S2 Ep15: Skinwalkers, Chip Man and a haunted toy store - Sn. 2 Ep. 15

Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us, Jr. I am your guide, Derek Hayes.

How are we doing tonight, kiddos? Have you encountered anything? Spooky, lately.

Well, if you haven't, don't panic just yet, because Delaney and I have quite a collection

of spooky encounters to share with you here tonight. So, dim the lights and close the curtains.

It's time to scare ourselves, Celie. And for this first one, we go as far north and as far

west as you possibly can, in the lower 48, to Washington State, where Ella is ready with a tail.

Hi, Derek. It's Ella from Washington again. My friend has a story that she gave me permission

to share. So, we lived in Zuri in a small town called Weston and my best friend Emma, her

mom owned a store, the building that the store was in. There were two people who had died

there. The first person who had died there, he fell down the stairs and died and he was

a man who had abused his wife. And the wife would hunt Emma's mom's shop and the man would

come every time in the winter and you would feel his presence in the staircase. And because

he fell down them, it would be cold only in the staircase and the rest of the building

was warm. His wife was murdered by him and she fell into the old elevator and that never

got finished. She would move stuff like Emma's mom's essential oils and they'd be on the ground and Emma

saw her one day. She looked about 40 to 45 years old. She wore a dress that looked like

a pilgrim dress. It looked like it was made in between the late 1800s and the early 1900s. Emma said

she was always there and she was nice, not me and like her husband. She said she's very beautiful.

We never actually saw the man but we always felt his presence. Once we had to go to the bathroom,

so we were going past the staircase and it was a bit winter and I just felt a cold Russian air.

Go down the staircase. I thought nothing of it and so a few years later, Emma had moved to Texas,

I moved up to Washington and we were talking and she told me there is a story of the ghost.

So yeah, I just thought you might find that interesting. Love the show. Me and Emma both listen to it

and have a great night. Thank you.

I find that very interesting. Thank you, Ella. A haunted store.

Now when I was in high school, I worked in a haunted grocery store. The building used to be

a former funeral home back in the 1800s. The upstairs shopping area was scary at night,

but the basement area, the part that used to be the funeral home, was terrifying.

Us workers would hear a faint whistling sound coming from the dark corners of the storage area

and Ella's story reminded me of another haunted store, a haunted toy store.

Now I bet many of you are too young to remember this place, but it was once a very popular chain toy

store with locations all across the country called Toys R Us. Now it had anything that a kid could want.

The latest and greatest toys, the classics, sports equipment, trading cards.

It was wildly popular until internet shopping finally put it out of business.

But there was one particular toy store in Sunnyvale, California that was at that time known

to be one of the most haunted stores in the world. Now I found an old clip from all the way back in

1985, which is likely how I was first introduced to this story, back when I was around five years old.

Strange paranormal events at this toy store have been linked to a hired hand named Yanni

Johansson. He worked for a farmer and fell deeply in love with his daughter, but the feeling was

not mutual, but Johnny waited always hoping she would learn to love him. He died on the site of this

toy store over 100 years ago, and it's Johnny they say who today haunts the back rooms and

aisles of this toy store still waiting for his love. Now you might be wondering what sort of

activity has been reported out of this haunted Toys R Us. Well don't worry, I have all the deeds

straight from the people that work there. The first step in any investigation is to talk to witnesses.

I can't explain it. I don't know. I feel that someone's calling me. I hear my name and when I turn

around, there's no one there. There's no one around. And all of a sudden I just heard all this crash

bang. Everything falls over. Two bondolas fell over and the light, the fixture, broke in half.

I happened to notice several occurrences of merchandise sitting on the floor, and it wasn't just the

fact that it was loose piece of sitting on the floor. They were stabbed. I don't believe in ghosts,

but I knew there's something strange going on in here.

Now those clips are from a program called Evening magazine. And that place is an REI now.

And if you live close to Sunnyvale, California, maybe you can talk your people into stopping by one

day just to see if you feel anything supernatural among the tents and sleeping bags.

And if you do notice something strange, you know who to call. Thank you again, Ella, for making the entry.

And speaking of who to call, we need your stories to keep going. So if you have a true tale to tell,

get your parents or guardians permission first, then call 833. It may you get or email a voice

recording to Monsters Among Us JR at gmail.com. Now we can't wait to hear from you.

And we also can't wait to hear from our next caller, either. Please welcome Channing. Do the program.

Hello, I'm Channing from Utah. And I have this skin walker experience around 2016 or so. You

should know that Utah is a skin walker area. And I was around seven years old. And I was walking

home from a grocery store with my sister. And it was pretty late. And my sister started talking about

skin walkers. I know understanding of what they were. What it unsettled me that they could

shake shit. So I got my mind off that. But then I was walking and I was about a mile away

home to my house. And there was this metal fence that would always freak me out. And we were

walking past it. And I hear this rattling in the bushes behind the fence. I sort of thought it was

some sort of small animal. Because I didn't believe my sister when she talked about shapeshifting

humans. And about three minutes later, we go on a trail, buying a bunch of houses.

Into the rest of it is in the open space with the page trees. Me being my young self, not knowing

anything about skin walkers, I started it with some. And my sister immediately told me to stop.

So I stopped and I happened to look toward the page trees. And I see this 10-foot tall creature

with G9 legs with antlers on his head. And it was standing on his two legs. And I told my sister

what I saw. And we started walking past her. Pretty much running at that point. Then I look back

and I saw nothing. Then I hear the rattling in the bushes behind me. And I see these creepy red

glowing eyes. And my sister saw them too. And we started running back really fast. And I was

really freaked out. I was like crying when we were running. I was scared. We ran up this tiny

hill. And I was like pretty much home. But I got inside my house and I cannot sleep that night.

But that's my skin walker experience. Thank you. I really enjoyed the podcast. Bye.

Thank you, Channing. The dreaded skin walker. You know that creature is sort of like Bloody Mary

or Beetlejuice. And the people do not like to say its name. In fact, many indigenous folks from

that area flannelt refuse to even utter it. If you don't know about this creature, I'd like to

some information in our show notes. But if you haven't heard of a skin walker by now,

you must be living under a rock. Because it seems like that creature is wildly popular these days.

Scary stuff, Channing. A big thanks for calling it.

It's time to hand the reins off to our trustee and may you, me, ma. Go easy on her kids.

She spoke easy. Oh good. If Derek thinks I spoke easily, that means my devious master plan is working.

I probably shouldn't have said that out loud. Uh, Connor, can you go ahead and just edit that part out?

Hi kids. Your MAU meme on here. And boy, oh boy, Derek is so right. I spoke so easily. I'm just

scared all the time. And here to frighten me even more is our gal pal Aila out of Washington State.

Hi, my name is Aila. I'm from Washington, I'm 70. I want to share a story that happened today at school.

So I was at lunch and I was sitting down next to my friend Sarah. And I was eating at my

chippy sandwich. And I felt a little tough on my head. I trained my friend Sarah to do

if it was her. Because sometimes she likes to tap my shoulder or my head to get my attention.

So anyway, I turned to Sarah. But she wasn't facing me. So I turned around. But no one was there.

And a few minutes later, I opened my Kinder egg. It was like a little chocolate egg that also came

with a little toy. So it opened it. And I got a little toy cat. And I took out the pieces and

the next thing I knew I dropped a piece. And I looked for it on the ground. But it wasn't there.

Phantom taps and disappearing toys. Sounds like a playful trickster ghost to me. I'm curious if

you've heard of any legends about your school being haunted, Aila. Schools, just like old court

houses, hospitals, hotels, restaurants and theaters, are notorious hotspots for paranormal activity.

Maybe it's because school buildings are liminal spaces. Those particular locations where you

don't spend a lot of time or where people are always coming and going. And the veil between the

physical realm and the supernatural realm is much thinner in liminal spaces. Or maybe it's the

heightened sense of emotion that can be found in any school across the globe. Last minute cramming

for quizzes, anxiety, overgiving a presentation, drama on the playground, feelings are magnified

big time in the classroom. And some theory suggests ghosts use that frantic energy to help

themselves manifest. So whatever you encountered in the lunch room that afternoon, Aila,

I hope you're prepared to share some more of your kinder eggs with it. Plus, it gives a whole new

meaning to the phrase school spirit. We thank you for your call. Congrats listeners. If you've made

it this far, you are, as they say, absolutely goaded. We've arrived at our final call of the episode

and we've got to say this encounter might be at first. Ashlyn and Idaho, go on and introduce us to

the chip man. Hello there. It's Ashlyn. I want to share something that happens to me and my friends.

We are at school in Idaho and we decided to take weekend trip to my friend's family cabin in Utah.

We got to this cabin. The way it's set up is it's mainly everything on the main floor and it's

comfortably sized and it's got lots of big open windows in the main area. If you walk into the front

door, you turn your left and there's big stairs that kind of go up and there's a balcony that looks

over the main area and there's like beds up there and another main living area. So we were all kind

of hanging out downstairs one night watching a movie. We had shut all the blinds because it was

freaking me out too much to look out there and a few of us had fallen asleep down the stairs.

So eventually I think I was the last to wake and I just kind of turned the movie off and one of the

girls that got up to sleep upstairs were more comfortable and so the three of us and our friend

Zayn was Chris. He had fallen asleep near the TV so we were just kind of laying there. I was wide

awake because I get scared easily so I was hearing things and at some point in the night I didn't hear

anything at all. It was just silent and then I hear this chip which it's kind of funny but I heard

this chip just crunch in the kitchen which was probably about seven feet away from the couch

and I didn't hear any cabinets open, I didn't hear any like feet, like any animal paws,

no noises at all and so I just felt chill and I'm like what is that? And it's pitch dark.

So I'm listening around trying to hear if there's any movement. I know no one is up from down

here and I know the other friend is still upstairs because she has not come down the stairs.

So I don't hear anything after I've heard those two chip crunches and the next morning Chris is

still kind of just dead asleep and all of us other girls are awake and I have my guys. I heard

the freakiest thing last night. I heard a chip crunching and I was like did any of you get up

and eat chips and they were like no and then Chris sits up and like he's half awake and he goes

what did you say? I heard so many chips last night and he just bolts. He leaps over the couch,

bolts out through the kitchen door and just runs around outside. He's going on and he comes back

in and he's like I heard it too and I felt just freaked out and he had no idea what it was

but the scariest thing is that he heard it too and we couldn't figure it out. We didn't see any chips

on the floor in the kitchen so we made this joke and we now call whatever was happening now we call

him chip man. If anything freak he ever happens with blaming on chip man. And that's my story.

Thank you. Have a great day. A snacky specter you say? China knows all about those ravenous

ravenants. In the seventh lunar month the gates of hell swing open and the ravenous dead return.

At least that's what Chinese communities across Asia believe during the holiday known as Ghost

Month or the festival of the Hungry Ghost. It's like many other fall holidays from around the world

that talk of spirits returning but it's not just beloved ancestors who come back. It's also

the unfortunate dead who are starving and desperate because their descendants have either stopped

sacrificing to them or whose family lines have died out and those are dangerous. In fact there

is a long list of things you are not supposed to do during Ghost Month to prevent wandering souls

from following you home to ruin your lock or make you sick. So measures must be taken. Communities

put on events with food for spirits and the burning of paper offerings. There are prayers by priests

and Chinese opera performances to entertain wandering ghosts with the first few rows empty for

these factors and also a 20-foot tall paper statue of the King of Ghosts is often constructed to

provide security for the ritual area and burned at the close of the festivities. So as you can

see Ghost Festival is enormously fun while also capturing much of China's history and culture.

That clip courtesy of Extra History on YouTube. In the Buddhist tradition these hungry ghosts are

known for having massive round stomachs with thin legs, long skinny necks, papery flesh,

and no teeth. Their appetite is insatiable and while they are invisible to most humans

there are an unlucky few who are able to witness these scavengers in all their grotesque glory.

As a fan of scary movies it only makes sense to me that such a terrifying being would be

chowing down at a haunted cabin in the woods at night. Just like Ella and her kinder eggs,

Ashlyn, you might want to keep a spare bag of Cheetos in your back pocket in case the chip man

ever makes his return. We appreciate you sharing your story with us. All right friends,

it's time for me to scoot. This sheep's watch ain't gonna share itself.

Derek and I will be back soon with another collection of ghastly calls. Until then, happy hauntings

hooligans. Monsters among us Junior is written and produced by Derek Hayes and Delaney Bowers

and edited by Conor Ryan. Copyright, Red Crow Media. Additional support provided by Sarah

Carter Hayes. All media used in this production is done so under the protection of fair use.

Tonight's score was provided by IronCatulu Apocalypse, co.ag music, and Carl Casey at White

that audio. And lastly, the MAU Junior theme was written and produced by Ali Mimeri.