The Bride

Spooked - KQED and Snap Studios

A haunting true story unfolds as a young girl recounts a terrifying encounter with a ghostly bride during a sleepover at her friend's house

Key takeaways

• The experience of the 'bride' was deeply personal and subjective, highlighting how perception shapes reality.

Main topics

• Supernatural encounters
• Childhood trauma and memory

Notable quotes

"You've seen the bride. No, don't worry. It's okay. It's just a ghost."

Conclusion

The episode closes with a meditation on perception and awareness—how o

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:08) He told me that was their room. I was not to go inside. But then we played a game one day, and I ran in to hide. Only the secret. When I snuck behind the bed, but when I heard their whispers, then my heart was filled with dread. The voices, they grew louder as the room began to breathe when I pounded on the door. Never leave. We crossed over the spruce. Speaker 1 (1:09) Lansing, Michigan. And I don't know anybody except my roommate. My roommate who loves to tell me how stupid I am. And because I'm broke, I go to the Subway sandwich shop every Tuesday. Because on Tuesdays, they've got the two for Tuesday special, two foot long subs, five dollars, five bucks. I order two turkey subs with extra everything. And make sure that Trisha takes my order. Not that stupid Alan. Speaker 1 (1:45) Because it's like Trisha understands. This has to last me. Piles it on. The turkey, the cheese, tomatoes, olives. The conversation, the laughs. Rules are broken. Protocols ignored. The sandwich Trisha makes for me. It's like. A sandwich your grandmother might make you. Like a lover might pack you for a long trip. The best sandwich. And I get home one day. After work, pull out my sub. My roommate looks at me, looks at my sandwich. He's like, where'd you get that? What you mean? Subway. You got that at Subway? No way. Did a girl make it? Yeah. Is she cute? Well, if I were you, stupid, I'd go back to that Subway and ask for her digits. Speaker 1 (2:40) Really? You are so dumb. So, I pulled back up to the subway. But Trisha is not there. Just Alan. Hey, Alan, um, where's Trisha? Trisha doesn't work here anymore. Do you want to sub or not? Somebody had to let the owner know. Let the owner know? And Alan just sneers at me. Let the owner know what? You think no one saw your special sandwiches? Maybe I am stupid. Who made things? Because it takes me a moment to understand what he's saying. Then I want to murder him. Got her fired. You want to sub or not? I try my best not to explode, Alan. What is Trisha's last name? It's against company. Alan, what is her last name? Are you threatening me? I never see Trisha again. Back to Subway either. I still think about Trisha though. Not because I knew her. I never really got the chance. Because once, someone saw me. Saw me trying to make... Two sandwiches last to the end of the week and she decided to add a piece of turkey, an extra slice of cheese, a handful of olives. The year is 2010. 13-year-old Elisa Mack had just moved from Buenos Aires, Argentina to the coastal city of Guayaquil in southern Ecuador. Everything there, seeing foreign tour, the heat, the accent, the school, and making new friends feels like more than she can handle. When she meets Nicole, things take a turn. I let Elisa take it from here. I Speaker 4 (6:21) met Nicole through a mutual friend during recess. She had this really shiny black hair. She had this, like, energy to her. Very, like, enthusiastic. Especially about the Jonas Brothers. That's how we started talking, because they told me every single fun fact that they could about the Jonas Brothers. I was like, oh, cool. Interesting. We would have great conversation. Your typical 13-year-old connection, you know. Speaker 4 (7:04) We had been friends for maybe like a few weeks now. So this one day during recess, a bunch of my friends, Nicole was there, the guy that introduced us. We're just talking, talking about what are the weekend plans and what's the cool thing to do. So then it kind of came up that her parents were not going to be there that weekend. She was like, hey. Let's all come to my place since they're not going to be there. They're talking about it and I was like, oh, okay. Like nobody had said anything, but then they were like, oh yeah, no, you're invited too. I was like, oh, yay. The day of the gathering, it was extremely hot. It's Ecuador. Ecuador is hot. It's always hot. It has two seasons. It's either dry heat or just rain with heat. Speaker 4 (8:06) So then me and a bunch of classmates of my friends, we get to Nicole's house. It was probably like around, I want to say seven. We were in her living room, in her TV room, playing music from someone's phone. So it was that really crappy quality to the music. And we were just enjoying talking, you know. We had bought some snacks and some drinks. It was a very laid back, just close friends gathering. We had this other friend. His name is Coco. He was very tall, skinny. He had a sort of like round head and a very big nose. Speaker 4 (9:04) And for some reason, Coco that day decided that I would be the butt of every joke. Not in like a malicious way, but more so in that preteen, immature way. He would like make fun of my accent because I have an Argentinian accent and they had their Ecuadorian local accent, you know. And he'd be like, oh, is that what you were trying to say? Like it got to a point where it was like I got irritated. It wasn't funny anymore. Speaker 4 (9:36) And around like 10 minutes of me being in her house, I started having a headache. But it wasn't one of those headaches that you can kind of just ignore and keep making small talk. It was one of those headaches that get progressively worse to the point where now you feel your head pulsating. Speaker 4 (10:06) One of our friends had gone upstairs to her room. So then I asked Nicole, I was like, hey, Nikki, do you think it's okay if I go lay down on your bed? I know our friend Ivana is over there. Do you think it's okay if I just go in and rest for a little bit? I really have a bad headache. And she was like, yeah, no, that's fine. You can just go upstairs. The first door that you see to your right. So I was like, okay. Sounds good. So I go up the