0:05

Snap Judgment Studios.

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Witches,

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ghosts, demons, the vampire, the

0:22

fang. You may think you

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know the creatures born of the veil. You

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would rather you

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didn't know them at all. But

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listening to Spooked,

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stay tuned.

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From KQED and PRX,

0:45

you've crossed over to Spooked. As

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a child, at our family

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Bible study, my mother tells me that names

1:00

hold power. She

1:02

says that once you know the name of something,

1:04

you can call upon its power. That's

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why you need to know the book, she

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says,

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pointing to her testament. All

1:14

you have to do is shout his name

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when in the dark time. When

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facing the dark times,

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there are lots of names to call. So

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many names. And sometimes I forget

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which is which.

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My name is Glenn Washington. You

1:43

should know that in the dark valley,

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some names work better than others.

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Spooked starts now.

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As you recognize that on this boat we spare

2:20

no expense. If you sense a

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story that needs telling, it takes place

2:24

on the other side of the world. Well, the

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other side of the world we go. So

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I ask you to put on your warmest mittens and

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your thickest clothes.

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I'm taking a slow train

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to Moscow.

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My name is Nikito. My

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name is Zuyenko. I

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grew up in Moscow. I

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was born and raised here. Nikita

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lived with his mother and his sister, who was about

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four years old at the time, in an apartment

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in central Moscow.

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This apartment was really

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the center of our family until my

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grandmother's day. And

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we inherited it after

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she died.

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We decided to

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just shift furniture around in

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my mother's room itself.

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She was in the same room with my sister.

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They were sleeping together. It

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was a very tight bond

3:54

there. And

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I guess not enough space for both. And

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to the place where the bed

4:10

was initially, we placed our closet.

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And we moved the bed

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from one wall and to the other

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one that's opposite to

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the entrance to the room. And

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we dragged in one of the

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bigger chairs.

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So that night, after he and his mom

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finished rearranging the master bedroom, Nikita

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was sitting in the living room. It was

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late, and his mom and sister had

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already gone to bed. I

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was watching something on TV. And

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I hear a yelp, like

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this sharp but very short-lived

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scream. I

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get up and I hurry

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there. I look inside their

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room and I see my mother just hugging

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my sister and I

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ask, what happened?

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And my mother looks at me and she says, my

5:28

sister told my mother. She saw

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a snake at the

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feet of her bed.

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I think that was the first

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time I saw my

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sister really scared.

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I think that's the first time I really saw

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fear on her face. And

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that's kind of bad, just

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overall. I feel like this was like this

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realization that there's no fear. This little

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kid is very innocent and something

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bad happened to her. And I

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really struck something inside. After

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I just go back to bed,

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the next day was like it always was. Nothing

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special, nothing new. Didn't

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seem like anything happened.

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Nikita put the incident out of his mind. His

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mom put his sister down to sleep and he spent

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the evening on the couch watching YouTube videos

6:38

on his laptop.

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At some point, he

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drifted off.

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I was sleeping. I

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woke up because of that yelp. I

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felt like this rush of adrenaline and I run there. I look into my sister's room

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once again. My

7:12

sister screams that there

7:14

is a snake at the feet of the bed. And she was terrified. And

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she was really screaming this out. And

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I was like, I'm sorry. She

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was really screaming this

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out. Nikita

7:31

didn't see a snake in the room and

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neither did his mom. But

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it didn't seem

7:36

like his sister was dreaming. She

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was definitely fully awake and

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she was certain she'd seen a big

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snake slithering

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across the pole. After

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that, we woke up every night.

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during around 12 or 1

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o'clock at night because

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my sister was screaming. She was

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screaming every single time. It was

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not like a continuous scream.

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It was a yelp. It was a

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sudden realization that there is

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a snake there. It was just... That

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was at the end of the first

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week that I started to actually

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wonder if there is something more

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to it.

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So Nikita started reaching out and

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asking friends, and then

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friends of friends.

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Have you ever heard of this? A

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snake in your bedroom? But

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like, not a real snake, but

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maybe a snake specter

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or a

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shapeshifter? What

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is the most important thing you can do to help others? What

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is the most important thing you can do to help others?

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I've always got

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the same kind of an answer

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to my questions,

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to my frustrations and everything.

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Do you believe in Jesus? What

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about God? Did you try to

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buy holy water or call

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for the hell from the local church? Or,

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well, anything like this. And in

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my head, no matter

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what I do with the

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church, it would not have any

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result unless I have faith

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in it. I

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did not have that faith. And

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people just gave their opinions. That

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was actually rather disturbing

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because for the most part, I

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was told that it was... was a

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spirit of maybe my

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grandparents, the most loving people

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I ever knew that

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were coming back and trying

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to threaten the family, which was ridiculous

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in my opinion.

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Nikita's sister was still waking up every

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night screaming about the snake in her room,

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so he took refuge in his work. He

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was a clerk doing inventory at

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a stationery shop.

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I was working in the basement in the storage

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unit, and it was

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the worst job of my life

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because I had to literally

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fight off rats with an iron

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rod.

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One day Nikita was in the break

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room with his two closest coworkers eating

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lunch.

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We were talking about basically

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everything, mostly

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about the rats. I

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did not feel like talking about the rats anymore

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for once, and I decided to

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speak up about the

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situation at home. We

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were eating at that point, and

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I was telling them the story, and

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they just continued eating. They were just, okay,

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they shrugged it off, and

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then when I stopped talking, they would say,

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they looked at me, and they say, yeah, that's domavoy.

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That's a usual thing.

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A domavoy is a Russian house spirit.

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Nikita

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had read about domavoy in fairy tales

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as a kid. But here was his co-worker

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talking about the mythical creature like it

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was an invasive house guest who had to be

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dealt with and mollified.

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You just either feed

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him or you just clean

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the apartment or do something to just

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make it kind again. That's fine. My

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grandmother once saw one. And

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he was like this little old guy

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sitting in her chair and

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it was a normal thing for them. I

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first thought that, come on. And

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then at the same time I thought, well, there's

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clearly something going on there. And

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this is the first time someone's saying

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something apart from praise the Lord.

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Maybe there is something to it. I

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returned home and I started to conduct

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my investigation through

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the internet, the books and Wikipedia.

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A lot of forums. That

13:17

was actually a very interesting

13:19

discovery for me. Russian

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forums are full of

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domovoi questions. How

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do you invite domovoi to the house

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in order to make the house more livable?

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How do you get rid of the domovoi because

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that's a satanic creature and so you need

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to get rid of it? How

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do you make the domovoi happy? How do you

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make the domovoi go away? How

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do you make the domovoi just appear so

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you can talk to it? There's so

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much about it.

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You can say that he is like this spiritual housekeeper.

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keeping the bad spirits at bay,

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bringing luck in, maybe

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helping the owners of the

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apartment, sometimes cleaning

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up, sometimes warding

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off bad people. It's

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usually seen as a very helpful

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spirit.

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It was a very small

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gnome-like creature, usually

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described and seen as this old

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person. It was so small

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that he

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could sit on the palm of your hand.

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But what did a tiny gnome have to do

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with the giant snake who was terrifying

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Nikita's sister every single night?

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When Domovoy

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felt

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like the owners of the

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apartment were not living up to their

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unwritten agreement,

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he would try

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to

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change their mind by changing

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his own shape

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in order to spook the people inside

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the apartment.

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But one of those that actually caught

15:30

my attention was Snake.

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That was a very prevalent one.

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Domovoy don't like change.

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They want their home to stay within the same family

15:44

for generations. They don't want

15:46

you painting walls or knocking them down,

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and they don't want you moving

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furniture around.

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I did not really think

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on what exactly did he

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not like about it. us moving the

16:02

the furniture around. There is

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a it's an alien mind and

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my understanding of it and to try

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to understand it is

16:13

full's errand. Nikita

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learned through his research that there were

16:19

two ways to get back on the Dummavoice good

16:21

side.

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And one way is

16:26

basically giving him something to eat and

16:29

saying that you apologize. Which

16:33

because I'm a stubborn person I

16:35

refuse to do because that asshole was

16:37

messing with my family.

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And the other one basically

16:44

from what I could understand that was moving

16:47

the furniture back.

16:49

But once again I'm a stubborn

16:51

person and in my opinion

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as the owners of that apartment

16:56

we were the ones who would determine where

16:58

this stuff stands. And

17:01

so I refuse to do that either.

17:07

It was I think on

17:09

the third night after

17:12

I really faced my

17:14

myself considering what

17:16

was happening and thought that maybe

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maybe that really is

17:21

something supernatural.

17:24

Two more nights

17:26

and each and every night the snake would

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flither across his sister's

17:29

room and

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she would wake up in

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terror.

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I actually

17:38

tried to make

17:41

my own version of I'd

17:44

say quote-unquote exorcism.

17:52

I was in the guest room. It's

17:56

a big place with the TV and the couch

17:59

very comfortable that was where we

18:02

would have every

18:04

new year celebration which in

18:06

Russia we do instead of Christmas there

18:09

was the gathering point there was the

18:11

heart of the family

18:17

and I

18:19

specifically waited for everyone to leave

18:22

the house because I didn't want

18:24

to look like a loony

18:28

I walked to the middle the

18:30

exact middle of the room and

18:36

I was done feeling stupid

18:39

at that point and

18:41

I just wanted to just

18:45

burst and so I did

18:49

I walked to the

18:52

middle of the room and I shouts that

18:54

I'm going to call for the priest

18:57

and that

19:00

if this night something happens

19:02

again there is

19:04

nothing that's going to stop me from just

19:07

kicking this thing out of the house if it

19:09

doesn't like how things are who

19:12

we are or anything else I'm

19:14

just going to get rid of it all the same

19:21

and I felt proud

19:24

and I felt like a man and I felt

19:27

like oh this is this is going to solve everything

19:39

the same night we wake up at

19:41

around one o'clock

19:55

and there is once again

19:57

a scream

19:59

And this time I'm rushing out

20:02

because I am scared for my sister

20:05

Specifically because I'm just so angry

20:08

at this thing and I want to go there

20:10

and I want to deal with it right there and

20:12

then because this was it for

20:15

me and I

20:18

try to walk out of my room

20:24

When my door slams shut

20:28

And with enough force to actually

20:30

crack the door frame

20:36

So I opened the door just

20:39

as forcefully and I go through without even

20:41

looking at the at the entire thing I

20:43

was I was not scared. I was

20:45

just angry At some

20:48

point it just gets on your

20:50

nerves so much that you really

20:52

don't feel fear or at least the fear

20:54

is just so far down your

20:56

throat that you feel anger

20:59

over just so much clearly and

21:02

For me this the door

21:04

slamming into my face without anyone

21:07

holding it or anything really signifying

21:09

That was wind or maybe something else For

21:12

me that was just someone taking a jab

21:15

at me

21:16

And I needed to take a jab back And

21:23

I go to my mother's

21:25

room and I hug my sister

21:28

and I finally

21:31

tell my mother that this

21:33

is probably the mauveau and

21:36

that we need to deal with him and I

21:42

Am not sure she really took

21:44

me seriously she

21:46

nodded She agreed

21:50

Visually, but I have

21:52

a serious doubt she really believed

21:54

in this It took her

21:57

at least two nights more the

22:00

same thing to realize

22:02

that maybe there is something to my diagnosis,

22:07

I guess. In

22:12

about two days, she

22:15

agreed to move stuff around again.

22:20

Nikita and his mom moved the bedroom furniture

22:22

back to the way it was when his grandmother

22:24

was alive, and that night, his

22:27

sister didn't wake up screaming. The

22:29

snake was gone.

22:33

Things were going as always. My

22:35

sister nowadays doesn't even

22:37

remember that she was having those nightmares.

22:40

It magically went away.

22:43

So Nikita appeased the domavoy.

22:47

His sister never saw the snake again. She

22:49

went back to sleeping soundly, and everything

22:52

returned to normal. Except

22:55

for one thing. Every time

22:57

Nikita left the apartment for work, or

22:59

an errand, or even a trip,

23:03

I would come back to some part of my

23:05

technology being

23:07

thoroughly destroyed. My

23:09

motherboard on my badass

23:12

computer explodes out of

23:14

nowhere for no reason.

23:18

Then suddenly my iPad

23:21

stops charging out of nowhere.

23:24

Okay, I go and fix it, and

23:26

the week after, it stops

23:28

charging again. Then my phone...

23:38

The way I

23:40

see it, after I messed

23:42

with him,

23:44

it became personal.

23:47

Because I took

23:50

a jab at him. I threatened

23:53

him. And then, yes, I

23:56

also was the one who kind of

23:58

initiated the movie.

23:59

of the stuff in the apartment once

24:02

again.

24:08

I guess I can understand that. But

24:12

I would never apologize. I

24:31

want to thank you for sharing your story with

24:33

us. I'm wishing the best of luck with that pesky

24:35

coma boy. I want to thank Laura,

24:38

the Paranormal Scholar, for helping

24:40

us find this amazing story.

24:59

This is not

25:01

a journey where one can simply step off the train.

25:04

No, no. And if you appreciate

25:07

stories from real people, spoken

25:09

in the bright light of day, check out our

25:11

sister podcast Snap Judgment. Storytelling

25:14

the soul, cinema of sound, it's

25:17

amazing. Spook

25:20

was produced by the team that has never

25:22

tasted a single day's remorse.

25:26

Be afraid of Mark Ristich, of

25:28

an assessment, our chief spook's friend, Liza

25:30

Smith. The original score was

25:33

by Leon Morimoto, additional

25:35

sound by Lauren Newsom.

25:37

You may never have heard of them because they

25:40

don't

25:40

want you to hear of them.

25:42

But knowledge is power. Understanding is strength.

25:45

There are steps you can take

25:47

to navigate this dark path. Of

25:49

course, the first and

25:51

the most important simply is never,

25:56

ever, never, never, never, never,

25:58

never, never.

25:59

Never ever, never,

26:01

ever turn

26:05

out black.