23 - faceless ghosts, slenderman, and the striding place

23 - faceless ghosts, slenderman, and the striding place

“The palest man, the blackest suitBigger than the tallest bruteFear the man, the slender manFor he can do what no one can” ⁃ Slenderman by Rostin Amirani [https://www.quotev.com/story/5695572/Poems-Quotes/7] - Audio: Beware the Slenderman [https://youtu.be/6p1eVLEbOIw?si=KZ4dIf_2Jp5iyxBy] (HBO Documentary Films) Hello and welcome to your weekend haunt with Spook Lit, an audiobook club by dreary dendrophile I’m your host Lyns, and I’ll be reading aloud our spooky stories. Thank you so much for being here. I really hope you enjoy. Previously on Spook Lit… We finished up The Bell in the Fog Part I and II, and then we took a week off for an AMA episode. Thank you so much to those of you who contributed. There were a few questions I didn't get to, so I'll plan to do another one in the next few months. This week’s story: This week, we’re reading The Striding Place, and I couldn’t be more obsessed with the ending. I don’t want to spoil you, so we’ll jump right into the story and then come back at the end to discuss. And as always, if you want to skip the reading and go straight to the commentary, I’ve added timestamps here in the show notes: * 00:00 cold open / intro * 1:27 reading * 15:36 my thoughts and feelings Thank you so much for listening. The Striding Place If you’d like to read along, the full text is included at the bottom of this post. My thoughts and feelings: Today we’re talking about faceless entities, and all the theories that surround them. Let me start by saying they creep me the fuck out. I’ve never seen one in real life. Normally I’ll take any ghost you give me, but with these I just don’t know if I can handle it. There are lots of reasons a ghost might be faceless. It could be a physical characteristic of the person who died, or cause of death. I have heard of a child spirit in Pike Place Market who is missing eyes, because they were thought to be blind when they were alive. I talk more about this story in episode 8. The podcast Ghost Story from Wondery is all about the case of Naomi Dancy, a woman who became a faceless spirit after being shot twice in the face. In the Fort Mifflin episode of Haunted Road, Amy Bruni and guest Greg O’Brien discuss the faceless ghost of Union soldier Private William H. Howe. He was convicted of desertion and murder and was sentenced to death by hanging. He was put to death in a very public execution, wearing a bag over his face. “Given that he fought so hard to escape and that his death was such a scene, it’s not all that surprising that Howe’s Ghost is one of the most frequently reported in the Fort. Visitors claim to see a man in Civil War garb roaming the ground, sometimes sitting quietly and sewing in one of the case mates. They believe it’s Howe because before he was hanged he had a bag placed over his face and when the apparition looks up from his sewing, he doesn’t have a face. Witnesses refer to Howe’s Ghost as the Faceless Man.” — Amy Bruni, Haunted Road with Amy Bruni: Faceless Entities Lurk in Darkened Corners [https://open.spotify.com/episode/3NwNUt3amv6R3h5gB2iU2c?si=me4VfHXiSTyWrY9LrF9PiQ] Several cultures have cryptid and spiritual folklore about a faceless entity that can mimic the features of others and most often appears without a face - such as the Caribbean Hupia from Taino folklore, or the Japanese story Mujina about an encounter with a faceless woman. More common in Japanese and Hawaiian folklore is the Noppera-bō, a figure that also makes a cameo in the Netflix series Wednesday. In these stories, people encounter someone who may or may not be a stranger. They may or may not have a conversation. Then when the spirit turns around, their face is completely blank and wiped clean of all features - no eyes, nose, or mouth. “Though their intentions are generally harmless, their expertise lies in instilling dread. These entities possess the uncanny ability to adopt the guise of ordinary individuals, and at times, even assume the identity of someone known to their unsuspecting victim. Yet their true power lies in their capacity to erase their facial features entirely, leaving nothing but an unsettling smooth expanse in the place where a face should be.” — The Whispering Woods: Real Life Ghost & Paranormal Stories: Noppera-Bo the Faceless People [https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Y6VoDAiC2ALqnGhmU3RhP?si=5We3-zJ5REeozdQ5GIqmpw&nd=1&dlsi=1e5aa86dd1644596] Perhaps the most popular modern-day faceless entity is Slenderman, a fictional character created by Eric Knudsen for an internet Photoshop contest in 2009. It grew into arguably the most famous creepypasta on the internet, making international headlines when two teenage girls stabbed their friend as a means of gaining favor with Slenderman. “Slenderman is the modern day boogeyman. Because it’s faceless, because it’s quiet, because it doesn’t speak words, it’s open to a lot of interpretation. And open to a lot of possibilities, a lot of projection. It varies from person to person as to what Slenderman actually is. He’s the creature that lives in my closet. He’s the guy in the windowless white van, the faceless stranger who kidnaps kids.” — Beware the Slenderman (HBO Documentary Films) There are countless stories out there about mimics and doppelgängers. Spirits who take the form of a loved one and have full-on conversations with us until we realize later the person wasn’t actually there. There is something particularly terrifying (and fascinating) about this type of encounter. And what do these entities look like when they’re not taking the form of someone else? Perhaps a blank face is their default state. The fear stems from the unknown and from being tricked. How they mold themselves into whatever you’re expecting. How maybe they are no one underneath it all. A shell of what could be. I feel a sense of panic when I look at these creatures. Claustrophobia. Where did their face go? Are they in pain? How do they catch their breath? When I look at them, I also feel a deep sense of familiarity and empathy. A kinship. The loneliness of seeing but feeling unseen. Is this what happens when we lose all connection with others? With ourselves? What happened to them? Who erased their identity, and could it happen to me? Has it happened already? *Note: I listened to several podcast episodes with stories about these faceless ghosts, and I will link them all in the show notes in case you want to dive in deeper or hear more spooky stories. Shout-outs: * First of all, the last few weeks have been huge for my family in terms of milestones. I had two nephews graduate high school, and I am so freaking proud of them! And this week is my sister’s birthday. Happy birthday, and thank you to all of my family for all of your support. * Thank you so much to 6-Point Paranormal Society [https://substack.com/profile/351986520-6-point-paranormal-society] for your paid subscription! I cannot wait to investigate with you again. Also, congratulations on your recent anniversary! * Signe from GhostORia [https://www.facebook.com/GhostOria/]is now offering Ghost Tours at Gulley’s Butcher Shop [https://www.astoriaghosttour.com] in Astoria, OR on Saturday nights. If you’re in the area, go check it out. Signe is the best! What’s Lurking on Spook Lit: Big changes are coming over the next few weeks. I’ll keep you posted. I apologize in advance that some of these episodes are taking longer to publish. I recently started a new trauma therapy and am also smack dab in the middle of my seasonal depression (yes, summer seasonal depression is a thing). Thank you all for your patience with me. It is such a relief to get to talk to you about ghosts. Speaking of summer, I hope you all have amazing plans and are staying safe and staying cool. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to listen to Spook Lit. I hope you liked this episode, and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. *If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to rate, review, subscribe/follow, all the things. Additional Resources: * Beware the Slenderman (HBO Documentary Films) [https://youtu.be/6p1eVLEbOIw?si=KZ4dIf_2Jp5iyxBy] * Haunted Road with Amy Bruni: Faceless Entities Lurk in Darkened Corners [https://open.spotify.com/episode/3NwNUt3amv6R3h5gB2iU2c?si=me4VfHXiSTyWrY9LrF9PiQ] * Real Life Ghost Stories #225, Faceless Entities [https://open.spotify.com/episode/4iQegbkGafPwC9bF7H5rCf?si=E_RvIculRN-eL-kqGOZlzQ&nd=1&dlsi=37652e7bc16e40dc] * Legends from the Pacific: Japan’s Faceless Ghost [https://open.spotify.com/episode/34u8MNdX43EvCrVQbi8rzc?si=anvsanhpQAS1jssSuIknTQ&nd=1&dlsi=c195d8ad3a2b4f30] * Freaky Folklore: HUPIA - Faceless Ghost of Taino Folklore [https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ef8WRtrt95NTWyNRapDJk?si=rVwFKZOPQGmi-cMePZbXbA&nd=1&dlsi=f6128450e5884260] * The Whispering Woods: Real Life Ghost & Paranormal Stories: Noppera-Bo the Faceless People [https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Y6VoDAiC2ALqnGhmU3RhP?si=5We3-zJ5REeozdQ5GIqmpw&nd=1&dlsi=1e5aa86dd1644596] * Morbid: The Slenderman Stabbing [https://open.spotify.com/episode/2jbJjSzoYpz39OtFa5G8bd?si=3a_Z3OixR02jYOO6EgwuxA&nd=1&dlsi=9bc3ef5aca254865] * Slender Man Is Watching - Longreads [https://longreads.com/2015/08/25/slender-man-is-watching/] * True Crime Obsessed: Beware the Slenderman [https://open.spotify.com/episode/4fKTA1GhGDkS2wOgX8AKuJ?si=bmEqe4leQE6hOBdIw4TiSQ&nd=1&dlsi=afae8b489aa643bd] * Two Girls One Ghost: Encounters x319 - Doppelgänger Stories [https://open.spotify.com/episode/1Xrt5nCgpcQbtElhNv4bLt?si=Hx-L4juqR2uw6qo2ohLFOw&nd=1&dlsi=7ac96448d42041fc] * Reddit - r/WednesdayTVSeries: Faceless students at Nevermore. What do people think their deal is? [https://www.reddit.com/r/WednesdayTVSeries/comments/10qzhy1/faceless_students_at_nevermore_what_do_people/?solution=3c06b90475a1305f3c06b90475a1305f&js_challenge=1&token=7afd7253fec22262ff1c52b1703fe9ec803210d108c173c1b2a43397dfbfbb7b&jsc_orig_r=&share_id=tDL7nn5zLjTXMEyQhDYlP&utm_content=1&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1] * YouTube - Wednesday Series Faceless Student Explained [https://youtu.be/PDwWO0b6TjE?si=Bwv_ODRyfbI_qltE] * The House Next Door | 1 — Ghost Story Transcript [https://podcasts.happyscribe.com/ghost-story/the-house-next-door-1] Credits: * Audiobook: The Bell in the Fog and Other Stories by Gertrude Atherton * Chapter: “The Striding Place” * Music: “Horror Spooky Piano” by Nikita Kondrashev on Pixabay * Artwork: Jeff Bent on sporecloud.com * Photography: Lyns McCracken * Linktree: https://linktr.ee/drearydendrophile [https://linktr.ee/drearydendrophile] All Spook Lit Audiobooks are public domain. Thank you and hauntingly yours, dreary dendrophile dreary dendrophile is a haunted good time. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. You can also make a donation [https://ko-fi.com/drearydendrophile] if the spirit moves you. Get full access to dreary dendrophile at drearydendrophile.substack.com/subscribe [https://drearydendrophile.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

22 - ask me anything: ghosts, bones, tarot & funny cigarettes

Hello and welcome to your weekend haunt with Spook Lit, an audiobook club by dreary dendrophile I’m your host Lyns, and I’ll be reading aloud our spooky stories. Thank you so much for being here. I really hope you enjoy. First of all - wtf? We’re doing something a little different this week. Our next chapter led me down a serious rabbit hole of research, and I can’t wait to share it with you. I was stressing about getting it all done when a friend suggested this Q&A / AMA episode as a fun alternative. My initial reaction was huh? Q&A? Who do I think I am? Do I really think people give a shit about asking me questions and hearing my thoughts and feelings? Let’s not get a big head… But I guess my rampant imposter syndrome is weaker than my love of talking about myself, so here we are. Thank you so much to everyone who sent me questions. If any others come up, feel free to hit me up in the comments. Ask Me Anything: Is it disrespectful to collect or preserve the remains of an animal? (Question from a listener: “The whole skull preservation is also intriguing. I may not be able to retrieve it — and I know bird skulls are very delicate and fragile — but there is a crow body that has been decomposing for the last few months along one of the roads I walk every day. I could not bring myself to handle it when it was more... ‘fresh,’ but I’ve been thinking maybe once Nature has taken care of things a bit, I might see if there’s anything left worth salvaging. Though... I’m not sure. It feels disrespectful of a wild creature to want to ‘own’ a piece of its body.”) **Disclaimer: Please check your local laws before obtaining any wild animal skulls, bones, or taxidermy. First of all, it says a lot about your character that you’re even considering this so thoughtfully. Most people would think nothing of it - they’d either be totally down or totally disgusted. I too have mixed feelings about skulls, yet my day job as an animal mortician does include skull recovery and preservation, mostly of cats and dogs. And I love my work immensely. Is keeping a crow skull more disrespectful than leaving it on the side of the road? Regarding “owning” a piece of the crow, would you feel weird about the crow owning your bones or ashes? Would you feel disrespectful holding onto your pet’s skull or ashes? I think the only way to answer this question is to better understand your own intentions. For me, it is always about having respect for the creature. A skull is a beautiful reminder of death—in some ways, it’s giving them another life. You’re keeping a piece of them, just like ashes or feathers, and paying homage to nature and to them as a sacred being. It can feel ceremonial. Bird skulls in particular can be symbolic of messengers flitting between the worlds, delivering spiritual guidance between the living and the dead. I saw a really beautiful quote from Jade Adgate [https://substack.com/profile/5381479-jade-adgate] a few days ago that made me think of your question: “For the Deathwalker archetype, life is a sacred endeavor, and altars are everywhere. To build an altar to death is to remind yourself to show up to this calling and dedicate a portion of your devotion to cultivating your own relationship with Death.” If you decide you want to keep a skull or bones, the means of acquisition matters. Please don’t go on Amazon and buy a cat skull for $15 (yes, this is a thing) because Memento Mori. In my work, I often spend months on each individual skull, and I know just by looking at each one who the animal is and pieces of their story. I keep ID coins with each skull as part of protocol, but I don’t need them. I know each skull by name. One night when I first started doing skull preservation, somebody brought me two dead pigeons and asked me to try macerating their skulls as a trial run for birds - something we don’t currently offer. I was in a massive hurry. I didn’t know how to remove the skull from the head of a bird, and I didn’t have time to research it. Instead, I ended up prepping the pigeon heads by just cutting them off without ritual. It hit me deeply and immediately felt like the most terrible thing I’d ever done. I sobbed afterwards, and I still feel absolutely wretched when I think about it. I would never treat a beloved pet that way, and I will never do that again to any creature, no matter where it came from. And there are ways to be more respectful. You can say thank you. You can honor the rest of the body by burying it or turning it in to your local pet funeral home. My company aquamates strays and roadkill when they are given to us, out of respect. Acknowledging the animal as a being is what separates reverence from a mere trophy. Skulls are incredibly beautiful, and they deepen our relationship to nature, animals, and death. They are a visual reminder that life is precious and fleeting. Skulls aren’t for everyone, but if you decide to obtain one, I hope they add a sense of wonder to your life and your surroundings. What’s your most strange paranormal encounter? Sometime around 2018, I was at a live music show at J&M Cafe in Pioneer Square. Before closing in 2019, the J&M was competing with Central Saloon and Merchant’s Cafe for the title of oldest bar in Seattle [https://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/article/Three-bars-in-Pioneer-Square-claim-oldest-in-14580444.php]. After the show, I was sitting at the bar pounding rum and diets with my former husband and current bff Dave. There was no one else around us except the bartender on the other side of the bar. There was a giant mirror behind the bar, reflecting us and anyone who would have walked behind our barstools. When we sat down, we noticed a perfectly good cigarette sitting at the end of the bar, to my left. We thought maybe it was saving someone’s place. We debated stealing it, but I was partial to menthols at the time. (I know, so trashy! I quit smoking four years ago.) After chatting a few minutes, we noticed the cigarette had moved from the bar to the floor. Had we just not noticed it before? No - it was gone from the bar. Nobody had come or gone. And the bar top had a small upturned lip that would have prevented it from rolling off anyway. Even if it had, it started to my left and now landed on my right, closer to Dave’s barstool. We assumed we just missed someone walking by. We picked it up and placed it back in its original spot, vowing to keep a closer eye on it. A few more minutes went by. More rum and diets—just a typical Tuesday for me back then. I was a professional drinker, and I recall every detail of this encounter, so I certainly wasn’t sloshed. We were bantering about the band, debating whether to order food, when we looked down and saw the cigarette back on the floor. Just sitting there between our stools, minding its own business, looking up at us as if it had been there the whole time. We were shocked. We definitely weren’t ghost hunters back then, so instead of embracing the experience, we hollered for our tab and got the hell out of dodge. That was one of my very first paranormal encounters, and looking back it makes me so happy to think that some frisky old bar regular decided to mess with us that night. Are you still giving tarot readings? How can I learn to read the cards? Yes! Tarot readings are currently available in my Etsy shop [https://www.etsy.com/listing/4352014751/tarot-readings?ref=shop_home_feat_1&dd=1&logging_key=82bf9b8efbb9ea17cc7200090222823a8dccdfea%3A4352014751], and paid subscribers are eligible for a free reading every year. To learn tarot, I took an 8-week course with my amazing teacher Ken Boggle from Living for the Dead [https://press.hulu.com/shows/living-for-the-dead/]. You can sign up for classes on his website: kenboggle.com [https://kenboggle.com]. I also recommend listening to an episode of Ghosted! By Roz Hernandez where she interviews Rachel True from The Craft. They talk about getting to know the cards and deciding to read for yourself as a method of self-soothing. I really love this episode, as well as Rachel True’s book and tarot deck, True Heart Intuitive Tarot [https://bookshop.org/p/books/true-heart-intuitive-tarot-guidebook-and-deck-rachel-true/c0e62984e304b0f5?ean=9781328566263&next=t&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=dsa_nonbrand&utm_content=%7Badgroupname%7D&utm_term=aud-1885352274144:dsa-19959388920&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=12440232635&gbraid=0AAAAACfld41F2bGx8u8ukUnSd9t9i5Vga&gclid=CjwKCAjw2rrQBhBuEiwAarLWHSTFu3L4RHVBuJ5O1Qn-hArk__m_Hal5g8ofHRPVZStXxaTnt1ojKBoCz6MQAvD_BwE]. What first drew you to ghosts, and has that draw changed over time? I used to be afraid of ghosts until I moved to Pike Place Market in 2015. That first summer living in the market, I visited Ghost Alley Espresso [https://share.google/bFPZ6agZV2iO8ywwB] and heard about all the local stories. I bought a book written by the owner at the time, Mercedes Yaeger, titled Market Ghost Stories. On the cover is a map with a starred location - presumably pointing out where the ghosts live - and that star pretty much marked the spot where I lived at the time. It’s impossible to avoid ghost stories when you live in the market, and I jumped right in with eagerness. I was still afraid, but I immediately started learning as much as I could. I read the book cover to cover in one sitting. I attended the market ghost tour run by Mercedes Yaeger several times, including on Halloween night, when they took us up to an abandoned section of Kell’s Irish Pub - the old funeral service area of the Butterworth Mortuary [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterworth_Building]. I roamed the streets every morning on our dog walks, searching for Princess Angeline (Chief Seattle’s daughter). I spoke to bar regulars who had lived and worked in the market their whole lives, drinking up their ghost stories just as enthusiastically as the gin and tonics I inhaled at the time. We held an Ouija session at The Tasting Room on Post Alley, which used to be a sort of horse stable parking lot located next to the mortuary. It was a creepy little place at night, and I always stayed late to help close up the winery so whoever was working wouldn’t have to be alone with the rats and ghosts. They paid me in wine. Things really shifted in the spring and summer of 2019 with the Alaskan Way Viaduct coming down. So many paranormal things happened during that time, and for me, what started as harmless intrigue turned frightening and fatal. An active spirit at one of the produce stands got violent on the anniversary of his death. He changed the radio station and knocked kitchen utensils off the wall. Someone said “oh, that’s just the ghost,” and then a knife flew across the room. I heard about this story when literally all of the employees came sprinting into the bar, having closed the shop early. They were all terrified, and my buddy ran so fast he forgot his cigarettes. Another friend was scared out of her espresso shop when the drying racks kept falling on their own while she was working. The activity kept escalating, and they performed two spiritual cleansings as a result. Even worse, we had a series of suicides within a few weeks of each other, all in this same location. I came upon one of them on my walk home from the gym one morning. Things had gone from a fun curiosity to a serious heaviness that was affecting us all. So many of us were on edge during the deconstruction of the viaduct, and I stopped searching for spirits for a long time. Mercedes forewarns about possible troubles with the viaduct in her book, written a decade prior: “From a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article about the Duwamish grave-sites along the waterfront: ‘They were the ancient original inhabitants of what is now Seattle, and there is speculation that their remains are beneath the Jell-O-like soils that lie on top of Elliott Bay and downtown Seattle. This is the newest consideration to our ongoing “What to Do With the Alaskan Way Viaduct, Waterfront and Sea Wall” saga. Our history of disrupting sacred burial sites is well known.’” - Mercedes Yaeger, Market Ghost Stories She also quotes a Washington Post article: “In the religion of the tribe and those of many other Native Americans, disturbance of ancestral graves is a fearsome thing. It is believed that when ancestors’ spirits are disturbed and made restless, it may have serious consequences among the living, causing accidents, illness and death.” - Mercedes Yaeger, Market Ghost Stories, quoted from: Harden, Blaine, “Washington State Bridge Project Yields Long-Forgotten Graves,” The Washington Post, December 19, 2004. I didn’t think much about ghosts again until I got sober in 2021. During those first few excruciating months, I would get off work and do literally anything not to drink - cross stitch, color, play games on my phone, anything to keep my hands busy. I started watching the show Kindred Spirits with Amy Bruni and Adam Berry as a distraction. They made me curious and fascinated again, and I couldn’t get enough. Towards the end of 2022, I started experiencing some intense hauntings no matter where I went—it felt like an attachment. I was incredibly scared. I’ve written about this period several times, but it turned out to be what I believe might be a fragmented haunting of myself. It was baffling and tricky to diagnose, and I still get haunted in this way sometimes. I do believe you can be haunted by yourself, as scary as that sounds. Throughout 2023, I continued to explore the supernatural and started learning more about ghost hunting and spirit communication, as well as taking classes on psychic development. Since then, I have only continued to learn and grow. My relationship with ghosts has become a lot more comfortable, but no less important. I’ve heard it’s common to become more interested in ghosts and spirits after someone close to you dies, or after a near-death experience. I didn’t have anything like that, but I was suicidal in 2021 before getting sober, and I had occasional severe depressive episodes throughout 2022 and 2023. I think for me, it was my own close brush with death that made me more receptive. And developing relationships and connections with spirits has only helped me heal since then. Thank you all again for sending me your questions! I'd love to continue the conversation in the comments. You guys are the greatest. What’s Lurking on Spook Lit: Next time, I promise we will get into the chapter called “The Striding Place,” and I have a whole spiel about faceless entities. I’ve been researching them to death (bad pun intended). I cannot wait to get into it with you. Until then, thank you for listening to Spook Lit. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe. I appreciate you all so much. Thank you and hauntingly yours, dreary dendrophile Credits: * Music: “Horror Spooky Piano” by Nikita Kondrashev on Pixabay * Artwork: Jeff Bent on sporecloud.com * Photography: Lyns McCracken * Linktree: https://linktr.ee/drearydendrophile [https://linktr.ee/drearydendrophile] All Spook Lit Audiobooks are public domain. dreary dendrophile is a haunted good time. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. You can also make a donation [https://ko-fi.com/drearydendrophile] if the spirit moves you. Get full access to dreary dendrophile at drearydendrophile.substack.com/subscribe [https://drearydendrophile.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

21 - The Bell in the Fog: Part II

I step into a small room, bracing myself for that familiar smell. Decomposition. The full moon is just beginning to rise on this late evening on May 1st, Beltane. They say we are midway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. They say this midway point is similar to that of Halloween. They say the veil is equally thin now as it is then. Who knew? I am taking advantage of the quiet to get caught up on skull cleaning. A line of skulls in labeled bins with metal coins, waiting for my attention. I couldn’t be happier. It is honestly a privilege to stay late on a Friday night, recovering these beloved skulls. I put on music through my phone speakers, setting my phone face up on the cabinet behind me, under the paper towel dispenser. I settle in and pick up the first skull, bring it close to my face to inspect it for any lingering residue or grave wax. Gently scrubbing it clean with my brush, I sing along to the music. Behind me, I hear a familiar noise and I jump. It’s the automatic paper towel dispenser. You have to place your hand under it to trigger the paper towel to emerge. No one is there. I look around uneasily, trying to explain it away. Sometimes I hang strainer bags around the key permanently lodged in the top of the dispenser. It’s a convenient place for them to dry out, but occasionally one will trigger the mechanism and a paper towel will roll out. There aren’t any hanging bags today. There’s nothing anywhere near the automatic dispenser that would trigger it. Hesitantly, I get back to my task. Gently scrubbing beneath the eye sockets, avoiding the fragile sinus cavity. The song continues, and I sing along. After I finish the first skull, I move on to the second, but I realize I will need some tweezers for this one. I step out for a few minutes to grab them from the Aquatory next door. When I return, the room is silent. The music has stopped. My phone is gone from the cabinet. Holy shit! It’s lying face down on the floor. Hmmm. Maybe this job can wait ‘til tomorrow morning, I think. I grab my phone, turn the light off, and scamper full speed out of the room. Hello and welcome to your weekend haunt with Spook Lit, an audiobook club by dreary dendrophile I’m your host Lyns, and I’ll be reading aloud our spooky stories. Thank you so much for being here. I really hope you enjoy. That ghost story I just told you honestly has nothing to do with what we're talking about today. I just wanted to tell you about it. I hope you don't mind. Previously on Spook Lit… Last time, we started The Bell in the Fog with Part I, about an author named Orth who becomes haunted by two paintings of children long deceased. He brings their ghosts to life by writing a story about them. I also told you guys a personal story about my own experience with a painting at the Octagon House in Washington DC. Shout out again to the Octagon Museum and the Architects Foundation for a wonderful tour. If you’re in DC, t’s only $10 to go visit the house [https://architectsfoundation.org/the-octagon/visiting/] and hear about its history. This week’s story: We left off Part I with an excellent cliffhanger, and I had high hopes for Part II. I even talked about splitting this whole story into three episodes since Part II is very long. But after reading Part II, I was a little weirded out by it and decided to just get through it and move on. I don’t want to spoil you, so we’ll jump right into the story and then come back at the end to discuss. I’ve never tried this format before, so let me know what you think. Oh, and if you want to skip the reading and go straight to the commentary, I’ve added time stamps here in the show notes: * 00:00 Cold open (personal ghost story) * 03:20 Intro * 04:53 Reading * 39:25 Commentary (my thoughts and feelings) The Bell in the Fog - Part II: If you’d like to read along, the full text is included at the bottom of this post. My thoughts and feelings: You guys, it gets weird! (And a little predatory.) Is this how things were back then? I’m so bummed because I thought Part I was sooo good. I mean, don’t get me wrong - our protagonist Orth was a little into himself, and he did have some odd commentary about children: “Again he turned away impatiently. ‘I believe I am rather fond of children,’ he admitted. ‘I catch myself watching them on the street when they are pretty enough. Well, who does not like them,’ he added, with some defiance.” Stranger danger aside, he seems to really love and grieve for the children in the paintings, so much so that he brings them to life again by writing their story. This was one of my favorite quotes from Part I: “But the children were not statuettes. He had loved and brooded over them long ere he had thought to tuck them into his pen, and on its first stroke they danced out alive. The old mansion echoed with their laughter, with their delightful and original pranks.” Once his book is written, Orth leaves the house and settles down. And we get a really good cliffhanger at the end of Part I: “The ivy on his old gray towers had been young with his children. He spent a haunted night, but the next day stranger happenings began…” Stranger happenings indeed. I personally hated Part II. First, Orth meets a little kid wandering around by herself in the woods. She takes him back to her place, where everyone basically slut-shames the girl in the painting, to the extent that her grandfather gets up and leaves when the author mentions her: “[Blanche] did not die in childhood, but lived to be twenty-four. She was an angelic child, but little angels sometimes grow up into very naughty girls.” The little girl in the woods — also Blanche — is clearly her descendant. She has her name and resemblance, because of course she does. I assume they are implying some past life connection, which is always fun. Orth says: “’And I think she is Blanche Mortlake working out the last of her salvation,’” Orth leans real hard into making his fantasy with the ghost painting a reality with her real-life doppelgänger, complete with an underlying savior complex for the little girl’s virtue and social status: “He reformed Blanche’s accent and vocabulary, and read to her out of books which would have addled the brains of most little maids of six.” He lures this kid into his home with dolls and money and basically kidnaps her until her mom realizes she has six other kids she needs to get home to, and she has to beg this guy to give her kid back. They argue over whether or not he can adopt her, settling on letting the six-year-old decide for herself because she is just sooo mature for her age. But not before they both manipulate her first: “’I will be the one bereft, if you leave me. I am the only one who really needs you. I don’t say I will go to the bad, as you may have very foolishly persuaded yourself your family will do without you, but I trust your instincts to make you realize how unhappy, how inconsolable I shall be. I shall be the loneliest man on earth!’” Dramatic much? She decides to go back with her mom, which is obviously the wrong choice because she stops all correspondence with the writer a year later. Is she sick? Did she die? We’ll never know. My hope is that she realized she was a little kid and doesn’t owe this guy or anyone anything, and she was too busy playing with her new dolls to keep in touch. Aside from the content, the story itself just didn’t feel very satisfying. Part I felt like a legit ghost story, but Part II got a little too real for me. It was giving Abducted in Plain Sight and Interview With the Vampire. I wasn’t into it, but maybe I’m overly sensitive to grooming. It wasn’t all bad, ok? I do love the name Blanche - it’s my grandmother’s name. It’s not a name you hear very often. I love the idea of inheriting a haunted painting and solving the mystery of the girl in the painting. I love that it had a secret compartment. I’m so curious to know what you guys think. Please let me know in the comments. I’m dying to talk to someone about this! Shout-outs: Since I had some complicated feelings about our story this week, I decided to share some other books and media that have been bringing me joy, in case you also need a palate cleanser: * A Head Full of Ghosts, [https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/a-head-full-of-ghosts/9342893/?resultid=6d5a627a-18fe-4e75-9ebd-d9774fad2530#edition=10290268&idiq=17976512] by Paul Tremblay. I was craving a good old-fashioned exorcism story, and this one did not disappoint. I love a book that plays with timelines and younger and older versions of the same POV. You know it’s good when Stephen King says a book “scared the living hell out of me, and I’m pretty hard to scare.” * Trad Wife [https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/trad-wife-a-novel/55718679/?resultid=24c72267-1e42-41f7-9f3e-ba10d76db6d4#edition=73473334&idiq=85398741], by Saratoga Schaefer [https://substack.com/profile/310819495-saratoga-schaefer]. This book was a recommendation from Haunted Burrow Books [https://www.hauntedburrowbooks.com] in Capitol Hill, Seattle. It’s the first book I’ve ever read about fallen angels and I am obsessed with the concept. It was so fun. I am a sucker for body horror and she did a phenomenal job. It’s the Antichrist meets Breaking Dawn from Twilight, and I’m here for it. * Speaking of Twilight… Do yourself a favor and check out the Morbid podcast [https://open.spotify.com/show/1cpyLfDHP1cNnyOb478qrt?si=5b00739d65ce4da8]Twilight bonus episodes. * Did you (like me) read Twilight at a formative age or just at a time when the world was different and we didn’t understand how toxic relationships worked? Did you (like me) think the Twilight books were the pinnacle of romance and what every healthy relationship should strive for? * It’s not creepy at all that my crush has been sneaking in through my bedroom window and watching me sleep for weeks without my knowledge. It must be love! Did he make me go hiking so he could break up with me “for my own good,” sending me into a catatonic four-month dissociation complete with screaming night terrors every night? That’s how you know it’s love! Yes, it makes perfect sense that he would disconnect my starter cables making it literally impossible for me to leave. Relationship goals! * Isn’t it fun (and triggering) to look back on our favorite media from the early aughts with a present day lens? If you ever enjoyed or hated Twilight at all, please listen to these episodes - you’re in for a treat. I have been absolutely savoring them. What’s Lurking on Spook Lit: Next week, we move on from The Bell in the Fog to a short story called The Striding Place. Until then, thank you for listening to Spook Lit. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Credits: * Audiobook: The Bell in the Fog and Other Stories by Gertrude Atherton * Chapter: “The Bell in the Fog - Part II” * Music: “Horror Spooky Piano” by Nikita Kondrashev on Pixabay * Artwork: Jeff Bent * Photography: Lyns McCracken * Linktree: https://linktr.ee/drearydendrophile [https://linktr.ee/drearydendrophile] All Spook Lit Audiobooks are public domain. Hauntingly yours, dreary dendrophile dreary dendrophile is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. You can also make a donation [https://ko-fi.com/drearydendrophile] if the spirit moves you. Get full access to dreary dendrophile at drearydendrophile.substack.com/subscribe [https://drearydendrophile.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

20 - The Bell in the Fog: Part I

A heavy hush falls over the house as we enter the ancient dining room, empty aside from a fireplace, a mirror, and a painting on the wall. “This is the room where people report seeing shadow figures,” explains my guide. I light up instantly, turning in circles and snapping photos from every direction, while she searches through her phone. I am too transfixed by the mirror hanging slightly above my head to notice the distinctive painting hanging above the fireplace. “Ugh, of course now I can’t find it,” she exclaims, disappointed. “Somebody took a picture with this mirror in it, and when you look at it, it looks like there’s a sort of dark figure in the mirror. It was a bit creepy when I saw it.” Hello and welcome to your weekend haunt with Spook Lit, an audiobook club by dreary dendrophile I’m your host Lyns, and I’ll be reading aloud our spooky stories. Thank you so much for being here. I really hope you enjoy. Previously on Spook Lit… We finished up Ghosts and Family Legends by Catherine Crowe and voted on our next book - The Bell in the Fog and Other Stories by Gertrude Atherton. This week, we are starting out strong with Part I of The Bell in the Fog, a story about a haunted painting. While I have heard a few stories about haunted paintings, I’ve never encountered one myself until I visited the Octagon Museum in Washington DC two months ago. The Octagon Museum was a house built for Colonel John Tayloe III in 1801, where he and his wife Ann Ogle Tayloe [https://architectsfoundation.org/octagon-intern-research-blog-the-women-of-the-octagon/#:~:text=Following%20Ann's%20death%20in%201855%2C,of%20The%20Octagon's%20permanent%20collection.] lived until their passing. They had 15 children, 13 of which survived to adulthood. The house is one of the oldest private residences in DC, and the architect Dr. William Thornton was an amateur who won a contest to be the first architect of the US Capitol. He was chosen to build the Tayloe home because of his ability to work with the oddly shaped triangular plot of land. The architecture design was a neoclassical federal style, and the home was decorated by the same professionals who decorated Monticello and the White House. Many of the original features still exist today. One of the most notorious details about the Octagon House is that it was home to James and Dolley Madison for 6 months after the British burned down the White House. Dolley Madison would throw huge parties and balls known as “Dolley’s squeezes” because she tried to squeeze so many people into the party room. An upstairs office now called the Treaty Room was used as a temporary Oval Office. It still contains the treaty table where James Madison signed the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812. After Mrs. Tayloe’s passing in 1858, the building was turned into a Catholic girl school, then later office buildings, before it was finally taken over by the American Institute of Architects, after which it became a museum. The ghosts… Perhaps most famously, Jackie Kennedy was visiting the Octagon House during her husband’s presidency in the 60s. She was standing on the spiral staircase looking out the window when she was overcome by the scent of lilacs. She believed she was experiencing the ghost of Dolley Madison. After Colonel and Mrs. Tayloe passed away, there were reports of servant bells continuing to ring periodically on their own. A staff member once saw a man in 18th century clothes sitting on the stairs. He smiled at her and raised his hat as she passed. She asked her fellow staff member if they were hosting a themed party in the museum that day. Not only was there no party, but nobody else was there at the time. There have been paranormal stories from the basement, however the majority of activity seems to escalate in the dining room, with several reports of shadow people, including the shadow in the mirror I mentioned earlier. My guide walks me over to the fireplace, acknowledging intricate details on the mantel stonework. She points to the hidden doorways, which she calls jib doors, that blend seamlessly into the walls and lead to servant areas behind the scenes. She narrates the painting that hangs above the fireplace. It features a man named Archy Nash, John Tayloe’s valet and alleged half brother, an enslaved person who was freed after his death. The painting was created by a contemporary artist named Peter Waddell [https://peterwaddell.com]. He is praised for his ability to depict realistic scenes based on his extensive research of American history and architecture. There are several of his paintings throughout the house, portraying scenes that would have taken place in each room during the Tayloes’ and Madisons’ residencies. The lovely guide confides that the painting reminds her of a scene in Bridgerton, with women wearing empire dresses and Archy Nash sporting a beautiful collar in full livery, serving everyone at the party. The painting is striking, but for me it is more due to the format and less about the scene. In reality, as we face the fireplace, the mirror is on the wall to my right towards the back of the room. It is interesting that dark figures are seen in the mirror, as it is too high up on the wall for most people to see their own reflections. It doesn’t reflect much except for the windows on the wall to my left. In the painting, the artist has built an optical illusion in which the viewer themselves are looking at the room through a reflection in a mirror. We are looking at the mirror presumably through a mirror, and we can see the other mirror directly opposite us in the reflection of the room. The view in the painting cannot exist in many ways. The mantel doesn’t have a mirror. The one true mirror in the room is on a different wall than is depicted. However, there is no question that the artist has portrayed this particular dining room because of the unique sculpting on the fireplace stonework. It’s unmistakable that he is painting the dining room. But his imagination is slightly off from reality. It is a common paranormal belief that mirrors reflecting each other can cause an “infinity mirror” effect, which can act as a gateway or portal for spirits. I have seen this effect in several of the most active haunted locations I’ve visited, such as the Conjuring House, a haunted shop in Vancouver, and a haunted bar in Pike Place Market. It feels as though the artist has created this painting almost intentionally to build upon the mirrors, thereby creating his own infinite reflection tunnel. Fireplaces are also considered to be portals in paranormal lore. The painting placed above the fireplace almost feels like a spiritual welcome mat. To top it all off, deep below our feet in the basement is a prominent room with a large bricked off well. Wells are also known to be portals or “energy vortexes.” I am certain that all of this somehow contributes to the energy of this space. Later, as I listen to a recording taken in this room, I hear myself say “That is so cool!” And she responds “That’s great because now I can look at it in another way” and on my recording, I capture an EVP ghost voice say “yeah.” I did not get permission to share a recording from the museum, so I won’t share it at this time, but I was blown away when I heard that little whisper “yeah.” So incredibly cool. We conclude our tour by visiting the basement cellar, which contains one of the largest kitchens I’ve ever seen and servant quarters with handmade nails spiking through the lumber ceiling. We make our way up to the Treaty Room, James Madison’s temporary Oval Office in 1814. I marvel at the curved walls and windows, the custom wooden blinds torn and hanging in slats in a few places. Everything bending together in a way I had never seen before. “We have the original shutters,” my guide explains. “One of the things that we do when we come in the morning is we open up the shutters and then we close them again at night, which I love. It’s sort of like a ceremony. They just fold back into the wall.” She looks out the curved windows that bend in sync with the stone walls, and she beams with pride. This house is brimming with history, much of it heavy. It was bought, paid for, and maintained by the free labor of enslaved people from Colonel Tayloe’s tobacco plantation [https://www.whitehousehistory.org/slavery-at-the-octagon]. It was a refuge for the president, an Executive Mansion when the White House burned. It was a home for sixty years. A Catholic School. And now a deeply treasured artifact that is shared with all of us. Above all, it has been loved. Shout-outs: * A massive thank you to The Octagon and the Architects Foundation [https://architectsfoundation.org/the-octagon/]for the amazing private tour! Thank you for catering to my interests and including all the ghost stories for me. * Also this week, I’d like to shout out my dear friend Robin Blackburn McBride [https://substack.com/profile/20385894-robin-blackburn-mcbride], who is launching her new book River of Dreams in October. See her post on Substack for more information about the book as well as her gorgeous cover reveal: I just read this description and am encouraging us to all go pre-order it now [https://www.robinblackburnmcbride.com/books/river-of-dreams/]! “River of Dreams is a captivating work of metaphysical fiction. If you like feminist themes, historical settings, and elements of the supernatural, then you’ll treasure Robin Blackburn McBride’s enchanting story.” - robinblackburnmcbride.com [https://www.robinblackburnmcbride.com/books/river-of-dreams/] What’s Lurking on Spook Lit: Next week, we get the rest of the story from The Bell in the Fog in Part II. It’s a little long, so I might split it up into two episodes. Meaning, The Bell in the Fog story has two parts but might have three Spook Lit episodes, if that makes sense. Until then, thank you for listening to Spook Lit. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Credits: * Special thanks to the The Octagon and the Architects Foundation [https://architectsfoundation.org/the-octagon/]for a very educational tour of the haunted Octagon Museum. * Audiobook: The Bell in the Fog and Other Stories by Gertrude Atherton * Chapter: “The Bell in the Fog Part I” * Music: Horror Spooky Piano [https://pixabay.com/music/mystery-horror-spooky-piano-254402/] by Nikita Kondrashev on Pixabay [https://pixabay.com/music/mystery-horror-spooky-piano-254402/] * Artwork: Jeff Bent [http://www.sporecloud.com/] * Photography: Lyns McCracken * Linktree: https://linktr.ee/drearydendrophile [https://linktr.ee/drearydendrophile] All Spook Lit Audiobooks are public domain. Thank you and hauntingly yours, dreary dendrophile dreary dendrophile is a haunted museum full of spooky stories. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. You can also make a donation [https://ko-fi.com/drearydendrophile] if the spirit moves you. Get full access to dreary dendrophile at drearydendrophile.substack.com/subscribe [https://drearydendrophile.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

19 - The Votes Are In: Our Next Spook Lit Read

Hello everyone, I’m just popping by for a minute to let you know the votes are in for our next Spook Lit read, and the winner is The Bell in the Fog by Gertrude Atherton. A humungous THANK YOU to everyone who voted! I really appreciate you all. I’m really excited about this one. It’s creepy, delightfully dreary and overall just perfect for Season 2. We’ll officially begin the new season in April after the Oregon Ghost Conference. [http://www.oregonghostconference.com] For those who are local to the Pacific Northwest, I hope you can join me at the conference this year! I’ve been attending the past few years, and it is one of my favorite events. This year I will be hosting a vendor table for the first time - come by and say hi, and we can chat ghost stories and all things Spook Lit! Oregon Ghost ConferenceSeaside Civic & Convention Center - Seaside, OregonMarch 27-29, 2026General Admission: $20 Thank you again for listening to Spook Lit and for helping me choose our next book. I really hope you enjoy it. Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and the happiest of hauntings! Credits: * Music: Horror Spooky Piano [https://pixabay.com/music/mystery-horror-spooky-piano-254402/] by Nikita Kondrashev on Pixabay [https://pixabay.com/music/mystery-horror-spooky-piano-254402/] * Artwork: Jeff Bent [http://www.sporecloud.com/] * Photography: Lyns McCracken * Linktree: https://linktr.ee/drearydendrophile [https://linktr.ee/drearydendrophile] All Spook Lit Audiobooks are public domain. Hauntingly yours,dreary dendrophile dreary dendrophile is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Or you can make a one-time donation [https://ko-fi.com/drearydendrophile] if the spirit moves you. Get full access to dreary dendrophile at drearydendrophile.substack.com/subscribe [https://drearydendrophile.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]