WEBVTT 00:00.631 --> 00:06.315 [SPEAKER_00]: Some paranormal experiences are designed to shock us, others are far more disturbing. 00:06.996 --> 00:10.258 [SPEAKER_00]: Today's account falls family into that second category. 00:11.119 --> 00:15.802 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a deeply unsettling account rather than one of outright paranormal shock. 00:16.363 --> 00:26.310 [SPEAKER_00]: We look at family dynamics and more intriguingly the questions of what if the life your certain you have isn't quite what everyone else perceives. 00:27.050 --> 00:41.401 [SPEAKER_00]: And how do you react when the closest people to you, or the ones that make you start a question things, not just random things, but beliefs, ways of life, how you live, things you have set in stone in your own psyche? 00:42.242 --> 00:47.026 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, they are the very questions that are listener, today's submitter, had to face. 00:47.886 --> 00:52.970 [SPEAKER_00]: So join me, as we explore a haunting account of memory, identity, and a 00:54.479 --> 00:57.681 [SPEAKER_00]: on today's installment of the Dark Paranormal. 01:22.545 --> 01:28.669 [SPEAKER_00]: Hello everyone, and welcome to Episode 6 of Season 26 of the Dark Paranormal. 01:29.189 --> 01:39.476 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, we've entered the latter half of this season, and as you know, this is the time when we ask you guys to start giving us considerations for next season, Season 27. 01:40.837 --> 01:44.961 [SPEAKER_00]: a season in which we attempt to move the dark paranormal to the next level. 01:45.722 --> 01:54.530 [SPEAKER_00]: So, if you believe that you have an experience you would to show with the show, then in the show note below you will find a link to submit your experience directly to us. 01:55.031 --> 02:00.036 [SPEAKER_00]: And through one of the many shows we do, we will guarantee to find its audience a relevant of its word count. 02:00.436 --> 02:23.883 [SPEAKER_00]: And also in the show notes below you will find a link to our Patreon, where you can gain a free week access at our highest tier on Patreon, which will give you access for that week to add free shows, early releases, and of course the back catalogue of our dark bites Patreon only show, which is now over 300 hours of experiences previously only heard by Patreons. 02:24.423 --> 02:29.526 [SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, if you like what you hear on the show and you want to give Patreon a try, now is the perfect time to do so. 02:30.046 --> 02:35.510 [SPEAKER_00]: As, from the end of this season, we will see the end of the week free trial on Patreon for at least one season. 02:36.130 --> 02:41.253 [SPEAKER_00]: We will also be changing up the RSS feeds in there too, so as is rare, but can happen. 02:41.793 --> 02:50.439 [SPEAKER_00]: If somebody has left and is still enjoying the benefits of Patreon, we're going to make sure that only Patrons are receiving what they should receive. 02:51.219 --> 02:56.162 [SPEAKER_00]: so the link to submit your experience for the show and also become a patron are in the shownuts. 02:56.582 --> 03:06.368 [SPEAKER_00]: And although we do have our 10 experiences ready to go for next season, as I've always said, if the right experience comes in, it will indeed find a home in next season. 03:07.509 --> 03:10.071 [SPEAKER_00]: But right now, please, lower the lights. 03:10.937 --> 03:21.160 [SPEAKER_00]: make yourself comfortable and, most importantly, of all, leave your disbelief at the door, as we all hear about, my dark replacement. 03:22.060 --> 03:28.701 [SPEAKER_00]: Hi Kevin, I've listened to your podcast for a couple of years now, and I've often thought about writing in. 03:29.742 --> 03:35.003 [SPEAKER_00]: Usually it when somebody else describes something similar to what happened to my family. 03:36.158 --> 03:45.869 [SPEAKER_00]: Some of this I remember clearly, some my only know because my husband told me, and some is what my son remembers, which I wish he didn't. 03:46.549 --> 03:50.914 [SPEAKER_00]: We live in Yorkshire and I've changed all of our names, so you can call me Rachel. 03:51.795 --> 03:56.019 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm 42, and my husband is Mark, and our son is Daniel, he's 11. 03:57.205 --> 03:58.906 [SPEAKER_00]: Daniel isn't ordinary boy. 03:59.467 --> 04:05.992 [SPEAKER_00]: He plays football, and he's never shown even the slightest interest in the paranormal or ghosts. 04:06.692 --> 04:11.276 [SPEAKER_00]: Neither have I really, although I do enjoy listening to podcasts and getting a good scare. 04:12.136 --> 04:15.299 [SPEAKER_00]: And I've never really had any reason to doubt my own memory either. 04:16.239 --> 04:20.582 [SPEAKER_00]: But there are certain things you just don't forget, or at least that's what I used 04:26.216 --> 04:37.305 [SPEAKER_00]: I was clearing the cupboard in our spare room, Daniel was helping, which mostly meant messing around, and having a laugh with me, which I love, and he began laughing at the photos of him as a baby. 04:38.026 --> 04:44.111 [SPEAKER_00]: We found a large envelope full of pictures we had from our old house, the small semi-bought when we first married. 04:45.072 --> 04:51.017 [SPEAKER_00]: He was holding one of the three of us in the garden, and he asked why I had had my her cut. 04:51.037 --> 04:53.920 [SPEAKER_00]: I told him I a havent, I've always had short hair. 04:54.759 --> 04:57.501 [SPEAKER_00]: He said, no, he used to have really long hair. 04:58.482 --> 05:00.483 [SPEAKER_00]: I looked at the photograph and pointed at myself. 05:00.984 --> 05:03.626 [SPEAKER_00]: No, look, it's the same length as it is now. 05:04.286 --> 05:09.030 [SPEAKER_00]: Daniel pointed at the photograph and said, your hair's the same there, but it used to be different. 05:09.711 --> 05:13.193 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I laughed and said he must have been thinking of somebody else. 05:13.894 --> 05:15.055 [SPEAKER_00]: But he was insistent. 05:15.815 --> 05:20.079 [SPEAKER_00]: He remembered me sitting by his bed when he was small, brushing my hair. 05:20.925 --> 05:31.832 [SPEAKER_00]: and he even showed me how, doing an impression of me, running his hand on the side of his head, pretending to, pretending to hold up, and pretending to brush his hair. 05:32.493 --> 05:40.878 [SPEAKER_00]: I laughed again and said he must be thinking of his grandmother, Mark's mom, who did have very long hair when he was small, no mom, it's you. 05:41.979 --> 05:45.702 [SPEAKER_00]: Then he said, you looked a bit different too, but you were still my mom. 05:46.470 --> 05:50.653 [SPEAKER_00]: I told him that people can remember things differently sometimes, and he let it go. 05:51.494 --> 05:59.419 [SPEAKER_00]: A few weeks later, we were having tea, and Daniel was asking if we could plan to shrub like the one we had at the back fence in the old house. 06:00.460 --> 06:04.102 [SPEAKER_00]: I said, no, it was actually a nightmare to keep it tidy. 06:05.023 --> 06:07.585 [SPEAKER_00]: He said, but that's where we buried the bird. 06:08.545 --> 06:12.889 [SPEAKER_00]: I knew exactly what he meant, but I was very surprised he remembered. 06:15.520 --> 06:17.921 [SPEAKER_00]: and we found a dead bird on the kitchen floor. 06:18.821 --> 06:23.443 [SPEAKER_00]: It must have come down the chimney, although we never worked out how it got into the kitchen. 06:24.483 --> 06:27.864 [SPEAKER_00]: Daniel found it first, and he was terribly upset. 06:28.604 --> 06:31.905 [SPEAKER_00]: I placed it in a shoebox and we buried it under that trope. 06:32.506 --> 06:36.367 [SPEAKER_00]: He even described a little travel that I used to have that I dug the hole with. 06:37.167 --> 06:39.768 [SPEAKER_00]: Then he said, you were crying as well, Mom. 06:40.545 --> 06:42.346 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I don't remember crying. 06:43.126 --> 06:46.588 [SPEAKER_00]: He said I had, and that had made him a promise to not tell that he. 06:47.689 --> 06:49.369 [SPEAKER_00]: Why an earth would I do that, I said? 06:50.230 --> 06:51.931 [SPEAKER_00]: And he looked at me as if it were obvious. 06:53.011 --> 06:57.453 [SPEAKER_00]: Because you were going away, I asked what he meant by that, and he shrugged. 06:58.134 --> 07:00.555 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't know, you said you wouldn't be there much longer. 07:01.411 --> 07:11.936 [SPEAKER_00]: I suggested it might have been a dream, and he got a bit snappy with me, much more snappy than I would usually be comfortable with, but Mark was working late and it was just him and I at the table. 07:12.677 --> 07:19.780 [SPEAKER_00]: So I bit my tongue and nodded as he told me he knew the difference between dreams and being awake, and I changed the subject. 07:20.921 --> 07:23.182 [SPEAKER_00]: That evening I mentioned his behavior to Mark, 07:23.899 --> 07:33.983 [SPEAKER_00]: He agreed with me that it was both odd and out of character for Daniel, but he also said kids mixed things up, and that maybe Daniel had picked up something about his moving house. 07:34.884 --> 07:39.946 [SPEAKER_00]: But we were not planning on moving then, and in fact we didn't sell until last year. 07:41.006 --> 07:45.948 [SPEAKER_00]: But Mark didn't think that mattered, and to be fair, nor did I, at least then. 07:47.129 --> 07:51.491 [SPEAKER_00]: About a month after we were driving back from my parent's house and past an nursery, 07:52.442 --> 07:54.583 [SPEAKER_00]: Daniel asked if it was the one he'd went to. 07:55.343 --> 07:55.843 [SPEAKER_00]: I said no. 07:56.424 --> 07:59.385 [SPEAKER_00]: His was in the next town along, near our old house. 08:00.245 --> 08:04.747 [SPEAKER_00]: And then out of nowhere, he said, why did that other woman stop picking me up? 08:05.887 --> 08:10.469 [SPEAKER_00]: I assumed he meant my mom, who sometimes would collect him when I had other appointments. 08:11.309 --> 08:12.290 [SPEAKER_00]: No, not grandma. 08:13.110 --> 08:13.730 [SPEAKER_00]: The other one? 08:15.091 --> 08:18.652 [SPEAKER_00]: I told him nobody, but family had ever collected him from nursery. 08:19.939 --> 08:29.708 [SPEAKER_00]: He kind of shrugged him and quiet for a bit, and then staring at the window, he said, ''She looked like you, I looked at him in the mirror and said, ''What do you mean?'' 08:31.109 --> 08:33.071 [SPEAKER_00]: He then said, ''She was my mum too. 08:34.011 --> 08:37.975 [SPEAKER_00]: I smiled and had a confused face, although I really wasn't him used. 08:38.596 --> 08:41.478 [SPEAKER_00]: And I suggested a nursery teacher maybe looked a bit like me. 08:42.239 --> 08:46.122 [SPEAKER_00]: Then you'll reply, ''No, she didn't like it when I called you, 08:48.295 --> 08:53.458 [SPEAKER_00]: The woman with the long hair is this, Yama, okay, and what was this woman's name, Loth? 08:54.358 --> 09:05.205 [SPEAKER_00]: Daniel just looked confused, um, she didn't have another name, she was just mum, like you, the skin all around my neck, pocket open. 09:06.125 --> 09:13.649 [SPEAKER_00]: I told Mark and his theory was an imaginary friend or something of the TV, but Daniel wasn't telling a spooky story. 09:19.261 --> 09:24.745 [SPEAKER_00]: A few days later, I messaged Helen, who was a worker at the nursery, and we met for coffee. 09:25.906 --> 09:28.387 [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't mention the long-heard woman at first. 09:29.048 --> 09:34.812 [SPEAKER_00]: I just asked if she could remember anyone other than me, Mark, or my mum collecting Daniel. 09:35.533 --> 09:38.375 [SPEAKER_00]: She said no, and that the nursery was rather strict about that. 09:38.795 --> 09:44.359 [SPEAKER_00]: It could only be parents, or with consent, grandparents, or siblings that could arrive and pick up the child. 09:45.356 --> 09:50.040 [SPEAKER_00]: Edentie paused and asked whether Daniel was still having trouble recognizing people. 09:50.821 --> 09:56.467 [SPEAKER_00]: I must have given her a blank look, because she said, oh sorry, I assumed you'd remember. 09:57.748 --> 10:03.914 [SPEAKER_00]: In his last year there, she told me, I'd come to collect him and he'd got very upset and refused to come with me. 10:04.794 --> 10:06.476 [SPEAKER_00]: And the moment she said it, I remembered. 10:07.036 --> 10:08.117 [SPEAKER_00]: I remembered it perfectly. 10:08.890 --> 10:15.652 [SPEAKER_00]: It was a Thursday afternoon and I know that because I'd been to the supermarket first and the shopping was all in the boot of the car. 10:16.772 --> 10:21.414 [SPEAKER_00]: Daniel was at one of those little tables and when he saw me he started crying. 10:22.374 --> 10:27.956 [SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't the tears of a tired child who doesn't want to leave his friends, he was rather distraught. 10:28.976 --> 10:31.717 [SPEAKER_00]: He kept pulling away and saying he didn't want to go. 10:32.738 --> 10:39.081 [SPEAKER_00]: It was really embarrassing at the time, which is why I think I've pushed it to the back of my mind, only for Helen to bring it out. 10:39.641 --> 10:42.302 [SPEAKER_00]: I remember, in the end, I had to carry him out. 10:43.002 --> 10:46.904 [SPEAKER_00]: And I sat with him in the car for almost 20 minutes before he would calm down. 10:47.784 --> 10:52.846 [SPEAKER_00]: And he kept saying, I want my mummy, and I kept saying, I'm here darling. 10:53.406 --> 10:54.507 [SPEAKER_00]: It's your mummy, I'm here. 10:55.651 --> 11:00.752 [SPEAKER_00]: Like I say, I must have pushed the memory of that day to the back of my mind, but I hadn't forgotten it. 11:01.392 --> 11:07.453 [SPEAKER_00]: I realized I'd pushed it there because as I recalled it, I sensed that same feeling of hurt I had on that day. 11:08.254 --> 11:13.735 [SPEAKER_00]: It's an awful gut punch to hear your own son say he wants his mother when you are his mother. 11:14.395 --> 11:16.675 [SPEAKER_00]: Even though you know, he's just a bit confused. 11:17.316 --> 11:19.576 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, confused is being polite. 11:20.256 --> 11:21.997 [SPEAKER_00]: He was actually frightened of me. 11:22.557 --> 11:23.897 [SPEAKER_00]: That's why he hurts so much. 11:24.963 --> 11:29.865 [SPEAKER_00]: Mark put it down to a nap, and Daniel was fine with me after the nap for the rest of the day. 11:30.606 --> 11:37.349 [SPEAKER_00]: When I explained that I recall the memory, Helen said, yeah, he kept saying that you not his mum, we were all laughing. 11:37.949 --> 11:45.673 [SPEAKER_00]: I half-joked about it being good that no one believed him, and Helen laughed and said, I was deaf, and of course not, I was stood right there, they all knew me, etc. 11:46.593 --> 11:59.259 [SPEAKER_00]: But then she put a cup down and said, actually, you must remember Rachel, and Helen went on to explain that apparently, after this incident, I'd said to her, that Daniel was going through a phase of pretending he had two mothers. 11:59.939 --> 12:03.441 [SPEAKER_00]: I'd laughed and said he was getting little up about which mummy was which. 12:04.622 --> 12:07.363 [SPEAKER_00]: I have no memory of that conversation, no. 12:08.427 --> 12:18.369 [SPEAKER_00]: But Helen was sure, as apparently me, saying that, caused a longer conversation after I'd left with another girl who'd experienced a similar thing with a different child. 12:19.049 --> 12:26.570 [SPEAKER_00]: When Mark got back from work that evening I told him everything that Helen had said, and he remembered that day in Nashville, so straight away. 12:27.491 --> 12:35.332 [SPEAKER_00]: When I got to what I'd supposedly said about Daniel's two mothers, he went really quiet through his suspiciously long time. 12:36.499 --> 12:38.501 [SPEAKER_00]: an amount of time I just wasn't comfortable with. 12:39.722 --> 12:41.123 [SPEAKER_00]: And then I asked what wrong. 12:42.304 --> 12:46.648 [SPEAKER_00]: Then he said, has Daniel ever said what she looked like? 12:48.129 --> 12:54.955 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, you can imagine my shock at such a question when I expected laughter and explanations to be coming my way? 12:55.956 --> 12:57.437 [SPEAKER_00]: I told him about the long hair. 12:58.697 --> 13:06.499 [SPEAKER_00]: He then looked down at the table and said, there was something he'd never had the gut to tell me about the old house. 13:07.219 --> 13:10.220 [SPEAKER_00]: I should stay here, Mark, similar to me, really. 13:10.740 --> 13:15.682 [SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't believe as far as I'm aware, in ghosts or the paranormal or anything like that. 13:16.282 --> 13:19.703 [SPEAKER_00]: But unlike me, he doesn't entertain anything to do with it either. 13:20.820 --> 13:22.280 [SPEAKER_00]: but he looked really uncomfortable. 13:22.840 --> 13:31.042 [SPEAKER_00]: Then sat down and told me that apparently one afternoon when Daniel was around three years of age, he'd managed to finish work early. 13:31.702 --> 13:36.263 [SPEAKER_00]: And because of that had walked through the front door full of beans so we could do something together. 13:36.823 --> 13:40.504 [SPEAKER_00]: He found me in the kitchen, sat at the table staring out at the garden. 13:40.924 --> 13:43.384 [SPEAKER_00]: He told me he said hello and I didn't answer. 13:44.024 --> 13:46.545 [SPEAKER_00]: So he walked over and touched my shoulder. 13:47.458 --> 13:51.920 [SPEAKER_00]: According to Mark, I turned around with an expression he's never forgotten. 13:52.621 --> 14:04.766 [SPEAKER_00]: Not startled, terrified, as though I'd been expecting somebody else to walk in, and seeing him was a terrible shock, and I began breathing so heavily he thought it was a panic attack. 14:05.547 --> 14:10.789 [SPEAKER_00]: After a while I said I was tired, and by the time Daniel came downstairs I seemed normal. 14:11.550 --> 14:14.051 [SPEAKER_00]: I have no memory of any of that. 14:15.080 --> 14:40.522 [SPEAKER_00]: I asked why he'd never mentioned it again until now, and he said he had, several times, and I had always said I was fine, until he stopped asking, Mark suggested maybe I was going through some stress, and that it was some kind of elongated, funny turn, and I asked him if he'd ever seen me do anything like that again, with some fear I must add, and he said no. 14:41.442 --> 14:44.844 [SPEAKER_00]: Then, after a moment, he added, not that I can think of. 14:45.944 --> 14:50.006 [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't realise how much those last few words frightened me. 14:50.987 --> 14:56.930 [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't want a question Daniel too much, in case he made things up to try and please me, which he would do. 14:57.810 --> 15:06.575 [SPEAKER_00]: But one evening he was doing his homework as I was doing a crossword, and I asked him about the woman with long hair, and if she'd ever frightened him. 15:07.572 --> 15:12.335 [SPEAKER_00]: He thought about it and said, sometimes she was frightened, not me. 15:13.656 --> 15:14.897 [SPEAKER_00]: He said she used to cry. 15:15.698 --> 15:24.064 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes she would take him upstairs and tell him that they had to be quiet because his other mummy was coming home. 15:25.065 --> 15:29.028 [SPEAKER_00]: This made me put my pen down and say, which other mummy? 15:30.068 --> 15:33.551 [SPEAKER_00]: He looked right at me, pointed and said, you, 15:37.783 --> 15:39.605 [SPEAKER_00]: I said, I don't understand. 15:40.365 --> 15:44.008 [SPEAKER_00]: I asked him if I was already there, how could I be also coming home? 15:44.729 --> 15:45.990 [SPEAKER_00]: And then you'll look frustrated. 15:46.931 --> 15:53.336 [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly mom, that's the thing, I think that's why she was scared, as he was about to pick up his pen to begin his homework again. 15:54.096 --> 15:58.340 [SPEAKER_00]: He told me that when he was little, the woman with the long hair would look after him. 15:59.249 --> 16:15.860 [SPEAKER_00]: They'd play apparently, or she'd make his lunch, and she would suddenly become very frightened and then have to go upstairs, where she'd sit with him on his bedroom floor and she'd place a finger on her lips, he'd do the same, and she'd whisper, don't make a sound. 16:16.941 --> 16:27.989 [SPEAKER_00]: I asked Daniel what they were hiding from, and he told me, me, when I was about to come home, he said sometimes they'd have her the front door, and she would start to cry. 16:28.952 --> 16:31.014 [SPEAKER_00]: She didn't want me to know she was there. 16:31.894 --> 16:34.717 [SPEAKER_00]: Then he said, you'd come upstairs looking for us. 16:35.457 --> 16:38.019 [SPEAKER_00]: He remembered me walking around the house calling his name. 16:38.640 --> 16:44.404 [SPEAKER_00]: He said he'd wanted to answer, but she would hold him close and remind him he had to stay quiet. 16:45.125 --> 16:53.952 [SPEAKER_00]: At this point, my rationale kicked in and I was screaming to myself in my head, this isn't imaginary friend, this isn't imaginary friend. 16:54.802 --> 17:01.285 [SPEAKER_00]: However Daniel looked deadly serious, imaginary friend or not, some part of me wanted validation. 17:02.105 --> 17:04.586 [SPEAKER_00]: And I said, was you ever frightened of me, Daniel? 17:05.126 --> 17:19.932 [SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully he shook his head, however he followed it up by saying, no mum, I was frightened you'd find her, he couldn't tell me why, only that she was frightened of me and he didn't want anything bad to happen to her. 17:24.462 --> 17:26.885 [SPEAKER_00]: was there a real woman actually in our house? 17:27.767 --> 17:29.529 [SPEAKER_00]: Was this not an imaginary person? 17:30.390 --> 17:31.833 [SPEAKER_00]: Was Mark having an affair? 17:32.821 --> 17:43.764 [SPEAKER_00]: This could very easily be confusing to a child like Daniel, especially at that age, but I knew Mark would not be so ridiculous and evil to gaslight me in my own home. 17:44.464 --> 17:55.506 [SPEAKER_00]: When he mentioned that even he had saw this other person in our home, and I know Mark's face when he is deadly serious, and he told me that, whilst he was deadly serious. 17:56.446 --> 17:58.447 [SPEAKER_00]: This apparently wasn't a joke. 17:59.247 --> 18:04.550 [SPEAKER_00]: and that in and of itself made me fumble around for somewhere to sit quickly before I fell. 18:05.831 --> 18:07.512 [SPEAKER_00]: I soon stopped questioning Daniel. 18:08.592 --> 18:18.058 [SPEAKER_00]: I once spent an hour going through photographs from that year he was three looking for one when my hair even looked a slight bit longer, but there weren't any. 18:19.098 --> 18:20.099 [SPEAKER_00]: And then I stopped looking. 18:21.019 --> 18:23.301 [SPEAKER_00]: And I was partly afraid of what I might find. 18:24.201 --> 18:24.782 [SPEAKER_00]: Last year, 18:27.962 --> 18:33.367 [SPEAKER_00]: Daniel had a school project of his earliest memories, and he chose to draw our old kitchen. 18:34.147 --> 18:37.130 [SPEAKER_00]: He drew the cupboard, the back door, the shrub outside even. 18:38.251 --> 18:42.134 [SPEAKER_00]: And when looking at it, I noticed two women stood in the kitchen. 18:42.534 --> 18:45.377 [SPEAKER_00]: Two women I'd assumed was me and Ma. 18:46.230 --> 18:46.590 [SPEAKER_00]: But no. 18:47.190 --> 18:54.052 [SPEAKER_00]: There were both women, indresses, both with short, brown hair, hence my confusion about the gender. 18:54.412 --> 18:55.332 [SPEAKER_00]: Who are these, Dan? 18:55.612 --> 18:59.773 [SPEAKER_00]: I said, he pointed to one, that you, and then the other. 19:00.993 --> 19:03.154 [SPEAKER_00]: And I really wanted him to say, and that's Mark. 19:03.594 --> 19:05.494 [SPEAKER_00]: So I could say, why is he wearing a dress? 19:06.434 --> 19:06.994 [SPEAKER_00]: But he didn't. 19:08.135 --> 19:09.855 [SPEAKER_00]: He said, that's my other mom. 19:11.762 --> 19:18.587 [SPEAKER_00]: I asked why he'd drawn her with short hair when he'd told me repeatedly it was long, and he looked again at the picture. 19:19.568 --> 19:20.069 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know. 19:20.929 --> 19:25.933 [SPEAKER_00]: I jumped on Daniel's inconsistency of a story and said how alike both of these figures looked. 19:26.934 --> 19:31.658 [SPEAKER_00]: And he said, well you look the same, so I asked him how he could tell us apart. 19:32.678 --> 19:42.264 [SPEAKER_00]: He looked off for ages, and I thought, yes, this is proof it all some brews I've been let down, and I've built up this terrifying thing in my head, from nothing. 19:43.065 --> 19:47.047 [SPEAKER_00]: Daniel returned from his thought and said he couldn't always tell us apart. 19:47.808 --> 19:51.410 [SPEAKER_00]: But then added that she used to know things I didn't. 19:52.583 --> 19:59.764 [SPEAKER_00]: She knew where he'd hidden his toys, he said, and sometimes what he was going to say before he said it. 20:00.705 --> 20:03.845 [SPEAKER_00]: I suggested that she'd maybe just been good at guessing. 20:04.665 --> 20:05.426 [SPEAKER_00]: He shook his head. 20:06.146 --> 20:08.086 [SPEAKER_00]: No mom, she just remembered stuff. 20:09.146 --> 20:10.607 [SPEAKER_00]: I asked him what you remembered. 20:11.387 --> 20:17.288 [SPEAKER_00]: Dan stared at his drawing and said, like, like things we hadn't done yet. 20:18.814 --> 20:26.859 [SPEAKER_00]: who went on to say once when he was small, he remembers the other person, telling him he was going to fall off his bike and hurt his knee. 20:27.619 --> 20:31.681 [SPEAKER_00]: But he shouldn't worry because Daddy would be there for him. 20:31.701 --> 20:34.363 [SPEAKER_00]: I remembered that day, Daniel was full. 20:34.923 --> 20:40.867 [SPEAKER_00]: Daniel had been complaining about his stabilizers, but Mark had taken them off the bike and was holding the back of the seat. 20:42.135 --> 20:49.078 [SPEAKER_00]: Dan then pushed down really hard and won pedal when Mark was not expecting it, and he headed off without Mark holding the back. 20:49.838 --> 20:53.960 [SPEAKER_00]: He very quickly came and glued and fell off the bike and graced his knee badly. 20:54.861 --> 20:56.381 [SPEAKER_00]: Mark had carried him back to the car. 20:57.762 --> 20:59.883 [SPEAKER_00]: Did she tell you all this before it happened? 21:00.203 --> 21:00.643 [SPEAKER_00]: I asked. 21:01.504 --> 21:04.265 [SPEAKER_00]: Dan nodded and said it was like she'd already seen it. 21:05.449 --> 21:13.313 [SPEAKER_00]: This was becoming rather frustrating to me now, and the thing that was bothering me the most wasn't necessarily the other person. 21:13.914 --> 21:19.056 [SPEAKER_00]: It was how all of this, if true, seemed very little to matter to that. 21:20.157 --> 21:22.238 [SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't trying to convince me of anything. 21:22.998 --> 21:26.961 [SPEAKER_00]: It was like he was just remembering yesterday, sat there, coloring in. 21:28.081 --> 21:29.602 [SPEAKER_00]: Then I asked him one last thing. 21:30.522 --> 21:31.723 [SPEAKER_00]: Did he think the other 21:36.037 --> 21:40.219 [SPEAKER_00]: and for the very first time he looked genuinely uncomfortable. 21:41.159 --> 21:42.339 [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't reply. 21:43.440 --> 21:45.621 [SPEAKER_00]: I followed up and asked if he missed her. 21:46.521 --> 21:52.123 [SPEAKER_00]: But he took a while and then confidently said, I don't think she'd want me to miss her. 21:53.444 --> 21:54.284 [SPEAKER_00]: I asked why not. 21:55.004 --> 21:57.045 [SPEAKER_00]: And he said, because you're here now? 21:58.566 --> 22:03.648 [SPEAKER_00]: He looked at me as though I'd misunderstood this whole thing and it was very, very simple. 22:04.806 --> 22:08.848 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, she isn't, he repeated, looking at my blank expression. 22:10.329 --> 22:18.053 [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to ask where he thought she'd gone, but I do remember being very frightened that he would tell me something I just didn't want to know. 22:19.054 --> 22:23.976 [SPEAKER_00]: So instead I took the drawing and said it was very lovely and let him get on with his homework. 22:24.777 --> 22:28.599 [SPEAKER_00]: That evening I showed bark the picture and told him what Daniel had said. 22:35.410 --> 22:38.773 [SPEAKER_00]: Daniel had drawn a small crack in the bottom corner of the glass. 22:39.693 --> 22:40.594 [SPEAKER_00]: I hadn't noticed it. 22:41.615 --> 22:43.056 [SPEAKER_00]: But Mark remembered. 22:44.477 --> 22:48.640 [SPEAKER_00]: The window cracked one called winter, and we had it replaced before we moved. 22:49.801 --> 22:52.223 [SPEAKER_00]: He asked if I'd ever told Daniel about it. 22:53.164 --> 22:54.225 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I hadn't. 22:54.885 --> 22:59.049 [SPEAKER_00]: Mark pleaded throat and said, do you remember when that window cracked? 22:59.649 --> 23:00.029 [SPEAKER_00]: I did. 23:00.925 --> 23:03.246 [SPEAKER_00]: I was making breakfast and I heard a sharp noise. 23:03.786 --> 23:07.607 [SPEAKER_00]: I turned around quickly and saw the crack running up from the bottom of the pain. 23:08.267 --> 23:12.589 [SPEAKER_00]: I could pitch myself still standing there at the counter, a slice of toast in my hand. 23:13.709 --> 23:15.069 [SPEAKER_00]: Mark shook his head. 23:16.190 --> 23:19.711 [SPEAKER_00]: He'd come down one morning and found it already cracked, he said. 23:20.611 --> 23:24.232 [SPEAKER_00]: And I told him, I had no idea what it caused it. 23:25.173 --> 23:26.093 [SPEAKER_00]: I'd been upstairs. 23:27.544 --> 23:32.508 [SPEAKER_00]: back and forth we went because I was certain, but so was he. 23:34.109 --> 23:38.893 [SPEAKER_00]: In the end he said it didn't matter, but I could tell he didn't mean that. 23:40.074 --> 23:48.020 [SPEAKER_00]: Later I found him in the living room, going through a load of old photos on his phone, specifically at pictures of the old house. 23:48.921 --> 23:49.922 [SPEAKER_00]: I sat down beside him. 23:50.502 --> 23:55.946 [SPEAKER_00]: He stopped on one of me holding Daniel when he was around too, on our old sofa, smiling 23:57.551 --> 24:01.515 [SPEAKER_00]: He stirred at the photo, and then asked me if I remembered it being taken. 24:02.335 --> 24:04.958 [SPEAKER_00]: I said, of course, it was Daniel's second birthday. 24:05.398 --> 24:06.899 [SPEAKER_00]: We had a cake we watched a film. 24:07.860 --> 24:13.305 [SPEAKER_00]: He then asked if I remember asking him, not to take any more photos. 24:14.646 --> 24:15.187 [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't. 24:16.267 --> 24:24.154 [SPEAKER_00]: He said that soon after that picture, I became upset, and told him I didn't want any more photographs of me in the house. 24:25.013 --> 24:30.277 [SPEAKER_00]: I'd even asked him to delete some from his phone, but Mark said he didn't delete all of them. 24:30.877 --> 24:34.579 [SPEAKER_00]: When I asked why not, he said he couldn't quite remember. 24:35.580 --> 24:40.763 [SPEAKER_00]: And then he looked at me and said very quietly, I don't think I wanted to. 24:42.364 --> 24:46.727 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what he meant, and I genuinely don't think he does either. 24:47.448 --> 24:51.490 [SPEAKER_00]: And don't worry Kevin, I'm not going to say we found some photograph which proves this 24:53.973 --> 24:55.855 [SPEAKER_00]: I wish we did, sadly not. 24:56.656 --> 25:00.239 [SPEAKER_00]: Things have really not been the same between me and Mark ever since. 25:01.100 --> 25:06.185 [SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes it feels like he is looking at me in a certain way, it's not an affectionate way. 25:06.985 --> 25:09.147 [SPEAKER_00]: It is if he's studying my face. 25:10.328 --> 25:16.054 [SPEAKER_00]: I asked on numerous occasions exactly what he was looking at me for, and he always smiled and said nothing. 25:16.994 --> 25:23.159 [SPEAKER_00]: I've stopped asking myself now, and I hated meeting this Kevin, but I've started doing it too. 25:23.999 --> 25:29.283 [SPEAKER_00]: When I'm washing my face, I now look longer at my reflection than I used to or I should. 25:30.404 --> 25:40.071 [SPEAKER_00]: I know what I look like, but every so often usually at night when the lighting is in great, something on my face looks unfamiliar. 25:40.832 --> 25:45.215 [SPEAKER_00]: I know that sounds weird, but it's like the shape of my mouth moves. 25:46.277 --> 25:48.679 [SPEAKER_00]: or it's a look I don't remember ever making. 25:50.000 --> 25:56.326 [SPEAKER_00]: I've went through all my old photographs and checked them against recent months and there are never any differences that I can see. 25:57.187 --> 25:58.808 [SPEAKER_00]: I always look like me. 25:59.689 --> 26:01.370 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's kind of the worst part. 26:02.491 --> 26:09.878 [SPEAKER_00]: When I don't think about it, I can sort of rationalize this as just people's memories that don't agree with each other. 26:10.701 --> 26:11.441 [SPEAKER_00]: That's fine. 26:11.941 --> 26:19.383 [SPEAKER_00]: We can all rewrite our own histories, and little tweaks and things we may not remember exactly the same as each other. 26:20.463 --> 26:26.785 [SPEAKER_00]: But then I have my child who remembers being loved by someone who looked exactly like his mother. 26:28.345 --> 26:36.167 [SPEAKER_00]: I hadn't asked Daniel about any of this for nearly a year, but six weeks ago something happened that may be decided to write to you. 26:37.025 --> 26:41.606 [SPEAKER_00]: no sightings of this woman, nothing paranormal, just a conversation. 26:42.706 --> 26:46.047 [SPEAKER_00]: We were walking back from the shops and we passed by a woman with a plan. 26:46.867 --> 26:57.489 [SPEAKER_00]: She stopped to straighten the baby's blanket and Daniel just watched her and then he said to me, Mom, do you think babies know their moms? 26:58.409 --> 27:02.269 [SPEAKER_00]: I told him, in my opinion, they do, they recognize the voice, the smell. 27:03.189 --> 27:04.070 [SPEAKER_00]: He thought about that 27:06.447 --> 27:08.268 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, what if they both smelled the same? 27:09.549 --> 27:12.850 [SPEAKER_00]: I asked what he meant, and he said he was only wondering. 27:13.911 --> 27:20.674 [SPEAKER_00]: And then, after a few seconds of silence, he said, remember that woman that used to look like you. 27:21.434 --> 27:24.536 [SPEAKER_00]: I said yes, and then, well, no, but yes. 27:25.796 --> 27:28.778 [SPEAKER_00]: And then you'll said, he used to think she was me. 27:30.098 --> 27:32.880 [SPEAKER_00]: I asked him what made him realize that she wasn't. 27:36.170 --> 27:38.151 [SPEAKER_00]: and said, she told me? 27:38.892 --> 27:41.954 [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't seem very comfortable and I didn't want to push. 27:42.734 --> 27:44.655 [SPEAKER_00]: We walked home in basically silence. 27:45.756 --> 27:49.558 [SPEAKER_00]: At that evening I was making dinner and he commented the kitchen stood next to me. 27:50.479 --> 27:53.021 [SPEAKER_00]: He asked if I remembered what we talked about earlier. 27:54.101 --> 28:01.926 [SPEAKER_00]: I just nodded staring at the pan and he looked at the floor and then said, she said, I wasn't supposed to tell you 28:04.219 --> 28:07.761 [SPEAKER_00]: I tried to act calm, but my heart was racing. 28:08.801 --> 28:09.042 [SPEAKER_00]: Why? 28:09.902 --> 28:13.024 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm mumbled, so that you wouldn't remember. 28:14.605 --> 28:16.886 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I've never been as frightened as I was then. 28:17.766 --> 28:21.528 [SPEAKER_00]: Not because he'd mentioned her again, but because of how he said it. 28:22.349 --> 28:29.453 [SPEAKER_00]: As if he'd been asked to keep this secret and had decided I was finally all bit of myself to hear it. 28:35.488 --> 28:36.689 [SPEAKER_00]: she said you'd be upset. 28:37.970 --> 28:38.911 [SPEAKER_00]: I asked about what? 28:39.612 --> 28:49.201 [SPEAKER_00]: I could see him staring at my face for a long time out of the corner of my eye, and as I'm trying to act as normally as possible, he said that she had to go. 28:50.502 --> 28:52.184 [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't ask anything else. 28:52.804 --> 28:53.205 [SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't. 28:54.335 --> 28:58.999 [SPEAKER_00]: I stood there staring this bolognese over and over whilst he went back into the living room. 28:59.859 --> 29:01.901 [SPEAKER_00]: I haven't told Mark about odd discussion that day. 29:02.501 --> 29:11.528 [SPEAKER_00]: I know I should, but I'm afraid he'll start looking at me in that weird way with more intentity, or that he'll stop pretending that he isn't doing it. 29:12.589 --> 29:15.151 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I know how ridiculous this all sounds. 29:15.692 --> 29:20.455 [SPEAKER_00]: Privacy isn't the only reason I'm using a pseudonym, but I guess I'm writing this to see if 29:24.062 --> 29:29.232 [SPEAKER_00]: When you find out people closest to you, remember things about your life that you don't. 29:30.073 --> 29:31.356 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not the best feeling. 29:32.155 --> 29:37.016 [SPEAKER_00]: I've questioned everything from my sanity to my mother having a twin that I never knew I had. 29:37.696 --> 29:50.219 [SPEAKER_00]: All the way through to an evil mimic type of spirit, but every explanation I come up with goes through the same pattern all far-fetched, then be believing it for a few days, back to far-fetched, and then ridiculous. 29:50.879 --> 29:56.801 [SPEAKER_00]: So if anyone out there has a similar experience, please get into a truth with Kevin and the show. 29:57.561 --> 30:00.822 [SPEAKER_00]: Kevin, if you read this, thank you so much for putting this out. 30:01.757 --> 30:02.137 [SPEAKER_00]: Rachel. 30:03.799 --> 30:13.886 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, Rachel, of course not your real name, thank you so much for sending this exceptionally strange bizarre and just eerie experience through to us. 30:14.627 --> 30:29.218 [SPEAKER_00]: And as Rachel said, if anyone out there has any ideas that are different from the usual doppelganger or anything that is an evil version of a doppelganger that you may have encountered or even if you remember something differently to other people in your household. 30:30.030 --> 30:34.014 [SPEAKER_00]: That may give us a clue as to what Rachel is experiencing here. 30:34.754 --> 30:52.170 [SPEAKER_00]: For all listeners, I should also mention that Rachel, again, not her real name, followed the simile up to say she has a full clear medical history that she's described these occasions with her GP and she can confirm there's nothing in terms of any mental health issues that we should consider with its experience. 30:52.891 --> 31:02.461 [SPEAKER_00]: And so, if after everything you've just had, you feel like you can help Rachel, then please do get into it with a show by emailing contact at thedocparanormal.com. 31:02.881 --> 31:13.452 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, of course, as I mentioned at the beginning, you can submit your experience to the show by following the link in the show notes, or going to thedocparanormal.com, submit my experience. 31:13.932 --> 31:31.526 [SPEAKER_00]: Also, in the show notes, you'll find a link through to our Patreon, we can sign up for a free week at the highest tier and gain access to early ad free episodes as well as the entire back catalogue of Darkbites to binge, while over 300 hours of experiences previously only had by our Patreons. 31:31.846 --> 31:36.370 [SPEAKER_00]: So that links in the show now to all go to patreon.com forward slash the Dark Piranormal. 31:36.890 --> 31:42.855 [SPEAKER_00]: And join what I genuinely believe is the best paranormal online community anywhere you'll find. 31:43.235 --> 31:47.537 [SPEAKER_00]: But right now, I want to thank each and every one of you for joining me here on today's show. 31:47.897 --> 31:51.079 [SPEAKER_00]: And I genuinely can't wait to bring you next week's show, trust me. 31:51.839 --> 32:05.086 [SPEAKER_00]: But until then, remember, whenever you're discussing the paranormal always, try to leave some of your disbelief at the door, and I'll speak to you all next week, right here on the dark paranormal.