Today, I'm going to tell you three stories that all center around creatures. The first story you'll hear is sort of uplifting in a way, and then the last two stories are downright spooky. But before we get into those 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 once a week.
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[Music] [Music] On the evening of December 24th, 2001, a 48-year-old businessman named Kevin Butler was in his kitchen inside of his home in Dallas, Texas, preparing food. The following day, he was going to bring this food to a Christmas party at his friend's house. And as Kevin was preparing this food, he heard his friend Larry, who spent a lot of time at his house, call to him from down the hall.
Now, Kevin didn't really hear what Larry wanted, but he could tell from the tone of his voice that, you know, he wanted him to come over there right now. And so, Kevin said, "Okay, you know, I'll be there in a second. " But then, after washing off his hands and beginning to walk down the hall to go see Larry, Kevin sound that stopped him in his tracks.
He heard the sound of two men's voices coming from outside of his house. The men sounded drunk and they sounded like they were literally in his front yard. And also, Kevin thought he recognized the voices.
And so instinctively, Kevin flew over to the door and whipped it open. And sure enough, it was Johnny Sarah, one of Kevin's former employees, and Daniel Torres, who was Johnny's half brother. These were the two men he thought he heard outside, and here they are.
And even though Kevin was expecting to see them when he opened the door, it was like seeing them in real life was just totally incendiary. Kevin was immediately so mad. For several months, Kevin and Johnny had been in this very public feud over money.
And in fact, Johnny at one point had even tried to steal from Kevin by forging a check. And so now Kevin looked right at Johnny and Daniel and goes, "Oh, what are you guys here to steal from me again? " And in response, Johnny didn't say anything.
He just charged forward and punched Kevin square in the face. Kevin was so stunned that he practically fell over. And then before he could do anything, Johnny and Daniel had pummeled him to the ground and were kicking and punching him.
And then they dragged him further into his house and slammed the door behind him. Kevin continued to try to get away, but he just couldn't. One of the brothers was holding him down.
And then before long, one of the others had gone off and come back with electrical cord and they tied him up. And then once Kevin literally was fully bound and couldn't go anywhere, the brothers went into the kitchen, got knives, came back, and they began stabbing Kevin over and over and over again. And as all this commotion was happening out in the living room, Kevin's friend Larry, who was right down the hall, heard the whole thing.
He heard the sound of, you know, the two drunk guys coming in. He heard the sound of Kevin clearly being attacked. And at first, you know, Larry was terrified and didn't know what to do.
But as he heard the sound of Kevin screaming out for help, Larry jumped into action and he flew down the hallway and he charged out there and he saw Daniel still on top of Kevin stabbing him. And Larry just went right after Daniel. Now, Larry was unarmed and really didn't stand much of a chance to begin with, but he did whatever he could to try to get Daniel off.
He began biting and scratching him and doing whatever he could, but it just it wasn't enough. And eventually, Daniel overpowered Larry. And then before long, Johnny and Daniel were not just stabbing Kevin, but were also stabbing Larry.
And so, in the end, both Kevin and Larry, the two friends, were stabbed to death. And then, after they were dead, Johnny and Daniel fled the scene. But what the two half brothers didn't know was that even though they had just killed Larry, Larry had actually just made sure those two brothers would get caught.
Because when Larry tried to fight Daniel off, he had literally bit Daniel and gotten Daniel's blood on his mouth. And ultimately when the police showed up, they took the blood from Larry's mouth and that was DNA evidence and it led them right to Daniel. And so Daniel and Johnny were soon arrested and charged with murder.
However, they were only charged with one murder. And that's because during the attack, when Larry flew down the hall to try to protect Kevin, well, he literally flew because Larry was not a person. Larry was Kevin's pet cockatu and he was named after Larry Bird.
Kevin had adopted Larry 2 years earlier and the two had become like best friends. And so, when Larry heard his best friend Kevin being attacked, he flew in to try to help. and he wound up clawing and pecking at Daniel's head, ultimately getting Daniel's blood on his beak, which led to their arrest.
Daniel Torres and Johnny Cerna were both ultimately convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. What if I told you there was a boundless vault full of a million secrets, buried mysteries, and life-changing adventures just waiting to be explored? A place where stories lie in wait just a tap away.
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Okay, back to the story. [Music] At 6:30 p. m.
on July 29th, 2023, a 15-year-old girl named Talia Deila Diaz stood right outside her back door of her house, staring out at the thick, dense, shadowy rainforest that was her backyard. Talia lived in a tiny, isolated village in Peru that was literally in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. So, as she was looking out, I mean, she would have seen these huge tropical trees and heard the sound of howler monkeys and exotic birds and animals moving all about, and the air would have been really thick and humid.
But she wasn't thinking about any of that. Instead, she was focused on this grapefruit tree that was only a few yards away from her house. She wanted to go get a grapefruit and bring it inside and make juice for her family.
However, Talia was scared. And she was scared for two reasons. First reason was this was the Amazon, an inherently dangerous place, especially at night.
There were loads of predators out there like snakes and jaguars. But the other reason she was scared was that she was worried there could actually be something worse out in the rainforest, worse than any predator she was used to. And that was because over the last couple of weeks, people in Talia's village had been claiming they were seeing these shadowy figures lurking in the treeine with these bright green eyes that would occasionally seem like they were hunting the people of the village.
Like anytime they went out, it was like these figures were kind of lurking off in the distance, but nobody knew what they were. The rumor around the village was that these shadowy figures were actually pelicaras, which translates literally to face peelers. People in Talia's village believed that pelicaras were foreigners who would kidnap locals and cut their throats and peel the skin of their face off and then sell their body fat on the black market.
And the locals were so freaked out that pelicaras could be around that they began performing nightly patrols to keep the villagers safe. So Talia again was very scared to even leave her house at this point. But she was also trying to be reasonable.
I mean, she'd gone out and gotten a grapefruit many times in the past. This was not some new behavior. you know.
So, she's looking out and she sees the grapefruit tree and she knows there's a nightly patrol out right now and I only have to go a few yards and get the fruit and get right back in the house. Like, how big of a deal could this possibly be? And so, after taking one more look around and not seeing anybody or hearing anything that was out of place, she took a breath and then rushed out to the tree.
She grabbed a grapefruit and as she was turning around, she froze because her worst nightmare had just been realized. Now, standing between her and her back door were these two hulking dark figures. And one of them was like so tall it was practically the size of a tree.
And they both had these piercing glowing green eyes. And they were looking right at Talia. And Talia was so instantaneously petrified that all she could do was just stand there and stare back into their green eyes.
And as she did, she began to notice that their faces were grotesqually elongated, almost like they had masks on. And then before Talia could do anything, the really tall one began sort of gliding towards her. Not stepping towards her, but literally almost hovering off the ground towards Talia.
And then suddenly Talia was being grabbed and thrown to the ground. And the instant Talia hit the ground, these two figures descended on her and pinned her there. And then one of them reached down and pressed their hand over her mouth and her nose and she couldn't breathe.
And then she sees the other one is holding what looked like a box cutter or a knife and they put it right up to her neck. And suddenly it's like Talia understands these are pelicaras. They're going to slit her throat.
They're going to kill her. And so she has this sudden burst of energy and she manages to push them off of her. And when she did, their hand came off her mouth and she screamed out for help.
and she heard somewhere in the village voices yelling back to her and then she heard footsteps and she knew it was the night patrol coming to save her. And so at this point, the figures released Talia and she scrambled to her feet and immediately ran towards her house right as the night patrol came bounding into her yard and one of the men had a gun and he raised it and began shooting in the direction of the figures. And Talia, you know, she's totally panicked and she turns around and she looks at her attackers and she's expecting them to, you know, be fleeing into the rainforest.
But instead, these dark figures, they were like levitating in the sky and they were looking down at Talia and the night patrol with their glowing green eyes as they literally began to levitate into the sky. And the whole time, the night patrol is firing repeatedly at these things, and they just drifted off into the night and disappeared. Talia ultimately would not suffer any physical injuries from this encounter, but mentally she was a wreck and frankly so was the rest of the people in her village, especially those who were on the night patrol and with Talia witnessed these figures with green eyes flying away into the sky.
I mean, the fear in this village following this encounter was through the roof. And in fact, ultimately the Peruvian government would get involved after this encounter and they would investigate to try to figure out, you know, what happened to Talia. And they would ultimately conclude that there was an illegal mining operation happening somewhere in the rainforest.
And some of these miners in an effort to scare people away from coming anywhere near their operation, they got their hands on jetpacks, wore armor and masks, and then went into villages like Talia's and basically pretended to be aliens and then did, you know, fly off on their jetpacks. That is the official story as of right now. However, people like Talia and the other people in her village and many other people who live in the Amazon rainforest who have come in contact with these figures with green eyes.
They say those are no minors. Those are either pelicaras or they are creatures from another world. [Music] On the afternoon of May 21st, 1974, a 39-year-old man named Polar Gomez walked through a forest in Argentina.
In his hand was a machete and an axe. And as he walked, he used the machete to clear brush, and then eventually he reached this huge tree, and he put the machete down, gripped his axe, and got ready to chop it down. However, before Polar took his first swing, he looked up and he noticed pretty high up on this tree were these very deep claw marks right into the bark of the tree.
Now, at first he thought, "Oh, that's got to be, you know, a bear's claw marks. " But the more he looked at it, the more he realized that would have been an enormous bear to leave marks like those. I mean, these are deep and wide claw marks.
Now, Polar was a professional lumberjack and he actually lived in this section of forest. He owned this plot of the forest. His cabin was only a few yards away and he was used to coming in contact with the wildlife like bears.
Now, his friends and family thought he was crazy for living out here. I mean, his neighbors were miles away. He didn't have a phone or a car.
He lived totally alone. And so, in virtue of living in this isolated forest, Polar routinely came across animals that lived out here like bears. And it didn't really frighten him.
He sort of understood that's part of living out here. But he knew his friends and family thought he was totally crazy for living out here. And not just because it was so isolated.
Not just because he didn't have a car or a phone and was totally alone basically 24/7, but because according to local legend, this particular forest was effectively haunted. There were these apparent unnatural huge creatures that roamed this forest and would prey on people like Polar. But Polar didn't believe in any of that nonsense.
He knew that, you know, as he looked at these claw marks, this has to be a bear. This is not some huge unnatural creature that's completely made up. And so Polar just went ahead and began cutting this tree down.
And right as this tree smashed into the ground, making a thundering boom, at the exact same moment, basically right behind Polar, he heard this horrible growling noise, like a huge animal was basically coming up right behind him. And so Polar, he whipped around and looked, but there was nothing there. It was just a wide open forest everywhere he looked.
It was just trees, nothing else. And so Polar began to think to himself, did I even hear that? I mean, could I really have just been hearing the sound of the tree hitting the ground that somehow also sounded like a growl behind me?
Like, am I, you know, psyching myself out here? Am I am I creating stories in my head cuz I'm thinking about those claw marks? And he was like, you know what?
It's all going to be in my head. I I didn't hear anything. I'm all alone out here.
I'm safe. I'm good. And so Polar just got back to work processing this tree.
For the next couple of hours, he didn't see or hear anything strange. He just continued to chop this tree into smaller pieces. And then he would carry those pieces right over to his cabin, which again was not far away.
And he stacked up this huge pile of lumber right beside the side of his cabin. And then finally, when the tree was all processed and Polar was back in his cabin, he realized he was pretty hungry. At this point, it was getting dark outside and it was time for dinner.
Typically, Polar would eat his dinner outside. He enjoyed listening to the crickets and just feeling the warm night air. And tonight was no exception.
So, he grabbed some stew from the night before. He went outside and outside he had this table that was right next to his cabin. And then just beyond the table, farther away from the cabin, was this wood stove.
And so, he got the wood stove going. And then he put his stew on the stove to warm up. And then he sat down at the table and he just sat there enjoying the night waiting for his food to be done.
And as Polar just sat there relaxing, he suddenly realized that he couldn't hear any crickets. They had gone completely silent. And then as he looked around at the dark forest, he realized the forest was actually silent.
I mean, there was no noise whatsoever. The only noise was his stove. And Polar knew that the only time the forest got this way was if there was some big predator around.
And so right away, Polar thought back to the claw marks in the tree and you know that growling sound that he wasn't sure if he heard or not. And he's thinking, you know, maybe the bear is back. And so Polar scanned the treeine, you know, trying to see movement, but there was nothing.
It was just deadly silent and just a dark forest in all directions. And so feeling really unsettled, Polar decided he should just go back inside his cabin and eat in there where it was more safe. And so Polar stood up and he walked towards his cabin.
and he was about to go inside when he remembered he had left the stove on with the stew on top warming up. And so he turned back around and he looked out at the dark forest and it's still totally silent. He can't see any movement.
Then as quick as he could, he walked past the table out to the stove. He shut the vents in the stove and he was about to grab the stew to go back inside with it when something really powerful struck him in the back, knocking the wind out of him. And then before he could react, he looked down and he saw this massive furry arm with sharp claws reaching around him, pulling at his midsection.
It was the bear. And so immediately Polar began thrashing, trying to get away. And he managed to kind of stumble forward and his machete was on the ground near the stove.
And he fumbles down. He grabs the machete and he wheels around to strike this bear to get rid of it. But the second he saw the bear, he realized it wasn't a bear.
And instinctively he knew he just had to run. And so he turned and began sprinting towards that lumber pile he had cut up before right next to his cabin. And as he was scrambling up this pile, he could hear the sound of this thing running towards him.
And then he felt another explosion on the side of his head. And even though he now has been wounded, probably gravely, it was like all adrenaline. And he kept going up the lumber pile and he clamored onto the roof of his cabin.
And he turned around getting ready to fight as best as he could whatever this thing was. But when he looked out, this thing was just gone. The forest was deadly silent again, and there was nothing out there.
And so, as he's sitting there kind of looking around, waiting for this thing to pop back up again, he reached up and he felt the side of his head, and his ear was missing. This thing had ripped his ear off when it hit him in the side of the head. Polar would remain on the roof of his cabin all night, just constantly scanning, looking for this bear creature to return, but it didn't.
The forest just remained totally silent and nothing happened all night. And then finally in the morning when the sun began to come up, the forest kind of went back to normal. And at that point, Polaris is kind of delirious from blood loss and the impact to his head.
And he knew he just had to get out of here and go get help. And so he climbed off the roof and then he ran about a mile to the nearest building, which was this woodworking shop. And when he got there, there were a couple of people there.
And when they saw the state Polar was in, they didn't need to be told that he needed to go to the hospital. They just instinctively put him in the car and drove him there. After Polar was stabilized and his wound was treated and he was sort of in recovery at the hospital, the police showed up to interview him to see what happened.
And Polar would tell them the story about how, you know, the day before he had seen those claw marks in the tree and then he had heard that loud growling sound behind him, or so he thought. And then that night, you know, this bear had attacked him at his cabin. And he said at some point he had broken away and grabbed the machete and he turned to defend himself.
and he got a good look at this bear. And it was at least 6 feet tall. It was covered in black hair, had sharp claws.
I mean, it was every bit a bear, except its face. It wasn't a bear's face. It was a human face.
Now, to this point, as Polar was telling his story, one of the police officers was taking notes. You know, everything Polar said, he was writing it down. But when Polar began talking about the bear with the human face, the officer just stopped taking notes.
And the officer said, you know, that can't be true. you know, there aren't any bears with human faces. But Polar, you know, he's like a rugged lumberjack who lives in the forest by himself.
And he's telling these officers, I know how crazy this sounds. I know it's not realistic, but I'm telling you what I saw is this bear with a human face. That's what I saw.
But the officer just 100% did not believe him. And ultimately, this went down as simply a bear attack, and that was it. The case was closed.
However, despite what the police said since the attack on Polar, there have been at least 30 people who have come forward to say they either saw firsthand or were attacked by this bear-like creature with a human face in that forest in Argentina. Sightings are so common that locals even came up with a name for this creature. They call it the Ukamar, and to this day, nobody has any idea who or what it is.
In case you haven't heard yet, our newest graphic novel, Mr Ballin Presents Where Nightmares Live, is available for pre-order right now. It contains another nine heartstoppping, strange, dark, and mysterious stories, all based on real events. This was a passion project.
It took a lot of time, a lot of people involved from the artwork to the storytelling. I mean, this is a beautiful piece to add to your collection. So, you got to check it out.
The book comes out on September 30th, but again, you can pre-order your copy at book. bballinsstudios. com or you can click the link in the description below.
There are a limited number of hands-ed copies available, but those are going to sell out very quickly. So, please pre-order today because remember, your nightmares are waiting. Thank you so much for watching.
Let me know what you thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember, we have hundreds of videos for you to binge right now. But if you're looking for a recommendation from me of that one video that's worth your time, well, it's this one right here.
So, give it a watch. All right, until next time. See you.
