THERÉSA: Yes, that's right, Merlin, good hoot! Welcome back everyone. It's
THERÉSA: a busy day here at Haunting HQ. With the help
THERÉSA: of a very high profile animal expert who shall not
THERÉSA: be named rhymes with bleep Burbwin, I've started Merlin on
THERÉSA: a strict clicker training program
THERÉSA: a man man,
THERÉSA: Yes, Len, fine. It was mandated after he attacked that
THERÉSA: finance guy in Central Park. Merlin, down! Good boy. Luckily
THERÉSA: they're doing incredible things with glass eyes these days. Also,
THERÉSA: I'm about to meet with my new caseworker for the
THERÉSA: first time. Some of you may remember, Sharon and I
THERÉSA: had to part ways for personal reasons. She personally accused
THERÉSA: me of verbal assault. Anywho, my new caseworker is some
THERÉSA: guy named Lord Kingswell Herringbottom. He sounds stuffy, but no
THERÉSA: one can be as bad as Sharon. All that matters
THERÉSA: is that he gets me out of purgatory. Up or
THERÉSA: down at this point, I don't even care. I've got
THERÉSA: to run to my meeting, but I'm leaving you in
THERÉSA: the very responsible hands of Celene, an experienced babysitter who
THERÉSA: scored the ideal gig, the kind where you show up
THERÉSA: for bedtime, raid the pantry and veg out to their
THERÉSA: HBO subscription. Only we don't work in ideals here on Haunting,
THERÉSA: so instead of a night of pop tarts and Sex
THERÉSA: in the City, Celene's experience ended up being completely harrowing.
THERÉSA: Take a listen.
STORY A: The little girl was sitting next to me. We're watching TV,
STORY A: and I will never forget this. She got up, turned
STORY A: around really slowly, and she looked outside the window and
STORY A: started screaming. So I got up and I turned around
STORY A: and I saw this huge thing peering in. My name
STORY A: is Celene. About ten years ago, the little girl I
STORY A: was babysitting saw something in her closet. I started babysitting
STORY A: just to make some extra money while I was in college.
STORY A: I was babysitting through this app for a couple of years.
STORY A: I would see about four to five families a week,
STORY A: and I was babysitting this little girl for the very
STORY A: first time. She was about three and a half turning four.
STORY A: Her previous babysitter dropped out last minute, and I accepted
STORY A: the job. The mom worked nights, so she needed someone later.
STORY A: My boyfriend at the time picked me up and dropped
STORY A: me off to the job. I got there at midnight,
STORY A: right off the bat the house was freaky. It was
STORY A: a little bit of an older house, overgrown garden, just
STORY A: looked like a haunted house. She met me at the door,
STORY A: gave me the instructions and said, my daughter's not sleeping
STORY A: if you could just help her fall asleep. She showed
STORY A: me in and then she left. I walked in. The
STORY A: stairs were a little creaky. The lights didn't stay on.
STORY A: They would flicker every now and then, so I was
STORY A: already like, oh, that's weird.
STORY A: The little girl was sitting in the middle of the
STORY A: living room playing with her dolls. I tried playing with her.
STORY A: She's a little quiet, playing in her own world. She
STORY A: would give me like a doll to play with, but
STORY A: not really talking too much. I tried to get her
STORY A: to go in her room so we can maybe work
STORY A: on trying to fall asleep. So I'm like, let's go
STORY A: read a book. She just kept saying no, mm hmm,
STORY A: and I'm like, come on, let's go. It's okay, I'll
STORY A: go with you. We eventually do make it into her room.
STORY A: She had a really cute room actually it was pink,
STORY A: and she had a little canopy above her bed. She
STORY A: had a little dollhouse to the side with her dolls.
STORY A: As soon as we got into her room, she went
STORY A: straight to her bed, laid down and was stiff, staring
STORY A: at the corner, and said, I can't sleep. The baby's crying.
STORY A: She was just laying there, not moving, pointing her finger,
STORY A: telling me that a baby's crying. She just kept repeating,
STORY A: the baby's crying. The baby's crying.
STORY A: But she doesn't seem scared, just telling me this. We
STORY A: were both looking up into the corner and nothing was there,
STORY A: but she kept saying that there was a baby in
STORY A: the corner. I'm not really thinking much of it at
STORY A: this point. I just think she's a kid. She's saying
STORY A: there's a baby. Maybe she's talking about her dolls. She
STORY A: just keeps repeating it enough where I want to leave
STORY A: the room and just start over in another room. So
STORY A: I'm like, well, maybe she'll sleep in her mom's room.
STORY A: I said, let's go to your mom's room. She got
STORY A: up off of the bed and led me into her
STORY A: mom's room. Her mom's room was just right across the
STORY A: living room in the other room, and she stopped when
STORY A: we got in there. It's almost like the closet catches
STORY A: her eye out of her peripheral vision. She hesitated for
STORY A: a moment, looks into the dark closet, points her finger
STORY A: and says Tall man. Tall Man's in there.
STORY A: The lights go out. It was just complete darkness. The
STORY A: lights came back on. I picked her up, ran out
STORY A: of the room as fast as I can and close
STORY A: the door. I did not look into the closet. I
STORY A: was terrified, goose bumps. I didn't see anything at this point,
STORY A: just scared because this little girl is freaking me out.
STORY A: We went to the living room and there is a
STORY A: big couch, a TV in front of the couch, and
STORY A: she has a bookshelf to the side of the couch.
STORY A: So we both just sit down and turned the TV on.
STORY A: I think the news was on that late. She grabbed
STORY A: her dolls and we just sat on the couch. I'm
STORY A: not relaxed, but she seems completely unbothered, still not saying
STORY A: too much to me in her own world. We watched
STORY A: TV for about an hour. She is still not tired.
STORY A: She's awake. I was texting my boyfriend at the time,
STORY A: saying something's not right. No text back. She's playing with
STORY A: her dolls on the couch. She stops. I'll never forget this.
STORY A: She gets up slowly from the couch, and she turns
STORY A: around to the window behind us, almost like she's realizing something.
STORY A: She pointed to the window and started yelling, hat Man,
STORY A: hat Man, hat Man. So I got up and I
STORY A: turned around, thinking it's a person. I don't know. But
STORY A: when I saw the reflection of the TV, I saw
STORY A: the little girl's shadow and my shadow, and next to
STORY A: our shadows was this huge shadow figure. It looked like
STORY A: this thing was wearing a wide brimmed hat, and it
STORY A: had red eyes, almost like they're glowing. You had to
STORY A: be at least seven eight feet doll just standing there.
STORY A: It wasn't solid. I could see that it was translucent,
STORY A: so I knew it wasn't a person, and it looks
STORY A: like it's observing us. Once I saw it, it kind
STORY A: of whooshed away. It's just gone. I'm shocked. I'm questioning
STORY A: what I'm seeing right now. And then, all of the
STORY A: power went out, the lights went out, the TV went out.
STORY A: Fight or flight? I'm flight. I picked her up quickly
STORY A: and ran into the kitchen with her. I felt safer
STORY A: in the kitchen because there were no windows, no doors,
STORY A: no closets. I'm asking her, what's hat man? She had
STORY A: like a little snack bowl of cereal. She says nothing,
STORY A: and she just was eating her cereal. That little girl
STORY A: is unfazed. She did not even acknowledge that we saw anything.
STORY A: We literally sat in the kitchen for that last hour.
STORY A: At this point it's maybe three am, I was texting
STORY A: my boyfriend, you need to come by the house. I
STORY A: saw something. I at least wanted him to come by
STORY A: the house so he could look around outside or see something.
STORY A: Wait there until the mom got home, but I never
STORY A: got a text back. I'm counting down the minutes until
STORY A: four am hits when her mom comes home. I keep
STORY A: peeking out the window. At four, mom pulled up. I
STORY A: see that my boyfriend gets there. I said, Mom's here,
STORY A: and I rushed to the door. Met her at the door.
STORY A: I told her, yeah, she's not sleeping, and I ran
STORY A: as fast as I could across the lawn.
STORY A: I was just about to get into the car. The
STORY A: mom had to come get me. I forgot to get paid.
STORY A: I was so scared. I wanted to get out as
STORY A: soon as possible, so she had to come hand me
STORY A: the cash in the middle of the lawn. I said
STORY A: thanks and I got in the car and I said
STORY A: go go go. I reached out to her a couple
STORY A: days later. I wanted to tell her what her daughter
STORY A: was telling me. She never texted me back. About a
STORY A: month later, I went past the house and it was
STORY A: for sale, so I know that they left. I think
STORY A: the mom probably was ignoring it for a while, and
STORY A: then I think all these babysitters leaving and the things
STORY A: her daughter is probably telling her, she wanted to move.
STORY A: I did some digging. Apparently there had been some deaths,
STORY A: specifically suicides in that house. I just always tended to
STORY A: lean on the skeptic side. I would always be like,
STORY A: it's not real or no such thing as ghosts. But
STORY A: once you have an experience, that changes your outlook. I
STORY A: am definitely a firm believer in the paranormal.
THERÉSA: Sorry, sorry, sorry, I'm back. I'm back. I'm back, I'm back.
THERÉSA: We went a little over our time. But wow, you guys,
THERÉSA: Lord HerringBbottom, butterflies, Merlin, Merlin, No, oh great, he's shredding
THERÉSA: Len's notes. He gets upset when I leave. Drop it,
THERÉSA: drop it.
THERÉSA: That's a good baby. We're gonna take an ad break while
THERÉSA: Len cleans up all this paper.
THERÉSA: As I was saying, you guys, I'm in love. It
THERÉSA: was only a quick introductory meeting, but the second I
THERÉSA: laid eyes on Lord Herringbottom, I felt alive again. There
THERÉSA: was real chemistry. First of all, he's incredibly handsome. He
THERÉSA: does dress like a wealthy medieval child. Well, I mean
THERÉSA: he is a wealthy medieval child, but it doesn't bother me.
THERÉSA: He has that swoopy hair like Leo in Titanic, and
THERÉSA: his is so square. Well, his entire face is square.
THERÉSA: Gone really from the typhoid, but by today's standards it's hot.
THERÉSA: He's been dead a long time, but even when I
THERÉSA: was alive, I always went for older guys, so this
THERÉSA: kind of tracks. Not to mention, his fiefdom made a
THERÉSA: killing in the spice trade. Plus we both love the
THERÉSA: beach and reading.
LEN: [MUMBLES]
THERÉSA: I read Len all the time. What can I say?
THERÉSA: I love an old soul. He said, he's gonna review
THERÉSA: my case and see what he can do to move
THERÉSA: the needle on my afterlife situation. Except now I'm like,
THERÉSA: do I even want to cross over? This is crazy,
THERÉSA: you guys, I'm being insane. My heart is being so fast.
THERÉSA: Well I guess not, but it would be if it could.
THERÉSA: Get it together, Therésa. You're a catch! Lord Herringbottom should
THERÉSA: be so lucky. I'm good. I'm good, I'm cool. I'm cool.
THERÉSA: Our next story comes to us from Kate, whose supernatural
THERÉSA: experience at a house in Oklahoma was the answer. Len
THERÉSA: not necessary!
LEN: [MUMBLES]
THERÉSA: whose supernatural experiences at a house in Oklahoma was the
THERÉSA: answer to her prayers.
LEN: [Laughs]
THERÉSA: It's not funny. It's actually really disrespectful.
STORY B: I'm Kate. Some prayers are best left unanswered. I was
STORY B: four years old. We were living in the Bay Area.
STORY B: My parents had been divorced for a couple years, and
STORY B: my mom was dating her boyfriend Tom for about a
STORY B: year and a half. They were actually newly engaged, and
STORY B: he had a daughter the same age as me, Sarah.
STORY B: It was a very typical night. We were just over
STORY B: at their house having a family dinner. Me and Sarah
STORY B: had gone to play outside after dinner and we were
STORY B: playing Simon says, so I was copying every single thing
STORY B: that she was doing. We can see into the kitchen
STORY B: through the window and she sees her dad, Tom, just collapse,
STORY B: I mean, just a full grown man, I think He
STORY B: was like six three, falls straight to the ground. She screams, Daddy,
STORY B: really loud and playing Simon says, I scream, daddy.
STORY B: She takes off running into the house and I'm running
STORY B: right behind her, and we open up the door, and
STORY B: when we got to the kitchen, we saw her dad
STORY B: laying on the hard linoleum floor and there was just
STORY B: a big pool of blood around his head. He had
STORY B: cracked his head open when he fell. It was very chaotic.
STORY B: Sarah was hysterical. She was just kind of screaming and
STORY B: crying and calling out his name. My mom was crouched
STORY B: over him. She was screaming for nine one one, trying
STORY B: to perform CPR. She went in the ambulance with him
STORY B: to the hospital. At some point in the melee, the
STORY B: neighbor came over and took all three of us girls,
STORY B: so me, Sarah, and then my baby sister over to
STORY B: her house. She was you know trying to do her best to
STORY B: console us. We came home and my mom told me
STORY B: that he had died.
STORY B: It was definitely traumatizing. I remember feeling upset for my
STORY B: mom and feeling, you know, scared for his daughter. I
STORY B: had a lot of questions that grown ups probably did
STORY B: not want to answer at the time. It was very
STORY B: much like okay that happened, and so we're going to
STORY B: move on. There wasn't as much conversation about like Hey,
STORY B: really talk things through with your kids, you know, let
STORY B: them really process that out. Death, sudden death brings so
STORY B: much uncertainty, Like there are not a lot of answers.
STORY B: I couldn't ask my mom. I didn't want to burden
STORY B: anybody because I knew that it was a really awful
STORY B: thing that happened, especially to my mom who had been
STORY B: a single mom and was, you know, in this new
STORY B: great relationship. She'd just lost so much. During her grieving process,
STORY B: my mom actually had a place in her bedroom where
STORY B: she had like an altar for him. She asked for
STORY B: his presence to come and help her through this time.
STORY B: When I was growing up, my mom was also big
STORY B: into Al-Anon and alcoholics anonymous, which, like in the twelve step program,
STORY B: there is a God, but it is kind of just
STORY B: like a higher power, it's palatable so that anybody of
STORY B: any religion can partake in those practices. Alongside that, my
STORY B: mom went to a humanitarian, universalist church, not for any
STORY B: religious reasons, more just for the community aspect of it.
STORY B: And so I think that she just never really found
STORY B: a home with any particular religion. So I had grown
STORY B: up hearing about a higher power and kind of going
STORY B: to church, but there was no Jesus so I did
STORY B: not relate to any social norms around Christianity or even
STORY B: Christmas or anything like that. But there definitely was like
STORY B: an idea about God and praying. I was just so
STORY B: curious about what the hell had just happened, and I
STORY B: didn't have anyone to ask these questions to. So I
STORY B: was like, you know what I heard about this God guy,
STORY B: heard about this praying thing. I know someone who was dead,
STORY B: so that dead person might know that God person, and
STORY B: maybe between the three of us we could get some
STORY B: understanding in my little tiny brain, and so I said
STORY B: this little prayer in my head, like if you're real,
STORY B: if this is real, can you just show him to
STORY B: me one more time? Just show him to me one
STORY B: more time? And that was it. I didn't really think
STORY B: about what that would look like or how that would
STORY B: actually make me feel. I would go to the bathroom
STORY B: and I would just kind of say it. Sometimes I
STORY B: would take it more seriously than other times. It was
STORY B: almost like an intrusive thought more than it was a prayer.
STORY B: I couldn't get it out of my head.
STORY B: A lot of times the prayer would sound like I
STORY B: would be talking to him directly, so I would say Tom, Tom, Tom,
STORY B: if you're there, show me yourself, if this is real,
STORY B: if you're really gone, if people could meet ghosts, if
STORY B: I was kind of throwing all the different religious elements
STORY B: stories that I'd ever heard. I was like, then just
STORY B: be here, like show me you. And I wasn't asking
STORY B: for a sign. I wasn't asking like show me a butterfly.
STORY B: I was like, get down here. I said, this little
STORY B: prayer I'll call it for years. I just wanted to
STORY B: get some understanding.
STORY B: So years later, me and my sister and my stepmom,
STORY B: we were visiting my grandparents in Oklahoma. We were staying
STORY B: at their house with my cousins. My grandparents lived in
STORY B: a farmhouse. It was a very long house, all one story,
STORY B: big family room, big kitchen, and lots of bedrooms. Me,
STORY B: my stepmom, and my sister. We were staying in the
STORY B: last bedroom on the right end of the house, and
STORY B: all of the yard space was on the left. The
STORY B: house was elevated and there was a drop off down
STORY B: on that right side, so you couldn't walk around that
STORY B: side of the house. We were there with all my cousins, swimming,
STORY B: playing on the farm, riding horses, and going fishing, just
STORY B: having a really nice summer. The last night we were
STORY B: in Oklahoma, we were watching some scary movies with my cousins,
STORY B: just having a good time having fun. But I definitely
STORY B: went to bed that night just feeling maybe a little
STORY B: bit ready to go home. It's getting late, so I
STORY B: climb up to the top bunk. We were sharing a
STORY B: bunk bed, so the bottom had like a queen size mattress.
STORY B: My stepmom and my sister in the bottom bunk. We
STORY B: turned out the lights and I slept actually really well
STORY B: that night. I woke up in the morning everyone else
STORY B: had already woken up. I was sleeping in and right
STORY B: as I opened up my eyes, I looked at the
STORY B: window and there was a man's figure looking at me.
STORY B: He was very, very tall, and he didn't have a face.
STORY B: It was just his silhouette, but it wasn't an outline
STORY B: like he was dark. I hate to say I just knew,
STORY B: but I did. It's Tom. He was so tall, he
STORY B: was like six foot three, and he had a very
STORY B: particular hairstyle. And his silhouette was in this window. He
STORY B: didn't look like he was standing inside the house or
STORY B: outside the house. He was just there at the window
STORY B: looking in at me. But like I said before, that
STORY B: whole right side of the house was on I don't
STORY B: want to say a cliff, because that sounds very dramatic,
STORY B: but there was a drop down. There's no way for
STORY B: anyone to stand on the other side of the window.
STORY B: I shot up in bed and I felt really scared,
STORY B: but I also knew that I was responsible. I was terrified.
STORY B: I felt like I had summoned something that I didn't
STORY B: mean to what I had been asking for all these years.
STORY B: There it was. And then I thought, this is scary.
STORY B: I've bit off more than I can chew, and I
STORY B: don't know what I've stepped into.
STORY B: I said out loud, Hi, Tom, thank you so much.
STORY B: I'm like climbing down the bunk bed ladder talking at
STORY B: the silhouette in the window, and I think I said,
STORY B: this is a little too scary for me right now
STORY B: I got to go, and I ran out of the bedroom.
STORY B: I did not look behind me when I left the room.
STORY B: I knew that no one was following me out of there,
STORY B: because nobody was in there. Just the way that his
STORY B: shape took form, I knew that was not a person.
STORY B: No body was in there. And then I was calm,
STORY B: cool and collected poker face. Go outside, see my grandparents,
STORY B: see my stepmom, my sister, just talking. I think I
STORY B: had this sense like I don't want to be in trouble.
STORY B: And I did get in trouble a lot, but I
STORY B: did feel a heaviness. I remember just kind of walking
STORY B: through the afternoon feeling like I wanted to tell my
STORY B: stepmom right away, but I didn't really know what to say.
STORY B: We were just kind of talking throughout the day, and
STORY B: I ended up saying to her like I think I
STORY B: saw a ghost in the room, and she was like,
STORY B: I believe you. And then she told me that she'd
STORY B: woken up around twilight and she just fixed the blanket
STORY B: over her and my sister, and when she pulled the
STORY B: blanket up, she saw a man standing at the bunk
STORY B: bed looking up at me at the top bunk, and
STORY B: so she just saw legs and she said that she'd
STORY B: peeked out and looked in that he had been standing
STORY B: there looking up at me. But of course, in the
STORY B: moment she thought she was sleeping. I told her that
STORY B: I had also seen a man at the window, and
STORY B: I explained for everything that I had seen as well.
STORY B: She was like, okay, we saw same thing. And I
STORY B: was like, I've been asking to see him. Actually, I
STORY B: summoned him. That was Tom. I've been praying to see
STORY B: him for years. I never saw Tom again. This situation,
STORY B: with him dying in front of me, with my mom
STORY B: being so grief stricken, I clearly had a lot of
STORY B: thoughts and feelings about it that I was keeping to myself.
STORY B: And so to have my stepmom, who didn't know this man,
STORY B: who didn't know that i'd been asking these questions, share
STORY B: experience with me, I felt like I had tapped into
STORY B: something way too big. I was like, I will never
STORY B: ask for anything like that again. I don't want to
STORY B: dabble in that. I don't want to see anything ever again.
STORY B: I'm like, God, if there's a god, if there's a way,
STORY B: keep it all from me. I don't know why certain
STORY B: things happened to some people, and certain things don't. I
STORY B: know I've heard about some people just having more of
STORY B: a sensitivity to things. I don't know why he was
STORY B: at my bedside. That is one of the questions that
STORY B: I am okay with never knowing the answer to, and
STORY B: so I've just like found comfort in the not knowing.
STORY B: There have been times in my life where I have
STORY B: gone to pray again and I've been like, I need
STORY B: you to tell me what's going on with the situation
STORY B: or what I need to do, and I'll like wake
STORY B: up the next morning just boom answered Like. I've probably
STORY B: only done that five times in my whole life because
STORY B: it really freaks me out. I haven't even wanted to
STORY B: like dive deeper into any of that. So I never
STORY B: have seen a psychic. I've never seen a medium. I've
STORY B: pretty much shut out anything paranormal that I can.
THERÉSA: Be careful what you wish for, I guess. It's funny.
THERÉSA: My mom had a lot of boyfriends and I was
THERÉSA: always praying for the drop dead part. Actually one of
THERÉSA: them did, Terry. He died when his body rejected the
THERÉSA: hair plugs used in his eyebrow transplant. Looked great in
THERÉSA: the open casket, though. Maybe I should look him up.
THERÉSA: Well, that's our show. Good luck to all the babysitters
THERÉSA: out there who don't know what they're getting themselves into.
THERÉSA: And if you've ever been Haunted on the job. Email
THERÉSA: us at HauntingThePodcast@gmail.com and you could share your story on
THERÉSA: an upcoming episode. I'll keep you guys posted on how
THERÉSA: things develop with Herringbottom. I'm gonna go read the Gutenberg
THERÉSA: Bible so we have something to talk about my next
THERÉSA: case management meeting. See yuh.
CREDITS: If you have a Haunting story to share, please email
CREDITS: us at HauntingThePodcast@gmail.com and if you like what you hear,
CREDITS: please like and subscribe. You can also follow us on
CREDITS: social media by searching for Glass Podcasts or by visiting glasspodcasts.com.
CREDITS: Haunting is a production of Glass Podcasts and partnership with
CREDITS: iHeart Podcast. Haunting is created and executive produced by Nancy Glass,
CREDITS: Andrea Gunning, Ben Fetterman, and Lauren Lapkus, and it is
CREDITS: hosted by Lauren Lapkus as their character Therésa. The show
CREDITS: 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, and Ben Fetterman. Additional production support
CREDITS: by Curry Richman and Todd Ganz. Additional voice acting by
CREDITS: Trey Morgan as the character producer Len Walker, additional voice
CREDITS: acting by Kaitlin Goldin. Editing and sound designed by Matt
CREDITS: Delvecchio and mixed by Dave Saia. Operations and production support
CREDITS: by Kristin Melchiorre. Haunting's theme and original compositions were composed
CREDITS: by Oliver Baines and Dorry Macaulay of Noiser. Music library
CREDITS: provided by Mybe Music. Special thanks to Speakeasy Sound Studios
CREDITS: in Burbank, California. For more shows from iHeart Podcast and
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