Meet Benjamin

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_00]: The idea for the second story, called Under My Skin, was voted on by members of our Discord server.

[00:00:11] [SPEAKER_00]: If you would like to join us, visit scarypod.com slash discord, all lowercase, to get your free invitation.

[00:00:19] [SPEAKER_00]: The link is also in the description of this episode.

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Back when I was working in Colorado, I stayed at a house near very large golden fields.

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_00]: It felt like I had come out of a movie since I'm from New York and I rarely get to see the horizon like I did back then.

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_00]: There were other things I liked aside from the wide open spaces, things like how everybody there seemed to be into outdoor activities.

[00:00:50] [SPEAKER_00]: But since I was there temporarily, I didn't have a bicycle or a canoe like apparently every car had attached to it over there.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_00]: One of my work friends had a bike that let me and I started by riding around the fields in the houses.

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a different feeling you get just by walking around your neighborhoods with different sidewalks and styles of pretty much everything.

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_00]: One day after work, I started riding around the block on that old bike, squeaking all around the shady streets.

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_00]: If I went a little ways down the road, I would end up by the edge of the golden fields.

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Not sure if they were wheat or something else, but they looked amazing with the glowing sunset light in the shade of the nearby mountains.

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_00]: I spent some time just leaning against the bike, watching as a car off into the distance would approach.

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I lost track of time and the area had started to get dark, so off I went squeaking back to the block where my rental was.

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_00]: As I passed through the streets just before getting to mine, I saw a little boy, probably around 10 or 11 years old waving at me as I passed by.

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_00]: He stepped out into the street behind me so I stopped and turned around to ask if he needed anything.

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_00]: He waved at me to come join him.

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I curiously approached as he introduced himself as Benjamin and said that my bike was squeaky.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_00]: I looked over to his front yard.

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_00]: His own bike was flipped upside down, apparently he was working on it.

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_00]: I was a little surprised by the outgoing personality of this kid, especially since where I was from nobody really talked to anybody.

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_00]: But this kid seemed well mannered so I introduced myself too.

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I asked him if he knew what I could do to fix my bike.

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Then he said to use a certain brand of liquid to add to the wheel and to the chain.

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_00]: He said he'd go get it so he stepped back into his front yard and went to the side of his house.

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_00]: But I stood there for a while, I would say about 10 minutes before I yelled out for Benjamin.

[00:02:54] [SPEAKER_00]: But he wouldn't come out.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I figured I'd catch him the next day so I simply got back on my bike looking back at the house to see if he would come out to the street again.

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_00]: But he didn't.

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: When I got to my house I locked up the bike and went inside.

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I passed by that house on my way to work, the house where Benjamin lived.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Now I would see his bike flipped upside down on the front yard.

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_00]: That same red bicycle and a small milk crate next to it.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_00]: The one that he used to sit on while he worked.

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_00]: The whole time I was there I tried to get on the bike to see if I could go on one of those longer bike trails.

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_00]: But my squeaky bike and lack of knowledge on pretty much everything bike repair terrified me.

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_00]: What if I got a flat tire or something else happened while out on the trails?

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_00]: But I still kept going out to the road sometimes to watch the sunset.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And other times to find new places to eat or shop around just to kill time.

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And I forgot all about Benjamin until I saw him again.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: He was out by the front yard.

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I waved at him and he waved back, asking if my bike had gotten fixed and where I was going.

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_00]: He said that he knew of a few cool places to ride bikes and to wait for him while he got his stuff.

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to tell him that it was okay that I needed to get back to my home.

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_00]: But he ran off to the side of his house before I could even say a word.

[00:04:19] [SPEAKER_00]: So I stayed there again for over 10 minutes.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And I considered leaving and later apologizing for it.

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Until I finally made up my mind and started pedaling away.

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_00]: That's when I heard it.

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Wait!

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_00]: He said.

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_00]: I heard his voice right behind me.

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I stopped my bike and looked back before realizing that Benjamin was next to me.

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Laughing and asking where I was going.

[00:04:46] [SPEAKER_00]: I told him that I was going home and that it would be getting dark and that he should go home too.

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_00]: That we could ride around some other time.

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_00]: But he just stood there smiling at me.

[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_00]: And then his expression changed.

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I can't go home.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_00]: He told me.

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Now looking down at the ground.

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Then he started walking back to his house without saying anything else.

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And I felt terrible.

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_00]: But also it would have been a little weird for a kid to be out riding bikes with a person he didn't know.

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_00]: And then he was a kid and that was just some stranger.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: But still I went home.

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't see Benjamin again until the day when I left that town.

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I passed by the house sometimes but his upside down bicycle would be there without him.

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I figured I might as well say bye or apologize to him before I left.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_00]: So with my car all loaded up with everything.

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_00]: The bike now back at my co-worker's house.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I pulled up to the sidewalk in front of Benjamin's house and walked up to the door.

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe I could speak with his parents and maybe warn them to watch out for him a little more.

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: I grew up with the whole don't speak to strangers thing.

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_00]: So maybe it was different there.

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_00]: An older woman opened the door and greeted me.

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Asking how she could help me.

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_00]: But when I told her about Benjamin,

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_00]: She changed her demeanor completely and told me that it was best if I left.

[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't understand but she angrily pointed at my car and asked me to leave her alone.

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Margaret, someone said from inside the house.

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_00]: It was a man walking up toward me.

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Greeting me and asking if everything was okay.

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_00]: He was a little nicer and explained something to me that sent goosebumps down my neck.

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I left the house thanking the man for his time.

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_00]: The woman had already gone away.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_00]: My mind wasn't all there when I got back to my car.

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_00]: My arms were shaking as I started up the engine.

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I looked over to the yard as Benjamin came out from the side of the house waving at me.

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_00]: I thought back on the man's words about Benjamin.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_00]: The disappearance.

[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_00]: How Benjamin was found.

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_00]: The kid laughed as he came walking up closer toward me calling my name.

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_00]: But that couldn't be happening.

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Benjamin wasn't there.

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Benjamin was dead.

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_00]: He had been dead for decades.

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I pulled away feeling disoriented and with the feeling that wouldn't leave me.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I looked at the rear view mirror.

[00:07:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Benjamin was gone.

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_00]: This upcoming story is the one that was voted on through our Discord server and it is called Under My Skin.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_00]: If you'd like to listen to more horror, check out my other podcast called A Dark Memory.

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And be sure to follow it today.

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[00:08:03] [SPEAKER_00]: It's about long lost memories of dark places and events in a very short documentary style.

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I'll link to it as well.

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening and now Under My Skin will begin right after this.

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_00]: It was 3 am and someone was tapping on the wall again.

[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_00]: This house was loud enough already.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I'd wake up whenever anybody went to the bathroom in the middle of the night

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_00]: or open literally anything from a cabinet to a faucet.

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_00]: The sound squealed and echoed through that house

[00:08:39] [SPEAKER_00]: and aside from putting me in a terrible mood the next morning

[00:08:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I developed a new fear.

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_00]: I used to rent a room in an old house with a few other college students.

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody knew each other and it was the start of the year so things were generally quiet during the day.

[00:08:56] [SPEAKER_00]: My parents said it was the house settling that I heard at night.

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Something that I still don't know exactly what it means.

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_00]: The sounds were muffled like soft scratches through a heavy sweater

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_00]: combined with that brief moment like when your earphones get caught on something while you're still wearing them.

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't seem like that big of a deal to most people

[00:09:20] [SPEAKER_00]: and though some would simply recommend wearing earplugs and move on

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I'd have to say that imagining something in my ear like that all night would drive me crazy.

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_00]: The room next to mine was empty

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_00]: though it had been used as a storage area for one of the other girls I moved in

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_00]: so some of my theories involved rats invading that room or worse, the walls

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_00]: and I have to say it really got to me.

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I'd wake up in the middle of the night after having some of the most vivid nightmares of my life

[00:09:53] [SPEAKER_00]: and some I'd see dark eyes coming out from the closet and crawling toward me

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_00]: the tail of the thing dragging behind the ball of oily black fur

[00:10:04] [SPEAKER_00]: then I'd wake up and the scratching would continue yet I'd be unable to move.

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_00]: At some point the muffled scratches would go away but I never found out how they'd leave

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_00]: eventually one of my friends from a journalism class moved into the room next to mine

[00:10:22] [SPEAKER_00]: and I was glad to have someone else there that I knew in the house

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_00]: even just to complain about the noises with

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_00]: since literally nobody else mentioned how loud that house was ever

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_00]: the all just sort of avoided each other

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_00]: one time while we weren't in the house I asked her about the noises and to my surprise

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_00]: she said she hadn't actually heard them

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_00]: but then told me something I wasn't expecting

[00:10:50] [SPEAKER_00]: she asked if I had been having nightmares because I would scream in the middle of the night

[00:10:55] [SPEAKER_00]: for no reason

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_00]: completely out of nowhere

[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_00]: it made me think if people maybe weren't avoiding each other but instead were simply avoiding me

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I felt embarrassed but most of all I felt confused about myself screaming

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I apologized awkwardly and explained to her that yeah I had actually been having nightmares

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_00]: but I never screamed in them and that I was very sorry about that

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_00]: that I was trying to figure out what was happening too

[00:11:26] [SPEAKER_00]: even though she didn't hear the scratches she definitely believed me when I explained to her what they sounded like

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER_00]: and she suggested that we switch rooms one day just to see if she heard them

[00:11:37] [SPEAKER_00]: and so our experiment started

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_00]: with only a single night out of my room

[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I slept like a rock

[00:11:45] [SPEAKER_00]: until I heard a faint scream from my bedroom right through the shared wall

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I got up and ran to the hallway and into my room

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I turned on the lights but Hannah was completely ignoring me staring only at the closet door with her eyes wide open

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Hannah I whispered

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Wake up

[00:12:06] [SPEAKER_00]: She looked at me confused

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_00]: she looked around the room as if trying to figure out where she was for the first time

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_00]: There's something in here she said

[00:12:16] [SPEAKER_00]: we stayed up for part of the night but eventually we both went to Hannah's room and stayed there until morning

[00:12:25] [SPEAKER_00]: we both had voice recorders for our reporting assignments and Hannah had the unthinkable idea of trying to catch the sounds on tape

[00:12:34] [SPEAKER_00]: it was strange to think about that recording sounds while you sleep

[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_00]: but it was worth a shot to get to the bottom of the situation

[00:12:42] [SPEAKER_00]: the following night

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Hannah brought her blankets to my room and we set up a recorder under the bed

[00:12:47] [SPEAKER_00]: and I placed one close to the wall

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_00]: but around midnight we turned off the lights and turned on the recorders

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_00]: that night

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I had the worst nightmare of them all

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I looked at my arm and saw a bump over my wrist

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I felt around my right arm and soon noticed another bump by my elbow

[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_00]: it was about the size of an M&M sticking out noticeably on my arm

[00:13:17] [SPEAKER_00]: in my dream I was still right there on my bed and it was dark

[00:13:21] [SPEAKER_00]: but I could feel the bump as I outlined it with my index finger

[00:13:26] [SPEAKER_00]: suddenly the bump on my wrist moved up toward my arm and the other one moved toward my hand

[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I felt a sting on my hand as a dark drop of blood formed right before getting to my ring finger

[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I was holding back the urge to scratch as my heart sped up feeling that biting sensation grow

[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know what to do, I couldn't speak, I couldn't scream

[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I looked at my other arm as I saw three other bumps parade up and down my arm until I felt another sting

[00:13:55] [SPEAKER_00]: near the inside of my elbow

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_00]: another spot of dark blood

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I wiggled my arms trying to shake this burning feeling until I finally scratched both of the spots vigorously with my fingernails

[00:14:09] [SPEAKER_00]: they were turning red, blood was filling up under my nails

[00:14:13] [SPEAKER_00]: but suddenly everything stopped

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I looked down at my arm and there was a long hair coming out from the bite area

[00:14:23] [SPEAKER_00]: then it started moving as a second dark hair came out

[00:14:28] [SPEAKER_00]: they moved to feel around the arm as I stared in disbelief

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_00]: a small hen stuck out and then the rest of the body of a dark cockroach showed up

[00:14:39] [SPEAKER_00]: the hair I saw was the antennae of a roach

[00:14:44] [SPEAKER_00]: the other bumps kept moving

[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_00]: the second one came out running from under my skin and up my arm to my neck

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_00]: straight to my ear and crawled inside

[00:14:57] [SPEAKER_00]: I tried to get up, I turned my head and pulled on my ear

[00:15:00] [SPEAKER_00]: afraid of hearing that crunch of a dead roach inside of it

[00:15:07] [SPEAKER_00]: but I recognized that sound

[00:15:10] [SPEAKER_00]: the scratches inside my ear

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_00]: the muffled sounds of everything around me

[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I opened my eyes and Hannah was fast asleep

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER_00]: I reached my arm out to wake her up

[00:15:25] [SPEAKER_00]: she drowsily looked over to me as she leaned on her arm to sit up

[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_00]: I hear it

[00:15:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I hear it, she said

[00:15:32] [SPEAKER_00]: the scratching, get the recorder

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Hannah, wait, I said

[00:15:39] [SPEAKER_00]: she turned toward me

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER_00]: a dark little creature poked an antennae out of her ear

[00:15:46] [SPEAKER_00]: and then the second one as it crawled right out into her face right under her eye

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Hannah screamed

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_00]: we both stood up shaking our clothes and hair as two then three enormous roaches

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_00]: plopped right to the floor and crawled away

[00:16:03] [SPEAKER_00]: we lifted some of the loose boards on the floor and then the closet

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_00]: the entire area under the floorboards had been infested with roaches

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_00]: and they later found hundreds more between the walls

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I moved out for a couple of weeks while the owner took care of the problem

[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_00]: at least that was a plan

[00:16:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I never went back