Sometimes the Vanished Never Return | Campfire for a Cause

0:00All right, welcome to the campfire. Tonight is a very special episode because I have an amazing guest with me tonight. This is Liana and we're here in Virginia and Liana and I, we actually met a couple of years ago during the live tour we did in 2024. She is an avid Mr. Ball and fan and so we had this amazing chance to meet in DC at the live show and at the time when I met you, I knew that your dad had ALS and that had, I think fairly recently been diagnosed and it was just so clear that Mr. Ballin or the Strange Dark and Mysterious was really like sort of an honest to goodness centerpiece of your household. It seemed like a lot of people in your family really liked the Strange Dark and Mysterious and it was really touching for me. Also I loved your flannel. That was really cool. We were going to do a tour this year and our tour got canceled and we found out due to the cancellation that you were going to be going to the live tour which was canceled.

1:02But through speaking to Corey or your mom as well as Tony, we found out that that unfortunately Liana has been diagnosed with leukemia and I not only immediately remembered my meeting with you but also I have children. I have three children, I have two daughters, one of which is 10, nine and then I have a son who's six and I just remember so clearly when I met you in DC, honestly this is corny, I just reminded me so much immediately of my own daughter that when I found out about your leukemia diagnosis, I mean honestly I immediately said like what can we do to just put on a show for you. And fast forward to Spotter'sville, Spotsylvania Virginia, you know a few months later we made it happen and so we're here tonight to give Liana a private show because she's awesome her family's awesome, they're struggling through some things and I think that they should be highlighted and they actually they have a go fund me that today actually here's how

2:02it's going to go. The proceeds from this video are going to all be donated to your family. So just watching the video in and of itself will be a way to help with medical expenses and help their family in such a difficult time. But then also there's a link in the bio for their go fund me because you know medical expenses are not cheap and I want everybody to if nothing else just try to support this family, support Liana, supporter family if you can and again if nothing else just watch the watch the video and that is in and of itself a supportive thing. So Liana thank you so much for being here, it was a very long winded intro and so tonight the way it's going to go is I have three stories to tell. The first two are our new ones, these are new to the public, new to you for sure and then there's a third one that we're intentionally waiting until it gets dark here. We're actually just so you guys I don't know if you can see from the camera shot, we're right by this cabin in the woods. This is like a very iconic Mr. Ball in setting and the third story is it's an OG spooky

3:04story that I think you're really going to like. But before we get into tonight's stories, if you're a fan of the strange dark and mysterious delivered in story format then you've come to the right campfire because that's all we do and we upload two, three even four times every week. So Liana if that's of interest to you the next time you're at a campfire go ahead and invite the like button to come here with you but don't tell them you've secretly embedded firecrackers in the fire and as soon as you like them walk away. Also please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into tonight's stories. Auto insurance should not be one size fits all especially for people whose lives definitely

4:04aren't. That's why USAAA Auto Insurance offers coverage designed for the military and their eligible families. When your life demands precision USAAA gets the details right like helping you find savings on auto insurance when you switch. Visit usa.com slash auto quote to see how much you could save membership eligibility and product restrictions apply and are subject to change. USAAA means United Services Automobile Association and its affiliates San Antonio, Texas. You need something from Lowe's but your day is already jam packed since my Lowe's rewards and my Lowe's program rewards members get free same day delivery will make the run for you. Seriously just lock in your order and we'll do the rest. See you soon. Members get more at Lowe's 25 dollar minimum and loyalty membership require order eligible items by 2 p.m. Subject to weight and size restrictions and availability terms at Lowe's.com slash shipping terms. On March 3rd of 1954 there was this woman named Ye who lived in Hong Kong and she and

5:11her friends were big time Ma Zhong players. Now I actually don't I had to look up what Ma Zhong was because I had obviously heard of it but I don't really know how it's played. It's effectively like a card game with tiles like domino tiles right and you're sort of trying to arrange the tiles you pick up a tile you discard one and you're trying to build like the best set the way you would play like with cards. This is probably a trotious for those who play Ma Zhong but either way big Ma Zhong player and in the 1950s in Hong Kong Ma Zhong was like really really popular like to the point where you go into restaurants in Hong Kong and like the tables would have laminated to the table itself like a Ma Zhong board. So people would play Ma Zhong everywhere it's a big deal. And so yeah her name Y-E she was a really good Ma Zhong player and she played like really competitively and she had these three friends, these three women that she always played with. And on this day March 3rd 1954 she's at her apartment, she's in the second floor apartment

6:12it's a new apartment she just got her dad owned it and he rented it out and apparently the tenant was out so he just given it to his daughter to live in so she stoked she's got this amazing apartment and she's hosting like a you know a Ma Zhong tournament with her friends. And that night it had gone exceptionally well for ya. She was just crushing it and the way they were playing was like for every I guess hand I'm not really sure how they describe it but for every round you play the pot just kept getting bigger and bigger. I don't really know if they reinvested the money or something but by the end of the night it's late at night and there's this like massive cash pool in the middle of the table for the person who wins the game. And so yes playing the other three are situated around this table it's loud they've been drinking they're having a good time it's late and it goes to yes turn and she draws a tile and she realizes like she's she's gonna win like she knows it like this is it this is my big moment. And so she puts down the tile and then they yell out this word it's a whoo it's some word they yell it's signal it's sort of like saying bingo right like they yell it out

7:14they win the game and so she calls it out in her friends they're like so defeated they are like oh you know they kind of like push their their tiles all over the place because they're just like I'm poor so yeah yeah one again and so yes she's like celebrating and her and her friends are sort of beginning to sort of talk amongst themselves and yes looking at the huge pile of cash and she starts like literally like grabbing the money and like pushing it all together it's like a big stack of you know singles or whatever and as she's doing this she sees a hand like push her hand back as if someone was reaching out and grabbing the money sort of like you're trying to get the money and if I reach out and push your hand away and her immediate reaction is oh my jealous friends are are trying to take the money from me trying to stop me from taking the money right and so she she stops what she's doing she's sort of annoyed like come on this is this is fair and square I won and she looks up to to see which of her friends is is taking the money or who's pushing her hand away from getting the money and she looks at one of her friends and she sees her hands on her lap and she looks at the other woman next to her and she's

8:18doing something with her hands but she's far enough away from the table it's not her she looks at the other woman they're all three of them they they've stepped away from the table they're not they're not doing it and she looks down at the table again and she sees there's this hand that's on the table and it's actively now grabbing at the money and it's sort of like this the skins fairly gray with long fingernails and the arm is coming from under the table someone is reaching up from under the table and grabbing at the money this is a small table it's a small kitchen picture yourself you're with your three friends you know there's nobody else there and so immediately she's looking at the table thinking who else is in the room that's under the table right now this whose disembodied arm is reaching up from underneath the table and so for a second yes just staring at it knowing that she has to look under the table she has to right who's down there who's under the table doing this and so she begins to look under the table and when she does there's no one under

9:18the table and then when she stands back up again there's an arm on the table and she screams ghost and the other three women they turn and they see the arm as well they're like oh my gosh and they start throwing things at this arm and they bolt out of the the apartment before I continue this story was an enormous deal in the 1950s in Hong Kong I don't know if you follow 1950s Hong Kong war but this was a big deal in 1950s Hong Kong it made national headlines like it was it was talked about all over the place okay but initially initially when these women come running out of the apartment because of the ghost arm grabbing at their mage on the table and they tell the police the police are like really a ghost arm was grabbing at your tiles you know what I mean but they they bolt out of the apartment they tell the police they stay at the police station they're terrified all four of them have seen that this arm they're terrified they left the money in the apartment a police officer comes to the apartment goes in the complex he walks up to the second floor

10:23you know and he's like this is so dumb like this is this is going to be nothing more than you know they they've clearly been partying and drinking they're probably just seeing things there's no way this is real he gets to their apartment door and he sees it's it's partially open it's a jar and he's okay you know I guess what must have happened is someone broke in or something so he goes into the apartment and you know there's there's clearly signs that from what they describe which is in a panic as they're leaving they're they're flipping tables over he saw the mage on tiles are on the ground he saw some tables were upturned and whatnot but there's there's still money on the ground you know which suggests if this was a robbery if someone broke in and you know tried to steal from you wouldn't they take the money that's literally scattered around the room so he's like that's weird and so the officer after scanning the apartment he leaves and he ends up calling his superior and he's like hey I I think this is just a hoax I don't know to what end I don't know why they did this because there's really nothing about this that feels like it gets them anything it's just a it's a weird

11:24sort of unbelievable hoax no one's really thinking a ghost armed grabbed you right so he goes back to the station and his plan is to get into the station and it and not interrogate this pipe too strong of a word but to was to speak to these women and be like all right let's let's go through the details of what you actually saw so he goes back to the station and he goes into into the interrogation room where the women had been waiting and they're not in there there's four seats inside of this room where they had been and sitting on all four seats is a single majong tile on each of these chairs but the women aren't there and this is the 1950s there wasn't robust surveillance in or outside of the station but they looked for these women nobody saw them leave no one could report where they went and they were never found they vanished this night their families nothing they have no idea what happened to them and so following this incident if you will that apartment became quite famous because majong such a big deal in Hong Kong and now there's

12:25like this crazy mystery attached to it and so shortly after this became huge news around Hong Kong to the point where people were like there was a pilgrimage to go to the department from all over the country and people were trying to sneak into the apartment like see the ghost who plays majong to the point where they had to put police police escorts and they walled off the compound with so many people were going there but to this day yeah we don't we don't know what happened to the women and we don't know if there really was or was not an arm but pretty creepy story nonetheless that was scary pretty creepy so yeah so so what's your take on on that what do you think do you think that a literal disembodied ghost arm is responsible for their disappearance I mean it would make sense if they saw an arm but nothing underneath it's an odd thing to claim right because if you're going to claim that you you better be pretty confident that's it but all of them said it was it was arms and actually one smaller detail is that as the as yeah stood back up again after looking under the table and seeing nothing there when she stood back up again she described the

13:27hand had gone from just grabbing the money to like moving the tiles around so the ghost arm is now playing majong I think it became like the majong ghost after that so anyways you are a captive audience I love it you know it's funny when when I have done live stories so much of how I feel and how it's going is really built on how I believe the audience is perceiving the story so I'll give you an anecdote when we were in actually Washington DC where I met you and your family for the first time the audience you included were really into it like there were gasps there were like moments where it was obvious the audience was like literally reacting to the story I was telling which was great because on stage you're like I'm nailing it you know people really get it conversely and this is no no shade on anybody in fact in some ways it's a reflection of someone's manners we went to the show we did a show in North Carolina and people were so polite like

14:27freakishly polite like everyone we met before and after the show couldn't have been nicer couldn't have been could have been more devoted like from a fan fan perspective but this is later in the tour and I'm on stage and it was like silent in the theater but I think it's because people were trying to be very respectful of like me on stage they were not trying to move around too much and so it felt sometimes like I was talking into a vacuum which was really jarring and as I'm sitting here listening or telling the story to you you you are an excellent audience you really are and they can see it in like your eyes you're really paying close attention so I really appreciate it so far the neo collection by Ashley Luxe was made for making a statement bringing affordable style to your home's cozy corners with cool hammered hardware on nightstands and dressers plush bouclay seating soft enough to keep the conversation going and a rich espresso finish that highlights the natural beauty of wood from quiet mornings to lively gatherings neo is here for it all

15:28shop the neo collection by Ashley Luxe available now in stores and online at ashley.com slash luxe have you ever looked at someone who appeared totally normal and still wondered to yourself like what awful things they theoretically could be capable of well that's the whole idea behind my new graphic novel it's called mr. ballin presents the terror within and in this book the scariest thing in any of these stories is never the monster you expect it's the monster that's hiding inside of someone so please head on over to book.ballinstudios.com to pre-order a coffee of our newest graphic novel it comes out this fall pre-order it now. So in 1964 there was this family who were Steven Henry and Deli. Steven and his son Henry who was 14 and Deli. Very good job we were just for her since she nailed it thank you you nailed it you're perfect. This family they loved

16:33American history in fact really specifically I would say Steven and his son Henry were like big into American history they were into going to like the different like battlefields from the civil war that played out on American soil and Deli the wife also was interested to some degree but more more than anything she enjoyed being outdoors and so when her husband and son would want to go visit one of these various like battlefields or whatever she often just treated it as a chance to to just go be outdoors go for a walk or whatever. So in April of 1964 Steven and Henry make the decision that they want to go to the the site of the Battle of Little Big Horn there was a very meaningful battle in the late 1800s called the Battle of Little Big Horn and they wanted to go check it out and so they made the decision to go and Deli agrees and so off they go and it's in Montana and this is not only good scene setting but it's also important to the story the site of the battle

17:34where so many people were killed so many people were killed but it's it's if you're there there's a monument called the Little Big Horn monument that is I mean I hate to say it but it's remarkably unremarkable it's just like this this monolith this big rock monolith and just open field and have you ever ridden to Montana by any chance now have you not been to Montana okay so Montana is like this setting in Montana is just beautiful like rugged beautiful beautiful this part of Montana where Little Big Horn was fought it's basically like this huge open field it's it's not it's not ugly but it's it's just plain it's like you'd be staring out in all directions and it's just like rolling hills but it's not really any trees it's just like grass not really any mountains just imagine a vast plain in all directions with the singular monolith right in the middle so as a history buff you know it's an interesting place to go but even for Della when they got there they're sort of like huh

18:35there's not a whole lot to do here you know there's not like forest or anything nearby but when they get there you know Stephen and Henry they're like you know they've done their research about the battle before they're sort of looking out in the cardinal directions imagining you know where various battles were fought because they knew the history right and then for them this is fascinating and there were like some other tourists that were sort of walking around but again there's really not much going on there and so they're just kind of standing near the monolith and at some point Henry the 14-year-old who's really into this he just starts wandering off on his own now again this is a big open field it is and he's 14 right like you know he can wander off and look around it is what it is but there wasn't much to go see and he's he starts walking off you know along the rolling hills and the husband and wife his parents they just stay up on the hill where the monument is and they're watching him or I should say specifically Stephen his dad is watching him and he's not worried he's just watching the sun walk off and at some point there's

19:37like the clouds rolled in it's a very sunny day clouds roll in and the way the clouds sort of went across the sun for a second created this this odd almost like optical illusion it was just a beam of light sort of cut through the sky and it was spotlighting the top of the hill that was sort of in the direction that Henry was going it was just like this weird act of nature right like he's walking along the clouds rolled in it's getting dark and one sort of like beam of light is is almost like like a spotlight imagine a play a spotlight on play like these spotlights right on the top of this hill right in front of him and so Stephen the dad is watching you know he's not thinking wow a spotlight of light on the hill it's just he's aware of it right Henry walks in Stephen's purview into this light like into the light that's been cast on the hill and for a second Stephen's watching him in the lights really bright it's like a really bright ray of light and then after a moment Stephen realizes after his son has walked into this light that Stephen's gone he can't see

20:43his son anymore there's no one there and it's rolling hills so like as you look out across this vast landscape it is there's there's areas where if you went down into like sort of the ravine between two rolling hills I might not be able to see you and so Stephen he turns to Della and he's like hey where did where did Henry go and they're both looking out and and there really no other tourists here this is not like a highly populated place and they're looking that that's so weird and they're waiting for their son to to emerge on the back side of this hill because he where else could he have gone right but after like several minutes he doesn't and and he hasn't appeared anywhere there's been no you know audible sign of distress of any kind and Stephen the dad he starts to feel like really worried like a deep gut feeling that something is wrong and they don't know what to do and his wife just starts to sort of panic and she starts screaming like Henry come back like come back Henry and as Stephen is waiting hoping for his son to like hear his mother and come

21:45running he doesn't and so Stephen he starts to panic and so from Della's perspective she watches as her husband now he starts running in the direction of still this ray of light the clouds have not moved it's like this bizarre ray of light that's cast down on the field and so Della is like sort of hysterical she's screaming now for her husband to wait or like no go find him she's screaming for her son and off goes Steve you know a couple hundred yards away and she watches as Stephen her husband runs seemingly into this light and then he vanishes not like oh he went into the light but no he runs into the light and then she can't see him anymore and this time because she's just watched her son effectively vanish into the light she doesn't wait she just she starts running down the hill towards you know this ray of light is being cast on the hill she's screaming for her husband now she's screaming for Henry no one's emerging it's the other tourists that are there they're sort of looking over like what's going on and so Della she runs over to this hill she doesn't go in the light she

22:48sort of circumvent the whole hill because she's thinking they've got to be on the other side there is nowhere else for them to be she goes around and there's no one there there's no one there there is no one here there's nowhere for them to go but they're gone and so Della is like out of her mind she's she's screaming she doesn't even know what to ask for other tourists are coming over the handful that were there they're like do we call the police they're like running around like looking for the the father and son no one's there eventually they do call the police and around the time that the police were about to arrive Della is is is crumpled on the ground at the foot of of the hill where her husband and son have vanished and the other tourists are sort of with her trying to console her because they don't really understand what's happened and as they're like talking it through waiting for the police to show up suddenly from behind them from the top of the hill who comes strolling down the hill but Stephen and Henry and Della she sees her her husband and her son and it's like this unbelievable relief she didn't

23:53even know what could have happened to them right like she's not thinking something bad has happened she's just like I don't get it where could you have gone and so she's so relieved she runs up she grabs her husband she's sobbing she's so happy she's trying to ask them like where did you go where were you and the look on their face they just they they can't even begin to articulate it they're like almost like they're shell shocked something's happened to them and and it's immediately apparent something bad has happened to them but they can't put it towards yet they're like in shock and they're like staggering down the mountain out the hill and so in this reunion this reunion is happening the police show up basically simultaneously and so the police they come over and they see this sort of like you know emotional scene unfolding and they quickly identify who must be you know the missing two guys based on their appearance and they're like trying to figure out like what's going on here like we already come out here we got to take a statement we got to figure out what happened like we do need to know Stephen and Henry where you went clearly something happened and so after you know sort of a few minutes of assessing the scene the father

25:00was pulled aside by one of the police officers to give his statement this is the statement he gave which I'll tell you has been verified by the FBI the FBI looked into this case following this statement and due to what I'm going to tell you they found they don't have a good way to deep monk this okay the father Stephen is up at the monolith and he's washed his son vanish into the light he waits he starts running after him he's not thinking anything about this light the light means nothing to him he just thinks my son's somewhere over here he runs he steps into the light and the second he does he doesn't feel any physical change at all nothing in his life change you just stepped into you've stepped into sunlight before not really that remarkable right you just stepped into light but suddenly it's like his son appeared in front of him he he's still on the field the little big horn field here his son is standing like 10 feet away from him sort of down the hill and his back is to his dad and he's looking at his son and then he realizes there's all these dead

26:03bodies all over the field everywhere he can look there are dead bodies everywhere and his son is standing there just sort of looking out with his back to his father and and Stephen he's not at a point of what's happening here let's assess the situation and figure out what in the world he's in full panic mode like fight or flight got a survive and he just runs down the hill and he grabs his son he turns him around and his son Henry is just beyond horrified pale face and he's like dad dad and they start running just instinctively like just pure survival they start running back up the hill to get out of what amounts to like the the modern day you know version of the little big horn battlefield it's like they're looking at the actual battlefield and they're running they're falling over bodies they're like landing in people's like the dead bodies and stuff and then they stay they make their way to the top of the hill and they like fall out of the light if you will and they're back you know it took several minutes they sort of struggled their way out and they're back you know there's Della down the hill here's all these people and they stand up and they walk down to Della

27:09and that's that's the reunion it told you about so Stephen tells that story to the police which as you and I are sitting here pretty hard to believe that story you stepped into a portal and you you saw the you saw the field where the bodies were from the battle a little bit a little bit a little bit more than a couple hundred years ago that's what you did pretty hard to believe right a detail I didn't share with you is that when they returned they were soaked in blood head to toe head to toe in blood so when they when Della looks up and sees her her son and father her son and husband they were covered in blood they would later test that blood and it was not their blood pretty crazy huh so there you go if you have a little big horn be careful of portals that'll send you back in time something to be aware of you know what do you think about that story dude it's hard to believe but agree I mean if all scary stories you told everyone I mean it's also

28:12unbelievable it's somewhat believable yeah yeah there are some stories that will come across that on their face they're just difficult to to believe but I think some of the more powerful stories are the ones where you're sort of relying on an individual's perspective like whether or not it's true sort of is a secondary thing it's more like here's what Stephen had to say and by the way his son had the same story it was this it was a same rendition of events that Henry's like I stepped into this this portal if you will my dad showed up we fell in in the bodies came out covered in blood right but it's their perspective it allows the defining moment of the story to be really powerful which is we love telling stories where we are not relying on truth as much as this is what they said happened and it's a cool way to tell story have you ever looked at someone who appeared totally normal and still wondered to yourself like what awful things they theoretically could be capable of well that's the whole idea behind my new graphic novel it's called Mr. Baldwin presents

29:15the terror within and in this book the scariest thing in any of these stories is never the monster you expect it's the monster that's hiding inside of someone so please head on over to book.ballensstudios.com to pre-order a copy of our newest graphic novel it comes out this fall pre-order it now all right you all set over there Rayland you're looking perfect all you guys look great so I we decided we bring the whole gang over for this last story so here we go we have obviously Leana we have Ellie Grace raised me and Ellie Grace there we go get Desmond it's your brother right there we got Rayland and we got Gwen in front we got the the whole gang here this is Leana's gang cousins and siblings and for the final story which I think is going to be like the spookiest of the three you should probably put in that flannel to protect you that's why I got this one on

30:16dude I thought it'd be fitting we all tell the story together right or meet near each other I got three kids at home I know the vibe okay I tell my I tell my daughters and my son scary stories and they this is this is a setting that feels natural okay you guys are like the story all right this one it's called tap tap tap I doubt it because I just named it on this on the spot but you might you might have heard it though honestly Rayland you are on top of some stuff you listed some Mr. Ball and lore it was impressive you I think was it you or Gwen who referenced the yellow room you're doing that you're doing the hand talking which I feel I could have partially inspired me it was you okay these are also Leon sisters right here legends in 2010 there was a 17 year old boy named Matt who his family had this cabin up in up in the mountains of Oregon Oregon's like a very mountainous lots of trees lots of wildlife up there you've been to Oregon anybody I haven't okay

31:21picture forests and mountains and stuff right and so his family they don't live up in the mountains they just have this cabin up in the mountains and organs it's called a mountain bachelor and organ are you familiar with this one okay good it's too scary good it's a good start his family's getting ready to sell this cabin but his whole life growing up Matt would oftentimes go a lot of times with his dad he would go to this cabin and they go fishing and hunting and they just enjoy being out in nature right just like we're right near a cabin out in the wild yeah this is comforting or not but it's a lot like the setting of this story it's not comfy so Matt decides he's gonna go and he's gonna do one more stay in this cabin before they sell this this cabin and so he tells his folks okay I'm gonna go I'm gonna just go up there with the dog his a dog his name is Midnight family dog I'm gonna go up there just for a couple of days I'm just gonna enjoy myself and then I'll come back and we can sell this place it is what it is so off he goes he takes his his dad's old

32:25truck and he heads up with you know he's got in the back he packs some snacks he got his bring his place station along he's just gonna go hang out in this cabin and just enjoy himself for a few days so he gets to the cabin and this is like pretty remote okay this is this is tucked away deep in the pine forest like at the foot of this mountain very isolated he does have neighbors though but his neighbors are about a mile in an either direction so they're not particularly close but he he he he sort of knows them like he would recognize somebody's not close with his neighbors but he has neighbors right so he gets to the cabin and you know it's a put there's supposed to be a snow storm while he's out here he knows there's gonna be a snow storm it's gonna be in the next couple of days but he's he's bracing for being here for a couple of days right so he got all his supplies inside he got all his snacks all his Oreos he were crushing Oreos earlier he brought a lot of Oreos in there juice boxes and he just kind of begins to have a nice time right he's there he's he's exactly what he wanted to do he's playing video games he's by himself like he likes being alone you know

33:27when he went in when he arrived he didn't see his neighbors and he actually passed by one of his neighbors their driveway on the way to turning into his and he did look down and he he didn't think they were home he didn't know if they were home but his mental image is that he's probably alone a little off season there's probably nobody out here but that's good he wants that you know the snowstorms coming it's a little risky being up in the mountains in the middle of a big storm so he's thinking I'm probably alone so he and midnight have this great first day the weather's great he stays up super late he's eating snacks he's playing video games it's awesome the next day comes around another awesome day he's got no plans he's just gonna hang out at the cabin he's just gonna hang out eat snacks and play video games and periodically go walking around with midnight and that's what he does in fact the first two full days that he's there are awesome this is like exactly the retreat that he was hoping for on the third day it snows a lot like two feet of snow this is like he wakes up on the third day and it's just a ton of snow on the ground

34:32he knew there was gonna be a storm so he's not really caught off guard by it he also knew he was likely gonna be here for a few more days and so this wasn't really a huge inconvenience it was just sort of like okay now I'm basically snowed in it's gonna be hard to drive out of here no snow plows coming up my driveway no no one's coming up here I gotta wait I gotta wait and plow it out myself probably right so he's like well luckily I got tons of snacks I'll just stay indoors for another couple of days and enjoy myself in the cabin so he and midnight they're just doing their thing and at some point in the middle of this third day midnight starts acting really weird midnight runs to the door and the door like there's quite a few windows in this cabin like sort of he would describe it as like almost more more windows than you sort of needed in a cabin and when you're out in the middle of the woods in the middle of the night I gotta be honest that's a little unsettling I'd want more wood less windows for me but it's it's broad daylight and midnight has run to the door and he thinks oh she must need to go pee so he goes over and say all

35:35right midnight like all right chill out like we'll go out we'll let you pee and remember there's a lot of snow on the ground so he just like get his stuff on he's all right but he finally opens the door and midnight was a really well-trained dog midnight every time he let midnight out to that point and just in general she'd go out she'd do a business and then she'd come back in or if they went and walked around she was just a well-trained dog so like he expects the second the door is open even with snow on the ground midnight's just gonna sort of jump into the snow she's gonna do a business and that'll be it like I don't expect more than that he opens the door and midnight leaps out the front door and start sort of running through the snow not showing any sign that she's gonna stop to go to the bathroom she's she's off for some reason she's she's seen something she senses something now for reference when you are in his cabin if you're looking from the front of the cabin on the second floor or the first floor there are these big windows and it overlooks sort of like a front clearing like it's not a courtyard it's mostly trees everywhere around this cabin but there's

36:37sort of like a a cleared area where you can park your cars in the front of the cabin sort of like the size of the clearing wind right here and there was a big tree that had one big branch they called it the sitting tree that sort of hung over this courtyard it was like 20 feet up no one really actually sit on this branch but it almost looked like a perfect branch for sitting that sort of hung out over this this courtyard and it was sort of set back down the driveway a little bit so right when you you come into the courtyard you pass underneath the sitting tree branch basically we're we're we're we are sitting right now relative to the front of the cabin that's sort of where the branch would be slung about 20 feet above us right now and so he opens his door from the cabin and midnight's running towards the base of that tree and that's the first thing he notices she isn't showing signs that she needs to go to the bathroom she is showing signs that she's seen something out near that tree or in the woods and he starts yelling to her to stop because he he put his stuff on but he doesn't really have like snow pants on it's like

37:38feet of snow out there he's yelling at midnight to stop she does she's a well-trained dog she doesn't make it all the way to the tree she stops but then he's looking around and he realizes something there are footprints in the snow out in front of his cabin not from midnight and not from him he hasn't been out in the snow there are human footprints that are leading what appear to be from around that where that tree is that sitting tree up to the cabin up to his door he's now looking and realizing he hasn't stepped out yet he sees dog prints he doesn't see he he didn't step out here there are human prints that went up to his door and then walked around the side of his cabin and up into the mountains where no one lives there's no people up there and they disappear there's they don't come back and so now between seeing his dog run off and his dogs well-trained remember the dog seen something and it's running toward the tree and these footprints appear to be coming basically from where that tree is and so Matt you see on a little on edge as any of you would

38:42and I would too I would be very much on edge because you're out there by yourself and you thought when you when you showed up there wasn't anybody out here not a big hiking area either and there's been a storm there's a lot of reasons that nobody should be out there but he tells himself as as by this point midnight has has trodden back she has done her business she's come in the house she's safe he's he shuts the cabin door and he makes sure it's locked you know but he's telling himself it's just got to be a lost hiker or a neighbor who made those prints there's no other explanation for it so he's he's nervous but he accepts that something weird has happened but it's got to be okay right because not the weird going to happen down here the rest of the day they hang out in the cabin and midnight did go out a couple more times but she never took off toward the tree like she did before eventually it gets dark and he's going to be here at least for two maybe three more days at least that's the way the weather looks he's not going to be able to leave so he's trying really hard as

39:42he's getting to this first cycle of darkness since seeing the steps he's trying to tell himself everything's okay you know everything's okay but somewhere deep down he's thinking it's not this is weird so when it gets dark he lets midnight out for the last business you know she does her business one more time brings her into the cabin he shuts and locks the door and then he goes all around the cabin to make sure all well there's really only two doors there's the front door and then if you go to the upstairs portion of the cabin there's his his bed there's one bedroom upstairs it's a small cabin and there's an abalcany that sort of shuts out from the upstairs bedroom so if you're in the upstairs bedroom you could slide a door step onto a little porch that overlooks that that clearing you'd see the sitting tree so he he walks around then he locks that upstairs sliding door he locks the downstairs door he checks all the windows is there a bunch of windows on this cabin and he's out here alone and he's just seen these prints he's feeling weird he locks he checks every every window gotta make sure it's locked everything's fine to gotta make sure it's locked so he locks the whole cabin up and now he's like okay I'm good out here

40:47like I'm safe so he gets upstairs he gets into his bed that's we're sleeping and midnight sleeps in the bed with him he gets in his bed and it's very quiet you know you know you don't have a fan going there's no noise machine in his room it's like quiet very quiet and he's listening for like any cue of something weird outside right as he's laying there midnight starts acting really weird midnight can't settle down she she's anxious she normally would fall asleep real quick she can't settle down and he's like midnight calm down calm down but she keeps having this like low grow up like she's sensing something's wrong it's the middle of the night it's dark he's drawn all the curtains so it's dark and as he's laying in the bed he hears footsteps on the roof which is right above his head specifically he hears six footsteps he didn't hear anybody land on the roof he didn't hear anybody climb up the roof he just started hearing distinct footsteps

41:49on the roof six steps across the roof midnight is frozen in bed like she's scared and then as soon as the sixth step stopped midnight just starts barking she runs down the stairs she wants to go outside that's all she wants to do and like now frankly Matt doesn't know what to do he runs down after after midnight he's like oh my goodness stop but she she won't stop and he's thinking there there is someone out here someone's messing with me I don't know how they got on my roof I would have heard him I don't know how this is happening but I need to establish that I'm not going to get scared out here I'm going to let my dog out to scare them away that's what he's thinking he finally he gets his stuff on he hasn't heard anything beside that sixth step it's quiet now he opens up the door and midnight bolts out into the dark and he doesn't see anything out there midnight's running off and he immediately thinks this is a bad idea I wish I hadn't had to done this it's dark what if she runs off would deep into the woods I'm at the chase her right

42:53but he does he takes takes off after he's yelling for her to come back she gets all the way to the base of the sitting tree and she's looking up into the sitting tree and he's not even looking up he just grabbing his dog and he's he starts dragging midnight back into the house right he drags her back inside of the the cap and he finally gets her in there all she wants to do is go back out again he shuts the door he locks it and he's like okay I'm not going to try to be tough anymore I'm just scared okay he goes up to the bedroom he's holding the dog down the dog will not rest the dog is not calm and he's like okay I'm just gonna wait it out I'm gonna leave tomorrow I don't know what's wrong with this place but I'm leaving tomorrow I'm just gonna be tough I'm gonna sit here I'm gonna hold my dog I'm not going outside I'm gonna wait it out remember all the doors and windows are locked all the blinds are drawn he has no idea what's going on as he's sitting there on his bed he starts to hear tapping on his front door downstairs he's by himself in the middle of the woods he's hearing tapping on his front door in the middle of the woods and it's not loud but it's

43:53enough that he knows someone's out there trying to get his attention he holds on to the dog the dog wants to go downstairs the dog wants to protect he's holding midnight back the tapping stops the tapping starts again but now it's upstairs it's on the side of his house it's the window leading into the one bathroom on the second floor there actually isn't a place to stand at the second floor to be tapping at that window the only way would be maybe on the roof bending down it's impossible to be up there now there's tapping coming from the other side of the house and the worst part comes when he's he's laying in his bed remember there's that balcony right in front of where he's sleeping there's a porch a sliding glass door that leads out to it all he has his curtains that are separating him from the glass leading out there he hears tapping on the glass right in the outside of his balcony and then he hears the shifting of weight on the outside porch someone something is out there on that porch and then it stops

44:54a few minutes goes by and he knows that like someone's out there someone's haunting me at this point since we take midnight and he's like we have to be brave we have to we have to go open up the blinds and look what's out on the porch some things out there right now and see brings midnight over to the the curtains that are drawn in front of the sliding glass doors and swings him open and there's nobody out there he's got a flashlight puts his flashlight through the glass he's looking at this very small porch expecting to you know see something nothing but there's footsteps all over the place and he's like what's going on are they on the roof like I have to do something I'm alone out here and so with midnight who's freaked out he's holding midnight here he's just flashlight in the other hand he slides the glass door open and he steps out onto this porch and the first thing he does is he turns around and he looks up onto the roof because he had heard steps on the roof right nothing on the roof but he sees footsteps all over the roof everywhere scanning the roof he comes back down he's shining straight down

45:59onto the ground looking at the footsteps down here and then he knows he needs to look out in front of his property he needs to look and see what else is out there something's out here so he takes his flashlight with you know midnight by his side and he looks out to the left he's he's looking out of this balcony here the front of his property looks out to the left it's pitch black besides his light and he starts scanning they haven't seen anything just trees trees and darkness he gets to the courtyard nothing's in the courtyard lots of footsteps everywhere he gets to the base of the sitting tree and midnight starts to grow and he slowly raises the light and he illuminates the branch of the sitting tree and there's a man who is unnaturally tall with his hands over his head and his mouth open as wide as he can make it and he's staring directly at Matt and his dog and it scares Matt so badly that he fumbles the flashlight he grabs it again and the man's gone he looks all around he's completely gone in a panic Matt grabs midnight and he jumps back inside the room he

47:02slides the last door shut he locks it he shuts the curtains he jumps in bed now he's just going to wait this one out he knows someone's out here I don't know what that is seconds later what does he start hearing tap tap tap tap tap all night he sat there until right before the sun came up the tapping stopped and then when the sun fully came up he packed up his stuff and as he left the cabin there was a racetrack if you will of footsteps that had there been so many steps around his cabin that had been worn down to the grass this is two feet of snow something while simultaneously making a tapping sound on the glass ten feet away from him was walking in circles around his cabin the entire night no one has any idea what it was they sold the cabin and he's knocked him back the end that was so scary I think I did that one try and bring it pretty good I'm gonna have a turn so I got her whispering

48:07yeah probably is that tall guy dude no you guys did great yeah I was actually squeezing on the Ellie yeah Ellie grace Ellie grace the elephant I was honestly it scared me a lot because like like we got to like do it pretty much crazy right you want you want a bonus story that's actually uplifting real quick it's one that my team's heard about a thousand times and you very likely have heard it but I would say this is the one that I think is it starts sad it doesn't end sad yeah probably it's pretty good it ends amazingly how about that okay yes so here you ready to hear it this one's pretty good I told

49:12I told this one at a show in Texas and people cheered but not because of my storytelling but because the ending was so satisfying it was like few it's really good okay all right so in the 90s there was this woman named Ellie Lobel she goes out for a run because she's very athletic because out for a run then she lives in Connecticut right and so she goes out for a run on this like nature trail it's anyone anyone familiar with us you would know it by now no I have no way don't say it if you know it maybe keep going okay I'll keep going you probably well I feel like I feel like you are a connoisseur of the strange dark and mysterious but you've done a great job keeping it tight left yeah yeah well say here we go we'll tell it and you can tell me at the end if you knew this one you can tell me when you figured it out so she goes for a run and then when she gets back she she changes up she gets ready for work she goes out she's she's again high powered lawyer it's a big it's a big important job but over the course of the day she starts feeling kind of sick not not really

50:14bad not like she's got a fever but like just a little sick like a little under the weather and she normally feels great all the time and so this is really noticeable so she registers that I'm not feeling too good but she she goes about her day she does her work she comes home and she tells her husband and she's got two kids or teenagers she's like I don't feel like good I feel like good and the husband's like well you know what tomorrow if you're not feeling good you should you should just stay home I take take a sick day you never take sick days right she's a couple sick next day comes around she feels even worse but it's still sort of subtle it's not she's not vomiting she's not a fever it's like I feel a thargic and sick I feel tired so she takes a sick day she's thinking this is just a cold or something minor it'll go away but it doesn't and over the course of the week she just doesn't get any better it's like she just keeps feeling just sort of a little bit under the weather and it never goes away by the end of the week when she's missed a week of work now and she really never missed work she goes to it often she talks to a doctor and and she's like I don't know what it is like I I just feel under the weather and

51:16they're like oh Ellie you know you just you work too hard you you need to take more time off right that's all it is the classic explanation that happens in every movie everyone writes it off right and she's like okay so she takes more time off but she doesn't get better and so she starts seeing more doctors and more doctors sort of have like this roundabout answer it's like wow you know you're your levels in your blood or this or like oh you know you probably just have this sickness that's going on it's all these sort of roundabout answers but no one's prepared to really like dig in and say wait a minute is there something actually seriously wrong here and so months go by Ellie just doesn't get better she ends up taking time off from work that's an extended time off from work and her boss doesn't believe her that she's actually sick they think it's a term called malingering where somebody basically thinks you're lying about being sick like oh I can't go to school today because I'm sick I'd be like malingering she gets accused of malingering and she gets fired she gets fired from her job and worse than that as she's dealing with a very

52:16real sickness her own family sort of is like I don't know maybe this is in your head maybe you're not really sick she ends up getting divorced so this again starts sad don't worry bear with me she gets divorced because her or her her husband they start fighting over basically is it real or not that you have some mystery illness they get divorced she gets fired her kids sort of turn their back on her they sort of were like I don't know I sort of don't know if this is real or not they didn't say I don't believe you but it's like I don't mom like this is sort of sort of I don't know me got fired over this a lot of people are saying it's not true right Ellie's life from that point just went downhill for like two decades like 20 years almost she never got better it got like progressively worse but only a little bit worse but always worse for like decades she went to specialist after specialist after specialist and nobody could give her an answer by this point they also know you clearly have something serious and we don't know what it is but no one can help

53:22eventually though she starts showing signs that whatever's going on with her is getting really serious and she convinces herself that she's gonna die like you know what no one can cure me I feel like I'm just shutting down this is it for me and so instead of going to a doctor at this point this is 20 years into this madness she's lost her husband her kids have turned on her she's been by her life is really gone poorly at this point she's sort of over it to be honest she's like you know what I'm gonna do I'm not gonna seek care anymore no one can help me I'm gonna go move to this this house in southern California she loves southern California I'm gonna move to this house I'm not gonna tell anyone and I'm just gonna let myself pass away and I'm gonna die in this house that's it so I'm gonna do and she's convinced herself that she's she's near the end anyways so she's just gonna enjoy her last few moments and so she hires this person known as an end of life care coordinator who's like with you when you die and she goes to this house and she literally gets into her bed and tells this person that she's just hired okay I'm just gonna like lay here

54:27and wait and to die but three days goes by and she doesn't die she feels horrible but she's very frail but she doesn't die and so she's like okay I'm actually gonna go for a walk but take a little break and I'm gonna come back and I'll go back to lying and we'll figure it out so she and her end of life care coordinator they leave the house and they go for a walk and it's a beautiful day like sunny beautiful day and they end up walking past this this field of flowers it's beautiful field of flowers behind it's a reddle on the sidewalk this wooden fence just imagine the most picturesque field of just the most beautiful flowers and Ellie is so struck by how beautiful it is that for a moment it was like wow you know what life isn't so bad like this is so beautiful and she really she just she told her her person she was with like you go over there I'm just gonna sit here and just take in this amazing view smell the flowers enjoy this enjoy this this one of my final moments right and so she's looking at this field she's taking it all in and she starts to hear a buzzing sound over her head and I mean your your nearer field of flowers there's bound to be insects

55:32this was not a particularly big deal but she hears a buzzing sound she looks up and she sees a bee it's a huge big it was an African killer bee it's huge big but again she's like I'm near a field of flowers this is where bees are not a big deal so she's back to looking at the field but a second later the buzzing gets a lot louder like really loud she looks up now and now there is an entire swarm of African killer bees that are right over her head and these are like vicious stinging insects that will attack you and keep attacking you these are the called killer bees for a reason and for whatever reason Ellie Lobo became their target and as she's looking up this swarm of bees descended on her face and began stinging her hundreds of times over and over and over and she collapses to the ground she's very frail to begin with she's getting stung repeatedly her care person runs away you know run leaves are there she can't even go anywhere she's

56:35getting stung over it's like this is the worst thing gonna happen to you but eventually the care person is like I should probably go help her he runs back and he picks her up and he's running with her now and in his arms to bring her back to the air being be or the rented house they were in and she's telling him don't bring me to the hospital if the bees are off of her now but she's all already swelling up from all the stings and she's like don't bring me to the hospital like this will help me die like let me just be putting my bed and so they run Ellie back to the house and they put her in her bed and she's in so much pain and she just like lays there and she's like leave me be like let the anaphylactic shock take over but she doesn't get worse she doesn't the pain she's feeling is really bad but like over the coming three days it was almost like things got better for Ellie like all those chronic pains that she had for 20 years began to fade like she had joint stiffness that was like so intense and by day three post-beastings she's got a lot

57:38of pain from the stings but she's like wow I can like move my arms again I can move my legs again I can sit up on my own power again but she she wasn't someone who like automatically thought oh great I'm I'm better now it's like what's going on here this doesn't make any sense I just got stung by a pack of bees why do I feel better it would turn out there was a group of scientists in Australia who were studying a disease called Lyme disease which is something you get if you're bit by a tick that's carrying this disease and they were trying to determine if potentially certain bee venom could cure Lyme disease in its end stage but the problem with with this particular theory is it was unethical to conduct a study they couldn't round up Lyme disease patients who were in their end stage and say hey do you mind if we sting you a thousand times with these bees probably won't do anything but we need to see if it might help you it was denied so they had all this paperwork that they had done all these the thesis they'd come up with that we think certain bee

58:43venom including African killer bee venom could cure Lyme disease Ellie Lobel on the day she went out running got bit by a tick and nobody noticed she caught Lyme disease she was dying of Lyme disease she got stung by the correct bees according to the theory and it cured her completely and now because of that that that instance bee stings have become literally a way to treat Lyme disease and Ellie Lobel towards the country literally advocating for Lyme disease patients to go get stung by bees because it'll cure your condition so she's all better now just took it and stung by bees yeah she just goes and gets stung by bees you ever you ever thought about that as a profession that's crazy all right so look obviously Gwen and Leana and Raylen and Desmond and Ellie Grace they're incredible and it's been so much fun to be here to get to share this time

59:46with you and of course you Leana as I said before please obviously just watching this video all the proceeds are going to go to helping fund your medical bills but also they have a go fund me I will make a donation our studios making donations for this video let's do the little things we can to help this family you guys deserve it great to have you thank you guys it's all let's do one of these one of these to sign off you'll see me those even though I do it at the beginning we're doing it the end all right thank you very much and good night have you ever looked at someone who appeared totally normal and still wondered to yourself like what awful things they theoretically could be capable of well that's the whole idea behind my new graphic novel it's called Mr. Ballin presents the terror within and in this book the scariest thing in any of these stories is never the monster you expect it's the monster that's hiding inside of someone so please head on over to book.ballinstudios.com to pre-order a copy of our newest graphic novel

1:00:53it comes out this fall pre-order it now