Boys' Night Out (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

Two chilling stories from friends' night out turn terrifying—one involving a ghostly woman during China's Ghost Festival, the other a drunk driver unaware of his friend’s decapitation. Both tales explore fear, superstiti

Key takeaways

• Ghost festivals fuel local fears of supernatural encounters

Transcript preview

Today we have two stories about some friends that just want to have a fun night out. But at some point during their fun night out, things take a disastrous turn for the worse. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do and we upload two three even four times every week. So if that's of interest to you, please invite the follow button to come swimming with you at your favorite lake. But wait until Before you tell them, the lake is actually full of alligators. Okay, let's get into our first story called The Traffic Light. old Wang Weizier was with his friends Ma Jun and Joe Guo at an internet cafe in the city of Taiping China watching Jun play a computer game. Now Wei Jia and his friends went to this cafe a lot and today they had literally been there for hours by this point. But now as June finished up the game he was playing, Guo announced that he was actually ready to go do something else now. So the three of these guys spent a lot of time together, whether it was at an internet cafe or elsewhere. They were like really close friends, And generally speaking, Wadia usually just did whatever June and Guo wanted to do, since they both had strong opinions, and Wadia was more of a go with the flow type of guy. And so now, as Guo decided, they were done with games, Wadia was just like, all right, cool. Well, why don't we just head back to one of our places just to hang out? But Guo, he shook his head and said, it's Saturday. They didn't have to be up for school the next day, and so they could stay out all night all night if they could to do, like we got to make the most of this night. Now nobody had like a great idea of what was going to be super exciting and so Guo was like all right well for now like let's just go outside and we can smoke first and then we can go from there. And at this both June and Wagesa just nodded in agreement like okay that's the plan. But in reality Wagesa wasn't really sure if he felt comfortable staying out all night. Because tonight was not just a normal night. Like this was a if he was an iffy night to stay night to stay night to stay night to stay night out all night. So this particular weekend was not just an ordinary weekend. It was actually the area's annual Ghost Festival, a time on the lunar calendar when ghosts apparently would wander the streets after dark. And Wages family, along with his friends families and frankly a lot of other people in this area, they took this festival really seriously. They believed the ghosts really were out wandering the streets after dark because they were just very superstitious. In fact, in this area, they took this festival really seriously. In fact, in this area, in this area, This festival was taken so seriously that businesses would often close early so people could safely make their way home before nightfall. Now, Wager himself didn't really necessarily believe in ghosts, you know, despite his family appearing to very much believe in them. But the reality was is Wager was just not a guy who ruffled feathers. He went with the flow. He was a rule follower. So in his mind, he was thinking, eh, it's the ghost festival. Kind of don't want to stay out late tonight. But now, who now, Guo was already, making his way towards the exit with June, and so Weja didn't bother to argue. Instead, he just followed right along and they went outside to smoke. About an hour later, Weja was sitting in the passenger seat of his own car with June behind the wheel and Guo in the back, and they were driving down a road in the outskirts of town. And by this point, the sun had set, and so now they were officially in Ghost Festival territory. Like, presumably, there are ghosts out on the roads. the three of them they had a smoke but then as they're out there they they couldn't come up with a compelling idea for how to spend the rest of their their big night out all they came up with is oh let's just like get in the car and drive around and maybe we'll figure out something to do now initially when they hopped in the car they're thinking okay like it's getting dark out like we're gonna be driving around during the ghost festival we're bound to find something exciting they were just randomly driving around, no one's really out, because again it's this ghost festival, everybody's in their homes, there's nothing going on, and it just became really, really boring. They're just like driving around and nothing's going on. And so at a certain point, Wages just feeling so frustrated because it's like he didn't want to be out here in the first place. He didn't voice that to his friends, but he didn't want to be out here, he just wanted to be home. And so, and so, and so, he just was like, he just was like, he just was like, off to sleep. And so he's like closing his eyes and he's just laying there and June who's driving is just you know driving along they're not really talking and so Wager as he's laying there he suddenly feels the car come to a screeching stop and Guo in the backseat immediately reflexively screams at June the driver like hey what are you doing drive more carefully than Wager he's like looking around like what just happened and he looks over at June who's driving and June is not paying any attention to Guo or to Wager He's just pointing out the windshield at something on the road and he's like, look! And so Wager, who's just sort of confused because a moment ago he was half asleep, he looks from June out the front windshield to see what he's pointing at, and there's this woman who's just sitting in the middle of the road. They're out on the outskirts of town, like there's no really any buildings around or anything. Like they're out in the sticks. And it's dark out and everyone's home for the Ghost Festival, and there's just this woman sitting on the ground, floral dress and there's a bike that she has that's next to her just propped up and she's almost been hit by a car like they stopped very close to her she's almost been hit by a car and she's just sitting there staring blankly at the car and so June he's he's pointing at her like he can't believe it he almost hit her and we just what's going on and glow like he doesn't even know what to make of it and at some point June sort of snaps out of it and he leans out the window and he yells at the woman to like get out of the way out of the way out of the way out of the way road. But the woman didn't budge. She just sat there staring at them, just on the ground, not a care in the world, just looking right at all three of them. And so eventually, after sort of the tension in the car went down a little bit, June just pulled his head back in the window and he looked at his friends and he's like, I don't know. And he just drove around this woman, you know, just avoided her, and they continued driving around town, looking for something to do something to do something to do, but there. still was nothing to do. You know, everything's basically abandoned because it's this ghost festival night. Nobody's out, no businesses are open, there's nothing to do. And what really had not left any of their minds, even though they really didn't talk about it, was that woman. Like that was so unusual to just see her sitting there, not reacting to nearly being hit. Like the whole thing was just so creepy, made more so because it's the night of this ghost festival, like talk about the creepiest night to see something like that. And so, and so, and so, 1 a.m. when the boys are still just driving around, someone in the car suggests like, hey, let's go back to that intersection and see if she's still there. Like, let's just see what she's doing. Now, keep in mind, it's been hours since they've seen this woman, like hours. And so they drive back around, not really expecting to see her there. They think that like, no matter how weird that was, she has to have gotten up and left by now. But no, they turn on to that road, When they drive down this road and sure