Reality Glitch

0:00Today's podcast will feature three stories that are all about people who appeared to have a paranormal encounter. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called The Friend, and it's about a girl who gets lost hiking, and while she's lost, she makes contact with a very strange companion. The second story you'll hear is called The Midnight Man, and it's about a woman who wakes up in the middle of the night and sees a man just in her room.

0:34And the third and final story you'll hear is called From the Field, and it's about a man who gets into a freak accident while riding his motorcycle. But no one can explain the series of events that happen next. 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 replace the Follow Buttons 2026 calendar with a 2025 calendar that just has a six glued over the five. Okay, let's get into our first story called The Friend.

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2:38On April 29, 2001, six-year-old Haley Zega was on a hike with her grandparents in a very rural part of Arkansas called the Upper Buffalo Wilderness Area. For an area to be deemed a wilderness area, that means no vehicles of any kind can come through there, making it incredibly remote and incredibly wild, hence the name. They had taken this trail that brought them up to the top of this bluff that was about 200 feet higher than where they started, and they got to this incredible overlook and they're looking down over this river, and at some point at about 11 in the morning they turn around to head back.

3:11On the return trip by about 11 30, they're making their way down and Haley spots a waterfall that's off the side of the path and she wants to go to it. She asks her grandparents, can we go check out this waterfall? And the grandparents kind of scope it out and it seemed like the only way they could get down to view this waterfall would be by literally climbing a tree and descending over this cliff and it was something that the grandparents just did not feel comfortable letting their granddaughter do and so they told Haley, no, we need to keep going, we're not going to go check out that waterfall.

3:39And Haley, being a six-year-old, she really wanted to see this waterfall and she wanted to get her way and so she threw a tantrum and she sat down on the trail and she said well if you're not going to take me to the waterfall I'm not going to move you're going to have to carry me and the grandparents were like no we're not going to carry you you need to be a big girl I need you to stand up and start walking with us and Haley refused and so her grandparents said okay we're going to leave you and they turned around and they kept walking down the trail not far and they were still totally in view and it's broad daylight and they would turn around expecting their granddaughter to stand up and begrudgingly walk after them and at some point she did.

4:12Haley stood up and she's like, okay, you know, wait for me. And so she starts walking and the grandparents are like, all right. And so they're walking ahead of Haley. And as they're walking, Haley would just slow down more and more and more. And her grandparents could tell she was doing this. She was just trying to be frustrating and she was intentionally trying to take as long as she could. But the grandparents made sure they kept her in their view. So they would walk a little ways and turn and she'd be right there. They'd walk a little ways, they'd turn and she'd be right there over and over again.

4:37And then at some point when they turned, she wasn't there. And so the grandparents immediately run back up and they're looking around for Haley, thinking she probably darted behind a tree to hide because she wants, you know, to be a little bit more frustrating for them. And so they're kind of looking for her. They're not that worried yet. They start yelling for her saying, come on, we do gotta leave. You gotta come out, we gotta go. But there was no word from Haley. It was just silence and she was just totally gone. And for the next 90 minutes, the grandparents just ran all up and down this trail, screaming for Haley and they never found her.

5:07And so they ran down and they called police. The largest search and rescue mission in the history of Arkansas was launched for Haley Zaga. It included hundreds of searchers on the ground, including eight dog teams and helicopters overhead. There were firefighters. The National Guard was involved. But after two days, despite this incredible search, really no progress had been made. The only thing that had been found was one of the dog teams had tracked her scent up to a nearby road where the dog stopped, meaning the scent is now gone. and unfortunately what that told investigators is it looks like Haley got picked up by some motorist.

5:41But 51 hours into the ordeal, there were two searchers well outside of the primary search area. They were about two miles away from where she'd gone missing. They spotted her. She was sitting next to this brook with her feet dangling in the water and when she saw them, she kind of waved and they said, are you Haley Zega? And she said, yeah. And she had a couple of scratches on her arm and on her face, but overall she seemed okay. And so Haley was reunited with her family and then she was brought to the hospital to be observed. After Haley had regained some of her strength, investigators asked her, you know, what happened?

6:11And she said that she was walking behind her grandparents and that she looked down. And then when she looked up again, not only were her grandparents gone, but she was looking at this wall of trees. Like she was not on the trail anymore. She didn't know where she was. And since she was only six years old, she didn't stop and look around or yell. Instead, she just kept walking in this direction that she didn't recognize. And she walked and walked and walked and she never found the trail again. She said pretty soon it got dark and she slept on top of that bluff and then the next day when the sun came up she walked down the bluff and she made it to the river then she walked along the river until she found a cave where she slept for the second night and then the next day when she got up she was found.

6:48After she gave this explanation investigators had a lot of questions like if you were sleeping up on the bluff on that first night then why couldn't the helicopter see you because that's all they were doing was flying over the bluff and they had thermal imaging they could have very easily picked you up. And so they asked her, you know, are you sure that's where you were? And she said, yeah, that's where Alicia told me to stay. And they were like, who's Alicia? And she said, oh, she's my imaginary friend. I met her on the bluff. And so immediately the investigators and the parents are like, okay, she's clearly coping with this traumatic event by creating this imaginary friend.

7:21And so they don't ask any more questions about the imaginary friend. Instead, they continue to ask questions about basically how she got from where she was lost to where she was found and they say okay Haley how did you get down the bluffs because there's only one way down and it can be hard to find especially if you're off the trail and Haley said well Alicia brought me to a trail and she led me down the bluffs and she stood in front of me and made sure that I didn't fall forward and so her parents and the investigators are now starting to think you know maybe this isn't an imaginary friend if this person is right in front of her kind of propping her up and so they ask Haley you know can you describe what Alicia looks like And Haley said, sure, she has black hair, brown eyes, she's a little bit shorter than me, she's four years old, she likes to tell jokes, and she likes to sing songs.

8:05And then Haley began singing songs that she had learned from Alicia, and began telling jokes she had learned from Alicia. Even though Haley was giving this vivid description of this four-year-old girl named Alicia running around the bluffs, it just couldn't be possible. and so Haley's parents and the investigators went back to treating Alicia as just an imaginary friend just a simple coping mechanism and so the investigators went back to just doing their interview with Haley they got all the information about how she got from the bluffs down to the river as much as they could and then because Haley was fine they said okay you're good see you later now Haley's case was a really big deal and it was all over the news especially after she was found and so her interview where she said this imaginary friend named Alicia had assisted her in getting down the bluffs and had basically taken care of her, that was put in print.

8:52And after it was published, there were some readers that realized there was another little girl who had gone missing in the exact same spot as Haley 23 years earlier. She was four years old, she had black hair, brown eyes, her name was Alana, and she had died on those bluffs. After this connection was made, it got national media attention because suddenly news outlets were saying this imaginary friend was actually Alana and that she was Haley's guardian angel. In fact, Haley was brought on Dateline to talk about her imaginary friend.

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12:49Our next story is called The Midnight Man.

13:01One night in the summer of 1904, a young woman named Anna Gray was laying in her bed in her second-story room in a bed and breakfast in Chicago, Illinois. Except she couldn't sleep. She couldn't really tell why she couldn't sleep, but her stomach was kind of upset from the mince pie she had eaten earlier, and her stomach was rumbling around, and so maybe that was why. And also, you know, the air in the room was very stuffy. You know, there wasn't any circulation. And so she's just laying in silence as her stomach is growling. And it just, it was very uncomfortable. And so eventually, Anna felt so frustrated that she was not able to sleep that finally she just threw the covers off, hopped out of her bed, and walked over to the window.

13:39And she opened it up to let in some fresh air. And even though, you know, her stomach still felt pretty upset, you know, having the fresh air hit her and sort of circulate through the room did, even if it was just by a small percentage, make her feel a little bit better. And now that she was standing up near the window and sort of realizing how late it was, she suddenly did feel sort of tired. And she was like, great, I'll leave the window open and I'll go back to sleep. So she walked back to her bed, laid down, pulled the covers up over her, and sure enough, just a couple of minutes later, she had fallen asleep.

14:10But several hours later, Anna suddenly woke up. She's laying in her bed, her eyes shoot open, and for a second as she's laying there, she can't quite remember where she is. She's confused, disoriented, and then she remembers, oh yeah, I'm in that bed and breakfast. I'm in Chicago. Okay, I'm going home tomorrow. Okay. But as she's laying there sort of putting together what's happening, she just has this weird feeling that something just feels off in the room. She can't quite place it, but there's something wrong here. And so instinctively, Anna sits up in her bed, and she kind of just surveys this small room that she's in.

14:40And at first, everything seems totally in order. There's nothing odd here at all. It's just a late night inside of a bed and breakfast. It's still, it's quiet, there's nothing going on here. But then as she scans the room one more time, her eyes stop on the open window. Because now there is a man sitting on the windowsill, looking into the room right at her. Unflinching, just staring right at her. And Anna, in an instant, is looking at the sky and a million thoughts go through her head. She's thinking, oh my god, he's here to hurt me, he must have climbed up and he's about to come in here and attack me?

15:15Like, what's going on here? She doesn't know if she's dreaming. She's just completely panicked. And unlike a lot of people who in this situation might freeze completely or scream and try to hide or run away, Anna's fight or flight response was to fight. And so it was almost like in a fraction of a second, she had leapt out of the bed to confront this man, this stranger in her room. But the man, as soon as she jumped up, he didn't budge. He's just sitting there staring at her, then almost like delicately, he leaned backwards and fell out the window. And now Anna's thinking, oh my God, is he okay?

15:49She doesn't know who he is, but you know, that's a serious fall. They're on the second floor. And so she runs to the window, looking out, expecting to see this guy, you know, with a broken neck down on the ground, but she looks down and there's nobody there. You know, the window's wide open, you know, she left it open before. And so she's kind of looking around to make sure, did he really fall out the window? Did he come into the room, but no, she's all alone in her room. And so she's looking down to see if maybe he kind of ran up against the side of the house and maybe he's going to show himself, but there's nobody.

16:17And then at some point she notices there's this long, dark car that's parked out on the street underneath the streetlight. And she couldn't remember if that car had been parked there the whole time. It seems sort of out of place, but she just couldn't remember. And so she's looking at this vehicle and she realizes there's somebody in the car. And as she's staring at the car, the driver begins to move. They sort of position their bodies down low, and they look up at Anna, and Anna realizes it's the same guy who was just sitting in her windowsill and fell out the window a second ago. He's in this car.

16:50And so Anna, she's just frozen looking at this guy, wondering how could this be happening? Is this a nightmare? Is this real? She doesn't know. But as she's looking, this guy who's looking up at her, he extends his hand out the driver's side window and begins is beckoning to Anna, telling her to come down and get in the car with him. And so Anna, she's seeing this and she's also realizing the car he is in is a hearse. And so she is just beyond terrified. And instinctively, she just jumps back, slams the window and sort of just pretends like this can't be happening. Like this is not real. But then after a couple of seconds, she's thinking, I got to make sure I know where this guy is, where he's going to go next.

17:28And so she goes right back to the window to see what he's doing. But now the hearse, the man, they're gone. And so Anna remained at this window for quite a while, just looking out the window, just making sure this guy really was gone. Because again, she just doesn't know. Like, was this real? Am I imagining things? Am I going crazy? Was this a nightmare? Like, she doesn't know. And so she's just standing there, waiting, watching. But you know, this guy doesn't reappear. The hearse doesn't reappear. And so eventually, she crawls back in bed. And after what felt like forever, she drifted off into a fairly light sleep.

18:01And then before long, you know, she opened her eyes again and sunlight had filled the room. She had survived the night. And so now, you know, feeling the comfort and safety of light in the room and knowing that it's a new day, she told herself, wow, like, that was crazy. That was terrifying. That had to have been just a particularly vivid nightmare. Like, there's no other reasonable explanation for this. It had to be a nightmare. So Anna got out of bed, convinced she was just fine, that nothing strange has happened to her at all. She got herself together and she left the bed and breakfast and she headed out to this brand new department store that had just opened up in Chicago.

18:37She wanted to go and have a nice day of shopping. And so Anna gets to this department store and it's so vibrant and it's bustling with people and there's four floors of all this incredible stuff that they're selling. And for the next several hours, Anna just has a great time walking all around, picking out things she likes and just basically enjoying shopping. And then eventually, when she was up on the fourth floor, after she had purchased all the things she was going to buy, she decided it was time to leave. Now, by this point, she had basically completely forgotten about, you know, whatever happened the night before.

19:09The sky, the hearse, all of it. It was completely out of her mind. She is back to normal. And so she makes her way over to the elevator to go down to the first floor. And so she hits the button, and she's waiting and waiting. And then eventually, she hears a noise, a dinging sound, and the doors open up. and there's loads of people on this elevator car. It is packed. And so like most of us would do in this situation, Anna kind of waved them off and said, I'll take the next one. And she's expecting that, you know, the doors will close and these folks will go down. And, you know, when it comes back up, she'll get on and that's that.

19:40This is like not a big deal at all. She's not even thinking about it. Just go ahead. But the doors don't close. And instead, as she's kind of, you know, not really looking over in their direction, she hears this voice come out of the elevator car. And it's this kind of rude tone. it's a man's voice and he calls out one more, like demanding that Anna get in there. Like, what are you doing? You're holding up the car. And Anna was kind of taken aback by whoever was kind of barking this order at her. And she turned around and she looked into the elevator car and she couldn't really tell where the voice was coming from.

20:11But then eventually she noticed it was coming from the guy who operated the elevator car. The elevator was manual. There was somebody who literally moved the car up and down and she kind of didn't see the guy's face at first, but eventually when the guy kind of poked his head through and looked at her confirming that, yeah, I'm talking to you, get in the car, she realized the elevator car operator was the man in the hearse that she had seen in her windowsill. It was the same guy. And so Anna is so horrified, she gasped out loud and just was like, no, I'm not going in there. No. And so all the folks that are in the elevator car, they do not know what's going on.

20:47And they're kind of looking around like, what's happening here. And the car operator continues to look out at Anna for a second. Then he just kind of scoffs at her like, fine. Then the doors close and the elevator disappears. And for a moment, Anna's telling herself like, what is going on? That can't be the same guy. It's just going to be a coincidence, right? But as she's having these thoughts, these crazy thoughts, trying to rationalize something that's not rational, she suddenly heard this loud, metallic crunching sound inside of the elevator shaft followed by what was obviously people screaming.

21:20It would turn out that elevator car that she nearly got into but didn't because of her fear of this guy that she was seeing again, the same guy from her bedroom the night before, that elevator car, as it began its descent, it malfunctioned and fell four stories, killing two people on board. Now, unfortunately, we don't really know much more about what ultimately happened with the elevator operator. If they ever confirmed without a doubt that, you know, that guy is the same one Anna saw the night before, or if he even really was on the elevator car, we don't know that. But what we do know is Anna did speak to reporters, and they did widely publish this story.

22:00And that is how we know about it.