S1: EP 22 — “"They Were Watching Me"

Published Jan 14, 2025, 5:00 AM

Emma and David’s haunted home turns their lives upside down with ghostly apparitions and chilling encounters. Across town, Mary recalls the eerie figures that haunted her childhood backyard—until a benevolent spirit intervened. Meanwhile, Therésa, grappling with Len’s unexplained absence, delivers spine-tingling tales with sharp humor. When the past refuses to stay buried, who—or what—will make itself known? 

If you would like to reach out to the Haunting team and share your own ghost story, email us at HauntingThePodcast@gmail.com. 

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Oh oh, thank god. I have been trying to get this thing to turn on for hours. Something is really wrong, you guys. My producer Len Mumbley, kind of forgettable guy. He's gone. Usually when I get to the studio he's already here, pushing buttons and I don't know, adjusting things. It's not that I need him. I mean, now that we're up and running, I'm more than capable of producing the show myself. I pretty much do all the work around here anyway. I guess I'm just used to having him here. Hopefully nothing bad happened. It's fine, it's fine, he's fine. I'm fine. He's probably just haunting a board game convention or whatever nerd stuff he gets up to, and we're not working. Such an odd little man. Let's just get started. Our first story today is from Emma. When her boyfriend and his best friend moved into his best friend's childhood home, things started getting weird, and not hooking up with your boyfriend's best friend weird, like actually weird. See, normally, Lenn would have like a random off putting sound effect to punctuate that this is throwing off my flow. Merlin, go find him.

I was taking a shower. I hear David come into the room and close the door behind him. I waited for him to start talking to me, but he didn't, so I peeked out and there was nobody in there, but I still felt like I wasn't alone.

Who or what was in the bathroom with me.

My name is Emma, My name is David. Emma is my girlfriend.

And boyfriend's house was haunted in twenty seventeen. My boyfriend, David and his best friend had been living together in an apartment for several years.

Me and my roommate, Corey lived in an apartment together and his parents were retiring so they were moving out. At the time, our apartment lease was coming to a close, so they offered us an opportunity to live.

There was a ranch style, one story, very small house. The living room was on the east side of the house and on the west side was the kitchen in the dining room. It had two bedrooms that were later remodeled into one main bedroom and then a bedroom downstairs in the basement. That basement was Corey's childhood bedroom, so he gave David the masterroom.

We offered to work on the house, so I went in there like a wrecking ball, and I completely changed a lot of things. I ripped out all the carpet, stripped all the walls, painted rooms. I was tearing things up before I even spent one night.

David and I have been together for six years. I was living at my mom's house, but spent most of my time when I wasn't at work over at the house hanging out with the boys. I was over there six days a week at least, so one day, while Corey and David were not at the house, David had asked me to go over to change out his laundry so that he could look nice for date night. So I got to the house in the middle of the afternoon and I walked in and went straight down to the basement. Our two year old dog, Coulton was at the house, and Colton followed me down there, but he stopped at the bottom of the stairs. He didn't want to go further into the basement. Colton was David's dog, but he was very protective of me, and if anybody made me feel unsafe, he would protect me. I thought it was weird that Colton just stayed at the bottom of the stairs rather than following me into the laundry room like he usually would, but he made sure to stay in a spot in which he could see me, as like to protect me. I could feel like that Colton felt uneasy about being down there, but I can't blame him too much because the vibe of the basement was very unwelcoming.

It's a very spooky, unfinished basement.

The stairs were wooden and creaky. There was linoleum floor appealing. It was dark, it was musty. I always got weird vibes down there, and I just felt the sensation that somebody was watching me. There was always a cold presence downstairs that gave the vibes like I didn't belong in the house or in the basement. This isn't my house, this isn't David's house. This is somebody else's house. And it felt like this presence didn't want us there. I went into the laundry room. I opened the door to the dryer, took the dry clothes out of the dryer, put them into a laundry basket. I opened the door to the washing machine, took the wet clothes out of the washer, put them into the dryer. I turned the dryer on and I grabbed the laundry basket.

I turned around.

Fulton is still at the bottom of the stairs, watching me, waiting for me to be done in this creepy basement.

You're going back upstairs.

Holton bolted up the stairs, and about six steps up, I feel a tug on my right hip, as if my shorts got snagged on the railing. I stopped and looked around the basement and behind me to see what happened. I realized that my shorts had been pulled halfway down my hip, and my shorts didn't have any physical evidence that anything happened. No hole, no snag. It felt like there was a presence that just wanted to make itself known to me that it sees me, and it knows that I'm there, Almost like it was trying to say, you don't belong down here in the basement, go back to where you're supposed to be. I felt the need to just get out of the house. I continued up the stairs and quit the laundry basket on the kitchen table. Colton was laying on the couch in the living room, acting like nothing had happened. I grabbed my stuff, said my goodbyes to him, walked out the front door, locked the door behind me, got in my car, sat there for a second wondering what happened, and I decided I just needed to put distance between me and the house, so I drove home. I tried not to think about that incident again until a few months later. On a Saturday, David, Corey, and I were all at the house hanging out. The boys were sitting in the living room watching baseball. I decided to take a shower, so I went into the master bedroom and closed the door behind me. I went into the bathroom, turned on the water. I get in the shower and I start washing my hair, and all of a sudden, I hear the door squeak open, and then I hear David come into the room and close the door behind him. I waited for him to start talking to me, and nothing came, but I still felt the presence that I wasn't alone. So I looked out the shower to see what he was doing in the room, but I was completely alone. Nobody had come into the room. I tried brushing it off. I just continued my shower as normal, but I still felt like I was being watched. I finished up my shower and I got dressed. I noticed that the door was still closed, as if nothing had happened. I hit it out to the living room, where Corey and David were watching the game. I looked at David and I go, did you come into the bedroom for anything? And he got a really confused expression on his face.

We didn't move the entire time she was in the shower. We were just watching the game.

I told them what I experienced, and they just brushed it off. Though you probably just felt like you heard the door open and close, like okay, gaslighting one on what would have made the door open and close its own. I couldn't find any explanation for it. I knew that something was watching me. David was always a skeptic and brushed off any paranormal experience I had until one day he was home alone and experienced something himself.

I was in the master bedroom by myself, looking in my closet for a shirt. My work schedule was completely different than my room, so I was home when he wasn't, and out of nowhere I heard Hey. It sounded as if someone was right behind me in my ear.

And I got chilled.

On the back of my spine. Emma was not present, Corey was not present. It was clear as day. It wasn't like an old, wretched voice. It was like a middle aged female voice. I turn around, nobody's there. I go out and I look around. Nobody's there. There's nobody in the house. There wasn't a TV on, there wasn't a radio one. I didn't have any windows open.

It sat on me all day.

I kept thinking of I literally heard Hey in my ear behind me while.

I was by myself.

My mother was over visiting, and I wouldn't say as a clairvoyant of any means, but she tells me all the time she has, you know, these connections with the other side.

I've always just grown up.

I thought my mom was a little out there, but I remember vividly going to my grandfather's grave and she would tell me he's here, and then the wind chimes would start chiming right next to his grave. So I brought this up to my mom when she was visiting. I wanted to talk about it. I said, Hey, I know this is a little out there, but this is what's going on. This is what Emma's told me that has happened to her, and my mom started walking around the house talking to whatever entity or whatever it may be. This is my son. He's a good man. My son means no harm. He is here temporarily. Please leave him alone, Please leave his girlfriend alone. I remember, you know, following my mom around, and I was almost smiling.

I'm like, I can't believe she's doing this. But nothing happened after that.

This definitely changed his perspective on the paranormal and supernatural.

They completely changed a lot of things. I don't know if maybe that disturbed things.

I felt like they were seeing all the renovations being done to the house and they just didn't like that.

I was only in the house for two years.

Even after we did all that work, they were unable to sell the house. I believe it got foreclosed on till this day. It sits vacant.

That house has something weird about it.

I don't know who or what could have been pausing these experiences, but they were not happy with David and I being in their space.

Gaslight your girlfriend and then run to your mom. At what age do men learn that women are always right? Oh, yeah, Len's not here. Well, I don't blame those ghosts for making a scene. I'd be pissed too if someone moved into my house and started knocking down walls, unless it was Tony. He's the best contractor I've ever had. He did all my fountains, indoors and out. Anyway, the spirit's won in the end. They got what they wanted, an empty home. Merlin didn't have any luck finding Len, and as much as I hate to admit it, I'm actually starting to worry. So listeners help me out here. If Len's on a little haunting escapade, you might be able to sense his presence. Not all of you are tuned to the other side, so I'll walk you through it. Close your eyes now, take a deep breath in for four.

And out for four.

Make sure your feet are planted firmly on the ground, and focus on your breathing. Once your mind starts to clear, you're going to pay attention to any energies you might be sensing that are not your own. Good now, the feeling you're looking for is sort of a familiar discomfort, like that tight lipped smile you give a coworker in the office, or when somebody catches you drinking a full fat latte, or like a stinky cheese before you realize what you're smelling is cheese. If you're hitting on any of those, let us know on our socials at Glass podcasts with the hashtag find Len if that lucky son of a bitch crossed over, I will kill them. Anyway, while we wait, let's move on to our second story, which, by the way, Len would love because it's a really scary one about a bunch of creepy lurkers. But whatever his loss.

I grew up in northwest Indiana, and there was so much death in that area. In the eighteen hundreds when there were early settlers. There was a river that ran through the neighborhood and there was a settler's tamp that got flooded at one point and it killed like the entire camp. And then in the early nineteen hundreds to about the nineteen thirties, Caddy Corner to our house was a city dump and there were dead bodies. Being dumped was causing diseases, and there were a lot of people dying in the neighborhood. My name is Mary, and I grew up with ghosts in the alley. The house I grew up in was an old house built in like nineteen oh nine, and it was.

A two story stucco gray house.

We had a small one car garage, and then alongside the garage was the backyard. It went and met the back of the house made of a square. Around the backyard was a chain link fence. You could see through the fence and see all the neighbors houses around you, but it was the back of everyone's houses, so you could see their garages in their backyards, and then you could see the alleyway with the trash cans and stuff like you would expect when I was a little girl. When my mother was busy doing things in the house that she didn't want children under her feet for, she would send us outside to play in the backyard. The kitchen was right there, so she would still be able to supervise us and to get to us if we needed her, but we could also just play and just not be bothering her while she's trying to cook dinner or wash the dishes or clean the house. We were never out there more than an hour, just long enough for her to do whatever she was doing. My sister, who's four years older than me, we would play barbies and all kinds of fun toys out there, but I was terrified of the backyard, so I would cry and cry and tell my mom that I was scared to be back there because I could see people walking up and down the alleyway and I didn't know who they were. The people would look scary. They'd be dirty, they would be bleeding, or they'd look really old, wearing older clothes that they were from a long time ago. And they never spoke to me. They were just walking back and forth. When my sister was there, when we were playing, I would be able to ignore the people in the alley, But when my sister would leave me to grab a toy or go to the bathroom and I was by myself, they would start walking and coming closer to me, like they were all congregating to the backyard. I didn't know who they were, and I didn't want to be out.

There with them.

I mentioned it several times to my parents, but no one else could see the scary people except for me. They would be like, there's no one in the alley, No one ever walks up and down the alley. I don't know what you're seeing. It's just your imagination. I told my sister, and I'd say, you know, Sissy, look there's this person over there, and she'd be like, I don't see anybody. One particular time, there was a man crouched in the bushes near my neighbor's house. My neighbor had a crazy yard. They had bushes that were really overgrown and went halfway into the alley and I could see a man crouched in the bushes. I ended up grabbing my sister and being like, Sissy, there's a man in the bushes. Do you see him? And she said, no, there's no one in the bushes. I don't see anyone.

My parents never believed me, and my sister didn't.

See them either. No one took me seriously. They all thought I was telling stories or making things up.

But I know they were there and they were real.

I was very scared of them, so I just kind of dealt with it and would cry.

One day, it was particularly.

Bad, my sister had been inside a little bit longer than she usually was. I was having an absolute meltdown. When my dad got home from work. As soon as his car pulled into the driveway, I ran out to him and I was just bawling and bawling, crying. Daddy. Daddy, he could see that I was really upset.

He picked me up and hugged me and all that.

Took me inside and told me to play with my toys while my mother finished up dinner. We all had dinner at the table. By then it was pretty late, so my mom and dad.

Had us go to bed. The next day was just a normal day.

My mom, as usual, sends us out to the backyard, and to my surprise, I wasn't able to see anyone walking up and down the alley.

There were no scary people, nothing.

I was so used to seeing them, but for some reason that day I couldn't a little bit later, after we had been playing for a while, my sister went in to go to the bathroom. I was by myself, and I noticed a woman walking down the alley.

She was an older woman, looked like.

My grandmother's age, and the first thing I noticed was that she had a beautiful long dress on and a smile on her face. She had beautiful gray hair that was pulled back in a bun, and she just looked so sweet and so nice and so kind. This was the first time I saw someone in the alley that I wasn't scared of. She just had a loving vibe to her. I knew that she wasn't someone to be scared of. She was walking pretty slowly down the alley. When she reached the back gate, she called me over. She leaned over and said, sweetheart, I see you're scared of the people in the alley. And I said, yeah, I don't like them because they're scary.

And she said, that's okay. I made them go away. You'll never see them again.

And she turned around and she kept walking down the alley, and after a while she just kind of disappeared and I didn't see her after that. My sister came back outside and we played for the rest of the afternoon, and there was nothing there. We was really nice. We had a great time. My dad came home from work later that day. We went in and did our usual dinner and then go to bed. After that day, I never saw anything in the alley again. It wasn't until about years later when my mom passed away. I was helping my dad go through all of her things and go through some old photos. She just had a big plastic tub filled the brim with photographs, and we were trying to decide what we wanted to do with them. As we were going through the photos, I came across one of an older woman. She had a beautiful smile and long gray hair that was pulled back into a big bun.

I kind of made a noise like I was.

Shocked, and then my dad looked over and he goes, oh, yeah, I think that's your Grandma More. So I flipped it over and it did say Grandma More and it was dated from like the early nineteen hundreds. She died long before I was born, but I had heard stories about her growing up. I turned to my dad and I said, Dad, do you remember when I was and I was scared of the people in the alley And he said, yeah, I remember that. And I said do you remember when I told you a mom that the nice lady made the scary people go away? And he said yeah, I remember that. And I said, well, Dad, this was a lady from the alley that made the scary people go away.

Grandma More was the woman I saw in the alley.

After I told him that, Dad said, well, I don't believe in this stuff, but your mom and I did pray for you that night to make the scary thing in the alley go away.

I was really shocked.

I had never met Grandma More So I was surprised that that would have been the person that came through and helped me in that situation.

So as an adult, I can.

Look back at that and realize I was probably seeing ghosts as a child, and then Grandma more made them go away.

Okay, our story that deep down is about gaslighting. If your girlfriend is telling you the house is haunted, believe her. And if your child is telling you there's a horde of blood covered turn of the century zombie shuffling through your alley every day, believe her too. Believe women. Really is what it comes down to. Let's take a break. There's still no sign of len and we didn't get any leads from our listeners. Maybe he's really gone for good. I'm having confusing feelings. Well they oh my god, you're here. Thank god. I was sure if something had happened, or maybe you'd crossed over. I was really nervous. I met me, missed you. No, no, you can't just not show up to work. It's unprofessional and it's not my job to know what all these buttons. I mean, I do know what they do, but I don't like pressing them. Just don't do that again. Okay, And where were you anyway? I haunting a Borgan convention and you lost track of time at the D and D table. You are so predictable. I can't believe I was actually worried. Well, that's our episode lends back just in time to stop the recording, and I need a massage to recover from carrying the entire show on my back. If you've got a scary story to share, email len or I guess me at Haunting the Podcast at gmail dot com. We'll see you next time. Where were you really?

Though?

You've been acting so weird lately. It's just alarming when you're not where you always are. You're always here.

You're not the Awa without Love.

Anyway, I do it go.

It went fine, I mean better than fine, probably best episode yet. I just I do value your gone cotributions to this team as all. Well, I I said, I value your contributions to this team.

Is all?

Wait, are we still recording?

Lynn?

You're gone all day and then you can't do your one job. What is the point of even having.

A producer.

If you have a haunting story? To share, email us at Haunting Thepodcast at gmail dot com, and if you like what you hear, please like and subscribe. You can also follow us on social media by searching for Glass Podcasts or by visiting glasspodcast dot com. Haunting is a production of Glass Podcasts in partnership with iheartpodcast. Haunting is created and executive produced by Nancy Glass and Trey of Gunning, Ben Fetterman, and Lauren Lapkez, and it is hosted by Laura Lapiz as her character Terreza. Producer Lynn Walker is played by Trey Morgan. Haunting is written by Leah Welsh, with additional writing by Nancy Glass.

Trey Morgan, and Ben Fetterman.

Editing and sound designed by Matt Delvecchio and mixed by Dave Saye. Operations and production support by Kristen Melcury. Additional production support by Curry Richmond and Todd Gans. Haunting's theme and original compositions were composed by Oliver Bains and Darry macauley of Neiser Music Library, provided by Mob Music special thanks to Speakeasy Sound Studios in Burbank, California. For more shows from iHeart Podcasts and Glass Podcast, visit the iHeartRadio, app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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