The Shadow Guest Pt. 2

Angelo and Leanne’s “night of terror” begins. As the inexplicable sights and sounds reach a peak, Angelo even begins to question the intentions of his old friend Jason. Eventually, his quest to protect his family leads him to discover an unbelievable truth. Part 2 of 2.

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

• 0:08Glynn Washington?

  Something's creeping, this I know. The Book of Shadows tells me so. I am weak and it is strong. It cares not for right or wrong. Yes, it can see me. Yes, it can hear me. It hates me dearly.

• 0:35Glynn Washington?

  The Book, it told me so. You've crossed over. Spooked, Field Guide to the Shadow. Stay tuned.

• 0:56Speaker 01

  Why have so many crop circles appeared around Britain? How did thousands of people demonstrate powers of telepathy? Can the dead suck the life from the living? Join me, Tim Harford, for a trip into the paranormal throughout Halloween month on Cautionary Tales. Listen to Cautionary Tales on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 1:24Speaker 02

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• 3:08Speaker 03

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• 4:01Glynn Washington?

  Welcome to Spooked: Field Guide to the Shadow. This is the second of our two-part series, The Shadow Guest. My name is Clinton Washington, and last time, we met Angelo and Leanne. Early 30s, three kids, living on the Blackfoot Reservation, and Angelo has a brand-new job at the funeral home, transporting the dead. One night, driving home from work, Angelo comes upon a terrible car wreck. Twisted metal, emergency lights, chaos. And just a little further down the road, he sees someone walking. His old friend Jason. Angelo pulls over. Jason gets in, says he's going through something.

• 4:44Glynn Washington?

  Says he needs somewhere to stay, just for a few nights. Angelo says, "Of course, come home, stay with us." But immediately, something feels wrong. Jason is usually loud, usually funny, boisterous, but now, he's quiet. He's distant, like some part of him is somewhere else. And that same night, Angelo gets called back into work. His boss needs him to retrieve a body and bring it to the funeral home. On the drive back, the body bag keeps coming undone, slamming against the back of Angelo's seat again and again. Angelo finally gets the body inside into the cooler.

• 5:25Glynn Washington?

  He closes the door, and hears knocking from the inside. No, no, no, no. Angelo tears off towards home, but whatever started that night does not stay at the funeral parlor. Over the next few days, with Jason still sleeping in the guest room, things get worse and worse, until finally, Leanne screams. Angelo runs to the bedroom window, and outside, in the darkness, a horde of faceless shadow figures gather around their home. Angelo, Leanne, the three kids, all of them huddled together inside one bedroom, watching the shadows outside, trying to decide what they will do now.

• 6:09Glynn Washington?

  And I let Angelo take it from here. Spooked.

• 6:19Speaker 04

  And then we heard three loud bangs on the back door, and it was just about two feet away from me, and I jumped. She opened the door and looked out, but there was nothing, just an eerie silence. The little ones, they kept running and screaming into our room. They were screaming and jumping up and down, and they cried, and they were pointing down the hallway. Olivia, she laid out a blood curdling scream. And all that came out of her mouth was, "Daddy, daddy." And that's when our night of terror began.

• 7:11Speaker 04

  The little ones, they kept running and screaming into our room. My son, Ruben, he said, "Dada." Somebody was at the door, trying to take my sister outside, crying as she was pointing towards the door. I said, "Who did you see, Ruben? Who did it look like? Was it a man? Was it a woman? Was it Jason?" Ruben said, "No, it was an Uncle Jason. It didn't look like him."

• 7:41Speaker 04

  Leanne, she spoke up and said, "Angelo, you need to do something." And that's when I decided I was going to go over there and see what was going on. I went to my room to get my flashlight and my handgun. I said, "Honey, you and the kids stay in the living room." I locked the door and I pushed the dresser against the back door, because I didn't want anything getting in, harming my family. At that point, I ran out to get Jason, but he was already outside. I met him outside. He had a look like a two-by-four in his hand. He was kind of excited. It was like, this is more the guy I know, you know? He said, "Look, I've seen somebody

• 8:25Speaker 04

  looking in your kitchen window and trying to get in your house. You're not going to believe this, but when I got close enough to smack him with my stick, he just vanished into thin air." I said, "Well, that someone just tried to take my baby." I asked Jason to stand guard by my trailer and watch over my wife and my children. And he said, "Where are you going, Angelo?" And I said, "Over to the big trailer." As I got closer to the big trailer, I could hear voices, but I couldn't hear the actual conversations. The closer I got, the louder it sounded.

• 9:10Speaker 04

  I just turned my ear to the door before I walked in there. I was listening. It sounded like a room full of people, all talking at once, like mumbled and jumbled.

• 9:27Speaker 04

  I began to insert the key into the doorknob. I slung it open as fast as I could, expecting people to be in there. But all I heard was the low hum of the refrigerator. I stepped inside, and I hit the light switch on, but they didn't turn on. And just when I reached the middle of the room, the door slammed behind me. I pointed my flashlight toward the hallway. As I was walking out, while I looked out the window and straight over into our trailer. And in my bedroom, I seen the most ugly creature I ever laid my eyes on. It reminded me of a gunny sack over somebody's head.

• 10:12Speaker 04

  And it was like skin wrinkled and ugly. It slowly turned to look out the window and at me. It didn't have no eyes. It were just like black sockets, nothing else. At that point, I broke onto sweat, and I felt like I was going to throw up. It was as if I was watching myself, telling myself, "Come on, move, move. Move your family's in there with that thing over there." I opened my mouth, but nothing. I tried to shout to Jason, but my whole body seemed to just shut down.

• 10:54Speaker 04

  I felt like my feet were part of the floor. I slowly started squeezing my fist, trying to move, and I couldn't move anything else but, you know, my fingers. Boom. Somehow, I was able to fire the pistol that was in my hand. I missed my foot back about two or three inches. And when it went boom, it's like whatever that kind of thing spell he had on me, it broke.

• 11:26Speaker 04

  I ran back to our trailer and I was over there pounding on the front door screaming to Leanne, "Open it up, I have the key."

• 11:35Speaker 04

  She knew it was me when I said that. She opened the door and Ruben was standing behind him crying.

• 11:43Speaker 04

  But I didn't see my baby Angie. I didn't see her in the living room or in the little kitchen, you know? Leanne said that she didn't know where she was. Maybe she didn't put her down when they were holding the door. I started calling her, I said, "Angela, baby, come here, where are you at?"

• 12:01Speaker 04

  I was walking to the kitchen and that's where I seen Jason.

• 12:06Speaker 04

  He was walking down the hallway, he was carrying Angela. And my wife, she tried to take Angela from Jason, she was saying, "Come on, come here, baby, mommy's here, mommy's got you." And Angela, she wouldn't let go of Jason.

• 12:22Speaker 04

  She had her arm around his neck and she wouldn't let him go.

• 12:29Speaker 04

  We all went back into the living room to try and pull ourselves together.

• 12:35Speaker 04

  In the end, I made eye contact with one another and she indicated for me to look at a rot white, or Sadie.

• 12:44Speaker 04

  I noticed that she was sitting there, her upper lip was curled and like a snare, looking directly at Jason.

• 12:52Speaker 04

  When I seen Sadie, the way she looked at him, it made me turn my attention to Jason.

• 13:00Speaker 04

  I mean, I was afraid. Seeing him holding my baby, you know, I wondered, "How'd you get in here, Jason?"

• 13:10Speaker 04

  I know I locked the front door. I remember pushing that dresser against the back door. You know, these guys wouldn't let me in, and how did he get in? And how is he in there holding my baby?

• 13:24Speaker 04

  Even though he was my good friend, you know, I was thinking all kinds of things.

• 13:31Speaker 04

  I know you love kids, love people. But at that moment, I even started to think that he was the one that was in there, you know, trying to take my kids.

• 13:42Speaker 04

  I turned to Jason and I said, "How'd you get in here, Jason?"

• 13:49Speaker 04

  He didn't respond, you know, he didn't answer me.

• 13:53Speaker 04

  And I raised my voice a little bit. I said, "Jason, how'd you get in here?" And at the same time, I caught that revolver in my hand.

• 14:02Speaker 04

  He said, "I thought I seen somebody in your back room, but I couldn't get in there. So I crawled in your window." And as soon as I got in the window, I seen baby girl. Grabbed her and that's when we met in the hallway.

• 14:19Speaker 04

  I thought to myself, "Wait." The window was like about six, seven feet up from the ground and it was like this big? One by two, maybe?

• 14:31Speaker 04

  My heart was pounding.

• 14:34Speaker 04

  But all of a sudden, we heard what sounded like someone was running on top of the trailer. Footsteps running across there and everyone was crying and shouting at the same time.

• 14:48Speaker 04

  At that point, I have to confess that I never felt, you know, so helpless in all my life.

• 14:55Speaker 04

  And I just, I want to cry out for my dad. I want to scream for him to help me. My mom, you know, somebody I could run to who protects me.

• 15:07Speaker 04

  I know I had to try and do something to calm the kids down and the first thing I thought about was, "Where's the smudge?" Leanne said, "Are you gonna smudge again? I don't think that's gonna work, Angela, how many times you been using that stuff?"

• 15:22Speaker 04

  I said, "Leanne, I'm scared." I remember telling you, I said, "Leanne, I'm scared, I'm scared shitless." Thinking like a child, I just shouted out, it just came out, "Call the cops!"

• 15:36Speaker 04

  Then Jason looked at me, he said, "Are you serious? You think we're crazy?"

• 15:44Speaker 04

  Leanne was raised in the Christian faith. And she started praying and she was rebuking this thing and commanding it back to how, back to wherever it came from.

• 15:58Speaker 05

  I just had to just take a deep breath and just take authority.

• 16:05Speaker 05

  So I just commanded it to go. And I just began to pray.

• 16:16Speaker 04

  And it suddenly became quiet again. Leanne and the kids, they were still praying and she looked up at me and she gave me a look that was asking me, you know, "What are we gonna do?"

• 16:30Speaker 04

  I said that, you know, "We should go spend the night in Browning," and she agreed.

• 16:36Speaker 04

  Jason went out first, followed by Leanne and the kids and our four dogs. They even like formed like an escort around us with me and Sadie, we were bringing up the rear.

• 16:50Speaker 04

  Once I got the kids safe in the car, Jason stopped and he looked at me with kind of an odd look on his face.

• 16:58Speaker 04

  He said, "Angela, I can't go with you guys." "What? What do you mean, you can't go with us? Come on, Jason." "I can't leave you, I'm not after this one happened. What if it comes back?"

• 17:12Speaker 04

  "Level with me, man, what's going on with you, man?"

• 17:16Speaker 04

  But once again, he said, "It's not that I don't want to talk about it, I just can't right now. You just won't understand, like, if it makes you feel better, I'll lock myself in my room."

• 17:30Speaker 04

  The kids were all crying, so we just continued on to Browning and we checked into the Warbonnet Lodge. I put the kids to bed and then I was pacing the floor and I just couldn't sleep.

• 17:45Speaker 04

  I just kept thinking about Jason. I was worried about my friend being out there all night, but alone.

• 17:54Speaker 04

  Something just kept telling me, "Go back," and insist that he either comes with us or that he goes home.

• 18:10Speaker 06

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• 18:47Speaker 07

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• 19:38Speaker 04

  I woke up next morning and the little ones seemed to be there, their playful selves, you know? They're playing around and Livy, she was still asleep.

• 19:49Speaker 04

  And I got up, I quickly got dressed and drove back to the house, to the land out there. I parked the car and got out and I start yelling for Jason. I knocked on her door and there was no answer. I called his name, I'm knocking a little harder and I started raising my voice, "Jason, are you in there?"

• 20:11Speaker 04

  "Jason!"

• 20:14Speaker 04

  There was no answer.

• 20:17Speaker 04

  And then I dug in my pockets to grab my keys for this room.

• 20:23Speaker 04

  I opened the door and I found Jason laying there on his bed.

• 20:29Speaker 04

  I told him, "Jason, we need to talk, buddy, come on, man." He didn't argue, he just slowly got up and we walked over to the big trailer and we sat at one of the tables and I told him, I said, "Okay, Jason, you needed to spill the beans."

• 20:46Speaker 04

  But all he did was just, he just talked about his family. He talked about Kim, he talked about his wife and how much he loved them and that he was worried about them and their future.

• 20:58Speaker 04

  At some point, I said, "I need to know what you did, Jason."

• 21:03Speaker 04

  You know, I cut him off. And he just looked at me, it was like his eyes were vacant, you know, like there's nothing there.

• 21:12Speaker 04

  He said, "I never hurt anybody, if that's what you're worried about." I said, "Everybody's worried about you, Jason. Everybody, I'm worried about you. Don't you want to be with your family? Don't you love them?"

• 21:27Speaker 04

  He answered, "Yes, I love them." I told him, "Well, come on, then, I'll bring you home now."

• 21:35Speaker 04

  Then he said, "Home?"

• 21:38Speaker 04

  He said it a couple times, "Home."

• 21:43Speaker 04

  I was on my knees, I was begging him, you know, "Come on, please, Jason, come on, let's go."

• 21:50Speaker 04

  Finally, he said, "Okay, let's go."

• 21:55Speaker 04

  On the way back to Browning, I told Jason, I said, "Well, I need to make one stop before I take you home, Jason," and, you know, I was gonna pull off at the funeral home, just to touch base with Mike for a minute.

• 22:09Speaker 04

  We pulled into the parking lot in front of the funeral home and he got out of the passenger side, he grabbed his bag and walked up to me and he put his arms around me.

• 22:21Speaker 04

  "Thank you for everything, Angela, I think I'll walk home from here."

• 22:27Speaker 04

  I hugged him and I waited for him, my wife waited for him to walk quite a way.

• 22:33Speaker 04

  And I was standing there and he just, he didn't even look back.

• 22:38Speaker 04

  And I was thinking, you know, I was wishing him the best in my mind.

• 22:48Speaker 04

  I went into office, I called out Mike and he says, "Is that you Angelo?" I went back in the kitchen and I found him, he had a cup of coffee, he was chewing on a donut and he looked at me and he pointed towards the cooler and he said, "We got another guest. Can you give me a hand?"

• 23:08Speaker 04

  As we were walking to the cooler room, he said, "You remember that wreck here in town? On Old Agency Road?" I told him, I said, "I did, I actually came up on it."

• 23:20Speaker 04

  He said, "Well, the guy that we picked up from the hospital, the body that I brought in that night before, he was the driver. He wrecked hitting this guy.

• 23:32Speaker 04

  He's the one that hit the guy we have now."

• 23:39Speaker 04

  Then we walked into the back room and laying on that slab, it was, it was Jason.

• 23:49Speaker 04

  And he was laying there.

• 23:53Speaker 04

  He was laying on that slab.

• 23:58Speaker 04

  He had no clothes on. Just a sheet from here on down and Mike was working on him.

• 24:06Speaker 04

  He wasn't even working.

• 24:13Speaker 04

  I mean, everything just went blank. That's us, yeah, I remember just looking at him laying there and that was it.

• 24:23Speaker 04

  I woke up the next day in the hospital.

• 24:26Speaker 04

  They said I had a nervous breakdown.

• 24:32Speaker 04

  I told Leanne, "I'm going down to the funeral." Mike looked at me, he says, "You okay? He actually just coming hunting, you know?" He asked me, "Do you still want to be the pallbearer?" I said, "Yeah."

• 24:48Speaker 04

  So we brought him up to the community center and here in Browning, we bring him there and that's where we have our wakes.

• 24:59Speaker 04

  I sat there for, I think it was three nights, they had his wake for three nights. But every night I sat there waiting for him to move.

• 25:09Speaker 04

  I sat there all night, just looking at him.

• 25:13Speaker 04

  I remember looking at him in his coffin.

• 25:17Speaker 04

  He just looked like he was sleeping. Like, yeah, like a peaceful sleep. But I just wanted him to move, I wanted him to talk to me, you know? I'd say, "Hey, I'm kidding buddy, you know, I saw him," you know?

• 25:33Speaker 04

  By the small table by the coffin there, and he had a big old round bowl full of cigarettes. If I'd go over there, look at Jason, I'd say, "Yeah, I'm gonna have a smoke buddy, you wanna come?" I didn't even nudge his coffin, "Come on, go, let's have a smoke."

• 25:52Speaker 04

  On the fourth day, they buried him.

• 25:57Speaker 04

  After Jason's funeral, I told Mike, I said, "I'm gonna quit. And I'll stay on until you get help, you know? I think I'm not quitting."

• 26:11Speaker 04

  My mom was really the one to get answers from like this, you know, because she was really wise. So, two days later, or a day after, I think, I drove out there and I walked in and my facial expression told her everything. She stopped what she's doing, she turned her cooking down, she was untieing her apron, she took it off and she sat down. She said, "There's something that, that..." I mean, Italian.

• 26:44Speaker 04

  "Last night, I had a dream, I seen you in a dream." She said, "You were helping a man, he stayed at your house.

• 26:55Speaker 04

  I don't know who he was, but you and Leanne, he knew you guys and you guys were helping him."

• 27:03Speaker 04

  She said, "But in my dream, everything wasn't right at your place."

• 27:10Speaker 04

  I just sat there and I was like this, with my mouth wide open because I didn't know what to think of. Who was she talking about? Who is this guy in your dream, you know?

• 27:22Speaker 04

  Was it Jason? She says, "She don't know, she said, "I can't tell you." She said, "I didn't know why you went through it, my boy," she said, "but I know it happens for a purpose, everything it would go through, it's for a purpose.

• 27:39Speaker 04

  You're there to help somebody, you were helping somebody, so maybe you're protecting your friend Jason."

• 27:48Speaker 04

  But I still couldn't understand anything. The questions that I had, like, was it me protecting him from nothing, other than him protecting us? I don't know. And I was protecting him from what? What was that thing, that being, spirit, that followed me home from that funeral?

• 28:10Speaker 04

  Could that be the same guy that hit him?

• 28:14Speaker 04

  My mom said, "There's evil from ancient days that still roamed this earth." She said, "Evil looks for something that it can capture, or steal, or get a hold of, even after we're gone." So maybe it took the driver, grabbed his soul, if you will. That's the only thing I could think of.

• 28:39Speaker 04

  It wasn't until way later that I really felt a sense in actually helping him. I don't know, I just felt that whatever it was, I think it was there after Jason, after his soul, maybe?

• 29:02Speaker 04

  I guess I'm always gonna wonder why.

• 29:06Speaker 04

  Why, you know, how? How is it all possible? I mean, now I'm full of questions too, you know? Why me? Yeah. That's something I can't know.

• 29:20Speaker 04

  But he did. He did come to me, my friend.

• 29:26Speaker 04

  And I'm, I'm glad he did.

• 29:47Glynn Washington?

  Thank you, Angelo and Leanne, for sharing your story of the spooked. The original score for that piece was by Lauren Newsom. It was scouted and produced by Elliot Lightfoot.

• 30:02Glynn Washington?

  Now, in just a moment, we step into the very beginning of time and enter Adam and Eve's Garden of Eden. You've heard the story of their two sons, Cain and Abel. Yes, Cain kills his brother, but you've never been told why, until now. The second sin, a missing chapter, torn from the Book of Shadow, finally found. And this time, the murderer speaks.

• 30:35Glynn Washington?

  Stay tuned.

• 30:48Glynn Washington?

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• 31:30Glynn Washington?

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• 32:06Glynn Washington?

  We were close. Close as only twins can be close. Me, the older, the stronger, the protector, even his children, him leaping. Me catching him. Our father told me that he was my responsibility and as it was in our youth, so it remains. Ever vigilant, when I wake on this day, I know he has gone. I even know where he has run. As children, he begged our mother to tell us again and again of the garden, of the two trees, the place which she is forbidden to return. I know this is where he has gone, but how?

• 32:51Glynn Washington?

  How could this be possible? I race after him through the brambles, the hawthorn, to the gate where the golden flaming sword sweeps the air, stopping the path of any who cross there. My father kneels, pitiful, on the ground, peering into the garden, looking past the sword, into his own path, into his stories, into that place on the other side of the blade where he passed countless days once. "We are forbidden entry," he says, then turned for my gaze.

• 33:29Glynn Washington?

  And just like that, I understand that this is a lie, or at least not the truth, and I have been foolish, so foolish. "This is your fault," he says, "your brother is your charge." I want to scream at him, to rage, to choke, to kick. I know his jealousy then, his hatred. I always understood that I was not the favorite, but I never imagined I was despised.

• 34:10Glynn Washington?

  Still, still, still, I must fetch my brother. I turn, stand directly in front of the gate, steeling myself, as my brother must have done just a few moments before. Why? What is he searching for? I clench my fist and step toward the spinning flaming sword. It stops, quivering in the air, deciding, weighing, judging, then blazing against the light of the sun, the sword allows me to pass.

• 34:54Glynn Washington?

  Our father is forbidden entry, but we, my brother and I, are not. I walk through the gate as if into someone else's memory and hear my father screaming behind me and crossing over, inhaling the first intoxicating breath, I understand, deep in my essence, that at least in this, he told the truth. Every story he ever told us, water that tastes of moonrise, fruit still bright with the blush

• 35:33Glynn Washington?

  of creation, every creature save one singing, this Eden, this radiance, this place is made of the beginning. Our place is but shadow. And after inhaling, gloring, staggering, I know that if the sword ever forbids my return here, just like our father, I too will go mad. And despite this riot of smells and colors and cause, I know I sense exactly which way my twin has run and I run after, through the song and the color, hoping I am not too late,

• 36:16Glynn Washington?

  when from the canopy, an enormous gleaming ruby and emerald serpent uncoiled, falls, lifts stairs. I ask her what I already know. "Where did my brother run?" She sways her head from side to side, "Into the trap," she says. "It seeks to trap him?" Her eyes flash golden. "No, foolish boy, it seeks to trap you, liar," I think.

• 36:58Glynn Washington?

  I have no time for riddles, so push past her, chasing my brother's laugh. How long I cannot say, him just out of reach on the other side of the glade, the other side of the tree, the other side of the stream, me fearing that he will finally do what our parents could not, and there, I step into a field I have visited a million times in dream. Two trees, one charred, shriveled, twisted, the other majestic, lush, multicolored branches stretching for the sun, at the top, golden berries, and climbing, laughing, as when we were children, my brother, myself.

• 37:41Glynn Washington?

  He shouts, "Come, come and eat, and we will both be as gods." Stop! But already I know he leaves, I catch, "Stop!" I try again as he reaches for two clusters of the golden fruit, one for him and one for me. He scrambles down delighted, "Do not!" And even as I almost reach him, grinning, he holds his gift out to me and presses the remaining fruit into his own mouth. No! He closes his eyes as if to savor the taste. No! And then he falls.

• 38:26Glynn Washington?

  And once again, I catch him. The grin leaks from his face, he looks up at me, first with surprise, then with shock, and finally with horror. "It's heavy," he says, looking past me. I feel everything, and everything, everything, every single thing in shadow is broken. Because we are made of each other, he doesn't have to say more.

• 39:11Glynn Washington?

  I feel the crush of it, the weight of a thousand shadows, a thousand broken creations collapsing on my brother as we both scream and scream and scream and scream. When he finally looks at me, he whispers simply, "I cannot. But this place, this fruit, will not let me pass," he says. Here, this Eden, this place made of joy and light, is eternal suffering for him. "Please," he whispers, "take me back."

• 39:55Glynn Washington?

  As he cannot even lift his head from the weight, I carry my brother leagues, through the thrum of joy and life and song and promise, back to the date, and there, the flaming sword slices the air, leading back to the shadow, the broken place, the crying place. If I pass through, it will forbid my return forever, just as it did to my father, the Adam. I cannot. I lay him down. "Brother," I whisper, "go." He whimpers, the crush is too much for him to do anything but suffer, blind.

• 40:37Glynn Washington?

  I beg him, "Go." He curls into a ball. Once more, I taste the slightest fraction of his torment. For a moment, I too am blind, I too am burning, and finally, I scoop him into my arms again. I carry him before the spinning flaming sword and bow my head. It stops, hesitant this time, as if asking me if I know what I do, if I know the cost.

• 41:16Glynn Washington?

  I look back as every scent and voice and light of the garden sings, "Stay." My brother's head balls back in my arms, "Stay!" And I remember the serpent said, "This trap was never set for him. It was set for me." I carry my brother, past the sword, back into shadow. And then I see him, my father, the Adam, waiting, smiling, welcoming, then he sees,

• 41:58Glynn Washington?

  first my brother's face and finally my. "No!" He wails, "What did you do?" I walk past him, carrying my brother up the hill, to the brook, to the place we played as children, where once he had jumped and I had caught, hoping against fear that now, here, all will be restored, like it was when we were young. I lay him down once more, next to the rock, where once we had shared our thoughts, speaking without need for words. There, I let myself see him, feel him.

• 42:43Glynn Washington?

  "Please, brother," he whispers, "please, please." "No," I say. "Do you remember when I leapt from that tree?" he asks in my mind. "Do you remember who caught me?" His broken face twists into a smile. I cannot. I answer back to him, "Please."

• 43:18Glynn Washington?

  I raise the rock that we once used for a table. Heavy.

• 43:26Glynn Washington?

  Please.

• 43:28Glynn Washington?

  So heavy. Please.

• 43:34Glynn Washington?

  I bring the rock down on my brother's smile again and again and again and again.

• 43:51Glynn Washington?

  For just as it has been since the beginning.

• 43:59Glynn Washington?

  I am my brother's keeper.

• 44:27Glynn Washington?

  Now then, as we labor to decipher fragments of the Book of Shadow, I ask your help, and I'll speak plainly. Have you ever lived someone else's life? Do you have someone else's memories, someone else's skills, someone else's knowledge? Does a part of you inhabit a totally different geography? Or do you know someone who does? If so, please, please tell me about it and write the next chapter, [email protected], because there's nothing better than a spook story from a spooked listener. The journey to the spooked guidebook to the shadow runs through the mist of time with

• 45:10Glynn Washington?

  scraps of papyrus and fragments of scrollwork meticulously reconstructed under the Harvest Moon by secret practitioners of the lost arts. Please, please, don't seek to find it, lest it seek to find you. KQD in San Francisco has sealed the entrance. Tell the monsters that no Snap Studios content may be used for training, testing, or developing machine learning or AI systems without prior written permission on Team Spooked. The union-represented producers, artists, editors, and engineers are members of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians Communications Association of America, AFL-CIO Local 51, and...

• 45:50Glynn Washington?

  Spooked is brought to you by the team that often picks up strangers from the side of the road. Except for Mark Ristich, he is the stranger on the side of the road. There's Davy Kim, Zoe Frigno, Eric Yanez, Elliot Lightfoot, Taylor Decot, Marissa Dodge, Miles Lassie, Doug Stewart, Nicholas Marks, Casey Georgie, Alton Takayama, John Bridget Armstrong, Chris Frick, Ashley Decolony. The Spook theme song is by Pat McSedee Miller. My name's Van Washington. And the Book of Shadow specifically notes the stranger at the gate.

• 46:32Glynn Washington?

  The Greeks warn that gods sometimes travel wearing human faces. Even the Bible commands us to welcome the stranger because some have entertained angels without knowing it. And the old Irish stories, when nights grow long and the boundary between this world and the next wears thin, people left an empty chair beside the fire because the dead get cold as well. Perhaps that's why the oldest rules of hospitality were so serious. Feed the stranger, give them a place by the fire, let them rest.

• 47:11Glynn Washington?

  You never know who your guest is, but my grandmother, she told me something else. She said the fallen don't always stay put. That down in the Low Country, they knew that some of them were haints. So folk painted porch ceilings blue, the color of protection, doors blue, windows blue because a house has openings, she said. And not everything wandering through the night ought be invited inside. So how do we know friend from foe, sinner from saint?

• 47:51Glynn Washington?

  I've stood at the door, hand on the knob, peering out into the gloom, someone knocking. The old stories tell us to welcome the stranger. The old warnings, the man that we beware. Never, ever, never, never, ever, never, ever, never, ever, turn out the lights.