(Bonus Episode) “AMATEUR IN CHANCERY” by George O. Smith (Short Sci-Fi Story) #WeirdDarkness

Centuries before Hollywood dressed it in a nun's habit, the demon Valak prowled the pages of forbidden grimoires as a winged boy astride a two-headed dragon, commanding legions of serpents to do his bidding. EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources):https://weirddarkness.com/valek READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/24s8nzb9 FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Although Valak is depicted in the films "The Nun" and in “The Conjuring 2” as a habit-wearing spirit, the real demon appears as a child riding a two-headed dragon — at least according to a 17th-century demon-hunting manual. (The Reality Behind The Demon, Valak) *** The Vatican is one of the most well-guarded areas in the world. But if rumors are to be believed, all that security isn’t only to protect the pontiff… but some dark, disturbing secrets… and a machine that could change everything we know to be true. (The Vatican’s Secret Machine) *** We’ll look at that time a force field was accidentally created at a 3M plant. (3M’s Accidental Force Field) *** In 1872 George Wheeler met and married May Tillson in Boston. He made a home for May and her younger sister Della, first in New York, then in California. Along the way, George fell in love with young Della and when she planned to marry someone else he was faced with a dilemma: he could not marry her himself and he could not bear to see her wed to another. The solution he chose pleased no one. (Thus She Passed Away) *** In the 1800s scientists and doctors needed cadavers to study human anatomy and practice their skills. To help accommodate the need, it was made legal to sell dead bodies. What could possibly go wrong? (The Unsettling Anatomy Act) CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding 00:01:16.547 = Show Open 00:03:31.777 = The Reality Behind The Demon Valak 00:11:37.807 = The Unsettling Anatomy Act *** 00:24:33.689 = 3M’s Accidental Force Field 00:34:11.149 = Thus She Passed Away *** 00:44:01.086 = The Vatican’s Secret Machine 00:53:13.339 = Show Close *** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break LISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps *No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast* SOURCES and RESOURCES: “The Reality Behind The Demon, Valak” by Gina Dimuro for All That’s Interesting:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/43vu356n “3M’s Accidental Force Field” by Brent Swancer for Mysterious Universe: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3vvnwbpv “Thus She Passed Away” by Robert Wilhelm for Murder By Gaslight: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yyztmnat “The Unsettling Anatomy Act” by SM for ListVerse: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8vdns9 “The Vatican’s Secret Machine” by Ellen Lloyd for Ancient Pages: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8kxxz8 (Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.) WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. Originally aired: December, 2021 This episode of Weird Darkness moves from a centuries-old demon mistaken for a nun, through the Victorian trade in stolen corpses and a force field that appeared inside a 1980 factory, to a San Francisco trunk murder and a Catholic priest who claimed to have built a machine that could film the past.It opens with the demon Valak, who reaches modern audiences...

A young doctor returns to her childhood slum to open a free clinic, but when a dying patient vanishes from her examination room and his grieving cousin swears the boy has simply gone home, she begins to wonder what kind of people she's really been treating. Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTR CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = Show Open 00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “All Unregistered Aliens” (February 09, 1978) ***WD 00:45:43.486 = Calling All Cars, “Burma White Case” (December 06, 1933) ***WD (LQ) 01:14:27.499 = Casey Crime Photographer, “Clue In The Clouds” (February 26, 1944) ***WD 01:45:06.776 = CBC Mystery Theater, “The Cable Car Incident” (1967) ***WD (LQ) 02:11:42.746 = Chet Chetter’s, “Biloxi And the Bogus Beavers From Bornac” (1990-1992) ***WD 02:40:43.122 = The Clock, “Ghost Story” (December 13, 1955) 03:07:11.394 = Creeps By Night, “Strange Burial of Alexander Jordan 03:36:40.775 = SONG: Static Wax, “The Dead Man’s Bell” (based on the Strange Burial of Alexander Jordan): https://weirddarkness.com/music 03:43:07.328 = The Crime Club, “Dead Man Control” (March 20, 1947) ***WD 04:11:24.922 = Crime Classics, “Peaceful Pass T. Edwin Bartlett Grocer” (June 22, 1953) 04:40:59.478 = Danger Dr. Danfield, “Little Meteorite Wanted To Be a Star” (February 02, 1947) 05:07:17.930 = Show Close (ADU) = Air Date Unknown (LQ) = Low Quality ***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing. CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0694

Introducing: JUKEBOX WEIRDO! Official Weirdos, you've got a new perk — and it's yours alone. (https://weirddarkness.com/official) JUKEBOX WEIRDO is a members-only music feature, and it works just like the name suggests: you punch in the request, you pick who plays it. Send me a topic — anything you'd want a song about — and tell me which act from the Weird Darkness Records roster should perform it. Static Wax? Dark Weirdness? Crossroads Haint? Incorruption,? Monster Flakes? Alena Ingram? You send me the song topic and the artist you want to perform it! It's your call! Here's what makes these special: they never leave the building. Unlike the rest of the Weird Darkness Records catalog (https://weirddarkness.com/music), JUKEBOX WEIRDO tracks won't go to Spotify, Apple Music, iHeart Radio, Pandora, YouTube Music, or anywhere else. They live only behind the Patreon wall, for Official Weirdos only. And the topic doesn't have to come from an episode or a story. Any fun, strange, dark, or downright weird idea that fits the Weird Darkness mold works — that's the whole point. It's YOUR choice! To request a song, if you are a Patreon member (https://weirddarkness.com/official), send me a private message there with two things: your song idea, and the artist you want singing it. The first few tracks are coming straight from my own weirdo brain to get the ball rolling — so watch for posts on Patreon marked "JUKEBOX WEIRDO," followed by the artist and the song title! Then start sending me your song ideas and requests!

Four aged friends gather in an eccentric doctor's shadowed study, where he offers each of them a single glass of water he swears was drawn from the Fountain of Youth. Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTR CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = Show Open 00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” (February 07, 1978) ***WD 00:47:39.915 = Arch Oboler’s Plays, “Engulfed Cathedral” (May 06, 1939) ***WD 01:17:52.594 = BBC Radio 4/Radio 7 Ghost Story, “Jonas” (mid 1970s) 02:46:16.760 = Night Beat, “They” (August 17, 1951) 03:15:39.186 = Beyond The Green Door, “Mrs Curlew — Poisoner Marries Major” (1966) ***WD 03:19:27.495 = The Black Book, “My Favorite Corpse” (February 24, 1952) ***WD 03:35:06.168 = *SHOW NAME UNKNOWN*, “Black Ghost” (1930) ***WD 04:01:09.186 = Barry Craig, “The Judge And The Champ” (October 17, 1951) ***WD 04:31:00.486 = Box 13, “The Hot Box” (December 26, 1948) 04:57:42.628 = Show Close (ADU) = Air Date Unknown (LQ) = Low Quality ***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing. CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0693

A burglar, a car thief, a pickpocket, and a roof full of teenagers all heard the same thing in the dark — a voice that wasn't there, telling them to get out before it was too late. EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/somethingunseen READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/y7mzj4ap FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Creepy, paranormal encounters sometimes cause people to stop short of committing an action they might regret. (Supernatural Intervention) *** Weird family member Atreada tells of a horrifying series of nights when she and her sister encountered a demon under one of their beds. (Man Beneath The Bed) *** In York County, Pennsylvania a suspected witch is murdered – and thus began the dark story of the Hex House. (Dark Magic in Hex Hollow) *** Was there a conspiracy to murder Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe? We’ll look at the theories and evidence for and against the idea. (Killing Marilyn) CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding 00:00:36.259 = Show Open 00:01:59.484 = Supernatural Intervention 00:28:49.825 = Man Beneath The Bed *** 00:33:42.600 = Dark Magic of Hex Hollow 00:39:33.099 = Killing Marilyn *** 00:59:36.847 = Show Close *** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break LISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps *No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast* SOURCES and RESOURCES: “Supernatural Intervention” by Anna Lindwasser: http://bit.ly/2IHZl58 “Man Beneath the Bed” by Weirdo family member Atreadia, submitted directly to WeirdDarkness.com “Dark Magic in Hex Hollow” by Orrin Grey: http://bit.ly/2GD8860 “Killing Marilyn” posted at The Unredacted: http://bit.ly/2GGF7GS (Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.) WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. Originally aired: December 06, 2021 Weird Darkness moves through four shades of the unexplained in this episode: the unseen voices and strangers that talk people out of crimes and catastrophes, the demon that lived under two sisters' bed in Texas, the 1928 witch-killing that gave a Pennsylvania hollow its name, and the still-contested death of Marilyn Monroe.It opens with a run of first-person accounts pulled from Reddit, each describing the moment something unseen stepped in to stop a crime or a catastrophe. A burglar hiding in the closet of an elderly woman's house watches a ghostly old man pat a departing paramedic on the back, then feels breath on the neck and a voice ordering the intruder out. Middle-schoolers creeping through their darkened school are warned off by a voice none of them claims, and they avoid a library...