Speaker 1: Humans often take for granted that we are ultimately responsible
Speaker 1: for our actions, that the choices we make are governed
Speaker 1: by nothing but our own free will. To question free
Speaker 1: will is to question not only moral responsibility, but also
Speaker 1: the very notion of the self. After all, if you
Speaker 1: take away our conscious agency, then who or what exactly
Speaker 1: are we? If, for example, we take a Newtonian deterministic
Speaker 1: view of the universe and accept the universe as a
Speaker 1: place in which every event is caused by a pre
Speaker 1: existing set of conditions that in turn result in predetermined actions,
Speaker 1: we would have to concede that free will in the
Speaker 1: strictest sense is an impossibility. Our acts, as John Gray
Speaker 1: notes in his two thirds thousand and three book straw Dogs,
Speaker 1: would be nothing but end points in long sequences of
Speaker 1: unconscious responses. Intrigued by this idea, in nineteen eighty, neuroscientist
Speaker 1: Benjamin Labette devised an experiment to try and determine whether
Speaker 1: our actions are conscious choices or not, with some surprising results.
Speaker 1: In Labette's study, titled Unconscious Cerebral Initiative and the Role
Speaker 1: of Conscious Will in Voluntary Action, participants were first hooked
Speaker 1: up to an electro encephalogram or EEG machine. The device
Speaker 1: uses electrodes placed directly on the sculp to measure communication
Speaker 1: between brain cells. With this set up, the subjects were
Speaker 1: then tasked with carrying out a simple function, such as
Speaker 1: pressing a button or flexing their wrist, while at the
Speaker 1: same time making a note of when they decided to
Speaker 1: carry out the action. After comparing the participants per set
Speaker 1: of when they decided to act with the actual brain
Speaker 1: function instigating the act, Labette and his team discovered that
Speaker 1: these seemingly voluntary choices were being initiated up to zero
Speaker 1: point three to five seconds before the subjects were aware
Speaker 1: of them. The implications of Labette's findings were fiercely debated,
Speaker 1: with some suggesting that this small delay is just a
Speaker 1: period of latency between the brain initiating the action and
Speaker 1: our actual conscious awareness that we'd initiated it. However, this
Speaker 1: was challenged significantly in two thousand and eight after a
Speaker 1: series of similar experiments conducted by a team of scientists
Speaker 1: led by Professor John Dilan Haynes at the Max Planck
Speaker 1: Institute in Germany revealed that some of our so called
Speaker 1: decisions might actually occur in the brain as much as
Speaker 1: seven seconds before we become aware of them. Perhaps a
Speaker 1: little unnerved by the results, Professor Haynes was quick to
Speaker 1: leave the door open for free will, stating that it
Speaker 1: remained to be seen if such decisions could also be
Speaker 1: reversed or deliberately not acted on either way, the idea
Speaker 1: that free will is little more than a useful illusion
Speaker 1: is unnerving, to say the least, And although we might
Speaker 1: yet come to accept this as merely a quirk of
Speaker 1: life for others, the implication speaks of something else, entirely,
Speaker 1: something far more sinister. If we aren't in control of
Speaker 1: our minds, then who or what is To travel upstream
Speaker 1: along the placid waters of the River Mine from where
Speaker 1: it joins the Mighty Rhine is to enter an enchanted
Speaker 1: world of ancient forest, colorful wedding cake towns, and neatly
Speaker 1: treted castles, as if lifted straight from a grim fairy tale.
Speaker 1: It may be of little surprise, then, to learn that
Speaker 1: the Grim Brothers were born in Hanau, one of the
Speaker 1: first towns you encounter heading east out of Frankfort, the
Speaker 1: largest city on the river. Following the waters south into Bavaria,
Speaker 1: you'll soon find yourself caught between the Odenwald mountain ranges
Speaker 1: to the west and the low lying Spssart Hills to
Speaker 1: the east. It is from these ancient mountains, with woods
Speaker 1: of oak, beech and fir, that tales such as Snow
Speaker 1: White and Handsome and Gretel are thought to have originated,
Speaker 1: before being compiled and eventually published as the Grim's Fairy
Speaker 1: Tales in eighteen twelve. If you were to travel deeper
Speaker 1: into these mythical lands, you might come across a place
Speaker 1: where four roads meet, and had you stumbled upon it
Speaker 1: one dark night centuries ago, so you may have spied
Speaker 1: a young doctor by the name of Faustus standing in
Speaker 1: the forest alone, drawing mystical circles in the earth and
Speaker 1: speaking strange incantations into the wind. Perhaps you would then
Speaker 1: have continued to watch in secret as the young man's
Speaker 1: chants were drowned in a cacophony of inhuman sound, while terrifying,
Speaker 1: monstrous apparitions appeared in the air around him, threatening to
Speaker 1: emerge from some other place. If you hadn't already succumbed
Speaker 1: to fear and made a hasty retreat, you might have
Speaker 1: seen one such apparition finally take shape a demon and
Speaker 1: servant of Lucifer by the name of Mephistopheles, as recounted
Speaker 1: in the legendary tale of Doctor Faustus. Elsewhere southwest of
Speaker 1: the Spressart Hills lies a pretty hamlet of colorful stucco
Speaker 1: and half timber houses with neat terra cotta roofs, known
Speaker 1: as Klingenberg. The town has weathered many storms throughout the years.
Speaker 1: Some brought destruction, like King Louis the fourteenth of France,
Speaker 1: whose troops raised Klingenberg Castle to the ground in sixteen eighty,
Speaker 1: while others, such as invading Roman settlers from two thousand
Speaker 1: years ago, left seeds that later blossomed into the well
Speaker 1: established vineyards that today provide much of the town's trade.
Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty two, Klingenberg, with its modest population of
Speaker 1: three thousand, is part of Western Germany, a nation newly
Speaker 1: forged from the ashes of the most destructive war the
Speaker 1: world has ever known. The old flags of red and white,
Speaker 1: with their black crooked symbols, that flew from the municipal
Speaker 1: buildings only a few years before, have been taken down
Speaker 1: and replaced by simple black, red and yellow stripes. It
Speaker 1: is in this town one Sunday morning in September of
Speaker 1: that year that Anna and Joseph Michel celebrate the birth
Speaker 1: of their first child together. Twenty four years later, that
Speaker 1: same child will be dead, the result, some have said,
Speaker 1: of the most terrifying and convincing case of demonic possession
Speaker 1: ever recorded. You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McLean Smith.
Speaker 1: Back in nineteen forty eight, two hundred miles to the
Speaker 1: east of Klingenburg, in the district of Libelfing, twenty eight
Speaker 1: year old Anna Firk is in a desperate state. The
Speaker 1: recent birth of her child, Martha, born out of wedlock,
Speaker 1: has brought disgrace on her and her devout Catholic parents,
Speaker 1: Terrified that their daughter will no longer be able to marry,
Speaker 1: and as parents, spy an opportunity when they're introduced to
Speaker 1: a young man named Joseph, recently arrived in town on
Speaker 1: business with the help of the Diocese of Wurtzburg, and
Speaker 1: it is rumored a few hundred Deutsche marks, the Firks
Speaker 1: gift their daughter to the young man. Joseph and Anna,
Speaker 1: shrouded in a black veil as a symbol of her disgrace,
Speaker 1: were married. The following year. Despite their inauspicious beginnings, the
Speaker 1: couple are happy together and soon settled down in Klingenberg,
Speaker 1: where Joseph, now the head of his family's sawmill business,
Speaker 1: lovingly builds them a house on a quiet street overlooking
Speaker 1: Klingenberg Cemetery. It's a modest, two story home with cream
Speaker 1: stucco walls and a high peaked roof, reminiscent of the
Speaker 1: steep vineyard heiresses that slope up behind it before disappearing
Speaker 1: into the foreboding Sbssart trees. Joseph loves Anna's daughter Martha
Speaker 1: as his own, but his affection for her is nothing
Speaker 1: compared to what he feels when his and Anna's first
Speaker 1: child together arrives on a warm September morning in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty two. Born on the Lord's Day, it is only
Speaker 1: fitting that she should be named Anna Lisa, meaning God
Speaker 1: is Bountiful, and she is as beautiful a baby as
Speaker 1: any parent could wish for. She is joined soon after
Speaker 1: by sisters Gertrude, Maria, and Barbara, and together the four
Speaker 1: sweet children are a blessing on the pious and devoted
Speaker 1: Anna and Joseph. But in nineteen fifty six, tragedy strikes.
Speaker 1: A tumor is discovered in eight year old Martha's kidney,
Speaker 1: which requires immediate surgery. Operation is not successful, and the
Speaker 1: young Martha dies soon after. To the avowedly Catholic family,
Speaker 1: it seems a particularly unfathomable tragedy. How could an innocent
Speaker 1: child be so cruelly and suddenly snatched from them? But
Speaker 1: part of Anna has always known this day would come.
Speaker 1: Martha had come into the world a literal embodiment of
Speaker 1: sin upon God's earth, and Anna had failed to compensate
Speaker 1: for it. Clearly thinks Anna Martha's premature death was God's
Speaker 1: inevitable revenge. Nevertheless, it is with great sorrow that Martha
Speaker 1: is laid to rest in the cemetery next to the house,
Speaker 1: albeit hidden away at the back in grounds set aside
Speaker 1: for suicide and the so called illegitimate. Convinced now of
Speaker 1: what she must do, Anna determines to make her second child,
Speaker 1: Ann Eliza, her vessel for salvation. To this end, she
Speaker 1: determines that she will do everything in her power to
Speaker 1: make sure her daughter will never be without the Rosary
Speaker 1: or skip Mass, and together they will win back God's love.
Speaker 1: Not long after Martha's death, An Eliza contracts measles, followed
Speaker 1: by the mumps and scarlet fever. Naturally, Anna fears her
Speaker 1: efforts of once again being in vain, but after much praying,
Speaker 1: ann Eliza's ailments soon subside and she becomes a healthy,
Speaker 1: happy child once more. In the autumn of nineteen fifty eight,
Speaker 1: a six year old ann Eliza takes her first communion
Speaker 1: as Anna and Joseph watch proudly while she eats the
Speaker 1: body and SIPs the blood of Christ. It is with
Speaker 1: the feeling of a great weight being lifted. The arrival
Speaker 1: of another baby girl in December, christened ross Weather, comes
Speaker 1: like a reward for all their efforts. Many happy years follow,
Speaker 1: and at the age of twelve, Analiza graduates to the
Speaker 1: Dalberg Gymnasium in Aschaffenburg. It is only a ten minute
Speaker 1: train ride from her home, but those ten minutes spent
Speaker 1: gazing at the passing hills and bright yellow fields are
Speaker 1: a freedom she's never known before. There are new friends
Speaker 1: to be made, like Maria, whom Analiza regularly laughs and
Speaker 1: jokes with on their daily commute, and over the next
Speaker 1: few years there are other changes to biological changes and
Speaker 1: feelings that Ann Eliza struggles to reconcile with the demands
Speaker 1: of the scriptures. Though she desires to learn dance at
Speaker 1: the local ball room like her sisters, her mother Anna
Speaker 1: forbids it. Her place is at Mass, to give thanks
Speaker 1: to the Mother of God, Anna reminds her, and to
Speaker 1: show penance for all those less fortunate than herself. Some nights,
Speaker 1: ann Eliza decides voluntarily to sleep on the floor as
Speaker 1: a sign of contrition. So determined is she to show
Speaker 1: her mother that she understands. But in spite of it all,
Speaker 1: something is stirring. In the summer of nineteen sixty eight,
Speaker 1: ann Eliza and Maria are working together in class when
Speaker 1: Maria notices something amiss. Ann Eliza appears to have fallen
Speaker 1: asleep in her chair. Anneliza, she whispers to her, but
Speaker 1: there is no reply. Aliza, she says, more forcefully, Is
Speaker 1: it Alison Ordnunk? Is everything okay? Oh yeah, the turlish
Speaker 1: replies Anna Lisa, finally suddenly seeming to snap out of
Speaker 1: a daydream, before turning back to her work as if
Speaker 1: nothing had happened. Later that night, she wakes with a start,
Speaker 1: unable to catch her breath and her eyes wide in horror.
Speaker 1: She tries to cry out for help, but no words
Speaker 1: come out of her mouth. Her limbs are rigid, while
Speaker 1: something strong and invisible seems to be pinning her down
Speaker 1: to the bed. When she is finally released, a warm,
Speaker 1: dampness spreads out from underneath her. She has wet the bed.
Speaker 1: Keeping the events of that night to herself, the incident
Speaker 1: is all but forgotten until a year later when it
Speaker 1: happens again, only this time, her screams of terror are
Speaker 1: heard throughout the house. The next morning, disturbed by the
Speaker 1: previous night's events, Anna takes her daughter to seniorrologist doctor
Speaker 1: Siegfried Lootie. The clipped and urbane Lootie finds little wrong
Speaker 1: with Anna Lisa, but suggests taking an EEG test in
Speaker 1: the hope of shedding some light on the cares of
Speaker 1: her peculiar seizures. Two days later, a nervous Anna Lisa
Speaker 1: sits in an examination room surrounded by the quiet hum
Speaker 1: of machinery as a series of small, wiry electrodes are
Speaker 1: stuck to her head. At the flick of a switch,
Speaker 1: a continuous feed of paper begins streaming from a printer,
Speaker 1: as a row of crooked metal arms make sharp lines
Speaker 1: of color across the page. Anna squeezes her daughter's hand
Speaker 1: with relay as Lutie regards the readings briefly before telling
Speaker 1: them both that there is nothing to be concerned about.
Speaker 1: A few weeks later, however, Analiza is struck down with
Speaker 1: tonsilitis followed by bouts of pleurisy and pneumonia. In February
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, having also contracted tuberculosis, a devastated Analza
Speaker 1: is taken out of school, away from her friends, and
Speaker 1: sent for treatment at Hokeburk's Clinic Sanatorium. The grand but
Speaker 1: stark sanatorium, located on the edge of Middelburg on the
Speaker 1: border of Western Germany and Austria, is nestled one thousand
Speaker 1: feet high in the Algoy at the northern tip of
Speaker 1: the Alps. The rarefied air and majestic views of the
Speaker 1: Fussun Mountains should be the perfect tonic for Analza's lungs,
Speaker 1: but there is no shaking the sense of foreboding on
Speaker 1: her arrival as she approaches the isolation monolithic building with
Speaker 1: the dark evergreen furs looming behind it. Inside, Anna Lisa
Speaker 1: is led to her dormitory. With each step through the sanatoriums,
Speaker 1: sterile iodic corridors. Young pallid faces appear in the approaching doorways,
Speaker 1: keen to get a look at the latest visitor. However,
Speaker 1: when she enters the dorm, the girls inside are quick
Speaker 1: to welcome her into their makeshift commune, and the familiar
Speaker 1: chirrup of teenagers soon puts her at ease. As spring
Speaker 1: turns to summer, Anna Lisa is making good progress until
Speaker 1: one night when everything changes. A throat ripping scream wakes
Speaker 1: the girls and sends nurses sprinting down the halls to
Speaker 1: Analisa's dorm. Only a few catch the faint whiff of
Speaker 1: ammonia and notice the dampness of her sheets. All see
Speaker 1: Anna Lisa shaking with terror. It isn't clear what has
Speaker 1: set it off, but Ane Lisa is soon calmed and
Speaker 1: moved to a clean bed, but she is too scared
Speaker 1: to sleep. The next morning to check up, finds nothing
Speaker 1: wrong in her dorm. A few weeks later, Anna Lisa
Speaker 1: sits alone in the gloaming as the last of the
Speaker 1: day's light fractures in a burst of golden orange from
Speaker 1: behind the distant mountain peaks. Closing her eyes, she picks
Speaker 1: up her rosary and starts to pray, our Father who
Speaker 1: art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, Thy Kingdom Come.
Speaker 1: She is still sitting in her chair, speaking to herself.
Speaker 1: When the girls find her, Lisa, they say timidly, they
Speaker 1: say again. It is as though she doesn't even register them.
Speaker 1: The girls look on with unease as an unresponsive Annalisa
Speaker 1: continues to stare vacantly out of the window, her trembling
Speaker 1: hands held up in front of her face, stiff and
Speaker 1: rigid like claws. She seems to snap out of the
Speaker 1: trance and turns silently to face the girls as an odd,
Speaker 1: beatific smile plays about her lips, the pupils of her
Speaker 1: eyes like two vast black discs. In June, Ana Lisa
Speaker 1: is taken for another EEG scan. This time it reveals
Speaker 1: a slight anomaly in the pattern of her brain waves.
Speaker 1: According to the doctors, it appears that Ana Lisa is
Speaker 1: suffering from Grand Marle epilepsy and is prescribed a course
Speaker 1: of anti convulsant pills to limit the chance of her
Speaker 1: suffering from a seizure. A week later, alone in her room,
Speaker 1: she is again staring out the window as she passes
Speaker 1: the rosary beads between her fingers. As she prays, something
Speaker 1: strange begins to take shape. Above the mountain peaks. The
Speaker 1: crooked nose appears first, followed by a pair of oddly
Speaker 1: twisted ears. Then comes a hideous mouth of gnashing teeth,
Speaker 1: death and a pair of eyes that stared directly at
Speaker 1: her from out of the sky. She tries to turn away,
Speaker 1: but something is stopping her, compelling her to look and
Speaker 1: take it all in. When she is finally released from
Speaker 1: its grip, she runs in terror to the back of
Speaker 1: the room, screaming at all her confused and terrified roommates
Speaker 1: to leave her alone. Afternoon a few days later, and
Speaker 1: Alisa is asked if she's been suffering any further issues
Speaker 1: during her stay, but she says no, fearful of what
Speaker 1: they might do to her if she tells them about
Speaker 1: what she saw. After nearly six months in the sanatorium,
Speaker 1: she has given a clean bill of health and returns home.
Speaker 1: Now back home in Klingenberg after such a long time away,
Speaker 1: and Alisa heads straight to her old bedroom. There, she
Speaker 1: takes a moment to reacquaint herself with all her old things.
Speaker 1: Sitting on her bed, she runs a hand over her
Speaker 1: old prayer book on her bedside table, with the wild
Speaker 1: flowers pressed inside it. She picks up her badly neglected
Speaker 1: diary and absent mindedly flicks through the pages. Then she
Speaker 1: stands and strokes the framed picture of Jesus on her wall. Meanwhile, downstairs,
Speaker 1: her sisters are speaking among themselves with quiet concern. Something
Speaker 1: isn't quite right with Anna Alsa, they say, she seems different.
Speaker 1: Over the next few years, Annelisa excels at school and,
Speaker 1: barring a few minor seizures, appears to be returning to
Speaker 1: a semblance of normality. In truth, she knew it would
Speaker 1: only be a matter of time before it came for
Speaker 1: her again, and sure enough it did. It started one
Speaker 1: night in the spring of nineteen seventy three when she
Speaker 1: was awakened by what sounded like a gentle knocking on
Speaker 1: her door, but when she got up to open it,
Speaker 1: there was nobody there. When this happened a number of times,
Speaker 1: and Elisa felt compelled to tell her mother. She has
Speaker 1: taken again to see the doctor, but they fail to
Speaker 1: establish any explanation for the seemingly imaginary noises. When they
Speaker 1: return home. An Alisa's sister, Barbara, asks her mother what
Speaker 1: the visit was about this time, It's nothing, she replies,
Speaker 1: and Elisa is imagining noises at night. But Mama says, Barbara,
Speaker 1: I have heard them too. In fact, as it turns out,
Speaker 1: all of the sisters have been hearing it, the strange
Speaker 1: soft banging coming from somewhere inside the house. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: seems to come from inside the walls, sometimes from under
Speaker 1: the floorboards, and sometimes it sounds like it's coming directly
Speaker 1: from inside and Elisa's own wardrobe. One night, unheard by
Speaker 1: the rest of the family, and now twenty year old
Speaker 1: Anna Lisa awakes in the dark to find a voice
Speaker 1: is speaking to her. Join us in health, ever, join
Speaker 1: us in health. Ever, join us in health. Forever, it
Speaker 1: rasps over and over again. Join us in health, rev
Speaker 1: join us in health forever, in us in hell, forever,
Speaker 1: join us in health. Health. Joseph is startled awake by
Speaker 1: Anna Lisa screaming hysterically. Rushing to her bedroom, he finds
Speaker 1: his daughter writhing about in terror, with her hands clasped
Speaker 1: over her ears, begging the voices to stop. He grabs
Speaker 1: his daughter and holds her tight until she eventually calms down.
Speaker 1: In the summer of nineteen seventy three, Joseph takes Anna
Speaker 1: Lisa on a pilgrimage to central Italy to visit the
Speaker 1: Garden of Rosa Quatrini Buzzini, a recently venerated shrine in
Speaker 1: the village of San Damiano, just east of Perugia. When
Speaker 1: Anna Lisa nears the garden, she appears suddenly crippled by
Speaker 1: a searing pain in her feet, as if they were
Speaker 1: on fire. When she next looks up, she is horrified
Speaker 1: to find the faces of the other pilgrims have turned
Speaker 1: into wide mouths of sharp, gnashing teeth, all coming for her.
Speaker 1: Though the moment passes. On the coach back to Klingenberg,
Speaker 1: Annalisa rips an icon medallion from the neck of Tia Hine,
Speaker 1: a friend and neighbor who'd organize the trip. Joseph apologizes
Speaker 1: profusely for her behavior, and shepherds his daughter back to
Speaker 1: their seats, trying his best to keep her calm, while
Speaker 1: the rest of the passengers whisper and stare at them.
Speaker 1: A few days later, Anna Lisa is back in doctor
Speaker 1: Lutie's office. The devil is in me, she tells him.
Speaker 1: Lootie shifts uncomfortably for a moment in his chair and
Speaker 1: looks to her mother Anna, then back to Anna Lisa.
Speaker 1: What do you mean exactly? He asks? He's been speaking
Speaker 1: to me through them? And who were they? The demons?
Speaker 1: She says plainly, And these are the ones whose faces
Speaker 1: you've seen? Yeah? And how do you recognize this as
Speaker 1: the devil? Exactly? Anna Lisa looks to her mother as
Speaker 1: if mulling over what to say, but is unable to reply.
Speaker 1: She knows that Lootie will never understand it is the
Speaker 1: last time she mentions anything to doctors about the gruesome
Speaker 1: faces or tormenting voice. Is It is September nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: three when father Ernst Anton Alt first learns about Analisa's case.
Speaker 1: The tall and sharply bearded Alt, although relatively young at
Speaker 1: thirty five, is considered deeply thoughtful and intelligent by his peers.
Speaker 1: He listens with great concern as Father Carl Roth recounts
Speaker 1: the meeting he's just attended concerning a possible case of
Speaker 1: demonic molestation. But before Roth can say more, a strange
Speaker 1: look comes over Father Alt, much to Roth's amazement. Alt
Speaker 1: then proceeds to describe Ana Lisa and her family's situation
Speaker 1: in complete detail. He claims to have no idea how
Speaker 1: he was able to do this. Two days later, Father
Speaker 1: Alt consults with another colleague, father Eduard Hermann, who'd also
Speaker 1: been contacted by the desperate family. When Hermann hands Alt
Speaker 1: to letters he received from Anna and Joseph outlining the case,
Speaker 1: Alt is overcome by a strange nausea. It is, he believes,
Speaker 1: as though something were warning him to stay away. Disturbed
Speaker 1: by his strange reaction to the case, Father Alt wastes
Speaker 1: little time in arranging to speak with the family. On
Speaker 1: first meeting, the now twenty one year old Anna Lisa
Speaker 1: is a little taken by surprise at how lucid and determined,
Speaker 1: albeit a little pale, she seems considering everything he's heard
Speaker 1: about her predicament. I am looking for people who believe me,
Speaker 1: she tells him, wasting little time in pleasantries. At first,
Speaker 1: her conviction seems reassuring, but after an hour of examination,
Speaker 1: Father Alt and Father Wrath are left in little doubt
Speaker 1: that Annalisa is indeed in the grip of a terrifying possession. However,
Speaker 1: not wanting to cause any alarm to Annalisa or her family,
Speaker 1: the pair decide to keep their judgment to themselves and
Speaker 1: agree to simply observe her over the coming weeks and
Speaker 1: months before deciding what they should do next. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: ann Elisa is encouraged to continue living her life as
Speaker 1: she has always done. Around this time, she gains entry
Speaker 1: onto the University of Wurtzburg's teacher training course. In November,
Speaker 1: Galvanized by her regular consultations with father Aldt, she travels
Speaker 1: to Wurtzburg to begin her studies. After moving into the
Speaker 1: university's dark, five story dormitory, she spends the next few
Speaker 1: months attending lectures and making new friends. There are ups
Speaker 1: and downs with Annalisa, sometimes stay entire days in her
Speaker 1: room to lethargic to even speak to anyone, But on
Speaker 1: one of her better nights, she is dragged to a
Speaker 1: dance at the dormitory as euphoric rock and roll shimmers
Speaker 1: from the speakers. A young man with soft, pale skin
Speaker 1: and dark wavy hair watches from the edge of the
Speaker 1: hall as Anna Lisa dances blissfully under the smoky haze
Speaker 1: and dimmed lights. He introduces himself as Peter. She likes
Speaker 1: his eyes and his gentle self assurance and something about
Speaker 1: him puts her immediately at ease. They agree to meet
Speaker 1: up again, and in the days that follow, Peter grows
Speaker 1: ever more fond of the enigmatic young woman from Klingenberg,
Speaker 1: and in those first flushes of young love, it seems
Speaker 1: that an Eliza might finally be able to put her
Speaker 1: troubles of the past behind her. But all that was
Speaker 1: about to change in more horrific and terrifying ways than
Speaker 1: anybody could ever have imagined. You've been listening to Unexplained,
Speaker 1: Season seven, episode six, look Me in the Eye, Part
Speaker 1: one of three. This episode was written by Richard mc
Speaker 1: lean smith. Unexplained. The book and audio book, with stories
Speaker 1: never before featured on the show, is now available to
Speaker 1: buy world wide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones,
Speaker 1: and other bookstores. Please subscribe to and rate the show
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts, and feel free to get
Speaker 1: in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories
Speaker 1: you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation
Speaker 1: of your own you'd like to share. You can find
Speaker 1: out more at Unexplained podcast dot com and reach us
Speaker 1: online through Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook
Speaker 1: dot com forward Slash Unexplained podcast