Episode 63: The House on Christmas Tree Lane

Episode 63: The House on Christmas Tree Lane

Released Monday, 11th December 2023
Good episode? Give it some love!
Episode 63: The House on Christmas Tree Lane

Episode 63: The House on Christmas Tree Lane

Episode 63: The House on Christmas Tree Lane

Episode 63: The House on Christmas Tree Lane

Monday, 11th December 2023
Good episode? Give it some love!
Rate Episode

Episode Transcript

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carvana.com or download the app to

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get pre-qualified today. Welcome

1:05

to Otherworld. I'm your host, Jack Wagner. The

1:08

story was sent to me by a guy named Christian.

1:11

And while the story itself takes place

1:13

when he was a teenager growing up

1:15

in Fresno, California, I also

1:17

found his current job extremely interesting.

1:20

He's a coroner and he used to be

1:23

an embalmer. I'm not sure what

1:25

a coroner is supposed to look like, but I

1:27

would never have imagined one looking like Christian.

1:30

He looks like somebody that you'd be more

1:33

likely to see in a skate shop than an

1:35

autopsy room. And

1:37

I'm always fascinated when somebody writes

1:39

in who does a job

1:41

that most people would find frightening or

1:43

bizarre, because it's always interesting to find

1:45

out what it is that

1:48

actually scares them. So

1:50

we're going to hear a bit about

1:52

Christian's work. And

1:54

then of course, we're going to be hearing

1:57

about something that happened to him when he

1:59

was younger. at a house that

2:01

he is still scared of to this day. This

2:04

is episode 63. The

2:06

title is, The House on Christmas Tree Lane,

2:09

and you're listening to Other World. Hello?

2:13

Is this me? You're

2:16

gonna be upset. It's cold.

2:19

I'm sorry about all the sudden. It's

2:22

almost frustrating. I'm gonna

2:24

die. It's been for

2:26

just like, long. Everybody knows that.

2:29

You know what that's about. My

2:41

name's Christian Nacosta. I'm from

2:43

Fresno, California. I work with

2:45

the sheriff's office as a deputy coroner. I've

2:52

been doing the coroner work as an investigator for about a year

2:54

and a half now. Prior to that, I was an embalmer,

2:57

so that's how I sort of got into the coroner aspect of

2:59

it. I'm a sheriff's officer.

3:02

I'm a sheriff's officer. I

3:04

work with the sheriff's office as a deputy

3:06

coroner. I was an embalmer, so that's how

3:08

I sort of got into the coroner aspect

3:11

of it. I was an embalmer for about

3:13

six years. I went to

3:15

school in Sacramento for it. Involved

3:17

in Sacramento, in Santa Cruz,

3:19

and then back here in Fresno. So

3:22

I've been around death a

3:25

lot these past, you know, six

3:27

to eight years now with this

3:30

current job. So

3:32

as far as getting into it, like

3:35

I said, I was embalming. You

3:37

start seeing people on your table as an

3:39

embalmer, and you wonder what happened. So I

3:41

always sort of was a little more interested

3:43

on the investigation side of it, is what

3:45

happened to this person, what's the story. And

3:49

that's always something that's held my

3:52

interest. So I ended up, there

3:54

was a job opening. My father-in-law told me about

3:57

it. He's a chaplain with the police department in

3:59

Fresno. So we're both around

4:01

this kind of stuff. And he said, you know,

4:03

you should maybe look into it and apply. So

4:06

I have my degrees in mortuary science

4:09

and forensic science. So it's sort of

4:12

made for this kind of job. The

4:15

difference between those two jobs is that

4:17

embalming and funeral homes, it's

4:20

very much, I mean, it's

4:22

a business. You're making money off of the families. I

4:24

mean, and they're grieving, but at the end of the

4:26

day, there's a job to do. And the same is

4:29

to be said about the coroner's and investigation,

4:31

but we don't make money

4:33

off of people. It's a civil duty.

4:35

It's a duty to the public and,

4:38

you know, it's a duty to our

4:40

whole community to investigate

4:42

the death of a homeless

4:44

person, a rich person. It doesn't matter

4:47

to us. We want to

4:49

figure out what killed that person so

4:51

we can give closure to their families

4:53

and also verify that their death wasn't

4:55

suspicious. So I respond

4:58

to all types of death scenes. It

5:01

can be an accident, a homicide, an

5:04

overdose. I've

5:07

held dismembered limbs. You

5:09

know, I've seen some very scary stuff

5:11

to the normal person that

5:13

to me is just like, that's

5:16

Wednesday, you know? But

5:19

I think that it's changed my

5:22

view of death and

5:24

everything because you just realize how fragile

5:26

everything is. I've

5:28

got kids, you know, I think

5:30

about what these other people

5:32

deal with when they lose their children. It's

5:35

very tough. And to think that that could

5:37

happen to you. And I think that

5:39

a lot of people who don't, I

5:42

want to say, have the privilege of working in

5:44

this field, they really actually have the privilege of

5:47

that sort of ignorance is bliss

5:49

kind of thing, where you don't know about

5:51

how quick it can happen and how rough

5:53

it can go. So that's

5:56

changed my views on death a lot. I'm very

5:59

paranoid about things. happening now,

6:01

especially with my kids and just driving and,

6:03

you know, things that, you know, people sort

6:05

of take for granted, realizing that, you know,

6:08

it could be very dangerous. But

6:10

then also just the afterlife aspect of

6:12

it, you know, I raised

6:15

Catholic, but I sort of

6:17

fancy myself an agnostic, but

6:20

my wife, Buddhist, has

6:22

a Buddhist background, but she's

6:24

also Catholic. So we're

6:27

sort of in this weird groove of

6:29

like, anything could be the truth

6:31

for us. We sort of keep an open mind

6:33

to it. I

6:36

try to keep an open mind to it because

6:38

I've seen a lot of people grieve, obviously, and,

6:40

you know, I have to go tell people and,

6:42

you know, I go make notification, let them know

6:44

that, you know, their family member died if they're

6:46

not aware of it already. So

6:49

I could be knocking on someone's door at two in the morning

6:51

to tell them that, you know, their relative

6:53

died. So that being said, you know, I've

6:55

seen how people grieve and how they take

6:58

that news. And some of

7:00

them really cling to, you know, their

7:02

religion or just their family. So

7:06

it sort of makes me look at that as, you know,

7:08

I couldn't say any of

7:10

them is wrong, you know, some religions are just like, this

7:12

is it, this is the way it could be. I have

7:15

a problem with thinking that any

7:17

one way is right, because I feel like

7:19

there's just, there's so

7:21

much more in common and there is

7:23

different between how people deal with death,

7:25

too, and grief. So it

7:28

still makes what happened

7:30

with me, it still raises a

7:33

lot of questions, because everything we do is

7:35

so rooted in fact and science, as you

7:37

know, as much as we can, you know,

7:39

and evidence. And with

7:42

what I encountered when I was

7:44

younger, and a little bit older,

7:46

since I had two sort of

7:48

experiences with it, I still

7:50

can't explain. So and that's, that's probably

7:52

the most troubling part to me, being

7:55

the person I am, it sort of throws me

7:58

off. So. I

8:00

have to ask, what is

8:02

it like being an embalmer? I've never, I don't

8:04

think I've ever talked to somebody with that job

8:06

before. Yeah, I mean, I think

8:09

people want to hear that it's like something like, it's

8:11

more grandiose than it is, but I mean, it's dark.

8:13

I mean, there's no real way

8:15

to phrase it. Yeah, when I was

8:17

in mortuary college, there was just a

8:19

lot of people that want to become

8:21

embalmers or funeral directors and, you know,

8:24

their persona is very much, you

8:26

know, it is, like they're

8:28

in a death metal or their goth or

8:31

whatever, and they're in their corpses, they got

8:33

coffin backpacks and stuff. But

8:35

when they get presented with a body

8:38

on like a steel table,

8:40

you know, in a prep room, it's

8:43

like reality things in it, that's a dead person

8:45

that they're in there with. And all of a

8:47

sudden they're like, no, I'm good. And I mean,

8:49

that was half my mortuary class. I think we

8:51

started off with like 45 of us and

8:54

only like 20 something of

8:57

us graduated. And then needless

8:59

to say of the 20 something of us that graduated,

9:01

how many of us actually stayed in the business? I

9:03

mean, I keep in good, close

9:05

contact with my cohort from

9:08

mortuary college. And I'm pretty

9:10

sure I was the last one that was embalming.

9:13

None of them were doing prep room stuff anymore.

9:15

And it's not because they couldn't handle it. They

9:17

all were actually the ones that graduated, got licenses and

9:20

stuff. It's just, you know,

9:22

all of our interests sort of spurred

9:24

out different ways, but we were capable of

9:26

it, but just these people that they

9:29

think that they can do it. There's people

9:31

that think they can be deputy corners or

9:33

even autopsy techs. I mean, our techs at

9:35

the office are cutting people

9:38

every day. And they

9:40

think that, oh, I've got this back down. I can handle

9:43

this. Or I saw this on TV. And then they get

9:45

into a prep room, start smelling things,

9:47

start seeing things, start

9:49

realizing that there's bugs, start

9:51

realizing these, and all of these new

9:54

fears start coming to them. And they're like, oh no,

9:56

I'm not built for this. And that's

9:58

fine. Like, I think. with

12:00

the casket actually open, this

12:02

is an open casket visitation. And

12:05

he said he thought everyone had left, so he was closing

12:07

up and locking. And the chapel lights are

12:09

still on, the music's still playing, they have like little

12:11

CDs they play. And he said he

12:13

walked into the chapel and there was a guy sitting

12:15

in the pew facing the

12:18

casket still. And so he

12:20

was like walking up to the guy, said, excuse

12:22

me, and the guy was not turning around or

12:25

answering them whatsoever. This

12:27

one gives me chills a little bit, and when I heard

12:29

that one, I was like, oh, that's creepy, dude. And I

12:31

had already sort of gone through my thing, so I was

12:33

like, yeah, I don't wanna hear about this. But

12:36

he said he kept walking up to them

12:38

and he stopped halfway down the aisle between

12:40

the pews and the guy didn't turn

12:42

around and he said, all right, we're closed, I'm

12:44

gonna turn the lights off in like five minutes,

12:46

so if you're not out of here, I'm gonna

12:48

turn the lights off and we're locking up. Because he

12:50

was just, he was scared at this point. So

12:53

he said he went back to the office and hung out

12:55

for a minute and walked back and the guy was gone. But

12:59

there's little bells on the doors and stuff like, you

13:01

know, and people are coming in because they want you

13:03

to be able to walk up and greet people when

13:05

you're going into a visitation or something. He

13:07

said he never heard anything. So

13:09

that one was always creepy and I was just like,

13:12

what did the guy look like? And he's like, he sort of looked

13:14

like, from the back, looked like the dude

13:16

that was in the casket. And I was like, oh

13:18

no, okay, so we're good. So that

13:21

was a little story that he told

13:23

me. But as far

13:25

as currently at my current job, I

13:27

hear stories from mostly like our autopsy

13:29

technicians when they're by themselves, they've

13:32

heard things, weird things. And we

13:34

have reserve deputies who are, they're

13:37

with the sheriff's office but they're college

13:39

students and they got

13:41

badge guns, everything. But they'll

13:43

work with us so they can get experience

13:45

because patrol officers are the first ones to

13:47

respond to these kinds of scenes, you know.

13:49

So they'll be the first one to see

13:51

that body most of the time along with

13:54

EMS. And so those are some

13:56

of the groups of people that they start and then they

13:58

see a dead body and they're like, oh, I didn't. know

14:00

it was this, I thought I was just going to be a

14:02

cop. And it's like, no, you're gonna see dead bodies, man, you're

14:04

gonna, you might do CPR on a dead body. But

14:07

a few of the one of the late reserve

14:09

deputies have said they've heard things too. But, you

14:12

know, it's hard to tell. It's a big

14:14

office, you know, I try to rationalize it

14:17

a bit, because I'm there by myself sometimes

14:19

too. So, but I

14:21

yeah, that's sort of what I've heard from them.

14:23

At the last

14:25

funeral home I worked at, I worked only in

14:27

the prep room. So I wasn't doing services and

14:30

I went to put the coat on to lock

14:32

it up. I was there by myself on a

14:34

Saturday. So I've been bombed by myself with bodies

14:36

everywhere too. And I don't, you know,

14:38

hear caskets falling and that kind of stuff. But

14:41

I went to lock up and the alarm

14:43

didn't go off. And it said that it

14:45

will show where there's a breach and it

14:47

says chapel door. And I'm

14:49

like, so it's this really old

14:51

funeral home in downtown Fresno. And

14:54

I mean, it's got pillars, it's got

14:57

this old just almost like, I don't

14:59

know, like almost like Victorian

15:01

plantation is like style

15:04

looking building. And

15:06

I was like, okay, and all the lights

15:08

are on the funeral home. So I'm walking

15:11

through, it's got a big old staircase in

15:13

the front entrance. And I

15:15

walked by the staircase and I'm just starting

15:17

to creep myself out because I I started

15:19

thinking back sort of to my experience a

15:21

little bit. And I was like, Oh, no.

15:25

And I went to open

15:27

the door leading down from the so

15:29

leading down from the main floor of

15:31

the funeral home, that there's a step

15:33

that lead into the chapel area where people

15:35

have this service. When I opened the door,

15:38

I heard a door slam. And so I

15:40

was like, Nope, and I didn't go I didn't I was like, I'm

15:42

not even gonna set the alarm. I don't care. I ran off. So

15:44

I rationalized that maybe there was like an air

15:46

vacuum. And when I opened the door, it just

15:48

made the other door slam. So it does happen.

15:51

And that's what I told myself.

15:53

And that's what I'm going to stick with for

15:55

now, because I can't confirm any of that. But it

15:58

scared me a little bit. And that's when I started I started

16:00

to realize probably too, I was like, man,

16:02

that whole experience I had sort of messed

16:04

up a little bit probably, because I try

16:07

to not think that everything's paranormal, like you

16:09

said, you know, I tried to, it's

16:11

50-50, it could be, it couldn't be, so. So,

16:18

I've worked

16:21

around death and things that

16:24

could scare people for years now, and

16:28

I've had experiences that I could

16:30

always, you know, sort of rationalize

16:32

or explain, but

16:34

there's one incident that I

16:37

still, to this day, cannot explain

16:39

with the amount of knowledge and

16:41

experience I have, this

16:44

experience in this particular house, I

16:46

just can't explain. It

16:49

started, well, when I was 16, I

16:52

got my driver's license,

16:54

wanted to start going around, driving

16:56

around everywhere, went to a

16:59

skate park, not very close to my side

17:01

of town, and when

17:04

I was there, I ran into these brothers

17:06

that I knew, that I'd sort

17:08

of seen around, like, punk and hardcore shows in

17:11

Fresno, sort of talked to them,

17:13

hung out with them for the day. After

17:15

some time went by, you know, it's hot, Fresno gets like

17:17

115, 116, it gets pretty rough here, they

17:22

had skated from home, and so I asked

17:24

where they lived, and they said, well, we

17:26

live over off Christmas Tree Lane, and so

17:28

in Fresno, there's a strip called Van Ness,

17:31

and it's a lot of these old, really nice

17:33

houses. They've been around

17:35

since like early 1900, a lot of them.

17:40

So when people say they're from Christmas Tree Lane

17:42

area, you're sort of assuming like, oh man, okay,

17:44

like you might be rich or you do good.

17:46

I mean, it's a lot of dentists, doctors, lawyers,

17:48

professors, you know, local politicians,

17:52

people who made their money in Silicon Valley and moved

17:54

out here because they want a big patch of land

17:56

kind of thing. So, and that

17:58

was pretty far from where the skate park was. So

18:00

I had offered to drive them home.

18:03

I was like, well, I got my truck, you just throw your

18:05

boards in the back and we'll go back to your house. And

18:08

they were like, yeah, like, come over, we'll hang out

18:11

and we have pizza and stuff. And it was typical

18:13

like 16 year old stuff. The

18:15

house was old. I mean, the furniture,

18:18

it's got like crown moldings. I mean,

18:20

it's very like, it's a very Victorian

18:23

looking house, but it's

18:25

not like run down like scary or

18:27

anything. I mean, people lived there. It's

18:30

just a little bit, it's like out of

18:32

this time kind of thing. It's almost like

18:35

walking into a time capsule except you've got

18:37

these like skate pump kids living in there

18:40

with their mom. There's nothing really that

18:43

stood out that was scary. It's definitely

18:46

the least aesthetically

18:48

pleasing of the houses by the

18:50

outside of it. You know, like

18:52

it's not like painted, like bright

18:55

vibrant colors. It's very just

18:57

like dull, but

19:00

it's still, it's just an

19:02

old style house. I mean, the staircase

19:04

is different. You've got a dumbwaiter that

19:06

goes from the second story down the

19:09

staircase, which you don't see very often.

19:12

I had a basement, which

19:14

in Fresno, there's not a lot of basements. It's

19:16

just not really something you get out here

19:19

very often, but these old houses do. So

19:21

I mean, style wise, I just

19:24

looked older, but it wasn't scary. I

19:28

was just like, oh, not what I was expecting kind of

19:30

thing. When they told me that they were from that area,

19:33

I was expecting like, oh, maybe these are like

19:35

rich kids that are slumming it as like skater

19:37

punk dudes. But like, there were

19:39

basically like these punk guys living in

19:41

a really old haunted

19:44

house. But

19:46

it didn't give that vibe when I got there.

19:48

It just looked like a house that had been

19:50

in the family for a while, which it had.

19:53

Their mom actually inherited

19:55

it from their grandparents who were the

19:57

people who bought it from the family.

20:00

the original owners. So their

20:03

grandparents, these brothers, their grandparents actually bought

20:05

the house from the parents of the

20:07

kid that died there. So there hasn't

20:09

been other families really in between. So

20:11

that family had been in that house

20:13

where, I want to say his

20:15

mom had been in that house for like close to 50 years

20:18

or something like that by the time

20:20

that I had gone in there, she

20:23

had basically grown up in it. So

20:25

it didn't really give, like I said,

20:27

haunted house vibes, just family

20:29

home that's been in the family for a

20:31

very long time. But it

20:34

was nice, you know, I walked in, hung

20:36

out with these brothers and their friends were

20:38

talking about skateboarding and just like punk stuff.

20:40

They were in a punk band together. So

20:43

I was sort of just, I was trying

20:45

to make these new friends, you know, we

20:48

hung out pretty late and it got to that point

20:50

where it was just like, Oh, why

20:52

don't you just stay over? And you know, at the

20:54

time I was just like, yeah, let's hang out. You

20:56

know, everyone's up, you know, it's pretty lively in that

20:58

house. Yeah. So I told my mom, I'm not going

21:00

to come home. I'm going to stay over with these

21:03

dudes from the skate park. And

21:05

I was about, I want to say maybe two,

21:07

one or two in the morning, you know, everyone

21:09

starts sort of like, I'm done. I'm going to

21:11

sleep, whatever. And we're 16, but no one's like

21:15

drinking or doing anything. We're like

21:17

literally drinking soda all night, eating

21:19

pizza and, you know,

21:21

watching skate videos. I want to

21:23

say we're watching pig wood, slaughter

21:26

house specifically, because I remember that

21:28

video very specifically now to you.

21:30

So we're just watching skate videos

21:32

and stuff. These

21:34

guys, you know, all start falling asleep. There's like

21:37

three couches in the living room. And

21:40

so I picked one and it's

21:42

back is to where their staircase is.

21:44

And then the front door is, you

21:47

know, basically where my feet are. And

21:50

I started trying to go to sleep and they all zonked

21:53

out pretty fast, but I was sort of

21:55

up and I

21:57

started feeling when I was there like

22:00

It was just dead quiet in the house.

22:02

I couldn't even hear these guys snoring or

22:04

anything. It was just dead silent. And so

22:06

I started trying to close my eyes. And

22:10

every time I closed my eyes, I felt

22:12

like someone was standing over me, looking

22:14

at me, sort of

22:17

just completely over my face. And so

22:19

I opened my eyes to be like,

22:21

what the hell? And

22:25

at first I was thinking, these guys are messing with me.

22:27

I was part of the same friend group, and I'm sort

22:29

of like this new guy. First

22:32

time I really hung out with them outside of

22:34

like, seeing them at a show or something. And

22:36

they're all still sleeping. One guy's on the floor,

22:39

one guy's on the couch, and

22:42

then the other guy's on the couch. There's like four

22:44

of us, maybe. There's like four

22:46

or five of us. But everyone's sort of, everyone's

22:48

still asleep when I wake up. So

22:51

I'm like, okay. And

22:53

I start closing my eyes again. And

22:56

I just get that feeling immediately as I shut my

22:58

eyelids, like something's standing over me. And so I look

23:00

over the back of the couch, like thinking that someone's

23:02

going to pop out from behind the couch, and there's

23:04

still nobody there. And I

23:06

do this a couple times. I keep sort of

23:08

drifting. It gets to a point where I start

23:10

drifting and I don't have that feeling. And

23:13

I start feeling myself drift out of sleep, and I'm

23:15

just feeling it more and more. I

23:18

think that you know when you're in your

23:20

head and you feel like, oh, is somebody

23:22

watching me? But you can sort of rationalize

23:24

that feeling. But it's not

23:26

even so much the mental thing. I

23:29

almost could have like almost physically feel the

23:31

presence of somebody. And I think that's what

23:33

scared me. And

23:35

I think any person that you, you know, any

23:38

of us that really thinks about how we deal

23:40

with things when you're looking over

23:42

your shoulder at like the supermarket, when someone's following too

23:44

close, you can sense that they're there, but you don't

23:46

know for sure until you look around and

23:49

see them kind of thing. It was sort of

23:51

that feeling. I got this real feeling of just

23:54

someone was just physically just planted

23:57

over me. And every time I'd open my eyes, I just

23:59

wouldn't be there. It just felt

24:01

as if someone was just waiting

24:03

for me to almost acknowledge them. Like

24:06

to look at them and acknowledge them, that's what it

24:08

really felt like. But they didn't want to make their

24:11

presence known. It's like I needed to discover

24:13

them kind of thing. Like I needed to

24:15

be sort of aware enough

24:17

to sense where they were at. And

24:20

that's the only way

24:22

I can explain it. I mean it's

24:24

just that sort of weird sixth sense

24:26

that we all have when we feel

24:28

somebody that's maybe staring

24:30

too long or standing too close

24:32

behind you. It's

24:34

just sort of that like I'm in your bubble

24:36

and what are you going to do about it kind of

24:39

feeling. I finally looked up

24:41

and sat up and I sat up on the couch

24:43

for a while. And when

24:45

I did that one of the guys had sat up

24:48

from the floor and he was like, did you touch

24:50

me? And I said no. And he was like, and

24:52

he sort of looked at me like what? And so

24:54

he goes back, lays back down, goes

24:57

to sleep. And I was like what? And

24:59

so I became a little paranoid at this point. So

25:02

I'm sitting up and I

25:04

laid down, I turned my back and I was just like,

25:06

oh maybe everyone's just feeling

25:08

weird or something, right? And as

25:12

I'm laying down I start hearing, I mean,

25:14

what I can only explain was footsteps coming

25:16

down the stairs. I mean that's what it

25:18

sounded like to me. It was the creaking,

25:20

the weight of feet on wood kind

25:23

of thing. And his

25:25

mom was in the house. So I am thinking

25:27

like, oh maybe his mom's going to be down.

25:29

But it was just so slow. Like it wasn't

25:31

like how people walk downstairs. People don't walk downstairs

25:34

at such a slow pace. They're usually going upstairs,

25:36

downstairs. It was just very like ominous. And

25:39

I had this just like real sense of like, I

25:41

don't like dread. Like I was

25:43

afraid to sit up and turn around to look

25:46

and see if someone was there. It

25:49

was just really much like, really like one

25:52

foot, maybe

25:55

like 10 seconds. I mean it felt like

25:57

10 seconds. Maybe it was only five, one

25:59

foot. then the next foot, one

26:02

foot, then the next foot. It

26:05

wasn't like someone who's walking

26:08

comfortably through their house. It's only like someone sneaking

26:10

up on you, is how I felt, you know?

26:14

And so, yeah, that's when I

26:17

decided like, I'm gonna pop up, maybe it's just

26:19

his mom. And there was nobody there. I mean,

26:21

nobody on the staircase. And the staircase is partially

26:23

covered. There's like these like, like

26:26

wood, almost

26:28

like their

26:30

vertical like posts, but you could

26:32

see if someone's walking down. There's

26:34

nobody walking down there. The

26:37

staircase does, it goes up and it makes a turn though,

26:39

too, so I was like, well, maybe someone's up higher on

26:42

the other part, but it sounded low.

26:44

It sounded like our part of the

26:46

floor was. And

26:49

so I had trouble sleeping, obviously. I

26:52

stared at the ceiling until

26:54

I started to see daylight come through the

26:56

windows and I was like, oh, okay. I'm

26:58

still a little comfortable now and I fell

27:00

asleep. So at about like

27:02

maybe, man, I

27:04

wanna say eight or nine in the

27:06

morning, roundabout, you know, I had slept

27:08

in a little bit. These guys were

27:10

still out and we all

27:12

started waking up and, you know, we're

27:15

talking in the morning and I just

27:17

said, you know, hey, I felt weird

27:19

last night and they were sort of laughing

27:21

about it. And I was just like, well,

27:25

like you. And then I pointed to one of the guys and I

27:27

was like, you said you felt someone touch me. He's like, yeah, I

27:29

thought it was you. And then one

27:32

of the brothers says, well, the house is haunted. And

27:35

I was like sort of nervously laughed

27:37

and then the friend didn't nervously laugh.

27:39

Like he was like blank

27:42

face about it. And then the brother,

27:44

the older brother was like, yeah,

27:47

he's not joking, the house is haunted. And

27:49

so I'm like, what do you mean? And

27:52

then they're like, well, this is the Christmas tree main

27:55

house, like it's that house. And

27:57

so to sort of elaborate

27:59

on that. In Fresno, everyone knows

28:01

Christmas tree lane. You grow up

28:03

here, you go to Christmas tree

28:05

lane on Christmas. All the houses

28:07

get decorated. People come from surrounding

28:09

towns. Some people come from out of town

28:11

just to see it. We even

28:13

get like tourists that are like, it's like one of

28:15

the stops they make, like they'll go to Yosemite and

28:17

then they'll come through Fresno, do Christmas tree

28:20

lane kind of thing for the

28:22

holiday season. So it's well known,

28:24

but the story of it, why

28:27

it started is these people had a son

28:29

and their son died. And

28:31

the story has always changed over the years, but

28:34

the, you know, cause people add stuff to it.

28:36

And they're like, oh yeah, it was gnarly, it

28:38

was this little kid. And the story that it's

28:40

a 14 year old and he died, he

28:44

got some kind of equipment entanglement

28:46

and this like pump house in

28:48

the back of the house. So

28:51

they used to have well pumps out in

28:53

these big properties because it's the county technically.

28:55

It's not like an actual city incorporation.

28:58

So a lot of these big houses have wells. And

29:01

I guess he got injured inside of

29:04

this well house and died and these

29:06

parents, the dad was a dentist and

29:08

was very well to do

29:10

hence the big house and everything that they built.

29:13

They were the original owners. And

29:16

after this kid died, he

29:20

decided to decorate the Cedar tree.

29:22

This whole neighborhood's just lined

29:24

with these huge trees. And so he decorated

29:27

the tree in front of the house. And

29:29

then so the neighbors started following suits. So

29:32

the whole street just started decorating. And now

29:34

it's like, people have these

29:36

crazy elaborate Christmas decorations. It's pretty neat.

29:38

And then they get, you

29:41

know, they get their own radio station. So it's

29:43

like a little holiday pool, but

29:45

the story of it is a kid died there and

29:47

that's what started it. So it's like this sort of

29:49

like Christmas ghost story and the kind

29:51

of feel to it, you know, is that, you

29:53

know, this kid died and that's why these people

29:55

put these lights up. But now it's

29:57

just a tradition that's been carried on for over a

29:59

hundred. years now, which is

30:01

crazy to think about. So

30:04

they told me that and I was like, what do you

30:06

mean? And they're like, this is that house the kid died

30:08

at. And I was like, oh

30:10

boy. So that at

30:12

that point, I started to feel, I

30:15

felt like when you find out that,

30:17

you know, your cat

30:20

or died or dog died or something is

30:22

I got a pit in my stomach. Like

30:25

I was like, oh, something happened last night.

30:28

And I was very sure of it. And I was like,

30:30

that wasn't really like that. That was not like, that

30:33

was real. Like I something weird was happening

30:35

while I was asleep. So

30:37

I left and you know,

30:39

they were way too nonchalant about it.

30:41

Their mom even said she's like, Oh,

30:44

he just wants friends. And I you

30:46

know, she sort of said it jokingly,

30:48

but sort of

30:50

hearing more stories later on, I feel like

30:52

his mom sort of welcomed it a little

30:54

bit. Like she was like, Oh, it's just,

30:56

he just wants friends. He's lonely. He's a

30:58

spirit. She was not a

31:00

hippie, but just very just like, go with the flow

31:03

vibes kind of person I guess. So

31:07

when she said that, I was like, Oh,

31:09

they're like aware of like what's going on and

31:11

they're not tripping out by it. So I did

31:14

that went back home and did

31:17

whatever I did that day. And that

31:20

night at home in my bed, you

31:22

know, where I'm feeling all right, I

31:25

went to sleep pretty fast. And in

31:27

my dream, I wake up and I'm

31:29

on that couch again inside of Jake's

31:31

house and Jake, Jake is the kid

31:33

that I knew, I wake

31:35

up, I'm looking around. And

31:39

I'm not much

31:41

of a vivid dreamer. I have

31:43

very like chaotic dreams when I do

31:45

dream I feel like but this one

31:47

was very much like I'm in this

31:49

house. It looked, it was like an

31:52

exact replica of the house.

31:54

There was nothing weird out of place. I

31:57

want to say I could

31:59

see the guy. sleeping but I don't think I

32:01

when I woke up I ever looked that way

32:03

in the dream when I woke up in the

32:05

dream I should say I didn't really look in

32:07

that general direction where they're at but it's almost

32:09

like I could sense that they were there but

32:11

sort of like blurred out like there was like

32:14

I was only supposed to be focused on

32:16

this one area of the dream but

32:18

it was very vivid. All of a

32:20

sudden instead of me like being in

32:23

myself I'm standing over

32:25

myself and now I can see myself

32:27

laying on the couch so I see

32:29

myself on this couch sleeping

32:31

but I feel like I'm awake

32:33

but it's me asleep and

32:36

so I'm looking over myself at the

32:38

couch and I feel something over on

32:40

my side like I can almost see

32:42

it through my peripheral and

32:44

I started to get that feeling of just just dread

32:47

like I wanted almost like like almost even want

32:49

to throw up but you're in your dream you're

32:51

like I'm not gonna turn I don't wanna look

32:53

and see but it's like

32:55

I sort of had to like it is almost like

32:57

part of that that character development in your dream where

32:59

you've got to keep doing it so you can get

33:01

out of your dream kind of thing and you

33:05

know so you you don't have any control

33:07

over it and I just started to look

33:09

and there on the staircase looks like a

33:12

shape of somebody there's no you know

33:15

distinguishing features there's no clothes I can see

33:17

it's just this black shape and

33:19

I think I described it as

33:21

like if you ever had an old TV when

33:23

you would turn it off and you're like watching

33:26

the news or something and you could see almost

33:28

the outline of the person or the shape that

33:30

was on TV like a pixel so

33:32

it's almost staticky I mean it's very

33:36

it's just like a blurry dark image but

33:38

it's it's black you know and it takes

33:41

up it shows up even in like your

33:43

your dark in a dark room area

33:45

even though it's it's got that weird dream lighting kind

33:47

of thing but it was there and I could sense

33:50

it and I didn't want to look directly at it

33:52

I could just sort of feel it in my you

33:54

know peripheral and sensed it and

33:57

then I remember looking back at myself in the

33:59

dream and waking up and

34:02

I woke up in the middle of the night and I was like,

34:05

whoa, okay, no, no. And

34:08

so I stayed up in my room. I remember sitting

34:10

up in my bedroom in my parents' house, you know,

34:12

as a 16 year old, just being like, yeah, I'm

34:14

not gonna go back to sleep now. So

34:16

I stayed up as long as I could. I

34:18

probably ended up passing out from exhaustion a little

34:21

bit, but I was, it stressed me out. And

34:24

so after that, you know, I

34:26

maintained a friendship with the brothers, but I

34:28

never went back to the house until

34:30

I was like 21. So years

34:33

passed, like I refused to go there. They

34:35

had moved out. They were living in like

34:37

apartments and stuff and doing, you know, street

34:39

punk things, you know? So they weren't living

34:42

in their mom's house so much anymore. But

34:47

then there became a point where we ended up

34:49

going back when we

34:51

were older. All

34:56

right, we have to take a quick break, but we'll be right

34:58

back. Other

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Snoop Dogg sent you. Ha ha ha. So

37:44

I think that the thing that

37:46

was over me was

37:51

the thing at the stairs, trying

37:53

to show me that I'm

37:55

that thing too. It was weird. I mean, I've

37:57

thought about this for. for

38:00

years about what was the meaning of

38:02

it? Like was this dream, was this

38:05

thing showing me something or was I

38:07

like this person? Why is

38:09

it showing me myself then? Or like, and

38:12

I don't know, my other fear

38:15

was that, it wasn't that,

38:18

was it like, look at me, look at me,

38:20

like almost like wanting me to be it or

38:23

vice versa. And that's when I've sort of heard

38:26

from other people, it was just like, do you

38:28

think it was like trying to get into you?

38:31

I mean, that's like the scariest thing

38:33

ever here. Someone telling you is like,

38:35

oh no, like again, I don't

38:37

wanna hear that. But

38:41

I sensed that whatever was standing

38:43

over me was that thing that

38:45

was on the staircase, that blur,

38:47

that black blur thing. But I

38:49

also think that it was trying to

38:51

say that I could be it

38:53

or vice versa. Like we were

38:56

interchangeable almost. And

38:58

like, and like almost like it was drawing me

39:00

away from myself and that's made

39:02

me still uncomfortable to this day that

39:04

I felt drawn out. So

39:07

I thought about that too, is that, well,

39:09

I'm at home, right, and am

39:12

I thinking about this house still?

39:14

The thing that tells me it was a

39:16

dream is that obviously I saw myself, but

39:18

back at that house. So

39:20

like, that's the part that always just

39:22

like stuck its hooks in me is

39:24

just like, but what about you seeing

39:27

you? Because I've only had maybe one

39:29

of those experiences in a dream before

39:31

and it was as a kid, and my

39:33

mom can probably still attest to it that I woke up and

39:35

I said, I flew last night. My mom was like, you're

39:37

probably dreaming. But I think that when I

39:39

was a kid, I had that sort of, oh, I'm flying out of

39:41

my body during that. A lot of people have, but

39:44

that's the only time I've ever felt like that. But

39:46

that dream was also very vivid. As for a kid,

39:48

you're thinking, oh, I'm flying up towards my ceiling. It

39:51

gave me that feeling again, but in

39:53

like the most like horrible way because

39:55

I wasn't flying or enjoying myself. I

39:57

mean, I felt like. I'm

40:00

looking at myself and I'm away from myself.

40:02

I didn't feel safe. I felt sort of

40:04

vulnerable. And as

40:07

far as imagining that, it's just it's so

40:09

vivid. I'm quick to shut off thoughts, but

40:11

it may be subconsciously if

40:14

I'm working that way and it made my

40:16

dreams work that way. Sure, you

40:18

know. But

40:20

I think that what solidified how I

40:22

feel about the dreams now is the

40:24

encounter when I was 21, when

40:28

we went back there. That's when I was just

40:30

like, this place is fucking evil and I never

40:32

want to go to this house ever again. So

40:36

I stayed friends with the

40:38

brothers and they were moving

40:40

out of an apartment and they were moving

40:42

into a house. And so

40:45

the brother that I was closest with was

40:47

a younger brother. He hits me up and

40:49

he's like, hey man, like, can

40:52

you help me move this bed? I had

40:54

a truck still. It's the same truck that

40:56

I drove them to when I was 16.

40:58

And so he's like, yeah, I need to

41:00

move this bed. I'll pay you

41:02

20 bucks and I'll give you

41:04

a burrito. You're set. I'll pay for your gas,

41:07

whatever. And I'm like, what's this dude

41:09

getting at? Because he's already offering stuff.

41:12

Normally, I would just do that for a friend just

41:14

in general. But I was like, where's the bed

41:16

at? And he goes, it's at my mom's. I'm

41:18

like, fuck no. Like straight up, no, I'm good.

41:21

And he's like, dude, please, like you're the

41:23

only person I know with the truck. It's like it was

41:25

the last thing he needed. They were moving in that night.

41:27

And it's daytime at this point.

41:30

So I sort of fought it

41:33

and he's like, dude, I'll get you a burrito. Like she's like, come on, man,

41:35

like 20 bucks. And like we're we're

41:37

in our 20s. So we're like, you know, giving someone

41:39

20 bucks and buying them dinner and gas and stuff

41:41

is a lot. So I was like, damn,

41:43

he really wants this bed. And he knew how

41:46

I felt about that house too. So I think there

41:48

was that sort of in play. I was

41:50

like, you know what, it's daytime. I'm just rationalizing

41:53

with myself at this point was like, maybe I was 16.

41:55

And I was just being, you

41:57

know, whimper or whatever, maybe I should just go leave. visit

42:00

this. Maybe it would be

42:02

cathartic. It's what I'm thinking. I only got a burrito

42:04

and cash, you know, whatever. And I

42:07

want I did want to help, you know, my buddy

42:09

out. So we drove back to

42:11

the neighborhood. And like I said, still daytime,

42:13

it's probably getting towards like that. That

42:17

it's, it's probably five or so maybe so

42:19

starting to get darker, but

42:21

not super dark. When

42:24

we're talking about it, by the time we get

42:26

to the house, it's getting closer and closer. So

42:29

I'm like, I want to get in here as soon as I can

42:31

and out of here. Like

42:33

I said that the property is a square, there's a

42:35

gate to get in with like a sort of u-shaped

42:38

driveway that leads you to the front of the house.

42:40

Jake hops out of the car, unlocks the gate.

42:43

He, you know, starts walking towards the

42:45

house, I pull up, and

42:47

there's a German Shepherd on the porch, which

42:50

I feel like is notable just knowing how

42:52

dogs are, because I feel like dogs and

42:54

animals and like, they sort of sense weird

42:56

stuff. So we pull up, I

42:59

get out, and you know, the

43:01

dogs just chill on a porch, and

43:03

we get inside the front door. And

43:06

Jake's walking ahead of me, obviously, because he's the

43:08

one who unlocked the house, and I'm walking behind

43:10

him, I closed the door behind me. And

43:12

I take I maybe like two

43:15

or three steps towards the couch. And the

43:17

couch is still there. Nothing moved,

43:19

no new furniture, like in that fight, everything

43:21

was the same. And I

43:23

take a few steps, he's ahead of me and he

43:25

says, do you want a Pepsi? And like before he

43:27

even finishes seeing Pepsi, I just hear on

43:30

the front door, like clear as day, just

43:32

the three loudest knocks I could hear. I

43:35

stop and he froze. And I just

43:38

sort of, I like shut down, like

43:40

almost like panic mode. When

43:44

it comes to like a fight, you know,

43:46

flight or freeze, I'm always a fight guy.

43:48

I'm not like tooting my horn. I'm like

43:50

some like aggro person. But typically, I don't

43:52

really back down and like freeze up. But

43:55

I froze up like I felt like my knees like,

43:57

like almost like lock up like you're not turning around.

43:59

And opening that. So we looked at

44:01

each other and we were just sort

44:03

of both like, what? And

44:07

he walked towards the door pretty hastily, I

44:09

should say to you, like he was going

44:11

to open it, like be like who the

44:13

hell is being on the door? And he

44:15

opened it and nobody's there. The German Shepherd

44:17

is sitting on this porch, like nothing's there.

44:19

And I can guarantee that if someone that was

44:21

at that house, I wasn't supposed to be there,

44:23

that dog would have been gnawing on them. I

44:25

mean, it was, it was a nice dog to

44:27

people that knew it, but if you

44:30

didn't know it, it's barking at you at the fence and

44:32

stuff. So

44:34

he's looking out the door, looks around, looks

44:36

back at me and I'm like, let's fucking

44:39

get this over with. So

44:41

we go up the stairs and

44:43

you know, the stairs themselves are just

44:45

creepy. It says they go up and then they

44:47

turn and then there's like a door at the

44:49

end of them and they have like that glass

44:51

that sort of like makes it

44:53

sort of blurry. It's like that weird like

44:55

patterned glass. And so

44:57

it's just everything can just sort of creep you out

44:59

when you're walking up there. Cause now I'm just like,

45:02

is this thing like, is this happening? Like is

45:04

this happening again? We opened up

45:07

the door, go down the hallway to the room

45:09

where the bed is and we're

45:11

grabbing the bed. And as we're grabbing the bed,

45:13

I hear those footsteps again, like

45:15

I heard on the, on the actual stairs.

45:17

I mean, but this time down the hallway

45:21

and it's a little bit faster. Like

45:23

it's like someone walking down the hall,

45:25

like not necessarily with haste,

45:27

but not as slow as the time down

45:30

the stairs. And

45:32

we froze up and looked at each other again.

45:35

And so like we didn't even get anything

45:37

out. He just started screaming. And he goes,

45:40

I start screaming and start dragging the

45:42

mattress. And so I'm pushing with him

45:44

and we're running down the hall and we're just

45:46

both started screaming. Uh, I

45:48

think at that point we're both like this house is

45:50

fucking with us. And so we started screaming like almost

45:53

like you do with like a bear or like a

45:55

wild cat or something. Like we thought we were going

45:57

to be allowed. And there was nothing in

45:59

the hallway. We round. to the corner there's nothing

46:01

but we're just screaming down the hallway. We get

46:03

to the end of the stairs and it's like

46:05

you can try to maneuver and do that. We

46:08

push the mattress down the stairs and just let

46:10

it roll down knock shit off whatever falls

46:12

down to the end of the staircase and

46:16

I start darting down the stairs with him and

46:18

we're dragging out we're throwing it into the bed

46:20

of the truck I'm not tying it down I'm

46:23

not fucking with any of that. He

46:25

locks up the door and we get

46:28

in my truck and drive up to the gate so we have

46:30

to get out of another gate at this point and

46:33

so he goes and starts unlocking the gate and

46:36

you know as he's unlocking

46:38

the gate he sort of stops and

46:40

looks up and this house has a

46:42

door like French doors on the second

46:45

story that go out to this balcony

46:47

that faces out to the street and

46:50

there's curtains on it but you can see

46:52

the light glowing and I should mention by

46:54

this point it was dark and it was

46:56

my dismay it was dark by the time

46:59

we got out and

47:01

there's just light glowing from the second story

47:04

and so the

47:07

brother Jake goes did

47:10

we go in my mom's room and

47:12

he's saying this and I'm not looking up I'm not aware

47:14

of the lights really on and I was like what and

47:16

he's like my mom's light is on so

47:18

I looked up in the rear view mirror and I

47:21

turn around in the truck so I'm driving and look

47:23

out through the back and the

47:25

light shuts off as we're both looking

47:27

at it and

47:29

Jake just makes like a whoa

47:31

noise kind of like what and starts unlocking

47:33

and we're out I mean we freaked out

47:36

we were like nope nope nope nope and

47:38

he hops in the car and there's a

47:40

guy walking his dog I remember and we

47:42

like peeled out he probably thought we were

47:44

robbing the place because it's it's an easily

47:46

caseable neighborhood for people that want to rob

47:48

it I'm sure like people know you got

47:50

money if you live over there that guy

47:52

looked at us like we had a mattress

47:54

in the back and we're peeling out in

47:57

this truck and we were driving I

47:59

mean blowing through stop signs almost in that neighborhood.

48:01

Cause I was just like, no, I'm good.

48:03

I'm not sticking around to see what else

48:05

wants to show itself. And

48:08

he called his mom on the way back

48:10

and asked her if she was home. He

48:12

said, he said to her, who's home? Cause

48:15

he did have a younger sister who

48:17

was like a preteen at the time, but she wouldn't have

48:19

been home by herself. And they had a

48:21

young, even younger brother who was a toddler who,

48:24

there were stories of him talking to stuff in the

48:26

house, by the way. He was like two or three.

48:28

And he would talk to the dumb waiter door, apparently,

48:31

just weird stuff like that. But

48:33

no one was home. And he said,

48:36

who's home? She

48:38

said, nobody. I thought you were going there. And he's like, I

48:40

was there, but who's home? And she

48:42

goes, nobody. And he said, your light just

48:45

was on and turned off. And she goes,

48:47

okay, well nobody's there. And

48:50

so he hung up and

48:52

we were quiet the rest of the drive to his new

48:54

house. And so we got there.

48:56

I unloaded it into the house with him.

48:59

And we were just sort of quiet for

49:01

a bit. And

49:03

that's when he was sort of just like, what the

49:05

fuck was that? And I was like, you telling me?

49:07

Like, what the fuck was that? You lived there, you

49:09

grew up there. And

49:11

there was a little bit of talk about like

49:13

how there were things that had happened there when

49:15

they were younger, but they didn't really think much

49:18

of it. But he had said

49:20

himself that it

49:22

had changed, that the feeling had changed,

49:24

that it seemed a little bit more

49:26

sinister. There

49:28

were stories of like, they would clean up their toys

49:30

and they'd come home and all their toys were out.

49:32

There was one toy in particular, I forget. It

49:37

was a very specific

49:40

toy that they spoke of that was one that

49:42

would show up other places in the house. Like

49:44

it would be sitting on a windowsill or sitting

49:47

in the bathroom or sitting on the kitchen table

49:49

in the morning kind of stuff. So

49:52

they had these little things, like there was a story

49:54

of the mom, she had people. I don't know if

49:56

she was like a beautician or she did hair and

49:58

stuff, but she would have clients. come through the house

50:01

sometimes. And one lady said that

50:03

she heard the younger brother playing with her

50:06

hair and was seen playing with her hair.

50:09

And then when the mom came in

50:11

the room, the lady said, oh, your

50:13

son's so sweet or whatever. And she goes, yeah. She

50:15

goes, I miss him when he's gone. And she said,

50:17

what do you mean? She said, he's with his dad

50:19

right now. And the lady apparently like

50:22

got up and left. So these are all

50:24

stories I'm hearing now, like after we had

50:26

gone to this house. Now I'm starting

50:28

to hear this stuff. Yeah, like

50:30

full disclosure would have been nice because like

50:32

that house is sketchy as fuck. Like that

50:35

place is haunted. Like after

50:37

hearing things audibly when I knew I wasn't

50:39

sleeping, that was enough for me to be

50:41

like, something's trying to make itself known again.

50:44

So yeah, I didn't hang around his new

50:46

house that night. I wanted to get home

50:48

again. I was just like, maybe I

50:51

need to stop hanging out with these dudes. And

50:54

I went home. I mean, I told my

50:56

parents about it too. And that wasn't

50:59

really something. I didn't really talk to my parents

51:01

that much, but I was like, yeah, that house

51:03

is haunted on Christmas tree lane. That house is

51:05

fucking haunted. And

51:08

so I sort of told them about it. And like

51:10

my dad and mom are like pretty like, yeah,

51:13

it might be, man, like straight up. I mean, I wasn't

51:15

wanting to really make up these elaborate

51:18

stories. I mean, as a kid, yeah, sure.

51:21

But like as an adult, I think for

51:23

them it was like, oh,

51:26

like you saw something. Almost

51:28

like they didn't want to acknowledge it

51:31

too. And that was always my dad's

51:33

thing was like, you can't really, if

51:35

you give him too much power, cause he

51:37

was sort of like religious and stuff, it

51:39

gives him energy and like makes him like

51:41

more real or like strong or whatever. But

51:44

his stuff was always like demons and the

51:46

devil and stuff like that. But I

51:49

like told them about it and I was like, yeah, I'm good.

51:52

I ended up going to sleep. And

51:55

when I slept that night, I had

51:57

another really vivid dream of the

51:59

house. It

52:02

was almost like I wasn't in the truck,

52:04

but almost like I was not

52:06

floating, I want to say, but just being moved through

52:09

the dream from the driveway up to

52:11

the front door. And

52:13

the dog was on the porch and I

52:15

go up to the front door. And

52:19

again, nothing that I'm choosing to do, it

52:21

just happened. I just go on

52:23

the front door and be in the front door and

52:26

the door opens and

52:28

Jake answers the door and I'm

52:31

standing behind Jake frozen the

52:33

way I was just looking out towards

52:36

the door. But like I'm

52:38

looking at nothing and I'm there again

52:40

and I feel

52:44

it out of my peripheral and I'm

52:47

getting visible chills right now. I

52:50

feel it out of my peripheral at

52:52

the staircase again, just looking at me

52:54

and I try not to look at it,

52:57

but I get a glimpse of it

52:59

just almost like to validate that this

53:01

is what I'm seeing and feeling again.

53:03

And there it is, just this dark blur again.

53:07

It was very unsettling and seeing

53:09

Jake looking around out the door

53:11

and not seeing me, not acknowledging

53:15

me and me looking out the door, not

53:17

seeing me, not acknowledging me. I

53:20

was there as like a specter and myself, was

53:22

very weird and that scared me. And

53:28

so when I woke up, I

53:30

was like, never again. For

53:33

a burrito, for $20, for $1,000. And

53:37

it's hard because we live like

53:40

across maybe one major street, like a neighborhood

53:42

away from it. So, I mean, we've walked

53:44

there from our house, not to the house

53:46

specifically, but to Christmas Street Lane. And

53:50

when we walked by it, I

53:52

do not like walking on that side of the

53:54

street. I don't like being close to it. I

53:56

don't like looking towards it whatsoever. During

53:59

Christmas, when it's Christmas. that

56:00

I can't explain it. And that for someone

56:02

like me is very difficult that I can't

56:05

explain something. I'm

56:07

used to being able to explain things or find

56:09

a way to explain something. And obviously

56:11

there's those things that you can't explain that

56:13

are, no one can explain, but

56:15

they're sort of like reasonably accepted,

56:18

but that's hard to accept, that

56:21

you can go to a house one night

56:23

for a sleepover and then

56:26

basically have this weird out of body

56:28

dream. And then go there five years

56:31

later, what is it, five or six years later? I

56:33

think it's five years later, go

56:35

back and have a more

56:37

visceral experience outside of your

56:39

dream and in person is

56:42

very intense. I

56:44

almost wonder if I went back there now, if

56:47

I went to sleep, I would have a

56:49

dream about that house if I was, you

56:51

know. Cause one time is one thing, but

56:53

two, I feel like that's just, it's weird.

56:55

That to me is weird. And some people

56:57

would say, I'm

57:00

sure they could probably chop it

57:02

up to over-traumatic experience or whatever

57:04

else. But I mean, to have

57:06

such a vivid visceral dream is

57:09

just, it's, I

57:11

don't know. I've never had a dream

57:13

like that in my life. That's just made

57:16

me feel like scared when I

57:18

woke up. Like you weren't safe

57:20

now that you're up. Like it's

57:22

still out in the world. It's

57:24

not a dream creature or something,

57:26

you know. All

57:33

right, thank you so much to Christian for

57:35

telling us that story. I'm

57:38

always really, really interested to hear

57:41

things like that from a person whose job

57:43

is already so strange, a

57:45

job that most people would be terrified to

57:47

do, or at least would

57:50

associate with the paranormal. I

57:52

mean, he literally works with

57:54

death every single day. That

57:56

being said, it's interesting that this

57:59

one. stuck with him so much and

58:02

really is sticking with him to this day, I know that

58:04

he's scared to even drive by

58:06

this house, even though he has to

58:09

quite often. Of course, I

58:13

was really curious to see

58:15

if we could find this guy, the

58:18

person that lived in this house, the

58:20

brothers, anybody that

58:22

was there for this. They really truly

58:25

did drop off the face of the

58:27

earth. Christian was

58:29

working hard to find

58:31

them. I worked as well. He

58:34

did call me with some updates,

58:37

nothing extreme, but I

58:39

will put that conversation on

58:41

Patreon for anybody interested. That

58:44

being said, we could not find any

58:47

of these guys and I'm pretty good at finding people and

58:50

he has access to police records, so

58:54

pretty interesting. That brings

58:56

us to the end of this episode. This

58:58

has been The House on Christmas Tree Lane and

59:01

you've been listening to Otherworld. Otherworld

59:04

is executive produced and hosted by myself,

59:06

Jack Wagner. Our theme song is by

59:08

Cobra Man. The soundtrack of this episode

59:10

is by Juice Jekyll. This episode was

59:12

edited and engineered by Theo Schaefer. Our

59:15

artwork is by Cultisac Studios. Production help

59:17

by Nikki Kate Delgado and Hayley Parson.

59:19

Please show us your support by subscribing,

59:21

leaving a five-star review, and telling your

59:23

friends. If you wanna hear more episodes

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of the show, you could sign up

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to become a patron of Otherworld at

59:29

patreon.com/otherworld. Our social media is at otherworldpod.

59:31

Thank you to the team at Odyssey,

59:33

JD Crowley, Jenna Weiss-Berman, Leah Reese Dennis,

59:36

Rob Morandi, Eric Donnelly, Matt Casey, Maura

59:38

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or somebody you know has experienced something

59:49

supernatural, paranormal, or unexplained, you could send

59:51

us your story at storiesatotherworldpod.com. Hey,

1:00:05

Diane holiday shopping all done Everyone's

1:00:07

getting the new iPhone 15 from T-Mobile and T-Mobile

1:00:09

is covering the cost plus I got four lines

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for 25 bucks a line per month I gotta

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line connection charge apply see T-Mobile Hey Diane,

1:00:35

holiday shopping? All done. Everyone's

1:00:37

getting the new iPhone 15 from T-Mobile. And T-Mobile's

1:00:39

covering the cost. Plus I got four lines for

1:00:41

25 bucks a line per month. I gotta get

1:00:43

to T-Mobile. Get four iPhone 15s

1:00:45

on us with eligible trade-in when you

1:00:47

switch to T-Mobile. Minimum of four

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lines for $25 per line per month with auto pay discount

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using debit or bank account. $5 more per

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line without auto pay plus taxes and fees. Phone fee at

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24 monthly bill credits for well qualified customers. Contact us before

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