Doris and Friends

[00:00:00] Welcome to Scary Story Podcast.

[00:00:02] In this episode, you will hear the story of a mysterious discovery of a low-budget children's

[00:00:08] show, as well as the story of a strange tenant who leaves things behind after moving out.

[00:00:16] My name is Edwin.

[00:00:18] Here is a scary story.

[00:00:21] Doris and Friends.

[00:00:28] My sister and I walked home on Friday afternoons from school.

[00:00:32] Mom said that people cast her checks on Fridays and that it was good for her and

[00:00:35] her friends at work to have extra time.

[00:00:38] And if we behaved, she might bring us leftovers from the cafeteria where she worked.

[00:00:44] I always wished for those club sandwiches and sometimes I think back on the taste of them

[00:00:50] and aware if I missed her texture or if I missed the feeling mom created for both of us

[00:00:54] when she brought even just one half of it home.

[00:00:58] She used to make the most out of everything, even things we'd find on the street.

[00:01:03] I still have an old bicycle in the storage space that she made my dad fix up for my sister

[00:01:07] and I to share.

[00:01:09] It was this old red bike with a crooked wheel that made it feel cartoony.

[00:01:14] There was an episode of a Mickey Mouse show where he rides a bike with a flat tire.

[00:01:18] It reminded me a lot of that.

[00:01:21] But dad fixed it up, and he let my sister pick the color.

[00:01:25] Purple.

[00:01:26] He said that I would outgrow the bicycle first and that my sister would get to

[00:01:30] spend more time with it.

[00:01:32] Unfair, maybe, he said.

[00:01:35] But it was a rule of nature.

[00:01:38] Many things were rules of nature according to my dad.

[00:01:42] As I grew older, I figured that it was his way of ending my infamous why loops

[00:01:47] where I would ask why, genuinely interested in finding out the reason behind why people

[00:01:51] did what they did.

[00:01:52] It was a rule of nature, he said.

[00:01:55] It shut me right up.

[00:01:57] The part of that mentality of fixing things that I find, it stuck with me.

[00:02:03] And it showed up on that Friday with my sister down Julian Street, right around the corner

[00:02:07] from the video store in the place where dad filled up the jugs of water, where they

[00:02:11] also sold phone calling cards.

[00:02:14] Out on the curb was a brown box with the word, in all capital letters, free.

[00:02:22] My sister looked up to me as if to ask for permission, and I nodded.

[00:02:27] We both ran up to it.

[00:02:29] In it was a metal round box of cookies, the kind that all grandparents have, all scratched

[00:02:35] up and another box of VHS tapes with the large faded picture of a clown, with a pink wig

[00:02:41] and a yellow dress.

[00:02:42] It was smiling next to two puppets who also shined their bright teeth at the camera.

[00:02:49] Something was not right with it.

[00:02:50] I looked up and away from the box, partially to make sure that nobody was seeing us

[00:02:55] taking stuff out of a stranger's box, and I guess also to see if I could see a camera

[00:03:00] crew or something, just like they used to have on the prank television shows with the

[00:03:03] hidden cameras.

[00:03:04] When I looked at the building above the video store, I could swear I saw somebody holding

[00:03:10] part of the curtain open.

[00:03:12] But when the curtain shuts slowly, you can almost never tell that it's actually

[00:03:17] moving.

[00:03:19] I rode my eyes and the ugly green curtain was closed.

[00:03:24] I decided to ignore it.

[00:03:27] My sister grabbed the metal box and a set of baseball cards out of the box and asked

[00:03:32] me where to set the three videocassettes.

[00:03:34] There was almost nothing left in the box except for a bag with a mix of solids and

[00:03:39] liquids in it.

[00:03:40] It reminded me of the way mom would carry the pink bag of ground beef at the counter

[00:03:45] at the big grocery store.

[00:03:47] It was gross when I left it behind.

[00:03:52] My sister started running first, instinctively perhaps.

[00:03:57] Maybe that's why thieves ran away in the movies even though nobody would ever be able

[00:04:00] to tell them apart in a crowd.

[00:04:02] And I started feeling like a thief too when I chased after her.

[00:04:07] The neighbor from the apartment next door would let us hang out by the table on

[00:04:11] her porch until my mom would get home, which from what I remember would take less than

[00:04:15] an hour.

[00:04:17] The old lady looked at the stuff we were carrying and asked if we had cookies.

[00:04:21] Oh no, we found the box, my sister said.

[00:04:24] The woman went back inside, shutting the pointless door with the net behind her without

[00:04:28] saying another word.

[00:04:31] My sister looked up at me again with that can I look in her eyes?

[00:04:37] Her fingernails were already reaching for the rim of the cookie canister thing.

[00:04:41] I sighed.

[00:04:42] The nosy neighbor would be asking questions in no time, I told myself.

[00:04:48] I told that watcher as she opened up the box.

[00:04:50] I thought I saw something moving in there.

[00:04:54] She noticed it too because she tried to shut the lid back where it was, but missed.

[00:04:58] It crashed down to the concrete floor under the plastic lawn chairs we were sitting

[00:05:02] on, bouncing a few times.

[00:05:06] We were so busy looking at each other with our mouths open that we forgot for a second

[00:05:11] to take a look at what was inside.

[00:05:14] I don't know about my sister, but I couldn't believe what I saw.

[00:05:19] Jewelry.

[00:05:20] Just from a quick glance, I could tell there were several rings, two bracelets,

[00:05:24] one with the head of a horse and the other with an oddly shaped heart.

[00:05:29] There was a necklace in there too.

[00:05:32] Those were the shiniest things I had ever seen of until that point,

[00:05:35] and I knew, again, with the instinct of a thief to keep them a secret.

[00:05:43] So I reached in there and firmly told my sister to not tell anyone about it until

[00:05:48] mom got home, to take out her crayons and we would

[00:05:51] draw something instead.

[00:05:54] She looked a little nervous, but followed along with my plan.

[00:05:58] I was already imagining Mrs. Mary listening to our conversation from the

[00:06:02] other side of the wall.

[00:06:05] We didn't really color anything.

[00:06:07] My sister started scratching at the blue crayon in her hand,

[00:06:11] getting blue under her fingernails and then biting it away.

[00:06:15] It was a thing she did when she got nervous.

[00:06:18] It was better than what she used to do, which was to bite the crayon directly.

[00:06:23] I was looking at her when I saw my mom walk up to the porch next door,

[00:06:26] waving at us. The metal rattled in my sister's bag as we ran toward the

[00:06:31] front door. When we told mom about the Jewelry,

[00:06:39] she didn't seem too excited until she saw it.

[00:06:42] She was excited over the bracelets mainly. She placed them on her palm and moved

[00:06:47] her hand as if calculating the weight of them.

[00:06:50] She must have asked us four or five times where we got them

[00:06:54] and if anybody had seen us take the stuff, until she finally asked to see the

[00:06:59] tape that I kept talking about. Doris and friends, she said out loud as

[00:07:06] she was reading the box with a faded out picture.

[00:07:10] She handed it back to me, chuckled and went to the kitchen to open up the

[00:07:13] paper bag, which I was hoping had one of those sandwiches in it.

[00:07:17] I recognized mom's look. It was in the bag.

[00:07:23] The theme song started immediately after putting the cassette into the VCR.

[00:07:28] It was that warped electronic music that sounded familiar.

[00:07:32] At the time it didn't seem so bad, but the lighting of the show was terrible

[00:07:36] when I reimagined the whole thing and the clown.

[00:07:41] Her name was Doris and she seemed scared.

[00:07:45] There was one scene from the first tape we saw that hasn't left my mind.

[00:07:51] Doris had two friends, a puppet named Kitty who was a cat,

[00:07:57] another one named Gumbo who looked to be some sort of

[00:08:00] horse or anteater. They were in front of a large dollhouse

[00:08:05] and Doris was supposed to start singing the happy birthday song

[00:08:09] when she burst into tears. But then the scene didn't cut

[00:08:14] and a cameraman or some big man in black clothes went up to her and grabbed

[00:08:19] her by the collar to the sound of a distinct pop

[00:08:22] and then Doris tries to bend down to pick up something

[00:08:26] but gets grabbed by the back of the yellow dress and pushed against the

[00:08:30] chair. Two other women get up from behind the

[00:08:34] puppets raising their hands enough for the camera to catch the shiny

[00:08:37] bracelets on the wrists, the head of a horse,

[00:08:41] the lopsided shape of a heart. One of them screamed, the other one started

[00:08:48] crying. The man then left the scene and stepped

[00:08:53] back behind the camera. You could see Doris scanning the floor

[00:08:57] in search of her necklace. The tape then skips to a scene of Doris

[00:09:03] singing happily and the puppets swaying from side to side.

[00:09:08] The song ends with her extending her arms toward the camera,

[00:09:12] her body never leaving the chair. Then Doris stares at the camera

[00:09:19] right there. You can tell the difference between her mouth and the

[00:09:23] makeup faking her smile and just like that

[00:09:29] the tape ended. I've been sent thoughts and theories on stories such as

[00:09:42] this one, Doris and Friends. So be sure to let me know what you

[00:09:46] think about this story and I'll reply.

[00:09:50] The second story is called Unlocked and it is coming up right after a word from

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[00:11:03] charge of their mental health. Again that's better help

[00:11:06] h-e-l-p dot com slash scary story.

[00:11:16] Unlocked. My parents rented out a room to a

[00:11:23] woman while i was out in college. She was foreign, barely spoke any

[00:11:28] English but mom always said that she was glad to

[00:11:31] have someone there who kept to themselves and that she did.

[00:11:37] I took five or six visits for me to finally meet her

[00:11:40] and even saying that it's a stretch. I actually finally saw her

[00:11:44] literally coming back from the grocery store before locking herself back in

[00:11:48] her room. She seemed uncomfortable

[00:11:51] in a hurry and scared. She zoomed past the entrance of the side of the house and

[00:11:57] closed the door to her room soon followed by the beeps of the

[00:12:01] buttons of the microwave before starting to heat something up.

[00:12:06] She was wearing a comically large dark hat and at least at the time that I

[00:12:10] saw her she was dressed in a bathrobe with black

[00:12:13] boots. Dad wasn't too happy with her in the

[00:12:17] house. He claimed that he saw her bringing in

[00:12:20] a bag of candles something that he used in his accusation

[00:12:23] that the woman was involved in witchcraft.

[00:12:27] Even though they never found out exactly what she was involved in

[00:12:31] I can comfortably say that dad wasn't completely wrong about his theory.

[00:12:37] I moved back in after graduating and trying to give myself time to think

[00:12:41] about what my next step should be. The woman would be leaving soon after

[00:12:45] her contract ended. Mom was the only one that knew

[00:12:49] her deal there as she was the one that received cash in hand for rent and

[00:12:53] everything. She would speak with her whenever she had

[00:12:55] questions about how to get somewhere or she could buy a certain thing she

[00:12:59] needed. Dad used to tease that of course mom would

[00:13:03] know where the witch door was and mom would act offended but quickly

[00:13:07] forgot the joke so when I had to clean up the room and set it up to try to

[00:13:13] make it my own a little bit I was thrown off by the amount of things

[00:13:17] this woman left behind. Yarn, bags of salt, wigs or the remains

[00:13:23] of what looked like wigs. Honestly it made me think of the beauty

[00:13:28] in barber school students who practice cutting hair on wigs.

[00:13:32] There was also photographs of windows even places I recognized around the

[00:13:36] neighborhood. Then my doubts all went away when

[00:13:39] I found a crumbled up handwritten flyer with strips of the same phone

[00:13:43] number on tiny flaps on the bottom of it. Revenge, healing, rebirth.

[00:13:52] Call me. Mom sort of shrugged it off but dad laughed when I showed them.

[00:14:00] The celebration wouldn't last very long though.

[00:14:03] Soon things started happening around the house

[00:14:07] and I would say it took a little over a week for things to become more

[00:14:10] apparent. Even though they're not that big of

[00:14:13] a deal I still want to clarify that I've tried every single option possible

[00:14:17] to try and get this phenomenon to stop. But nothing has worked.

[00:14:24] You see the room has a small exterior passage that leads to the backyard from

[00:14:28] the front of the house. It is also where the entrance to this

[00:14:31] room was located. From the front of the house in order

[00:14:35] to get to the path to the backyard you need to open a metal gate on the

[00:14:39] side of the property held by a latch.

[00:14:43] We were supposed to lock it but the rusty lock has been hanging off to the side

[00:14:46] for as long as I can remember. It wasn't something we talked about but

[00:14:51] I think it was an unspoken belief that the old lock would get stuck if we ever

[00:14:54] shut it. What if it came no longer fit or if

[00:14:58] it fell apart from the inside once the latch clicked?

[00:15:01] Nobody wanted to take the chance. But one of the rules that mom had set

[00:15:05] for the woman who rented out the room was that she was supposed to

[00:15:08] lock the gate whenever she left. And follow the rules was what she

[00:15:13] did. At least that's what mom said. The lock would

[00:15:18] be set every single night and unlocked every single morning.

[00:15:23] And that's where the problem was. We all heard the lock rattling.

[00:15:29] We all talked about it whenever it happened.

[00:15:32] It rattled on its own. We tried to ignore some of the other things like

[00:15:38] the lights flickering on and off before staying completely lit.

[00:15:42] The sound of a ghostly microwave going off in the middle of the night.

[00:15:48] But by far the creepiest thing that happened was the metal gate incident

[00:15:52] as my dad likes to call it. I'm not sure if I can call myself fortunate for

[00:15:58] having my dad there to witness it or if I would have been better off

[00:16:02] having seen it for myself since by now I would have blamed my imagination

[00:16:06] and it would have been likely forgotten.

[00:16:09] I was woken up by the sound of the metal gate rattling in the middle of

[00:16:12] the night. The sound of the heavy lock against the

[00:16:16] metal bar where the latch was was the sound I could identify easily

[00:16:21] and that is exactly what the sound is like.

[00:16:24] I sat up on my bed waiting for it to go away

[00:16:28] and I suddenly heard the familiar sound of the gate squeaking open.

[00:16:34] Someone was trying to get in. I reached for the second door that led

[00:16:39] to the hallway and tiptoed my ways to my parents room.

[00:16:43] Dad someone's trying to get in I said. Dad rolled off the bed and walked to the

[00:16:48] kitchen window which had a view of the metal gate on the side of the house

[00:16:53] with both sides. The silhouette of a woman floating away

[00:16:58] from the house and toward the sidewalk. Dad ran for the front door

[00:17:02] while I kept an eye on the shape as it stood in the middle of the front

[00:17:05] yard just like that. It disappeared.

[00:17:14] Dad opened the door and flicked on the light of the porch

[00:17:18] but the silhouette was gone. He looked in my direction

[00:17:23] tilting his head and scratching the side of it

[00:17:26] then he smiled without saying a word he started walking away

[00:17:31] and back to his room. He stopped at the start of the hallway and looked

[00:17:35] back at me.

[00:17:37] You saw that too right? He asked not waiting for an answer for me.

[00:17:44] I simply stood there as he walked away.

[00:17:48] My heart stole about to jump out of my chest. Scary Story podcast is produced by

[00:18:03] me Edwin Covarrubias. The ad-free listening

[00:18:08] experience is being populated now on Patreon and on Apple

[00:18:11] Podcasts where you can unlock access to ad-free content, bonus stories and

[00:18:16] even commentary on some of the stories. Links and more

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[00:18:23] Until next time, thank you very much for listening.