Last year Cori & Aaron booked a stay at a bed & breakfast, but they didn't count on it being haunted. In this special episode, we present both Part 1 & 2 of this story together.
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Story Direction: Aaron Calafato
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Original Music: Nature Camp
Vocals and Coordination: Cori Birce
Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran
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It's February 2022 and I am sick. Again, I have been sick every February for the last five years. I can't seem to get out of this cycle. Hopefully, next year is different. But feeling this reminds me about this time last year when we released a two-part series titled The Bed & Breakfast. These two stories were some of our most popular.
To celebrate the success of these stories and to share it with so many of our new listeners who maybe haven't gone back and listened, and for many of you, we wanted to create a new experience. We're presenting The Bed & Breakfast Part 1 and 2, but together, in one listening experience, so 14 minutes, a little bit longer than you're used to. But it'll be cool because it'll be one continuous listen without having to wait a week in between or switch between podcast episodes.
How did this whole thing begin? Between January and February of 2021, last year, Corey and I were recovering from COVID. This was, by the way, at a time, where there are no vaccines available. Not only were we sick, but I was a nervous wreck. To give ourselves some hope and something to look forward to when we recovered, we booked a bed and breakfast right here in our hometown.
The reason was we were both really curious about bed and breakfast, in general, because neither of us had ever been to one. Corey was obsessed with this particular bed and breakfast about three blocks away from where we live. It's this giant old house built in the 1890s. As soon as I clicked the reservation button and it got confirmed, a bunch of questions started spinning in my head about the breakfast factor.
When you think about bed and breakfast, all I'm thinking about is the breakfast. I started asking myself, do they bring you breakfast in bed? Do they bring you breakfast to your door? Do you have to order the breakfast? Is there a menu? Where do you get it? Do you have to reserve the breakfast? Is the breakfast available only at certain times? A lot of uncertainty for me.
A couple of weeks later, I get this detailed email from the bed and breakfast, and that's when I realized that breakfast was probably going to be the least of our worries.
I got a greeting email from the bed and breakfast. Can I read it to you?
Yes, please.
It says, "Greetings from the..." I cannot say it. "We are pleased to accept your reservation and look forward to accommodating you. Check-in is available anytime after 04:00 PM. Private guest parking can be found in our visitor's lot to the right of the garage. Keys and all check-in instructions or information will be in the mailbox on the front porch. Just look for the envelope with your last name on it."
Panic. I'm panicking. Wait a minute.
Are you nervous about what I'm nervous about, which is...
Ghosts.
How did you get ghosts from that?
Are we going to be alone in the house?
That's what I'm thinking, why would we need keys in an envelope? Are they keys to the room or keys to the entire bed and breakfast?
I don't think they would give us the key to the whole place.
Then why wouldn't there just be a person at the front desk-
That gave us the keys?
-in the house? Wouldn't they just have the keys there in the house? Why would they be in the mailbox?
I don't know. I've never been to a bed and breakfast in my life. I have no idea what we're doing.
That's what I'm saying.
Just to jump in here real quick. Despite some of these questions, we were still committed to go. But Corey has a skill of having premonitions and things like that. A day before we were about to leave, she drops this information on me.
Okay, I've hit record. Should I be scared? What's going on? What's happening?
I was just looking up reviews of the bed and breakfast, and it pulled up-
Oh, God, it's bad.
No, it's not. Actually, it has a ton of five-star ratings. Everyone loves it, but there's tons of website articles about how haunted it is.
Oh, God, no. Oh, no.
And that the piano plays by itself in the middle of the night and the doors slam.
Oh, God, we're going tomorrow.
I don't know if you've met me. I'm afraid of everything.
So what do we do?
Well, we're going to go. It's not far. If we get really scared, we'll just leave.
Oh, God, no.
Are you actually scared or are you more scared about me being scared the whole time?
I'm scared about me.
Well, I need you to be the tough one.
All right, I'm tough. We're going.
I really want to go, but it says, there's two specific rooms that are extra haunted, and I don't think that one of them is the one we're staying in, because the rooms have names, so that's why I got to double-check that.
You might just be up all night, but that's okay.
Maybe we should bring an extra recording device and see if we can catch any spooky stuff on it.
I'm going to bring it.
You should.
We're ghost hunters.
We become.
We didn't even know we would be ghost hunters.
I don't really want to be a ghost hunter, but I'm interested. What if the piano starts playing? There was also a review that said they had great snacks and great breakfast, so I think we're good.
We were all in and we started our long journey, a five-mile drive to the bed and breakfast.
Where do I turn?
You turn left.
Is this it right here?
No, I think we park in the front.
That's the bed and breakfast.
I know. Yes, this is the building, but I think the parking is around the other corner.
Really?
I believe. I've never actually been here, but I lived near it the entirety of my life.
There is no entry point here.
Oh, yeah. They haven't shoveled or anything, but we're supposed to park right in here. You drove past it.
Are you sure?
Yeah. It's to the right of the garage is what it says.
To the right of the garage? Oh, God.
It's weird that they didn't shovel.
Is there anybody there? That's the question.
I mean, it doesn't matter as long as our keys are there.
Okay, so we're parked, we're inside, have our bags. There's nobody here.
Not a soul.
No one to greet us.
Nope.
But they've left a note.
There's a note. Would you like me to read this?
Yes, please read that out.
Okay, so as I already read outside, but it's cold. "The front door is currently unlocked. Come on in," which we have done, and now we're in the foyer or entryway.
Something like that. We're inside.
I don't know what this would be called, but it's cool and there's two hats on the wall. That's exciting. "If you'll be out past 10:00 PM, you'll need a code to unlock the first set of doors. That's the code. Blah, blah, blah." I don't know if we'll be out past 10:00 PM.
Our suite's upstairs to the left, second door on the right. It's the Evelyn Suite. "The gold key will unlock/lock the deadbolt on your suite door. At the top of the stairs, at the coffee bar, help yourself to tea, hot chocolate." Awesome. "Bottled water, fruit, and V8 juice," yum. "We have a pretty full house this evening."
Hold on. What do you mean full house?
I think that means there's other guests.
Well, who?
I don't know. Other people that are coming to stay, but they're not here yet. Maybe they're ghosts.
Stop. I don't see anybody here. Stop. I don't see anybody here, though.
Well, maybe we got here promptly at 4:00 as well as staff on-site. "So don't be alarmed if you hear people throughout the house." They're just saying that in case it's ghosts. I'm sure of it. "Once you're settled, call or text me. It's a good time for breakfast, the thing you're most excited about. I can do as early as 7:00 AM and as late as 10:00 AM. If you need anything at all, please don't hesitate to contact me no matter what time it may be." Wow.
Are you ready to go upstairs?
Did you just hear that?
Do you hear footsteps?
Hold on. Did you literally just hear that?
I hear the whooshing of wind and something like knocking.
Someone came in through the front door. It's probably a guest, right?
Oh, God.
Hey, everyone, it's Cori. As you heard, our trip to the bed and breakfast hasn't started the way we expected. Find out what happens right now as we present part 2 of our story.
What you're hearing now is the sound of Corey and I running up the stairs and down the hall to our room at the bed and breakfast, and we are completely terrified.
Let me set the stage for you. Corey and I are in our room. The door is locked. We haven't seen anybody come into the bed and breakfast or leave. There is nobody in the parking lot. We haven't seen the owner. We haven't heard from the owner. We haven't seen any of the guests, except we keep hearing all of these noises.
Now keep in mind, this bed and breakfast that we're in, this house was built in 1890. We're freaking out a little bit. We figured the best thing to do would be to go out and investigate up and down the hallway just to make sure the coast was clear, which meant that I had to go out into the hallway and investigate to make sure the coast was clear.
Okay, here's the situation. I am in the hallway. There is sound coming out of a room at the end of this hallway, and the door is wide open. I can see. This is probably a terrible mistake. I'm going to go see what's going on here, so just bear with me. I'm going to keep the microphone close.
The TV is on. There's nobody there. The TV is on. There's nobody there.
Let me jump in here really quick. After that happened, Corey and I were freaked out. I mean, we were just freaked out enough, where we felt like we might have to leave, but not freaked out enough, where we felt like we needed to leave right then.
I thought to myself, that sound, all of these sounds, what if it was just part of the house? What if it was a guest that was there previous that left the TV on and forgot to turn it off? What if the owner came in without us noticing?
We had no hard evidence to really put this to rest. Plus, we were starving. We decided to get some carry-out, and then Corey came up with a fantastic idea to try to get to the bottom of this.
I'm going to plug in my phone and I'm going to press record while we're gone and see if we catch any spooky stuff or weird stuff, in general. What do you think?
I think it's a great idea. Well, I think that's an idea, but I'm very anxious to hear what happens when we get back.
We go out to get our food, we come back, and...
You just played the recording, and what did you find?
Absolutely nothing. Complete silence. Well, I heard some cars driving by, but nothing significant for sure.
This is great news.
It is great news. It's weird. I thought we would hear something because the energy in here is so good, right? Do you feel how clean it is in here?
With everything going on and everything we've been dealing with, I feel like a warm energy.
Yeah. It feels really calming. I actually feel more relaxed here than I've felt in weeks.
Which is crazy. And then more good news. The owner of the bed and breakfast just texted me, and she told me the time that breakfast is served.
What time?
It's 10:00 AM.
Oh, yes. It's too early.
No, and it's served in the dining room.
Did she tell you what we're having?
No.
Oh, surprise.
Yeah. So it's in the dining room. I know in breakfast, that clears a lot of my anxiety.
Are we going to be the only ones?
Yeah. It's just you and me and her.
Awesome.
And this will be the first time we see anybody here.
Maybe there'll be ghost downstairs.
I don't think so.
Probably not. No.
Something changed in me when Corey said that the energy had become more welcoming in the room in the house. It wasn't just because she said it was because I felt it, too. Something had shifted. I wondered why.
All these sounds that scared us and all the things we were anxious about now slowly faded away. It felt like we were surrounded by friends. I'm not a medium or a ghost hunter by any means, but I know what I feel. I felt that calm when I went to sleep that night.
I thought to myself as I was dozing off, who lived here in 1890 and all the years that passed, and what were they going through? What lives did they lead? Where did they walk around in the house? What kind of sounds do they hear outside that were different from the sounds I'm hearing?
I realized somewhere in a dream state that people perish and houses stand. All the sounds we think we hear or the things we think we see, maybe we're just all at one big train stop, just in different places and different times and really what we're hearing or seeing are just echoes.
I woke up the next morning to a text from the owner of the bed and breakfast, and she told me what was on the menu for breakfast, which was fantastic. It was something I never had before. She said, "I'll be serving you eggs and a cloud, just you and your fiancee downstairs."
We went down and we ate at this beautiful table with the sun shining in on our faces on this very cold day. The owner was the first person we actually saw during our entire stay. I think she was a person. Could have been a ghost. Probably a person.
But we went back upstairs and gather our things to check out. And before Corey and I left, I decided to turn the television on just to leave it as a little welcoming gift for the next tenant of this room. And this is the song that was playing as we walked out of our suite, and I thought it was poignant. It was a beautiful ending to our little romantic haunted stay at the bed and breakfast.
7 Minute Stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato. Audio production by Ken Went. You can connect with Ken or inquire about his audio production services at media216.com. Original artwork by Pete Whitehead. Find out more about Pete's work at petewhitehead.com. Our creative consultant is Anthony Vorndran and Lenin Janovac is our production assistant. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcast.
Lastly, I'm Corey Burst. Make sure you tune in next week for another story.
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