Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good evening and welcome to do you want to be a ghost story? My name is Ben, and I'll be your host. Since this is the first episode, I want to go ahead and give you guys a quick, brief outline of how I'm going to run this show. Each week, I'm going to read a ghost story. I'm going to publish it to YouTube and all of the major podcasting platforms so you can enjoy it anywhere you want to.
[00:00:19] The stories that I will share are from people like you. Most of them were sent to me during my time running a paranormal TikTok account, and a lot of them are also from my friends and family. But it is my hope that future listeners, possibly even the one listening to it right now, will send me their story to share. And these stories that I get sent might be lightly edited by myself just to keep it within a narrative structure so the listening experience is enhanced for everybody. But that being said, all of the events, all of the proposed hauntings, the way the story unfolds is not changed whatsoever. All of the events of the story are depicted precisely how the person who originally sent it in wrote them. All I do is just make sure that the story has a beginning, middle, and end that you can, like, easily follow.
[00:01:12] I will also go ahead and make sure that I provide any context to the story so you kind of have an idea of what we're talking about, if that is needed. And then after I tell the story, I'll also spend a little bit of time kind of talking about it and invite you to share your feelings as well.
[00:01:30] That being said, tonight's. I've said that. I said that being said twice now, didn't I? Huh?
[00:01:38] I'll work on it. It's episode one.
[00:01:41] I'm working on it. I'm working on it. Okay. Anyway, tonight's story, it doesn't need much introduction. It's a pretty easy one to get into. It came to me from a woman named Marie, and it takes place on the Jersey shore at a hotel where Marie and her husband spent some time on their honeymoon. She sent it to me after I made a TikTok about this hotel.
[00:01:59] So it was very interesting to hear someone's story at a hotel that I made a TikTok about. It's hauntings.
[00:02:07] So, without further ado, do you want to hear a ghost story?
[00:02:15] It was 2002. My husband and I had just married. We didn't have much money to do anything extravagant like the Bahamas. But being from Philadelphia, we were pretty comfortable with the Jersey shore. We opted to head to Ocean City and stay at the Flanders Hotel at the recommendation of my new mother in law. Considering how our first night would unfold and how she audibly voiced her doubts of compatibility between myself and her son, I cannot help but wonder if this was her attempt at sabotaging our marriage. But in the days and years since, she has always denied any knowledge of the ghosts at the hotel.
[00:02:48] It was a hot summer evening when we checked into the Flanders. The sun had just set, casting an orange glow over the building. The hotel was considerably ornate and lavish, at least compared to my previous experiences at the Holiday Inn. Still, amongst our anticipation for our night away there was an unsettling aura that I couldnt quite shake off. The hotel seemed to be watching. I dont know how else to explain it. You always felt like there were eyes on you even when no one was around.
[00:03:19] I remember asking my husband if he felt off, but he, a firefighter, didnt believe in any much hocus pocus as he called it.
[00:03:29] Our room was up on the fourth floor over the boardwalk in Ocean. We could see and hear all the commotion and liveliness from the crowds below. Since this was our first time in Ocean City, we decided to go check it out. We ended up at the Castaway Cove theme park arcade and played skeeball until it closed.
[00:03:45] As much as I tried to beat my husband, he is unusually good at most arcade games, but at least he used all his tickets to get me a teddy bear from the prize counter.
[00:03:54] Upon arriving back at the hotel and heading up to our room with all the excitement of enjoying our honeymoon, I was struck by how quiet the hotel had gotten and again by that feeling of being watched.
[00:04:09] When we returned to our room I wanted to freshen up and by that I mean put on something a little more comfortable. Wink wink.
[00:04:16] I pushed my husband onto the bed and put the teddy bear beside him. I made my way to the bathroom after changing, touching up my makeup and quickly running my fingers through my hair to give it a little bit of volume. I came out of the bathroom and saw my husband was not on the bed waiting for me. Instead, he was right outside the bathroom door, head against it as he was eavesdropping, considering I was not expecting him to be there, gave me quite the jumpscare and I punched him square in the chest. Unfazed, he asked me what I was humming in the bathroom.
[00:04:48] An odd question, I thought, because, well, I wasnt humming. I told him as much and we must have had other things on our minds because we quickly forgot and moved on as we were finally getting ready to sleep. I heard a faint and I told my husband to knock it off. To which he responded, so you heard it that time too.
[00:05:11] Then again, this time it distinctly came from the bathroom.
[00:05:19] My husband, able to run into burning buildings, was unwilling to investigate. So I decided that it must be my duty to go check this out. I got up from the bed and made my way to the bathroom. Once again, the first thing I noticed was that the door was ajar and I was pretty confident that I had closed it. But admittedly I had been a bit preoccupied when leaving it.
[00:05:43] However, that sense of being watched drowned over me as I pushed the door open.
[00:05:48] The teddy bear, the teddy bear my husband won me, was sitting facing the door in the middle of the bathroom floor.
[00:05:56] That is not where I left it. And I know there is no way in hell that during even the craziest of my husband and is honeymoon activities that this teddy bear managed to be flung from the bed through an all but cracked door and land sitting up just waiting for me to get it.
[00:06:15] Unsure what to think, I reached over to pick it up. When the humming was in my ear as if someone was right next to me. I screamed and finally my husband came running in asking me what happened.
[00:06:29] I told him I heard someone hum really loudly in my ear.
[00:06:33] After a good bit of time of him consoling me and walking me down from what was surely a near panic attack, there was a quick knock at the door.
[00:06:43] We both thought that it was probably a fellow guest or the hotel staff coming to ask if we were okay. I mean after all, I did just scream bloody murder in the middle of the night.
[00:06:53] At this point I was unwilling to be even mildly alone so I went to the door with him. My husband looked through the eyehole but said hmm, must have taken too long to answer. He began pulling his head away from the door. One bang bang bang. The door visibly rattled from the force of the knocking and my husband threw the door open.
[00:07:13] But we stared blankly into an empty hallway came echoing down the hall and it was then we saw someone turning the corner. Well we saw what looked to be the end of someones dress following them around the corner.
[00:07:30] At this point we thought maybe some teenagers were playing a prank on us and to be honest that made us pretty angry. After all it was 01:00 a.m. at this point we decided to follow in the direction of where we saw the person. We walked to the end of the hallway and turned the corner to find it led to the stairwell. We quickly got in and heard someone floor below us. We descended the stairs in pursuit and entered a part of the hotel called the hall of mirrors where the entire room was mirrored floor to ceiling. The whole hallway is a reflection. We entered the hall from the side and were able to see the reflection of the person we had been chasing from around the corner.
[00:08:11] As we turned around the corner to enter the room, I began to yell after the person we were chasing, heh.
[00:08:16] But was stopped mid syllable as we saw there was no one in the hallway but looking at the malls we could but looking at the walls we could still see her in the reflection.
[00:08:33] She had her back to us with reddish brown hair and a flowing white dress.
[00:08:37] She turned and made eye contact with me through the mirror. She began humming and walking quickly towards us. Her invisible feet made no noise on the polished floors. We stood frozen as we watched her advance through each mirror. The humming got closer and closer and closer and closer until the air began to cool. I swear I could see our breaths as we looked at each other in disbelief. We looked back to the mirror. The woman was right before us now. She glanced back towards the mirror again, making eye contact with me as she smiled. She looked as though she's about to wrap her arms around just one.
[00:09:14] We both flinched and turned around to see the front desk attendant standing behind us in the front of the hallway.
[00:09:22] He must have just opened the door.
[00:09:25] You guys okay?
[00:09:27] Before we could respond, he chuckled as he watched us frantically look around the room to try to make sense of what was happening. Well, I suppose I know the answer to that. I guess the real question is did she smile at you?
[00:09:40] I responded with an air of yes, unable to find my full voice.
[00:09:46] Well thats good. It means Emily approves. But you guys should get to bed. It is very late. My husband and I almost ran up the stairs back to our room. Although neither of us slept the remainder of the night, it was quiet.
[00:10:01] The following day we couldnt check out fast enough. We learned a little bit more from the morning desk attendant and she told us that we had encountered Emily, the resident ghost of the Flanders Hotel, and pointed to a painting of a woman with reddish brown hair and a white dress in the lobby behind us.
[00:10:20] As we left and walked past the painting, I thought I heard one last.
[00:10:28] We returned home and shared our story with our families.
[00:10:32] While my mother in law never let on that she knew the tale of the hotel she sent us to, I never once again heard her comment about our compatibility.
[00:10:43] So I suppose on one hand I was happy to receive this ghostly blessing but it is safe to say that neither my husband nor myself have ever been back.
[00:10:55] It is funny enough, though, because our son is now getting married, and like my husband's mother, I, too, have some doubts about his fiance. I am tempted to recommend them the Flanders to see if Emily will smile on them.
[00:11:11] You're gonna send your son there? Jesus Christ, Marie.
[00:11:20] That's.
[00:11:25] Look, I have some doubts about how that unfolded, but like I said, I haven't previously researched the Flanders hotel for a TikTok that I made. And while I doubt how insane the story was, it's a great story. Fantastic story. I've read it probably a dozen times in preparation for this video, and it's still gives me chills every time I read it.
[00:11:58] Great story.
[00:12:00] And look, the everything you say does check out from what I know happens at the Flanders Hotel. But geez Louise, ain't no way. I don't know. And then you're gonna send your son there? Come on.
[00:12:17] Also, what was with mother in law saying their daughter in law? Come on, let's be better.
[00:12:24] Yeah, that, I don't know. What do you guys think? Let me know.
[00:12:29] But that's it for today's episode. Thank you for listening.
[00:12:35] If you have a story that you would like me to share, go ahead and send it. You can find the link to that on the website, on the TikTok, on Instagram. Everything that you need to get in contact with me is listed in the episode description. No matter where you're watching it, whether it's YouTube, podcasts, what. What have you.
[00:12:54] Yeah. Thank you for being here for the first episode, and I will see you guys next week.
