The Intruders - Classic

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“I remember when it came to our house, I hear him say he can fix the septic system or something.”

And my mother tells him that he should maybe come back with my father's home. From hallway I see him tall, while he rent these red hair, he says, "Sure, you can come back

later, of course, just want you to know I never had no problems with the color of living

here." No matter what the neighbors say, "I'll waste all the color of women, where the most beautiful women on the earth." And you know, I'd be willing to cut a deal. Cut a deal to get something that's worked done.

“You need to round here, cut a deal to find color of women like yourself if you know”

the mean.

If you know what I mean, I step out them from the hallway.

He draws back surprise, I walk past both him and my mother into the kitchen, I open the silverware drawer, I plot a knife. I will it to be sharper than the butter knife it is, but it is steel. And I will stab this redheaded man with it, I am only nine, but I will stab this man.

“I will break glass or find fire, I know this, like I know the sky is blue, like I know”

the taste of a summer peach, I know I will kill this person.

I just been drinking a glass of milk washing the flesh down, but I know with other certainty that I will kill him or perish in the process, almost as if it has already happened, I know it. I walk back into the living room, clutching the knife, tighting my fist, maybe he's already decided to take his leave, maybe he sees the cold rage in a nine-year-old boy's eyes,

he places his cap, back on his head, nods to my mother and backs out the front door. In the window I seemed into a truck and pull off, I throw the knife into the sink, walk past my mother, go back into my room, but the anger doesn't subside. The rage doesn't leak away, instead it builds, my skin feels hot, my jaw clutch tight. I see myself ending the red face man in different ways with knives and guns and scarves

and stakes and shot, and I wonder if in another world there awaits another me sitting in his room, not clenched, not furious, but relaxed, sitting in the same chair after washing the blood from a butter knife. I walk stars now. It's now a man of many spirits, but there's one ghost in particular, she's not a ghost

my great-grandmother.

We started hearing stories about a pale woman in a black Victorian gown who kept being seen

by guests at the hotel that had once been her home. In the hotel, I wanted to know what she was like, so I went on a quest to find all the information I possibly could about my great-great-grandmother.

“I think the idea was just anything and everything, and trying to approach it from any angle”

I could, which included newspaper reading newspapers, doing oral histories with family members. I tried very hard to interact with her, I started with a tarot card reader, then a phone psychic, I went to a psychic colony in Florida, I met with a clairvoyant in the library of her house, I even ate a marijuana cookie, hoping to open myself up to communion with the beyond, and that didn't go well at all.

I never had the encounter with Julius Ghosts that I so wanted to have, she never spoke

to me, but I've spoken to a lot of people who've had interactions with her, and the one that struck me the most was a man named Jonathan who had worked as a concierge there.

“Well, a concierge is essentially the ambassador of the hotel, what we do is, many people think”

we just make dinner reservations for people, but we don't, we do a whole bunch of things. I considered it an honor, a lot of sada has such a good reputation in town, it was considered a badge of honor to work at a lot of sada. I was hesitant at first, everyone knew about Julia's job, and how she was still there in the house, and I was just hesitant.

Julia's house that's now Lafazada Hotel was built by her husband Abraham in 1883, and it was an elegant Victorian with a man-served roof or a neat brass work, beautiful, mahogany woodwork, it's all still there.

Abraham was the richest man in the territory at that point, so the family always hosted

lots of events in the house, they had salons, lectures, sewing circles, according to newspapers from the time Julia was often the hostess at those events. That house was the center of the social city, and her entire focus was on us, keeping it up, entertaining, that was her life. She was a very busy woman, she had seven kids, and all of them survived to adulthood, but

she then had an eighth baby who died at three weeks old. They say that after Julia lost her baby, her hair turned white overnight, I found a bunch of newspaper articles, showing that for a few years after the baby died, Julia was still out in Santa Fe doing things going to parties, but then she spiraled into a severe depression. In 1893, after years of trying to get better, she went into her room, and there's no evidence

that she was ever seen in public after that. And one thing that really struck me was her daughter, that married in 1894, and the newspaper article says that Julia wasn't able to come because of her health. So she was in her room at the top of the stairs, and her daughter was getting married, and she was unable to come down to be there. She died in that room in 1896.

“I think I was working there three or six months or something like that. John, would you take”

these people up to see Julia's room? And I said, oh no, please no, I don't want to go up. And as I go up the stairs, about halfway up, it's like I hit this wall of, well, I actually like magnets to magnets of the same pole, trying to, and you want your trying to make them attached, but they won't. There was like that push back that I felt. And I just, I felt and I said, well, it's just me, because I said myself, I set myself up with a fear.

But as I continue to walk up, I started getting dizzy, I started sweating, my ears clawed

is at the, from the length, you go to the left. I had to stand against the wall because

I was starting to really get dizzy and my knees were starting to buckle. And I'm talking to them, telling them a bit about Julia and the, uh, haunts from the stories that I had heard, you know, the legend of Julia's stop. But by this time, I was really starting to slide down the wall. And I said to myself, I got to get them out of here because I have to get out of here. And by the time I got down to the bottom of the steps, everything just

went away. All of that feeling just left me, like, immediately. And I said to myself, oh, she was there. I really felt her. There's, you know, bartenders, you said that she would, like, throw glasses across the room. I was told that the cleaning staff would not go into the room alone because at one

point, a cleaner got blocked in there by Julia apparently. The second time I went up, which

“was, I think, a little later that week, I went up, same thing happened again, a little”

bit stronger this time. It was almost like I couldn't breathe properly because everything seems so tight. I got to cut this one really short because I am not wanted up here. And then I realized I said myself, wait a minute, wait a minute, I know exactly what's going on. I got up from my desk and I walked over to the bottom of the stairs. And I looked up and I just said, Julia, I know that was you. I will make this deal with you

Julia. And I will keep this promise to you. Any time I have to come up to tell people

and show people about you and your room and I will let you know in advance. I walked, I think I took two steps up and I said, this is the other thing I will do, Julia. I have a pin. It's a bro track, actually, that I had bought for my mother to give my mother and it's a, it's a Rosetta design. It's mother of her, with silver, Julia liked roses. And I said, I will wear this broch on my lapel and you still hold roost over

the over the house. And that'll be an introduction to truly talking about you. But I promised you, Julia, I will wear this every single day I come to work. And I did. All the ghost stories said that she was fond of roses and flowers. And all the psychics and mediums I spoke with when I was trying to learn more about her also mentioned that she loved flowers. Perhaps that was just a Victorian thing. I don't know.

“Husband and wife with their two kids had come. They were just stayed. I think they were there”

for two days. They had heard about Julia. And the son had a little rose in his hand. And one of those little inexpensive 99 cent roses that you get at the convenient stores at the, at the service stations or wherever. And the poor thing looks like it was on this last gasp or breath. And he wanted to put it in Julia's room. And I called him to go put it in the corner on the, on the, on the nightstand. So he did. And the poor rose when he put it

down, it just turned. And the, the butt of the rose just turned into the corner. Like it was, like it was being a punished child. I thought, but you know, Julia's going to love it because it's, it's from you. Well, that was in the afternoon the next day that we're having breakfast.

“The boy came over running over and he says, "Can we see the rose? Can we see the rose?”

I went into the room." I wasn't expecting much to, of that rose. Not much at all. He turned out to be the most gorgeous crimson red, healthy rose. I had an ever seen in my life and I was still not to this day ever seen a rose like that. I went down and I told the mother, I didn't pass it. You've got to come up and see this. You've got to come up and see this. I'll tell them to just leave your food where it is and heat it up when you come back.

They all came up, dad, mom, and the kids. The mother's expression on her face was like, "Oh no, impossible." And the sun was just so happy. He was bouncing with, "I'm so was the daughter." I said, "That's Julia." There's been lots of stories about Julia, you know, she had a fierce swaying, light flickering,

But I haven't met anybody who actually said they had conversations with her in terms of having ongoing relationships and conversations Jonathan's healing person that I have found. The night that I did see Julia, or she, allowed me to experience her,

it was Halloween. I never liked Halloween when I was a kid and still don't care for Halloween.

But it was Halloween. I was sitting up my counselor's desk and because people coming in and out wanting to know Julia, Julia, Julia, Julia, now's getting more and more anxious.

“The anxiety was just building and the tension was building up in the mean of thing. Why?”

Is this going on? I don't understand it, and then I realized it was because of Julia. And I went over to the stairs and I said, "J Julia, I know I'm feeling your anxiety about this. You don't like this. It happens here after a year of the year." And nobody pays any attention to how

you might feel about this. Well, I care. You don't have to show yourself to anybody because

everybody is expecting her to show herself. You don't have to show yourself to anyone. I could feel that she was present there and she was on the stairs. But I just talked to her, focusing my energies. In my mind, toward her, talking to her. And, you know, I adore you Julia. I love you much, and I just want you to rest. I want your spirit to rest. But as I started to walk down,

“I looked at the window and the reflection was Julia standing right behind me in the corner.”

In her dark robe, her Victorian black cloak, I could see that there was a face under there, but I couldn't see because it was dark, but I did see her paper white, white hair, just coming out from under these duplugs hood. And I smile and I just said, "Thank you, Julia. Thank you so much." I got down to the bottom of the stairs and there was a, there was no one in the bar. The bartender was there and there was a cocktail waitress there. And they looked at me and they said,

"No, because I'd never said that I haven't said this, but I'm an African American or a

black person." And the cocktail waitress said, "Oh my God, I've never seen a black person look so pale in my life." Bartender looked at me and he said, "Yeah, are you okay?" And then they both looked at each other and they said, "Julia, oh, Julia, and they dashed out of there." She let herself be known when she went so soft to be known. Julia was a very, very caring person, very caring, very alone person. I'm not going to say lonely, but she was very much alone.

And the fact that I took the time to talk to her on many occasions and just be with her with her spirit. Julia and I became very close. I felt sad for her. I, in her family, there was a lot of depression. Her children, two of them took their lives. Of course, I would like Julia to be happy and at rest. And so the fact that she's found a friend in Jonathan, I mean, it gives me feel better that Julia has a friend. Well, as I said, Julia and I became,

we had started to become very close, that I could, I could more or less read the mood that her spirit was in. There was the one time when they did the most recent remodeling. That was where I could feel the anxiety starting to build. It's her home. And would you like some strangers coming into your home and just start moving things around and changing things? I don't think so. And that's the same thing with Julia. She's holding onto what she knows.

I could feel the anxiety starting to build. And it was building over a few days until one day when the operations manager came into the lobby with two of the interior designers.

“And I looked at them and it was like a red flag at front of a bowl. And I said, I don't remember”

coming out from behind my desk. And I went over there and I just more or less verbally attacked them. And I could hear myself talking, and I'm saying to myself, why am I saying, why am I talking? What's going on? Why am I so angry at these people? For that moment in time and I was essentially possessed, I was possessed. It scared me a bit. It really scared me a bit because it just happened so quickly.

And I'm going, I backed off. I had to force myself to back off because I remember turning around

“and getting sitting back down on the desk and I was absolutely exhausted. And I realized when I”

started clearing my head started clearing and I said, Julia, Julia, no, Julia, this was wrong. Julia, this was wrong. I understand why you did it. I know why you did it. I understand. This is wrong. No, we have to, I have to, Julia, I have to cut ties with you. This has to stop and it will stop. I can't do this anymore. I love you, dearly. I'm stopping this right now. And I did because ironically the very next day I got a call from another hotel.

Jonathan, we'd like to have you up here with us. We do my own coming up and talking to us

“and see if you'd like to come work with us. And I said, yes.”

I recognize, I'm not the kind of person who's able to open herself up to these kinds of communication with the dad or with what we think are the dad. And I wish in some ways that I was,

but finally, when I was ready, I decided I would spend the night in Julia's room and went and

put my bags up there, went out to dinner, came back and got ready for bed. I was really nervous. At one point, I thought I was still awake and I dreamt that Julia was pulling the covers off of me and I sat straight up and the covers were still on me. So I had

“fallen asleep. And right before Don, I opened my eyes and on the wall in front of me, they were green”

lights. They were moving. I first thought they were like smoked detector lights or movement sensors,

but they kept moving around sort of in a weird way and then they went faster and faster.

And just as I was about to sit up and look closer, they turned red and orange and zipped off to the right and disappeared. When I checked out, the woman at reception asked me if I'd seen anything or it had any experience as Julia's room and I told her what happened. And she told me that a woman in room 310 had also woken in the night to dancing lights in our room. That was it that was all I saw that was my only encounter with Julia's job.

There were no conversations like Jonathan had. I saw no visions. I didn't see a sad lady in a Victorian dress. I didn't feel scared at all. I felt touched. That makes any sense. It felt very real to me and it really did feel to me as if Julia had come to say hi. I still have that broach. But every time I do look at it in my jewelry box, I do touch it and I offer a prayer to Julia that she's content and I ask that her spirit be resting.

Thank you Jonathan Mason and Hannah Nordhouse for sharing your story to Spooot and if you want to know more about the life and time of Julia's job, check out Hannah's book, American Ghost for the link on our website, SpoootCast.org. Now, when we return, some young people discover that just because a place looks empty, because it means it's necessarily so, in just a moment, stay.

Welcome back to Spooot. Now our next story comes from our friends at Inless Thread, a podcast from WBUR and Reddit

stories that folks share in this story. This one comes to us from a redder named Adam's.

“The Alex was a kid. He and his best friend Ryan. They like to make trouble.”

Spooot.

Ryan, I met him when I was in third grade actually. We met writing bikes. He was outside

Ryan's bike. I was outside of my bike, so we just grew up. It's just trying to make huge fireworks, shooting fireworks out of pipes and graffiti on the light poles, trying to climb up them and throwing ropes over them, making swings and then eventually we got into exploring abandoned homes. My name is Ryan Date. I used to grow around the old neighborhoods. I don't know where I've been exploring what they call it now. So the story takes place in Medesto, California. The city I grew up

“in the housing crisis. Here in there you'd see abandoned houses. New houses or houses that they were”

fixing or pretty much like abandoned houses, stuff like that. Some of them look like they were hit pretty hard. Other kids and gang members would tag it up and break into it and just smash

at the pieces. That place wasn't too far from school over there. Walked by a lot. We finally

went there and then just curiosity kind of drugged that way, I guess. So the house look like it's still had a been mode in a little while. Grasses pretty tall. Why not? Let's go inside. I had this really crappy flip phone. That was our only source of light. And I set the thing to full brightness. We reached the other side of the house so we could hear a bunch

“of banging in the other room. There was definitely someone in the house. Like there had to be someone”

else in there with us. So me and Ryan just sat there staring at each other, kind of scared because we didn't know what the hell that was and maybe there was someone squatting in the house. We thought someone was personally been in there trying to scare us out. And we were going to find them because he's scared of us. So we did a full search to the house. So we went. We looked around. We didn't see anything. We checked every room.

Every little space, nothing there. So after we did our full round through the house, we found ourselves back in the kitchen and we were just too scared to go any further. So we left through that back door and we started to make our way home. My name's AJ. Alex is a friend and Ryan. Ryan's my brother. Ryan and Alex came back one night with a story and was like, dude, this crazy stuff happened.

You know, of course, I'm like, yeah, right. But they're like, yeah, dude, let's go, let's go. Look at it. We'll show you. And it's like, okay, so I'll go and look. Just hang out with them and you know, walk over there to the house and I don't know why we were attracting that place. But we started to go back. You tell a kid not to book a beehive and we'll say, kid, you're going to be a dude going to go book a beehive. That point that we were actually

looking for something, you know, wanted to see what we might see. We make our way to the kitchen and we're all just sitting there chatting. I feel like a tugging on the back of my shirt and just like, you know, just like thinking it's one of the guys on like, hey, dude, knock it off. There's nowhere to behind me. I'm realizing that everybody's in front of me. And then it like pulls the back of my shirt and I fall down.

At first, I thought he tripped. But, you know, there's nothing on the floor. I just

went from gone right through the right through those doors, like the door's open. And he just kind of went into the room. To me, it looked like someone pulled them into the room, like they wrapped a rope around his waist and whatever it was, just yanked him into the room. He was so scared.

just trying to hold on to something. But it pulled them hard and he couldn't hold on to the door frame. So he fell on his butt and as soon as he fell on his butt, he jumped up.

“And I'm like, okay, that's what I was like, yeah, it's time to go.”

That's what we're leaving. I just had this burning pain in my back. I lifted up my shirt and I guess there was three long scratch marks. You're like the top of my neck all the way down, my lower back. It looked like somebody with like three fingers, or a claw or something. And while I'm gonna say, it looked like somebody with three fingers, just like scratched him from his shoulder all the way down to like his hip.

They were pretty deep, but they're really thin. It drew blood. Honestly at that point, I didn't think it was something like paranormal, something ghostly. Because no one else is there at all, and I'll say, I mean, if someone does that, you know, you're gonna notice.

“At that moment, honestly, we were like really scared. And, you know, kind of pretty much just like telling”

ourselves, we're not gonna go back there. And then we started making our way home further. And then Ryan notices his pocket knife. It's missing. And he was like, I got to go back for that. And you know, I'm kind of, I was pissed off. I was like, dude, how did you, how did you lose that?

You know, at first we were just like, we'll come back in the morning or it's gone.

He was just like, no, I do this my favorite knife. Brass and little brass or golden on each side. It was something that could be something that we came into me and that cared about it. So I, of course, I'm not gonna let him go back in there alone. So we go, we both go back. That's when the banging got really loud. I just sound like someone was thrashing inside the walls.

And we could hear all throughout the house. And then every room we looked in, there was no, I mean, there was nothing. No evidence of his knife anywhere. Like, I know hallway, no bedroom, it was gone. And then finally, we're, we make our way to the back room. And as we're going down the hall,

“you have to pass the front door. And as we creep up on the front door, you can see the big”

ass knife, like someone with all their, all their might shoved it into the door. And the knife was just sticking in the door. And you know, it was just stuck in the wood. We thought, okay, yeah, that's, that's the, uh, malicious. Okay, something evil or something we were just annoying. So we grabbed the knife. And I,

we went home and I never went back after that.

At one point, I think it was used, it's like a external or something like that. It was vacant for a while. Uh, until I'm not sure who moved in, but they had some old lady there. And she was creepy. Like, sure her hair was really thin. And she kind of looked, always like, she was in a days sitting on her porch. And I'm not sure if I found her creepy as hell, because I knew what was going on in the house, or she was just genuinely creepy. But every time I walk by the house,

I always stare at it. And sometimes she'd be outside staring back at me. Thank you, Alex, AJ and Ryan for sharing our story to the school. And thanks to Ben Brock Johnson, and the folks at Inless Dread for sending that tale our way,

check out their show for incredible stories. Ready.

Please understand, no apologies. Good Lord, we're ripping apart the curtain, separating the living from the dead, and if you dig it, let's somebody know. Spoon podcast at ORG. And if you love storytelling from the bright light of the day,

Spoon's brought to you by that cold touch, the middle of the night, and my wrist is in assessment,

Eliza Smith, the magical musical soundscape, through this journey was created by Renzo Goryo,

by Lea Mordimoto and Patincity Miller. Remember this, temptation lurps. There are those who

“want to have you taste this touch that smell, this, and that's how well and good. Till it's there,”

and talk to kids and seductions and reversities lead you astray, but whatever you do,

where have you gone? Never, never, never, never, never, never, ever, turn out the lights.