WEBVTT - S1: EP 18 — " Tall Man is in There.” 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:26.960 Yes, that's right, Merlin, good hoot! Welcome back everyone. It's 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:29.920 a busy day here at Haunting HQ. With the help 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:32.680 of a very high profile animal expert who shall not 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:36.519 be named rhymes with bleep Burbwin, I've started Merlin on 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:39.559 a strict clicker training program 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:40.760 a man man, 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:44.159 Yes, Len, fine. It was mandated after he attacked that 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:50.839 finance guy in Central Park. Merlin, down! Good boy. Luckily 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:54.760 they're doing incredible things with glass eyes these days. Also, 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.000 I'm about to meet with my new caseworker for the 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:00.640 first time. Some of you may remember, Sharon and I 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:05.560 had to part ways for personal reasons. She personally accused 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:09.959 me of verbal assault. Anywho, my new caseworker is some 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:16.920 guy named Lord Kingswell Herringbottom. He sounds stuffy, but no 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:19.560 one can be as bad as Sharon. All that matters 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:21.960 is that he gets me out of purgatory. Up or 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:25.640 down at this point, I don't even care. I've got 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:27.679 to run to my meeting, but I'm leaving you in 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:32.000 the very responsible hands of Celene, an experienced babysitter who 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:34.840 scored the ideal gig, the kind where you show up 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:37.720 for bedtime, raid the pantry and veg out to their 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:42.080 HBO subscription. Only we don't work in ideals here on Haunting, 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:44.399 so instead of a night of pop tarts and Sex 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:49.080 in the City, Celene's experience ended up being completely harrowing. 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:50.520 Take a listen. 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:56.600 The little girl was sitting next to me. We're watching TV, 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:00.760 and I will never forget this. She got up, turned 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:04.480 around really slowly, and she looked outside the window and 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:08.120 started screaming. So I got up and I turned around 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:16.160 and I saw this huge thing peering in. My name 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:20.240 is Celene. About ten years ago, the little girl I 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:25.960 was babysitting saw something in her closet. I started babysitting 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:28.160 just to make some extra money while I was in college. 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:33.160 I was babysitting through this app for a couple of years. 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:37.080 I would see about four to five families a week, 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.960 and I was babysitting this little girl for the very 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:43.960 first time. She was about three and a half turning four. 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:49.799 Her previous babysitter dropped out last minute, and I accepted 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:55.160 the job. The mom worked nights, so she needed someone later. 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:58.680 My boyfriend at the time picked me up and dropped 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:03.080 me off to the job. I got there at midnight, 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.359 right off the bat the house was freaky. It was 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:12.600 a little bit of an older house, overgrown garden, just 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:16.400 looked like a haunted house. She met me at the door, 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:21.920 gave me the instructions and said, my daughter's not sleeping 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.000 if you could just help her fall asleep. She showed 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:34.920 me in and then she left. I walked in. The 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:40.880 stairs were a little creaky. The lights didn't stay on. 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:43.360 They would flicker every now and then, so I was 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:45.480 already like, oh, that's weird. 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:49.680 The little girl was sitting in the middle of the 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:54.320 living room playing with her dolls. I tried playing with her. 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:58.160 She's a little quiet, playing in her own world. She 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:00.120 would give me like a doll to play with, but 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.920 not really talking too much. I tried to get her 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:05.800 to go in her room so we can maybe work 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.800 on trying to fall asleep. So I'm like, let's go 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:13.320 read a book. She just kept saying no, mm hmm, 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.640 and I'm like, come on, let's go. It's okay, I'll 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.919 go with you. We eventually do make it into her room. 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:25.120 She had a really cute room actually it was pink, 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:29.160 and she had a little canopy above her bed. She 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:31.560 had a little dollhouse to the side with her dolls. 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:35.440 As soon as we got into her room, she went 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:40.120 straight to her bed, laid down and was stiff, staring 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:45.040 at the corner, and said, I can't sleep. The baby's crying. 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:50.520 She was just laying there, not moving, pointing her finger, 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:55.080 telling me that a baby's crying. She just kept repeating, 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:57.919 the baby's crying. The baby's crying. 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:02.160 But she doesn't seem scared, just telling me this. We 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:04.840 were both looking up into the corner and nothing was there, 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:07.919 but she kept saying that there was a baby in 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.120 the corner. I'm not really thinking much of it at 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.480 this point. I just think she's a kid. She's saying 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.880 there's a baby. Maybe she's talking about her dolls. She 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:20.680 just keeps repeating it enough where I want to leave 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.039 the room and just start over in another room. So 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:26.440 I'm like, well, maybe she'll sleep in her mom's room. 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.280 I said, let's go to your mom's room. She got 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:35.000 up off of the bed and led me into her 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:40.000 mom's room. Her mom's room was just right across the 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:43.760 living room in the other room, and she stopped when 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:47.479 we got in there. It's almost like the closet catches 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:51.839 her eye out of her peripheral vision. She hesitated for 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:56.080 a moment, looks into the dark closet, points her finger 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:59.839 and says Tall man. Tall Man's in there. 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:08.360 The lights go out. It was just complete darkness. The 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:14.159 lights came back on. I picked her up, ran out 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:15.840 of the room as fast as I can and close 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:21.920 the door. I did not look into the closet. I 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:27.400 was terrified, goose bumps. I didn't see anything at this point, 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.200 just scared because this little girl is freaking me out. 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:36.640 We went to the living room and there is a 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:42.599 big couch, a TV in front of the couch, and 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.120 she has a bookshelf to the side of the couch. 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:48.159 So we both just sit down and turned the TV on. 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.320 I think the news was on that late. She grabbed 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:57.240 her dolls and we just sat on the couch. I'm 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:01.800 not relaxed, but she seems completely unbothered, still not saying 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:05.640 too much to me in her own world. We watched 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:09.600 TV for about an hour. She is still not tired. 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:15.200 She's awake. I was texting my boyfriend at the time, 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:23.920 saying something's not right. No text back. She's playing with 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:28.280 her dolls on the couch. She stops. I'll never forget this. 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:34.800 She gets up slowly from the couch, and she turns 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:39.760 around to the window behind us, almost like she's realizing something. 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:46.160 She pointed to the window and started yelling, hat Man, 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:51.760 hat Man, hat Man. So I got up and I 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:55.920 turned around, thinking it's a person. I don't know. But 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.920 when I saw the reflection of the TV, I saw 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:04.280 the little girl's shadow and my shadow, and next to 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:11.040 our shadows was this huge shadow figure. It looked like 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:15.760 this thing was wearing a wide brimmed hat, and it 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:20.360 had red eyes, almost like they're glowing. You had to 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:24.000 be at least seven eight feet doll just standing there. 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:29.800 It wasn't solid. I could see that it was translucent, 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.480 so I knew it wasn't a person, and it looks 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:40.439 like it's observing us. Once I saw it, it kind 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:45.920 of whooshed away. It's just gone. I'm shocked. I'm questioning 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:51.560 what I'm seeing right now. And then, all of the 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:53.920 power went out, the lights went out, the TV went out. 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:58.560 Fight or flight? I'm flight. I picked her up quickly 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:01.760 and ran into the kitchen with her. I felt safer 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:05.120 in the kitchen because there were no windows, no doors, 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:11.440 no closets. I'm asking her, what's hat man? She had 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:16.400 like a little snack bowl of cereal. She says nothing, 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:21.200 and she just was eating her cereal. That little girl 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:27.880 is unfazed. She did not even acknowledge that we saw anything. 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:31.120 We literally sat in the kitchen for that last hour. 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:37.720 At this point it's maybe three am, I was texting 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.640 my boyfriend, you need to come by the house. I 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:44.080 saw something. I at least wanted him to come by 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:47.000 the house so he could look around outside or see something. 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:51.160 Wait there until the mom got home, but I never 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:57.480 got a text back. I'm counting down the minutes until 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:03.000 four am hits when her mom comes home. I keep 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:08.240 peeking out the window. At four, mom pulled up. I 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:11.640 see that my boyfriend gets there. I said, Mom's here, 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:14.960 and I rushed to the door. Met her at the door. 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:19.520 I told her, yeah, she's not sleeping, and I ran 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:21.320 as fast as I could across the lawn. 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.600 I was just about to get into the car. The 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:28.840 mom had to come get me. I forgot to get paid. 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.079 I was so scared. I wanted to get out as 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:35.680 soon as possible, so she had to come hand me 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.640 the cash in the middle of the lawn. I said 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:41.720 thanks and I got in the car and I said 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:50.360 go go go. I reached out to her a couple 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:53.720 days later. I wanted to tell her what her daughter 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:57.960 was telling me. She never texted me back. About a 0:10:57.960 --> 0:10:59.960 month later, I went past the house and it was 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:06.040 for sale, so I know that they left. I think 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:09.760 the mom probably was ignoring it for a while, and 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:13.720 then I think all these babysitters leaving and the things 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.200 her daughter is probably telling her, she wanted to move. 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:24.760 I did some digging. Apparently there had been some deaths, 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:31.360 specifically suicides in that house. I just always tended to 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:35.600 lean on the skeptic side. I would always be like, 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:41.200 it's not real or no such thing as ghosts. But 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:47.480 once you have an experience, that changes your outlook. I 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:50.040 am definitely a firm believer in the paranormal. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:01.520 Sorry, sorry, sorry, I'm back. I'm back. I'm back, I'm back. 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:05.000 We went a little over our time. But wow, you guys, 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:12.000 Lord HerringBbottom, butterflies, Merlin, Merlin, No, oh great, he's shredding 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:14.679 Len's notes. He gets upset when I leave. Drop it, 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:16.360 drop it. 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:21.840 That's a good baby. We're gonna take an ad break while 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:23.320 Len cleans up all this paper. 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:39.720 As I was saying, you guys, I'm in love. It 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.280 was only a quick introductory meeting, but the second I 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:45.679 laid eyes on Lord Herringbottom, I felt alive again. There 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:51.079 was real chemistry. First of all, he's incredibly handsome. He 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:53.760 does dress like a wealthy medieval child. Well, I mean 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:56.440 he is a wealthy medieval child, but it doesn't bother me. 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:59.640 He has that swoopy hair like Leo in Titanic, and 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:03.280 his is so square. Well, his entire face is square. 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:07.280 Gone really from the typhoid, but by today's standards it's hot. 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.240 He's been dead a long time, but even when I 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:13.320 was alive, I always went for older guys, so this 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.360 kind of tracks. Not to mention, his fiefdom made a 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:20.120 killing in the spice trade. Plus we both love the 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:21.280 beach and reading. 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:23.240 [MUMBLES] 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:27.040 I read Len all the time. What can I say? 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:29.720 I love an old soul. He said, he's gonna review 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:31.280 my case and see what he can do to move 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:34.560 the needle on my afterlife situation. Except now I'm like, 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.319 do I even want to cross over? This is crazy, 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:40.600 you guys, I'm being insane. My heart is being so fast. 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:42.720 Well I guess not, but it would be if it could. 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:48.720 Get it together, Therésa. You're a catch! Lord Herringbottom should 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:52.120 be so lucky. I'm good. I'm good, I'm cool. I'm cool. 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.440 Our next story comes to us from Kate, whose supernatural 0:13:56.480 --> 0:14:02.102 experience at a house in Oklahoma was the answer. Len 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:03.040 not necessary! 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:06.760 [MUMBLES] 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:10.960 whose supernatural experiences at a house in Oklahoma was the 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:12.440 answer to her prayers. 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:13.376 [Laughs] 0:14:13.376 --> 0:14:16.600 It's not funny. It's actually really disrespectful. 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:24.720 I'm Kate. Some prayers are best left unanswered. I was 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:27.640 four years old. We were living in the Bay Area. 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:31.840 My parents had been divorced for a couple years, and 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:35.440 my mom was dating her boyfriend Tom for about a 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:40.880 year and a half. They were actually newly engaged, and 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:44.640 he had a daughter the same age as me, Sarah. 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:48.720 It was a very typical night. We were just over 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:53.680 at their house having a family dinner. Me and Sarah 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:57.080 had gone to play outside after dinner and we were 0:14:57.080 --> 0:14:59.520 playing Simon says, so I was copying every single thing 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:03.640 that she was doing. We can see into the kitchen 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:09.280 through the window and she sees her dad, Tom, just collapse, 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:12.879 I mean, just a full grown man, I think He 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:19.640 was like six three, falls straight to the ground. She screams, Daddy, 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:24.200 really loud and playing Simon says, I scream, daddy. 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:26.680 She takes off running into the house and I'm running 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:32.520 right behind her, and we open up the door, and 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.373 when we got to the kitchen, we saw her dad 0:15:35.373 --> 0:15:39.160 laying on the hard linoleum floor and there was just 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:42.920 a big pool of blood around his head. He had 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:47.480 cracked his head open when he fell. It was very chaotic. 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.760 Sarah was hysterical. She was just kind of screaming and 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:56.920 crying and calling out his name. My mom was crouched 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:00.440 over him. She was screaming for nine one one, trying 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:04.920 to perform CPR. She went in the ambulance with him 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:09.832 to the hospital. At some point in the melee, the 0:16:09.832 --> 0:16:13.360 neighbor came over and took all three of us girls, 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:16.520 so me, Sarah, and then my baby sister over to 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:21.480 her house. She was you know trying to do her best to 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:27.360 console us. We came home and my mom told me 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:28.240 that he had died. 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:35.800 It was definitely traumatizing. I remember feeling upset for my 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:39.840 mom and feeling, you know, scared for his daughter. I 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:42.400 had a lot of questions that grown ups probably did 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:46.600 not want to answer at the time. It was very 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.240 much like okay that happened, and so we're going to 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:52.600 move on. There wasn't as much conversation about like Hey, 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:55.640 really talk things through with your kids, you know, let 0:16:55.640 --> 0:17:02.320 them really process that out. Death, sudden death brings so 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.720 much uncertainty, Like there are not a lot of answers. 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:11.639 I couldn't ask my mom. I didn't want to burden 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:13.679 anybody because I knew that it was a really awful 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:16.679 thing that happened, especially to my mom who had been 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.359 a single mom and was, you know, in this new 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:27.800 great relationship. She'd just lost so much. During her grieving process, 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:31.560 my mom actually had a place in her bedroom where 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:35.159 she had like an altar for him. She asked for 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:38.240 his presence to come and help her through this time. 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.600 When I was growing up, my mom was also big 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:46.080 into Al-Anon and alcoholics anonymous, which, like in the twelve step program, 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:48.320 there is a God, but it is kind of just 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:52.119 like a higher power, it's palatable so that anybody of 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:57.040 any religion can partake in those practices. Alongside that, my 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:02.520 mom went to a humanitarian, universalist church, not for any 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:06.280 religious reasons, more just for the community aspect of it. 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.920 And so I think that she just never really found 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:14.080 a home with any particular religion. So I had grown 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.600 up hearing about a higher power and kind of going 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:21.040 to church, but there was no Jesus so I did 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:25.640 not relate to any social norms around Christianity or even 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:27.800 Christmas or anything like that. But there definitely was like 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:31.920 an idea about God and praying. I was just so 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:36.720 curious about what the hell had just happened, and I 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:38.560 didn't have anyone to ask these questions to. So I 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:40.200 was like, you know what I heard about this God guy, 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.000 heard about this praying thing. I know someone who was dead, 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:46.359 so that dead person might know that God person, and 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.520 maybe between the three of us we could get some 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:53.520 understanding in my little tiny brain, and so I said 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.520 this little prayer in my head, like if you're real, 0:18:56.720 --> 0:18:59.320 if this is real, can you just show him to 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:02.239 me one more time? Just show him to me one 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.359 more time? And that was it. I didn't really think 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:07.120 about what that would look like or how that would 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:11.160 actually make me feel. I would go to the bathroom 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:13.000 and I would just kind of say it. Sometimes I 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:16.000 would take it more seriously than other times. It was 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:18.919 almost like an intrusive thought more than it was a prayer. 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:21.119 I couldn't get it out of my head. 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:24.280 A lot of times the prayer would sound like I 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:28.240 would be talking to him directly, so I would say Tom, Tom, Tom, 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:31.359 if you're there, show me yourself, if this is real, 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:34.400 if you're really gone, if people could meet ghosts, if 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:37.160 I was kind of throwing all the different religious elements 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:39.600 stories that I'd ever heard. I was like, then just 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:44.320 be here, like show me you. And I wasn't asking 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:47.520 for a sign. I wasn't asking like show me a butterfly. 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:52.919 I was like, get down here. I said, this little 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:57.240 prayer I'll call it for years. I just wanted to 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:01.240 get some understanding. 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.639 So years later, me and my sister and my stepmom, 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:08.720 we were visiting my grandparents in Oklahoma. We were staying 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:13.440 at their house with my cousins. My grandparents lived in 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:18.320 a farmhouse. It was a very long house, all one story, 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:23.679 big family room, big kitchen, and lots of bedrooms. Me, 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:26.840 my stepmom, and my sister. We were staying in the 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:29.000 last bedroom on the right end of the house, and 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:33.040 all of the yard space was on the left. The 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:35.400 house was elevated and there was a drop off down 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:37.840 on that right side, so you couldn't walk around that 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:43.840 side of the house. We were there with all my cousins, swimming, 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:46.840 playing on the farm, riding horses, and going fishing, just 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:53.199 having a really nice summer. The last night we were 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:57.880 in Oklahoma, we were watching some scary movies with my cousins, 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:00.959 just having a good time having fun. But I definitely 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:03.480 went to bed that night just feeling maybe a little 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:07.280 bit ready to go home. It's getting late, so I 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.600 climb up to the top bunk. We were sharing a 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:13.720 bunk bed, so the bottom had like a queen size mattress. 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:17.639 My stepmom and my sister in the bottom bunk. We 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:21.200 turned out the lights and I slept actually really well 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:25.640 that night. I woke up in the morning everyone else 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:29.520 had already woken up. I was sleeping in and right 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:32.639 as I opened up my eyes, I looked at the 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:38.240 window and there was a man's figure looking at me. 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:43.600 He was very, very tall, and he didn't have a face. 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:49.120 It was just his silhouette, but it wasn't an outline 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:52.560 like he was dark. I hate to say I just knew, 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:59.680 but I did. It's Tom. He was so tall, he 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:02.948 was like six foot three, and he had a very 0:22:02.948 --> 0:22:13.080 particular hairstyle. And his silhouette was in this window. He 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:16.119 didn't look like he was standing inside the house or 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:20.200 outside the house. He was just there at the window 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:26.240 looking in at me. But like I said before, that 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.280 whole right side of the house was on I don't 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:31.600 want to say a cliff, because that sounds very dramatic, 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:34.320 but there was a drop down. There's no way for 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:36.959 anyone to stand on the other side of the window. 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:40.800 I shot up in bed and I felt really scared, 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:46.320 but I also knew that I was responsible. I was terrified. 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:51.680 I felt like I had summoned something that I didn't 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:55.159 mean to what I had been asking for all these years. 0:22:55.680 --> 0:23:01.200 There it was. And then I thought, this is scary. 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:04.879 I've bit off more than I can chew, and I 0:23:04.960 --> 0:23:06.160 don't know what I've stepped into. 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:12.480 I said out loud, Hi, Tom, thank you so much. 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:16.040 I'm like climbing down the bunk bed ladder talking at 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:20.119 the silhouette in the window, and I think I said, 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:22.689 this is a little too scary for me right now 0:23:22.690 --> 0:23:28.040 I got to go, and I ran out of the bedroom. 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:30.320 I did not look behind me when I left the room. 0:23:30.359 --> 0:23:32.280 I knew that no one was following me out of there, 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:35.479 because nobody was in there. Just the way that his 0:23:36.400 --> 0:23:40.119 shape took form, I knew that was not a person. 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:46.080 No body was in there. And then I was calm, 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:50.200 cool and collected poker face. Go outside, see my grandparents, 0:23:50.280 --> 0:23:53.840 see my stepmom, my sister, just talking. I think I 0:23:53.880 --> 0:23:55.760 had this sense like I don't want to be in trouble. 0:23:56.320 --> 0:23:59.719 And I did get in trouble a lot, but I 0:23:59.800 --> 0:24:03.479 did feel a heaviness. I remember just kind of walking 0:24:03.480 --> 0:24:05.639 through the afternoon feeling like I wanted to tell my 0:24:05.640 --> 0:24:10.360 stepmom right away, but I didn't really know what to say. 0:24:10.440 --> 0:24:12.040 We were just kind of talking throughout the day, and 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:13.600 I ended up saying to her like I think I 0:24:13.640 --> 0:24:17.199 saw a ghost in the room, and she was like, 0:24:17.720 --> 0:24:23.680 I believe you. And then she told me that she'd 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:27.640 woken up around twilight and she just fixed the blanket 0:24:27.720 --> 0:24:31.359 over her and my sister, and when she pulled the 0:24:31.400 --> 0:24:35.600 blanket up, she saw a man standing at the bunk 0:24:35.600 --> 0:24:38.000 bed looking up at me at the top bunk, and 0:24:38.040 --> 0:24:40.760 so she just saw legs and she said that she'd 0:24:40.800 --> 0:24:43.040 peeked out and looked in that he had been standing 0:24:43.040 --> 0:24:45.520 there looking up at me. But of course, in the 0:24:45.560 --> 0:24:50.240 moment she thought she was sleeping. I told her that 0:24:50.320 --> 0:24:53.760 I had also seen a man at the window, and 0:24:53.840 --> 0:24:56.680 I explained for everything that I had seen as well. 0:24:58.640 --> 0:25:02.919 She was like, okay, we saw same thing. And I 0:25:02.960 --> 0:25:06.399 was like, I've been asking to see him. Actually, I 0:25:06.600 --> 0:25:12.040 summoned him. That was Tom. I've been praying to see 0:25:12.160 --> 0:25:20.679 him for years. I never saw Tom again. This situation, 0:25:20.840 --> 0:25:25.000 with him dying in front of me, with my mom 0:25:25.080 --> 0:25:29.960 being so grief stricken, I clearly had a lot of 0:25:30.000 --> 0:25:32.520 thoughts and feelings about it that I was keeping to myself. 0:25:33.560 --> 0:25:36.240 And so to have my stepmom, who didn't know this man, 0:25:36.520 --> 0:25:40.280 who didn't know that i'd been asking these questions, share 0:25:40.400 --> 0:25:43.720 experience with me, I felt like I had tapped into 0:25:43.760 --> 0:25:48.280 something way too big. I was like, I will never 0:25:48.359 --> 0:25:50.720 ask for anything like that again. I don't want to 0:25:50.760 --> 0:25:53.000 dabble in that. I don't want to see anything ever again. 0:25:53.040 --> 0:25:55.240 I'm like, God, if there's a god, if there's a way, 0:25:55.680 --> 0:25:59.040 keep it all from me. I don't know why certain 0:25:59.080 --> 0:26:01.840 things happened to some people, and certain things don't. I 0:26:01.880 --> 0:26:04.520 know I've heard about some people just having more of 0:26:04.520 --> 0:26:08.000 a sensitivity to things. I don't know why he was 0:26:08.119 --> 0:26:13.280 at my bedside. That is one of the questions that 0:26:13.359 --> 0:26:17.840 I am okay with never knowing the answer to, and 0:26:17.880 --> 0:26:20.280 so I've just like found comfort in the not knowing. 0:26:23.320 --> 0:26:25.439 There have been times in my life where I have 0:26:25.600 --> 0:26:29.400 gone to pray again and I've been like, I need 0:26:29.400 --> 0:26:31.360 you to tell me what's going on with the situation 0:26:31.480 --> 0:26:33.400 or what I need to do, and I'll like wake 0:26:33.480 --> 0:26:37.320 up the next morning just boom answered Like. I've probably 0:26:37.320 --> 0:26:38.960 only done that five times in my whole life because 0:26:39.000 --> 0:26:42.720 it really freaks me out. I haven't even wanted to 0:26:42.760 --> 0:26:45.080 like dive deeper into any of that. So I never 0:26:45.119 --> 0:26:48.760 have seen a psychic. I've never seen a medium. I've 0:26:48.840 --> 0:26:52.200 pretty much shut out anything paranormal that I can. 0:27:00.000 --> 0:27:02.840 Be careful what you wish for, I guess. It's funny. 0:27:02.880 --> 0:27:04.520 My mom had a lot of boyfriends and I was 0:27:04.560 --> 0:27:07.240 always praying for the drop dead part. Actually one of 0:27:07.240 --> 0:27:10.800