Cracked Doors: A Week of Unexplained Terror
True Scary Story
A woman recounts a terrifying experience after purchasing a sticker of a Ouija board from a mysterious vendor at a local brewery. Despite her initial reluctance to buy the
Key takeaways
- The mere presence of an image or representation of a Ouija board may be enough to invite paranormal activity, even without use.
Main topics
- Ouija board folklore
- Paranormal experiences with symbolic objects
Notable quotes
"I felt the rosary being pulled from my hand from something underneath the bed. It literally felt I could feel the beads slipping through my palms."
Conclusion
Adriana's story underscores the power of belief and symbolism in shaping terrifying
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) Hi, Edwin here. If you're a fan of true crime that's chilling, eerily real, and deeply unsettling, I think you'll love Red Handed, the multi-award-winning true crime podcast hosted by Saruti Bala and Hannah McGuire, enjoyed by 4 million listeners each month. Every week, Red Handed unpacks different murders, disappearances, and criminal conspiracies with razor-sharp research and the depth that each case deserves. Red Handed is the UK's number one true crime podcast, dropping new episodes three times a week. If you're looking for a place to start, I recommend the recent episode on Cajun cryptids, the mysterious creatures lurking in the Louisiana swamp. Follow Red Handed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, and tell them I sent you. Speaker 1 (0:47) Some people say that a Ouija board doesn't have to be used to invite something in. One woman believes a simple sticker unleashed a week of nightmares that changed her life forever. My name is Edwin, and here is Adriana's true scary story. Speaker 1 (1:12) My name is Adriana. My story takes place in Inglewood, California. It was the year about 2018. At the time, I was living with a now ex-boyfriend in their family home. A group of friends and him and I, we were all at a local brewery one day. Just hanging out, this local brewery on this particular day had a variation of vendors selling all kinds of stuff. Stickers, books, pins, all kinds of stuff. One vendor in particular caught my attention. He had stickers. He was selling stickers and the stickers were really cute. They were fashioned in old-timey cartoons like Betty Boop and Felix the Cat. I went over to look at the display that he had. Speaker 1 (2:00) They were really cute because they were all spooky characters. It was werewolves, ghosts, vampires, witches, etc. He comes up to talk to me and he's like, oh, I have a deal with stickers. You buy so many for such price. So I was like, okay, great. I start looking at the stickers that I want. And I noticed that there was one sticker that was a Ouija board. And it had these little cartoon characters on it. So I thought it was really cute. And I was like, oh, I'll take one of those also. And the guy, have you, he had a very mischievous look to him. I don't know if you know what the rocker Billy kind of look is, but he was dressed in that attire, slack suspenders, loafers, slick back hair, handlebar mustache. And he just kind of had this mischievous look to him. Speaker 1 (2:57) So he tells me, I'm actually sold out of that sticker. And I was like, oh, okay. He's like, but I have this. He pulls out the sticker replicating this Ouija board. He was like, I made this myself and I could give it to you for a good price. I immediately declined because I've always been scared of Ouija boards. I know what power they could hold. I know what could be let in if you mess with these things. So I immediately declined. And I told him this. When I told him this, he laughed. He laughed this very sinister laughter. And I was, okay, this is a little bit weird. So he was like, okay, if you say so. He went ahead, put the board away. We finished our transaction. He gave me the stickers that I chose. I paid for them. Speaker 1 (3:47) A day or two goes by, I completely forget about the stickers, but I'm going to see a friend of mine and I know that she would like these stickers. So I opened the package now at home. I'm sorting out through the stickers and I noticed that in the bag, there's not only one, but there's two of the Ouija board stickers in the bag, which I was surprised, right? I didn't think anything of it. I was just more like, oh, cool. I guess he gave them to me or he had a few left over and decided to give them to me. So I start them out. I put one for my friend and I keep the other one. I see my friend, everything. We come back home and this is where things started. They started that night and it started with nightmares. As I mentioned, I lived with an ex-boyfriend at the time. Speaker 1 (4:39) And we were always on different schedules. We would watch TV. He would watch TV to fall asleep. I would fall asleep before him. I always had to be up earlier for work. So we're falling asleep. He has the TV on. I turn over getting ready to fall asleep. I remember the last thing I did, I looked over at him before I decided to fall asleep. And he kind of had this very serious look on his face. I'm not sure if something was bothering him or he just was. in a mood but I didn't think anything of it I rolled over and when I rolled over I guess I went to sleep immediately and I went straight into the dream I dreamt that when I rolled over I put the blanket over my head which is something I never do I get very claustrophobic and I have trouble breathing but in the dream I did that exactly in the dream I rolled over because I felt Speaker 1 (5:35) my boyfriend coming into the bed as if he was putting the blanket on him too. So as I'm turning over to look at him, he's putting the blanket completely over his head as well, looking at me. And as he's looking at me, his face turns into this demonic thing. And it's like a big, huge smile and just demonic. As he's leaning towards me, his face starts to melt. His body starts to melt. He starts to melt entirely. I freak out. I wake up from the dream, or at least I think I wake up from the dream. When I do, it's right back to how he was when I fell back asleep. I looked at him, and he looked at me. Just same serious look. So I think I'm awake. I'm not awake. I'm still in the dream. Speaker 1 (6:28) This happens at least two more times. Same thing. Go under the blanket. He goes under the blanket. He's this demon. He's melting. At this point, I'm completely freaked out. I'm not religious in any kind of way, but I happen to have a rosary right above the bed that his late grandma gave to me. So I've always kept it just as a thing as protection. I grab the rosary at this point. I have you, my, my boyfriend is fully awake, but I'm not telling him what is going on just because he gets freaked out really easily. And he believes in all these things and the manifestation of things. If you speak him and speak of them. So I grabbed the rosary. I lay down and I keep my, I have the rosary in my hand underneath the pillow. I'm trying to think of prayers. I'm not good with prayer. Again, I am not a religious person. Speaker 1 (7:24) So I'm trying to think of just whatever prayers. And I start praying. I'm holding the rosary. And I'm praying just repeatedly because I am freaked out by this dream. Right. And as I'm finally starting to doze off, I felt the rosary being pulled from my hand from something underneath the bed. It literally felt I could feel the beads slipping through my palms. I freak out. And for some reason, all I could picture, this sounds so creepy, but the only thing I could picture was like little hands, like baby hands underneath the bed, pulling the rosary. Why? I do not know. But that's all I could picture at that moment. I freak out. I get up. And now I'm sitting in pitch black darkness. And I don't know what to do. I start praying. I lay back down. Speaker 1 (8:23) And I somehow managed to end up falling asleep. But I was clutching this rosary so hard that it was being like embedded in my hand. The cross was being embedded in my hand. I woke up with the print in my hand of the beads and the cross and everything because I held it so tight until I finally fell asleep. I woke up the next day completely terrified, not knowing what happened. I couldn't explain why I was having these. I had this terrible nightmare and I didn't, I, again, I didn't think anything of it. I didn't think it could possibly pertain to this sticker. When I got up, I needed to do my daily routine to get ready for work. So our bedroom door is in a hallway and that hallway, right as you exit the bedroom door is our bathroom. Speaker 1 (9:14) So you could go right into it. I went into the bathroom. I'm getting ready. When you sit on the toilet, you're facing the door. So you could see the hallway at the bottom of the door, the little opening. This is an add-on part of the house. So there was more space underneath the door, probably about an inch bigger than usual. So you