Reality Glitch

Today'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. And 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 Button's 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. On 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. On 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. And 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. Haley 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. And 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 got to leave. You got to come out. We got to 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. And 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. But 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? and 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. After 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 and 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. And 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 girl named Alicia running around the bluffs It just couldn be possible And so Haley 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. And 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. Our next story is called The Midnight Man. One 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. And 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. But 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. And 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? Like, 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? She 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. And 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 seemed 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. And 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. And 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 of 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. And 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 here 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. She wanted to go and have a nice day of shopping. And so Anna gets to this department store and it so vibrant and it bustling with people and there four floors of all this incredible stuff that they 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, the 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. This 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, but 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. And 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. It 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. And that is how we know about it. The next and final story of today's episode is called From the Field. At 5.15 p.m. on June 28, 1980, a 38-year-old man named Robert Davidson drove his motorcycle down Interstate 74 in Acton, Indiana, which is a small community just outside of Indianapolis. On the back of the motorcycle, with her arms wrapped around his waist, was Robert's wife. Her name was Wanda. The couple was on their way to visit family, and they were hoping to get there as soon as possible, not because they wanted to visit, but because there was a big storm rolling in, and they were hoping to beat the rain. In fact, right now, right above them, the sky was turning a dark gray and looked very ominous. But as Robert nudged his engine to go a little bit faster, these big raindrops began pelting his arms, and he knew the skies were opening up, and he would have to pull over so he and his wife could put on rain jackets. And so Robert pulled over to the side of the road, and as soon as he was stopped, Wanda climbed off, and Robert was about to climb off as well and open up the little trunk in the back of the motorcycle to get the rain jackets. But before he did that, there was this sudden flash of light, and then Robert felt pain all throughout his body, his muscles went totally rigid, and then he crumpled off his bike onto the ground, and everything went black. Less than five minutes later, an ambulance arrived on the scene, and several first responders jumped out, including a woman named Kimberly Cobb. Now, Kimberly had been briefed up on this situation. A man and his wife had pulled over on the side of Interstate 74, and the man had been struck by lightning. And so as she ran up to the couple, she could see Robert was on the ground, he was not moving, his skin was waxy and gray, and his wife was sort of in shock, and she was standing next to him just kind of sobbing uncontrollably. And Kimberly, she jumped into action. She jumped down next to Robert, and she felt for a pulse, but he didn't have one. At this point, Kimberly knew she maybe had a couple of minutes here to basically revive Robert, or he was doomed. And so Kimberly, she worked immediately on stabilizing Robert's spine while one of her team members, one of the other first responders, jumped in and began doing CPR. And then a third first responder hopped on the ambulance radio and called in an emergency medical helicopter to get here and fly Robert to a hospital as soon as possible. They quickly got a response from the helicopter crew saying they were en route, but before the crew or any of the first responders could communicate any further over the radio, Suddenly, out of nowhere, their ambulance just completely shut down. Like, completely shut off. The lights, the sirens, the engine, everything went completely silent. And this was a huge problem, because some of the medical equipment that they needed to keep Robert alive until the helicopter got here required the ambulance to be on to use it. And so with the ambulance off, it was useless. But in addition to just what a problem this was, this also was, like, really confusing to Kimberly and the other first responders. Because when ambulances are built, they are built with the idea that there can never be a situation where the ambulance just totally turns off. Because again, it's like a worst case scenario. And so they give each ambulance two batteries, a primary and a backup. So that if for some reason the primary dies, you always have that backup and can always use the life-saving equipment. So the idea that both of these batteries failed simultaneously was like, how? How could that possibly happen? But before Kimberly or the other first responders could even begin to understand how that happened, something else began happening. They turned and saw there was this woman dressed in this old, long, black dress, running up the road, this desolate highway. This woman is charging up the road, screaming at them. And above her head, she's waving a Bible. And she yelling at them to hey let me touch him Let me touch him I can save him And the first responders are looking at each other like what is going on here Now none of the first responders nor Wanda had any idea who this woman was as she continued running up the road, waving her Bible and yelling at them. But again, you need to picture this scene. The ambulance is off. They can't do anything to help Robert. They're basically waiting for the helicopter to show up, which they hope is on the way, but they can't communicate with the helicopter. And Robert basically is clinically dead at this point. He doesn't have a pulse. He's been struck by lightning. Like there's nothing anybody can do except wait around and hope the helicopter shows up. And so when this woman came running up to the scene saying she could touch Robert and save him, none of the first responders were like, oh yeah, that's a great idea. Let's bring her in. She can save the day. But they were sort of like, well, no one else is doing anything. And they looked over at Wanda and she was just as shocked as they were at this woman's arrival and what she was saying. And so the first responders and Wanda just kind of stood there and allowed this woman in her black dress with her Bible to just wander up and crouch down next to Robert and begin this totally bizarre ritual. At first, the woman just began praying over Robert, and she's holding her Bible, and she's very focused, and she's calm. And again, Kimberly, the first responders, and Wanda, they're all just standing there looking at each other and looking at this woman being like, what is going on here? But then eventually, this woman in black, she begins getting really animated and begins slamming her Bible on the ground over and over again and begin screaming up at the heavens, demanding they save this man's life. Now, Kimberly and the others and Wanda, they're all watching this in total shock and just kind of let it keep on happening. Because again, it was sort of like, at this point, we're already committed, and what harm can this woman do? I mean, Robert's clinically dead. And so Kimberly and the others just stood there silently watching as this woman in black continued to slam her Bible and demand that this man be saved. And then it was like something came over this woman. It was like she was completely possessed, and she grabbed her Bible and she lifted it over her head. She's kneeling right beside Robert. And when she opened her mouth and looked up at the sky, it wasn't her voice that came out. It was like another voice, and she began speaking in tongues, things that didn't make any sense. She's saying all these crazy, gibberish things to the sky. And as Kimberly and the others are getting frightened by what they're seeing and are about to step in, it was like the woman just stopped. And she stood up slowly, turned, and walked down the road back the direction she came. And within seconds of this woman beginning to walk off, the ambulance turned back on, lights, sirens, the engine all came back on, nothing wrong with it, and Robert began to breathe. Kimberly and the other first responders and Wanda just stared at Robert in total shock. He had not had a heartbeat for several minutes. Like he was dead. How he's alive? When there was no medical intervention really because the ambulance was off? The only intervention was this woman and whatever she was doing? Like, nobody could comprehend that. But before anybody could make sense of that, the medical helicopter arrived, and seconds later it was chaos getting Robert onto the helicopter, and then before long, Robert, Wanda, and the helicopter took off, and then before long, Kimberly and the other first responders were just left there in the first moment of silence they had had for several minutes, just standing on the side of Interstate 74 thinking, what just happened? Now, none of the first responders wanted to admit to this, but they were all thinking the same thing. That woman in black had to have done something that brought Robert back to life. I mean, there really was no other explanation. However, when the first responders just all kind of looked in the direction where this woman had turned and walked off just a couple of minutes earlier, she was gone. Now, keep in mind where she had come from, where she had run up the road from, it was just one big open road with really no obstructions, and then off to the side of the road was this huge open field. Basically, if someone had been walking for only a couple of minutes in that direction, from their vantage point, they would have seen them. There's nowhere to hide. There's nowhere to go. But she was gone. However, Kimberly and the other first responders would quickly learn that this particular stretch of highway, in fact, more specifically, the field off the side of this highway, had great significance to this whole story. That big field that lined Interstate 74, where effectively the woman in black had disappeared to, used to be the home of a place called the Acton Campground, which was a Methodist community in the 1800s. The members of this community were known for their really loud prayer style and also for speaking in tongues. Now, unfortunately, this community actually burned to the ground in 1864. Afterwards, they rebuilt. But then in 1905, disaster struck again and it burned to the ground again. And this time they did not rebuild. Instead, the community was leveled to the ground, was sold off, and then eventually was just abandoned and became a big empty field. After the story of Robert's miraculous recovery began to spread, some people began to think that the woman in black might have been a ghost of one of these Acton residents from the 1800s who basically was drawn out to save Robert's life. Also, her intense prayers and speaking in tongues, along with the woman disappearing back into the field where the Acton campground had been, certainly seems to cement the idea that this theory could actually be true. However, since that day in 1980, no one has seen the woman in black again. 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. Audio editing and post-produced by Witt Lacasio, Jordan Stidham, and Cole Lacasio. Production coordination by Samantha Collins. Production support by Antonio Minata and Delaina Corley. Artwork by Jessica Clogsdon-Kiner. Theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugden. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. And just a reminder, every new and exclusive episode we put out on the Mr. Ballin Podcast, you can also now watch on the Mr. Ballin YouTube channel that very same day. And trust me, some of these stories you truly have to see to believe. Again, my YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballin. If you want to listen to episodes one week early and ad-free, you can subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts or visit SiriusXM.com slash podcast plus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Thank you.