All right, so I am back in front of a literal fire, because you guys loved the last fire episode that we did, the last campfire episode.
And on today's campfire episode, I have a great ghost story.
Not only is the story itself super creepy, but I'm telling you the plot twist at the very end.
Worth sticking around for.
You've got to listen.
It's a great story.
I know you're going to love it.
But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right fire pit, because that's all we do.
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Okay, let's get into today's story.
One afternoon in the winter of 2015, a 57-year-old woman named Patricia Dare was sleeping on her couch inside of her home in France when the sound of her phone dinging woke her up.
Patricia slowly opened her eyes and she felt groggy and confused.
She'd been relaxing and watching a movie, since she had the day off from her job as a reporter for a local radio station, but she realized, you know, she must have dozed off.
And so Patricia, she grabbed her phone and she checked her notifications and she saw she had a text message, but from a number that she didn't recognize.
And what it said was really weird.
It said, quote, And for a second, Patricia just had no idea what this meant.
Couldn't make sense of what this even said.
But then she realized there was actually text messages that she had received earlier from this number and she realized who it was.
So the person texting Patricia this strange message was this middle-aged woman named Bérenger.
About eight months earlier, Bérenger had approached Patricia while she was out in public and told her that she desperately needed Patricia's help.
Because, Bérenger said, she worked in a castle and that castle was haunted.
So Patricia, in addition to being a local news reporter, was also a self-proclaimed psychic medium, meaning she basically believed that she had the ability to contact the dead.
That was something she was really passionate about.
And in fact, she was fairly famous for being a psychic medium in France.
So, you know, this request was actually not that bizarre for Patricia.
But because of Patricia's status, both because she was, you know, a famous medium and also because she was on the news, you know, she was sort of well-known and it drew a lot of people to her, claiming that they had paranormal issues, ranging from thinking they saw a ghost to their house is haunted or whatever.
And Almost all the time when Patrícia would follow up with some people who claimed they had issues, she would discover that, you know, despite her best efforts, there clearly was nothing going on.
That was paranormal.
There was no dead to talk to.
It was just like you know drafty windows or a house settling or you know just a shadow that looked really eerie or something.
The vast majority of times people approached Patricia, she really didn't take them that seriously.
So a couple of months ago, when Berenger had approached Patricia, you know her reaction to it was basically like oh, your castle's haunted.
Yeah, I bet, you know, but she was polite about it.
But realistically, she didn't believe it was true.
But because Berenger was sort of persistent, really demanding help from Patricia, did give her her phone number, sort of to be polite, and then immediately afterwards Beranger had texted Patricia and those were the text messages that Patricia had, you know, in the thread, but Patricia had intentionally ignored them.
But now you know, here was Bérenger texting her once again with this sort of weird cryptic message.
You know again about this haunting of her castle.
And this actually kind of piqued Patricia's interest.
And because Patricia did have a day off here, she actually felt inspired to follow up and maybe go check out this castle and see what this haunting was all about.
An hour and a half later, Patricia pulled up in front of the small cottage that was on the same property as the castle.
She knew from earlier text messages that this cottage was where Berenger actually lived.
And so Patricia parked, she got out, she walked up to the front door of the cottage and she knocked, but nobody answered.
And so after a few moments she tried knocking again, this time a little bit louder, and then the door did open, but it was not Beranger.
It was this man, this middle-aged man who looked very confused to be seeing Patricia standing there.
And just from the look on his face.
Patricia immediately launched into this explanation of why she was here.
I was here.
I was speaking to her via text message.
And the man still, he's looking at her like, what are you doing here?
What's going on?
But then from behind him out walks Berenger.
And when she looked towards the door and she saw Patricia standing there, Berenger was practically weeping.
I mean, she was so happy and clearly relieved to see Patricia.
And she's just like, oh my gosh, thank you so much for coming.
This is unbelievable.
Thank you.
Like, we really need your help.
And then, before Patricia could ask any questions, Beranger pointed to the man that had opened the door for Patricia and seemed so confused.
And, you know, at this point, his expression had softened quite a bit.
And Beranger said, this is my husband.
This is Remy.
And he, too, is so relieved you're here.
And so at this point Patricia, you know, she shook his hand and she smiled at them both and was like yeah, you know, I don't know what I can do for you.
You know, why don't you, you fill me in?
You know, all I know is apparently your, your castle over there is haunted.
Can you, can you tell me the story?
And so Béranger, she had to kind of compose herself because she was quite emotional just to see Patricia here.
But you know, after collecting herself, she told Patricia that about a year ago her husband Remy, had been hired as the caretaker of that castle and that she had just come along to help.
And she said you know, at first both of them had been really excited for this opportunity because it came with free housing in this cottage.
However, Beranger said that they had only been working here for a couple of weeks, when really weird stuff started to happen.
Beranger said that she'd be in the castle doing, you know, daily chores, and she would know that she's the only one in the castle.
Yet she would suddenly hear what were obvious footsteps of people walking and running around on the upper floors of the castle.
And at this point, Remy chimed in and he said, yeah, me too.
Like, I've heard those footsteps in the castle and I know it's totally empty.
But even stranger than that is Remy said he'd be in the castle and he would hear voices.
And not just, you know, people whispering or something like you see in the movies.
No, he would hear people screaming at the top of their lungs, like in other distant parts of the castle that he couldn't see.
And it was terrifying.
As Patricia listened to Remy and Beranger tell this story, you know Patricia was struck by how earnestly they came across.
I mean, they definitely were shaken by whatever they experienced inside of that castle.
Like, they were genuinely troubled and didn't know what to do about it.
Remy still had this job at the castle, they still had to go in there, but it was becoming like this big issue and they didn't know what to do about it.
As Patricia was listening to the couple tell the story, you know she couldn't help but feel like they were being very honest.
They seemed very earnest, as they're telling the story, like they weren't trying to to dramatize.
They were trying to relay what amounted to, you know, trauma.
They both clearly did not like going in the castle.
It was like this thing they had to do due to remy's job.
But they were trapped.
They felt like we don't know what to do here and no one's taken us seriously.
But at the same time, Patricia is a veteran psychic medium and she's been to numerous house calls, numerous haunted homes.
And many times the screams people think they hear in their home are like the sound of wind coming in through an open window and the footsteps are like a pet somewhere in the house.
So there could easily be, you know, a reasonable justification here.
But it seemed apparent that there was enough here that it certainly warranted Patricia actually going to the castle and having a look around.
And so she said, okay, let's go over.
Like, let's go see the castle.
A few minutes later, Patricia followed Beranger and Remy along this wooded path from the cottage over to the castle.
Even from pretty far away, the castle was huge and very intimidating.
There were two very tall round towers on either end, and in the middle was a slightly shorter section that was decorated with a bunch of turrets.
The castle only had two windows that were visible from the front where they were approaching.
And for a second, as Patricia was looking at it.
She had this sort of uneasy feeling that the windows were the eyes on the castle and the castle was looking at her.
But she shook the feeling off and kept walking along.
And a few minutes later, they reached the castle's huge front door.
And at this point, Remy pulled out this huge key ring covered in keys, and he unlocked the door.
And then he kind of stepped aside and pushed it open, sort of gesturing for Remy.
Patricia to make her way inside.
Now, Patricia was doing her best to be very professional and, you know, not quite buy into the hype, at least not yet.
You know, this could be something completely rational, but When Patricia walked into the castle, she found herself inside of this huge empty space called the Great Hall.
And the first thing she noticed was really how dark and cold it was inside.
I mean, this was a castle, of course, and so that was sort of the atmosphere you'd expect.
But this felt like eerie, like this was not a place you'd want to spend a lot of time.
And also it just felt like the atmosphere was just heavy somehow.
Like it really was just a tense place to be.
Patricia took a deep breath and kind of centered herself.
And then she looked around a bit more closely and she saw there were a few windows on the back wall, but they were all shut.
And then right in front of her was this huge stone staircase.
And to her right and to her left she could see there were long hallways that she knew must lead to dozens of rooms potentially.
And so, after standing there for a few moments, just kind of taking in the scene, Patricia turned to Baron Jay and she asked her.
She said okay, so you've heard footsteps, you know upstairs, when this place was empty.
Can you tell me what you were doing?
You know, in any of the instances where those sounds came through.
Like, what were you doing?
Do you remember?
And Beranger said, actually, yeah, I do remember.
The last time it happened, I was closing the shutters on the window.
I know I heard people upstairs when I was doing that.
And so immediately, Patrice is thinking, oh, you know, that could be it.
Maybe it was literally the sound the shutters were making that maybe somehow gave Beranger the impression that there were footsteps elsewhere inside of this castle.
I mean, everything echoes inside of here.
It's this big cavernous space.
It was possible.
And so Patricia is like, okay, well, let's go test the shutters.
Let's just see if maybe that is causing some strange sounds in your home.
And Beranger and Remy did not seem remotely offended by this.
If anything, they were like, eager to find a rational explanation for whatever it was they were experiencing.
Quickly they, along with Patricia, walked over to one of the windows and Patricia reached out and she opened up the shutters and then shut the shutters and then did it a few more times, but there were no strange sounds.
There certainly were no sounds of footsteps running around inside of the castle.
Like there was no way that the shutters were making sounds that you could confuse for footsteps.
Like this was not it.
However, Patricia decided she would, just in case, try another shutter.
You know, see if maybe one of the other shutters made strange sounds.
Just to confirm.
Really this is not the case.
But as she reached for this other shutter, before she even touched it, there was this loud sudden, high-pitched shrieking sound that echoed all through the castle from upstairs, and then it just went deadly silent.
And immediately the hairs on the back of Patricia's neck stood up.
I mean, this was like an unmistakable sound.
And Patricia, she turns to Remy and Berenger, and they're obviously spooked.
I mean, they've experienced stuff like this, but this is still just so terrifying.
And Patricia, you know, she's standing there, not even sure what to do.
But then she kind of, she tells herself like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
That couldn't have been what we thought it was.
There's no way that that was some screech coming from some ghost upstairs.
There has to be a logical explanation here.
And part of the reason she was thinking this is, even in her time as a psychic medium, Nothing this visceral had ever happened in her career.
Something like that was out of a movie, you know, like literally a ghost screeching upstairs.
And so Patricia turns to the couple and she's like, look, Obviously, I heard that too.
But let's not rule out that that could have been the wind or something.
Let's not jump to conclusions here, OK?
Let's be rational.
Let's be pragmatic.
Let's just search the castle and see what we're up against.
And so the couple you know, Remy and Beranger.
They did not seem reassured but they kind of nodded along, like you know, whatever you say.
But then, like before anyone could do anything else, there was another sudden loud, high-pitched scream coming from somewhere else upstairs.
A different voice is now screaming upstairs.
And then it went deadly silent again, and then it was very clear to Patricia, and certainly to the couple, that this castle might just be haunted.
There's something going on here that is not right.
However, as Patricia is standing there kind of trying to get her bearings of like what she should even suggest they do, because suddenly she is like the expert in charge of the response here before she could even think
She had this very powerful feeling come over her that she would sort of describe as like a pull.
It was like a magnet was pulling her in the direction of these screams.
Like she felt like she needed to go upstairs, to the second floor, to wherever those screams came from.
She had to.
And it wasn't even clear if this was like her channeling her psychic medium powers.
It was like the castle was pulling her deeper and deeper inside of the structure.
And so without even telling Remy and Berenger what she was doing...
Patricia just kind of silently turned and began walking, almost against her will, towards that stone staircase that went up to the upper levels.
And now at this point, the castle is deadly silent.
All you can hear is the sound of their footsteps their footsteps as they're making their way over towards the staircase.
And you know, Remy and Berenger, they're so frightened they're just, you know, tucked up right behind Patricia, following her along, not even sure what they should be doing.
And so upstairs they went.
And Patricia again she's got like this intense feeling that she has to go upstairs.
She can't even control it.
And so up the stairs she goes.
No one's talking.
All they hear is the sound of the footsteps from the staircase, and Up and up they go all the way up to the third floor, which is where these screams were likely coming from.
And at that point Patricia, almost on instinct, turned left and began walking down this long hallway with all these doors that were shut along the way.
And again, the castle is just deadly quiet.
All you can hear are their footsteps.
And down the hallway they go all the way to a dead end where there is a single room that is shut at the very end of the hallway.
And at this point Patricia, almost like without even thinking, she turns and kind of almost aggressively says to Remy, get your keys out and open this door.
Like she didn't even know why she was being aggressive.
It was like just coming through her.
But Berenger, at this point she chimes in and says you know the owner of the castle.
They told us this is the one room we're not allowed to go in.
We've never been inside of here.
We can't go in here.
Patricia, she just looks at Berenger and says, I don't care.
We have to go in.
Open the door.
I'm going in.
I have to go in this room.
And so at this point, Berenger, she looks at her husband and Remy kind of shrugged.
I mean, they don't even know what they're supposed to do at this point, but they figured all right.
You know she's the expert.
Let's let her go in.
And so Remy, he pulled out his big set of keys and he fumbled through them all.
And Patricia, you know, she's rearing to go in this room.
She can't even understand why she feels this way.
And Remy, he reaches over, he turns the lock, he pushes the door open.
And Patricia walks inside.
Now, as soon as this door opened up, Remy and Beranger got a look inside of this room.
And it was unremarkable.
It was like a vacant room.
There was nothing inside of it.
Like there was no clear reason why this room was off limits per the owner.
But as they watched Patricia walk to the middle of the room sort of slowly and methodically and come to a stop right in the middle with her back to them, they could have sworn.
They heard whispers suddenly picking up inside of this room, even though there's nobody else in there but Patricia.
And then Patricia, who by this point was sort of you know freaking out Beranger and Remy.
She was acting just very different than when she had first arrived.
She just stood there in this sort of bizarre way, just like rigid, staring towards the back of this room as these whispers are kind of going on in this dark room.
And then from the threshold, Baronchet and Remy watched as Patricia, who has not turned around yet or anything, she just began to twitch like her shoulders were moving around funny and her neck was snapping in a strange direction.
And then she began letting out this awful croaking sound, this constant single-tone croaking sound.
And it went on for so long that you'd think she would have needed to take in a breath to then continue this croaking sound.
But she didn't.
It just went on and on and on, just emanating from her body.
And Remy and Berenger, they're terrified at this point for a host of reasons.
But really, it's now Patricia that's scaring them the most.
And Patricia.
As she's twitching and croaking, she suddenly stops and whips around and looks at the couple.
And her mouth is open, like her jaw is slack.
And this croaking sound is still coming out of her.
But clearly, she's also weeping.
Tears are coming down her face.
Now Remy and Berenger.
I mean, they are beyond terrified at this point for so many reasons, but they clearly know some kind of crisis is unfolding with Patricia and they want to help her.
And they were about to ask her, like what can we do?
Like what's going on when there's this loud slamming sound somewhere else in the castle on one of the lower levels?
It sounded like a door slamming shut, but really loud.
And it was like the noise snapped Patricia out of whatever trance she was in and suddenly she became really focused.
And then, instead of communicating with the couple, she just bolted right past them, sprinted down the hallway and ran down the stairs like she was chasing after the sound that had just been made somewhere downstairs.
And so Remy and Beranger, they're like, what else can we do but follow her?
And so they run down the hallway you know several, you know lengths behind Patricia who's somewhere downstairs and they get down to the second floor the couple does, and they can hear the sound of movement in one of the rooms down the hallway and then they hear this loud like animalistic yelling sound that appears to be you know Patricia yelling or growling or something somewhere in one of these rooms.
And so they make their way in that direction and they see there's this open door that leads into a bedroom, and then there's a bathroom off the bedroom.
They go in and they look in that bathroom And there's Patricia.
And her back is to them.
And she's on her knees.
And she's visibly weeping.
And she's looking up at something in the room.
She was kind of at an angle where they could see her face.
And her face is contorted just in horror.
And she's seeing something in the bathroom that is just completely terrifying her.
But there's nothing in the bathroom.
And so Remy and Beranger, they just they walk in there and they grab Patricia, who did not want to leave, but they drag her out of the bathroom.
They stand her up and they literally forcibly remove her from the castle.
Several hours later, Beranger and Remy were back inside of their cottage, sitting in their living room with all these papers scattered in front of them on their coffee table.
And next to them was Patricia who by this point you know she was basically back to normal, but she was still very shaken up by what happened in the castle.
And also by this point, she was able to explain to the couple what had happened from her perspective in the castle.
She basically told them that she did basically go into a trance.
She had a psychic medium experience But she had never had anything like this before.
I mean, this was visceral.
This was way beyond anything she had ever experienced in her entire career.
According to Patricia, when she had walked into that locked room on the third floor of the castle the forbidden room The room was not empty.
When she went in there, she had that calling to go in there.
And as soon as the door opened, what she saw was a room filled with people with basically entities ghosts, if you will.
You know, Beranger and Remy couldn't see them, but Patricia could.
And she said all these entities were wearing different clothes, like from different time periods.
There were people in medieval peasant outfits and there were people wearing Victorian dresses and there were people wearing, you know, very modern 20th century business suits.
But that really wasn't the initial impression that Patricia got.
That was just something she noticed.
What she immediately picked up on when she was called into that room and saw these entities is how lost and sort of scared these ghosts seemed, like they were in trouble.
And Patricia.
She said she felt like she was pulled into the center of the room and then felt kind of anchored there.
And as she stood there, these ghosts basically began crowding in on her, like they were trying to get her help by getting closer to her, but she felt like overcome with this almost claustrophobic feeling of being suffocated by their sadness, not even by their physical presence.
It was like their loneliness and desperation was like washing over her and it was so awful it made her weep.
And then eventually Patricia said she was able to kind of force her body to whip around and look at least in the direction of the exit, because she wanted to leave at this point.
And it was at that point that she's making this groaning sound, which she didn't even recall.
And she hears this loud slamming sound, which was the door slamming downstairs.
And that kind of spooked the entities away from her.
And she was able to bolt from the room.
And Patricia said, when she got out into the hallway and basically began maneuvering in the direction of the slam door because again she had this intense sense of being pulled in the direction of this noise, she said it felt very different than when she had been pulled up to the third floor.
She said now in retrospect, when she had been pulled up there you know what she was being pulled by didn't seem malevolent.
It seemed, you know, neutral or maybe even positive.
But as soon as she was going in the direction of this slam door down on the second floor.
She said it felt totally different.
There was obviously like a dark presence, like something bad happening was pulling her towards them.
But still, you know, almost against her will, she ran down the hallway, she went down the stairs and she made her way into that bedroom, you know, with Beranger and Remy following closely behind.
And Patricia said, she eventually turned and went into this bathroom.
In this bedroom, and when she went in there she saw something that was so terrifying she just fell to her knees and began to scream.
That was that animalistic wailing sound that the couple heard.
What she saw was this enormous, tall, just like dark figure.
It was a ghost of this tall man of sorts with like these deep scars all over his face.
And he was wearing this rusted chainmail armor like he was from a different time.
And he just seemed evil.
Like a dark, dark presence.
And she knew that was the feeling she was getting.
It was coming from this ghost.
And it was only because Remy and Berenger came in and basically pulled her away that she thinks she even survived.
Like she was being pulled to her death.
Like that's the way it felt.
But again, fortunately, she's pulled out of the castle.
They go back to the cottage.
Patricia, you know, had her chance to calm down.
And now the three of them were trying to basically decipher what just happened.
Like.
What can we take from this unbelievable story that Patricia has told us and what they witnessed?
And what they quickly settled on was.
You know, we have a lot that we can begin to explore here, but let's focus on that evil entity, that tall man in the rusted chainmail armor.
Who was that?
And like, what did he want?
So she and Remy, in the hours since they had escaped the castle, had gathered up a bunch of their historical documents about the castle and laid them out on the coffee table.
And they had begun going through them to try to learn about this guy.
And at some point, as they were looking through all these documents, There was one particular section that, for whatever reason, just drew, you know, Patricia's attention.
She just thought, like, I want to look at that.
And it was the section about a knight whose name was Jean, who had lived in the 14th century.
And the document said that Jean had been a soldier during the Hundred Years' War, which was a conflict between England and France that had started in the mid 1300s.
And during that war, the castle was used as a French military fortress.
And Jean was killed during a battle at the castle.
And so after Patricia read this out loud to Berenger and Remy, Patricia said she just had this feeling that the evil spirit, the tall man in the armor she saw in the bathroom, that scared her so much.
She had a feeling that she didn't know why, but that seemed like Jaune.
However, even if Patricia had been right that this evil spirit she encountered was Jean, they still didn't know why he was there, or why he had appeared and why he had called her to the room, or why any of this stuff had happened.
The whole thing really was unexplained here.
Or you know who were the other ghosts who were up on the third floor.
You know that apparently Patricia saw.
Like, none of it made any more sense.
At some point, Beranger asked Patricia, like, what do you think?
What does all this mean?
Like, why did this happen?
What do you think?
But Patricia, she really was still very shaken up by this.
I mean, she was this renowned psychic medium, but again, she had never had an experience like this.
I mean, this was really terrifying.
And she just was like, look, I'm overwhelmed.
I need to go home.
I need to go home and just think about this.
I need to process what's happened here.
And so, you know, obviously Remy and Béranger, they couldn't really protest.
But they also were like, man, I really don't want to be left here alone with this horrifying castle.
But, you know, you do what you got to do.
And Patricia, she got up and she left.
After Patricia left, Beranger and Remy both agreed that you know, despite the fact that Remy was the groundskeeper here and did need to look after the castle, that for now it was just too dangerous to go in there.
It was not worth it.
And so they would stay away, at least until, you know, Patricia came back and they could get to the bottom of this.
And for a couple of days, you know, with Remy and Béranger staying away from the castle like they had normal lives.
I mean, nothing strange happened at all.
They just basically lived in their cottage and went about their lives, sort of keeping the castle over here.
But after a couple of days, when still Patricia had not come back again she was still at her home, still processing this whole thing Béranger started having this weird feeling in her chest.
It was like this need to go to the castle, not dissimilar from how Patricia had described, like this overwhelming sense of being pulled up to the third floor when she was describing her whole encounter, her whole experience.
Berenger, she tried to act like this wasn't happening to her, but she couldn't deny it.
It's like she just had this feeling of, I've got to go to the castle.
I've got to go over there.
And then one day Remy looked out the window of the cottage and he sees his wife Berenger walking right towards the front door of this castle.
And he's thinking, there's no way she should be going in there.
We agreed not to go in.
Like, what is she doing?
And he literally ran over there and grabbed her and pulled her back before she went into the castle, which is exactly what she was gonna do.
And then when she was pulled away, she couldn't even describe why she was over there.
She's like, I don't even know.
I just felt like I had to come over here.
I can't explain it.
But that wasn't even the strangest thing that happened over these few days after the incident with Patricia.
Because shortly after, you know, Baron Jay almost walked back into the castle, a man had come on the castle grounds.
This random man sort of wandered on to the castle grounds and was apparently being drawn, although he kind of framed it differently.
He didn't really know why he was there, but he was drawn towards the castle.
And as he's walking towards this castle, a deer presumably was also being drawn to the castle.
And the deer went running towards the castle and actually rammed into this man and hurt him badly enough he had to be hospitalized.
He actually lost an eye from being hit by this deer.
And so after this happened, even though you know, Beranger and Remy were trying to respect Patricia sort of giving herself some space here because she hadn't come back, she hadn't been in touch
At this point, they were like, we have to get in touch with her.
Like, she's the only other person who understands, you know, how serious this is.
And so Beranger called Patricia and she said, like...
Whatever's going on in the castle, whatever dark energy is existing in there, it's getting stronger.
Now, at first, Patricia was not inclined to come back.
I mean, there was a reason she had not been in touch with them since she had left.
She had basically decided, like, I don't want this in my life.
This is terrifying.
I don't know what happened, but I don't want this in my life.
But she could just tell that you know, Berenger and Remy, I mean, they were at their wit's end here and they didn't know what to do.
They were lost and they were turning to Patricia more like a friend, like hey, please come back here and support us and help us get through this.
And so Patricia did agree to go back.
And so, sure enough, the following evening Berenger, Remy and Patricia were back inside the castle, in the second floor bathroom, where Patricia had been found at the end of that horrible experience, looking up at what she believes now was Jean's ghost, this terrifying entity.
And so they're in this bathroom.
And Patricia had come in here in order to basically attempt an exorcism.
And so she's standing in this bathroom and sort of behind her is Beranger and Remy and they're kind of holding each other.
And Beranger is so scared, she's shaking.
And they're watching as Patricia, despite her own fears, She was very calm and she was standing there with her eyes shut and she was sort of trying to channel Jean's energy because she didn't have that feeling being pulled, you know, in any direction inside the castle.
She was sort of choosing to channel whatever spirit was inside of this bathroom.
And then, at some point, Patricia appeared to sort of connect with something in the room, something that you know Beranger and Remy couldn't see.
The room appeared to be empty to them.
But it was obvious that Patricia had sort of picked up on something.
And then kind of out of nowhere, she said in this very stern, very loud voice, Jean, show yourself.
And then Beranger and Remy.
They're staring at Patricia because again, there's nothing else they can see in this room.
And Patricia.
She opens her eyes and she kind of looks around the room and then she focuses on something on the other side of the bathroom, like she can clearly see something, like she's seeing another entity or something.
Berenger and Remy are looking and there's nothing they can see.
And then Patricia, again, still very focused, eyes locked on whatever it is in the room.
She says again in that stern, loud voice, it's over.
You have to move on.
Like she's instructing, you know, this entity, presumably Jean's entity, that he needs to go.
He needs to move on.
And for a second it's just silent in the bathroom as Beranger and Remy kind of wait to see what's going to happen.
Like, is Patricia going to go into another trance here?
Like, what's going to happen?
But Patricia, she seemed very calm, very forceful, and she's staring still towards the back of the bathroom.
Nothing happens.
Nothing happens.
It's silent.
And then Patricia again says, it's over.
You have to move on.
And this time after the second time that you know Patricia is given this command.
Beranger and Remy they heard the sound of banging on a door upstairs on the third floor, basically right above them.
And then they hear the sound of shuffling footsteps all over the place, and then the sounds of mournful crying and there's more banging.
And, you know, and Beranger and Remy, I mean, they're holding each other.
They're so scared.
Patricia's unmoved.
She's just standing there, anchored in the room. and all this commotion's happening upstairs, and then suddenly they hear the distinct sound of a door flying open, and then all these footsteps rushing down the hallway mixed in with the sound of crying, but it was not crying like sad, it was blissful crying, it was tears of joy as whoever was up there was charging down the hallway, down the steps, and out of castle.
At this point it was like a calm fell over the whole castle.
And Patricia.
She turned away from you know whatever else was inside of the bathroom and she looked at Remy and Beranger and she smiled and she said it's over.
It's okay.
Everything's okay now.
Patricia would tell them that she was able to actually channel the ghost that had been in the bathroom, that evil entity.
And she said it was Jean, it was his ghost, and that he had been haunting their castle because he didn't know he was dead.
He was stuck in a sort of purgatory where he believed he was still fighting the Hundred Years' War.
And so every time somebody died inside of this castle over the many, many years that he had been here, he would take their spirit prisoner up in that room on the third floor.
Those were prisoners.
But Patricia, during this exorcism, had said to him, it's over.
Like, the war is over.
It's time to move on.
And he understood that she was saying the war is over.
And at that point, Jean is the one who freed the prisoners on the third floor.
That was the sound of all the prisoners being released.
They were all so happy and they fled the castle.
And then at that point, Jean himself, his spirit was finally able to rest.
However, there's one more wrinkle to the story, which is shortly after the exorcism, when life sort of returned to normal for all parties.
Patricia and Baron J were speaking and Patricia, at some point, just kind of offhandedly, said something like you know, it's a good thing, Baron J, that you texted me again and got me to come back out here, because clearly I was able to help you guys.
I was able to, you know, free these spirits from the castle.
What a good thing it was that you texted me again.
And Beranger said, what do you mean?
And Patricia was like you know, when you texted me about how the castle was sort of calling me.
You know you were right.
Like, clearly it was.
And I came over and we took care of it.
But Beranger was like, I haven't texted you in months.
I didn't send that text message.
And Patricia.
She pulled out her phone and she showed her the text where it was like the castle is calling you.
The castle is calling you, come.
And Beranger was like, yeah, I didn't send that to you.
And to this day, Patricia, Beranger, and Remy still have no idea who sent that text to Patricia.
A quick note about our stories.
They are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
The Mr Ballin Podcast Strange Dark and Mysterious Stories is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr Ballin.
Our head of writing is Evan Allen.
Our head of production is Zach Levitt.
Produced by Jeremy Bone.
Research and fact-checking by Shelley Hsu, Samantha Van Hoose, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway and Camille Callahan.
Research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen Ear.
Audio editing and post-produced by Wit Lacascio, Jordan Stidham, and Cole Lacascio.
Mixed and mastered by Brendan Cain.
Production coordination by Samantha Collins.
Production support by Antonio Minata and Delana Corley.
Artwork by Jessica Clogsden-Kiner.
Theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugden.
Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.
If you enjoyed today's story and you want to hear more like it, go ahead and check out our YouTube channel, just called Mr Ballin, where we have hundreds more stories a lot like this one, but most of them are not available on this podcast.
They are only available on that YouTube channel, which again is just called Mr. Ballin.
So that's going to do it.
I really appreciate your support.
Until next time, see ya.
