The Unexpected

0:00Today's podcast will feature three horror stories with completely unexpected endings. 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 After the Riot, and it's about a man's son who mysteriously vanishes during a prison riot. The second story you'll hear is called Falling Treasure, and it's about a politician in Malaysia who calls upon a shaman to bestow riches and power upon him. And the third and final story you'll hear is called A Son's Nightmare, and it's about police who visit a small village after a man's recurring nightmare about his mother makes him question reality.

0:41But 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 podcast because that's all we do, and we upload four times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Fridays. So if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the Follow Buttons house and dump out all their shampoo and refill the bottles with glue. Okay, let's get into our first story called After the Riot.

1:13it.

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2:03Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. On the afternoon of October 11, 2016, a middle-aged man named Carlos Herrera Sr. entered the visitation area of a prison in Venezuela. The room itself sort of looked like a high school cafeteria with tables and chairs everywhere for the inmates and their visitors to sit down and have their meetings. And right in front of Juan was one table where there was this bedraggled-looking prisoner who he was there to meet. As Juan got closer to this guy, he could see he really looked terrible, the inmate.

2:37I mean, his cheekbones were sticking out, he was sort of emaciated, he was bloodied and bruised, he had bandages on his arm. And also, as Juan moved towards this guy, he could clearly see all the guards that lined the walls and the exits of this visitation area sort of squirm with discomfort, you know, as this meeting is about to take place. And Juan had a good idea why these guards might be anxious. And that's because over the past month, this prison had been on lockdown because a gang inside the prison had risen up and overpowered the guards and completely taken over for this entire month. And just to be clear, I mean, during this month, people died as a result of this takeover.

3:13I mean, this was a horrible month for this prison. And it was only over the past couple of days that the guards were finally able to take back control. And Juan knew all this, not only because this riot was all over the news while it was going on, but also because his own son, Juan Jr., was serving time in this prison for robbery. He had been for the past year. However, Juan Sr. was not coming to visit his son right now. Instead, he was coming to visit a different prisoner. Because during this riot, Juan Jr. had just disappeared. And Juan Sr., when he had found out about that, had called prison officials, other people, politicians, you name it, to try to figure out where his son went, but nobody seemed to know.

3:52And so finally, he had found this one prisoner, the guy he was meeting today, this beaten down looking guy, who had agreed to come forward and tell Juan Sr. what he knew about what happened to Juan Jr. And so Juan sat down at this table with this prisoner, and after the two of them introduced themselves, very quickly, Juan Sr. said, please, like, tell me what happened to my son, where is But this prisoner he was talking to didn't immediately get into sort of a clear story about Juan Jr. This guy began talking about a totally separate prisoner, a man named Dorangel Vargas. Vargas was notorious across Venezuela for a series of brutal murders he committed that ultimately put him in this prison.

4:32And during this recent riot at this prison, it was Vargas and his gang that rose up and took over. Like, Vargas was in charge, effectively, of the riot. And so even though he was terrorizing people and brutalizing people and was very much responsible for the deaths of multiple inmates, he also at the same time did have to make sure that, you know, the people he was in charge of, albeit illegally, had enough food, they had enough supplies, that they had the things they needed to survive. And so again, he's sort of like dictatorial and awful, but also, you know, ensuring people have basic resources.

5:05And so one senior is listening to this man sort of lay this out about Vargas and sort of how he was in control during this riot. And Juan Sr. is like, I just don't get it. Why are you explaining the nuances of like what he was doing during the riot? And this prisoner very quickly pointed to the bandage on his arm and kind of pointed at all of his injuries that were very obvious. And he told Juan Sr. that if anybody got in the way of Vargas while he was in charge during this riot, they were basically beaten to within an inch of their lives. And again, in some cases, people were killed. I mean, this was a brutal regime.

5:37And so Juan Sr. is like, oh my goodness, is that what happened to my son? Was he beaten like you by Vargas? But at that point, the prisoner just shook his head and said no. And then he looked down and almost like couldn't make eye contact with Juan Sr. And he just said, what happened to your son was much worse. The prisoner would tell Juan Sr. that at some point during the riot, his son, Juan Jr., was tapped by Vargas to help with something. Now, it's not clear if Jr. went willingly or he was coerced, but we know that basically everybody had to do what Vargas asked them to do, otherwise they would be beaten or even killed.

6:12And so ultimately, Junior agrees to help Vargas. And the thing he was tapped to help Vargas with was distributing food to the inmates. Because remember, despite how brutal Vargas was, he was in charge of providing basic necessities to all the inmates. And because of this riot, the prison had been locked down, and so food supplies had been restricted. And so inmates are beginning to starve. There's this big food shortage. And so Junior was told like, hey, you need to help us provide food to these inmates. So Junior basically agreed to do it, at which point he was informed exactly what role he was playing in finding food.

6:46Instead of going out and looking for this food, Junior was the food. Vargas and his gang cornered Junior, beat him to death, butchered his body, and then literally fed him to the inmates. That's what happened to Juan's son. After hearing this horrific story, Juan Sr. was destroyed. And one of the first things he did is he went public and had this big press conference to tell the world about what happened to his son. But despite there being many eyewitness accounts, ultimately, the Venezuelan government denied the cannibalism and nobody was ever held accountable. Duran Helvargas remains incarcerated, and he's never been charged with any crimes connected to Junior's disappearance.

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10:41On the evening of July 2nd, 1993, a 49-year-old politician named Maslin Idris paced around the living room inside of his home, which was located in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Maslin was feeling very anxious because tonight, in his home, he was going to have a very important meeting. So Maslin was already a very successful politician. He was a state assemblyman, which is sort of like a state congressperson. But what he really coveted, the thing he wanted more than anything else in his political career, was to become the state's Mentri Bissar, which is sort of like being the state's governor.

11:16But to get this role, Maslin had to be appointed. And realistically, he didn't know if that was going to happen. And that was in part because recently, he had felt like his political power was sort of, you know, slipping away from him. And on top of that, you know, he was getting older, and he sort of felt like his popularity was waning too. And so he felt like, you know, in order for me to get appointed to become the state's mentri basar, I really need to find a unique way to reclaim that political power and popularity. And that was going to be the central focus of the big meeting at his house that night.

11:48So Maslin continued to pace around, anxiously checking his watch, you know, waiting for these people to show up. And then sure enough, late that night, he heard a knock on the door. He hustled over to the door and he made sure he looked okay. And then he opened it up. And standing in the hallway is this unbelievably beautiful woman who's flanked by these two men that he didn't know. And immediately, Maslin is just completely drawn to this woman. She had long, dark hair, of this huge smile in her eyes. I mean, they sucked him in. It was like she was, you know, hypnotizing him or something. I mean, she really looked like a celebrity, at least as Maslin imagined celebrities look up close.

12:24This woman's name was Mona Fandy. And actually, to some degree, she was a celebrity. Back in the 1980s, she had released a pop music album that had been very popular all over Malaysia. And so she was like kind of famous in Malaysia. Now, in the early 1990s, Mona was done singing, that part of her life was over, but she had launched this brand new second career post-music that, to some people, it seemed like that actually made her more notable and more famous than her singing had. These days, Mona was a highly sought-after professional shaman. So in Malaysia at this time, shamanism was pretty popular and mainstream.

13:02Shamans were these people who claimed to have supernatural powers, you know, they could heal people and and bring them prosperity. And so it wasn't uncommon for the really well-known shamans to be called upon by very powerful people, like, you know, politicians, let's say, to sort of leverage their powers to increase their clout and their influence. And so Maslin saw Mona, who at the time was arguably the most famous shaman in the entire country, he saw her as his meal ticket. She was going to be the way that he reclaimed the power he needed so he could be appointed as the state's Mentri Bissar.

13:36And so Maslin very excitedly welcomed Mona and the two men, who were her husband and her assistant, into his home. And, you know, even though Maslin had expected to see Mona tonight, I mean, he knew she was the one who'd be performing this ritual tonight, he still couldn't help but feel totally starstruck by her. And so as a result, he had a lot of nervous energy, and he began sort of like rapid-firing asking her questions about, you know, like, how quickly will I see results? And like, how's this gonna go? And, you know, how successful are these things really? And Mona, as she's just looking at him and smiling, she just eventually reaches out as he's talking and just puts her hand on his shoulder and says, it's okay.

14:12Why don't you show my husband and my assistant where the room is, where the space is, that we're going to be doing this ritual tonight? And at this, Maslin just totally shut up and he nodded. He sort of got the hint that he was sort of being too much here. And he led them into this other room that he had cleared out for tonight. There was nothing on the ground. It was like a vacant room in his house. And right away, the assistant, he began spreading flower petals all over the ground, while Maslin began speaking to Mona's husband to work out payment details. I mean, this was not a free thing that he was getting.

14:40It was going to cost him the equivalent of tens of thousands of US dollars to get what he wanted here, to gain his power back. But Maslin didn't really care about how much this cost in money, because to him, it was absolutely worth it. And so once the payment details were handled, and Maslin was, you know, ready, and the assistant had finished putting all the flower petals out, Mona walked over and told Maslin to come with her. And so he followed Mona and they went into the ritual room that again is covered with flower petals. And she told Maslin to lay down on his back in the middle of the room.

15:10So he did that. He laid down and he's looking up at Mona and her assistant and her husband are off in the background. And Mona's got that big dazzling smile and she's staring right at him. She says, close your eyes and clear your mind. And all I want you to do is just focus on your desires for the future. You know, what riches do you want to come to you? And focus solely on those. And so Maslin did this. In his mind's eye, he pictured himself becoming more politically powerful and more popular and landing the job of his dreams. And he's sort of narrating what he's saying out loud. And Mona's telling him, good, good, keep going, keep picturing those things.

15:45And then at some point, she's like, look, I want you to picture riches raining down from the sky on you, sort of symbolizing you getting these things that you want. And so Maslin did that, and he began picturing the gold and the silver falling from the sky, you know, landing on him, and he's narrating what he's feeling and seeing. And at some point, he was so fixated on this idea of riches coming from the sky that he swore he could literally feel the gold and silver actually hitting his body. And at that point, when he was actually feeling something, is when the ritual was done. A little over a year later, on September 12, 1994, the famous shaman, Mona Fandi, glided her way through a crowd of photographers on a street just outside of Kuala Lumpur.

16:29Mona was dressed to the nines. She had red lipstick on, her hair was all styled up, she had beautiful clothes on, and as she maneuvered through the crowd, she sort of feigned like she didn't want the attention, but she totally did. So it would turn out the ritual that she had performed on Maslin a year earlier had made Maslin incredibly famous. And in turn, it had made Mona even more famous than she already was. And so the paparazzi, they were desperate to get a photo of her because of her unbelievable fame. And for Mona, even though she acted like what she really cared about was being a shaman and helping people achieve their dreams and to heal and gain in prosperity, even though that's what she would say, the truth was, ever since she had had that big hit, that pop music album that had launched her into the stratosphere, ever since then, she had been chasing fame.

17:17And now she had really nailed it. I mean, she was like an icon in Malaysia. And so as she maneuvered past the paparazzi and everyone's clamoring to get her attention and to get her photo, she thought to herself, my plan has worked perfectly. Except it's important to understand that, you know, Mona wasn't really famous as much as she was infamous. And it really stemmed from that ritual she performed on Maslin. Because what she did to Maslin is she actually just ritualistically executed him. Except it would turn out Maslin wasn't even her first victim. He was her eighth victim, at least as far as we know, and she just got caught after she killed Maslin.

17:59When Maslin was laying in that room and the ritual's going on and he's being told to picture all these gold coins and silver bars raining down on him, well, while he was doing that, and critically, he had his eyes closed, Mona grabbed an axe, raised it up, and brought it down into the middle of his chest. And so this ritual murder was designed to lead to somebody getting more power and more fame, except that person was not really Maslin, it was Mona. I mean, Maslin did become extremely well known for being a victim of Mona, but it was Mona who suddenly was the talk of the entire country. I mean, she was all over the news, and she was beautiful.

18:37And so it's like this crazy dichotomy of this unbelievably attractive woman who's also a serial killer? I mean, this is the stuff that just makes the news over and over and over again, and Mona loved it. And so when Mona was walking past that crowd of paparazzi and they're all taking photos of her, that was actually her walking to her murder trial. Every day, she would basically treat that walk up the steps to her murder trial as like her personal red carpet with all the paparazzi taking her photo. She'd dress up in these lavish outfits and smile for the cameras on her way to be tried for murder.

19:10And then ultimately, she was convicted of it and sentenced to death. But she was totally unfazed because for her, again, it was all about gaining this incredible notoriety and she had succeeded. It was like the ultimate shaman move and she had done it. On the day of Mona's actual execution, she was going to be hanged along with her assistant and husband. they too were found guilty. On her walk to the gallows, we have all these reporters and all these photographers, and she's still flashing smiles and treating it again like it's her own personal movie premiere. I mean, she didn't care at all that she's literally about to be killed.

19:45And then literally her final words as the noose is being put around her neck were, I'll never die.

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21:26The next and final story of today's episode is called A Son's Nightmare.

21:39One evening in February of 2011, a man in his 30s named Yang was eating dinner inside of his home in a rural village in China. Around him at the table were his five elderly aunts, who he lived with and took care of. Now, nobody spoke over dinner. It was totally silent. But this was common, and it was not awkward at all. Because Yang actually preferred silence. He had been born with a disability that made it nearly impossible for him to speak. It also had left him blind in one eye. And over the course of Yang's life, he had been sort of bullied for his disability. And as a result, he really didn't like being around other people.

22:14And he certainly didn't like trying to talk to other people. I mean, that was really, again, something he had a really hard time doing. But in his life, the few people that totally accepted him and loved him were his family, in particular his five aunts. They didn't care at all that basically he never spoke. And so, for example, at this dinner table, there was no expectation that anybody would speak, and Yang loved it. But more than just feeling happy that he could be himself around his aunts, Yang also took a lot of pride in looking after his aunts. He wanted to make sure they were comfortable and well-looked after in their old age.

22:48So after this silent dinner, Yang stood up and he cleaned the table off, and then he helped one of his aunts go up to her bedroom. And after getting her tucked in, and as Yang was about to go down and help the next aunt go to her bedroom, he heard sirens outside. Now, Yang lives in this very remote rural village in China that's actually so remote they didn't have their own police force. But even more specifically, Yang literally in his whole life had never even heard a siren or seen a police car. And so this is like really unique. And so instead of going and helping his next aunt, Yang went outside to see what was going on.