8- Beth, and the Woman in the Mirror
Hello, and welcome, my ghost story lovers! This is Beyond the Veil Paranormal Tales, and I'm your host, Becca. You can also find us in podcast form, if you'd like me to read this to you, instead!
If you are new to the blog and podcast, while you should be able to pop in and enjoy any individual episode on its own, I do explain some things that make me different as I go along here. So, you might want to pop back to Episode 1 and start there, but as always, follow your heart!
Join me here, as I sit beside the crackling fire, beneath my fuzzy blankets, with one of Colorado's spring snows going strong just outside. Grab your own hot drink, and settle in to listen to real people's spooky stories, told in their own words. Some of these spooky stories may contain adult language. Listeners, be advised.
Names of the affected parties and some personal details may be changed, to protect the privacy of the storyteller. But! You have my word: All stories told here are real, to the best of my knowledge.
So! Start your own fire, grab your favorite blanket to hide beneath, and settle in with me, as we take a peek at the world that lies... Beyond the Veil.
Tonight is Episode 8: Beth, and the Woman in the Mirror
I arrived at Beth, my cohort-in-cleansing's place, one evening after work, and was greeted by my friend and her husband Luke, who was headed out for an evening with friends that night. Beth poured me a glass of Riesling, and he asked what we were going to talk about that night. I grinned and said I was there to collect her spooky-stuff stories, once their kiddo was in bed.
Their son, Joshua, can be spooked out easily, so we were being careful not to plant ideas in his head. Beth nodded, saying she didn't want him to overhear some of her stories. Luke nodded, knowingly.
Beth looked over her shoulder to confirm the boy was still playing with the dog in his room, and said quietly, “It's a lot of, like, things moving around, or things dropping... Or, you know, seeing things out the corner of your eye, like, just, vague shit. Stuff like that. And part of it is, a lot of times at night, when I don't have my contacts in, I'm never sure how much is just bad vision...?” As a fellow glasses-wearer, I nodded deeply, understanding.
Luke laughed, “You don't have an over-active imagination at all, either.”
“Well, that too,” Beth said, and we all laughed. “Well, like, one time, he came around the corner and scared the shit out of me-”
Luke laughed, “The one time?”
Beth shrugged, “The one time.”
“Which time was this?” Luke asked, cocking his head to the side. I laughed at their exchange, and wondered how frequently it happens.
Beth answered, “Well, this most recent time, it was like, 11 o'clock at night, and I was in the kitchen getting something to eat. You, I thought, were asleep? And I,” She shook her head and laughed at herself as she remembers, “I turned around and saw something out the corner of my eye. It was this pale white thing, and I was like,” She waved it away, dismissively, “'Ah, it's nothing.' And it was, you know, whatever,” She shrugged. “And then you said, 'What are you doing?' and scared the shit out of me!” She laughed.
“So the pale white thing talked to you,” I laughed, “And it was him?” I poked him in the shoulder, accusatorialy.
“Googly googly googly!” He said spookily as Beth and I laughed. He grinned at us, kissed his wife goodbye for the evening, and disappeared out the door with another funny ghost noise, “Ooooooh!”
The two of us chatted about typical things for a while, until Joshua was in bed for the night, and we shifted to the couch to chat about spookier things. Beth lit a few candles and a stick of incense, to set the mood. We topped off our glasses of wine before settling in, she called her German Shepherd over to lay down at her feet, and she debated where to start with her storytelling.
I suggested the first story that came to mind that I knew about, “Ooh, what about that gigantic beast on the road that Luke hit with his car on a road trip? The big big wolf that maybe wasn't a wolf? And you saw something like it later, right? When you were driving back to get his car from the shop?”
Beth nodded and said, “Oh yeah. Luke was driving on the highway, headed toward Nebraska, and he was almost where he was going, out near Kearney. The animal approached from the left, so he crossed across the other side of the highway, then came into his side of the interstate. So it would be from the North, I guess?
“He said it was a big coyote, or maybe a wolf, or a wolf-coyote hybrid... but it hit the front left of the car, and it damaged the car enough it had to be kept at the shop for a while, while they fixed it. Like, a week or two. On the way back to pick it up, and the thing I saw getting off the highway was a wolf, of some sort. I thought it was a hybrid,” She said, and took a sip of her wine.
“It was just big?” I asked, wondering what made her think hybrid, beyond what her husband had said after the accident.
“Yeah, it was way too lope-y to be a coyote, and it was larger than a coyote. Cause coyotes are, like, the size of your bigger dog? But skinnier?” She said, brow furrowed. My bigger dog is a lab-mix who weighs around 70 or 80lb, and she's a lazy fat dog. I nodded. “And this was like, taller than the hood of my car, so it was bigger than my dog, easily.” Her purebred German Shepherd weighs closer to 90lb.
“Mmhmm, so he was really big, then,” I nodded, glancing at her dog, and taking a sip of wine as I listened.
Beth nodded, “Yeah, so that's why I say I think it might have been a direwolf that somebody, like, couldn't handle and let go, cause that's an issue they've been having in rural states. But it could very easily be a wolf out of Yellowstone. They also have those wolf-coyote hybrids in Canada and maybe New Mexico,” She said.
I nodded, “With such, like, a big range, who knows where they would have come from, yeah. They all wander.”
She nodded, “Yeah, they could have even been coming down from Canada through the Dakotas, too. But it was big, and it was black.”
I nodded, “And you said it kinda moved... like that video (Timestamp of wolf video we were discussing: 1:25) we found where something, like... it didn't move right?”
Beth nodded, “Yeah. I was trying to decide if it was more dog-like. Cause that's the debate I was having. Was it dog-like? Was it mixed with a dog? That's why I was trying to decide if it was like, a wolf-hybrid, like a direwolf, or a coyote-wolf hybrid, or just a straight wolf.”
“Mmhmm, the size kinda makes you wonder. There's only so many dog breeds that are big like that. And they have a very specific look to them too,” I nodded, thinking.
“Right,” She said, “And the wolf-coyote hybrids, the snout is shorter. And they're a little bit smaller. So that's what is making me think it was just a regular wolf,” she said, taking a drink.
“Just the size?” I asked. “Unless wolves are just bigger than I think they are,” I added, brow furrowed.
She nodded, “They're quite big. I mean, they have ones that are quite big. And I was trying to look at the walk... of wolves.”
I nodded, “The canter, yeah.”
“Cause dogs have their own walk. And like, domesticated animals have a particular walk, and wolves have their own thing. And even coyotes have a different look, even, than the wolves,” She continued.
I nodded, “And when they're sneaking, they move even different... yeah yeah yeah.”
“So it was, yeah, yeah, it was big,” She nodded deeply.
“I remember you telling me about it at the time, like, when you saw it, and you were like, 'That is NOT a regular wolf,” I squinted and looked off into the ceiling, thinking back to that earlier conversation. “You were very sure. You were like, 'I saw a werewolf!'” I laughed, remembering the exchange, and the video I came across reminded me of what she'd said at the time.
She nodded, remembering, “Yeah- I just couldn't figure out what it was.” She tossed back the last of her wine, and topped both of our glasses off with the Riesling, before continuing. “Trying to think, what else...?”
“Oh, good lord, I dunno,” I laughed. Beth has no shortage of interesting stories to share. “Um, usually, I'd say chronological?”
She nodded, “Okay, so I didn't really have a lot of Supernatural experiences, other than like, meditation, and like, just knowing things about people when I met them... until I moved to Colorado.” She said, and squinted at me. “Interestingly enough, I never connected that with you,” She glared playfully and poked my arm, accusatorily. “THAT's why!!” I laughed heartily, as she sat there staring at me, shaking her head. “You... oh my god. That's why!”
She and I had grown up together back in Nebraska, our mothers being very good friends since their teenage years, but I had moved to Colorado a good decade before she did. We'd grown up in our own various ways, during that time, then reconnected here and found we were both into the same weird things.
We'd started going shopping at the various metaphysical shops at that time, and she was drawn to do a reading for me, which then led to a whole host of new and interesting things for me. I'd been joking that she came to Colorado to harass me deeper into weirdness, for years, but she'd never considered that I was here to poke her on different fronts, too.
When I caught my breath from my explosive laughter, I grinned at her and shrugged playfully, “I'm sorry...?”
“Question mark?” Beth laughed. “So, my first experience when we moved out here, to that tiny little apartment in Aurora, I had at least three things that were bothering me out there. And it took me a while to realize they were bothering me, cause I was kind-of, like... I've always kinda been, like, dismissive?”
She sighed, “I have really intense weird dreams when my hormones are weird, so I don't really pay attention to dreams, and like, I don't remember them, so I don't know how to pay attention to them. And like, you know, I was like, 'Oh, ghosts. Whatever,” You know? Blah blah blah.”
I nodded, “Yeah, it's not even on your radar, growing up the way we did.”
“Right? And it's not really my thing. So I was like, 'Whatever.'” She shrugged. “So then, at the time, the first couple of months that we were in that apartment, I was working from home, and I was working two part-time jobs and one of them was out, during like, school hours and on the weekends, and the other one was from home.
“And one day, I was sitting at home, and I heard this... tapping. And that apartment had a lot of tapping from the pipes and stuff, and there were neighbors, literally on all sides but the front. 'Cause there were people above us, and the walls were thin... it was just... It was a bad apartment.”
I nodded, “Yeah, you'd just brush off any sounds you heard.”
Beth nodded, “And then, a lot of times, I would hear,” She leans forward and knocks softly, three times, on the coffee table. It sounded to me like someone knocking on the front door of a house, but quietly, so as not to wake the baby. “I would hear it when I would be in the bathroom, in the master bathroom. I would hear knocking. And sometimes I would knock back, because my idea was, well, somebody's been like, tied up in a closet somewhere, and like,” She trailed off, shrugging.
“They're trying to reach out for help,” I nodded, following.
“Right!” She nodded, “But I never got, like, knocking back. And some day, I was sitting in the apartment and we had that chair that was angled toward the fire, facing the fireplace, and the couch was over on the left. The kitchen was behind me, and the door was in front of me. The fridge started rattling. I'd heard it before, but I thought it was a condenser. It was an older fridge, in an older apartment, with older appliances...”
I nodded, “They just make noises, yeah.”
She nodded, “And we had issues, with a lot of stuff in that apartment, that they didn't really come and fix, so I just thought it was the fridge. And then the fridge started shaking. Like, literally, visibly shaking. Like, I could see it moving. I was like, 'What the fuck is going on?' And then I had this debate, like, is it the condenser? Is it the fridge? But then, it doesn't happen all the time... so it's not every time the fridge turned on this happened...” She shook her head.
I nodded, “Yeah, yeah. There's not a pattern.”
Beth nodded, “And I think we had a friend who was staying at our house, like, overnight, at least once by then, and she said something about there being something in the house, over there in that corner, by that fridge. And I was like, 'Yeah... I think something's there, but I'm not really sure.'” She shrugged.
“So then, like, I kinda basically figured out that it was some German guy, that had like, died somewhere around in that area. And so, like, I turned on some German music for him and he was very happy, and then we had a conversation a little bit. I had a conversation with him and he was fine.
“And every once in a while, something would come bug my friend, when she was staying the night or whatever. I told her to tell him off, to get him to go away. When I talked to him, he'd try to be like, this big scary guy and I was like, 'Really? Come on. What are you?'” Beth rolled her eyes at the memory, and I laughed.
“And then, when the image dropped away, it was like this shell dropped away, and he was this tiny little like, dwarf-elf thing?” She wrinkled her brow and smirked, then shook her head, and I laughed harder. Of course the tiny man is making himself appear big and scary. “I was like, 'Stop fucking with my girl, okay? Leave her alone.'”
I nodded, and she continued. “And there was also, like, that weird Mary statue outside the place she'd been staying, at Saint Mary's,” She said, meaning the school her visiting friend was attending, back in Omaha.
“She was staying in part of the dorms that was also partially where the retired nuns were. So there was a chapel and conference room there that had this weird like, Aztec-looking Mary. It was a stone carving thing that she had to walk past every time she left her room, and it was weird as fuck. And I don't know, to this day, what was in that... but it wasn't the goddamned fucking Virgin Mary,” Beth shook her head, eyes narrowed, and I laughed.
“It was something else, and it wasn't... like, it was almost serpent-like, and it was like, 'I like this statue. It's pretty. Oh! There's somebody here that notices me! I'm gonna poke them!' It was that kind of thing. My friend thought it was scary, but I thought it was just kind-of like, whatever.” She shrugged. Beth isn't scared by much, so this wasn't surprising to me.
“Like, it's crazy, and it's weird, but you know... Things that fuck with other people tend to leave me alone. And that's part of the reason why, when this stuff started happening, in the apartment, I was like, 'What the fuck is going on??'”
I nodded seriously, “Well, yeah, 'cause they don't normally bother you.”
Beth nodded, “And at the same time as all of this was happening, I was dealing with moving to a new city, not having friends, like... all of that shit. Trying to find a new job, dealing with Joshua being mid-school-year. It was bad.
“So, like, I was feeling really disconnected from my guides. Like, really really really disconnected. And I also, around the same time, started having nightmares. And there was this night that I woke up, and I'd had a really really bad nightmare. I don't remember what it was,” She shook her head, and continued.
“But I walked into the master bath that adjoined the bedroom, and right as I turned on the light, I saw this woman's face. And it was not... a normal human face. It was like... one of those, like, gaunt, big-eyed... kind-of like a stereotypical horror, scary human creature ghost poltergeist thing.”
My eyes narrowed as I tried to picture it in my head, “Like, exaggerated features?”
She nodded seriously, “Yeah, a big... like, a big grin. A big creepy grin that takes over, almost splits their face in half. Big eyes, with the really dark, like, overlarge pupils, and just like...” She shook her head, at a loss for words.
I nodded, “Yeah, almost cartoonish.”
She nodded, “Almost cartoonish, but like, yeah. So, like, I flipped on the light, and I was like, 'There's something in here. That's trying to scare me. And I don't know what it is.' But I had realized, like, I'd been having a lot more nightmares since I moved there, where, some of that could be the stress. But I was like, there's something here that's bothering me. There's something here that's pestering me. And there was something that was giving Joshua nightmares a lot of the time too. Which, he normally sleeps relatively soundly, and again, it could be the stress and move... it could be a lot of different things...” She trailed off.
I nodded, knowing more was coming, “But...”
“But yeah,” She continued. “So this was probably like, in April, and I had just started working full time, and then in May, I went back out to Omaha to see another friend, and when we were out there, we went to a conjure shop that's out there, and I had a reading done.
“And the lady that did the reading said... I had told her, 'I'm feeling really disconnected from my guides. I'm feeling like there's a third guide that's trying to come in, and I'm also having these dreams, and I'm having this lady, and I'm not sure what's going on.'” I nodded, listening.
“Oh, and I guess before that, I had also cleansed. A day or two after the weird lady face in the mirror happened, I cleansed the apartment. Because I was like, whatever the fuck is going on, I don't know,” She shrugged and shook her head.
“So you just saw her in the mirror? Not physically in the room? Like a reflection almost?” I asked.
“Mmmm, no, it's like she... So, it was really weird. It was that transition where you- The lights in that bathroom didn't turn on bright, right away. They would turn on, but they were like, the uh, LED lights?” She said, brow furrowed.
“They gotta warm up?” I asked.
She nodded, “So they warm up. She was in the mirror, in that weird in-between phase, when they'd just turned on but hadn't fully brightened?” I nodded, understanding. “So it was probably not even half a second.”
I nodded, but my eyes narrowed and I asked, “Would you say she was... in the bathroom? And you were seeing a reflection in the mirror and you just couldn't see the body? Or was she in the mirror?”
“I would say...” She thought for a moment, then answered, “I feel like she was projecting herself into the mirror, to scare me.”
“Okay,” I nodded, and took a sip of my wine, which was nearly gone.
“Like, she was trying to scare me. That was the impression that I got. I don't think she was in the mirror?” She said, and her eyes narrowed. “I think she was just showing herself. And I've never really liked mirrors, and like, this place had a really big mirror...” She shuddered.
“Trust your instincts,” I nodded.
“So, anyway, I had cleansed the apartment, and I had really cleansed Joshua's room, because I knew he was having issues, so, I'd gone though the whole apartment. And I had also felt like there was a third entity there that I never really talked to, and I never really did anything with, but I was like, 'I move here and I'm being haunted by three ghosts and I've never had this problem before. Like, what the fuck is going on?'” She shook her head in bewilderment. “And my guides were like... not like, 'Fuck you, we're gone,' but, they were just like... away.”
I nodded, “Not helpful. Yeah.”
She nodded, “They just didn't feel... close. And that was weird. So, I'd cleansed the apartment, but when I cleansed it, in that bathroom, I had put um... what's that rough black rock? It was a larger black piece and I'm fairly certain it wasn't the tourmaline? It might have been obsidian. But it wasn't like, the carbon-based one. Is that the tourmaline?”
“Hmm, onyx? Tourmaline is like, crystalline for sure. Obsidian and onyx feel more like a stone, but they do look different if they're not polished,” I said.
“It wasn't polished. It had ridges, and it was black, and it was like, maybe the size of my palm? I can show it to you. It's in Joshua's room, actually,” She said, but made no move to get up.
“In any case, it's a grounding stone, and it's black...” I said, wondering what happened with this stone!
She nodded, “It's a grounding stone, it was black, and it was for protection. Well, I had it on a little mirror, and I had lit a candle and I had let the candle go while I was cleaning the whole apartment, and I put it in the corner where I had seen her face. Because I was specifically concerned about that bathroom. Because after that incident, I was really like, 'I don't want to go in that bathroom without that light being turned on.' Like, I used to like, go in the bathroom in the dark, not turn the light on, because I don't need to see...”
I shook my head quickly, “But not after that!”
She shook her head as well, “Not after that! So, when I cleansed the whole apartment and I went back into the bathroom, that black stone had cracked in half,” She looked at me as I shrieked, and nodded. “Now, part of me thinks the mirror... 'cause the candle had burned down most of the way and the mirror had gotten hot, so part of me thought the mirror had made it crack. But I've never had another stone crack on me like that,” She said, brow furrowed.
“Mmmhmm,” I nodded, feeling there was more to it than just the heat and the mirror.
She shrugged, “So I don't know if it was the mirror. Like, it could have been the mirror getting hot. It could very well be that...”
I shook my head, brow furrowed, “But for that large a stone to crack in half is weird.”
“I'll have to show it to you,” She said, and I nodded seriously. “So, I put stones in Joshua's room. I put like, a little mirror in his room, and I had a little mirror in that bathroom. I kept all of that stuff in there pretty much the rest of the time we lived there. So, after that, I went back to Omaha, and I had that reading done. And she was like... 'cause I kept saying that I don't know why this lady is haunting me but maybe... and I'm not really a past life type. I don't really care what happened in my past lives. Like, I have a vague idea...”
I nodded, “We're over it, let's move on,” I laughed.
Beth nodded, “Right? It's kinda that. But I felt like, whoever this woman was, she was attacking me because of a past life. For whatever I'd done, or she thought I was like, somebody who had hurt her in a past life, or something about me reminded her... It was something. But I didn't really tell the reader what had been going on. I just said I felt disconnected and I'd been having some nightmares, and I'd been having some issues.
“And she did this reading and she was like, 'You have this lady who is haunting you.' And I said, 'Yeah, and she's trying to scare me and trying to scare my child and it's pissing me off,' and she was like, 'Yeah, this lady thinks that you did something to her in a past life or something and is mad at you about something.'”
I nodded, and scoffed, “So now what?”
“And she's like, 'You need to talk to her about it.' And she was like, 'And your guides are away, and I'm not really sure, but I think it's because you've moved to a new land, and I think you're connected to that land, and I think there's a guide, a new guide, that wants to make himself known.' And I was like, 'Okay.'
“And I had also started hanging out with you, and talking to you about stuff and a bunch of other stuff happened at the same time, where I found out I did have a new guide, and he was kinda connected to this land. And I did have a past life here, and um... or a past life that was somehow connected to me. So basically, I started talking to this lady and she was like, 'You took my child from me. So I want to take your child from you.'
I shook my head firmly, eyes wide, “Hold up-”
“And I was like, 'Fuck you, not gonna happen!'” She said, brow furrowed, a fire in her eyes. “So, like, we kinda talked about things, and as I was talking to this spirit, she changed from that like, ghastly, starved, big-eyed creepy thing, to more like, human?”
“Yup,” I nodded, listening, glancing at my my wine glass, which was suddenly empty. I took a swig of my water bottle, instead, as she continued.
“And so then I was like, 'Okay, we kinda sorted things out, we talked about it,' and she was kinda like, 'Okay, everything's fine, blah blah blah, I'll stop trying to scare you.' She still kinda hung around Joshua a little bit, and he would have dreams about this lady, like, standing over him at his bed. Like, he kept saying he was having dreams about this weird lady. Well, and the really weird one was when he said he had this dream about this lady, somebody was staring at him through his window.”
“Yeah,” I nodded, knowing how much that would have bothered me if it was my own child. How seriously do you take it? Is it just a harmless dream or is he seeing that woman still?
“Now, this was the first time he'd had ground floor windows in his bedroom, and it also faced out to the outside where people would walk by? He had two outside walls, and it was the only bedroom, the only room in that entire place that had two outside walls. So his window faced somebody else's window, and also sorta faced the walkway between the apartments. And it kinda faced the air conditioning units, and stuff like that. So yeah, somebody could have been out there, and it could also have been that it was ground floor, and he was paranoid. Like, and he was having lots of anxiety because we had moved and a bunch of other stuff. So it could have been a lot of other things?” She said, and she tossed back the dredges of wine that were in her cup.
“Yeah, yeah,” I nodded.
“But, it was really weird to me that he thought that there was a woman staring at him through the window,” She said, worry touching her voice.
“Especially not having had that feeling before,” I nodded.
She nodded in reply, “Right. So then, I'd start talking to you, and all your stuff,” I burst out laughing, as she continued, “Because they were pestering me, and I was like, oh my god, I can't handle all of this, so she needs to get her shit together so I don't have to deal with all of these things,” She gave me a playfully scolding look, and I laughed harder.
“Well, fine,” I laughed, “I'll get my shit together.”
She grinned and continued, “But then, over the summer, things kinda calmed down, and then that fall you and I had done some stuff, and had started talking, and you had kinda...”
“We'd gone shopping, and I spent way too much money, shhhhh,” I laughed again. That was the fall I allowed myself to start buying crystals and books and tarot cards, for the first time since my teenage years. Back then I had to hide those things in a lock box under my bed, to keep them out of view of my religious parents, and I felt like I was doing something wrong, at the time. It was a freeing experience not needing to hide my stuff anymore, and I went a little crazy on those shopping trips when Beth took me to her favorite metaphysical shops up in Denver.
She nodded, “Yeah, we'd gone to Spirit Wise and all that stuff. And then we were over at your house and I still had her kinda floating around, and she was talking to you, and that's when she sorta like, came and joined your cohort, and permanently left me alone.”
I nodded, remembering that visit. Beth had come by to do tarot readings in my basement, while our kids played Minecraft upstairs. I have an entourage of spirits that follow me around, and I'd started a new thing at my house where those who needed to speak with me wait in a queue on my roof, until it's their turn. I've got a few child spirits that followed me from various places, and they were running amok, until that day.
During my chat with Beth's ghost woman, I realized the bulk of her trouble was missing her child. All of her actions came from that, and it's why she was obsessed with Beth's young son. She needed to work with children, if she wasn't ready to move on yet. So I invited her to be the Matron of Children at my house, and gave her charge of those unruly child spirits. She manages them for me, and when they're misbehaving or messing with things for fun, like, hiding in my closet and peeking out at me while I'm taking a shower, I'll call her to come get them and take them elsewhere.
“Yeah,” I said, “She sorta... manages the children that come. And there's maybe more than I know about,” I said, squinting. Not being able to fully see and communicate with the entities in my home can be interesting, at times, to say the least. It's hard to know who all is there at any given time. I seem to collect more spirits whenever I go somewhere new. Things are just really interested in me, and I've been told by multiple people that I've got the biggest entourage anyone's seen.
Beth nodded, “And maybe she'd attached herself to me, and I had nothing to do with her in a past life. Because she knew I would lead her to you, eventually,” She shrugged.
“It's possible,” I nodded, with a shrug.
“It's possible,” She agreed, but added with a shrug, “I'm not really sure.”
I nodded, “She needed a purpose, is what I got from her. Like, she needed somebody to look after, or help, or mother, or whatever... and she got that when she came to my house.”
“So she kinda left us alone, and the German guy was kinda there every once in a while, rattling the refrigerator, but it wasn't that big of a deal,” She shrugged. You do tend to get used to the entities that you live with, and brush off the sounds you've come to associate with them. And it gets less scary over time, for sure.
I chuckled, “He probably just wanted another beer, or something stupid like that.”
“Right? So I don't know,” She laughed and eyed her empty glass, and asked, “Do you vant more vine?”
“Ooh, yeah, for sure,” I said, and handed her my glass to refill. She wandered over to the kitchen, and hefted the wine bottle. There was only one glass left in it, so she asked, “You vants the last of the Riesling? I have some Merlot too...?”
“Ooh, Riesling please!” I grinned over at her. Merlot is yummy too, but Riesling is a little lighter, and I knew I'd have to drive myself home before too long. “It'll have to be my last glass, I think,” I sighed, looking at the time on my watch.
She nodded and poured, then returned to the couch, her dog following her and curling up at her feet as she sat again. “So, okay. The one that I've had this past year that was really weird...” She squinted, thinking how to begin her story. I nodded, listening, and sipped at my drink.
“Okay, so, um, let me preface this with... I'm a paranoid person. And I'm okay with being a paranoid person, because I feel like it keeps me safe, if keeps my family safe. It keeps my child safe,” She said, and I nodded.
“Yeah, keeps you on edge.”
“Keeps me on edge, and I'm not like, paranoid like... the aliens are gonna kidnap me in the middle of the night,” She said, clarifying.
“They're coming to get me... The CIA is listening,” I grinned, knowing what she meant. She's a reasonable level of paranoid, not delusional.
She nodded and laughed, “Right? I assume my phone is listening to me all the time, but I assume that's not outside the range of possibilities.”
I nodded, “Like, just mention a random product, and watch it show up in your ads.”
“Right! Justified paranoia. And I'm always like, super paranoid about, like... not all men...”
“Just most...” I shrugged.
“But a lot of men I would be really suspicious of, even if they're not,” Beth sighed, “I don't know. Let me put it this way. It's hard for a man to earn my trust,” She said, and I nodded. “And I'm not saying all men are creepers, but...”
I nodded deeply, “There's too many that are.”
She nodded, “There seems to be a lot that I wouldn't trust, you know what I'm saying? Just... yeah. So, having said that... So over the summer, my husband and I were going to go camping. And we were in the mountains, in Woodland Park, which is that tiny little town up there. Well, it's not really tiny anymore, but...
“So, up in the mountains, we were going to go camping, and I had wanted to go camping, and we wanted to go without our son, and he was off visiting my mom. So, um, we went up there. We took the dog with us. We'd set up the tent and went back into town to get dinner, get a beer. Took the dog with us, and we park, and we're walking across the street to this place we go up there. It's like a German themed beer place. And I see this guy sitting on a bench.”
“Like, outside the German beer place?” I asked.
“No, no. He was like, on a … there's like a specialty yard woodworking store across the street? And he was like, in their property. I don't remember what he was sitting on. I don't remember, because there was a park bench over there, but I feel like he was sitting on a park bench? But that's not right. Maybe he was sitting on the grass...” She trailed off, thinking, looking off into the ceiling, trying to recall, but she shook the thought away and continued.
“Hmm, anyway. So, I see him as we drive past to park, and we drive past him, and we park, and then we're walking across. And as we're walking across, like, the first time I saw him, I was like, 'Okay, he looks weird. But maybe he's like, drunk or high, or, you know, just a weird guy,” She shrugged, and I nodded.
She continued, “He's like, kind-of... I hate to say he's like, generic white guy, but he's kinda like generic white middle-aged guy? Like, he's not thin, he's not fat. He's not old, he's not young. He's... kind-of tan, I think he was wearing a hat? But he's got kind of a generic look.
“So, I was like, 'Okay, whatever.' But anyway, he watches us as we drive by, and we park and I'm like, 'Okay, he's just weird.' Then we walk past and he watches me the whole time. And I'm with Luke, and we have a dog, and I'm like, 'Okay, creepy guy. He's staring at me, whatever.' And I don't say anything to Luke, because like, I'm just like, 'Whatever...'”
I nodded, “Yeah...” I probably wouldn't say anything about it unless it became necessary to do something about it, either.
Beth shrugged, “Lots of people randomly stare at you all the time, and it doesn't necessarily mean anything. But his eyes had this really weird... I hate to say 'glint', because that indicates, maybe more than I saw? But I just had this flash, and I was like, 'I don't know what you are, but you're not human.' Like, that was the thing that I thought.”
I nodded, listening, and she continued, “And I don't normally think that about people in general, but I was also like, Okay, well, maybe he just looks weird. Maybe we're just being paranoid. You kinda just brush it off. So, he like, watches us as we go past, and he has this weird, like, smile. This weird, 'Hah!' smile, as he's looking at me, and I see that glint, and I'm thinking, 'You're not human, what the hell is wrong with you, what's attached to you, or what- what is going on?” Her eyes narrowed.
I nodded, “What are you?”
She nodded, “Like, what are you, yeah. Or, am I just being, like, paranoid? And so we go across the street and we have a beer. I kinda actually forgot about it for a little bit. And we're sitting there, and Luke is like, 'What's wrong?' I'm like, 'It's fine...' And I think to myself, 'We're not going to see this guy again. He's not going to be at the campsite. I don't have to worry about...'” She looks up at me, and adds, “There was also a festival in the town at the time...”
I nodded, “So there's lots of random people...”
She nodded, “And it's not that far from the Springs, so it's like... And it's the summer, and it was nice, so whatever. He's probably- He lives there or he's in town for the festival, or- It's not really that big...”
“You don't think anything super hard about it,” I nodded.
“But I remember thinking, 'I'm not going to see him at the campsite, so it's going to be fine.' So we have food, we have beer, get back in the car... I don't see him again as we're walking back. We go back to the campsite and we do something, and then we decide to leave again and go for a hike, at a trail nearby,” She pauses to take a deep drink from her glass, as I nod along.
“And it's starting to get kinda dark, but it's not real late. It's maybe 7, 7:30? So we leave, we go for a hike, and we talk about maybe going into town again for something. But, anyway, we leave, we go for a hike. We're gone for maybe, like, another hour. Go back, we're driving into the camping area, which is pretty crowded. Most of the campsites are kinda, I think it's actually full that night.
“And Luke had kinda been like, 'Oh, I didn't know it was going to be like, this.' We like, backed up to the road, and it wasn't quite as isolated as he thought it was going to be. And it was full, and he was just like, not really wanting to do it?”
She paused as I laughed, knowing Colorado campgrounds are often quite busy in the summer, but especially during festival season. Silly man, thinking it might be quiet. “Well, it's summertime. Of course it's fucking full. What do you expect?” I shook my head.
She shrugged, “Well, there's a couple places we've been that are kinda out of the way that aren't.”
I nodded, “Ah, okay, so he was hoping for that but did not get it.”
“Yeah, and he kinda thought that it maybe was going to be away from everybody, but it wasn't. So anyway, we get back to camp, we get some firewood, and we drive past this group of people. So, this campsite is basically a big loop. You come in, and you go around this loop. And supposedly this loop is one-way, but that doesn't mean people drive one-way through it.
“So we're driving through the loop to get back to our campsite. We've driven past where this group of people are, at least 3 times now. And literally, I see that guy, sitting at a fucking...” She shuddered, “Oh my god, this is giving me tingles just talking about it.” I nodded, goosebumps covering my arms, listening to her story.
“Um, I see this group of campers and there's like, two or three of them? And I'm looking, and I see the guy that I saw in town, and they're sitting at the picnic table, and he's sitting next to somebody, and he doesn't look like he belongs with them. Like, they're not talking to him, he doesn't look like he's... he just looks out of place. And as we drive by, he turns his head and he looks at me, and he looks me right in the eye again.”
“Aaaaaah,” I shuddered, goosebumps crawling further up my arms.
“And I'm like, 'Oh my god, you're not supposed to be here. What the fuck are you doing at this goddamned campsite? I remember thinking you weren't going to be here, and I didn't have to worry about it.' So we get back to the campsite and I'm like, 'I don't know what is going on, I don't know, like, what this man is...” She sighs.
“And now what? Can you stay at this place?!” I shake my head, brow furrowed with worry.
“Right!? And yeah, my husband could handle it, and yeah, he could beat him up, and yeah, if he came and bothered us, he could handle it. I think, of course, Luke had brought, like, a knife or something like that? You know, just like, for wood. It's not like we were completely without weapons of some kind,” She shrugged. Her husband is always prepared for a variety of incidents, no matter where they are.
I tipped my head as I said, “But it's still just a knife...”
“Yeah, and it's still just a tent! Basically, yeah, he's on the other side of the campsite from me, essentially, but...”
“But that's walkin' distance,” I shook my head.
She nodded, “It's like, a five minute walk at most? You know? So, Luke starts a fire, and we're just kinda sitting there, and I was like, 'You know... you don't really seem like you want to be here.' And he was like, 'Yeah, it's loud.'
“And the neighbors who were next to us, they were really loud and really obnoxious. It was like, two overweight guys who were just drinking, and they were just really... they were just really loud, and they were in a camper, and I just fucking hate campers. Like, if you're going to go camping, just fucking take a tent.” She shook her head at the drunk idiots in her memory. “Um, but anyway, that's just me. So, anyway, they had this big camper, and they had food, and they were really loud, and it was just a whole thing-”
“They were glamping,” I shrugged, with a nod.
“And I'm just like, 'Goddamn it, I just want to be in out in the woods. Quiet.' And so, Luke's like, 'What's wrong?” And I'm like, 'So I saw this guy in town, and I don't know what's up with him, but he creeped me out, and I thought he wasn't going to be at the campsite, and he's down over that way.' And he's like, 'Do you want to leave?' and I'm like, 'I don't know,” She shrugged and rolled her eyes, recalling the exchange.
I nodded, “Yeah, like, 'I do and I don't.'”
“And I just got this feeling like, if we stay here, something is not going to go right. Like, I just had this really gut feeling. And maybe if Luke had been like, maybe if we had been out- I know this sounds weird, but maybe if we'd been out in the middle of nowhere and he was further away...
“Like, last time we went camping, we were literally in the wilderness. And there were people out there, but they were like, half a mile away or more. But we were essentially alone. But maybe if we'd been out in an environment like that, I might have been okay with it, because they were far away. And maybe Luke would have wanted to stay, so I might have been more okay with it? But it was crowded, it was this guy...” She shook her head.
I nodded, “You had a weird feeling...”
She looked up at me, and narrowed her eyes, “The thing that weirds me out the most, now, talking about it now, is that he did not seem to belong to the group that he was with. It was like he was there, literally just to fuck with me. And I was like...
“The people he was sitting with, the person... He was sitting next to somebody, like, uh, I think it was a man. He was sitting on one side of the bench, and he was on the other side? So they weren't really close to each other, and the other person who was in that group was tending the campfire, and those two people were talking to each other. And it was like they didn't even realize that he was there. And I don't know if that was like, an overlay? Like, an assumption that I made at the time because of how weird he was? But it was almost like nobody knew he was there.”
I nodded, “Like, he was invisible to the rest of the people, and you're the only one who saw him, and that's why he was looking at you?
Beth shrugged, “And I don't know that that's the case, but this is weird- So, we left, packed up the tent, left. And later, like, and I had talked about taking Joshua camping, and I'd through I could take Joshua to this place, it's not far, it's not that isolated, and it would be nice, him and I camping by ourselves. And I was like, 'Nope, I don't know what that thing is, I don't know who he is. I don't know if that's attached to that campsite, but I'm not fucking taking my child there.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I nodded. I wouldn't take my kid there either, from the sounds of it.
“So,” She continued, “Probably, not that night we got back, but maybe the next night or the night after? I had this really vivid dream. And again, I don't have a lot of dreams. I'm talking about a lot of dreams in this that I remember, but I don't have nightly dreams that I remember. My dreams are vivid enough when I remember them, but far enough between that I can probably count on two hands the number of dreams that I actually remember. Like, that stick out.
“And when I was pregnant, I had more, so like, hormones and stuff affect it too, but yeah. Most of the time I don't remember what I dream. Or, if I do, it's something weird, like, my office mate rearranges furniture when I'm on my lunch break, and, it's just annoying. Stuff like that,” she shrugged.
I nodded deeply, “The ones that stand out are the ones that are the big ones.”
“Right,” She nodded. “So, I have this dream that this man is in my apartment. And he was standing in Joshua's room, and he was telling me he was going to take Joshua,” She said, the fire returning to her eyes again.
“Oh fuck no,” I said seriously, shaking my head firmly.
“So then, after that, I cleansed the house,” She said, and I nodded in approval. “And put tourmaline over the windows and I put Himalayan salt in all the rooms, and basically I knew... I don't know if whatever this guy or this thing was, I don't know if he followed me home, or if it was just my paranoia. I don't know if it was just my imagination, because I have quite a vivid one too, so that's a possibility in all of these scenarios,” She shrugged, and continued.
“But basically I told him, 'Look...' Like, I remember, after I cleansed the apartment, the night after that dream, I was like, 'I'm cleansing my apartment and I'm sealing it.' And I did it that night. That night and the next night. I was facing the kitchen, facing the entry, and in my dream he had stood in the living room, and he had stood between me and Joshua's bedroom, and he'd said, 'I'm going to take your son.'
“And so I turned my back and I said, 'Look, Motherfucker, you actually mean this, you better be fucking standing there where I can goddamned see you when I turn around. And I will wait. I will give you time to physically collect yourself, to be here when I turn around,” She said, and that fire in her eyes had grown larger.
“Mmmhmm,” I nodded seriously, eyebrows raised in concern.
“And I turn around. Nothing there. And I'm like, 'Yeah, that's what I thought.”
I shooed the invisible figure away, in my mind, “Get the fuck out.”
“So, I don't know if it was just like... I've never had an experience with a guy like... I've met creepy men. I have been creeped out by men, I've been followed by men, I've been catcalled by men, I've been harassed by men... Especially in larger cities, like Chicago and DC, and like, I was 16 on a subway train with my mom and my cousin in DC, and got followed by a group of guys. And my mom and my cousin and my aunt and my uncle had to surround me to make sure they like, left me alone, because they were like, kinda like, harassing me, and talking to me like, 'Oh, I know what you want. You're impressed by me,' that kind of thing To a fucking 16 year old!” She shook her head in bewilderment.
I nodded, knowingly, “Yeah...”
She looked up to the ceiling, thinking, then added, “Well, maybe I was like, 17. But I had short hair, I was wearing baggy clothes. Like, I wasn't even dressed, like, 'provocatively,'” She holds up her hands and puts air quotes around the word. “I was wearing baggy clothes, baggy Christian t-shirts, baggy carpenter jeans from Goddamned Walmart... I had short hair, no make-up, and this guy walks up to me and like, grabs his jock and lifts it up and is like, 'Are you impressed with what you see?'” She rolled her eyes.
I shuddered, and scoffed, “No...”
She shook her head, “And we get on the Subway and like, they follow us on the subway, and I was so glad I wasn't alone.”
I nodded, recalling my Chicago days and the creepers on those trains, “Yeah, yeah. Those fuckers are everywhere.”
Beth nodded, “So, I've encountered my share of fucking asshole men. And asshole women. But not harassy asshole women. It's different. But this is the only experience I had where I was just like, 'I don't know what that man is.' And to this day, I will not go back to that campsite. And if someone was like, 'Hey, where are some great campsites?' I would tell them not to go to that one.” She shook her head and took a deep drink from her wine glass, then she added, “And we've been back in that area and I've not been bothered, in like, that general area.”
I squinted at her, “It makes me wonder if he just... noticed that you saw him? And he wasn't used to being seen? So he was like, 'Ooh!!'”
She squinted back, “I almost feel like it's something that's attached to that area... but I don't know that for sure.”
I nodded, “Yeah, it's hard to say.”
“And it's, again, it's one of those things that, for whatever reason, he creeped me out and I felt like it was so weird that I saw him in town, and thought to myself, 'He won't be at the campsite.' Hadn't seen him the three other times that we had been there. Come back that fourth time to stay for the night, and he's fucking sitting there-”
I shook my head, eyes wide, “Watching you...”
“Looking at me as I drive past. Well, as I'm in the passenger seat, and granted, we were going like 3 miles per hour, so it's not like we were zooming past, but like-” She broke off and shook her head.
“But still,” I protested, “It's not like you drew the attention of everybody else as you were going by. It was weird for him to notice you.”
She nodded, “Right! And I'm like- So, I dunno. All that to be a lesson in... Like, fucking listen to your instincts.”
I nodded deeply, “Yup.”
“Because,” she continued, “Maybe nothing would have happened. Maybe it meant nothing. Maybe he was just a creepy guy that was just like, staring at me, or was high or something. Who fucking knows. It could be a lot of different things.
“It doesn't mean he was possessed or whatever. It could be a lot of different things. But, whatever the case, he freaked me the fuck out, and I don't regret leaving that night. I'm definitely glad I did. And granted, the dream about him being creepy could just be,” She paused, searching the ceiling for the right word.
“Residual?” I supplied.
Beth shrugged, “Me being stressed, because he was creepy? And creepy men give me creepy dreams... That's a common thread throughout my life, so,” She trailed off.
I nodded, understanding, “Right? It could have been tied in, but still. It stood out for a reason, I would say.”
“Right? Go with your instincts,” She said soberly. (53:11-14)
I nodded seriously, “Always. Always trust that fucking instinct!”
Beth added, “It doesn't hurt to leave the situation. It never hurts to leave.”
I nodded, “Walk away, get some distance, see it again in the light of day. See if it seems different.”
Beth nodded, “Right. And that's what I thought about this incident. That like, distance would give it less...” She trailed off.
I frowned, “But it hasn't...”
She shook her head, “But it hasn't. It still creeps me out when I think about it.”
I cocked my head to the side, thinking, “Well, and the part where you're not willing to go back and even attempt to stay in that rough area again... I mean, that's a whole city...”
She shook her head, “Well, no. I'm talking about that specific campsite. I wouldn't stay at that campsite. Well, let me put it this way. We've been back to that town several times since then. We've gone hiking in that same area, Joshua and I went fishing at that lake that's across the road from that campsite, but I would not ever fucking camp in that area.”
I nodded, “Okay.”
She shook her head vehemently, “I would not. Cause there's a lot of campsites. A lot of camping areas, right in that area? There's 3 or 4 or 5? I would not go to any of those.”
I squinted into the ceiling, thinking aloud again, “It makes me wonder if anything... if it's tied to the mountains? Cause there's that thing where like, the mountain itself is kinda...”
Beth nodded, “Something. But the mountain is always just... 'Ahhhhhhhh',” She smiled softly.
I grinned, “Like, hummmmmmmmmmmmmmm,” The mountains have called to me for years, and they, like the stones I choose at the metaphysical shops, just kinda hum at me.
Beth smiled, “'Look at me and how beautiful I ammmmmmm,'” It hums at her too. “'Write more poetryyyyy... Take more pictures of me, hummmmmmm. Why are you talking about the mountains in the world...? Hummmmm.' It's like that,” She chuckled, and I laughed, knowing exactly what she meant.
Then she looked back at me, and squinted again, “But like... So this was a malevolent presence, you know? So, yeah, just thinking about it...” She shook her head.
I nodded, sensing her unease. “There's something about him. And it's almost like it's not done.”
Beth nodded, “And actually, I was thinking you and I should take a trip, up to Woodland Park. I wouldn't want to stay the night up there. But you and I can go up to Woodland Park...”
I nodded, “And wander around, and I'm sure there's like, little shoppes and stuff. Hiking...”
She nodded, “And I could take you to that campsite up there. We can just drive through, 'cause it's open to the public. You don't have to make a reservation.”
I nodded, seeing us in her car, myself in the passenger seat with my dowsing rods in hand, “And dowsing rods and the spinning they do would tell us quite a lot.”
She nodded, “We could just go there, and I could show you where he was, and all that shit.”
I nodded, “Mmhmm.”
Beth's eyes narrowed, “Oh, if he was there, I would fucking shoot him. I'd be like, 'Whatever the fuck you are, I don't give a shit.' That's usually how I am. I see something visual-scary? I shoot it. Honestly, it's not the spirit stuff that scares me. The thing about him was that he was physical. He wasn't some spirit briefly appearing in the mirror right when I turn the lights on, when I'm tired and half blind in the middle of the night. He. Was. Fucking. Physically. There.” She slapped her hand on her knee as she said word, to punctuate them.
“I saw him. More than once. But nobody else seemed to notice him. That was the thing that creeps me the fuck out. And Luke doesn't remember him. Normally Luke's like, observant, notices creepy guys. He's not like, 'That man was looking at you; I need to go punch him.'”
I laughed, “Yeah, no, he just... notices.”
She squinted at me, “He's observant. He's aware of his surroundings. He's, you know, a typical ex-military person.”
I nodded, knowing the type, “Hyper-vigilant.”
She shook her head, “He didn't notice this guy.”
I tipped my head to the side, “Well, and he doesn't see a lot of... other.”
She nodded, “Part of it is, I don't like people noticing me? That was the other thing about this guy. He noticed me. I don't like people noticing me.”
I nodded, “I do my thing, you do your thing.”
“Yeah,” She said, “Leave me alone.”
We trailed off, sipping at our glasses, and loved on her dog a bit, as the stories settled. After a few minutes of this, and breaking the tension, a story from a couple years ago came to mind and I mentioned it as a possible story to share here.
Beth brightened, nodding, “So, I was driving to work, commuting from Aurora to Colorado Springs for work. I was coming down this hill, and this guy in front of me... He'd kinda been around me, and I had like, sorta like, meditative music on? So I was like, driving meditation, and I was just like, talking to things. Like, oh, you know, 'Pretty mountains, and here's my guides, and here's the things,' and you know, all this stuff.” I nodded, listening.
“And then, this guy passes me on the left, and we're going down this hill. I'm on the right, he's on the left, and he's going down in front of me, so I can see into his car. And like, why is your dead wife in the car with you?” She squints at the memory, brow furrowed.
I laughed, eyes wide. “Uh-huh. She in the front seat? Back seat? Behind him?”
She squinted, “She was initially in the back, because I had seen her, like, behind me? Like, he was behind me first, and I'd kinda been like, 'Oh, your dead wife is in the car with you.' Like, 'Well, that's weird. Alright, whatever. Don't normally see ghosts, don't know why I'm seeing this...'” She shook her head, and continued.
“So, um, he passes me, so I can see into his car, as we're going down this hill, and she's in the backseat now, and she does this weird... I-don't-have-a-spine thing? Where her whole back and shoulders turn around, and she's got her hands on the back, like, curved around...” She trailed off.
I asked, to clarify, “The back edge of the backseat?”
Beth nodded, “The back edge of the backseat. Turns around and looks at me, and I'm like, 'What the fuck?'”
I laughed nervously, “Hi...?”
She squinted, “'So, I have this friend that you should go talk to...' And I texted you later and I said, 'Hey, so I'm sending something your way. And I don't know what this is, and I don't know what she wants, but, heh,” She laughed and shrugged.
I laughed, “You said you fooped it up like a vacuum cleaner and shot it at me, and I'm like, 'What the fuck am I supposed to do with this shit?'” I said, eyes wide. This had happened shortly after I really woke up to a lot of this stuff, and I was still trying to find my place in all of it.
Beth nodded, “I don't even know if that was actually her husband.”
I nodded, “When I spoke with her, it didn't seem like it was. It seemed like she had determined he needed to be haunted and she was going to scare him. Like, she decided he needed to be haunted, so she was being spooky. I was like, 'Oh, you're being scary. You're not even scary. Whatever, you're fine.'”
She nodded, “Yeah.”
I added, “She was trying to get his attention, and she was trying to scare him, kinda like your bathroom girl. But it wasn't really working very well and was like-”
She shrugged, “Well, he was driving.”
I nodded, “I was like, 'Why you gotta pick on people? Uhhh, like, you don't have to do... that...”
She scowled, “Leave him alone!”
I nodded, “I think I ended up helping her cross. 'Cause she was looking for her daughter or something. I remember writing it all down,” I trailed off, losing my train of thought, wondering which journal I wrote it in.
I continued after a long pause, “But she was like... She got separated from her family that she was actually trying to stay behind for, especially her daughter. The husband was estranged or they had divorced, but she still wouldn't move on because she was worried about not being able to help her daughter. But I was like, 'Well, right now you don't know where she is. If you move on, you can look over your daughter better. You can look after her in... a different way. With a different perspective, and with more power.”
Beth nodded, “Right.”
I grinned, “And she was like, 'Oh! Well okay! Let's go!' And so I helped her, like, cross over real quick.”
She nodded, “Yeah. She wasn't really creepy. It was just kinda random. And that was all in that same, like, year and a half...” She shook her head.
I nodded, with a chuckle, “Of just, chaos.” It was kind of a crazy time for both of us, in different ways.
She nodded, “Yeah. When I was living in that apartment, and I was having all these experiences. And then we moved to this apartment, and other than creepy guy at the campsite, it's been like... quiet.” She looked up at me, meaningfully, “But it's also been, someone that I know. I also know somebody that started talking to the people that she's supposed to be talking to, more... so maybe that was like, part of it too.”
I laughed, and nodded deeply, “Mmhmm. You were supposed to poke me.”
“So you would do this,” She grinned and pointed at my audio recorder that sat on her coffee table.
“Mmmhmm,” I said, nodding again. Once I started doing my stuff that I should have been doing, things did definitely calm down for her. Things got busier for me, but hey, that's how it goes.
She shrugged, adding, “So I would do my shit too. Because it's helping me do my shit, too.”
I nodded deeply, at that, and our conversation shifted away from the paranormal into other things we push each other to do. She's a writing buddy, as well as a weird-stuff friend, and there's something about creative types coming together and each of us working on our own stuff seems to light a fire under the others, to keep everybody moving forward on our various projects.
We slowly wrapped up the chatter for the evening, put our empty wine glasses in the sink, and said our goodbyes. I passed her husband in the parking lot, on my way back to my car, as he headed back to their place for the night, and I drove myself home, taking the long way round, listening to ambient music in the car as I went. I thought as I drove, marveling at how much had happened in such a short amount of time.
It feels like a lifetime has passed, since my old friend moved to Colorado, but it's really only been a few short years. As ever, I chuckled to myself at that strange passage of time. Time really is a construct.
Thank you all so much for joining me! If you have a paranormal story of your own to share, perhaps while camping, or hiking in the wilderness, or maybe you have seen a pale thing wander past your kitchen in the night, send me your stories, and I'll read them here!
Send your stories to: BeyondTheVeilParanormalTales@gmail.com. Or, email me to schedule an interview, if you prefer! We can meet via video chat or text, while we're all being good little children and staying the fuck at home, here, during the COVID-19 Pandemic. All stories will be anonymous, as always, for your protection.
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I think that about wraps it up for tonight! You stay cozy by that fire there, and keep those blankets toasty! As you head up to bed tonight, remember to turn that bathroom light on, and don't look in the mirror for too long, before the light is fully on. You never know who you might see, staring back at you, in the darkness...
Until next time, this has been Beyond the Veil Paranormal Tales, with Becca! Sleep tight...
*Some names in this story have been changed, to protect privacy. All other details of the stories remain true to fact.