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THERÉSA: Hello, my haunting crew. Welcome back, Welcome back. I hope

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THERÉSA: everyone had a fantastic Halloween. I spent the evening appearing

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THERÉSA: to strangers and making prolonged, unsettling eye contact with only

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THERÉSA: one member of a large group. Oh my god, Len Len,

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THERÉSA: how did that get out of  cage?

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LEN: [MUMBLES]

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THERÉSA: Just grab it, Merlin. No, no! So I applied for

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THERÉSA: a familiar, you know, cute little animal who typically belongs

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THERÉSA: to a witch and has ties to the physical and

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THERÉSA: spiritual realms, thinking I'd get like a black cat or

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THERÉSA: maybe a golden doodle. Well, in what I have to

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THERÉSA: assume is the do of my old caseworker, Sharon, who

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THERÉSA: I didn't even think wanted to see me cross over

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THERÉSA: by the way, I've ended up with a great horned owl.

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THERÉSA: Ugh I have to feed him four live mice a day,

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THERÉSA: and he coughs up whatever he can't digest.

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MERLIN: [BURP]

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THERÉSA: It's like halfway between a hoot and a burp. I'm

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THERÉSA: calling them hurps and no, not like Len's flaky cold sores.

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THERÉSA: These are phlegmy globs of bone, teeth and fur we

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THERÉSA: keep finding around the studio. It's disgusting. I mean, before Purgatory,

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THERÉSA: I was a California vegan, which is essentially just a

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THERÉSA: regular vegan, except when you're at Nobu, Mastro's, or blackout drunk. Merlin, down! Oh,

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THERÉSA: He keeps mounting Len. We think he's trying to mate,

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THERÉSA: which I can actually understand. I've always thought Len looks

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THERÉSA: a little like an owl, not much of a blinker.

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LEN: [MUMBLES]

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THERÉSA: It's okay. Some people just aren't.

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MERLIN: [HURP]

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THERÉSA: Oh great, another hurp. While Len cleans that up, let's

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THERÉSA: get into today's episode. This story comes to us from

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THERÉSA: Steven in North Carolina, whose life took on a supernatural

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THERÉSA: hue after an unexplainable encounter during a religious retreat. I

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THERÉSA: once attended a religious retreat, well sort of. I tried

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THERÉSA: peyote at Burning Man with a guy who referred to

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THERÉSA: himself as a wisdom keeper. After the purging ended, we

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THERÉSA: cried together for eight hours and then baptized ourselves in

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THERÉSA: a neighboring camp's water reserves. Turns out he wasn't a

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THERÉSA: wisdom keeper after all. He was just some guy who

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THERÉSA: worked the Enterprise counter at the Reno Airport. But it

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THERÉSA: was still pretty profound.

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STEVEN: I'm Stephen, and I saw something terrifying while on a

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STEVEN: religious retreat. I grew up in a small town in

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STEVEN: North Carolina, just outside of Winston Salem, right in the

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STEVEN: heart of the Bible Belt. And so, I grew up

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STEVEN: very religious. I was the poster child for Southern Methodism.

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STEVEN: I got involved in a lot of youth group activities,

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STEVEN: mission trips, youth retreats, mostly with the churches that I attended,

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STEVEN: but I got involved with a faith community that was

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STEVEN: very secretive. Essentially, the idea of this community was weekend retreats.

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STEVEN: You would sponsor people to go and they spend the

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STEVEN: weekend going to worship services, listening to talks, hearing messages,

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STEVEN: and at the end of the weekend, there's big celebration.

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STEVEN: But we were not allowed to tell anybody what was

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STEVEN: going to go on for the weekend. What they don't

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STEVEN: know is the people sponsoring them are there behind the

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STEVEN: scenes entire time. We're there making sure meals get cooked

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STEVEN: and activities are set up, rooms are clean. The fact

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STEVEN: that we weren't supposed to tell other people strikes me

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STEVEN: as a lot weirder now than it did then. I

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STEVEN: remember one time I was at the retreat. It was

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STEVEN: a camp that was run during the summer as a camp,

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STEVEN: but also was a horse farm. It was out off

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STEVEN: the highway, in the middle of nowhere, not a lot

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STEVEN: of people around. I was all jazzed from this worship

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STEVEN: service that night. I was eighteen. I was all full

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STEVEN: of bravado. I sat there and I thought, okay, I'm

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STEVEN: on like a spiritual high.

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STEVEN: So little Christian Steven did something you should never do.

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STEVEN: I challenged the darkness. I essentially said, I feel like

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STEVEN: I could take on anything spiritually right now. That was

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STEVEN: a mistake. As I said that, out of the corner

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STEVEN: of my eye, I saw this shape shoot across the field.

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STEVEN: I thought, oh, horse ran across the field, but it

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STEVEN: was too fast. This thing crossed a horse pasture in

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STEVEN: one or two seconds. I turned and followed where it

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STEVEN: had gone, and I saw that there were these three trees,

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STEVEN: two trees kind of behind one, forming a little triangle

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STEVEN: of trees. So I followed where the shadow had gone.

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STEVEN: And there's this silhouette of a human being, no features,

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STEVEN: no anything. It was completely shadow, just black, and it's

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STEVEN: sitting on the ground, leaning against one of the trees,

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STEVEN: the front one. It's sitting on the ground, knees up

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STEVEN: to its chest, hands resting on its knees. I close

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STEVEN: my eyes, like, that's not real. I could feel that

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STEVEN: it was looking at me. I open them up, and

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STEVEN: there it is. I start moving around the area. I'm like,

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STEVEN: the moon's probably catching the light weird. There's shadows here

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STEVEN: and there.

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STEVEN: It stays that same sort of figure no matter what

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STEVEN: perspective I'm looking at. And I realize as I'm moving,

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STEVEN: its head is turning following me. At this point, I'm terrified.

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STEVEN: I closed my eyes and I said, this isn't real.

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STEVEN: I opened my eyes. Now there's three shadow fingers and

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STEVEN: each of them is leaning against one of the trees. Okay,

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STEVEN: three shadow figures. At this point, I'm a good little

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STEVEN: religious boy, and I just start praying "Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be

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STEVEN: thy name." I pray every prayer I can think of

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STEVEN: because I'm terrified, but I stop because my curiosity got

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STEVEN: the better of me. It sounds like a dumb thing

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STEVEN: that someone would do in a horror movie. But I

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STEVEN: start asking out loud, what are you doing? What are you?

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STEVEN: No response, and then I rattled off a few more questions,

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STEVEN: no response, and then I said, what do you want?

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STEVEN: And the front shape snapped his head to the side

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STEVEN: and turned and looked at the building where all of

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STEVEN: the campers and retreat attendees were, and then turned its

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STEVEN: head back. "Our father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.

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STEVEN: Thy kingdom come." So I turned my back on this

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STEVEN: and started praying I was just terrified "and lead us

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STEVEN: not into temptations, but deliver us from evil," and when

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STEVEN: I opened my eyes, they were gone. About that time,

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STEVEN: my friend stepped outside. He's standing over on the porch,

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STEVEN: just enjoying the evening. He came over and could tell

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STEVEN: I was clearly rattled, and so I'm explaining to him

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STEVEN: what's happening, saying, yeah, they clearly wanted something, and he

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STEVEN: looked over at the building where everyone is. About that time,

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STEVEN: one of the adults comes walking up to me and

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STEVEN: he said, your person that you sponsored has had a seizure.

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STEVEN: She will be leaving. And I said, when did it happen?

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STEVEN: He said about ten minutes ago, which was about the

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STEVEN: time that figure turned and looked at that building. Later

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STEVEN: that night, I was in the same room sleeping with

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STEVEN: the same buddy who had stepped out, so he knew

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STEVEN: the experience. I felt like somebody was taking a forearm

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STEVEN: and pushing on my throat and I started freaking out.

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STEVEN: We started doing the prayer thing again and it did stop.

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STEVEN: I went to sleep, and I figured that was the weirdest,

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STEVEN: strangest incident that has ever occurred. But that's when things

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STEVEN: got weird.

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THERÉSA: Oof. I do not envy Stephen. Shadow figures are nasty spirits.

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THERÉSA: Carol in accounting is one, and she is extremely unpleasant, especially

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THERÉSA: when she's auditing expense reports. And yes, I needed the

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THERÉSA: entire collection of Rhode peptide lip tints because I can't

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THERÉSA: commune with the living if my lips are chapped. Anyway,

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THERÉSA: I respect Stephen's tenacity. We need to take a quick

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THERÉSA: break to hear from our sponsors. But when we get back,

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THERÉSA: we'll see what horrors lie in store for Stephen. Oh,

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THERÉSA: good timing, Merlin, that was nice.

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THERÉSA: I think you just need to stay extremely still.

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LEN: [MUMBLES]

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THERÉSA: Great horned owls mate for life, Len. He clearly thinks

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THERÉSA: you're his partner. If you try to pull away, it's

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THERÉSA: just gonna upset him more.

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LEN: [MUMBLES]

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THERÉSA: Len, I said don't pull away!

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LEN: [MUMBLES]

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THERÉSA: Well, I'm not the one who let him get out

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THERÉSA: of his cage. Merlin, Merlin, you want a mouse, mousey mouse?

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THERÉSA: Quick under the table now while he's distracted. Whoever thought

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THERÉSA: birds should live indoors should be committed. As if we're

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THERÉSA: meant to just coexist beside a living, breathing dinosaur. It's insane.

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THERÉSA: Not the talons, not the talons, Oh God! I hate this fucking bird!

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STEVEN: After that experience at the retreat, a lot of different

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STEVEN: things happened. One of the big things that took place

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STEVEN: for the next close to ten years was I experienced

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STEVEN: auditory sleep paralysis at least twice a week. I didn't

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STEVEN: see demons, I didn't see a man in a top

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STEVEN: hat or the things a lot of people talk about.

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STEVEN: I sleep on my stomach, so I would be laying

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STEVEN: there and I could not open my eyes. No matter

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STEVEN: how hard I tried, I couldn't get them to open.

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STEVEN: All I could do was lay there and listen and feel.

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STEVEN: I could feel breath on my neck, just this breathing.

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STEVEN: I could feel the heat of that breath, you know

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STEVEN: when someone's whispering in your ear. The only way I

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STEVEN: could get it to go away wasn't falling back asleep.

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STEVEN: It was saying that Lord's prayer.

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STEVEN: "Our father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name,

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STEVEN: thy kingdom come, thy will..." Eventually it would stop. I

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STEVEN: was fully conscious and cognizant for these experiences. I one hundred percent

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STEVEN: believe that I was being visited by something. Something residual

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STEVEN: was sticking to me. I was scared to go to

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STEVEN: sleep because in those moments, I was the most terrified

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STEVEN: that I had ever been. And to this day, it's

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STEVEN: still the scariest thing I've ever experienced. Over the years,

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STEVEN: I graduated college, I got married. During that time, a

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STEVEN: lot of one-off, strange experiences happened. I would be in

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STEVEN: places that I didn't know had history. I would feel things,

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STEVEN: I would be able to tell someone something about the

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STEVEN: place I'm in, just a historical fact, something of that nature.

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STEVEN: One time I was on a historical tour western North Carolina.

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STEVEN: We're walking through this big mansion and there's this big

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STEVEN: empty tile room that used to be a pool that's

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STEVEN: been drained. I'm in there and I start freaking out

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STEVEN: out and I have to step out because I'm hearing things.

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STEVEN: I could hear splashing and screaming. It sounded like if

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STEVEN: you've ever been to an apartment pool on a summer day.

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STEVEN: The kids are playing and they're horsing around, they're laughing.

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STEVEN: Some of them sound like they're a little unhappy. But

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STEVEN: there's no water in the pool. There's no one there,

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STEVEN: there's nothing there. That's when I stepped outside. I went

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STEVEN: up to one of the people who worked there later

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STEVEN: and I said, someone died in that pool. And they

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STEVEN: said no, And I said, no, someone died in that pool.

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STEVEN: So one of the guides talked to another guide and

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STEVEN: turns out a young boy had drowned in that pool.

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STEVEN: There's absolutely no way I would have known that. I

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STEVEN: a few times heard things that weren't there. I saw

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STEVEN: things that weren't there. Or at least they couldn't be explained.

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STEVEN: I know, right now it all sounds like I'm talking

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STEVEN: about mental illness, But I saw psychologists neurologists, and they

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STEVEN: were like, nope, we've got no explanation for you. You

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STEVEN: aren't experiencing any other symptoms of any known mental illness.

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STEVEN: All these little one off experiences and strange things came

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STEVEN: to a head in the summer of 2019. My ex-wife

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STEVEN: was pregnant with our first child. She was a high

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STEVEN: school drama teacher. I decided, okay, well I'll go with

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STEVEN: her up to the school and I will help her

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STEVEN: just organize her office for the upcoming school year. I

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STEVEN: went in there, the AC's out turned on a bunch

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STEVEN: of fans. I decided I was going to alphabetize all

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STEVEN: the plays on the shelves that were just strewn about

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STEVEN: from last school year. There were a lot. And as

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STEVEN: I'm doing it, I start hearing this creak, crack, click

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STEVEN: coming from out on the stage. Her office is on

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STEVEN: the side of the stage. There's two dressing rooms in

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STEVEN: the back of the stage and then her office, so

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STEVEN: it's backstage along with everything else. I step onto the

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STEVEN: stage and there's nothing out there. I'm thinking, okay, I'm

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STEVEN: hearing things. You know, I'm in here by myself. The

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STEVEN: AC is probably just kicking on and off. It's fine,

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STEVEN: So I go back into the office. I heard a

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STEVEN: loud crack, go outside, nothing there, go back in, loud crack,

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STEVEN: step onto the stage. Nothing.

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STEVEN: The auditorium's dark, and I am just standing there on

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STEVEN: this stage looking out, unable to see the seats. I realized,

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STEVEN: as I was thinking about it, it can't be the

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STEVEN: AC cutting on and off because the AC is broken.

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STEVEN: Got a little spooked and I decided I was going

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STEVEN: to go back into the office so I step back

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STEVEN: in and I'm alphabetizing plays, and I had a large

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STEVEN: stack that was ready to go on the shelf. So

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STEVEN: I grabbed this stack and I turned to place it

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STEVEN: on the shelf. And when I do, no more than

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STEVEN: twelve inches from my face, there's the face of a woman.

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STEVEN: I go flying backwards into the table. Plays go everywhere.

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STEVEN: I'm just laying on the ground at this point, I

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STEVEN: look up and there's this woman, probably in her late twenties.

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STEVEN: She has long brown hair, She's wearing a brown dress.

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STEVEN: She's seen better days. She looked ragged. She didn't look angry,

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STEVEN: she didn't look happy. She just kind of stared at me,

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00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:06,000
STEVEN: almost quizzically. She was there for maybe five seconds, and

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00:20:06,040 --> 00:20:12,159
STEVEN: then she was gone. I'm freaked out, and I decide

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STEVEN: I'm leaving for the day. Two and a half months later,

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00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:25,680
STEVEN: my daughter's born. That is when everything stops. I had

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00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:29,960
STEVEN: never envisioned myself being a dad growing up. We went

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STEVEN: through the pregnancy and I was stressed and scared. Rowan

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00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:41,199
STEVEN: was born and all of that fear went away. I

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00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:43,400
STEVEN: wasn't worried about whether or not I was going to

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STEVEN: be a good dad, because if you truly love it.

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STEVEN: You're going to be good at it.

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STEVEN: I had been having that auditory sleep paralysis experience twice

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STEVEN: a week for years. After she was born, I slept

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STEVEN: through the night every night. A few years before Rowan

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STEVEN: was born, I lost my father suddenly. He passed away

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STEVEN: in his sleep. We were close, we were friends. He

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00:21:23,280 --> 00:21:27,800
STEVEN: was the funny guy at every party. I was an

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00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:33,760
STEVEN: only child and my parents always wanted another child. He

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00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:36,520
STEVEN: did communicate growing up. He was always little bummed he

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00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:39,760
STEVEN: never got the chance to have a little girl. He

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00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:41,960
STEVEN: told me for years that one day he was going

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00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:44,880
STEVEN: to have a granddaughter and he was going to love

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STEVEN: on her, and I wasn't going to be able to

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STEVEN: stop him from giving her all the candy and toys

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STEVEN: and everything that she ever wanted. Unfortunately, he never got

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00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:57,400
STEVEN: a chance to meet her.

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00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:02,280
STEVEN: Rowan was born. Knowing that she never got to meet

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STEVEN: her grandfather, or her Papu as he would have wanted

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STEVEN: to be called. It's Greek for grandfather. A few months

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STEVEN: after my dad died, I had a dream. I was

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STEVEN: sitting in a restaurant in a booth with my back

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STEVEN: to the door. I heard Hey, pal. That's what my

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00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:32,320
STEVEN: dad always called me growing up. I turned around and

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00:22:32,359 --> 00:22:35,080
STEVEN: I remember saying you can't be here, you're dead, and say, yeah,

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00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:40,600
STEVEN: I am dead. Let's talk. I knew it was a dream,

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00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:46,639
STEVEN: but we talked and it gave me closure, and he

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00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:50,159
STEVEN: told me at the end, I've got your back, like

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00:22:50,359 --> 00:22:54,680
STEVEN: I'm gonna look out for you and your family. After

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STEVEN: Rowan was born, I thought to myself, all this stopped.

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00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:03,080
STEVEN: Maybe now that I have a family, he really does

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STEVEN: have my back.

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00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:10,840
STEVEN: Weird little things would happen. She would always just kind

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00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:14,080
STEVEN: of look off into the corner and smile. I would

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00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:18,040
STEVEN: see her on the baby monitor six seven in the morning.

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STEVEN: She's standing in her crib, jumping up and down, and

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00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:26,800
STEVEN: she is laughing, I mean hysterically, like she has seen

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STEVEN: the funniest thing she has ever seen in her life.

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00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:34,159
STEVEN: She's two at this point she's laughing, and I walk in.

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00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:37,919
STEVEN: I say, hey, what's so funny. She points at the

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00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:46,000
STEVEN: corner and she says, Paoo, Pa-poo, funny man. There was

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00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:48,520
STEVEN: no way she would have known that he wanted to

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00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:53,000
STEVEN: be called Papu. He always loved to make kids laugh.

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STEVEN: That was his thing. He would do anything, He would

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00:23:56,960 --> 00:23:59,240
STEVEN: make a fool of himself to make a kid laugh

296
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:03,879
STEVEN: and so for her to be standing there laughing her

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STEVEN: ass off, it gave me the feeling that he's got

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STEVEN: my back. Seeing all of that and seeing her reaction,

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00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:18,199
STEVEN: and knowing my dad, I one hundred percent believe that

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STEVEN: he is there, she is seeing him, and he's got us.

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THERÉSA: This had a way happier ending than I was expecting.

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THERÉSA: I was sure he was done for when we got

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THERÉSA: to the part about the lady in the Bookshelf, I

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00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:37,280
THERÉSA: thought the scariest thing about high school theater was realizing

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00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:40,480
THERÉSA: your drama teacher peaked as an understudy in an off-off-Broadway

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THERÉSA: production of Our Town. Papu to the rescue, I guess.

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THERÉSA: Let's take another quick break and we'll be right back

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THERÉSA: And we're back. Merlin has finally settled a bit. Right

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THERÉSA: now he's trying to preen Len. It's actually kind of sweet.

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THERÉSA: I had hoped my conduit to the physical realm would

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00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:09,359
THERÉSA: be a little sexier with a smaller eye-to-skull ratio, but

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THERÉSA: Merlin is really starting to grow on me. I like

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00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:15,040
THERÉSA: how his ear tuffs are purely aesthetic. And he can

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00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:17,399
THERÉSA: turn his head almost fully around like that girl in

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THERÉSA: The Exorcist. Who's a spooky boy? Mamma's apex predator. Well,

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THERÉSA: Len's got hurps to clean up and I need to

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THERÉSA: figure out how to leash an owl. But we'll see

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THERÉSA: you all next time for more Haunting. And remember, if

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THERÉSA: you have a spooky story to share, email us at

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00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:45,840
THERÉSA: HauntingThePodcast@gmail.com and you could be featured on an upcoming episode.

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THERÉSA: Bye for now.

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CREDITS: If you have a haunting story to share, please email

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00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:57,080
CREDITS: us at HauntingThePodcast@gmail.com, and if you like what you hear,

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00:25:57,280 --> 00:25:59,639
CREDITS: please like and subscribe. You can also follow us on

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00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:04,240
CREDITS: social media by searching for Glass Podcasts or by visiting glasspodcasts.com.

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00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:07,040
CREDITS: Haunting is a production of Glass Podcasts and partnership with

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00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:11,300
CREDITS: iHeart Podcasts. Haunting is created and executive produced by Nancy Glass,

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00:26:11,300 --> 00:26:14,679
CREDITS: Andrea Gunning, Ben Fetterman, and Lauren Lapkus and it is

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CREDITS: hosted by Lauren Lapkus as their character Therésa. The show

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00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:20,280
CREDITS: is directed by Aleah Welsh and produced by Trey Morgan.

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CREDITS: It is written by Aleah Welsh, with additional writing by

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00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:26,800
CREDITS: Nancy Glass, Trey Morgan, and Ben Fetterman. Additional production support

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CREDITS: by Curry Richman and Todd Ganz. Additional voice acting by

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00:26:30,119 --> 00:26:33,760
CREDITS: Trey Morgan as the character producer Len Walker. Editing and

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00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:36,909
CREDITS: sound design by Matt Delvecchio and mixed by Dave Saia.

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00:26:36,910 --> 00:26:40,480
CREDITS: Operations and production support by Kristen Melchiorre. Haunting's theme and

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00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:44,080
CREDITS: original compositions were composed by Oliver Baines and Dorry Macaulay

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CREDITS: of Noiser. Music library provided by Mibe Music. Special thanks

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00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:51,200
CREDITS: to Speakeasy Sound Studios in Burbank, California. For more shows

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00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:54,840
CREDITS: from iHeart Podcast and Glass Podcast, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:57,760
CREDITS: Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.