[SPEAKER_00]: to decide to take a small, celebrated trip for a weekend.

[SPEAKER_00]: A quaint little hotel.

[SPEAKER_00]: But on arriving you find something that no one wants to take accountability for.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even more they seem shocked that you've mentioned it.

[SPEAKER_00]: What if be it from the corridor or window leading outside?

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a sense of some one or some thing waiting to get in.

[SPEAKER_00]: What if the darkness itself seems to be working in cycles against you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Testing you and your sanity itself?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's exactly what today's listener was faced with.

[SPEAKER_00]: In episode four, season 22 of the dark, paranormal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Live from Liverpool, the Dark Paranormal Season 22.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hello everyone and welcome back to episode 4 of Season 22 already.

[SPEAKER_00]: This season is truly flying.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can honestly say it's my favorite season already and that's down to you guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for your ongoing feedback, constructive criticism and praise and don't forget [SPEAKER_00]: If you have any suggestions for future episodes or how you want your show to be shaped, email me contact at thedocparanormal.com [SPEAKER_00]: Now, before we get into today's amazing episode, a quick shoutout to our Patreon team, who are a wonderful community, and if I was a paranormal fan who was not a podcaster, I would be joining this community in a heartbeat, because having been a paranormal fan since I was maybe five, and then the internet came along halfway through my life, I scoured these forums, etc, and always found them falling into chaos, basically.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm proud to say that our little group of people over on Patreon, or the truest, most polite, accepting, group of people in terms of fans of the paranormal, I can honestly say I've ever encountered.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you head off to our Patreon page, during this time of year, obviously with thanks giving Christmas et cetera coming up, Advert on podcasts, everywhere, all going to be round.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a thing in podcast called a fill rate, and basically we average around 60 to 70% throughout the year.

[SPEAKER_00]: at Christmas, everyone runs at 100%, meaning more adverts for you, minimum breaks in play.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now heading over to patreon.com, forward slash the dark paranormal, at our lowest tier, you can get ad free access to each and everything that's released on the main feed.

[SPEAKER_00]: You could head up to our highest tier, where you get early at free access, a Patreon only show every Sunday of the year, called Dark Bytes where we take a look at shorter experiences, and from December, a brand new episode, will we take a look more informally at the topics that have been raised that week?

[SPEAKER_00]: It truly is a fantastic place to be, and from January for that tier, we will have their very own forum, one which is not like a forum you've seen before.

[SPEAKER_00]: So head over to patreon.com, thought slash the dark paranormal, and join what is in my biased, but slightly unbiased opinion, of sincerely what I believe to be the best paranormal online community anywhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: lower those lights, make yourself comfortable, and of course leave your disbelief at the door.

[SPEAKER_00]: As we hear all about, the Texas darkness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey there, Kath!

[SPEAKER_00]: My name's Hannah, and I have no issue with you using my or my best friends real names.

[SPEAKER_00]: If this makes it onto your show, I was introduced to a lovely podcast by my husband.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a long time listener, and I promptly binge just many episodes as humanly possible.

[SPEAKER_00]: Luckily, for binging purposes anyway, I spend an inordinate amount of time in my car, driving around the state for work, and I've relished the opportunities to keep the drives interesting by listening to these submitted stories and pondering the potential causes behind them.

[SPEAKER_00]: My husband's motive for introducing me to your show was not simply to provide me with more of their creepy.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, because he already wants me to submit a paranormal experience of my own.

[SPEAKER_00]: To begin some context and a little scene setting is an order, but first, like many of your listeners who've submitted stories have said before, this is 100% true, a 100% traumatizing account of the things that happened to Bridget and I earlier this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: As you will soon see, we both went to great lengths to try and rationalise these happenings with logic and reason.

[SPEAKER_00]: Trying our very best, not to resort to the paranormal by any means necessary.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, even now, neither of us can find an explanation that is not paranormal.

[SPEAKER_00]: As I write this, it's the first of October 2025, and this feels like a very fitting way to leap into the month.

[SPEAKER_00]: This experience happened a few months ago, March of this year, and has been lingering in [SPEAKER_00]: My best friend, Bridget, and I, took a weekend trip to Fredericksburg, Texas, back in March to attend her cousin's wedding.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a lovely little ceremony in a quaint quintessentially southern town.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as we work in the same industry, one that gets hideously busy during the spring and summer, we extended our trip by a few days to make a little weekend getaway.

[SPEAKER_00]: bridge, as Bridget Shell henceforth be referred to, had booked us into a room at a local hotel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Fascinatingly built in a converted airplane hangar that boasted a stylish adult environment featuring airplane memorabilia, USO history and the romance of the 1940s.

[SPEAKER_00]: And according to the website, a World War II museum as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Being nerdy ourselves, we were both beyond stoked to see the hotel and museum.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you can only imagine our disappointment when the hotel informed us of checking that they'd accidentally double booked our room, and that we wouldn't be able to stay there after all.

[SPEAKER_00]: Luckily for us, well, unlookingly really, as you'll see.

[SPEAKER_00]: The hotel graciously offered to put us up at their sister property on the town's main street, and for a substantial discount, which we were more than happy to accept.

[SPEAKER_00]: This hotel was significantly smaller, 11 rooms in total, most of which were housed above the taproom of a local brewery.

[SPEAKER_00]: One which claimed to be the oldest brewery in Texas.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sweet, we love beer, and we love cheap hotels.

[SPEAKER_00]: Things seemed to have taken a turn for the better.

[SPEAKER_00]: On our way across town to the new hotel, we stopped at a couple of wineries and had ourselves a nice bus going by the time we walked into the brewery to check in.

[SPEAKER_00]: The concierge was a young man, very sweet, but oddly quiet.

[SPEAKER_00]: almost as if he was scared of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we brushed it off, chalked it down to the brewery being busy, and us being obvious outsiders in such an old-fashioned town.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm heavily tattooed and shaved head, and many souvenirs don't quite know how to react to someone who looks so different.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, even in the year of our Lord, 2025, places can be far more judgmental than people want to believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Kantciage gave us the keys to our room and instructions on how to find it, so off we went.

[SPEAKER_00]: Chuckling about how quaint it was that we were staying in such a historic hotel [SPEAKER_00]: The room itself was cute, but otherwise unremarkable.

[SPEAKER_00]: It had an ensuite vanity and a hilariously small bathroom adjoined to that room that even featured an even more hilariously small bathtub.

[SPEAKER_00]: There were only two things, aside from the silly little bathtub that stood out to us about the room.

[SPEAKER_00]: Firstly, along one wall of the entire room, ran a series of four small-ish windows, with both interior and exterior shutters.

[SPEAKER_00]: They opened out onto the flat roof of the brewery below.

[SPEAKER_00]: Secondly, there was a wristlet, a small wallet, typically carried by ladies or girls, with a loop on one end to wear a round your wrist for convenience.

[SPEAKER_00]: We, of course, noticed the wristlet before anything else, and assuming it had been left by a previous guest, we grabbed it and we took it down to the concierge before it only came looking for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was cute, with a bright pink and green pattern and a clear window on the side for one to put their idea.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the ID slot was empty.

[SPEAKER_00]: wanting to figure out who forgot their wallet, with all their cash and cart inside by the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And had somehow lost their ID, we opened the wallet to see if there were any other identifying factors inside, no dice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever, we were on vacation and we were going to enjoy it regardless, so we took the wallet downstairs to the concierge, letting him know that it had been in our room and that it [SPEAKER_00]: to which he responded, huh?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's odd.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think anyone else stayed in that room this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: I offered it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it was one of the housekeepers.

[SPEAKER_00]: The kid laughed and shook his head.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm the housekeeper.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I promise that's not mine.

[SPEAKER_00]: They don't even have me working down here.

[SPEAKER_00]: He gestured towards the desk.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's on less someone called in sick.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bridge shrugged.

[SPEAKER_00]: I shrugged.

[SPEAKER_00]: The kid shrugged.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it was one of the ghosties, pretty giggled, elbowing me in the side.

[SPEAKER_00]: I laughed along as the concierge is face, turned somber.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he simply said, [SPEAKER_00]: I doubt it, but maybe, anyway, thank you all, John to be on me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Feeling that this was a reasonable remittance, bridging ice nags and to go bruise from the bar top, and headed out onto the street to see what Fred Rick's bird had to offer.

[SPEAKER_00]: As it turns out, the town's main offering was booze, and lot of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: bridge and I visited and sampled the words of almost every bar on that main strip that afternoon.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we finally accepted defeat around 2.30 a.m.

when everything, even the corner stores, had closed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we stumbled back to our cozy little hotel room just above the brewery.

[SPEAKER_00]: It should go without saying that we were both pretty smashed by the time we got back to that hotel.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I do feel the need to mention, smashed as we may have been, we were both fully coherent, not smashed to blackout point by any means.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now obviously the wallet isn't the point of this story, so allow me to get to the action.

[SPEAKER_00]: After the usual removing of makeup, brushing of teeth, changing of clothes, I noticed that [SPEAKER_00]: the watch, though a really cool new addition to my collection isn't the point of the story either.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it kind of does play a sort of hidden vital role.

[SPEAKER_00]: As I said about fixing the loose screw that held the offending link, bridge was poking around the room, opening cabinets, locating outlet for off-bone charges, and she noted that the shuttered windows along the wall, [SPEAKER_00]: were openable and came to let me know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right about the same time, I got too frustrated with the inability of me to drunkenly repair the tiny screw on my watch, and offered to take crack at it while I went to open the windows and see if there was anything exciting out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: At this point, it's probably around 10 to 3 in the morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: After a few minutes, Bridge informed me that since the head of the screw in my watch band was so tiny and delicate, none of the screwdrivers or tools either of us had in the hotel room would be thinning of to tighten it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that a knife might work.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know, I know, just stay with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: My husband had recently sharpened my pocket knife, so I abandoned the now open window and went back to the ensuite vanity to try and tighten the screw with it, and it worked.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sweet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, there's a caveat here.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one that lends the watch slash knife situation it's rolled in this experience.

[SPEAKER_00]: Since the knife had recently been very finely sharpened, and since I was pretty hammered, neither I nor bridge noticed when I sliced my thumb open, working on the watch.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pretty badly too, I still have the scar.

[SPEAKER_00]: Neither of us happened to notice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Though my hand was pouring with blood, all over me, all over the floor, my shirt, the watch, the vanity counter, you get it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We were too excited about the fact that the windows overlooking the brewery roof had no screen, which meant we could easily hop out of our room and onto the roof.

[SPEAKER_00]: Feeling emboldened by drink and victory, we both clumbered out of that window and onto the roof.

[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't particularly exciting out there to be sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: A view of the residential street behind the brewery.

[SPEAKER_00]: I looked down into the brewer's back room to see the big fermentation bats, holding beer, some leaves and standard roof detritus, and a HVAC unit.

[SPEAKER_00]: We hung out on the roof for about an hour talking, smoking, dissecting the social interaction of the previous day's wedding.

[SPEAKER_00]: and then bridge gasped and gorked at me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Suddenly tossing her half-finished cigarette off the edge of the roof to the street below.

[SPEAKER_00]: What?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: I asked.

[SPEAKER_00]: Laughing she gesture to my chest and torso.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dude, you are fucking covered in blood.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you kill someone up in there when I wasn't looking?

[SPEAKER_00]: Looking down, I saw what a chocked her.

[SPEAKER_00]: The white t-shirt I'd put on to sleep in was indeed now splouched with blood.

[SPEAKER_00]: With a large smear near the bottom hem, the I'd wiped off what I thought was water.

[SPEAKER_00]: We quickly took an inventory of ourselves, and eventually figured that I must have cut myself working on the watch.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh well, easy fix.

[SPEAKER_00]: I may feel it in the morning, but I sure can't feel it now.

[SPEAKER_00]: We squished ourselves back through the overwindow, shittering it behind us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Looking for a band-aid to patch me up before we headed off to bed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, neither of us had packed one, so we settled on toilet paper and a rubber band.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we were talking ourselves into bed, when Bridge said, [SPEAKER_00]: I checked my phone and I concurred.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was late, and we had been pretty noisy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not noisy by our usual drunken standards, of course.

[SPEAKER_00]: But at 3.30 a.m., our laughter and conversations would have sounded offensively loud to any respectable citizens who were sleeping in their hotel rooms, and not taking late night excursions on to roofs.

[SPEAKER_00]: We set our alarms, double check that the hotel room door was locked, and lay down once again for some much needed rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: We, of course, didn't get much if any, sleep that night.

[SPEAKER_00]: Shortly after turning out our bedside lamps and rolling over to snooze, we both had heavy, tracking footsteps in the hallway.

[SPEAKER_00]: Neither of us are a particularly heavy sleeper.

[SPEAKER_00]: and the building was of course incredibly old.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it would make sense that sound would carry and that we'd both have heard it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We giggled at the thought of some poor hotel patron running to their room for the night in even worse shape than we were and thought nothing of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We rolled over once more and went to sleep.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd just drifted off when I heard the toilet flush.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I looked towards the bathroom door expecting to see bridge coming back to bed.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the door was open.

[SPEAKER_00]: The lights were off.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not just that, but Bridget was sound asleep next to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hmm.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, all building weird pipes sound carry.

[SPEAKER_00]: I brushed it off.

[SPEAKER_00]: A few minutes later, and Bridget sat bolt upright next to me in bed, grabbing for my hand with her right and reaching for her bedside lamp with her left.

[SPEAKER_00]: Someone had jiggle the door knob of our room.

[SPEAKER_00]: Aggressively, I might add.

[SPEAKER_00]: You heard that right, her voice in a half dark, excited, and confused but not your panicked way.

[SPEAKER_00]: I grumbled and sat up next to her.

[SPEAKER_00]: Probably another drunk bastard trying to get which room they were in.

[SPEAKER_00]: You locked it, we'll be fine.

[SPEAKER_00]: Eventually she agreed, and after getting up to double-check the door was really locked, she climbed back into bed, and we once more shut off the light to sleep off our afternoons minestrations.

[SPEAKER_00]: Once again, we're right there on the Cusp of Sleep, and we hear the same sound.

[SPEAKER_00]: This time it was me who set up as the window as less than three feet from my side of the bed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bridge appeared to be sleeping peacefully, so without bothering to turn the lamp on, I slid out of bed and padded to the window to investigate.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, there's nothing there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I chided myself about being paranoid.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, of course there was nothing.

[SPEAKER_00]: The window opened onto the roof to a two-story building.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was no fire escape nor ladder that would have been allowed for anyone to access from the street.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only way onto that roof, aside from using the brewery's access door to the HFAC unit, was to climb out of our room's windows, which was likely an activity strongly discouraged by the hotel staff.

[SPEAKER_00]: I shook my head, shuffled back to bed, and found Bridget wide awake.

[SPEAKER_00]: Her face illuminated by her phone screen, revealing open eyes and a slightly panicked expression.

[SPEAKER_00]: Was was that you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Windows are latched, but they don't actually lock, so I trailed off looking to her for a solution.

[SPEAKER_00]: She shrugged back, shook her head silently, and slid out of bed, to shove a chair underneath the door knob of the room's only door, on the opposite wall from the window.

[SPEAKER_00]: I chuckled.

[SPEAKER_00]: What you do in Bud?

[SPEAKER_00]: She didn't share my amusement, let's just say that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, but if it is a drunk, bunch of idiot, it's better to be safe than sorry right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I nodded, can't argue with that logic.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we sat in bed together, obviously now both very much awake, discussing all the potential causes of the sounds for a few moments.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before we were interrupted again, by the sound of the toilet flushing, [SPEAKER_00]: Again, we both look through the open bathroom door into the dark empty bathroom to see...

nothing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dude, I heard that earlier, and I thought it was you, but...

bridge cut me off.

[SPEAKER_00]: No.

[SPEAKER_00]: I heard it too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Weird.

[SPEAKER_00]: I agreed it was weird, as was the window rattling noise, and we both laid back down for the third time.

[SPEAKER_00]: our previous bulls long since dissolved, mindlessly scrolling through our phones.

[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't long before we heard the same slow, trudging footsteps coming down the hall.

[SPEAKER_00]: That caused us to exchange a concerned look.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody spoke.

[SPEAKER_00]: The room was still and silent for a good few minutes.

[SPEAKER_00]: and then the dawn of rat on the gen, just as violently.

[SPEAKER_00]: We both stared at the door wide-eyed, watching this handle jiggle for a few seconds before falling still.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the silence, we both very clearly heard those footsteps received up down the hall.

[SPEAKER_00]: Immediately, Bridget leapt out of bed to turn on her lamp.

[SPEAKER_00]: I snatched my knife off my nightstand and charged towards the door, ready to confront whoever was trying to open the door.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bridget shoved the chair aside as I flung the door open and I leapt into the hallway, peering over my shoulder as I came toe to toe with an empty, well lit, hallway, nothing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I walked into the hall a few paces, my best friends stood at the door behind me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I called out in a voice that I hoped sounded intimidating, but was most assuredly not.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever you're after, I promise I can wait until morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need some bloody sleep.

[SPEAKER_00]: This, of course, would have probably been far more affected had I not been clad in a giant stained t-shirt and poked up panties.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we work with what we have, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: After taking a few seconds to ensure there was no one hiding in that hallway and creeping down the hall to confirm there was no one in the stairway, giggling at the incredible prank they just pulled, ice printer back to the room, slamming the door behind me, the other guests be damned.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bridges were standing at the end of the bed, phone in hand.

[SPEAKER_00]: We both let out a short, sharp, harsh laugh at the proposition.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't everything haunted here?

[SPEAKER_00]: This place is old as shit, I quipped.

[SPEAKER_00]: With a confidence that neither of us warrant it.

[SPEAKER_00]: The toilet flushed again, and we anxiously giggled our gratefulness to the toilet ghost, for lightening the mood.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before crawling back to bed for the umpteenth time, before crawling back to bed once more.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bridge made no move to turn off the lamp and nor did I.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we pulled the blanket up over our laps as we sat in bed, looking at each other with uncertainty.

[SPEAKER_00]: After a while the HVAC unit outside kicked off, which was closely followed by a rattling at the window.

[SPEAKER_00]: I took some water, bridge got up to use the bathroom.

[SPEAKER_00]: We lamented the fate that had befallen my thumb, and after ten minutes or so, we decided we should at least try to get some sleep.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was now around 415.

[SPEAKER_00]: The hangover was imminent.

[SPEAKER_00]: The time in the morning or impending hangover notwithstanding, the cycle started over again.

[SPEAKER_00]: The slow, dragged footsteps.

[SPEAKER_00]: Followed a few minutes later by the toilet flushing.

[SPEAKER_00]: A few more moments later, the windows rattling.

[SPEAKER_00]: Phone in hand, I sat up once more.

[SPEAKER_00]: Shining the screens dim light in the direction of the window.

[SPEAKER_00]: as bridge turned on the lamp on a nightstand.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, nothing outside the window.

[SPEAKER_00]: More annoyed than concern now, I flung the window wide open and shoved my head and shoulders out, scanning the roof.

[SPEAKER_00]: As I say, the HVAC unit was on with a brief rumble.

[SPEAKER_00]: At the time it startled both of us, and I lent a bit further out to take a good look at it.

[SPEAKER_00]: as Bridget remarked from behind me that maybe since the building was so old and the unit had likely not been serviced in a while, maybe the sound of the rattling windows could simply be chalked up to the vibrations from the air conditioner.

[SPEAKER_00]: I agreed, and we further rationalise this explanation together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Old buildings, old windows, old HVAC unit, it all made sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: There were a few seconds of silence between us that I couldn't resist breaking.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then, what about the footsteps, the door knob?

[SPEAKER_00]: We both saw that move, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Bridge considered this briefly.

[SPEAKER_00]: But maybe it's like an overnight guy from the brewery.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe the girl who left her wallet, hoping it'd still be here.

[SPEAKER_00]: she paused.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, something.

[SPEAKER_00]: She gave me a dubious look which I returned, shawking.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe, I don't know man, I'm not a fan.

[SPEAKER_00]: She shook her head.

[SPEAKER_00]: At this point, I think it might honestly be easier if we just stay awake.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure there's some kind of brunch joint we can sit in first thing of a morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Get a little hair of the dog, she [SPEAKER_00]: We debated this briefly as we were rapidly approaching 5am, far too late to get any worthwhile sleep.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ultimately though, we decided some sleep was better than no sleep.

[SPEAKER_00]: We did have a long drive the next evening, so we should have the lights and laid down once more.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was futile.

[SPEAKER_00]: The series of noses continued in that same way until sunrise.

[SPEAKER_00]: Footsteps don't obthole a flush window rattle.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bridget, ever the Legitian, eventually figured out it was roughly seven minutes between each occurrence.

[SPEAKER_00]: And remember that neither of us, even now, can draw any helpful explanations from.

[SPEAKER_00]: We spent the remainder of the evening or morning, huddled together in the bed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Blank it up over our heads, clinging to each other like children.

[SPEAKER_00]: were both in our 30s and had a good laugh after recounting this story to my husband, who pointed out that the flimsy hotel sheets probably wouldn't have stopped anything that wanted to get at us anyway, and he obviously wasn't wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: But still, outch.

[SPEAKER_00]: Around 645am, as the sky was beginning to lighten, whatever had been twing with us through the night, evidently lost interest.

[SPEAKER_00]: At that point, we slept, if you could call it that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because it was about 9-30 before we'd raised, grogally dragging ourselves to pack our suitcases, tidy the hotel room, and face the day.

[SPEAKER_00]: As we left the room, however, we both let out a little squawk of surprise and tripped over each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: As we nearly collided with a pair of older gentlemen in the hallway.

[SPEAKER_00]: The next few seconds were a flurry of apologies and nervous laughter as we explain to these guys more than a little sheepishly that we've been kept awake for most of the previous night.

[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine our surprise when they expressed the same sentiment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wait, really?

[SPEAKER_00]: What time did you all come back here last night?

[SPEAKER_00]: But it asked them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Both of us hoping we'd finally found an explanation.

[SPEAKER_00]: These were the guys for the reasons behind the cacophony of noises.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gentleman exchanged declans, and we didn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of them offered, looking at bridge and eye, like with each growner's separate head.

[SPEAKER_00]: This old fart, hindered as it was counterpart, needed the handicapped accessible room, and it's on the bottom floor next to the brewery.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, oh dear.

[SPEAKER_00]: The four of us looked at each other now suspicious.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bridget and I once more recounted the walking, the door knob, the whole bit, and the aforementioned old fart jumped in.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know we had a bunch of wich it happened in our room last night too, but you know we chucked it up to faulty wiring and old building whatnot.

[SPEAKER_00]: He shrugged and singed the shock that must have been all over our faces continued.

[SPEAKER_00]: The hairdryer in our bathroom kept turning itself on and off during the night, and his buddy jump back in, and obviously he said, removing a faded baseball cap to reveal the shiny bald head.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now the reverse needs to blow dry our hair in the mornings.

[SPEAKER_00]: Weird right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Bridget-Eye slowly nodded as he continued, [SPEAKER_00]: and the toilet kept rushing too, all by itself, how creepy is that?

[SPEAKER_00]: He laughed half-heartedly.

[SPEAKER_00]: We both agreed it was weird, exchanged a few parting remarks about the hotel being creepy, and left the pair in the upstairs hallway, pausing only for a moment at the bottom of the stairs to deposit our room keys in the hotel's lockbox.

[SPEAKER_00]: After taking a moment to marvel at that coincidence, and acknowledge how analysts the men had seemed when recounting their own story, Bridge and I set to throw our suitcases in the back of her car and seek out on the hair of the dog to get us through the remainder of the day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Doing some shopping and having in a gregously priced wine flight, we decided that we may as well go back to the brewery to see if the concierge from the previous day was [SPEAKER_00]: The team to worse like he would be the most logical person to get some closure about last night's events.

[SPEAKER_00]: He, of course, was not.

[SPEAKER_00]: Disappointed, we flopped into the two barstools in the brewery taproom, opting to indulge in one final beverage before escaping the offending building and its inhabitants.

[SPEAKER_00]: The bartender, and a man about our age, raised a cocked eyebrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know you're like not supposed to say this ladies, especially not two ladies, you don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: You guys look rough.

[SPEAKER_00]: Long night, he chuckled nervously, looking good up and down.

[SPEAKER_00]: We looked at each other, then back at him, before breaking into delirious laughter.

[SPEAKER_00]: Talking excitedly over each other, we once more recounted on-night detail by detail.

[SPEAKER_00]: Quickly and quietly when we realised he was neither laughing nor smiling.

[SPEAKER_00]: The guy handed us our beers, offering a half-hearted smile.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are on me, y'all.

[SPEAKER_00]: Confused we accepted the pint and looked back at the bartender.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, thanks, we'll take them, but I'd trail off, cocking my head at it.

[SPEAKER_00]: His expression didn't change.

[SPEAKER_00]: You good, but?

[SPEAKER_00]: The bartender shrugged.

[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't been here for a very long time, but she has.

[SPEAKER_00]: He nodded in the direction of another bar lady.

[SPEAKER_00]: An old lady, with a grey long ponytail.

[SPEAKER_00]: Her back was to us, but he called her over.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wiping her hands down on her pants, she then shoved them in her pockets and regarded us [SPEAKER_00]: clearly irritated at having been pulled away from her task.

[SPEAKER_00]: She asked, what up?

[SPEAKER_00]: You said they want to talk to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Her male counterpart nodded.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lent closed to her ear to mutter something in a low voice and walked towards the back of the brewery.

[SPEAKER_00]: Apparently, done with their conversation.

[SPEAKER_00]: slower, calm of this time, and now more than a little suspicious, both Bridges and I explained the previous night to this lady.

[SPEAKER_00]: She listened intently, unsurprised by the story, and nodded to herself before breaking out into a huge grin, then laughed heartily, and left us with this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah, that place is haunted to shit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look it up.

[SPEAKER_00]: But maybe wait until you're out of the city limits.

[SPEAKER_00]: She winked.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bridgeny chocked as much of the free beer as we could handle, and, now unnerved, made our way back to the car to head home.

[SPEAKER_00]: After the first 20-minute or so, the ride was silent.

[SPEAKER_00]: Aside from the raging headaches and my nose scabbed 10 to thong, we made a tone without incident, and nothings happened since.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the few Google searches has revealed that the hotel is, of course, a popular stop on local ghost tours.

[SPEAKER_00]: But little more than that.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you've made it this far-care, thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for providing a platform for people to share their experiences, and for always representing them so gracefully and respectfully.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've only shared this story with a few close friends, most of whom were kind enough to indulge us and listen.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's been clear that very, very few people in our circles believe anything to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Chalking it up to an old building or scaring ourselves and of course the heavy drinking.

[SPEAKER_00]: I and Brigitte of course would love to hear any less as theories or insights.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or even to hear if anyone else has had a similar experience at that same hotel.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've done a bit of research since the incident, and have uncovered more than a few ghost stories about Frederick'sburg itself, and the surrounding area.

[SPEAKER_00]: But nothing about the hotel specifically.

[SPEAKER_00]: Certainly nothing to explain the malevolent force that kept us awake all night, not even anything to explain the wallets from the beginning of the story.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've since summarized that, maybe, me spilling my blood all over the hotel room, pissed something or some one off, and maybe the trespassing on the roof exacerbated it, who's to say, all bridges and I know for sure, is that something or some one was very unhappy with our presence in that hotel.

[SPEAKER_00]: At the very least, next time, we'll try to come prepared, and maybe pack a tiny screwdriver.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, hand, thank you so much for giving us our fourth episode of this season of the dark paranormal.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I often use the phrase Validator to imply when I believe something is real.

[SPEAKER_00]: but validators could be in many shapes and forms.

[SPEAKER_00]: They don't always have to be something so out there you think well why was that included?

[SPEAKER_00]: Validation can just be validation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Two people witness in the same thing, or in your situation, you and Bridget, and those two gentlemen you encountered on the stairs who also encountered phenomena that night.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I can't recall the name of it, but I'm pretty sure we have a dark realms episode about the area of Fred Rick's bag, and it may well be this hotel you are talking about.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to really have to look that one up as soon as I stop recording.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you all heard Han and I love to read them too, if you have your own theory, suggestion or idea about what Han and bridge experienced email us direct, contact at thedocparenormal.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: One interesting thing for me, because remember I'm also a paranormal fan, that I'm going to be taking a look at is the number 7.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's got high mysticism in certain cultures, but it intriguing these things happened with seven minutes in between each cycle as you put it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Ham, once more, thank you for providing such a thought provoking episode.

[SPEAKER_00]: To all, if you wish to become a member of simply the best online community ever, head over to patreon.com forward slash the dark paranormal, there's a link in the show notes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Also just to make you aware, because if the tier changes, I'm currently unable to change the highest tier until the final free tier person has gone off the tier radar.

[SPEAKER_00]: So once that person's gone, the price will be changed.

[SPEAKER_00]: and we will then reintroduce free trial runs at the highest tier.

[SPEAKER_00]: So just a small break in play there, but in the meantime, remember.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you're discussing the paranormal, always try to live some of your disbelief at the door.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll see you next time, unbelievably, for episode 5 of the dog paranormal season 22.

[SPEAKER_00]: Until then, stay safe and take care.