All right, all right, all right, This is Jeff Townsend and joining me as usual is Luke John Daily Programmer. This is another episode of your Scary Stories. Luke John Daily Programmer. How are you doing? Man? Pretty good? Pretty good? You just like to say, at first, I didn't know it was really the golfer things. So now I feel like a little silly, you know. I like it, personal favorite golfer to watch. When he's doing it, it's he's entertaining. Ain't then is he playing in like Saudi Arabia Nour? I haven't never noticed why it's been up too recently? Did they've been playing? They've been paying golfers big money to go over there, and golf like big money. I know they offer Tiger Woods like mega money and he turned it down. But a lot of those guys are taking it, Like wait, I would some of them? Well yeah, I mean it's not like so a lot of people look at it a lot of different ways, right, Like how you're accepting money? Four Like what I mean people you're accepting it from I guess, but you're also go golf for a year and retire, provide for your everybody and your family. You know, it's a smart move. Yeah. Yeah, the PGA Tour. They hate it, man, they hate it. But that's enough golf talk. Maybe we'll talk more about golf when the Masters happens in a few weeks. Yeah, we'll have a golf special. Oh, a golf horse. Oh, we got to find some golf scary stories on this Master's time. Oh, that's a challenge accepted. For today's show, We're going to do something a little bit different. We're going to go back to what we did. Oh man. We were just a couple episodes in and maybe an episode three of this show. Very beginning of the year, we recorded a episode where we read a long form story about the stairs in the woods. So today we're going to tag team this story, scary story that he has. So this is actually from Carl B nineteen sixty one or Carl B one nine sixty one. I great to follow on Reddit. Make sure you check out his Patreon and stuff like that. So as we approached this story, as we read it, we're going to be reviewing it. I guess you could say like we're going to read it and then we are going to discuss it as if. It's a real event. Yeah, right, So that is a fun way to do it. This is an awesome story, man, and I know that I got it over to you and you got to read it through. So yeah, I've read through a few times. It's very interesting. I'm excited to share the story with everybody. Are you excited to very much? So? Well, I think I'm first on the list to read. Yep, So we'll go ahead and get it going. I've been a small town cop for twelve years. There's one case that still scares me. Being a cop in a small town in Minnesota probably isn't the most exciting career there is. But it's not bad either. It's actually a relatively peaceful and safe line of work compared to being in law enforcement in one of the big cities New York or LA, for example, where all the action is is They would say, there's only around ten thousand people in the town where I live. It's way out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by miles of open farmland, and the only real crime that ever occurs as pretty minor stuff. The occasional rowdy rednecks getting into fist fights, teenagers vandalizing, petty theft, the odd drunk driver here and then a case of disorderly conduct here and there a were breaking and entering, and then a couple of times I've been to some more serious stuff I've had to deal with, like domestic violence, assault and then robbery. But that's not even that typical. It doesn't really happen that often. Well, that's not entirely true. There was one case that still haunts me. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Like I was saying, I live in a peaceful little town, boring. Some would even say the kind of rule out of the way farming community. You've probably driven through on the highway on your way to somewhere more interesting, without even really thinking about it as you passed it by. The kind of place where nothing out of the ordinary ever happens, You've probably thought, and for the most part, you'd be. Right thinking that. But there's one case I can't get out of my mind. One case is bill makes my blood run cold whenever I think about it. One case I can't explain, no matter how hard I'd try to rationalize it to myself. What happened to the old Garrity woman seven years ago. I had been a police officer for five years when it happened in the early spring of twenty fourteen. There were only five cops on the entire police force. Me, my partner Jerry, Pete and Vance, who both worked a night patrol, and the police chief, plus Karen, an older woman who is a retired librarian and worked part time as the dispatcher. The police department was located in the town building. It consisted of two offices, one for the chief, then an open work area for the rest of us. There are three jail cells in the rear, and the three of them were never all occupied at the same time. It was an overcast, rainy afternoon in late March early April. ME and Jerry were in our cruiser on a routine patrol around town when Karen's voice came over the radio telling us there was a possible ten eighty two in progress at the Garrity House on Turner Road. We acknowledged, then changed directions heading to the Garretty house. I wasn't overly concerned about the call. I already had a pretty good idea who made it. Aleene Garrity was an elderly woman who was a widow who lived in a Rundown farmhouse on the outskirts of town. She was probably around sixty five or seventy years old and had lived a lone since her husband had died of a stroke three years before. They had two children, but both of them lived out of town and never visited her. Since her husband's death, she had developed something of a reputation of being crazy. Okay, I guess that's not putting it so nice. She was a shut in who rarely left her home and had groceries delivered once a week. Basically a crazy cat lady minus the cats. The reason she was considered crazy was because she had become pretty blaky and paranoid since being widowed, and had called the police department on multiple occasions for everything from hearing intruders moving around in her attic to see in UFOs and the cornfield. There were probably at least a dozen other calls too. All her calls turned out to be false alarms. Of course, the robbers she claimed were hiding in her attic turned out to be a pair of raccoons had slipped in under the roof, and the UFOs were probably just jets flying overhead from the National Guard base fifty miles west me Jerry Pete and Vance had all visited her home multiple times before during our respective shifts. We never got frustrated with her or gave her a hard time about it, and usually we would inspect her house and property to calm her nerves. She'd relax, think us, we'd leave, and the process would repeat itself in a couple of weeks or maybe a couple months. Honestly, our infrequent trips to her house were probably the only real highlight of what was a rather dull and unexciting job. When we told the chief about missus Garretty's latest emergency bigfoot was sneaking around in her yard, or there was a giant and a conda lurking in her basement, would just shake his head sadly. When Vance and Pete were the ones who had to deal with her, they'd tell us all about the most recent ordeal. When me and Jerry saw them at shift exchange, they'd usually smirk in a mean spirited way, and Pete would twirl his finger next to his temple before they left, symbolizing that she's crazy. Jerry and I just felt sorry for the old woman. It couldn't have been easy for her. A frail, nervous lonely woman living all alone in that old, crumbling house with no friends or close family. I suspect she might be getting senile, or maybe entering the early stages of Alzheimer's or dementia. We worried about her living out there by herself, almost a mile from the nearest neighbor. If her health suddenly turned bad or she had an accident, couldn't call for help, Well, there wasn't really much. We could do about it. A couple of times I looked at the numbers of her daughter and son and tried calling them about possibly placing her in an assistant living home or a mental health facility. But the one time I actually managed to reach her son, as I was explaining his mother's situation to him, he interrupted me, telling me he was too busy at the moment and would call me back, then abruptly ended the call. He never did call me back. From then on, they always happened to be unavailable and never answered any of the voicemails I left them. It's such a sad like turn of events for someone later in life too, you know, start to lose their faculties and then you know their family isn't even around to like help them or at least call them down. And it's all up to these small town police that she keeps calling to try to make something of it. You know, first of all that the introduction is the hardest read of the whole thing's the longest and hardest. But just going back to the community and the area, it really feels like like the place that we're from, you know, this small town. I think they even worked. I think he worded it as you'd be you'd like pass by on your way to go somewhere more interesting. Yeah, that sounds like a lot of the rural area that you know, we live in. So I could kind of relate to that. Yeah, obviously it's a little bit smaller in this story, but I could kind of relate to what he was saying. Though, Yeah, I mean it kind of just actually, uh, like you said, the towns that we lived in, so the areas you know, there was only one cop in one of the towns we lived in, you know, Yeah, and so it was just, uh, you know, if you lived in those areas, you know the feeling, you know, the feeling of how these people react, you know, the way that there usually is someone kind of by themselves that. Probably get in. You probably know everybody too, right, Like, yeah, a small place, you know everybody, you know their story. Oh yeah, you'll know most of the people in the town if it's small enough. Like you know, we've been in towns that were six hundred people and yeah, you knew it was there for Yeah, So it seems like this is that kind of place. Uh. So there the old lady. Garretty keeps calling them, and there's a couple of different patrols, right, there's him and Jerry. Him and Jerry are the day shift, the pen advance of the night shift, I believe, Yeah, And it kind of sounds like they both approach this lady differently, like, yeah, they on the day shift are a little bit more kind of the night shift are a little bit more I don't know mean joking about it, but it seems like he really relates to this lady, like, not even really relates to her, he really feels for her. I guess that is what I'm saying. Yeah, he understands that she's not all there and she can't help it, and he just feels bad about it. So even tried calling the family members. What did you feel about how did you feel about these family members? Not even like just blowing her off. You know, it's just really, like I said, it's a sad state of affairs. Like you know, it's just like, how could you let that happen? You know, you heavier your mother by herself, and if that's going on, you got to step up obviously, if. You're just if you're just now too. She's widowed, her husband passed away to say, three years ago at least, so she's trying to manage and take care of herself, take care of this old farmhouse, and they think possibly developing dementia or some sorts. She frequently calls the cops for false alarms. They're very used to it, even give some examples of thought intruders are in her house. It was raccoons in the attic, UFO Bigfoot. So it makes you wonder is she calling She calling to get I don't want to say attention, but you know it's probably. Not intentional, but if your mind's starting to go, you're by yourself, you might call just to have some sort of interaction with her person. But beyond that, she probably does think she see these things and she's scared because she's by herself. A mile away from the closest neighbor. So it's clear that you know, she just gets worried and scared out there by herself, and she would needs someone to be there for her. Did a great job, I think set in the stage here for the first part of the story. We know kind of like that was a quick, good description of the situation. Then of course you're going to jump back into it with the events that fall him. Jerry and me turned on to turn her road and drove up to missus Garretty's house on the gray, rainy late spring day, certain that the old woman was just overreacting yet again something relatively minor, and her imagination was playing tricks on her. She was waiting for us outside on her porch when we pulled to a stop. I'll never forget how she looked shocked me. She'd already been a thin and frail woman the other times we've been out there, but we hadn't seen her in probably a couple months since her last false emergency. She had changed drastically since then. Now she was gone, almost emaciated, her cheeks hollow and dark rings under her bloodshot, sunken eyes, her gray hair, was tangled and didn't look like it had been washed in days, maybe weeks, and the dress she was wearing was wrinkled and dirty. Her physical appearance was alarming enough, but there was also something about the way she was staring at both of us, with those dull, dark eyes that seem to look at us, through us, and passed us all at once reminded me of old photos I've seen of American soldiers in Vietnam. The blank, expressionist, shell shocked look of someone who had been through more horror than any ordinary person should have to endure. Me and Jerry exchange a shocked look that got out and approached the old woman. What seems to be the trouble, missus garrity, Jerry asked her, trying to keep his voice nonchalant. There's something in my house, she told us a flat, toneless voice. She was shaking slightly on the verge of total physical and mental exhaustion. The way she phrased it, not someone, but something, made me raise my eyebrow. Well, you just wait here and we'll go have a look and make sure it's safe, I told her, trying not to sound too patronizing. I looked to Jerry and nodded. We drew our pistols and stepped past miss Garrety cautiously. Entering the house, we did a routine sweep of the first flour our guns were leveled head then we headed upstairs. Oh, it took about five minutes to check out the house. We had done it so many times before. We had to lay out down pat and there was no sign of any intruders or evidence would break in. And entering, I saw plenty of other things that disturbed me deeply. For one thing, the place was a total mess. The house was already pretty decrepit. Missus Garretty had still taken pride at how clean she kept it. It had always been spicking spin on our earlier visits. Now dirty dish were stacked so high in the kitchen sink, the counters were dirty, and the trash and dirty laundry littered the floors. I also noticed that missus Garrity pillow and blankets were lying rumbled on the couch in the living room. The surface of the coffee table in front of it was cluttered with half drunk cups of coffee, open containers of food, a bible, and a rosary. It looked like she's been eating and sleeping in the living room for some time. We went upstairs. Sure enough, the bed and Missus Garretty's room was bare, and the room itself looked like it had been vacant for quite a while. There was also something in a living room that really alarmed me. Leaning in one corner was an old double barreled shotgun that probably belonged to her late husband. Jerry picked it up, broke it open and found two spent shells in the chamber, took one out and stepped it. They told me the gun had been fired very recently. We also discovered something else bizarre. All of the mirrors and Missus Garretty's house had been shattered, and every closet door had been boarded shut. That one the front hall on the first floor, had a huge hole blasted in the center of smaller holes pitting the splintered wood around it. He didn't need to be shruck Holms to deduce that Missus Gearritty had fired her shotgun into that door. But why what the fuck had happened here? Jerry shot me a perplexed, questioning look. I shrugged, cooled us, and in equally bewildered, finished with our inspection of the house. We put away our pistols and turned around to go back outside. Missus Garretty was standing in the room behind us, staring at us with that unnerving blank expression. Both of us almost jumped a foot in the air, startled. Neither of us had heard her enter. Jerry regained his composure and flash her a fake, reassuring smile. We don't see any sign of a Missus Garretty must have slipped out the back you're saying. She didn't relax or peer relieved like she had the countless other times we had as humored her. Her face seemed to twitch and some new look dawned in her eyes. Took me a moment to identify it. It was a look of pure hopeless doom mixed with utter terror. No, she said, and that same odd, listless, flat voice. I'm not safe. It's still here. It's hiding, that's why you couldn't find it, and after you leave, it'll come back for me. Then she began to quiver. She started to cry with total despair, breaking down into hysterical sobs that racked her whole body. Jerry and me looked at each other concerned. We went to the old woman and comfort her as best as we could, guiding her over to the couch, sending her down with us on either side, coaxing her gently back to a state of calm. The story progresses here and they arrive on the scene. I guess is what you would say, Yes, and things are a little bit different than they typically are. Yeah, I would say so. Seems like clearly she's in a quite a bit more disarray than normal, Like like physically they can see it on her. Yeah, she hasn't. She doesn't look like she's been eating well. She looks tired, she definitely looks scared, and beyond that, she's not taking care of herself. She's not cleaning her hair or her dress, she's not cleaning her home. Everything about this definitely seems like not the usual case. And she said something okay with the creepy part, and I have to go find them exactly where it is. But she used the word it yh. Yeah, she says something in it, and so like she's not referring to this as a person, and she's not even really referring to you give to the sense of she's not talking about an animal either. She's not talking about a raccoon. This definitely seems like something else, and the fact that she actually is doing some strange things in this house, like all her mirrors are smashed, and her closet tours are all boarded shut. And she hasn't slept in her room for quite some time. All the pillows and blankets are on the couch. They said, yeah, on the couch, and that's where she's also got like some amounts of food and coffee around on the coffee table there. So coffee would make you think maybe that she's afraid to sleep. Sounds like she's not in her room. Yeah, afraid to sleep. So I think the next part that is what's crazy. They find the shotgun, a couple spent shellcasings in it, and Jerry actually smells it. You could tell that the weapons recently been fired. Yeah. Then they see the hole blasted in the closet tour, So we know at this. Point in time she at least thinks something is in that house and she's gone I don't want to say gone crazy in the meanway, but she it has a very extreme reaction to this situation. By firing a gun off in your house. The best circumstance is this seems like you have someone who's losing their mind fully and it is, you know, just destroying everything around them. It's a very touchy situation to be in because now they got to you know, find out what's going on and then try to take care of her, but they can't really at this point, you know, she's possibly danger or someone. Yeah, they did a really good job dealing with her that I feel like, Yeah, they're being a crazy thing to walk into and I feel like these guys that a really good job of handling it. Definitely so far. Yeah, for sure, But you can't be easy. You walk into that situation where this house has just just been destroyed basically, and you're reacting to it. Well, not only that, you go there every week, every couple weeks, every couple of months, and there's just so much worse this time. So to your point, it's got to be very concerning. But the first thing they got to do is get her calm down. Yeah, definitely, and then maybe get some answers. Yep, which is what we'll get into that a little bit more right now at the next part. After she had herself back under control, we asked her to explain what had happened. She was quiet for a few moments, gathering her thoughts. Then she began to speak. As we listened to her story, my body temperature seemed to gradually drop, and I felt chills take over me. Several times I made eye contact with Jerry, and his expression was a mirror of my own disbelief and fear. It started about a month ago, she began. That's when I first heard the scratching and my closet door, A soft, slow, steady scratching. This seemed to come from inside her bedroom closet at night. At first, she had assumed it was probably a mouse or something like another small animal, except the scratching seemed to come from too high of a height to be the working of a mouse or an animal. Whenever she opened the closet door allways after the scratching had stopped, there had been nothing there. Several times she had started to open the closet door as the scratching was in progress to get to the bottom of it once and for all, but each time she grasped the doorknob, and she was overwhelmed with unease and fear, and she was not able to do it. The scratching sounded too deliberate, too gentle, deceptionally harmless, as if something was trying to lure her into opening that closet door. To be safe, she had started locking her closet door at night. Over the next several days, the scratching had gotten louder and more intense, as if something was trying to tunnel its way through the wood. One day, she opened the closet door and found claw marks on the other side, claw marks that were six feet off the ground, claw marks that looked like they had been made by fingernails. The horror had really started for Miscarty about a week after she had first heard the scratching sounds. One night, she had awoken to a voice softly calling her nae, a voice that seemed to be coming from the locked closet door. She was bewildered, even more so because she recognized this voice. It belonged to Bill, her dead husband. Bill's voice had pleaded for her to open the closet door, telling her that God had sent him down to take her up to heaven where they could be together again and young like they used to be forever. At this point, Jerry had looked at me, wide eyed from the other side of the couch. Then what happened? I asked her gently. I thought I was dreaming, Miss Garretty said, I thought it had been a dream. Poor Bill had been gone for three years, and since I was having a dream, I didn't see a harm in doing what he was asking me to do. I got out of bed and went to the closet. I reached for the lock, but then I stopped something. Something didn't seem right. It was Bill's voice, and it seemed perfectly normal, but somehow it was wrong too. The way he was talking, it wasn't like how Bill used to talk. It was like a stranger was using Bill's voice trying to trick me into opening the closet door. That doesn't make much sense, does it. Actually nothing she was telling us made sense, but we just asked her to continue telling her story. Bill or whoever or whatever was using his voice had continued to beg her to unlock the closet door, which she had refused to unlock the closet door. The voice had changed, becoming harsh and angry. It was very angry and demanding that she opened the door when she had still refused. It began to shout at her, using profanity and making obscene threats. Thanks, Bill would never do things Bill would have never said when he was alive. Before beginning to pound violently on the door, the voice had begun to change. No longer sounding like her late husband's, it became deeper and disordered, until it didn't sound human at all. In terror, she had fled her room and spent the night on the couch downstairs. Eventually the pounding and the threats had stopped. Miss Garrety Jerry politely interrupted her at this point, why didn't you call us at the police station when this happened? She was silent for a moment, then a small bitter smile formed on her lips. I thought you'd think I was imagining it, she told us. I know people in town think I'm the crazy old lady, and I've had you out here so many times before for things that turned out to be nothing. I thought maybe it was all in my head and I didn't want to bother you about it. Well, this story really goes from zero to sixty like that? Isn't that business has just picked up? I guess you could say so. So freaking definitely thinks she is experiencing something completely crazy. Yeah, definitely. So we get a little bit more, We get a little bit more information about this closet now, right, like talked about how the closet doors were boarded up, so now we know that it all began in her bedroom closet door where she started hearing scratching sounds. Yeah, that's really. Crazy gentle though, right, like, not like violently scratching, just like almost like you're just trying to get somebody's attention. Yeah, that's what it seems like, almost like you know, just a light scratching a track someone through the door. Progressively did get a little bit more, like she said, it was almost like they're trying to tunnel through the door. Yeah, she opened the door and actually saw the claw marks that were like six feet off the ground. Yeah, that's raasy. Which is pretty tall for a person even though, but nevertheless that that rules out an animal. Yeah, definitely, And it just seems so creepy. And then then the voice though that that's when of the creep factor really cranks up. Before that though, before we get into that, though, several times she went up to the door and she was going to open it, why that scratching was happening would you be able to do that, like eventually, right you'd be like, I'm sick of this shit. I got to open this door. Yeah, you know. It's one of those things that, like, there are times where it happens to almost everyone where you're just like, if I turn around right now, there's going to be someone behind me, right, that kind of feeling, Yeah, you just and so you decide not to turn around sometimes just because it's like I can't do it. I can't turn around and see this thing behind me, Or it's like, yeah, the corner of your eye, you see something that might be there, and so you don't look at it directly because you don't want it to know that you're looking at it. And I get that. I think that's the feeling that she got when she's gone up to this door. It's like everything seems like you need to confront it, But at the same time, it's like, do you really want to open that door? Do you really want to look at the corner of your eye? Do you really want to turn around? Those are things that a lot of people deal with a lot of times, and you never know what it is. She's really trying to ignore it. It seems like like if I ignore it, maybe it'll go away, right yeah, or maybe it's just like in your head, it's not really there. So then you talked about it. The voice is she started hearing voices, her husband's voice asking her to come to the closet door to open it, basically like we'll go to heaven together and be together forever. But the way he was speaking it may have sounded like her husband as far as like the voice itself, but the way it was actually talking, he wasn't phrasing or saying things like her husband would her late dead husband. Right, Yeah, And that actually makes a lot of sense because you know someone they have a specific way of talking that goes beyond their voice pattern and everything. Yeah, you know, the cadence of which they talk. So it makes sense that things would seem right at first, but then it's it's like, well they would have a light a little bit more, a pause there, or something like that. You know, she's ignoring it. This thing's getting pissed off about it. It gets to the point where its voice no longer sounds like Bill's her dead husbands. The way I read it, when I was reading it, I was thinking, like demonic sounding. Yeah, definitely seems like it. It says nor sounds human like, and it also has like it's been saying some really terrible things to her, Yeah, which you know is terrifying. Well it less terrified, I thank's ever. Yeah, I this sounds this is a crazy story. But again, though, she moves downstairs and they asked the million dollar questions, why didn't you call us? Right? And you could tell that she's still contemplating if this is like real or not. Almost. First of all, she doesn't want to bother them. She knows everybody thinks she's a crazy lady. But she's starting to think herself, waitter, am I going crazy? Right? And that's kind of like why she maybe didn't open the door, because it's like, is she going to have to admit that she's crazy when she opens that door? There's nothing there? Or is it? There is something there? And you definitely don't want to open that door. Him and his fellow officer definitely thinks she's completely lost her mind at this point though. Definitely, Yeah, But they're also there being very courteous about they're very very professional. They're trying to, you know, still settle her down and get to the bottom of what led up to when she finally did call, She seems just relief that they're there, you know. Yeah, and you can imagine that, you know, anyone wants to see someone after a while, So yeah, it makes sense that she would be very really regardless of what was happening. But the fact that something might be happening. Yea, ifite I want to see someone else, yeah for sure. Well man, we'll let you pick it back up all right. Things had escavated pretty quickly from there. The pounding and threats had continued every night. She had been too scared to sleep in her bedroom and had started sleeping in the living room couch. Then one night the pounding had begun, not just on her bedroom closet, but all the closet doors in the house, all at the same time, like there were people and all of them trying to get all at once. She told us it was the same voice in every closet, that same horrible voice. In fear, she nailed all the closet doors shut to keep the thing, whatever it was, from coming out to get her. Then, about two weeks ago, something even more terrifying had happened. She had been in her bathroom and was washing her hands in a sink when she looked up into the medicine cabinet mirror. She paused, what'd you see, Jerry asked her. I saw it, she said, in a choked whimper. I saw its face instead of my own. He was wearing a black robe with a hood, and its face. His face was just a grinning skull, a skull with horns. His eyes were red, the eyes of the devil himself. I don't mean I saw it standing behind me in the mirror. It was in the mirror itself. I felt a shiver crawl up my spine. It reached out of the mirror. It didn't have hands, it was like claws, and it tried to grab me in horror. She had thrown a bottle of lotion at the mirror, shattering blasts, then, to be safe, had done the same to all the other mirrors in the house. How could you stay in this house with all this has happened to you, asked her. She shrugged sadly. I don't have anywhere else to go, and no one will take me in. The nights were awful. It was always better during the days. At least then I could get some sleep. It always stopped by morning and never happened during the day, she suddenly shuddered. Until three days ago. Then it started happening all the time, day and night. I was safe no matter what time it was. It all come to a head late this morning. Pounding had gradually gotten more violent and forceful, until all the closet doors were rattling in their frames. Scared, he knew that you went boards nailed over them. It's only a matter of time till that thing broke through. In desperation, she gained praying and reading from the Bible, which had only caused the entity in the closet to laugh at her mockingly. Finally, she had gotten out Bill's shotgun and fired it through the closet door. For a minute or so, there wasn't a sound. She told us, I sort of think it was finally over. Then I saw those red eyes burning in the dark in the hole the shotgun had made. It. Chuckled and said one word to me. Well, what to say? I asked her? Tonight she said, began to tremble. She lowered her head and her hands and began to sob again. Jerry and I were silent for some time, trying to absorb what she had just told us. We looked at each other, deeply troubled by her story. Either of us actually believed it, of course, but it was obvious the poor woman was deeply disturbed. If she was having some kind of nervous breakdown, maybe her afraid grip on reality had finally snapped. Maybe it was old age was taking this toll on her mind. One thing was clear. It wasn't safe for her to be alone anymore, especially not here. It was not healthy for her. Hell, for all we knew, maybe her paranoid delusions were her results of some dangerous form a mold that had formed in the house. Jerry and I excused ourselves for a moment, then stepped outside and talking privately, we both agreed she needed help, she needed to be institutionalized, but for now it was best she stay somewhere else. Went back in and told missus Garrett she was coming with us. She was going to spend the night in a hotel room in town, and tomorrow, Jerry added, we were going to find a priest who had come exercise this free evil spirit they had been bothering her, getting rid of it once and for all she broke down again, this time crying and relief and hugged me and my partner, thankingness over and over again. Well, she's finally getting the help that she needs. Sounds like, Yeah, it sounds like they're really trying to get her, like cancel sort of institution. They're going to try to hold her someplace overnight. That's what it seems like to me that they're not really believing this story. But her story is terrifying, and if it's you are remotely true, this is a nightmare scenario. Yeah, it sounds like this is actually later in the day, all this is transpiring. All this is happening, and like you said, get her to a hotel and excuse me, get her to a motel until the next day when they can get her help wherever that may be. It was a previous section that you read when he said, what the fuck happened here? You really start. To like put all the puzzle pieces together as far as how crazy of a state this house is in. Yeah, the disarray and like all these boards up dworse, Like that's something that would be crazy to walk into. She looks in the mirror. She sees a I don't know how to describing a monster. Yeah, it looks like a skeletal monster of some sort and reaching out to her from the mirror, not so much that's behind her. She describes it as being within the mirror. We've all seen that in a movie or had that fear, like we're gonna look in the mirror and like something else is like not even behind you, but it's like they're in the mirror, you know. Yeah, And so she breaks the mirror that she goes around and she destroys all the other mirrors in the house. Yeah, she breaks them all that day. And so like there's all these broken mirrors, there's glass something around obviously, and so, like I said, he has definitely starting to see like, ah, this is we got ourselves a problem here. It's very much she is in you know, she could be endangering herself. She needs to be taken care of. And it's a really scary moment if there was nothing supernatural going on, because this old woman who you've been like kind of taking care of sort of by going and visiting her during her calls and you know, just like calming down every time, and then you see her in this state. It's a scary moment for you, right, because you gotta be like thinking, how are we going to take care of her? Now? You know, we got to something's gonna happen. Just that alone, you can you can imagine there their way. They excelled in this moment, but away she's feeling with all that she's claiming to see. That's that's the craziest thing ever. Yeah, So what began is clawing at the closet door is now pounding in every closet door throughout the house. She's actually concerned that the pounding is so hard it's going to break through the boards. She began praying and reading the Bible. I guess this made this entity is we're going to call it laugh. It was mocking her. Finally she got the shotgun and fired it through the closet door. This entity was mocking her. Yes, so after it started making Funever, she shot at it and then saw those eyes with in the darkness. So like she walked up to the door, she was seeing these eyes in there through the holes. I'm going sure how close she got, but she definitely kind of a period. So through the shotgun holes she could see these red eyes. Yeah, yes, that's absolutely terrifying. Wow. And then it said tonight. It said tonight, so. They relieve her of this tress and said we're going to get you help. They have a sidebar conversation. Hey, she she's no longer able to take care of herself. This is that she's a huge risk to herself. This situation is a bad situation. They're going to remove her from the situation. And like we when we just started this discussion right here, they're gonna. Get her help. Man, you still feel so sorry for being all alone? You know? Oh yeah, definitely, I'll jump back in here, all righty. We drove her to a cheap motel in town and checked her in. Her mental state already seemed to have improved, and that short amount of time being away from that house. She smiled and told her she couldn't wait to finally get a night, a decent night of sleep, without having to worry about that thing banging on the doors. I think mostly she was just glad she wouldn't have to be afraid anymore the entity she was convinced was lurking in her house. We both smiled at her and said goodbye, getting in the cruiser and driving away. Our smiles faded as soon as we pulled away from the motel. We both drove in grim silence. We both liked old miss Garrity, in spite of all the time she had made herself a nuisance to the police department with her bogus calls and her ratic behavior. We were sorry her mental estate had deteriorated to such a point where she could no longer look after herself. We told the Chief her story when we got back. He sighed sadly and nodded, agreeing that she had to be committed somewhere. Tomorrow, him and me were going to drive out there personally visit her son and daughter and explain to them what was going on, and as they still refused to do what needed to be done, the Chief would see to it himself that Miss Garretty would get the help that she needed. But we never got the chance. The last time we ever saw Miss Garritty was when Jerry and I left her at the motel around four in the morning. The next morning, I was awakened by an urgent phone call from the Chief telling me to get over to the motel as soon as possible. He wouldn't say why over the phone, but I already had a hunch had something to do with Missus Garretty. I felt an awful sense of dread as I got dressed. I wondered if maybe she had taken her own life in the motel room after we had left her. When I arrived outside the motel, my fears were confirmed when I saw crime scene tape blocking the door to miss Garretty's room. The Chief, along with Jerry, Pete and Vance, were gathered outside, along with a couple cops from the state police and a pair of detectives from the city. The Chief greeted me with a grave expression. As I approached him, he told me Missus Garretty was gone. At first, I thought he meant she was dead. Then, seeing the solemn look in his eyes, he clarified himself she was literally gone. I looked at him, confused. I saw something in his eyes that I had never seen before, something that caused a ripple of fear in my heart. The Chief was scared. He told me he didn't know what to make of it himself. People in the neighboring rooms had heard blood curling, screams and sounds of violence coming from Missus Garrett's room around two in the morning, then nothing silence. They had called the police department. Pete and Vance had been the first to arrive, since they were on the night shift. They had pounded on the door, but there had been no response. They had to force the door open. When they saw what was inside. They called the chief himself. What did they find? I asked, maybe you ought to come see for yourself, he told me, Leading to the doorway and under the crime scene tape. He explained to me that they had found no sign of forced entry, and that the door and windows of the motel room had had all still been locked from the inside. When Pete Advance showed up, I took a look around, feeling a shiver run through my body. There was fresh blood splattered around the room, on the walls, the floor, the bed, even the ceiling. The blood stained bed sheets had been ripped away from the mattress, as if somebody had desperately tried holding onto them as they were pulled off of the bed. There were ten very thin trails of blood on the carpet leading away from the bed, ten thin trails of blood that had been made by ten terrified fingers clawing as if they were being dragged away I followed the bloody finger marks across the floor, away from the bed to where they led where they ended at the closet. I looked at them. Then I looked at the chief. He looked back at me, his face hard and impassive, but I could see fear in his eyes. I approached the closet. The door was standing open. I stood there looking in for some time. The closet was empty, completely empty. There wasn't even blood on the floor. They never found Missus Garrity. Such a nightmarysh looking scene like that's been described here. It's just changed so much from when we just had that recap. It was a positive thing. They were going to get her help. They were going to talk to her family the next day, and if the family wasn't gonna help, they were still going to make sure she got help. Basically, yeah, and everything. Seemed I don't want to say good, because I think they were really sad about the situation. But for missus Garritty herself, it seemed like she was going. To get help. It was like a bitter sweet thing, right. They didn't want to have to do it, but if they were willing to do it, because that's what she needed. Yeah, that's not an easy thing to do to, like, this person can no longer live at their house take care of themselves. It's a pretty sad thing when you really think about it. But she's relieved though. They like we said last time they leave her at the motel room, it seems to be. Everything seem to be okay. She seems to be looking up, they said, instantly, her aura her, She just seemed to be in a way better place. Yeah, and then this nightmarish outcome. He's a wolcome by a phone call at night saying he needs to get to the motel as soon as possible. He thinks the worst. Right, she's dead, she's taken her life. Something the terrible has happened to her. Can you imagine that drive over there. Yeah, I was thinking about that. That would be like a very dark and like a terrible time in your own head driving over there to this because you're like, yeah, you just saw this person. You're trying to get her help. And then it's like either she either she died of you know, a parent suicide, or she could have been natural causes. You know, she could have had a heart attack. But to think that you just saw her not that long. Ago, and that drive over there, you're wondering what happened the whole time he gets there, he sees he sees a lot of people there. He sees all his fellow co workers. There's only a few of them, I guess for the local police department, but he also sees state police and a detective from a nearby, bigger city. So you pull up, you see that. You think, oh shit, yeah, definitely seems like something else happened or or you know, it's a little bit more involved, but you wouldn't expect that. You would definitely never expect that. Then he's told that they heard blood curling, screaming, and like what sounded like an altercation, like a violent fight, like something crazy was happening in her room. The neighboring motel rooms heard. Then it went completely silent. What I find interesting is it even mentions it specifically that when Pete and Dvance, the night shift guys, show up, the door is locked. Yeah, the doors and windows were all locked, so they force themselves in. Yeah, they break in to get in there and see what was going on. And that the you know, the scene of all that blood on everything every where, and then the where her finger nails have been dragging across the floor trying to stop herself from being dragged away. All that blood there too. Horrific scene. So let's talk about the doors and the windows real quick. So you definitely can't go out a window then lock it behind you, that I'm aware of. You know, No, I don't know if these hotel room doors are like either a lot of the ones I've been to you they lock on their own. You have a key card. This sounds like an old motel though, actually have that like dead bowl on the inside, So it makes you wonder, like could you truly leave and lock it? But this is an old room, you think, so it's got to be confusing. Nevertheless, Well, also the question of whether or not it had one of those you know, they usually have the dead bolt, but they also have like the half block too. Yeah was that locked as well? I don't know, uh, but yeah, so like maybe the door code relocked. If it's an older one, like you said, it has a key and actual key, they don't relock, So that's a good question. This is a very small town, so I can't imagine they have the most up to date doors. This is where it gets weird. Like you said, the bed sheets have been ripped off the bed, and the blood and all that actually does not lead to the door, indicating that she was dragged outside and taken away. Uh, there's actually like finger marks on off of this bed that lead clear across the floor to the closet, not the door like her window, like she was forced out to leave to the closet, and then then upon getting into the closet nothing, they stopped there. Yeah, and that is like, you know, you you look at that, You're like, the body is gonna be in the closet, right, Yeah, but we quickly find out that that's not the case, and that was basically everything even more terrified in my opinion. Yeah, but she's been so afraid of these damn closets the whole time. Man, the holes eye. You have some short thing that supposed to be in this closet that's been threatening her for weeks. Now that it's gotten worse and worse to the point that she actually shot at the closet door at her house try to stop it. And then it told her tonight. They told her tonight, and this is that night, this happens in that room and you see what appears to the evis of her being dragged to the closet. You always hear of these things that like something demonic haunts somebody or something. It's not just where they live, it's like attached to them. That seems to be the case for missus Garretty here it does seem to be. Yeah. Of course she was never found again yet, and there was no blood or anything in that closet. She's dragged in the closet then just vanished. Yeah, she's so afraid of those closets too the whole time, And that's gonna be what godters thought she got away from it. Yeah, imagine being there, people next door hearing that. That would be a very terrifying night. Now all you can do is call the police and I go back to that town again. Yeah, a small tower, nothing hardly happens. Do you think this sticks with the people that were involved forever? Oh? Yeah, this would be something that they'll never get over, something that will affect them for the rest of their lives and will probably affect people who weren't necessarily there, but who hear about later. She's still missing. We don't know if she's dead. We could presume I guess. Yeah, it's crazy how this progressed over time, and you really think about it. It's just a lady living on her house alone, and all this has just happened. I can't imagine how terrifying it was. It's dely. It goes like I said, it goes from zero sixty like that. It's like, craziest thing you'll ever hear. Absolutely, this guy actually years later posted yet another story, so we will go back to that. He had something else crazy he happened. So this is saying, craziest thing that's happened. How long did he say? He say, twelve years? Ten years? How long did he be in this cop? Twelve years? He'd in a cop in this town for twelve years. And this is really the case that haunts him, that sticks sticks out to him. The rest of stuff is pretty typical, pretty normal. This is not normal though, man, No, it's definitely not. Prehaps the opposite. Years later he has something else too, and we'll share that one day. I'm excited about that. Yeah, that'd be awesome. I can't wait. This is a story that leaves it on the ultimate cliffhanger. Yeah, yeah, it does. Uh terrible terrible cliffhanger and the one that yeah, it'll take whoever, it'll be solved. Well, we appreciate you listening to this story with us. Let us know what you think. We trying to do change things up a little bit where we every once in a while we'll share some long like long form stuff together. Then other times we're just kind of like we're just sharing like our own stories that we found or whatever we're sent, like just kind of they're all they're not always related. You do a pretty good job about relating to them. I always don't, but you never know like what stories we're gonna share. But this is like a long form one, and the Stairs in the Woods one did really well, So let us know what you think. Do you like this? Do you like the other style on more? And yeah, we're trying to just really kind of dial in on what the viewers listeners prefer. So it's a very good story, great story. Let us know what you think. Reach out to us. Go to your Scary stories dot com. There you can find links to all of our social media. You could submit your stories there. You can watch the show on YouTube, my YouTube Jeff Townsend Media podcast Father. You can also listen to your scary stories and audio form wherever you listen to podcasts. So we absolutely encourage you to join the live stream Mondays at ten thirty pm. Ish ish Yeah, I'm gonna get a tattoo that says ish on it. That'd be great. That's become my saying. Yeah, but yeah, we do. I think the live experience is definitely the way to go. But yeah, if you ever have a free Monday evening, jump on with us, comment along and join the experience. I don't know how else to word it, man. Yeah, it's a perfect way. It's an experience. What closing words of inspiration do you have before I hit my catchphrase that we're done. I feel like people need a river to take care of their their loved ones. You know, this woman, her kids kind of we weren't there for when they probably should have been. So you know, I'll always take care of your loved ones. You got to live with that forever, you know, yeah, absolutely, And you know they probably were very sad and were torn up over afterwards. But you know, it just makes it you have to make sure you take the time to see people and to talk to people because you never know what's going to happen next Yeah, I agree. Man. We appreciate you watching or listen to this. We hope you keep checking out our content. This is your scary stories. And until next time, keep being you and keep being great. Jeff Townsend Media says you good night. And the question is do I stay here? Will you be back? Oh you go coming back? Will you be back? Are you coming back?
