3. Mysterious Knocking + Midwest Not Deer Sighting | Real Eerie Paranormal Stories

0:01 The stories in this podcast may contain content not suitable for all listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Oh, welcome. I didn't hear you come in. No, no, it's no trouble at all. I'm always glad to see you. Please come in, make yourself comfortable, have a seat. I happen to have some new strange stories for you here on Madam Strange Ways. Dearest Strangelings, if you have a true strange story you'd like to hear narrated on the podcast, you can submit it on madamstrangeways.com or e-mail it to madamstrangeways@gmail.com.

1:08 That's Madam with an E at the end, MAD AM E. And if you're enjoying your time here, please share the Strangeway strangeness with a friend or follow the podcast, or even rate or review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Rating and sharing help guide other spirits and listeners to the podcast. And now, without further ado, on to the Strange stories. What made you believe in the paranormal by Fizzy? To preface this, prior to this event I was a hardcore atheist. I didn't believe in any afterlife or anything paranormal.

2:09 My view has changed pretty dramatically. Now, I don't know what I believe, but I know that there is something more than meets the eye. I had something happen that I can't explain. I had a very large kidney stone. It's pretty routine for me. I get them a lot. So we went ahead and scheduled a surgery. They broke up the stone with a laser and put a stent into my tube to help the fragments pass. I was recovering at home when my temperature started rising and I started having pain worse than anything I've ever felt.

2:52 I took pain medicine and it didn't help at all. I sat there for several hours, kind of delirious with pain and fever. My husband had to work the next morning so I told him to go to bed. I figured I would be fine, just needed to get through the pain. He had been in bed about 15 minutes when he comes back into the living room and asks what I want. I was totally confused and asked what he meant. He said that he had heard me knocking on the wall and wanted to know what I needed. I told him I didn't knock and he should go back to bed. He did.

3:37 I sat there for a while longer but started getting really nauseous. I was also thinking about him hearing knocking. I'm not normally superstitious, but something about that just felt off to me. So I decided to go to the ERI got him up and off we went. After a long series of tests, they discovered that I had a staph infection, blood poisoning essentially, probably caused by a stent that had been contaminated. They gave me an IV bag of antibiotics and some stronger oral antibiotics. They couldn't admit me because my specialist didn't have admitting privileges with that hospital. They suggested that I go to the hospital where he had admitting privileges.

4:32 I didn't really want to do that, so I went back home. That's when the knocking began in earnest. All over our house, inside, outside, different areas of the house for two days straight. The entire time I ran a high fever. My fever stayed right around 101 to 102. And the whole time knocking, it was so bad that we thought someone was messing with us. But if someone was messing with us, how are they able to knock on the bedroom doors and inside walls?

5:18 I am a very very skeptical person but I cannot explain it. We both heard it all over the house. Well two days later my fever broke and the knocking stopped. We have not heard it a single time since. I don't know what happened, all I know is that it has made me re evaluate everything I thought I knew.

6:02 Fizzy, I am so glad that you listened to your gut when your husband started hearing those knocking sounds. I know when you're really ill like you were, that you're not always thinking straight and it's difficult to make good decisions for yourself. But I am so proud of you for listening to your instinct and for heeding what you understandably considered a portent of potentially death. I mean, I, I think it really can't be understated how dangerous a situation that could have been if, if that knocking had not happened, if your husband had not heard it, if he had not come out to check on you, and if you had not put together the common phrase death comes knocking.

6:55 So I am so pleased that you got the treatment that you needed and that you are hopefully happy and healthy now. Now that phrase death comes knocking does have a root in folklore. Probably most cultures have superstitions about knocking. I mean, think about it, how common knocking is when you're listening to tales of the supernatural. There's poltergeists, although this does not sound like a poltergeist, unless it was a poltergeist who was actually a fan of yours and knew something was wrong. I was trying to warn you, but I don't think that's the poltergeist demo.

7:37 So I think we can cross that off the list. Now an Irish and Scottish Welsh lore in particular, there's a lot of knocking that comes in threes that heralds an upcoming death, generally someone else's death and not your own. Although I don't think we'll ever know exactly how many knocks your husband heard that first time, It's possible he heard three. Oof that's so creepy. But I'm so glad he heard them. Now in Scottish lore, yes there are the three knocks that are important for death, but you could also hear bells instead and that would also signal death. In Wales, they have what are called mine goblins or cobblinae, and when some of the Welsh immigrants arrived in Pennsylvania and began working the mines, that's when you start seeing that folklore transfer over to America. So in the Pennsylvania mines they started talking about knackers.

8:47 If you were from Cornwall, England, otherwise known as knockers, you may know the Stephen King book Tommyknockers which is based on loosely the folklore of the knockers or the Welsh mind goblins. So sometimes they would be considered good and friendly, maybe cheeky or impish at worst, and other times they would be considered malevolent and ominous. So the knocking, some believed, was to lead you to a vain rich in the type of ore you are mining, whereas other people felt it was a threat, a sign of imminent mine collapse, which happened often or still.

9:40 Other people thought it was a friendly warning to warn the miners that they needed to escape quickly when mining fell out of practice, though those knockers then moved into the surrounding houses around the mines and continued their knocking habits, but specifically as an omen for an upcoming death. So I ask you, Fizzy, if you have any sort of ancestry that ties to either Cornwall in England, which those immigrants made-up a lot of minors, or Welsh ancestry, since that's where part of this folklore came from.

10:28 Or even if you have ancestry back into Pennsylvania or just the Northeast in general, I think it would be fair to say that maybe this was a maybe this was a knocker, maybe this was a cobble. And I, you know, I think it's possible that they were being friendly. This was not a threatening one. This was a friendly 1. So I would be really interested to hear if you've had any other experiences where this creature has possibly been looking out for you. I hope you never have a situation in which you hear these knocks again, but that if you do that, it is just as helpful as this experience.

11:20 Work and live in the rural Midwest outdoors. There are things that live out here with me by Ogre Ogre. I'll start this off by saying I grew up completely, 100% adamant that the paranormal isn't real. It can all be rationalized and that people who believed in it haven't thought about it hard enough. I've made other posts on other Subs about paranormal events that have happened in my life recently that have completely changed my mind, primarily about my neighbour's house. That's not what I'll be talking about today though. I live in the Midwest.

12:05 I live on a small rural lot between a cornfield and a small forest in a camper. I've lived in this county my entire life. I know the entire county like the back of my hand. This being said, I've come to the conclusion that my experiences around the rural and wooded parts of this county are crawlers. I'm 100% sure of it. I've had many encounters, actually none back-to-back, but they happen frequently. There is a forest or park in the middle of the town. I always hated at night since I was little. As I got older my cousin and I thought getting scared was really fun. We'd go there at night on purpose but never lasted long. I always felt like I was being watched. This on top of urban legends of people going missing here at night made me feel really uneasy. Fast forward to a few years ago, I got married and am settling into life as a husband.

13:11 I'd take my large all black German Shepherd Fenrier on walks with me at night. I always walk towards the park, but I usually don't enter into it. The first time something weird happened was five years ago. I was walking Fenrier in the woods to the front and to the right of me. To the left and behind me was a neighborhood edge in a small playground. Went silent. My dog started acting super anxious. He's usually a very stoic and quiet dog. He's 120 lbs and built like a tank. Looks very intimidating and he knows it. I heard rustling in the woods following me and I felt like I was being stalked.

14:00 I ran home and that's the end of the first encounter. I had a few more encounters like that, but last year things really amped up. I was on a walk around 11:30 PM with Fenrier, my wife, and our little newer dog Booger. He's a terrier chi mix. We are walking down the same path and about 3 blocks away from the woods 4 or so deer are sprinting out of the trees into the street towards us and they seem terrified. Then I can hear what I can only describe as what sounded like a human trying to mimic the sounds of a monkey. I thought it was silly until recently when I read that other guy's story who heard the same fucking thing. We laughed it off as some kids playing around. Once we got up to the woods and were walking parallel, we can clearly see two reflective eyes and a silhouette staring us down from the tree line.

15:16 We also heard a deep growl and then like a hissing sound, but it wasn't super high pitched or anything. Both our dogs acknowledged this as well. Fen stared and Booger growled a bit. I made a Facebook post on the community's Facebook group and other people told similar stories around town. Around this time I got a job as a tour guide or maintenance for rail explorers. I am working there again this year as well. We start April first. Basically they take unused or tour specific railroad sections that aren't used federally and then they have these pedal carts with motor assist on them you can use to explore the tracks.

16:06 It's super cool and super fun. The one I work at is like 5 minutes from where I live and it goes through the woods and an inaccessible part of the county unless you float down the river and hike up steep loose dirt hills. You go under 1 old car bridge and you go over 2 multi 100 foot length old train bridges. The first one is larger and taller and it's about 150 feet off the ground above the forest. The second goes over the river about six months into the job and it's fall. We work until midnight sometimes, with the last tour leaving around 9:00 PM.

16:48 That means the last tour for the last two months of the year are in complete darkness. The way that job operates is with six employees, 4 get on the lead bike and two get on the rear bike. From the lead bike we drop off one person at the busy intersection so they can flag traffic and one person gets dropped off at the large train bridge that goes over the woods. The person at the bridge gives a short safety speech to the customers who stop and go one at a time over the bridge. The employee carts are much faster than the customer ones. We all have walkie talkies and we usually have these battery powered floodlights on stands we use so the customers can see us and light up safety vests.

17:37 On one particular night we were behind by 20 or so minutes. Instead of leaving the depot at sunset, we were leaving at dusk. I was stationed at the high bridge. By the time we reached the bridge it was pitch black aside from the stars providing a little light. My Co workers dropped me off and waited with me until the 1st customer arrived. I gave the little speech to the first card of four. I chatted with them a little bit. I was trying to buy some time and wait for the next customer card so there wasn't a massive gap for my coworkers who have to flip the bikes around.

18:17 After a few minutes I let these customers leave and I was alone. I was alone for 20 minutes. I used the radio so many times but it was static for everybody. One of the only times we've ever had an issue like that as well. I kept seeing movement in the tree line. I kept hearing fast footsteps all around me in every direction. I had the floodlight on above my head so everyone and everything could see me, but I couldn't see shit. I turned off the floodlight and used my personal flashlight. I kept seeing quick glimpses of pale skin moving quickly, but right when I started seeing stuff I could hear the next customer cart coming close so I turned the light back on and waited for them to come around the corner.

19:11 When they pulled up I noticed they had a little boy with them and he's scared of the dark. I'm terrified at this point but have to act appropriate even more so because of this boy. I do not want to scare him. As I'm finishing my speech I hear movement right behind me and say Jesus fucking Christ and spin around with my flashlight on instinct. Poor kid. I told them it was probably just a deer and they're good to go across the bridge that same night. The person stationed at the intersection. This isn't like an in town intersection. It's very rural.

19:53 It's right next to a massive cornfield. He's Native American and was very in tune with his culture. He told me privately a few weeks later that he heard rustling in the cornfield and whatever was out there was whispering his name and trying to get him into the field. He was also without communication for those 20 minutes, but he wasn't in the woods and could see a lot better than me another time. Me and that same Co worker were headed back on the front cart. We were a way ahead so we stopped the cart in the middle of the high bridge. It sounds scary. I'm a bit afraid of heights and this bridge has massive gaps between the planks you could fit through but after doing it so often you get used to it.

20:43 It was a clear night and we were watching the stars and having small talk. Then it goes silent. We are 100 and so feet in the air above the woods. We can hear for miles the dogs barking across the river. 2 miles can be heard without even seeing the houses. We hear what sounds like a human mimicking a monkey noise and we hear growling. He looks at me completely seriously and tells me in a stern tone that we need to get out of here right now. I drive the fuck out of there and he moved states to Nevada shortly after this.

21:36 A few other things happened here and there, and to Co workers as well. Each of my Co workers have at least one story. I'm only sharing mine in this post otherwise it'd be too long. A few months go by and it's late fall around the middle of November. I drive through that park in town a lot when I just want to go for a drive. I had my dog Fenrir with me and it's around 2. AMI can't sleep so I'm listening to a Melvin CD and driving leisurely through the park.

22:18 As soon as I get past the entrance gates I feel really uneasy and weird. I'm not easily scared. Going to that park at night makes me feel a primal fear. It's beyond fight or flight. I have never felt that way in my life anywhere else ever. And I feel it every time I'm there. I'm driving through the park and I've rolled the windows up a lot more. Van Reer can still poke his head out but can't leap out. As I go deeper into the woods, I feel worse and worse.

22:58 I decided not to turn around because I'm already past the halfway point. Turning around would just make me stay in the woods longer. I started speeding where there weren't turns I couldn't see around. I round the last corner and what I saw made me have nightmares for months. There was a pale skinny humanoid, tall and lanky, not quite human, fucking crawling on its hands and feet. But it was crawling fast as fuck. 20 mile an hour type shit. We don't have bears here.

23:44 The only animal that size are large humans and deer. That wasn't a deer. It went from my right, crossed the street and went into the tree line. Fenrir saw it too. He doesn't bark at animals, not even other dogs. He went ballistic. He was trying to force himself out of the small gap in the window, nearly foaming at the mouth and snarling. He never, ever acts like that. I'm a certified dog trainer and I've raised him from birth. Most recently I've become obsessed with this park. I've walked there at night from my camper to the park with Fenrir.

24:31 I'll never do it again. I didn't see a figure this time. As I was entering the park a massive owl flew by my head so close I could have smacked at mid flight. This made me feel weird for some reason. As soon as I get into the park I feel extremely weird, anxious and nauseous. I walk a few 100 yards to the only street light in the entire park and I turn around and face the woods. Me and Fenrir stand there frozen for like 10 minutes. The silence was deafening.

25:13 Any time I heard something I'd jump. Fen was anxious as hell too. He kept staring into a certain part in the woods a ways off. I swear I saw eyes in there every once in a while. I built up the courage to walk out and I haven't gone back since. It'll be interesting to see what happens at my job this year. I wanted to add that the county I live in is packed full of abandoned mines, hundreds of them hooker. I do not know how you are able to do the job that you do terrifying creature sightings aside that tall bridge with the slats that are far enough apart that you can fall through them. Absolutely not absolutely not.

26:25 You need a raise. Let's get let's let's get Ogura raise everybody. So we're back to mines. Even though the last story did not take place in a mine, I did link it back to mines. And by pure synchronicity, because I picked these two episodes based purely on length, somehow they've made it into the same episode, so we're just going to roll with it. Mines. I love that you just kind of threw that detail in at the end, as if everything else wasn't already horrifying. Now there's lots of abandoned mines all over the place, lots of little creepy hidey holes for creatures to hide.

27:15 So I wonder, you know, if these creatures do live in a mine, if they live in mines, You know, how some amphibians and probably other animals that live in pure darkness, you know, don't have a need necessarily for the same kind of eyes that you do if you're in the sun. And their skin is also really pale. You know, that kind of explains to me what you're seeing. So maybe that is their natural habitat. I know crawlers are a relatively new phenomenon and not necessarily considered a Cryptid. I know that there's a lot of discourse online as to whether or not crawlers are cryptids, or if they're more along the lines of creepypasta creations like Slender Man and The Rake. But I believe that you're seeing something, and Fenn saw it too, your gigantic German Shepherd, who you have trained to be very good and very well behaved.

28:26 He saw it and he wicked out. So something's happening for sure. And I don't know how you have not just quit your job and moved to a different state that has zero minds. I don't know if that state exists, but maybe fewer minds. You know, you having that experience with the owl flying so close to your head. I know that owls are commonly associated with alien and UFO sightings and high strangeness in general. You know, even in Twin Peaks how they say the owls aren't what they seem. Maybe these crawlers are from the Black Lodge. Definitely could have come from the mind of David Lynch. Although I think if he heard me say that, he would be offended. And I don't know why I haven't met the man, but something just tells me so.

29:30 Nobody tell David Lynch what I just said. It'll be our little secret. Thank you if anyone has any theories or similar experiences to these crawlers, these pale, gangly, scary creatures lurking in woods. If anyone has any experiences or theories they'd like to share, please e-mail it to madamstrangeways@gmail.com and I may read your theories on a future show. Now Ogre Ogre has more stories that I will be sharing in future episodes, so join me again, Same Strange Ways time, same Strange Ways channel. Thank you to Fizzy and Ogre Ogre for submitting your strange stories, and thank you so much for stopping by for such a lovely spooky time.

30:41 You're always welcome here. It's perfect timing really. Looks like the rain just stopped now. Remember, if any of the strangeness scared you, remind yourself that you can feel afraid and not be in danger. You're safe here with me until next time. Madame Strangeways is produced and narrated by me. Madame Strangeways theme music is by marina.ryan@marinamakes.co. You can submit your own true strange story at madamstrangeways.com or send in your thoughts or theories on the stories in this episode to madamstrangeways@gmail.com. Thank you for listening.