Shadow People Page #4

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WOMAN 2:

I felt something hit my legs

or jump on the bed,

that weight change.

WOMAN 3:
And I just...

I felt this presence.

You're yelling at yourself, like,

"Do something, do something,"

and you can't.

Just people moving in old houses

and they say they hear doors creak

'cause somebody died in the house.

Thinking they're seeing things,

but not really seeing anything.

FEMALE CALLER:
Some people have

reported it sounding very raspy.

MALE CALLER:
It was like

this buzz sound.

TOM:
It's increased listenership.

People want to talk about it.

- People want to hear about it.

- I listen to Charlie Crowe quite a bit.

Yeah.

Yeah, I've heard him.

Don't know about him,

but, yeah, I've heard him.

He was involved in a lot worse,

though, Mr. Crowe was.

Ah, hell, that's just Charlie.

CHARLIE:
People say

these things come to us

when we sleep.

Is there something we do

while sleeping that calls them to us?

FEMALE CALLER:

It's almost like insanity.

MALE CALLER:
I just have to have

an answer for this.

- It's so freaky.

FEMALE CALLER 2:
- A long time

after that, I was terrified

to go to bed.

They can't move, they can't speak,

and they can barely breathe.

It feels like there's

a pressure on their chest.

They feel like they're suffocating,

and it's terrifying.

Sleep paralysis is the experience

of awakening unable to move,

and it's produced by

a physiological mechanism

in the brain that's well understood.

This is a normal

human experience.

One in five of us will have it

at some point in our life.

MALE CALLER:
It wasn't like

I was paralyzed,

because I think when you're paralyzed,

you don't really feel your body.

WOMAN:
80% of people

who have sleep paralysis

experience some kind

of hallucination.

FEMALE CALLER:
It's not actually

like a hooded person

or like a floating black cloud.

MALE CALLER:
Out the corner of my eye,

I could see these dark shapes.

FEMALE CALLER 2:
I have a maybe,

like, nine-foot ceiling

and it nearly reached that.

MALE CALLER 2:

I know nobody's in the house.

You can imagine

how freaky that is.

MALE CALLER 3:
I don't think

it was anything I wanted

to really look at for very long.

FEMALE CALLER 3:
It's interesting

how many people are coming together

and discussing these things now.

I'm really fascinated

by all the stories coming in.

There's so many people calling in

with their experiences.

The numbers keep growing.

Are they all making it up?

I don't think so.

The shadow people...

can it all be real?

Oh, sh*t.

As the first EIS officer

on the scene,

I went to the coroner's office

and was able to examine

the second victim...

a 21-year-old female.

So the tissue sample

showed no pathogens?

No. WHITE BLOOD CELL

COUNTS:
normal.

Died in her sleep

just like the first victim.

Two cases like this,

two days apart.

- Did the two have contact?

- Don't know.

Why, the CDC think this condition

may be contagious?

Well, that's what I'm here

to determine.

No heart defect.

Toxicology's negative.

Which is odd because the male victim

was reported to be hallucinating.

- Hallucinating?

- That's what the police report said.

He was checked

into the hospital

where he saw, like, delusions

of shadows moving all around him.

Hmm.

Strange.

Maybe hallucinations

are a possible symptom.

- What about brain biopsy?

- Normal.

MAN:
And we're looking for someone

who's possibly overweight

or someone who has

high blood pressure

or someone who has,

like, diabetes

or just a history in their family

of stroke or heart attacks.

So these victims were,

you know, young,

they were completely healthy.

You know,

we checked their blood,

and there's nothing

in their blood that shows

that they have any

fatty deposits in their heart.

No history of diabetes

in the family, you know,

no history of stroke,

no history of cancer.

If this was in Cambodia,

the diagnosis would be easy.

MAN:
Very scared?

It was first noticed

in the Hmong immigrants

who came from Vietnam

to the United States

right after the Vietnam War.

We did get a team

of microbiologists,

pathologists, epidemiologists.

We did blood cultures,

urine samples.

We did sputum cultures,

we tested for heavy metals.

The most disturbing

part of this

is we did not find

a biological agent.

In the archives,

I found a condition

called sudden unexplained

nocturnal death syndrome,

and I believe that this

is very likely a resurgence.

This condition

had very similar circumstances

to these young people who have

died here in Eastern Kentucky.

Did anyone do a trip report?

If I remember correctly,

the first EIS officer

went on-site in 1981.

Initially, we thought the disease

triggered cardiac arrest during sleep,

yet more recent studies indicate

that lack of oxygen to the brain

may be the cause.

The victims showed

no genetic history

of myocardial infarction

or sleep apnea.

And we're still unclear on a cause?

The data was inconclusive.

It seems hundreds

of healthy immigrants

just died in their sleep

without cause.

One more question,

Dr. Lacombe.

Does the syndrome

appear to be communicable?

The truth is we really don't

have enough evidence

to make a conclusion

either way.

Well, I don't think that explanation

is gonna fly with the public.

- Mr. Crowe?

- Yeah.

Hi, I'm Sophie Lacombe.

I'm with the Center

for Disease Control.

I got your address

from Tom at the station.

Disease control?

What kind of diseases?

Well, I'm here investigating

the local deaths and their causes.

It seems there may be

some new cases of a disease

that we call sudden unexplained

nocturnal death syndrome.

Okay, I'll save you some time.

Those deaths weren't caused

by a disease.

In fact, they were caused by...

Shadow people?

I was just brewing some coffee.

- Thank you.

- You want a cup?

No, thanks.

Come, sit.

So I'm looking for a link

between these deaths.

After interviewing some people

about the victims,

I was told that some of them

were listening to your radio show

before they died.

- Can you explain that?

- No, I can't.

I'm just reporting

what people are telling me.

I'm trying to give them a voice.

If anything, I'm trying to help.

Well, so am I, Mr. Crowe.

That's why I'm here.

You see, the victims reported

hallucinations, sleep paralysis...

symptoms that you

talked about on your show.

Perhaps if I could get

your call logs,

I could track

the infected victims.

Yeah, I'll give you anything you want,

but it's not gonna do you any good

unless you realize that

what these people are seeing is real.

A lot of people think just 'cause

they can't explain it scientifically

that it doesn't exist, but I can

tell you that our ancestors

knew about nightmares

and how harmful they are.

Well, I'm certain that bad dreams

can't harm you.

I'm not talking about bad dreams.

I mean nightmares.

The actual word nightmare

is an Old English word

that means evil spirit.

A maere... M-A-E-R-E...

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