Cedar Hills

15-year-old Couita and her family move into a rental house in Cedar Hills, Texas. As soon as her Dad leaves on a work trip, a stranger moves in to keep them company.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:05Glynn Washington?

  I stole her lucky charm, which made it cursed. Because that's just the way it works and all I touch goes bad inside. I've tried, but some things you must abide. That day, I vowed I'd see her end. So I placed the curse it charm right back again.

• 0:35Glynn Washington?

  Listen to Spooked. Stay tuned.

• 0:43Glynn Washington?

  Life is all about making decisions. Sometimes you make questionable ones, like buying a new TV that's too big for the wall because the electronics store employee was a little too good at their job. And sometimes you make great ones, like protecting your home and auto with Progressive. You get customized coverage options so you can be sure you have the right coverage for you. Along with 24/7 claim support and great customer service. So when you think about it, that's like four great decisions that more than makes up for the TV debacle. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers. Not available in all states.

• 1:26Glynn Washington?

  Spooksters, you have spoken. We want more spook, you said. We want to support the show, you said. And can we please, for the love of all that is holy, please get rid of those ads. Well, prayers answered. Spooked Plus has risen. Ad-free spook. The entire library, no interruptions. Just you and whatever's lurking in the shadows. Exclusive bonus stories every month. Fresh nightmares you won't hear anywhere else. The Spooked Plus community, listen together, chat in real time because no one should face the darkest alone. And, and, ask me anything for yours truly.

• 2:10Glynn Washington?

  If you've got questions, I've got answers. Maybe, and we're just getting started. Spook says, "We are a small team chasing down the big mystery. Your support keeps this flame burning, so come on in. The door is open. Spooked.supercast.com. That's Spooked.supercast.com. Spooked Plus. Don't turn out the lights.

• 2:45Glynn Washington?

  My grandmama's house, near the corner of Kirchvile and Fisher Avenue, Detroit, Michigan. Every single one of us, her dozens of grandkids, we still call it grandmama's house. But my grandfather lived there too, long after she passed, but it's still grandmama's house. And I've told you about this place before because it loomed so large in my mind. My first memory was there. I still recall the gunfire, the screaming, my first hiding place, hoping no one would find me under the stairs. The first time I saw a house burn, the Perry's place, right across the street, that night,

• 3:30Glynn Washington?

  watching the entire Perry family standing bewildered in just their underclothes, orange flames consuming the little bit they still had. And I was in Detroit recently to visit some cousins. Together, we decided to drive by the spot, the spot where everything happened. Grandmama's house. So tiny now to my adult eyes, so raggedy, so pitiful. Just one of two houses still standing on the block. The rest, the entire neighborhood, long ago condemned and torn down by the city as part of the blight abatement program.

• 4:13Glynn Washington?

  My grandmama's house has someone's car in front of it, someone that is not us. There are lights on, somebody in the kitchen. And at first, it makes me wonder, but it makes me angry. Who is that inside my grandmama's house? How dare they? This is the closest thing we have to sacred land. So many stories inside this A-frame. This belongs to us, to me. And I know we owned it once.

• 4:49Glynn Washington?

  Why don't we own it now?

• 4:52Glynn Washington?

  And then, from my cousins, the story spills out. They tell me for the first time that our sacred tract of land, our hallowed ground, after my grandfather passed, it was traded away to a drug dealer in order to clear debt, to save a life.

• 5:14Glynn Washington?

  And whose life is a story for another day, but we transacted it away so that we now have to stand outside, looking in, on tiptoes, just trying to get a peek inside. And I wonder if the house somehow knows we've returned because stories are ghosts

• 5:38Glynn Washington?

  and this spot will be forever haunted for us,

• 5:44Glynn Washington?

  with us.

• 5:47Glynn Washington?

  And then, instead of anger, I feel pity for whoever lives there now, and I wonder if we should tell them, if we should warn them to leave while you still can, run away because this place takes her offerings in blood.

• 6:08Glynn Washington?

  Instead, we snap pictures

• 6:14Glynn Washington?

  to remind us that it happened.

• 6:17Glynn Washington?

  Then we get back into the car.

• 6:21Glynn Washington?

  We drive away.

• 7:29Glynn Washington?

  Now, 15-year-old Queeda Nikosi, and her parents, and her seven siblings, they're looking to make a move away from their home in Grand Prairie, Texas. They think perhaps this next rental house might just be the spot. It's got four bedrooms. It's got a huge patio, a field for the youngsters to play in, but, you know, it's a scoop.

• 8:09Speaker 01

  There was an incident that happened at our family. My brother passed away. We had a lot of emotions in the house. So my mother wanted to give us all a fresh start. She found a town called Cedar Hill, Texas. It was a nice community. The school was good. She wanted my twin brothers to continue sports and band and to graduate from the high school there. My siblings were very close. We were the kind of kids that went outside 8 o'clock in the morning and then come back home until 5 because we were out playing. There were kids all over the place. In fact, I knew everybody in that whole little section of neighborhoods. We played football.

• 8:54Speaker 01

  We ran around in the neighborhood. We have a good time together. But I am very close to my baby sister, Nita. Nita and I are the only girls out of all boys.

• 9:10Speaker 01

  We were living in a house for a whole week. Then my dad had to take a run. My dad was a full-time truck driver. My dad had to pick up glass in Canada. He was gonna be gone for five days, which is perfectly fine, so mom took care of us. Even if my dad was not there, my mother kept us together. You know, kept the structure going on for us. We ate breakfast, went to school, come back home. She'd come in, cook supper, we'd eat, everybody get ready for bed.

• 9:43Speaker 01

  It was the first night that my dad had left on his truck driving. My sister and I were in her bedroom. We're the only ones that shared a room. We had two twin beds. I slept near the window and she slept near the door.

• 9:59Speaker 01

  I was sleeping and I felt something grab me.

• 10:04Speaker 01

  I'm trying to figure out to myself what's going on. I realize it's my sister. She's shaking and just whimpering crying into my ears and holding on to me. I'm like, what's wrong?

• 10:20Speaker 01

  She said, "There was a man in our room."

• 10:28Speaker 01

  The moon is shining in and I'm looking around the room like, what man? Who was he? And she said, "He's all black. I can't tell."

• 10:37Speaker 01

  She said he went to the window and was looking out the window. And then it started coming towards our bed, so she went under covers. Pretended she's snoring really loud. She peeked out and didn't see him anymore. And that's when she jumped in bed with me.

• 10:54Speaker 01

  I'm looking at the window. I don't see anything. There's nothing. And she's like, "He's gone."

• 11:02Speaker 01

  She was sweating. Seeing the fear in my sister, I was terrified. I was scared, but I had to keep her calm. So I just held her tight. She talked about telling my mom.

• 11:18Speaker 01

  And I said, "Well, just stay in bed with me." I told my sister not to tell my mom because my mom has a lot going on.

• 11:28Speaker 01

  I drifted off, but I kept waking up, looking around, focusing the room with my eyes.

• 11:36Speaker 01

  We got up the next morning. The way my sister looked, the fear in her face was still there. That day, she stayed with me the whole time. I didn't go to nobody's house. We just sit outside on the patio together. And I just held her hand all day. We didn't talk about it. We didn't tell my mom. We told nobody what happened.

• 12:07Glynn Washington?

  Life is all about making decisions. Sometimes you make questionable ones, like buying a new TV that's too big for the wall because the electronics store employee was a little too good at their job. And sometimes you make great ones, like protecting your home and auto with Progressive. You get customized coverage options so you can be sure you have the right coverage for you, along with 24/7 claim support and great customer service. So when you think about it, that's like four great decisions that more than makes up for the TV debacle. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers, not available in all states.

• 12:54Speaker 01

  Tuesday night, it's getting dark. We go to our bedroom and I said, "You're sleeping with me tonight. We're keeping the light on, you know, everything's gonna be okay." And she says, "Okay." I'm holding my arms and I go off to sleep. I woke up because of her. She's practically scratching my neck. She said, "Quita, wake up, wake up, wake up." I looked at her face and she's crying and I'm like, "What?" And she's, "He came back. Why didn't you wake up?" And I said, "What? I was like, "I didn't see it. I didn't hear it."

• 13:36Speaker 01

  She said, "He came back into our room, walked up across in front of our bed, went to the window and looked out the window. And then he walked right back out again."

• 13:48Speaker 01

  She goes, "Hold me, hold me, hold me." You know, I'm holding her tighter. Seeing the fear in my sister, I was terrified. We just sat there in the bed crying, holding on to each other. But the whole time, I'm telling her, "It's gonna be okay. The sun's gonna come out soon. It's gonna be okay." I had to be the strong one for her.

• 14:16Speaker 01

  It was the third day, and I knew I gotta do something. All day, I kept thinking, "Why is this person or shadow looking out the window?" If you look out the window, you will see a house across the street, and you will see an open field. My plan was, that night, I was gonna get the dresser and put it in front of the door. So whatever was going to come into our bedroom couldn't come in.

• 14:47Speaker 01

  Right when it gets dark, like at 9 o'clock, we started taking out drawers. And we only got maybe about a couple of drawers out, and we're gonna move it. And that's when we heard my brother Marvin scream.

• 15:01Speaker 01

  We looked at each other, and I opened my bedroom door. I looked down the hall, and there's my brother running.

• 15:10Speaker 01

  My mom comes out of her room, grabbed him around the shoulders and said, "What's wrong?" Marvin said, "Mom, somebody's in our house. Somebody's in our house."

• 15:23Speaker 01

  I just tensed my whole body up, and I hold my breath. Tears start coming to my eyes, because I'm so scared. Marvin's pointed into the little den by the front door. He said that there was a man standing there, all in black.

• 15:41Speaker 01

  Marvin said he was looking out the window. Then he ran, straight out to the back patio.

• 15:48Speaker 01

  My sister and I just froze and stared at each other, because, you know, she said the same thing. He was looking out the window.

• 15:57Speaker 01

  My mom turned around, looked at my sister and I, and she said, "You two go sleep with me tonight." I said, "Mom, Nita's seen it too." She looks at Nita, and she said, "You seen it?" Nita's not in a really good position to talk, because she's crying.

• 16:15Speaker 01

  So I told her about the two nights. And my mom just like is shocked. She goes, "Well, they'll just get bed with me then. Get bed, get in bed." Marvin and Mary, the twins, came into the room and slept on the floor. My two brothers were about to turn seventeen. They're really like protected over as little ones. To see them being older than us, wanting to sleep with my mom, that is something that's out of character. But they came in with bedding and slept on the floor. We've never, ever slept in our parents' room. So being them is all in there was different. But it's also comforting, having us all together.

• 17:02Speaker 01

  I feel a little relieved that everybody knows, but

• 17:08Speaker 01

  I don't understand what it is.

• 17:12Speaker 01

  The next morning, we got up. My mother was in the kitchen and didn't talk about it. Didn't talk about it at all. The whole day, we just kind of like all stayed together, though. My brothers, they're usually off with their friends, bicycle riding or somewhere. They stayed home, too. We all stayed in the living room that whole day and just watched TV.

• 17:35Speaker 01

  My mom comes in with the food. She made tacos. And she puts it on the coffee table.

• 17:43Speaker 01

  She tells us, "I think somebody has a key to this house. I think a neighbor or somebody is breaking in our house."

• 17:55Speaker 01

  I wouldn't believe my mom, but I could tell she was worried. I think she was just trying to tell us something to make us feel comfortable. Because we were only native kids in the neighborhood. My mother had a lot to run into with the police and a lot had to come with the color of their skin and stuff like that. So I'm sure that's one where my mom would never call the police.

• 18:18Speaker 01

  We don't say anything, we just listen to her and we're all like, we're gonna be okay because mom knows.

• 18:31Speaker 01

  It's getting late. Mom goes, "Let's all go to bed. We're gonna put the dresser in front of the door and we're all gonna stay in the room together." We all went down the hall. My brother turned the hall light on. As a group, we all went into the bedroom. She closed the door and the boys all get that dresser. It's a big, heavy dresser and they shove it in front of the door. We have the bedroom light on. My mom's just sitting on the bed. My little sister's in bed with my mother and I decided I was gonna sit on the floor. I was just laying there collecting my thoughts about everything and thinking everything's gonna be okay now because the dresser's in front of the door.

• 19:18Speaker 01

  No one's talking. My younger brother, Nishoba, was singing some songs. And then someone banged on that bedroom door. It was a loud bang, like ping bang. The door shook a little. My little sister was crying. She was on my brother's back and I'm on the floor.

• 19:46Speaker 01

  The doorknob turned and I turned to look at my mom. And my mom's got her mouth open and she's screaming.

• 19:59Speaker 01

  To see her that vulnerable scared me.

• 20:05Speaker 01

  My mother's head, she realized it wasn't a neighbor like she thought it was. We're all crying and shaking. My mom, she gets up and she said, "Help me move the dresser."

• 20:20Speaker 01

  I didn't know why she was doing it. My brothers were all like reluctant to get up to help her to move it. But they get up. I was scared of what was behind that door. I was scared that she was gonna let whatever it was in the room.

• 20:37Speaker 01

  My mom moves the dresser and she slowly opens the door. She's got one hand on the wall and she's turning the knob really slow. And she barely opens it.

• 20:56Speaker 01

  The hall light is off. That's what really scared me. She peeks her head out trying to look. And so she has to open it a little bit wider and wider. And then she looks down the hall and she said, "Run, run."

• 21:16Speaker 01

  We all just jump up. I grabbed my sister's hand and we run. We're all just taking off, running down the hall. I'm looking down the ground. We took a right in front of the living room and my oldest brother Beaver led us out the back door.

• 21:35Speaker 01

  As soon as we got out of the house, we all ran to get as far from the house we can in the backyard.

• 21:49Speaker 01

  Beaver turned to mom and said, "When I went around that corner, he was standing there. Mom, he's back in there. He's at the window again. He was in the living room." I thought to myself, "I'm glad I was looking at my feet." We're all standing there. Mom's like, "So tell me, tell me exactly what y'all seen. What have y'all seen?" Beaver said like, "He had no face." That sent me like, "Oh crap, what is this? It's not a man. No face. Did he have a mask on?" All this was going through my head.

• 22:26Speaker 01

  Half of us sat on the ground and half of us were sitting around a station wagon that we had in the backyard. But we were facing the house. Even though the patio light was on, the house seemed dark.

• 22:41Speaker 01

  While we're sitting there, I heard footsteps coming. Something walking coming around the house. We all froze and looked up.

• 23:04Speaker 01

  We all froze and looked up. He came out of the darkness of the house.

• 23:14Speaker 01

  And it was my dad.

• 23:19Speaker 01

  His eyes were huge, just looking at all of us. He was trying to understand what's going on and looking at my mom. We're all grabbing my dad. I was really crying. Couldn't even get off the ground crying. Seeing him made us feel like, okay, it's gonna be alright now. Dad's here. Dad's gonna make it better. Dad's stronger. He'll take care of everything.

• 23:46Speaker 01

  But I was still scared. He said, "Bernice, what's going on?" She says, "Henry, somebody's in our house. Somebody's been in our house this whole week." Dad goes, "Y'all stay here. Stay over here. I'm gonna go in there."

• 24:04Speaker 01

  My dad went back in by himself.

• 24:08Speaker 01

  We're sitting there holding on to each other and, uh, my dad comes out and he said, "I don't see anybody."

• 24:15Speaker 01

  He looks at my mom. My mom is crying. She is shaking so bad. So he reaches over and he holds my mom.

• 24:23Speaker 01

  He said, "We're leaving. Everybody get in the car. We're going to Ada. We're gonna go to Aunt Louise."

• 24:32Speaker 01

  I'm almost thinking, "Guess we're leaving."

• 24:36Speaker 01

  So we get in the car and my dad pulls out.

• 24:40Speaker 01

  My dad being there, I felt so safe, I fell asleep. I slept hard until we got into Ada.

• 24:48Speaker 01

  I think that whatever it was is in that house and us being there attracted it to us. And it wanted us to know it was there, but to me, I felt like it wanted to scare us.

• 25:06Speaker 01

  My mother was very superstitious, like, "Don't talk about what happened because it might come back."

• 25:14Speaker 01

  My mother was really strong. She really chilled any emotions, but that fear in her scared all of us.

• 25:22Speaker 01

  My siblings will not discuss it.

• 25:27Speaker 01

  After my mother had passed, I asked my dad, "Did mom ever talk to you about that house?"

• 25:33Speaker 01

  He goes, "Yeah, but after she told me what happened, she didn't want to talk about it ever again." So you know how your mom was. And I said, "How did you come home so fast that night?"

• 25:46Speaker 01

  He said, "I was driving home and I was going to drop off that diesel, my rig first, and then get my car and come home."

• 25:57Speaker 01

  I was coming in and my mom came in my ear.

• 26:03Speaker 01

  My grandmother had passed in 1958. He said it wasn't a whisper, it was her voice. And said, "Henry, you need to get home. They need you." I drove that rig straight on to Cedar Hill. And I got there and that's when I saw all of y'all outside. And I told them, "You know, that was the best thing that ever happened to us was to see you."

• 26:39Glynn Washington?

  Thank you so much, Akwede Nkosi, for sharing your story with the Spooked. That story was scored by Nicholas Marks and was produced by Chris Hambrik.

• 27:06Glynn Washington?

  We often hold that there is a magic in objects. Charms, tokens, amusements, things that can bring us power. Money. The love of our lives, perhaps. Everything I know tells me that it's never that simple, but I know nothing. Perhaps you have knowledge. Perhaps you have the experience with an object of power, the ability to use it for your own benefit. Or perhaps, the ability to wield it to someone else's detriment. Do you have it? Can I see it? If so, please let me know. If you allow me to pick it up, I promise, I'll be ever so careful.

• 27:49Glynn Washington?

  What I'd really like, more than anything else, is the story, because you know, there is nothing better than a Spooked story from a Spooked listener. [email protected]. Please tell me about it. [email protected]. And if you would like stories, the void of the creepy crawlies, told in the bright light of day, our sister podcast is The Amazing, The Stupendous Snap Judgment, available everywhere forever and ever, into all the world, it's storytelling with A beat.

• 28:35Glynn Washington?

  Spooked is brought to you by the team where each and every member has a photographic memory. Some of course from Mark Ristich. You're gonna wanna write him a note. There's Davy Kim, Chris Hambrick, Leon Morimoto, Theo Decot, Marissa Dodge, Zoe Fergno, Anne Ford, Miles Lassie, Yari Bundy, Eric Yanez, Cody Harjo, Lola Abraha, Doug Stewart. The Spooked theme song is by Pat Messina Miller. My name is Glynn Washington. Someone told me the other day, someone I've known for a long time, they told me that instead of encouraging children to explore their histories in order to avoid the horrors of the past,

• 29:18Glynn Washington?

  instead she's working to simply ban the books that mention their histories. Or alternatively, forbid the teaching of certain words in educational settings on the theory that if you say certain words, like for instance, if you utter the term slavery, someone, somewhere, might be encouraged to explore what that word actually means, what slavery entails, what role it's played in our country, and as such, they may in fact feel something less than pride in our shared story. And that forcing someone to feel this discomfort, this revulsion, this shame about a history, this cannot be tolerated. No. She told me that stories unchecked,

• 30:03Glynn Washington?

  that histories unbound are matches on the tender of young minds that can tear whole communities apart. Happy lies are far better than unhappy truths. And I listened silent because I wanted to understand, and when she asked me finally if I could imagine anything more sinister than presenting people with their own histories, it took me a moment

• 30:30Glynn Washington?

  before saying, "I hear that you are afraid, and let me just say that I'm afraid too, not just of you, but the same things you're afraid of." The hatreds, the divisions, the societal collapse, more than ever, it can feel like we're fighting darkness and darkness is winning. But I know that stories are candles, and the more candles you have, the more you can see, the brighter the world becomes.

• 31:01Glynn Washington?

  And when presented with the alternative, the very best advice that I know to give

• 31:10Glynn Washington?

  is to never, ever, never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever turn out black.