A Haunting at Black Star Canyon

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[00:00:36] [SPEAKER_01] I saw my wife. I thought she was, like, trying to hide from me or something. And then I hear my wife call me in the bedroom. And I froze.

[00:00:49] [SPEAKER_00] From haunted cabins and possible demons to chilling sleep paralysis episodes and encounters with creatures in the woods, we're going to hear about a life engulfed by the paranormal. My name is Edwin, and here is Todd's true scary story.

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_01] Back in 2015, my friend and I were out in Black Star Canyon, which is located in Orange County of California. The history of Black Star Canyon, there were tribes that were massacred and tortured, and all that energy remained.

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_01] Today, it's a melting pot of energy. In Black Star Canyon, there is a trail that leads to a waterfall. We decided to go hike that trail. It was summertime, maybe 3 or 4 p.m. We went there to take pictures.

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_01] My buddy's camera bag was getting messed with. I remember the bag was getting zipped and unzipped. Occasionally, you would hear the shutter go off. He had the lens cap on, so it wouldn't really be taking pictures of anything. Just dark, black.

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_01] We went all the way up to the trail, saw the waterfall, came back. Nothing really happened. On our way back home, we reviewed all the pictures that were taken on accident. We noticed that it was black, but then there's a darker focus.

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_01] And some pictures even had streaks of white. My buddy Ed tried recapturing that picture with the white streaks and all, but it wouldn't really cut close to what was taken. We went back home.

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_01] My parents went to Mexico, and my brother was out of the house, probably with his girlfriend. My friend slept over. It was probably about 1 or 2 a.m. I woke up. I felt just terrified. I felt hot and cold. I felt like my gut dropped.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_01] I didn't even know why I was feeling this. I remember I heard the sound of bare feet on tile. I was shocked. And maybe no more than 5 seconds of just pure quiet.

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_01] The doorknob started rattling. And it started shaking. Maybe a good 3 seconds that felt like eternity. By this point, Ed woke up. And he was telling me, Was that you? No, that's not me. After that conversation,

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_01] I heard the sound of nails scratching down a wall where I was at. I looked at Ed, And he immediately just said, We're jumping through the window. We were shaking. We were terrified. We slept in our own vehicles that night.

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_01] Whatever that thing was, followed me, Or stuck around with me. That would make the most sense. Growing up, I never really Experienced too many paranormal experiences. It wasn't until then where Things started happening. During this time, I was living in

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_01] Chino, California. Things that would happen around that house, We would hear Dog footsteps. Occasionally, We would hear our names Getting called By our mom. We would confront my mom like, Oh, we heard you call our name. No, that wasn't me. No, I didn't call your name. I would try to bring it up to my mom. She's a very religious person.

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_01] She'd always just say, Oh, we just have to go to church. Or, Oh, we have to get closer to God. My brother and I, We would talk about it, But After He moved out of the house, He just kind of Forgot about it And Didn't really Care much about it. In October of 2022, I Went back to Blackstar Canyon

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_01] With another friend. We wanted to get Our spooky season on. We wanted to get scared. So I remember All the events that happened In 2015 And I just said, You know what? Let's go. Let's go do it. We're probably a good half mile Away from the trail That leads to the waterfall.

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_01] We were just parked on the side of the road. It was just nothing but like Dirt and gravel. My friend was like, Man, I just want something to happen. I was like, You know what? Let's provoke it. That way we could have something happen to us. I stepped out of my vehicle. I went out for a smoke. I did what no one is supposed to do. And I just started whistling

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_01] Out in the woods. That was really, really dumb. We heard a whistle back. My friend, she was in the truck. She had her window down. She heard the whistle. I walk over to her side And I asked her, Oh, did you hear that? Yeah, I heard that. We thought nothing of it. We thought it was just somebody Trying to play a joke on us or something.

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_01] So we just went about our evening. Rocks started being thrown at my truck. We would hear like small pebbles Bouncing off of my truck. I went to go check it out. And I remember it smelled a lot like bad eggs. Or like sulfur. And it smelled like death, basically. I was like,

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_01] Come on, let's go check it out. Let's go see where these rocks were being thrown. She didn't want to. So I was like, whatever. I remember me being alone. I felt just terrified. I heard someone in some bushes nearby. Probably good like 20 feet. Just yelling out,

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_01] Help! Help! Every time they would yell, It was like a different voice. And like a different octave. After that, we, We drove off with haste. It was scary. I remember when we were driving away, My friend was like, Dude, like that didn't sound human.

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_01] We want to say, It was probably like a skinwalker or something. Because, You have native tribes out there. You have, A really, really terrible massacre that happened hundreds of years ago. Lots of bad energy. And, It smelled like sulfur. We, Immediately just assumed, Hey, you know what? It's probably a skinwalker.

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_01] So we probably shouldn't, It shouldn't ever go back. After, October of 2022, I definitely realized that, Okay, Whatever came from there, Back in 2015, Is with us in 2022, And has followed me. During this time, Up until, I moved out in 2024, I would be going to church, And I would like, Be a little more serious with my faith, And pray, And pray,

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_01] And pray. Once I moved out, June 2024, Things started changing. We live next to, A lake. It's a state park. There's, History at that lake. When we first moved in here, Not even two weeks, Someone like, Drowned at the lake. Maybe, It's just spirits, Coming from the lake. Maybe, Because there are like, Also, Tribes that were here,

[00:11:15] [SPEAKER_01] Settling, Around the area. Something, You know, But, It could also be, Something that followed us. In September, My wife and I got married. We got married, Friday the 13th. So, September 13th. We thought it was cute, But, It really wasn't. That whole week, Was literally torture. I was going through, A health scare, Literally that Monday.

[00:11:46] [SPEAKER_01] I had blood in my urine. Like, That's how bad it was. Like, It was scary for me. I would say, That whole week, Of us, Before we get married, Being very stressed out, Not really feeling it, Being a little bit depressed, All of that energy, Was just, Just a huge amplification, For like, Things to happen at her house.

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_01] Probably about a month later, My wife, My wife, Started getting, Scratch marks, On her back. And it was always, In threes. I don't like, Scratching, Hard, Or massaging hard, Or like, Anything like that, Because, I get grossed out. Even the thought of like, My nails touching, A metal street sign, I get grossed out. So,

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_01] It's definitely not me. I told my wife, Maybe you did it to yourself, When we were asleep. We would hear, Our playstation, Turn on in the middle of the night. Or, If my wife is in the other room, She'll hear it turn on, And I'm in the kitchen. Or, I'm at work. I think, This happened, In August.

[00:13:30] [SPEAKER_01] It was my day off. It was a Monday. I was just hanging out at home. My ring camera, Caught something. They're doing construction, Across the street from us, In the same complex. I go and I check it out, Because, I always get freaked out, Because, We're on the second story, Who wants to come visit us? I didn't invite anybody over. There was no movement, Nothing from, The heavy equipment, Nothing from,

[00:13:59] [SPEAKER_01] People walking around, Nothing in the playback, That could show that, You know, Maybe that's what caught it, Literally just, Nothing. Again, I'm just like, Doubting everything, Like, Okay, It has to be nothing. Which, Nothing really did happen, After we got married, Up until we got our dog. We got a dog in September, We got a dog in September,

[00:14:22] We got a dog in September,

[00:14:23] [SPEAKER_01] Odie is a, Beagle, Basset hound mix, Very short, Very sweet, Very, Very friendly. We put, Door bells, Hanging over, Our door, So, Our dog can get potty trained, So every time he hits the bells, That are hanging over our door, It means that, Hey, I have to go potty, Or I want to go outside. Sometimes they'll get hit, When, I'm getting ready for work,

[00:14:54] [SPEAKER_01] And, Our dog, Odie, He's in his kennel, He's chilling, He's not doing anything, He's not even hitting the bells, The bells get hit by themselves, My wife, Has also experienced this, I'll already be at work, And, She'll call me when she's driving over, To her job, And tells me, Hey, Yeah, I heard the bells, Get rung, Or, Yeah, Something hit the bells, We don't know what it is,

[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_01] In, October, At the beginning of the month, I got laid off, And, I was at home, With our dog, We were both, Literally about to fall asleep, And, He gets up, And he just starts, Barking at the door, And, He growls at it, And, I'm assuming that, Oh, Hit the bells,

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_01] He's scared of everything, Actually, Odie, Is terrified of everything, Like, We'd be walking around, Our apartment complex, And he'd be scared of, Like, Decorations that are posted, Like, On people's, Uh, Patios, He'll be scared of, Like, The little kids that are playing, On their scooters, And bikes, Like, He wouldn't want to move, And so, You know, Thinking about it now, It's kind of interesting that, He was acting this way, Because, Normally he's just scared of,

[00:16:31] [SPEAKER_01] Things that he doesn't recognize, But all of a sudden, He's growling and barking, That's interesting behavior, I remember I walked over to the, The door, Right next to the door, Is our, Dining room table, He didn't want to come close to me, Normally he follows us, Again, He's scared, I was thinking, Maybe he wants, A snack or something, I go get him, Some of his treats, And he's very food driven,

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_01] He didn't want to come next to me, He didn't want to come near me, Nothing, And I was like, Okay, What if I just open the door, I open the door, This dog, Our dog just, Is still on the couch, He doesn't want to leave, He doesn't want to move, Normally whenever you open the door, He, Jumps out, He runs out, He's like, I'm outside, You know, He enjoys being outside, But he just doesn't want to come close to me, Whatever is at the door, Is bothering him, Right?

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_01] So ever since I moved out, Like, I haven't really been, Going to church, You know, I haven't really been like, On point with, My faith or whatever, Even then, Like, I'm a practicing Catholic, I was raised in a Catholic household, But, You know, I'm not the type to like, Pick up a Bible every night, Or like, You know, Talk about, Anything related to Catholicism, Unless it's like, Demons, I like to research demonology, And spirits, Because I just find it fascinating, You know, For example,

[00:18:05] [SPEAKER_01] I find it funny, There's a demon that has the head of a, Of a chihuahua, I think, Or like, Just a really small dog, Like, I find that just interesting, Like, Who came up with that, You know? And so, I did a deep dive, Now I was just like, Trying to find out, You know, What kind of demons, Would actually be there, I ended up listening to, A YouTuber, That was talking about, Solomonic magic,

[00:18:35] [SPEAKER_01] I accidentally, Heard, This YouTuber, Summon, Aceroth, They were literally, Just reading these summons, Like, In order to summon this demon, You have to, Find the biggest tree, In the forest, Climb the biggest branch, Save this, That way, Like, A bunch of green, Butterflies come out, Just a lot of things, A lot of steps to it, But, While they were saying that,

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_01] They were also reading, The summons, It's like a four hour video, Of them just summoning, Aceroth, And, I was like, Oh, I think I messed up here, And so, The events after that, Started getting heavy, At our apartment, I wanted to say, You know what, I'm gonna be real with myself, I'm just scared, I'm just terrified,

[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_01] That like, I listened to this, And I'm paranoid, That something's gonna happen, So I'm going to let myself, Believe that everything, Is, You know, That demon, My wife and I, We just finished watching TV, In the living room, And we walk over, To our bedroom, When you open the door, It's the living room on your left, The kitchen on the right, It's open concept,

[00:20:04] [SPEAKER_01] At the very end, There's a doorway, That leads into, A very small hallway, Maybe about, 10 feet, On the left is, Our bedroom, On the right, Is the bathroom, I hang a right, I go to the bathroom, My wife's getting ready for bed, And, I come out, I, Walk over to where the doorway is, Something catches my eye, I look over,

[00:20:33] [SPEAKER_01] At the kitchen counter, Cause that's where, I saw something, And, I saw my wife, I thought she was like, Trying to hide from me, Or something, She's goofy like that, So she likes to, Surprise me with things, And then, I hear my wife call me, In the bedroom, And I froze, I was like, Oh, I thought you were in the kitchen,

[00:21:03] [SPEAKER_01] I closed the door, I put the lock on it, That's how scared I was, A couple days after that, It was lunchtime, And, My wife calls me, We both take the, Same lunch, Shower, And she calls me, She tells me, Hey, Remember the other day, When you looked over, At the kitchen counter, And you thought you saw something, Yeah, When we were walking, Into the bedroom, I saw, A shadow figure, In the kitchen,

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_01] And, And, I was like, Why didn't you tell me, Right there and there, And she was like, No, Cause I don't want to feed, Into their energy, That gave me, The confirmation of, Okay, I'm not being paranoid, This is real, She's had, Things happen to her, She has experiences, With santeria, And paranormal, You know, It's nothing new to her, And with that being said,

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_01] I believe, That something followed her, From her old home, And, The conversations with her, She, Doesn't want to talk about it, In our home, She'd much rather talk about it, Away from our home, That way, Like, We're not feeding into their energy, We can both agree, That, We have heard, Like, Our dog out of his cage, Even though, Like, He's in his kennel, I even have this on video,

[00:22:33] [SPEAKER_01] I tried to like, Spy on Odie, He was, Out of his kennel, He was eating food, You could, Very, Very well, Hear him, Like, Walking up to me, But like, He's still eating food, And he's, I don't know, Like a good, Nine feet away from me, This dog, He was still eating, But you could hear him, Walking up to me, And so, I was getting confused, Because like, Every time I would hear him, Come up close to me, Like,

[00:23:03] [SPEAKER_01] I would look down, I'd point the phone down, And he wouldn't be there, He'd still be over at the end, Of the table, Where his food is, And his water, Even though, I was getting confused, Because I was like, Okay, Maybe my phone isn't capturing this right, And like, Even, I like, Tilted my head out, To see him, And I would hear like, His doggy paws, And like, The nails hitting, The sound of his nails, Hitting the floor, Of our apartment, Walking closer to me,

[00:23:32] [SPEAKER_01] Just the other day as well, My wife, She heard that too, And she was like, Yeah, But Odie isn't over there, Like, Odie is eating food, Or, Odie is on the couch, Like, Playing with the stuffed animals, But we're able to hear him? That's crazy, Like, Whatever it is, It's mimicking our dog, And it's taking shape, Of my wife, Maybe even me, I don't even know that, I feel like I'm going crazy sometimes,

[00:24:05] [SPEAKER_01] I play guitar, I have, One guitar, That's always on, My guitar stand, It's on the floor, When we first moved in, From the moment we moved in, Until now, Like, My wife swears up and down, That whenever I'm not home, The guitar will strum by itself, Like, You could hear the guitar strum, I just thought, You know what, It could be, A number of things, Again, The skeptic, I'm trying to be strong,

[00:24:35] [SPEAKER_01] I'm trying to be the bigger person, You know, But, When my wife was out in, In Vegas, I heard the guitar strum twice, It was a good, Like, Someone's trying to play, Like, Like, Metal, They were, Strumming it hard, And I was like, Oh, This isn't supposed to happen, It was, It was, Terrible, It terrified me bad, And the dog didn't do anything, Which is surprising, You know?

[00:25:10] [SPEAKER_01] I want to say, It's just all the negative energy, That has followed us, From our households, I, Came from a house, Where, I was locked up in my room, I had depression, I had a lot of anger, My wife, As well, You know, We, We looked forward to every time, We would be out of the house, Even if it's just to pick up, A case of waters, You know? All the negative energy, That, Her and I both have had,

[00:25:40] [SPEAKER_01] I feel like it just, Compiled into this, Bigger mass, And, You know, Moving in together, Like, We live a pretty happy life, I would say, Probably the most happy life, That, We would both have, Outside of our family's house, I remember, I talked to my cousin one time, He's like, Pretty religious, He would like, Bring up some really interesting things, Like, Do you smell anything burning in the house, Do you feel like,

[00:26:09] [SPEAKER_01] You have another pair of eyes, In the room with you, Does it get hot, Does it get cold, When the temperature is like, Definitely not, That hot or cold, Yeah, It does, It does, It does, Yeah, You gotta get like, Closer to God, And, I've been praying more, To the, Archangel Michael, Archangel Michael's, Artifacts are just, Really powerful, And, Most of the time, Like, Those are the ones, To get rid of like, The stronger demons, That like, Possess people, And so,

[00:26:39] [SPEAKER_01] I've been praying to, Michael, And man, Like, I feel like, A lot of things have calmed down, Here and there, I would really, Really want to do, Kind of like, A nice little, EVP session, Or like, Just a little bit of, Ghost hunting, At our apartment, Mostly so that, I could get more information, Of whatever this, This being is, Maybe, The solution here is to,

[00:27:08] [SPEAKER_01] Get a blessing done, Or, Get a cleansing, But I tried contacting a church, To like, Get a blessing, Or like, A cleansing, But I haven't heard back, From anyone,

[00:27:33] [SPEAKER_00] Have you ever experienced, Something like this? I want to hear your story, You can find us over at, TrueScaryStory.com, Head on over there, And just fill out the form, Editing and sound design, For this story, Was done by, Sarah Borges Wendel, Of VW Sound, With scheduling, By Bianca Chavez, And additional production, By me, Edwin Covarrubias, And the Scary FM team, Make sure you tap, Follow, So you get next week's story, Thank you very much for listening, Keep it scary everyone, See you soon.