Ghost Stories for Christmas by Octoberpod AM

[00:00:00] Listener discretion is advised. Hello and welcome to Scary Time, the podcast that helps you find new, emerging and undiscovered scary and paranormal podcasts. I'm Greg, the host and curator of Scary Time. Today's episode is from Octoberpod AM.

[00:00:19] At Octoberpod they tell true and classic tales of horror and the paranormal with a retro vintage aesthetic, retro horror for bold individualists. If you liked today's episode, make sure to check out the episode description for links to subscribe. Alright, let's get this show started. Begin! I'm Edward October.

[00:00:40] The sound you hear is a crackling fire near the Christmas tree on the night of December the 25th. This is the start of Octoberpod on the Darkcast Network. The Signalman by Charles Dickens, narrated by Edward October. Hello! Below there!

[00:01:07] When he heard my voice he was standing at the door of his box with a flag in his hand for old round its short pole. Instead of looking up to where I stood on the top of the steep cutting nearly over

[00:01:20] his head, he turned about and looked down the line. Hello! Hello! Below! Then he turned again and raising his eyes saw my figure high above him. Is there a path by which I may come down? He looked up at me without replying.

[00:01:47] Just then there came a vague vibration in the earth and air quickly changing into a violent pulsation and an oncoming rush that caused me to start back as though it had force to draw me down.

[00:02:01] I looked down again and saw him refurling the flag he had shown while the train went by. He motioned with his rolled up flag towards a point on my level. There I found a rough zigzagging path notched out.

[00:02:15] The cutting was deep through a clammy stone that became oozier and wetter as I went down. When I reached the little man I saw that he was standing as though he were waiting for me to appear. He was dark and shallow.

[00:02:30] His post was in a solitary and dismal place as ever I saw. On either side a dripping wet wall of jagged stone excluded all view but a strip of sky the view on one side a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon.

[00:02:49] On the other side the gloomy entrance to the black forbidding tunnel marked by an eerie red light that scarcely pierced its murky depths. So little sunlight ever found its way to this spot that it had an earthy deadly smell

[00:03:07] and so much cold wind rushed through it that it struck chill to me as if I had left the natural world. This was a lonesome post to occupy, I said, and it had riveted my attention when I looked down from up yonder.

[00:03:23] A visitor must be a rarity though not an unwelcome rarity I hoped. He directed a most unusual look towards the red light near the tunnel's mouth and looked about it as if something were missing from it and then looked at me.

[00:03:38] That light was part of his charge was it not? Don't you know it is? You look at me as though you had a dread of me sir. I was doubtful whether I had seen you before. Where? He pointed to the red light.

[00:03:56] I could fellow what should I do there? I never was there you may swear. Yes I think I may. His manner cleared like my own. He replied to my remarks with precision. Had he much to do there?

[00:04:13] Yes to change the signal, to trim those lights and to turn this iron handle now and then was all he had to do. Regarding those many long and lonely hours of which I seem to make so much he said that he had grown use to such a routine.

[00:04:28] He had taught himself a language down here and had also worked at fractions and decimals and a little algebra but he confessed to be a poor hand at figures. Was it necessary for him when on duty always to remain in that channel of damp air?

[00:04:46] And could he never rise into the sunshine from between those high stone walls? Under some conditions there would be less upon the line than under others and the same held good as to certain hours of the day and night.

[00:05:00] In bright weather he did choose occasions for getting out of these shadows but he was at all times liable to be called by his electric bell and listening for it we doubled his anxiety. Thus the relief was less than I would suppose.

[00:05:16] He took me into his box where there was a fire, a desk for an official record, a telegraphic instrument and the little bell of which he had spoken. He was several times during our conversations interrupted by the little bell

[00:05:32] and had to read off messages and send replies once he had to stand without the door and display a flag as a train passed. In the discharge of his duties I observed him to be exact and vigilant,

[00:05:45] breaking off his course at a syllable and remaining silent until his task was done. I should have set this man down as one of the safest of men to be employed in that capacity

[00:05:57] but for the occasions while he was speaking that he twice broke off with fallen color, turned towards the little bell when it did not ring, opened the door of the hut and looked towards the red light near the mouth of the tunnel.

[00:06:12] On both occasions he came back to the fire with an inexplicable air upon him. What is your trouble? It is very difficult to impart, sir. It is very, very difficult to speak of. Let me ask you a question. What made you cry? Hello. Hello there tonight.

[00:06:35] Heaven knows I cried something to that effect. Not to that effect, sir. Those very words. I know them well. As you wish those were my very words. I spoke them because I saw you below. It was for no other reason then? What other reason could I possibly have?

[00:06:57] You had no feeling that they were conveyed to you in any supernatural way? No, he bent forward as he spoke. I took you for someone else earlier. That troubles me. That mistake? No, that's someone else. Who is it? I don't know. I never saw the face.

[00:07:20] The left arm is across the face and the right arm is violently waved. Like this. He just stipulated his arm with the utmost passion and vehemence. For God's sake clear the way. One moonlight night I heard a voice cry. Hello below there.

[00:07:41] I looked from that door and saw someone else standing by the red light near the tunnel. Waving as I showed you. It cried, Look out! Look out! Hello below there look out! I turned my lamp on red and ran towards the figure calling, What has happened? Where?

[00:08:04] It stood just outside the blackness of the tunnel. Keeping the sleeve across its eyes. I ran right up at it and had my hand stretched out to pull the sleeve away when it was gone. Gone into the tunnel? No. I ran into the tunnel five hundred yards.

[00:08:21] I stopped and held my lamp above my head and saw only the wet stains stealing down the walls and trickling through the arch. I ran out again faster this time. For I had a dread of the place upon me. And I looked all around the red light.

[00:08:38] I went up the iron ladder to the gallery atop it and I came back down again to telegraph both ways. An alarm has been given. Is anything wrong? The answer came back both ways. All well.

[00:08:54] I then replied that this figure must be a deception of his sense of sight. As to an imaginary cry, Do but listen for a moment to the wind in this unnatural valley and to the wild harp it makes of the telegraph wires.

[00:09:11] He shook his head and slowly touching my arm. Within six hours after the appearance a terrible accident on this line happened. You may have read about it. And within ten hours the dead and wounded were brought along through the tunnel over the spot where the figure had stood.

[00:09:34] A shudder crept over me. I cannot deny the remarkable coincidence, one that must prey upon your imagination. He glanced over his shoulder with hollow eyes. This was just a year ago. Some months passed and I had recovered from the shock. Then one morning, a daybreak,

[00:09:58] I looked towards the red light and saw the specter again. Did it cry out? No. It was silent. It leaned against the shaft of the light and both hands before the face, like this. He mimicked an attitude of mourning as one might see in stone figures on tombs.

[00:10:21] Did you go up to it? I came in and I sat down to collect my thoughts and my composure. When I went to the door again, daylight was above me and the ghost was gone. But nothing followed. Nothing came of this.

[00:10:36] He touched my arm with forefinger twice or thrice, giving a ghastly nod each time. That very day as a train came out of the tunnel, I noticed, at a carriage window on my side, a confusion of hands and heads and something waved.

[00:10:55] I saw it just in time to signal the driver to stop. He shut off and put his brake on. I ran after it and heard terrible screams and cries from inside the carriage. A beautiful young lady had died instantaneously in one of the compartments.

[00:11:16] She was brought in here and laid down on this floor between us. I pushed my chair back with a start as I looked from the boards at which he pointed. True, sir. True. Precisely as it happened. He resumed.

[00:11:36] Now, sir, mark this and judge how my mind is troubled. The specter came back a week ago, ever since it has been there, now and again, by fits and starts at the danger line. What does it seem to do?

[00:11:52] He repeated that former violent gesticulation of, for God's sake, clear the way. Then he went on. I have no peace or rest of it. It calls to me in an agonized manner. Below there, look out, look out. Its hands waving to me. It rings my little bell.

[00:12:12] Did it ring for you yesterday evening when I was here? And you went to the door. Twice. See how your imagination misleads you. My eyes were on the bell and my ears were open to its ring. And I assure you it did not ring at those times,

[00:12:30] nor at any other time. Except when it was rung by the station communicating with you. I have never made a mistake like that, sir. Not yet. I have never confused the specter's ring with the man's. The ghost's ring is a strange vibration in the bell

[00:12:48] that rings but produces no visible stirring. I don't wonder that you failed to hear it. Yet I heard it. And did the specter seem to be there when you looked out? It was there. Both times. Will you come to the door with me now? And look for it?

[00:13:08] He bit his underlip, as though he were somewhat unwilling. But arose I opened the door while he stood in the doorway. There was the danger light. There was the dismal mouth of the tunnel. There were the high wet stone walls of the cutting.

[00:13:27] There were the stars above them. Do you see it? No. We went in again and resumed our seats. Now you will fully understand, sir, that what troubles me so dreadfully is the question, what does the specter mean? He said, ruminating with his eyes on the fire.

[00:13:50] What is the danger? Where? There is danger somewhere on the line. Some dreadful calamity. It is not to be doubted this third time. After what has gone before? But what can I do? If I telegraph danger on either side of me or on both,

[00:14:09] I can give no reason for it. They would think I was mad. This is the way it would work. Message, danger, take care, answer, what danger, where, message, don't know but for God's sakes, take care. They would displace me and who could blame them?

[00:14:26] When it first stood under the danger light, why not tell me where that accident was to happen? If it must happen, why not tell me it could be averted? If it could have been averted, when on its second coming, it hit its face.

[00:14:41] Why not give a more explicit message of warning? If it came twice only to show me that its warnings were true, why not warn me plainly now? Why not go to someone with credit to be believed and power to act rather than a mere poor sagnoman?

[00:15:00] When I saw him in this state, I saw that for his sake, as well as for the public safety, what I must now do was to compose his mind. Therefore setting aside all question of reality or unreality between us,

[00:15:14] I represented to him that whoever thoroughly discharged his duty must do well, and that at least it was his comfort that he understood his duty, though he did not understand those confounding appearances. In this effort I succeeded.

[00:15:29] He became calm, and I left him at two in the morning. I had offered to stay through the night, but he would not hear of it. I ultimately resolved to offer to accompany him, otherwise keeping his secret for the present,

[00:15:42] to the wisest medical practitioner we could hear of in these parts, and to take his opinion. A change in his time of duty would come round next night, he had apprised me, and he would be off an hour or two after sunrise, and on again soon after sunset.

[00:16:00] I had appointed to return accordingly. The sun was not yet white down when I traversed the field path near the top of the deep cutting. I would extend my walk, I said to myself, until time to go to the signamance box.

[00:16:48] Before my stroll I stepped to the brink, and mechanically looked down from the point from which I had first seen him. I cannot describe the thrill when, close at the mouth of the tunnel, I saw the appearance of a man with his left sleeve across his eyes,

[00:17:09] passionately waving his right arm, the nameless horror that oppressed me, suddenly seized hold of me for, I then saw that this appearance of a man was a man indeed, and that there was a group of other men standing about, to whom he seemed to be

[00:17:28] rehearsing the gesture he made. With an irresistible sense that something was wrong, I descended the notched path with haste. What is the matter? Signalman killed this morning, sir. Not the man I know. You will recognize him, sir.

[00:17:45] If you knew him, said the man who spoke for the others, solemnly uncovering his own head and raising an end of the tarpolin, covering a lump on the ground. Oh, how did this happen? He was cut down by an engine, sir.

[00:18:02] He'd struck the light and had the lamp in his hand. His back was towards the engine as he came out of the tunnel, and she cut him down. That man there drove her and was showing how it happened. Show the gentleman, Tom.

[00:18:19] The man who wore a rough dark uniform stepped back to his former place at the mouth of the tunnel. Coming round the curve in the tunnels, sir, he said, I saw him at the end.

[00:18:31] There was no time to check speed as he didn't take heed of the whistle. I shut it off when we were running down upon him and called to him as loud as I could call. What did you say? I said, below there. Look out. Look out.

[00:18:49] For God's sake, clear the way. I put this arm before my eyes, not to see, and I waved this arm to the last. But it was no use. And now Edward October gives you The Night Before Christmas by Clement C Moore.

[00:19:35] It was the night before Christmas when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there.

[00:19:56] The children were nestled all snug in their beds whilst visions of sugar plums danced in their heads. And Mama, in her kerchief and I in my cap had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap. When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

[00:20:19] I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow gave a luster of midday

[00:20:39] to objects below, when what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer with a little old driver so lively and quick. I knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick.

[00:21:03] More rapid than eagles his coasters they came and he whistled and shouted and called them by name. Now Dasher, now Dancer, now Prancer and Vixen. On Comet, on Cupid, on Donder and Blitzen. To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall.

[00:21:31] Now Dasher away, Dasher away, Dasher away all as dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly when they met with an obstacle mount to the sky. So up to the housetop the coasters they flew with a sleigh full of toys and Saint Nicholas too.

[00:21:56] And then in a twinkle I heard on the roof the prancing and pawing of each little hoof. As I drew in my head and was turning around down the chimney Saint Nicholas came with a bound.

[00:22:16] He was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot. A bundle of toys he had flung on his back and he looked like a peddler just opening his back.

[00:22:40] His eyes how they twinkled, his dimples how merry. His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry, his droll little mouth was curled up like a bow and the beard on his chin was as white as the snow.

[00:23:01] The stump of a pipe he clutched tight in his teeth and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath. He had a broad face and a little round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly.

[00:23:21] He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf and I laughed when I saw him in spite of myself. He spoke not a word but went straight to his work and filled all the stockings

[00:23:41] then turned with a jerk and laying his finger aside of his nose and giving a nod up the chimney he rose. He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle and away they all flew like the down on a thistle

[00:24:05] but I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight happy Christmas to all and to all a good night. We've been told that our show is cursed and has a tendency to unleash all sorts of evil spirits

[00:24:26] into our listeners homes. Exercise all of your demons now by kindly giving this podcast a five star rating your very soul may depend upon it. Last year Amy and I were down here for Christmas. Those of you who were here then will remember

[00:24:55] how very warm it was at this time last year. We played croquet that day on the lawn. It was perhaps a little too cold for croquet but we played it in order to be able to say

[00:25:06] that we had done so. It was certainly as warm on the lawn then as it was in the billiard room this morning directly after breakfast while today I should not wonder if there was

[00:25:18] three feet of snow outside more probably. Listen, we had no frost that autumn and one of the dahlias was still in flower. I've always thought that it must have been mad

[00:25:46] and I wonder if I were not mad too. While the recipe played your half game of croquet it struck me that it was not so warm as I had supposed because quite suddenly I shivered

[00:26:01] and shivering. I looked up but I did not see anyone playing croquet at all. I saw something which had no relation to you. At least I hope not. You all know the croquet lawn

[00:26:14] and how it is bounded all round by a flower border with a brick wall behind it through which there's only one gate. Well, I looked up and saw that the lawn was shrinking and the walls closing in upon it. The rays of the sun began to fade

[00:26:32] till it grew quite dark overhead and only a glimmer of light came in through the gate. There was as I told you a dahlia in flower that day and as this dreadful darkness and bewilderment came over me I remember that my eyes sawed it

[00:26:50] in a kind of despair holding on to any familiar object but it was no longer a dahlia for at that moment the hallucination was complete. I was no longer sitting on the lawn watching croquet

[00:27:05] rather I was passing through a dark enclosure of fog or black mist. As the mist cleared I saw that where there had been that unseasonable dahlia there now burned the last dim rays of dusk and my eyes were drawn there into what I soon discovered was a graveyard.

[00:27:31] Row upon row the tombstones glimmered faintly in the dusk and at the far end of it only just visible in the gathering darkness were the roofs and small spire of a cemetery chapel. The gate

[00:27:46] was opened and I entered walking upon a gravel path in the direction of the chapel. The tombstones came to an end at a broad space of open grass between me and the chapel. There stood a single

[00:28:02] solitary grave I left the path and went to it though it appeared rather new glimmering with a pale sheen in the dusk I saw that already moss and lichen had covered the face of it. I wondered whether it

[00:28:17] was the grave of some stranger who had died a lonely death and had no friend or relation to look after it. The name whatever it was was overgrown. With some impulsive pity for this

[00:28:31] forgotten soul I began scraping at it with my fingernails. The moss peeled off quite easily coming away in long shreds and fibers and presently I saw that the name was visible. As I worked the darkness had so gathered that I could not read it all this I supposed

[00:28:53] took place with the instantaniousness of a dream for at once the whole thing had vanished and I was back on the lawn again dripping with perspiration and trembling all over. Now all of you may say I had fallen asleep and had a sudden nightmare.

[00:29:13] That may be so. Shall I go on? Well let us say for the moment that it was not a dream exactly but a hallucination. Whichever it was it haunted me for months. It was never quite out of my mind but lingered

[00:29:33] somewhere in the dusk of consciousness and as the weeks went on the seed began to sprout that I had been daydreaming. I can't say that it actually affected my health. I did not sleep or eat insufficiently but still I always found myself deep in some abyss of despair.

[00:29:56] I told my wife who laughed at me and my doctor who laughed also and assured me that my health was quite robust. At the time he suggested that change of air and scene does wonders for the

[00:30:11] delusions and fancies of the imagination. And so I took a holiday in Scotland to do some hunting up in a small forest in Sutherland, very remote and wild and not far from the sea.

[00:30:26] Sudden sea mists were common. One day my guide and I stalked a deer to a very high table land on the limit of the forest which went down very steeply on one side to a lock

[00:30:40] that lay below it and gently sloping on the other to a river which ran from the lock down to my lodge. We had a dreadful climb over big boulders with deep holes between masked by clumps of heather.

[00:30:54] We had to watch our step to avoid broken bones. The deer we'd been stalking must have smelled us out in spite of our precautions against the wind for it was nowhere to be seen. We ate lunch on the heather and enjoyed a well-earned smoke in the sunlight.

[00:31:11] The morning had been extraordinarily warm with a little wind blowing off the sea. I felt an extreme sense of peace never since Christmas had I been so free of fear but then my guide urged that we must move on. The weather had changed he said.

[00:31:29] We should be off this high ground as soon as possible. He said a sea mist would presently come up and the crags we'd just negotiated would be a bad place to get down in a heavy mist.

[00:31:45] Fearing the mist which was already boiling up from the sea I felt in my pocket for the compass but there was none to be found. We were not yet halfway down when the mist overtook us. Shooting up from the valley like the broken water of a wave.

[00:32:05] In three minutes time we were enveloped in a fog so thick we could barely see a dozen yards ahead. We were happy that we'd taken the gentle slope towards the river instead of maneuvering once again over the crags.

[00:32:20] But the mist grew thicker and thicker and I got wetter in the next hour than I have ever been before or since. The wet seemed to penetrate the skin and chill our bones and still there was no sign of the track for which I was making.

[00:32:39] Fear began to overtake me and it was getting dark and had grown very much colder. Soon we found ourselves walking through a steady fall of snow. I heard the distant brawling of the river which comforted me for a time.

[00:32:59] But before I had gone a hundred yards in the direction of the river I heard a sudden choked cry from behind me and saw my guides form flying as if in terror of pursuit into the mists. I called out but got no reply.

[00:33:16] The darkness enveloped me and seemed to shield me from the snow. Then the sky suddenly grew lighter revealing the moon which lighted everything around me but it was not the moon. It was the faint orange rays of

[00:33:37] dust illuminating my path. The light smoldered with the madness of Adalia blooming out of season. Adalia unaware that its time has passed. The whole of my months long terror came back to me

[00:33:53] for I saw that the vision in the garden was again fulfilled and once more I found myself striding into that same graveyard I'd seen on that warm Christmas. There stood the chapel with its queer little spire. There was the new gravestone covered with lichen except now the call

[00:34:14] of lichen was furrowed as if partially scraped off by a man's fingernails. My fingernails. Again I saw that the name was visible but as I worked the darkness had gathered that I could

[00:34:30] not read it just as before. I lit a match and held it to the surface of the stone. And the name I read there was my own. At that moment I saw stealing towards me a tall gaunt figure

[00:34:48] as of a man but well over six feet in height with grotesquely elongated limbs and my soul was sick unto death. I think I tried to scream but I could not. I know that I tried to move

[00:35:07] and could not and it crept closer. I do not know how I found my way back to the lodge I only know that I did. Next day I developed a chill and as you know pneumonia laid me on my back for six weeks.

[00:35:34] Well that is my story and there are hundreds of ways in which you can explain it. Is that all you ask? Yes it was nearly too much for me. October Pod is produced edited and directed by Edward October. The series co-producer is

[00:36:04] MJ McAdams. If you're only listening to October Pod you're missing out on half the fun. Subscribe to our YouTube channel October Pod Home Video to receive new videos on the first and third Tuesday of each month. Follow us on

[00:36:20] Twitter and Instagram at October Pod VHS on Tiktok at October Pod or God help us on Pinterest at October Pod. Shop for gifts and apparel for bold individualists at our spread shirt dot com merch shop October Pod Outfitters.

[00:36:39] You can find us and all of our links on the World Wide Web at October Pod VHS dot com October Pod is a proud member of the Darkcast Network. The man who spoke to you was

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