Ep. 35: Slenderman
Gina (00:11)
Hi, welcome back. I don't know why I say welcome back. It's just the next week.
Kathryn (00:16)
Welcome back to us. We've been on a break, but people don't know that because of technology.
Gina (00:20)
Yeah, we did the math
and we haven't recorded for two and a half weeks. So we're relearning how to do this. ⁓ Anyway, welcome to I Scream You Scream. I'm Gina. Every month we choose a new topic and a new ice cream flavor to have while we talk about it. This month we're talking about creepy kids and we are having some of our childhood favorite ice creams. Quick reminder, there is a chain letter curse.
Kathryn (00:25)
Yes.
Hahaha
I'm Kathryn
Gina (00:49)
in effect. unfortunately, or fortunately for us, since you're listening to this right now, that curse is relevant to you unless you share a link to this episode with a friend or give us a review on whatever platform you're listening to this on. Otherwise, you might be cursed for life, which would just suck. So at least there's a way out of it. I don't know what to tell you. Grab a spoon and let's dig in. So what childhood favorite are you eating today, Kathryn?
Kathryn (01:11)
Yay. That was great.
Okay, so I'm gonna try not to make this this whole tangent, but basically we ran out of vanilla and Oreos. So that was my whole deal. So I had to go get more ice cream, but I was in a really bad mood when it went to buy the ice cream. Couldn't bring myself to just buy vanilla ice cream. So per my love of cookies from childhood to today, I bought the Tonight Dough by Ben and Jerry's, which is...
Gina (01:21)
You
Hmm.
Mmm.
Kathryn (01:45)
vanilla and chocolate ice cream, cookie dough globs, and like swirls of like cookies and cream crumbs. So not technically an ice cream I ate as a child, but this flavor is my childhood favorite. It counts. Yes, yes. What about you? Are you still on the cookie dough?
Gina (01:52)
Yum.
I think it's still, yeah, it's like the adult version of a childhood favorite. Yeah, that's fair. I'm still on the cookie dough train.
Still Ben and Jerry's very much enjoying it.
Kathryn (02:15)
Yeah,
technically I have cookie dough too. I have kind of a mix between the two of ours now.
Gina (02:19)
I like it.
Kathryn (02:21)
So tell me.
Listen, I'll give you a book update, but it says wood ice cream in here and I'm dying to know what that means.
Gina (02:30)
Okay, do you want to do book update first or do you want to know what wood ice cream is?
Kathryn (02:35)
I really genuinely want to know what ice cream I can do a quick book update, but I'm dying to know what ice cream is.
Gina (02:36)
Okay, so
I found this guy on Instagram. ⁓ Justin Davies is his handle. And he's been making ice cream that's infused with the flavor of different woods.
And what's cool about it is that he'll like do the ice cream, but then he'll make a bowl out of that wood and eat the ice cream from that bowl. It's very, very cool.
Kathryn (03:00)
So he's like eating the flavor of what the bowl is with just ice cream.
That's wild, what?
Gina (03:07)
And one of the flavors that he recently did was Bradford pear trees. ⁓
Kathryn (03:14)
Okay, listen.
To all the listeners out there who do not know what a fucking Bradford pear tree is, first of all, good for you. You're very lucky. Secondly, fuck Bradford pear trees. I have one in my yard. It is not my fault. We did not put it there. I did not know what it was when we moved is the worst tree.
Gina (03:24)
you
Kathryn (03:43)
known to mankind and I spent my weekend last weekend because I was in a bad fucking mood as previously mentioned chopping down all of the branches I could reach because it's too big of a tree for me to just knock down completely because it would ruin the houses so I'm not allowed to do that but I was so tempted to just go for the trunk and just get rid of them using like a little handsaw I literally was like I chopped down as much of those twigs as I could like
Gina (03:59)
Mm-hmm.
Just fuckin'.
Kathryn (04:12)
I fucking hate this tree. Am I allowed to talk about what it smells like? It's disgusting. It's disgusting.
Gina (04:17)
I think we have to talk about, so that's like one of the things with Bradford pear trees.
They smell horrendous when they bloom, so bad.
Kathryn (04:24)
horrendous. And
way the seeds spread, it's like the weed of the tree there are little mini trees growing out of the roots in my garden. And it's like, that's a thing trees do, I understand that, but it's incessant. It's
For like two-ish weeks in the spring, my yard smells like...
Two rotting elderly dead fish having sex in a flaming dumpster. It's disgusting. It's so bad. And here's the thing, Phil literally apologized to our neighbors for it this spring and this very, very lovely polite man, we like them a lot.
Gina (05:05)
It's so bad.
Kathryn (05:15)
He was like, it's not that bad. I never noticed. And Phil tells me that like, isn't that great? They never noticed. And I was like, that's bullshit because this year and last year, the first fire of the spring, like the first like bonfire that our neighbors had both years was the day that tree bloomed on both sides. So they definitely noticed. Yes. Disgusting.
Gina (05:34)
Yeah, so they noticed. That's very polite though,
to say your tree doesn't smell like a rotting corpse.
Kathryn (05:41)
So polite.
Yeah. And to be clear, like they know it was not us. Like they know we didn't play. They've been here longer than us, but then the result the other side do not know. So I'm like, you need to tell them that we did not do this. Ugh, gross. So now I have questions like I'm so alarmed that this man is trying to eat this tree. What does it taste like?
Gina (05:48)
Mm.
Apparently, fucking awful. And he knew that going into it. was doing it from memory. He was doing it as like, okay, I have to, if I'm doing this series where I try to make wood-infused ice cream, I have to do the infamous Bradford Bear. And he despised it. He films his reaction when he tries it and he just looks like he's about to cry.
Kathryn (06:09)
Good. It's disgusting. Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Awful. Okay, good.
I would
be genuinely pissed if that tree had a lovely flavor. I would be so mad.
Gina (06:33)
disgusting.
Kathryn (06:34)
Don't plant a Bradford Bear tree, please. I'm begging you listeners. ⁓ my God, my vacuum's here.
Gina (06:35)
Hmm. Don't.
Did you get a new vacuum?
Kathryn (06:43)
my god, okay so another update, I got a new vacuum. Girl, I got one of those cordless Dyson vacuums. I'm so excited.
Gina (06:46)
What kind of vacuum is it?
⁓
I got a cordless vacuum a couple of months ago and it's a fucking game changer. It completely, like we look forward to vacuuming now. Our floor is cleaner than it's ever been.
Kathryn (06:57)
Did it change your life? That's what I'm hoping for. Yes.
That's what I told Phil would happen. Thank you so much. Okay, I have to like hide a little bit because I don't want the guy to see me. Hold on.
Gina (07:05)
100 % yes.
Kathryn (07:12)
thank you for telling me about that fucking bitch ass pear tree ice
Gina (07:18)
I would love an update on the book that you're reading if you have.
Kathryn (07:22)
Yes, so I'm happy this is in our notes because we haven't recorded in almost three weeks. I'm like six books later. This is like old news to me but read Who have never known men and it was very good. It was very good. I highly recommend I only had like a quarter left when we recorded last time so can confirm
All of my feelings from last week are valid and everyone should read it. It's like oddly hopeful. I don't know. That's definitely arguable. But I personally was like, it was hopeful in the way where it like confirms that like everything is shit. I don't know if that's like actually hopeful, but I think so. It's like, you know what? Yeah, it is what it is. You know, like, yeah.
Gina (07:51)
Hmm.
Okay, yeah.
Solidarity in the shit.
Kathryn (08:12)
Um, and so I want to clarify some things because I wasn't sure about when it was actually published, published slash translated last time and so I looked into that this time. Apparently it was written in 1995 but it was just recently translated into English which is why so many people here are just now discovering it. So I believe it was translated in 2023. So it was a few years old.
Gina (08:28)
⁓
⁓
Kathryn (08:42)
But like, it's still...
are buying it left and right. ⁓ So yeah, I highly recommend.
Gina (08:49)
speaking of stories, I am pretty sure we have a podcast where we tell stories. And I think you have one for me today.
Kathryn (08:59)
Yes, thank you for the reminder. I do have one and it is what can you imagine if I was like, wait, what? Actually, you probably don't have to imagine that that will probably happen one day. One of these days we're going to get the schedule mixed up and like one of us is we're both going to show up ready to listen. And that's going to be a fun bonus episode for all of you where you get to just hear us hang out. Yeah. That's where we loop you into our breathing, but we just extend it to the entire episode.
Gina (09:02)
Thank God.
Neither of us are gonna do it.
That's the meditation episode. Yeah.
Yeah.
Kathryn (09:30)
Yeah, all right.
So I do have ⁓ a story prepared this time and I'm gonna be honest, I might be a little weird about it because I'm so obsessed with the story. This is another one that could easily be four hours long. I chopped it down so it's a very small snippet of everything I wanna say. But today we're talking about the infamous...
Gina (09:44)
Mmm.
Enter: Slenderman
Kathryn (09:56)
I feel like I have to whisper it because he creeps me I'm genuinely afraid of Slenderman, like actually for real. Yes. Anyway, okay. I'm just gonna jump right in. I'm not painting any pictures for anyone. I'm just gonna go straight into the history because I'm so like emotionally damaged by this story. I like don't want us to join this world. Okay. So Slenderman started as a simple online urban legend, but somehow...
Gina (09:57)
Ha ha ha ha ha
Creepy as fuck.
Mm-hmm.
Alright, cool.
Kathryn (10:25)
in a very short amount of time, he crept his way into mainstream media and would ultimately lead to one of the most infamous crimes of the 2010s, which is so weird to say. This was like so long ago at this point. Yeah, isn't that weird? It feels like it just happened. But what I'm most interested for the purposes of this episode is where did it all begin?
Gina (10:40)
Holy shit.
Seriously, yeah.
The Birth of Slender Man
Kathryn (10:51)
because he didn't just spring up out of nowhere. In fact, he actually sprung up out of Photoshop. That is where he originally came from.
So the character known as Slenderman was originally created by a man named Eric Knudsen. Eric was browsing the pages. What? Is it his name or did I mess up? Okay.
Gina (11:14)
Nutson
Kathryn (11:16)
Yeah, I asked because I did stumble over my words a little bit there. Yes. Everyone has weird names.
Gina (11:20)
Sorry, sorry. I do have a habit of like,
I have a habit of laughing at people's names and I shouldn't because it's, don't, it's not like I don't like that person. It's just I take joy in names. Names are so fun.
Kathryn (11:25)
You do, but like...
You
do. You have like a ⁓ visceral reaction to... I think you're one of those people that like... And I do this too. We connect names to things and like names are heavily like a word association thing. I feel like for whatever reason, every name we bring up is funny. It's like it's not, but it actually is. Anyway, so this Nudsen guy was...
Gina (11:43)
Mm-hmm.
it is.
Kathryn (12:00)
He was browsing the pages forum called Something Awful when he discovered an art competition. The project called for digitally altered photos that would serve as the basis for new mythologies on the forum. So they were basically looking for people to create things to act as prompts for stories that people would create within this forum. So we'll share it in
Gina (12:21)
Hmm.
Kathryn (12:28)
video on YouTube, but he created an image depicting a group of children all walking toward the camera and you can see in the background a sort of pixelated fuzzy image of a tall slender man kind of following them. He's sort of lurking in the background
Gina (12:44)
Yeah.
Kathryn (12:45)
Do you see it? So he created it
in a way that it was like, you're not meant to see it at first. He's kind of hiding in the background, but in plain sight. You know what I mean? Like he's very clearly there. also an image of a child on a slide at the park. And then again,
Gina (12:57)
Mm-hmm.
Kathryn (13:08)
he's kind of lurking in the background. I don't know if he created both of these images at the beginning. The second one's scarier to me, the one at the park, because that one's a lot clearer.
Gina (13:11)
Ugh.
That's scarier, because he has like
weird tentacle arms.
Kathryn (13:21)
He does. We'll talk about that in a little bit. Yes, he does have tentacles that come out of him in some stories. So that's why I don't know if this is one of the original images. couldn't find. I know that the first image I sent is one that he made. That was like the original one in question that kind of started it all. I don't know if he also made the slide one or if that was one that was created, inspired.
Gina (13:22)
Okay, ugh.
Kathryn (13:48)
by his original image because like I said people were creating stories around this inspired by this original image. So this first one he posted the photo on June 10th 2009 which I'm so bummed at the time this was published was last week. I like did not think of that when we scheduled it. I wish that I had.
snagged that spot so that we could be like creepy about it and pretend that we were like cursing the internet by talking about it on the anniversary or something. But anyway, so he published the photo on Something Awful in June of 2009. basically just added short snippets of a story to kind of describe the image. There wasn't a fully fleshed out
narrative. It was just kind of little snippets to kind of get people started. You know, think of like, if you've ever seen those two sentence horror stories or anything like that, it's, was just kind of that thing. It was a prompt. It wasn't an entire legend in and of itself. It was just the image and a small description.
Gina (14:45)
Mm-hmm.
Kathryn (14:54)
These descriptions were 100 % fabricated, but they were written in the way to suggest that this was an ancient story, like the legend of the Slenderman was ABC, you know? And that's it. That's how it's, that's the beginning of the legend. This is the first recorded information on him ever. It's just the stories were made to seem like it was older than it actually was. So as was the purpose of this.
Gina (15:05)
Okay.
Kathryn (15:23)
I keep calling it a contest. I don't know if it was an actual contest or if it was just a call for stories. ⁓ Either way, the purpose of him submitting this was for other people to use this photo, which they did. So people would add descriptions to what he had already created, kind of fleshing out what was already there.
Others just started from scratch and kind of created their own legend and lore. Within just a few days, several forum users had created their own mythologies and legends based on the image, and it was spread very quickly. Like this was a very, very popular prompt that people would use within something awful. By June 20th, so just a week and a half later, a user named Troy Wagner,
very normal, unfunny name, I apologize. He posted a video series on YouTube about a fictional interaction with the Slenderman while they were filming a movie in the woods. But it was presented as fact. It's supposedly known that it was not fact, but it was kind of Blair Witch vibes. This is a fun project to pretend that they
Gina (16:23)
Ugh.
Yeah.
Creepypasta & Cultural Spread
Kathryn (16:38)
you know, came upon something strange in the woods and it was the Slenderman. But it was always understood that this was fake, you know.
like Creepypasta, where this story kind of originated and became very popular, and forums like Something Awful. These are all spaces where within these forums, it's very understood everything I just said, that this is fake, this is something that we have created just.
so that we can kind of scare each other. You know, it's just a space for spooky people to share spooky stories without being judged. That's kind of the whole purpose of these forums. Many of these stories, as we've seen in the past, do make their way outside of these forums. It's not some like big conspiracy that these things are released or make their way into other parts of the internet. That's a thing that happens all the time. But the difference is
one of them is a space where you know for a fact that this is fake and we're all here together and we're doing this, this is a community where this is understood to be real, but fake, you know? The other one is like people question it, you know, they're not part of the group. They don't understand that this was fabricated intentionally for entertainment. It's kind of,
Gina (17:42)
Yeah. ⁓
Kathryn (18:02)
do you or do you not believe in urban legends? It's like, well, once it spreads a certain length or distance, it's like, you don't really know what's real or not anymore. Yeah, and it happens all the time. Like, there's so many. It's basically just another internet urban legend, you know? These things circulate all the time. But it's creepy when, especially on creepypasta, like, that's all that happens on that website and in those forums.
Gina (18:12)
that's so creepy.
Mm-hmm.
Kathryn (18:29)
that there's so many things being churned out all the time. A lot of them don't leave creepypasta because they don't spread, know, so they kind of stay safe within that little shell. This one just, it was so popular and so good from the start that it expanded. And once it got off of creepypasta and something awful and into the YouTube world and it was circulating amongst all these other communities that weren't really part of it, it just expanded very quickly.
and thus expanding the lore, essentially. So because so many people were involved in the creation of the original story, there isn't an official kind of original canon for Slenderman. He's just this conglomerate of all of these different perspectives and all these different people. So depending on who you ask or where you go, the details of
who he is and what he wants and what he looks like and why he's here or whatever might be a little bit different. So that kind of adds to why he's so unsettling because one of the things that can make things a little bit less terrifying is understanding their motive. And Slenderman doesn't really have one. Like he's just this kind of ominous presence that one day existed, you know? And there's so many opinions and versions of his story.
Gina (19:48)
Mmm.
Kathryn (19:51)
that kind of adds to the mystique of it and it adds to kind of the horror of you you don't know how you can kind of be safe from him if you don't know what he wants in the first place. Right, I know. This so and actually that's a good that's a good transition there are some things that you know despite the fact that so many people are involved in creating who he is there are some things that kind of landed and stuck and and
Gina (20:01)
Ugh.
The guy doesn't even have a face. Like, ugh.
Slendarman’s Appearance
Kathryn (20:21)
despite there not being an official canon, there is kind of an unspoken agreed upon, like we've landed on these core things about him. And one of them is his appearance,
to expand on the tentacles a little bit, let's like take it up a level. One of the biggest inspirations that a lot of people drew in creating Slenderman was H.P. Lovecraft. So he is said to be part of the kind of Lovecraftian horror subgenre, if you will. And one of the biggest components of Lovecraftian horror is a focus on
the unknowable, which is what we just discussed in regards to why he's so terrifying. It's bizarre to the point where it's just as much fantasy as it is horror. And it kind of creates this incomprehensible experience for the reader or listener or watcher, however you're consuming these stories. And
It's almost disorienting. the whole point of Lovecraftian horror is that there is no semblance of the reality that we actually live in. Like the most terrifying things can be true in these stories, but you never really get to the core. You never really get a why. Like this is just accepted as what things are in this world. You know, does that make sense? Like it's just kind of this bizarre.
Gina (21:42)
Like horror and
scary shit for scary shit's sake.
Kathryn (21:47)
Yeah, it just is what it is and that's terrifying, you know? that kind of makes it impossible to comprehend or predict what's going to happen next or why we could be here in the first place. It's also reported that in addition to H.P. Lovecraft, the original kind of clump of people creating this story drew inspiration from
Gina (21:50)
Mm-hmm.
Kathryn (22:11)
another something awful story that was called the insidious beast, which I've never read that one. I don't know. I probably should have. I'm kind of scared too now. I'm a little scared of creepypasta. I'll be honest. Creepypasta stories legit scare me. They also, I'm sorry. Let me, that story was written by a man named Zach Parsons. And then inspiration was also drawn from Stephen King's The Mist and
Gina (22:20)
Same.
Kathryn (22:40)
Also horror video games such as Silent Hill and Resident Evil, which makes sense. Those are also kind of within that weird like we're in this world, but not at all this world as we know it kind of vibe.
Gina (22:49)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kathryn (22:55)
he's very tall and slender, duh, as we've seen, and like hence his name. He's also always seen wearing a dark looking like suit type outfit. an aside, for anyone who's seen season four, episode 10 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that's what he looks like. Have you gotten there yet? Okay, don't Google it.
Gina (22:57)
You
No, I'm still on season two.
Kathryn (23:21)
It's the scariest Buffy episode that exists. And I think the only one that won an Emmy, that might, I'll have to fact check myself on that, but that one was either nominated for it or did win an Emmy. It's very good, but very scary. But the villains in that one is basically what he looks like, for those who know. For those who don't know, don't Google it, just go watch it. ⁓ And then as we said before, in some stories, he has these big shadowy tentacles that are kind of not, they're not,
Gina (23:23)
Okay.
Kathryn (23:51)
physical tentacles. They're like these shadowy kind of coming out of like the void behind him type tentacles. You can kind of see in the original picture, it's a little far away and a little grainy. But it's like, what are those? We don't know. We don't know what they're for. We don't know what they do. Again, that's another thing that depends on what story you're actually reading or listening to. He's
Gina (23:58)
Hmm.
Mmm.
Kathryn (24:18)
often spotted either in the woods or just on the edge of the woods, kind of in between there's something there with the whole, like, he is of this world but not of this world, kind of like a liminal space type of thing, the in between of where children often are versus where they get lost. So think of woods on the edge of like,
a park or a summer camp, things like that. There's kind of like a border situation going on with him. He's always lurking, that I think is a big important part of this. He's not the type of villain or monster that's gonna like jump out at you and yell boo. You know, he's always in the background. It's always like, think of pipes, like, I kind of felt like pipes. Like, it's always like, is he there? Is isn't he there?
Gina (25:05)
Mm-hmm.
Kathryn (25:10)
He's just kind of this ominous presence that you're never quite safe from because he's there, but he's not. He's close, but he's not. Like you don't really know what he's doing or how he's doing it. Yeah. Yup, me too. That's what I'm genuinely afraid of this story. This Slenderman genuinely scares me. And it's not that old. It's a new
Gina (25:20)
That is so scary. That's like the scariest type of thing to me. Yeah.
Kathryn (25:34)
like it's brand new legend and even I'm still like, fuck that, not for me.
Gina (25:41)
Mm-hmm.
Kathryn (25:42)
And then the other physical description of him is what you already said. He has no face. And for those who haven't seen him, it's typically just kind of this white blank space. But you can see the outline of his features. You can tell where his eyes are supposed to be, his nose and mouth are supposed to be. It's almost like taking white fabric and just kind of stretching it. So it's like he has features, but not, again, another kind of in-between.
Gina (26:00)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kathryn (26:10)
he's kind of halfway between between everything. He's just he's like there, but not I'm just going to keep repeating that because I don't know how else to describe it. In all of the early stories about Slenderman, it is mentioned that his main target is children. There are some that stray from that and it's
Gina (26:17)
Hehehehe
Kathryn (26:32)
one of those like anyone could be a victim, but that's because of this just this unknowable thing. So that kind of grew to be anyone could be at the mercy of Slenderman. But traditionally, his main target is children. it is said one other thing I do want to say about his physical appearance is some versions of his story, it is said that
He's almost a type of changeling. He can take the appearance of people that kids know or have seen before or like wouldn't be afraid of. That's not as common of a story that is just one version of his story. more agreed upon version of his story is kids can see him and do see him and know who he is and
succumb to his powers anyway. They don't need any manipulation or anything like that in terms of being tricked by people they know. ⁓ But it's worth mentioning that is a version of the story.
Gina (27:33)
Mm.
didn't,
so much of this I didn't know. Obviously, I know that's like the whole point of doing the podcast, but.
Kathryn (27:49)
Well,
I want to say me too, but also I don't know if that's true because I think the one thing I did know is the unknowability of him, you know? So I think, not to get all meta, but I think that it's kind of impossible to know everything about him because there's so much and so little on him at the same time, you know what I mean? Like not knowing about him is kind of the whole purpose of him in a way, you know?
Gina (28:02)
Mm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Why Does Slenderman Target Children?
Kathryn (28:18)
So like I said, his main target is children. That's one of the most agreed upon versions of his story. Some say it's just for the very obvious reason that children are most vulnerable and most manipulatable of the human species. Arguably, I'm going to say that actually is probably not true, but like per canon. You know, I'm actually...
Gina (28:36)
you
the canon of humans.
⁓
Kathryn (28:44)
I'm actually just gonna take that back. I don't agree that children are easily manipulated. I think they're the least able to be manipulated of our species, but that's not what the internet says. They say that his target is children because they're easily manipulated, debatable, but we'll move on. Some say there is no reason. It's just, is that way because that's what worked best for the story and it was written that way and that's why.
Gina (28:47)
Hey.
you
Hehehe.
Kathryn (29:14)
It's that way, know, per Lovecraftian horror, it just is what it is. Others say he targets children basically so he can build an army of a bunch of mini slender men so that he can control them and they can do his bidding and they're little and controllable. And that's it. He just wants some little violent babies. Yes. Yep.
Gina (29:35)
He just wants some babies, little slenderlings.
That's cute.
Kathryn (29:43)
I'm laughing because the whole rest of the story is the crimes that have been committed by children in his name. So I'm like, do we love it? I don't know. It's like, get it. And I don't disagree with you. But like, per disclaimer sake, maybe we love it as a story, not in real life. ⁓
Gina (29:50)
no.
Nevermind, okay, I will take that back. I will take that back.
Yes. I love the idea
of a tiny two foot tall slender, slender lit.
Kathryn (30:09)
So if they were the actual monster, yeah, that's kind of cute. Which actually, oh my God, I just realized, I wonder, so I read a book. Don't ever read this book, was this, you would not like it. It's a great book. It's called Ghost by Clay McLeod Chapman, who is a horror writer, and it was the most gruesome.
Gina (30:13)
Just teeny. Just so teeny.
Okay.
Kathryn (30:34)
I've never read a book with such like gruesome descriptions of horror. This is kind of a spoiler, but well, it's not. At one point, there's a kid that is like all gross and weird, but he doesn't have a face. And I'm kind of imagining a little Slenderman now. I wonder if he got inspiration from that. I don't know. Anyway, it's a great book for anyone who's into horror books, but it's, it was aggressive.
Gina (30:39)
Mm.
Hmm.
I don't think it's a Gina book.
Kathryn (31:01)
It's not a Gina book. It's definitely not.
Gina (31:02)
Not a Gina book.
Crimes Inspired by Slenderman
Kathryn (31:03)
Like, it fucked me up. I'm still kind of fucked up by it. I read it like a year and a half ago. ⁓ Anyway, that was just an aside. So anyway, Slenderman has been the inspiration to numerous crimes committed by children. ⁓ Yes, you heard me correctly. There have been numerous. There is one that
Gina (31:06)
Mm.
Kathryn (31:30)
is the most infamous one that we will discuss, don't worry. But there are a few others I'm going to walk through now because I knew there were others, but I never knew the specifics of them. ⁓ I thought so too.
Gina (31:40)
there was just the on
e.
Case 1: Pasco County, FL
Kathryn (31:43)
Alright, so I'm gonna work my way backwards.
So on September 4th of 2014, authorities in Pasco County, Florida responded to a 911 call about a house fire.
A woman and her nine-year-old son had escaped the flames, but the woman's 14-year-old daughter, Lily, was missing. The mother told authorities when they got there that she woke up around 1.45 a.m. to the smell of smoke,
She went to her son's room first to wake him up. And then when she got her son, she went to her daughter's room, but she wasn't there. So she got her son out of the house and then she went back inside for Lily, but she still couldn't find her. So she just had no choice but to go back outside. Like the house was on fire. know, she like had to go back outside with her son.
Gina (32:26)
⁓
⁓ my god.
Kathryn (32:34)
So that's when the authorities were called. That's when the authorities got there. So they go looking for Lily. Later that morning, the woman received a text from Lily that said, quote, Mom, I'm so sorry. I don't know why I did it. And then following that text, she asked if anyone got hurt, which luckily they didn't. There was only mom, son, and daughter in the house, and no one was hurt.
Later, Lily would state that she had packed a bag with clothes, bottled water, cookies, knives, some lighters, and a flashlight to prepare to run away. Then she soaked a towel and a bed sheet with bleach and rum, lit it on fire, and then tossed it into the garage as her mom and brother were sleeping.
After starting the fire in the garage, she walked to a nearby park where she stayed the night in the public restroom. In a news conference, the Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco funny name, we can laugh at that one, but not in this moment, it's kind of sad, but Chris Nocco that's a good one. He stated that Lilly frequented websites like Creepypasta and was very familiar with the Slenderman story.
Gina (33:40)
That's fun, that's fun, knock out. Yeah.
Kathryn (33:52)
She had also written extensively in her journal about Sunderman and about basically
what it meant to be a Slenderman follower and what it meant to be kind of part of the... I don't know what to call it. Slenderman group, like have the inn with the Slenderman, get on Slenderman's good side. One of those things is a sacrifice. Like you have to make a sacrifice in the name of Slenderman.
in her writing, in the journal about Slenderman, it was clear that she was not, she did not understand that Slenderman was a made up story. She was very much talking about him as if he was a real entity that existed in this world. And it was very clear that she genuinely believed that
For whatever reason, wherever this came from, she believed that in order to appease him, you had to sacrifice someone. And not much was written.
on her. Like this was kind of an open and shut situation. ⁓ She was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count of arson. She spent 21 days in juvenile detention before she was eventually released to go back home. The charges were dropped on October 7th, my mother's birthday, happy birthday. Charges were dropped because her mom wanted her back home and she
just wanted to get her therapy instead of putting her in the system. she got her into counseling and that's kind of the last we heard about it. hopefully that means therapy worked. I don't know, it was not heavily reported on. So that's all the information that I could find on her specifically. But like I said, she's not the only one that, you
Gina (35:28)
Yeah.
Kathryn (35:53)
of experienced this.
Case 2: Cincinnati, OH
Three months before that, in June, a Cincinnati woman who wished to remain anonymous contacted her local news station to tell them that she had recently experienced kind of a strange encounter with her own 13-year-old daughter. One day, the woman came home from work and she walked into the kitchen where her daughter was standing there in the dark. All the lights were turned off.
She was just standing there not moving. She was wearing all black and wearing a white mask and she was holding a knife in her hand.
Gina (36:29)
⁓
⁓ okay, I take back what I said about cute little Slenderman babies. I'm so sorry. Theoretically, ⁓ Jesus Christ.
Kathryn (36:34)
Mm-hmm.
I know. Theoretically, the idea of it's cute, but like here we are seeing it in real time.
Yeah, I know. So her mother was confused at first, you know, she knows her daughter. She's not scared of her daughter, you know, at this point. It's just weird. Like she doesn't really know what's going on. So she kind of had her guard down. She was basically just like, what the fuck are you doing? Before she could make sense of this
bizarre situation. Her daughter lunges at her and attempts to stab her several times in the face and the neck. It's unclear due to the anonymity of the situation. We don't know how much damage was done because she was able to call the news station, like casually tell them about this. It is assumed that damage wasn't super bad, but we don't know. We don't know any more than that.
basically what we do know is everyone was physically okay. She did state this woman did state that her daughter had a history severe mental issues, She didn't say what or, you know, the exact
severity of it, but she did state that her daughter also was a huge fan of horror stories and she had written several fan fiction pieces on Slenderman, which after this instance, her mom was kind of unclear on whether these were fan fiction pieces actually, or if they were delusions, you know, she just she didn't know. Right. So this one was there again,
Gina (38:08)
Yeah... Yeah, fuck.
Kathryn (38:17)
they're anonymous and this is all she really said. I wasn't able to look up the court case on this one because we don't know who they were so there's not really anyone to look up. But article that I did find on it stated that the girl was facing charges but similar to last one ⁓ she said her daughter claimed to have no memory of the situation whatsoever. It was like
someone just took over for like for a brief moment and you know how do people describe it where it's like your eyes kind of go weird and you just kind of lose it and then you come to it's like you black out and shit happens and then you come back and you're like what the fuck so any number of mental health issues can cause something like this but we don't have any details on what specifically she had so we don't know exactly what happened
Based on what I was reading, similar to the last situation, it is assumed that all charges were dropped and she got therapy instead.
Both of these cases were cited as being inspired by the most infamous case, which is that of the Slenderman stabbing, which happened in May. So that would have happened.
Gina (39:33)
all the same year. Shit. Okay.
Kathryn (39:35)
Yep, like within a few months of each other, all in 2014, yes.
Case 3: Waukesha, WI
May 31st, 2014, two 12-year-old girls, Morgan and Anissa, stabbed one of their best friends 19 times with a five-inch blade at a park in Waukesha, Wisconsin. I should have done a trigger warning. Realizing now that I did not trigger warning for lots of stabbing, sorry. Like, I don't know.
Gina (39:57)
Yeah.
Kathryn (40:03)
Bonus tidbit, I'm not going to call this a fun fact due to the nature of this episode, but this happened just three miles away from where you and I met originally. Did you know that? It was that close? Yeah. Yeah, it was super close. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's not wild. No one...
Gina (40:12)
⁓ my god. No, I did not know it was that close. I knew, I mean, I knew that we met in Waukesha, but I didn't realize it was, holy fuck.
Kathryn (40:24)
No one needs to ever go to Waukesha. We're definitely not condoning going there. But bonus tidbit, this is where Gina and I met. Anyway, so the story starts Morgan had two friends over for a sleepover for her birthday celebration. And actually, OK, as an aside, as of literally at the time of this publication, this news is like two months old. Morgan.
Gina (40:26)
No. No.
Kathryn (40:49)
has since come out as trans. So pronouns are now he, him. I want to specify that for confusion because this is a very infamous case involving three little girls. And this is brand new information that I literally learned hours before recording. So just...
Gina (41:11)
Is that why you...
yeah, because you texted me you were like, hold on!
Kathryn (41:13)
Yes, this is why I was like, shit, I'm like, I need
to like edit my notes real quick. And it's because there's a lot of updated news on this story, which we'll get to. But so many news outlets are still saying she, so it's a little confusing. but...
Gina (41:28)
Mmm.
Kathryn (41:31)
I just wanted to specify this now because I've already missed a lot of places that I was supposed to edit, so I do apologize. His pronouns are he, him for any confusion because this is a little young for like boy, girl sleepovers, so don't want anyone to think that like we're talking about a different case. So it's still the same case, different pronouns. Anyway, so he invites Anissa and another friend named Peyton
that Friday, the night of the sleepover, Anissa had packed a backpack with clothes, granola bars, water bottles and pictures of her parents and siblings. Already off to a bad start. Not shit you pack for
slumber party at all. And then Morgan's father came to pick her up and they scooped up Peyton and the three of them went to a roller rink in Waukesha. They then went back to Morgan's house for a slumber party and the next morning Morgan asked his mom if the three of them could go play at the nearby park and his mom said yes, off they went. A few hours later a bicep
Gina (42:12)
Mm-mm, mm-mm.
Kathryn (42:38)
would find Peyton lying on the side of the road at the edge of the woods and she was covered head to toe in blood and it would later be determined that she had been stabbed 19 times as I already said. She had injuries to her arms, legs, and torso. according to an official statement, she had been hanging out
at the park with Morgan and Anissa when Morgan suggested that the three of them go for a walk in the woods. Once they were under the cover of the trees, out of nowhere, Morgan and Anissa started to attack her with the knife. Once the two of them left, Morgan and Anissa, once they left, Peyton crawled her way out of the woods and toward the road, which is when the cyclist found her. She was then taken to the hospital and she was in stable condition.
and she did survive the attack. She was physically fine after that. So Morgan and Anissa were found a few hours later walking along the interstate and alongside the family photos and granola bars in Anissa's backpack, she also had the five inch blade that matched the size and shape of Peyton's injuries. again. ⁓
Gina (43:40)
Huh.
Kathryn (43:57)
not your standard slumber party, ⁓ knapsack. So this, just, I'm laughing not because it's funny. I'm just like, my brain is just like, my God, the mind of a child is just so fucking weird. Like, like kid logic just blows me away. So when authorities found them and he said, Morgan, like I said, we're walking along the interstate and they were planning.
Gina (44:01)
No.
Yeah.
Kathryn (44:25)
They were heading north, walking toward the Northwoods where they believed Slenderman was waiting for them post-sacrifice. For context, for those of you not from the area, where they were and where they were heading, it would have taken them minimum two to three days to reach their destination on foot. So just like right from the start, these
children had no plans. Like, I want to be very clear to everyone. Like, there was no semblance of, like, real logic happening. Like, in their brain, it was like, okay, we're going to quick have the sleepover, make the sacrifice, grab some granola bars, we're going to walk to the woods that are three days away. Like, this was not a situation that was ever going to end well for these two children. It's basically the takeaway. So.
Gina (45:19)
Mm-hmm.
Kathryn (45:24)
Anissa when questioned by detectives, would describe Slenderman as, the leader of creepypasta, end quote. And in order to prove their dedication to him, they were forced to sacrifice someone. So she did confirm that that was their motive. Otherwise, they believed that Slenderman was going to kill everyone in their family. Yes. So, Morgan.
Gina (45:45)
Okay.
Kathryn (45:50)
was the one who originally learned about Sunderman and told Anissa everything about it. So this kind of originated with Morgan and he got all the information. He was the one that, you know, was in Creepypasta reading the stories on YouTube, watching the videos, like basically learning everything there was to know about Sunderman. And then Anissa got all of her information from Morgan. So Anissa was kind of just along for the ride, but
Gina (46:17)
Okay.
Kathryn (46:20)
very, very much an active member of what happened, but kind of her knowledge of the situation was all secondhand. Throughout the pretrial investigation, Morgan was diagnosed with early onset schizophrenia, which is a pretty big deal. I mean, I know we've talked about schizophrenia before on the podcast and just how extreme those delusions can be on top of it being such a severe diagnosis.
Being diagnosed at the age of 12 is nearly unheard of. A person typically experiences the beginning of their symptoms in their 20s or even 30s. And in some rare cases, what is considered early onset schizophrenia typically starts around 16 or 17. So a diagnosis at 12 is pretty extreme.
Gina (47:02)
Oh, I didn't know that.
Okay.
Kathryn (47:18)
So all of this is to say the correlation between this child having delusions that nobody knew about and could not really have foreseen. Plus they stumbled into this world that we talked about kind of leaked out of the creepypasta and into the YouTube and general internet space and her kind of inability to understand that creepypasta was not real.
and not something that not really something any 12 year old should be consuming in the first place. But you know, she could have accidentally stumbled upon this anywhere else. I think she originally learned about it on YouTube, but I'm not 100 % sure. These stories can be deceiving for a mentally stable person, let alone a 12 year old with delusions, you know,
So all of this is just kind of the perfect storm. Even if he wasn't experiencing delusions, can't... This is the type of thing that could be very confusing for a child. This is obviously a very extreme case, but it did...
kind of lead to some serious discussions about internet safety for kids for obvious reasons. it just, it blew people away because this is such an unheard of thing to happen as a result of just a fun story on the internet, but there was so much nuance to it. We're dealing with mental health. We're dealing with
you know, should kids be on the internet in the first place? You know, is it safe to have sleepovers? Is it safe to go to parks? Just all of the things that parents have always been afraid of, all of them happened in this story, you know? So it just, this story just blew up and spread like wildfire. It was wild. Oh my God. I will never forget when this happened. And just know it, because at the time my cousin lived very close to this park.
Gina (48:58)
Hmm.
I remember, yeah, it was everywhere.
Me neither.
Hmm.
Kathryn (49:14)
And I just
remember being like, my God.
could have been there with her baby, you know? Like it was just so... It was the type of story that felt close to home no matter where you were because everyone knows a 12-year-old, you know, whether you think you do or not. Everyone's met a 12-year-old. Everyone's been on the internet. Everyone's read a spooky story. Everyone's seen YouTube. Like it's very much a this could happen to anyone type of story.
Gina (49:19)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Kathryn (49:39)
But also it's not because so many weird things were happening at once. It's like unbelievable that this happened, you know, so it kind of creates a weird mental space where you can't really is just a freaking weird situation. So anyway, back to the trial during the actual trial trial itself. Morgan was very clearly living in a different reality. He really genuinely
Gina (49:45)
Mm-hmm.
Kathryn (50:09)
I'm going to say appeared to believe that he did what he did for valid reasons and he needed to do it and didn't have any choice whether or not this happened because it was basically either Peyton or me. Like that is kind of the attitude that he seemed to kind of have on the situation. Didn't really show any empathy toward the situation whatsoever.
Gina (50:25)
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Kathryn (50:36)
Anissa was very nervous and very emotional the whole time. She kind of seemed to snap out of it once she got into the court system and realized like, ⁓ fuck, like we fucked up. Despite her being very clearly sorry for the situation, she also was kind of torn because she maintained that she genuinely believed that she also had to do what they did in order to save her family.
Gina (50:48)
Mm-hmm.
Kathryn (51:04)
this like she understood that she killed someone and she was sorry for killing someone, but she also genuinely still believed that Slenderman would have killed her family had she not done.
Gina (51:15)
She tried to kill someone, right? She didn't actually kill them. Okay, I was like, hold on. I thought Peyton was okay. Okay.
Kathryn (51:18)
Yes, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Yes, yes, yes. She did not kill Peyton. I'm sorry. Yeah, I misspoke. Yes.
And to that point, they didn't know right away that Peyton had made it. Their early interviews, they were saying this, like, had to kill her because they thought she was dead when they left her in the woods thinking she was dead. So I'm sorry. Yes, yes, she did survive. But go ahead. Yes. Yep.
Gina (51:29)
Mmm.
That makes sense, that makes sense. Yeah. Can I ask a clarifying question? Because I think I remember this part about the case, but I don't quite
remember it. They took turns stabbing her, right? It wasn't just Morgan stabbing and Anissa watched, or did I get that wrong?
Kathryn (51:48)
So.
So you did not get that wrong. I left that out because I don't want to go too deep into it because I like, but no, I think it's important because it does have to do with the way they were charged. Yes. what happened, like according to them, what happened was,
Gina (51:58)
Okay, that's fine, we can edit that out.
That's why I was asking about it, yeah.
Kathryn (52:13)
One of them was going to do it. I believe Anissa was going to do it. And like couldn't bring herself to and the other one took the knife and did it. They're also and part of the reason I took this out is because I was going to fall down a rabbit hole and like we weren't going to get past it. But one other thing that I think is important to like why the slumber party aspect was important to it. The original plan.
Gina (52:19)
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Kathryn (52:41)
was they were going to do it night of the slumber party, but I think they got like cold feet And then again, they were going to do it in the park bathroom. That's where I believe it was Anissa got cold feet. And that's when Morgan was like, all right, let's go for a walk. And I'm going to fucking take care of this basically. I'm paraphrasing, obviously. So yes, it wasn't, I don't think they both.
Gina (52:46)
Okay.
Okay, okay.
Kathryn (53:09)
If they both stabbed her, was one of them took over the other one. I'm sorry, I'm not being more clear on this. just, I was like, I'm going to fall down a rabbit hole if I go too deep into the details of the crime. But, but yes, they both were active parties in this situation.
Gina (53:22)
Yeah.
Okay.
Kathryn (53:28)
So that does bring us to the charges and just how they were different because Anissa was charged with attempted second degree murder and intentional homicide. And Morgan was charged for attempted...
first degree murder, and intentional homicide. So Morgan's the one who was planning all of this and in charge of everything and you know, whatever. Anissa followed along, so hers was second degree.
Gina (53:47)
Yeah.
Kathryn (53:54)
Anissa guilty, but she found not guilty by reasons of mental disease. psychiatrists did say that it was clear she genuinely believed that Slenderman was coming for her.
But there was also another layer of Anissa where whatever she had made her exceptionally susceptible to being influenced by others, because of her whatever delusions or whatever you want to call it, she kind of.
Gina (54:19)
Okay.
Kathryn (54:26)
just trusted what other people told her was reality more so than other people would. I don't know the details of her, like what she had or anything, but that is something that was stated in the court case documents. So she was sentenced to 25 years in a psychiatric hospital, followed by communal supervision until the age of 27. She was released early in 2021 due to extensive
Gina (54:30)
Mm.
Kathryn (54:53)
like significant progress in therapy, basically.
But she's still, despite her release, the communal supervision until the age of 37 stands. So despite the fact that she is out, she will be monitored minimum until the age of 37.
Morgan accepted a plea deal that prevented him from going to trial if he pled guilty. But he was found not guilty by reasons of mental disease due to the schizophrenia diagnosis.
He was sentenced to stay in a psychiatric facility with an indeterminate maximum of 40 years to life, which The indeterminate maximum basically allows space for if things change significantly.
then things can change. Because one of the things that you know, we need to keep in mind is they were 12 years old at this time. And the 12 year olds brain operates a lot differently than an adult's brain. So like, there is a lot more space to be like, okay, with therapy and with, you know, being monitored and all this kind of crap. You know, what's true for a 12 year old, it's not going to be true for a 25 year old, etc, etc.
But it's still a very violent crime, and we need to monitor people and all of that. So it's like the indeterminate amount of time. There's a lot of space for wiggle room, depending on what happens. a lot of people have a lot of opinions on that. I'm not going to get into all that, because we'll never stop talking about this if we get into my opinions on maximum sentences in America. So.
Gina (56:21)
Okay.
You
Kathryn (56:36)
But upon his release, he would also be required to continue to be monitored and receive regular treatment until the age of 53 or a complete resolution of symptoms, whichever comes first. Throughout the duration of his treatment, it was uncovered that he had experienced some pretty significant childhood trauma. So
There's another thing I like can't get all the way into because this is stuff that is in the process of coming out now. Like this is all very brand new information. Basically, his therapist is now saying that the trauma that he experienced was likely largely contributing to his psychosis that he was experiencing. And he has now been diagnosed with ⁓ kind of
I don't remember what they called it, but he was on, he's basically on the, like, it's some psychosis spectrum disorder. I'm not sure if that replaces the schizophrenia diagnosis or if it's in addition to.
Gina (57:37)
Okay.
Kathryn (57:44)
I looked, but again, I learned all of this like a few hours before our original recording. So I tried my best, but at the time of recording, this is brand new information. So more will come out on this. The reason we don't know the full story of the full diagnosis, we might not ever due to privacy laws and that's okay. But I think the takeaway is there was likely more going on than just a schizophrenia diagnosis. So that makes it.
Gina (58:09)
Yeah, okay.
Kathryn (58:12)
know, a little sticky. Regardless, he still needs to be in therapy. The sentencing of receiving treatment until the age of 53 does not change and that's never going to change. But it's worth noting.
Gina (58:14)
Yeah.
Kathryn (58:31)
of what this new or updated or additional diagnosis is.
Where are they now?
In January of this year, Morgan did petition the court for release from the institution. And it was accepted on the grounds that he had made considerable and significant progress, similar to Anissa. Upon his release, Morgan will live in a group home. So it's not like he's just back in the world. He will live in a group home and be under state supervision.
and receive, again, regular evaluations until the year 2058. Again, this is brand new information. A lot of people have a lot of feelings on it. I think one of the things that I will say that made this case so unique is the fact that dealing with 12-year-olds, but
the crime was so significant and so severe, they were tried as adults, which, semantically, I have issues with that. I wish we called that something else because the reason to try someone as an adult is to increase available maximum sentences and to, you know, put people away or put them in mental institutions or whatever for longer periods of time.
Gina (59:44)
Yeah.
Kathryn (59:59)
I don't like the insinuation that a 12-year-old brain is the same as an adult brain, but for everyone out there that feels similarly, this is me saying that's not what it means. ⁓ Some people thought they should have gotten longer. Some people thought their sentences should have been not shorter, but just, you know, they don't think they should have been locked up. They thought they should have been released a long time ago and still in there. Like, there's a lot of opinions on...
Gina (1:00:03)
Mm.
Yeah.
Kathryn (1:00:26)
this case and the verdict and everything that happened as a result. ⁓ I will say, regardless of what your opinions are, think one of positive silver linings from this case is that Peyton did survive. as of, I couldn't find any very, very recent interviews from her, but within the last five years, she did give a pretty significant interview to
ABC and she stated that this experience
did inspire her to go into the medical field. she did say that without this experience, she wouldn't be who she is today. And she's very proud of who she is today, which is literally the best case scenario that could come out of something like this. that's the silver lining. Other than that, this whole experience was just trash.
Gina (1:01:03)
Hmm.
Just bad. Just
bad.
Kathryn (1:01:24)
This case
sucks. It's one of the most significant cases, like I said, of the 2010s. In the midst of all of this, we do need to keep in mind that this all started because of a fictional character created from a Photoshop from several years ago.
Gina (1:01:43)
When you say it,
like I know that you said that and we were talking about that at the top, but to resurface that now, yeah, that's wild.
Kathryn (1:01:47)
Yes, I know. Mm-hmm. Yep.
That's why I bring it back because way back in 2014 when this all went down, people did kind of try to shine the light on Eric, the guy who created it originally.
He did make a statement saying that, you know, he was deeply saddened and his heart goes out to the families of everyone affected. Just kind of standard statement. And he was pressed repeatedly for interviews, which he repeatedly declined, which I would also because that also was a sticky situation. It's like, do you blame the guy or not? Like he was on this forum. No.
Gina (1:02:23)
Hmm.
Kathryn (1:02:32)
I would argue he could not have possibly foreseen this happening. Like, I'm sorry, but what the fuck? I would never think that this could happen as a result of a Photoshopped image. Just yeah, like I said earlier, this really kind of expedited the discussion about kids on the internet and, you know.
Gina (1:02:35)
No... No...
Kathryn (1:02:53)
YouTube specifically has taken pretty strict precautions in regards to what is available to people under 18 and what is not. I'm the one who posts this on YouTube and I will say they take that shit real seriously. Like you cannot post anything without indicating who it's for and who it's appropriate for and who should and shouldn't watch it and all of those things. And they're real quick to take things down if they think there's anything that could be.
Gina (1:03:06)
Ha ha!
Kathryn (1:03:20)
in violation of those, which is so good. I'm grateful for it. I don't want any small child stumbling upon our videos. Are you kidding? Like, no one should be.
Gina (1:03:21)
which is good.
No, my gosh.
Kathryn (1:03:30)
after all is said and done, this is just one of those stories where I kind of, I get lost in my own rabbit hole in my brain because there's this whole weird layer of, it's gonna sound conspiracy theory-esque and I don't mean it to be that way, but it kind of begs the question, like even though this is a fictional character and it was created
kind of flippantly, no disrespect to the guy who made it, but you know, he's just doing it for a forum real quick and like moved down with his life, you know? Despite that, the lore of the story kind of became a reality. Like these children in our real world, in real life, really were doing the things that it is said, Sunderman inspires children to do. So like,
Gina (1:04:13)
Mm.
Kathryn (1:04:24)
While Slenderman might not actually be real, the effects of him are. ⁓ And that shit keeps me up at night. So that's how I end this story. That's why I'm so scared of Slenderman, because it's just one of those things where like it's not real, but also real things have happened as a result. So the lines are blurred nothing's real and everything is scary.
Gina (1:04:34)
Yep. Yep.
Kathryn (1:04:52)
And that's my story. Yeah. Yeah, so that's it. That's Slenderman.
Gina (1:04:53)
Yeah, I think that about sums it up.
The only thing I'm thinking about right now is when I was about maybe 12 or 13, it was the time in my life where I thought it was acceptable for boys to invite me over and I watched them play video games. It was like that, ugh. It was awful, it was awful. And they played a Slenderman video game. And it was terrifying, it was so scary.
Kathryn (1:05:14)
Ugh, gross. I missed that and I'm so grateful for it because that was such a big thing. Yeah, yes.
Oh, yes. I didn't even
go into all of that. But yes, so much media has been inspired by this story. Yes. Yeah.
Gina (1:05:32)
So much. Yeah.
Yeah. So that's just, I don't even remember who it was. Doesn't matter. I just remember how scared I was at the game. It's fucking terrifying.
Kathryn (1:05:39)
Yeah. So you
also had to experience the effects of Slenderman, even though it was just in video game form. See, he infiltrates. He infiltrates the children. Yeah.
Gina (1:05:47)
Which was enough, that's plenty. It does.
Listener Story
Kathryn (1:05:52)
So now that I've traumatized you with that, do you have anything traumatizing for me?
Gina (1:05:59)
Well, funny you
should mention because our friend at the pod, Brooke sent us a story not too long ago. Yeah, just a few days ago. So I would love to read it to you if your ears are willing. Okay. Amazing. Okay. So it says it's your pal Brooke here. I have been meaning to write more stories, but a new position at work and being pregnant has really taken it out of me. LOL. Totally get it Brooke. Anyway.
Kathryn (1:06:06)
Yay! We love Brooke.
please do.
Yay.
Gina (1:06:27)
Here is a story of a spooky house near my hometown in Colorado. There was a house that was around 10 miles out of town that was abandoned. The roads weren't kept up to the houses, so it was difficult to get to if you didn't have four-wheel drive. Growing up, everyone heard stories of the abandoned house, and it was really like a rite of passage to go and explore the house in our small town. When I was at college, I brought a group of friends home for homecoming for my high school.
After all the festivities were over, we met some of my old friends at a bonfire, and soon all were talking about the house. Not that long after the topic came up, we were all loading into trucks and headed to the house. Just to break this narration for a second, can't you just feel this energy? Yes, I love the way that this is written. Such a vibe, totally. Okay, narration commences. Since the house was not kept up, it was starting to fall apart.
Kathryn (1:07:12)
Yeah. Yes. Yes. This is such a vibe. Yeah, ⁓ such a vibe.
Gina (1:07:26)
Not a smart time to explore a house in the dark, but you are only young and dumb for a little while. Yeah, total vibes. Scattered in some of the rooms were old newspapers, photo albums, documents, you name it. There was one room that had a bunch of newspapers and documents supporting the Nazi party from World War II. That room gave me a really dark feeling, and I did not stay long in there after seeing the papers.
Kathryn (1:07:34)
You
Gina (1:07:53)
I knew I wasn't going to even try going to the second floor due to visible holes in the floor and the sketchy stairs. I did, go into the basement. scary. I know, know. No, Brooke! Going down to the basement with the only light being our phone flashlights, it is definitely spooky.
Kathryn (1:07:54)
Good.
No, don't go in the basement!
Gina (1:08:23)
especially since it's already freezing in a concrete basement, but then seeing shelves on shelves of canned things. Since they were so old, they were all just brown and chunky and it was hard to see what they actually were. We had picked up a couple and you could see they were all untouched with the amount of dust on and around them. Someone joked about taking a few of them to break outside to see what was in them.
And we all decided against it, not wanting to chance the smell coming from it and glass going everywhere. Very smart choice, very wise. Demons, canned demons. Imagine being a canned demon. I like that. As we were all starting to leave, a jar flew off the shelf and hit the wall next to the stairs. None of us were anywhere close to that jar.
Kathryn (1:08:55)
smart. Also, demons. Canned demons. I am. That's kind of funny.
Gina (1:09:15)
And looking around, we couldn't find where the jar came from since there was enough dust that you would have seen a place where the jar was. But there was a jar on the floor broken now and we didn't stay much longer to find out what threw the jar. Once we got back upstairs, I didn't stay in the house. I stood in the field with the cars waiting for everyone else to come out. I could feel something there and was not for it.
Everyone else was still exploring and we told one girl that came with us not to go to the second floor since she could easily fall through. Well, she didn't listen and went up anyway. I could see her through the hole where a window used to be. She waved and then backed away like she was going to come back down. But before she got out of my line of sight, something pushed her. She fell out the window and into the bushes.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I know. I know. It was clear she didn't jump and was pushed. She was okay physically, just a few scrapes from the branches of the bushes, but mentally she was not okay. I haven't spoken to her in a couple years, but she would never want to talk about what happened at that house the rest of the time we were at college. I haven't been back to that house since that night and don't plan to ever go back.
Kathryn (1:10:21)
⁓
Gina (1:10:41)
Some things should just be left alone in my eyes. Isn't that terrifying?
Kathryn (1:10:47)
Dude,
I had full body chills when you were talking about her backing up from the window, because I thought you were going to say she saw like a face behind her or something like that. I was genuinely startled. That is not, like I believe this is real, but that's like a not a real thing that happens. Like this is bonkers. What the F? Truly, that is.
Gina (1:10:55)
Mm-hmm.
and pushed out of a window.
Right? Worst nightmare. Worst fucking nightmare. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah.
Kathryn (1:11:16)
That's so violent.
Gina (1:11:19)
Mm-hmm. I know. Yeah, and when you're that age because if she was in college like if it was her first year in college She would have been like what 18? Maybe 19 20 ish
Kathryn (1:11:22)
Holy shit. Yeah.
Yeah, somewhere between like 17 and depending on where I don't know every state has a different like cutoff and stuff. somewhere between 18 years like 17 and 19 or something. Yeah.
Gina (1:11:35)
Yeah.
And when I was that
age, like I remember feeling very like grown up and I could handle anything, but as soon as something went wrong, the panic that you feel of like, shit, I don't actually know what to do in these situations. Like that fear is so palpable, know?
Kathryn (1:11:42)
Mm-hmm.
You
god, I am a grown ass woman and I would not know what to do if I was pushed out a fucking window.
Gina (1:11:57)
No.
No, no. Well, I wouldn't go in the house. Yeah. That jar flew off the wall. I'm out. I'm out. No way.
Kathryn (1:12:01)
or saw someone. I would definitely go in the house, but yeah, I
would definitely go in.
I don't know if I would go upstairs because I would have been afraid of falling through the floor. Yeah. But I mean, I don't know. I've done a lot of things in my life that I definitely shouldn't have done. So like, who knows?
Gina (1:12:14)
same.
Same. Well, you're very brave,
for going into the house, and you're also very wise for knowing when to leave. So kudos to Brooke.
Kathryn (1:12:26)
Truly. Mm-hmm. Yes.
Man, that's wild. That's so scary.
Gina (1:12:33)
Yeah, I know.
That's why when you, cause when we got the email, ⁓ Kathryn hadn't read it yet and I was like, thank God I can read it. Because we usually, like, yeah. Yeah, because whenever we do a listener story, like one of us will intentionally not read it so we can react like in the episode. And I'm glad that this was one I got to read ahead of time. Cause it's wild.
Kathryn (1:12:40)
Mm-hmm. She, yeah, she was like, god, have you read it?
She...
you, yeah, you warned me that you... I don't remember how you phrased it, but you were like... you mentioned that you literally gasped out loud as you were reading. I could in a million years have ever guessed that someone was pushed out a window. I'm so uncomfortable right now. Holy shit. The bush. I'm glad, like, yeah, you said she landed in like a bush or a tree or something. Fuck.
Gina (1:13:00)
It's a doozy.
Mm-hmm.
Right? Thank God she was okay. That could have gone so wrong. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Kathryn (1:13:22)
my god. That could have been so-
Gina (1:13:23)
Yeah. Uh-huh.
So anyway, if anyone else has a spooky creepy story involving windows or not, we're all ears, man. Send that shit over.
Kathryn (1:13:26)
Anyway, well.
Yeah, it
definitely definitely does not need to experience like have an experience like this. This is quite exceptional. This is not your average ghost story. I'm so scared right now.
Gina (1:13:39)
That is so scary. And
the fact that Brooke has said that she has so many of these stories, I'm like, what else are you sitting on, Brooke? What do you know?
Kathryn (1:13:48)
Yeah.
I know
I'm happier back because judging by this being what story three or whatever, like, man, what else do you have for us?
Gina (1:13:53)
Me too. Welcome back, Brooke.
Every time she
sends a story, it's like, holy fuck. Yeah, so we love Brooke. Yay, Brooke.
Kathryn (1:14:03)
Yeah. Yeah,
for those who are new, she sent a few stories in previous episodes.
is definitely the most violent one. Holy crap.
Gina (1:14:14)
That's so violent.
But yeah, I think that that might be all we have. Do we have anything else? Anything to add?
Kathryn (1:14:18)
Yeah, it is. No,
I think we've traumatized everyone enough.
Gina (1:14:24)
Okay, well everyone go recover
and then when you're feeling nice and sparkly and new, come back next Tuesday to be re-traumatized. Although actually, the next episode's not gonna be traumatizing, it's just fascinating.
Kathryn (1:14:31)
Yeah. It's not.
Yeah, I love next episode topic. I haven't heard it yet, but like the topic I can tell it's going to be fun. Okay. Cool.
Gina (1:14:36)
Yeah, it's gonna be a good one.
It's gonna be real interesting.
All right, cool. Well, until next time, little spoons, keep it cool.
Kathryn (1:14:46)
Keep it Creepy!
