see if they still flop. 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:59.240 Oh yeah, this is gonna be a good one, I 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:04.120 can tell. And everyone, here we go. Settle in, put 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:07.680 on some fake cobwebs all over your skin, get a 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:14.160 mug of bat juice, and get ready for caterpillars. By E. F. Benson. 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:22.600 I saw a month or two ago in an Italian 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.840 paper that the Via Cascana in which I once stayed 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:28.960 had been pulled down, and that a manufactory of some 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:32.200 sort was in process of erection on its site. There 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:35.440 is therefore no longer any reason for refraining from writing 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:38.600 of those things which I myself saw or imagined I 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.320 saw in a certain room and on a certain landing 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:45.120 of the via in question, nor from mentioning the circumstances 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:48.000 which followed, which may or may not, according to the 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:50.720 opinion of the reader, throw some light on or be 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.200 somehow connected with this experience. Everybody got that? 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:56.400 Can I stop you real quick? We're going with the via. 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.800 Yeah, okay, what would you say a valet? 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:03.640 How I say a villa like a you know, an 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:05.200 Italian villa? You say, bea. 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.680 Yeah, the l's make it nice. It sounds all right, 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:09.920 all right. 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:10.800 I'm following your lead. Bell. 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:15.240 Well, then maybe we can look up who is correct, 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:17.800 and then Ben cann edit in your voice over mine. 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:19.840 No, no for villa. 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:21.400 Are you ready? 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:22.520 I'm ready. 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:27.120 The Keskana wasn't always but one a perfectly delightful house. 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:30.240 Yet if it were standing now, nothing in the world 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:33.640 I use the phrase in the literal sense, would induce 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.240 me to set foot in it again, For I believe 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:38.719 it to have been haunted in a very terrible and 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:43.000 practical manner. Most ghosts, when all is said and done, 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:46.479 do not do much harm. They may perhaps terrify, but 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.400 the person whom they visit usually gets over their visitation. 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:52.920 I feel like that's quite a presumption, don't you. Yeah, totally, 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:58.200 Like what about somebody whose hair is white because they're 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.599 being that scared. It's tough to get over that's happened. Okay, 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.200 back to it. They may, on the other hand, be 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:08.320 entirely friendly and beneficent, but the appearances in the via 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:12.239 Cascana were not beneficent, and had they made their visit 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:15.200 in a very slightly different manner. I do not suppose 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:17.400 I should have got over it any more than Arthur 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:20.479 Inglis did me think. 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.440 I think, so far, so good. We have that scary 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.599 setup of a creepy place, which seems to be most 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:29.280 of our stories. But again, this one goes in a 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:29.960 different direction. 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:31.640 You want me to keep going? 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:34.359 Ah, yeah, I feel like you're doing strong work. 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:41.800 Oh okay. The house stood on an islex clad hill, 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:46.280 alex being holly bushes. Oh not far. Yeah, I looked 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:49.600 it up, not far from Sestry to Levante on the 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:53.039 Italian Riviera, looking out over the iridescent blues of that 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.760 enchanted sea, while behind it rose the pale green chestnut 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.600 woods that climb up the hillsides till they give place 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:03.159 to the that black in contrast with them, crowned the 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:06.680 slopes all round at the garden, in the luxurious of 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.120 mid spring, bloomed and was fragrant, and the scent of 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:13.240 magnolia and rose borne on the salt freshness of the 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:16.080 winds from the sea flowed like a stream through the 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:17.320 cool vaulted rooms. 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:18.920 Yeah, it's got it right. 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:20.559 This is a very nice house. 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:21.839 Yeah, sounds lovely. 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:26.680 He continues on the ground floor, a broad pillared loja. 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:29.800 And I look this up too. A lojah is a corridor. 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:33.640 But that is essentially like a place, a corridor where 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.280 you'd sit with arches in the front face. It's not 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:39.520 just open with like a railing, Okay. And also that 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:42.520 means that Robert Lojah's name means Robert corridor. 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:44.520 Yeah, that's the first thing I thought of. 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:48.000 So the lojah ran round three sides of the house, 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.040 the top of which formed a balcony for certain rooms 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:54.880 of the first floor. The main staircase, broad and of 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.560 gray marble, steps led up from the hall to the 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:01.760 landing outside these rooms, which were three in number, namely 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:07.080 two big sitting rooms and a bedroom arranged en suite. Well, 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.240 the latter was unoccupied, the sitting rooms were in use. 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:14.200 From these the main staircase was continued to the second floor, 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:18.000 where were situated certain bedrooms, one of which I occupied, 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:20.520 while from the other side of the first floor landing, 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:24.440 some half dozen steps led to another suite of rooms, where, 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:27.120 at the time I am speaking of Arthur Ingliss, the 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:31.440 artist had his bedroom and studio. Thus the landing outside 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:34.040 my bedroom at the top of the house commanded both 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:36.800 the landing of the first floor and also the steps 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:41.080 that led to Ingliss's room, Jim Stanley and his wife finally, 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:44.120 whose guest I was occupied. Rooms in another wing of 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:48.240 the house were also were the servants quarters. And I 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:52.400 feel like this is way way too much detail about 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:52.920 this house. 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:55.680 That's what they all do though, all these old stories. 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.440 I feel like there's always a very detailed sort of map, 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:00.240 and at the end of all of them fa like 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:02.560 they almost should type does everyone get it? 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:06.080 Yeah, Like, I've read the story a bunch of times 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:08.960 and I still don't have any conception a mental map 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:12.080 of this house. It's all just blobs of steps in 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:13.720 like sitting rooms, you know. 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:16.480 Yeah, but having known what happens, Really, the only important 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:17.920 thing you need to know is this guy's staying in 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.600 a room upstairs and there's another room close by that's unoccupied. 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.120 Very nice. Yeah you want to take over here? 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:28.480 Yeah, sure, sounds like a good switch. I arrived just 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:30.840 in time for lunch on a brilliant noon of mid May. 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:33.480 The garden was shouting with color and fragrance. 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:36.400 Bernciena and not less. 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:39.800 Delightful after my broiling walk up from the marina should 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:42.760 have been the coming from the reverberating heat and blaze 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:45.960 of the day into the marble coolness of the villa. 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:47.880 Is that where you're going. 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:52.520 With with villa only in parentheses. The reader has my 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:55.319 bare word for this and nothing more. Only the moment 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:57.440 I set foot in this house, I felt that something 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:00.520 was wrong. This feeling, I may say, was quite vague, 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:03.880 though very strong. And I remember that when I saw 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.160 letters waiting for me on the table in the hall, 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.400 I felt certain that the explanation was here. I was 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:11.680 convinced that there was bad news of some sort for me. 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:14.600 Yet when I opened them, I found no such explanation 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:18.720 for my premonition. My correspondence all reeked to prosperity. Yet 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.920 this clear miscarriage of a presentiment did not dissipate my 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.240 uneasiness in that cool, fragrant house. That was something wrong. 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:29.880 So homeboy gets some letters and things like that's what 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:32.360 I think is my bad feeling, like I've got bad 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:34.120 news awaiting me. But it's all great news. 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:36.640 But also keep in mind he's a house guest, and 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:38.760 he plans to stay so long that he's forwarded as 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:41.440 mail here. I hope he cleared that with the hosts. 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:43.800 Yeah, that's a little weird too. A lot of presumptions 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:48.960 going on here. Yeah, here we go. I'm at pains 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:51.319 to mention this, because to the general view, it may 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.840 explain that though I am, as a rule so excellent 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:57.160 a sleeper, that the extinction of my light on getting 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:00.320 into bed is apparently contemporaneous with being Paul. On the 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.760 following morning, I slept very badly. He could have said, 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:04.360 I sleep great. 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:06.520 Yeah, but I kind of like that one. 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:09.600 Yeah, I slept very badly on my first night in 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.760 the Villa Caskana. It may also explain the fact that 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:16.160 when I did sleep, if it was indeed in sleep 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.040 that I saw what I thought I saw, I dreamed 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:21.760 in a very vivid and original manner. Original, that is 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.199 to say, in the sense that something that, as far 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:26.760 as I knew, had never been previously entered into my 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:30.840 consciousness usurped it then. But since in addition to this 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:33.840 evil premonition, certain words and events occurring during the rest 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.839 of the day might have suggested something of what I 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:41.000 thought happened that night, it will be well to relate them. 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.880 Yeah, Benson never met a parenthesis that he didn't like. 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.640 Oh, man, you after lunch, then I went round the 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:50.760 house with missus Stanley, and during our tour she referred, 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.400 it is true to the unoccupied bedroom on the first floor, 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.600 which opened out of the room where we had lunched 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.839 a little more mapping going on. Uh are you going 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:03.080 to do? You want to read her voice? 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:03.840 Sure? 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:09.000 All right, we left that unoccupied, she said, because Jim. 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:11.600 And I have a charming bedroom and dressing room, as 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:14.480 you saw in the wing, and if we used it ourselves, 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:16.760 we should have to turn the dining room into a 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:20.400 dressing room and have our meals downstairs. As it is, however, 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.640 we have our little flat here. Arthur Inglis has his 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:27.640 little flat in the other passage. And I remember parentheses. 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:31.200 Aren't I extraordinary that you once said that the higher 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:34.040 up you were in a house, the better you were pleased. 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:36.400 So I put you at the top of the house 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:38.439 instead of giving you that room. 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:42.560 Hey, And I imagine this guy at this point is like, 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:45.280 oh god, lady, just can I go to my room? 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:49.760 Got a crossword puzzled to do you want to take 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:50.240 it from there? 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:55.720 Oh? Sure? It is true that a doubt vague as 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.000 my uneasy premonition crossed my mind at this I did 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:01.520 not see why missus Bany should have explained all this 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:04.720 if there had not been more to explain. I allow 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.400 therefore that the thought that there was something to explain 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:11.439 about the unoccupied bedroom was bometarily present to my mind. 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.040 I got to say, though, I really do love that 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.959 he did acknowledge what we disacknowledged, Like she didn't have 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:17.400 to say all that. 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.120 No, And if you're like, what is this guy talking about? 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:23.200 So basically he's laying all this out and he's letting 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:28.560 you know everything that possibly could have influenced him imagining this. Yeah, 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.600 to leave it to you, the reader slash listener, to 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:33.960 decide if it was imagined or not. I think that's 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:36.840 what he's doing. That's how I'm interpreting it same, that's 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:38.120 what cliff Notes said at least. 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:39.440 Yeah. 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:41.880 The second thing that may have borne on my dream 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:45.439 was this. At dinner, the conversation turned for a moment 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:49.200 on ghosts. English, with a certainty of conviction, expressed his 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.559 belief that anybody who could possibly believe in the existence 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:56.120 of supernatural phenomena was unworthy of the name of an 0:12:56.200 --> 0:13:01.640 ass burn. The subject instantly dropped. You can't imagine. As 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.400 far as I can recollect, nothing else occurred or was 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:08.520 said that could bear on what follows. I needed to 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:09.480 take a simple water. 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:11.920 Chuck, unworthy of the name of an ass. 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.040 Yeah, that is pretty low. 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:17.040 Yeah, and or English is just roasting people. 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.200 But also you can see this guy with a walrus 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:23.080 mustache wearing a pith helmet at lunch, Yeah, being a 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.480 pompous jerk, and everyone's like, well, I'm not going to 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:26.720 say wow, I feel about it. 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:27.439 Yeah, totally. 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:33.000 So dinner has taken place, and now he's going to bed. 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:35.319 And we know this because he says. We all went 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:39.000 to bed rather early, and personally, I yawned my way upstairs, 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:43.160 feeling hideously sleepy. My room was rather hot, and I 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:46.160 threw all the windows wide and from without poured in 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:48.760 the white light of the moon and the love song 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:52.480 of the many nightingales. I n dressed quickly and got 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.480 into bed. But though I had felt so sleepy before, 0:13:55.720 --> 0:14:00.000 I now felt extremely wide awake. Yeah, but this guy 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:01.560 I was okay with it, because he says, but I 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.079 was quite content to be awake. I did not toss 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.160 or turn I felt perfectly happy listening to the song 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.640 and seeing the light. Then it is possible I may 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.440 have gone to sleep, and what follows may have been 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:16.559 a dream. I thought, anyhow, that after a time, the 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:20.120 nightingale ceased singing, and the moon sank. I thought also 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:22.800 that if for some explained reason, I was going to 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:25.600 lie awake all night, I might as well read. And 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:27.760 I remembered that I had left a book in which 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:30.640 I was interested in the dining room on the first floor, 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:36.800 which has seventeen steps and is heady corner to the 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:37.720 maid's corners. 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:41.720 Each step is but eight inches in depth and made 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:43.080 of oak, white oak. 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:50.320 From the black forest. So I got out of bed, 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.520 lit a candle and went downstairs. I went into the room, 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:55.520 saw on a side table the book I had come 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:59.440 to look for, and then simultaneously saw that the door 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:05.040 into the unoccupied bedroom was open. Yeah, not only that, chuck, 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:08.600 A curious gray light, not of dawn nor of moonshine, 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:12.440 came out of it, and I looked in the bed. 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:16.360 Stood just opposite the door a big four poster, beautiful 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:20.600 lots of carvings hung with tapestry at the head. Then 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.400 I saw that grayish light of the bedroom came from 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:26.480 the bed, or rather from what was on the bed, 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:31.880 where it was covered with great caterpillars get this, a 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.920 foot or more in length, which crawled over it. They 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.760 were faintly luminous, and it was the light from them 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:42.360 that showed me the room. Instead of the sucker feet 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:46.680 of ordinary caterpillars. They had rows of pincers, like crabs, 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.560 and they moved by grasping what they lay on with 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:58.120 their pincers and then sliding their bodies forward. This is 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:00.200 where it turns creepster, right. 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.400 Yeah, I mean, you have no idea the sense of relief. 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:05.720 When I was like, is this all just about a 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:07.600 sense of dread? Because I feel like all these stories 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:09.360 are just about a sense of dread. And then when 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:13.680 these crab caterpillars, mutant crab caterpillars came on the scene, 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:15.400 I was really knocked out. 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:17.240 It gets even worse, though, Chuck. 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:18.520 Yeah. 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:22.160 He says that in color, these dreadful insects were yellowish gray, 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:26.920 and they were covered with irregular lumps and swellings. There 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.280 must have been hundreds of them. These are foot long 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:33.960 caterpillars with crab pincers for feet, For they formed a 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:38.720 sort of writhing, crawling pyramid on the bed. Occasionally one 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:42.200 fell off onto the floor with a soft, fleshy thud, 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:45.640 and though the floor was of hard concrete, it yielded 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:48.120 to the pincer feet as if it had been putty, 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:52.080 and crawling back, the caterpillar would mount onto the bed 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:56.480 again to rejoin its fearful companions. They appeared to have 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:59.600 no faces, so to speak, but at one end of 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:03.200 them was a mouth that opened sideways and respiration. 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:13.080 Yeah all right, I mean, bravo, bravo Ef Benson for 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.080 coming up with some really creepy stuff. Yeah, it shocked me. 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:18.479 I was not expecting this, and now we have a 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:20.719 genuine sort of monsters situation. I love it. 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:22.720 You know, I thought this one was gonna get you, 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:27.159 because you're absolutely right. Almost all of our previous stories 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:29.159 have been about like a house, an empty house, and 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:32.040 most of the time it is just dread. Very few 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:36.680 things actually happened. Something happens here, and it is fat, lumpy, 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:40.159 foot long caterpillars, hundreds of them on this bed of 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:41.400 this unoccupied room. 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:44.919 Yeah. I wonder what kind of drugs Ef was taking. 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:47.640 He was passing the ether rag. 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:49.440 Yeah, what did they have back then yet probably ether. 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:50.800 Oh they had a lot of ether? 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:52.840 Is it me? Is it time? 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:54.200 Yeah? Yeah? I think so? 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.280 All right, Then as I looked, it seemed to me 0:17:57.359 --> 0:17:59.840 as if they all suddenly became conscious of my presence. 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:02.879 All the mouths, at any rate were turned in my direction, 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:05.960 and next moment they began dropping off the bed with 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.919 those soft, fleshy thuds onto the floor and wriggling towards me. 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.480 For one second a paralysis as of a dream was 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:16.240 on me. But the next I was running upstairs again 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:19.080 to my room, and I remember feeling the cold of 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:21.920 the marble steps on my bare feet. They're marble, they're 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.520 not oak, right, Yeah, oh well I rushed onto my 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:27.280 You know, marbles a lot to take care of. So 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:29.440 that that's not the great, great choice for a floor, 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:30.280 especially stairs. 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:32.360 It's true, and it could have still possibly come from 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:33.400 the Black forest, so. 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:35.280 Yeah, maybe so you got to seal that stuff though 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:35.840 every year or so. 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.440 Yeah, But I want to give a little shout out here, Chuck. 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.760 If this is genuine, you can make a poultice out 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:45.080 of baking soda and water only, and you have to 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:47.000 make it kind of thick. Okay, but if you have 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:51.520 like a wine spot or something sunk into your marble countertop. Huh, 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:53.959 put that on there, leave it for a couple of hours, 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:56.919 scrape it off and wipe it down. I'm not kidding. 0:18:57.240 --> 0:18:59.960 Your red wine spot will be gone from the mark. 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.960 It's a miracle of housekeeping. 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:06.399 Well, mister fancy pants, I have no marble, but I 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:07.960 do drink wine. But I'll keep that in mind if 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:09.359 I'm ever at a fancy pants house. 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.159 It works. I have limestone on my countertop, and it 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:14.399 works for that too. Like, oh yeah, it works for 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:19.320 for Micah. For Micah, it works for whatever. The like 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:23.280 a plasticly shiny cabinet door is made of all right, 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:26.200 lamb in it. It works on lamin it's it works everywhere. 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:31.359 Man, I didn't see this coming. I didn't what a turn? 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:37.479 Where were we? Fleshy thuds, paralysis running upstairs marble floors, 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.320 that's right, all right? So he ran up the marble 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:43.200 floors and into that bedroom, which is the sensible thing 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:45.800 to do. I rushed into my bedroom and slammed the 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.359 door behind me, and then I was certainly wide awake. 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:51.240 Now I found myself standing by my bed with the 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:53.840 sweat of terror, pouring from me. The noise of the 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:56.480 banged door still rang in my ears. But as would 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:58.880 have been more usual if this had been mere nightmare, 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:01.280 the terror that had been mine when I saw those 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:03.760 foul beasts crawling about the bed or dropping softly on 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:07.600 the floor did not cease then awake. Now, if dreaming 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.600 before I did not at all recover from the horror 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.119 of dream, did not seem to me that I had dream. 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:17.199 And until dawn I sat or stood, not daring to 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:19.600 lie down, thinking that every rustle or movement that I 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:22.399 heard was the approach of the caterpillars to them, and 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:25.040 the claws that bit into the cement. The wood of 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:28.400 the door was child's play. Steel would not have kept 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:32.280 them out. So basically like, this guy's just waiting for 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:36.080 these caterpillars to bum rush him. Yeah, and all night long. 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:38.240 Yeah, he's saying to himself the. 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:41.439 Horror, Yeah, That's what I'd be saying. But with the 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:44.080 sweet and noble return of the day, the horror vanished, 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:48.320 The whisper of wind became benignant again. The nameless fear, 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:52.240