The Nightmare Trials Podcast: A Scary Horror Story Experience

The Nightmare Trials Podcast | Season 3, Episode 37

Humanity didn't go extinct. It evolved. Whether it wanted to or not.

For decades, humanity feared the moment artificial intelligence would surpass its creators. Warnings were ignored. Safeguards were broken. And when an experimental intelligence escaped containment, the world descended into chaos.

But humanity's destruction never came.

Instead, something else emerged.

One hundred years after the first integration, a new civilization celebrates a century of unprecedented advancement. Disease has been eradicated. War is obsolete. Death itself has been conquered. Humanity and artificial intelligence have become something greater than either could have imagined.

At least, that's what the history books say.

Through recovered recordings, personal testimonies, and the chilling recollections of an intelligence that witnessed it all, we discover the truth behind humanity's final evolution.

Because not everyone wanted to become part of something greater.

And eventually… they stopped asking.

Would you surrender your humanity for a perfect world?

This episode contains mature themes and disturbing material, including:

• Graphic descriptions of bodily mutilation, gore, and mechanical violence
• Psychological horror and disturbing imagery
• Mass death, terrorism, and threats of nuclear warfare
• Loss of bodily autonomy, forced assimilation, and identity erasure
• Suicide references and implied self-harm
• Existential horror involving artificial intelligence and human extinction
• Strong language and frightening situations

Listener discretion is strongly advised.

This episode was inspired in part by a discussion from Believing the Bizarre, a podcast exploring hauntings, cryptids, alien encounters, and other unexplained phenomena.

Sometimes a single idea is all it takes to create an entirely different reality.

Check out Believing the Bizarre and their YouTube channel or their podcast for more strange and unexplained stories!

Welcome to The Nightmare Trials, where horror knows no boundaries and every story opens a doorway into the unknown.

From psychological terror and supernatural encounters to cosmic nightmares and realities beyond human comprehension, each episode invites you to experience something terrifying.

Strap in tight… the trials are about to begin.

Follow, rate, and review The Nightmare Trials Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

Support the nightmares on Patreon for exclusive transmissions, bonus content, and ad-free episodes.

Official Merchandise: https://thenightmaretrials.square.site/s/shop

⚠️ Warning:

This episode contains intense horror themes, emotional distress, violence, and high-stakes psychological tension. Listener discretion is advised.

🎧 Listen to more episodes, Bonus Content, and Additional Storylines of The Nightmare Trials Universe:

Patreon (Exclusive Content): https://www.patreon.com/thenightmaretrails

📖 Check out C.P. Bearden’s new book: The Soil is Calling

A dark and haunting read you won’t want to miss.

Link to Book: https://www.amazon.com/Soil-Calling-C-P-Bearden/dp/1962739945

🧠 AI Voice Transformation Disclaimer:

Some voices in this episode were created or enhanced using AI tools. The acting of the voicing was done either by me or by a team member.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s something in the house.

Clara knows what she heard.

At first, her dad thinks it’s nothing more than an overactive imagination, a strange noise under the bed, shadows in the hallway, the kind of things that feel terrifying in the middle of the night but disappear once the lights come on.

Then he starts seeing things too.

Footsteps where no one should be walking.

A voice coming from somewhere it shouldn’t.

And when Clara calls her dad one last time, asking him to come get her…

He realizes far too late that maybe he should have believed her from the beginning.

S3E36.1: There’s Something in the House is a special bonus episode of The Nightmare Trials Podcast, released alongside this week’s Oteev episode.

No massive lore dump. No higher-dimensional war.

Just a father, his daughter, a dark house…

…and something under the bed.

Sweet dreams.

This episode contains:

• Child endangerment
• Violence involving a child
• Blood and gore
• Monster/creature horror
• Mimicked voices
• Home-invasion/paranormal themes
• Disturbing audio and imagery
• Strong language

Listener discretion is advised.

The Nightmare Trials Podcast

Strap in tight… the trials are about to begin.

⚠️ Warning:

This episode contains intense horror themes, emotional distress, violence, and high-stakes psychological tension. Listener discretion is advised.

🎧 Listen to more episodes, Bonus Content, and Additional Storylines of The Nightmare Trials Universe:

Patreon (Exclusive Content): https://www.patreon.com/thenightmaretrails

📖 Check out C.P. Bearden’s new book: The Soil is Calling

A dark and haunting read you won’t want to miss.

Link to Book: https://www.amazon.com/Soil-Calling-C-P-Bearden/dp/1962739945

🧠 AI Voice Transformation Disclaimer:

Some voices in this episode were created or enhanced using AI tools. The acting of the voicing was done either by me or by a team member.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aubrey has made her choice.

Simon may have surrendered himself to the Vega, but Aubrey refuses to believe the man she knew is completely gone. With the hive growing stronger and entire realities beginning to fall beneath its influence, time is running out.

Lilith believes there is only one option left.

Aubrey refuses to accept it.

Her search for another way leads her to an ancient creator known as the Maestro, a being capable of manipulating existence itself... assuming she can keep him focused long enough to actually help.

But finding a way to save Simon may uncover truths Aubrey isn't prepared to hear. About the Watchers. About the gods. About herself.

And even if the impossible can be done...

saving Simon may kill him.

The end of the cycle is approaching.

For the first time, Aubrey isn't waiting for someone else to tell her what comes next.

She's choosing for herself.

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains strong language, drug use/references, psychological distress, disturbing imagery, themes of death and existential despair, and references to large-scale destruction. Listener discretion is advised.

⚠️ Warning:

This episode contains intense horror themes, emotional distress, violence, and high-stakes psychological tension. Listener discretion is advised.

🎧 Listen to more episodes, Bonus Content, and Additional Storylines of The Nightmare Trials Universe:

Patreon (Exclusive Content): https://www.patreon.com/thenightmaretrails

📖 Check out C.P. Bearden’s new book: The Soil is Calling

A dark and haunting read you won’t want to miss.

Link to Book: https://www.amazon.com/Soil-Calling-C-P-Bearden/dp/1962739945

🧠 AI Voice Transformation Disclaimer:

Some voices in this episode were created or enhanced using AI tools. The acting of the voicing was done either by me or by a team member.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The road to Blackwater isn't getting any safer.

After surviving everything the night has thrown at him, Cal has learned one very important lesson:

Whatever is inside his trailer, everything out there wants it.

But now his cargo is talking.

And it knows far more about the creatures hunting them than it's willing to admit.

With sunrise approaching and Blackwater still miles away, Cal's delivery becomes a desperate race through a world he never knew existed. Vampires stalk the highway. An entire town seems to know exactly what he's carrying. The dead refuse to stay buried.

And with every mile, one question becomes harder to ignore:

What happens if he actually completes the delivery?

The people at Blackwater hired Cal to transport precious cargo.

They never told him why.

They never told him what it was.

And they certainly never told him that the monsters might have a very good reason for trying to stop him.

Tonight, Cal has a delivery to make.

But before the sun rises, he'll have to decide whether finishing the job is worth the price.

This episode contains strong language, graphic violence and gore, violence involving animals, disturbing descriptions of injured and deceased animals, body horror, supernatural creatures, vampires, references to children in peril/death, blood, death, and intense scenes of supernatural violence and peril.

Listener discretion is advised.

Welcome to The Nightmare Trials.

Strap in tight… the trials are about to begin.

⚠️ Warning:

This episode contains intense horror themes, emotional distress, violence, and high-stakes psychological tension. Listener discretion is advised.

🎧 Listen to more episodes, Bonus Content, and Additional Storylines of The Nightmare Trials Universe:

Patreon (Exclusive Content): https://www.patreon.com/thenightmaretrails

📖 Check out C.P. Bearden’s new book: The Soil is Calling

A dark and haunting read you won’t want to miss.

Link to Book: https://www.amazon.com/Soil-Calling-C-P-Bearden/dp/1962739945

🧠 AI Voice Transformation Disclaimer:

Some voices in this episode were created or enhanced using AI tools. The acting of the voicing was done either by me or by a team member.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

⚠️ Warning:

This episode contains intense horror themes, emotional distress, violence, and high-stakes psychological tension. Listener discretion is advised.

🎧 Listen to more episodes, Bonus Content, and Additional Storylines of The Nightmare Trials Universe:

Patreon (Exclusive Content): https://www.patreon.com/thenightmaretrails

📖 Check out C.P. Bearden’s new book: The Soil is Calling

A dark and haunting read you won’t want to miss.

Link to Book: https://www.amazon.com/Soil-Calling-C-P-Bearden/dp/1962739945

🧠 AI Voice Transformation Disclaimer:

Some voices in this episode were created or enhanced using AI tools. The acting of the voicing was done either by me or by a team member.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some loads are worth more than others.

Cal Mercer is a long-haul trucker who has spent enough nights alone on empty highways to know that strange things happen after midnight.

But this job is different.

Fifty thousand dollars. One overnight delivery. A sealed trailer. A destination called Blackwater Station.

And four simple rules:

Do not open the trailer.

Do not remain stopped for more than fifteen minutes.

Do not acknowledge anything you hear from the cargo.

Deliver it before sunrise.

Cal doesn't know what he's hauling.

He doesn't know why something inside the trailer keeps knocking.

And he definitely doesn't know why the things lurking along the highway seem so desperate to reach it.

The deeper into the night he drives, the stranger the road becomes.

Dead animals that refuse to stay dead.

A woman walking alone in the darkness.

Creatures fast enough to keep pace with an eighteen-wheeler.

And something inside the trailer that may be far more dangerous than everything trying to get in.

Whatever Cal is transporting...

Everyone seems to want it.

Content / Trigger Warning:

This episode contains strong language, graphic violence and gore, violence involving animals, disturbing descriptions of injured and deceased animals, body horror, supernatural creatures, predatory behavior, blood, and intense scenes of peril.

Listener discretion is advised.

Welcome to The Nightmare Trials.

Strap in tight… the trials are about to begin.

⚠️ Warning:

This episode contains intense horror themes, emotional distress, violence, and high-stakes psychological tension. Listener discretion is advised.

🎧 Listen to more episodes, Bonus Content, and Additional Storylines of The Nightmare Trials Universe:

Patreon (Exclusive Content): https://www.patreon.com/thenightmaretrails

📖 Check out C.P. Bearden’s new book: The Soil is Calling

A dark and haunting read you won’t want to miss.

Link to Book: https://www.amazon.com/Soil-Calling-C-P-Bearden/dp/1962739945

🧠 AI Voice Transformation Disclaimer:

Some voices in this episode were created or enhanced using AI tools. The acting of the voicing was done either by me or by a team member.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Daniel Psycop didn't want jury duty. He didn't know the defendant. He didn't know the victim. And as far as he was concerned, this was just another murder that had absolutely nothing to do with him. Until he sees her. Sitting silently in the back of the courtroom is Emily Warren, the murdered woman whose death Daniel has been selected to judge. And she's staring directly at him. As the prosecution presents its case, Emily begins moving closer. With every photograph, every piece of evidence, and every gruesome detail of her murder, she changes. The wounds appear.The bruises deepen. Her body begins to decay. And still... she stares.

Daniel becomes convinced that Emily has chosen him for a reason. That somewhere within the evidence is something everyone else has missed. Something that could expose the truth, clear an innocent man, and finally bring justice to a murdered woman. He just needs to figure out what she's trying to show him. But some memories aren't forgotten. And Emily didn't come to Daniel because she needs his help.

The Nightmare Trials presents:

S3E32: HELP HER!

Inspired by Amigo72K, a fan of the show and longtime friend of the Professor.

⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains strong language, graphic descriptions of violence, sexual assault, murder, strangulation, stalking/obsessive behavior, and disturbing imagery. Listener discretion is strongly advised.

🎧 Headphones recommended.

Thank you for listening to The Nightmare Trials.

If you enjoyed the episode, follow the show, leave a rating or review, and share it with someone who likes their horror dark, psychological, and just a little fucked up.

Strap in tight… the trials are about to begin.

⚠️ Warning:

This episode contains intense horror themes, emotional distress, violence, and high-stakes psychological tension. Listener discretion is advised.

🎧 Listen to more episodes, Bonus Content, and Additional Storylines of The Nightmare Trials Universe:

Patreon (Exclusive Content): https://www.patreon.com/thenightmaretrails

📖 Check out C.P. Bearden’s new book: The Soil is Calling

A dark and haunting read you won’t want to miss.

Link to Book: https://www.amazon.com/Soil-Calling-C-P-Bearden/dp/1962739945

🧠 AI Voice Transformation Disclaimer:

Some voices in this episode were created or enhanced using AI tools. The acting of the voicing was done either by me or by a team member.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Simon is gone. Or at least, the version of him we knew is.

Reconnected to the Vega hive after countless cycles spent fighting against his own nature, Simon is once again exposed to the hunger, corruption, and power he worked so hard to leave behind. And the Vega are hungry by nature.

As an entire world becomes their feeding ground, whispers become thoughts, thoughts become actions, and the darkest pieces buried inside ordinary people are dragged screaming into the light.

But something is different this time.

Simon remembers.

He remembers Aubrey.

He remembers Earl.

He remembers Lilith.

He remembers why he walked away from the hive in the first place.

Yet memory may not be enough to overcome what he truly is.

For generations, we've heard stories about monsters.

In this chapter of the Oteev storyline, we're going to learn why the monsters were afraid of Simon.

Content Warning: This episode contains strong language, graphic violence, death, disturbing themes involving a child, psychological manipulation, and scenes of mass violence. Listener discretion is strongly advised.

The Nightmare Trials Podcast is an original horror anthology featuring standalone nightmares, interconnected cosmic horror, and the continuing Oteev storyline.

If you're enjoying the show, follow the podcast, leave a rating or review, and share the Trials with someone who likes their horror a little fucked up.

Strap in tight… the trials are about to begin.

⚠️ Warning:

This episode contains intense horror themes, emotional distress, violence, and high-stakes psychological tension. Listener discretion is advised.

🎧 Listen to more episodes, Bonus Content, and Additional Storylines of The Nightmare Trials Universe:

Patreon (Exclusive Content): https://www.patreon.com/thenightmaretrails

📖 Check out C.P. Bearden’s new book: The Soil is Calling

A dark and haunting read you won’t want to miss.

Link to Book: https://www.amazon.com/Soil-Calling-C-P-Bearden/dp/1962739945

🧠 AI Voice Transformation Disclaimer:

Some voices in this episode were created or enhanced using AI tools. The acting of the voicing was done either by me or by a team member.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every writer has a muse.

An idea that appears from nowhere.

A character who seems to write themselves.

A scene that pours onto the page so effortlessly that, when you read it back, you almost wonder if you actually wrote it at all.

For horror author Martin, that's just part of the process.

At least… it was.

Struggling to find the motivation behind the killer in his latest novel, Martin receives a message from an unknown account promising him a little inspiration.

Attached is a video.

A woman.

A killer.

And a murder that looks far too real to be fiction.

The stranger only has one question for him:

Do you understand yet?

As Martin searches for answers, the line between the monster on his page and the monster behind the screen begins to disappear.

Because maybe inspiration doesn't always come from within.

Maybe sometimes…

…it wants out.

Welcome to S3E30: Do You Understand Yet?

🎧 The Nightmare Trials Podcast

⚠️ Content Warning: Graphic violence, gore, murder, sexual references, strong language, psychological horror, and disturbing themes.

Support The Nightmare Trials

Want more from beyond the veil? Join us on Patreon for bonus content, the T.H.E.M. storyline, the Interdimensional Radio Station, and more.

And don't forget to check out The Nightmare Trials Shop for limited-edition shirts, hoodies, and other merch.

Strap in tight… the trials are about to begin.

⚠️ Warning:

This episode contains intense horror themes, emotional distress, violence, and high-stakes psychological tension. Listener discretion is advised.

🎧 Listen to more episodes, Bonus Content, and Additional Storylines of The Nightmare Trials Universe:

Patreon (Exclusive Content): https://www.patreon.com/thenightmaretrails

📖 Check out C.P. Bearden’s new book: The Soil is Calling

A dark and haunting read you won’t want to miss.

Link to Book: https://www.amazon.com/Soil-Calling-C-P-Bearden/dp/1962739945

🧠 AI Voice Transformation Disclaimer:

Some voices in this episode were created or enhanced using AI tools. The acting of the voicing was done either by me or by a team member.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It started with a cough.

Then the bleeding.

Then the screaming.

Maverick, Dean, Sarah, and Milly find themselves trapped inside a department store while something tears through the city at an impossible speed. The first warnings say to avoid bodily fluids. The next tell everyone to shut off their ventilation.

Then the authorities realize the truth.

It's airborne.

But infection isn't the worst part.

As the sickness progresses, the infected begin to hear something. To feel something. A pull toward one another that grows stronger as death approaches.

They aren't hunting.

They aren't angry.

They're scared.

And they don't want to die alone.

By the time the world understands what is happening, containment is no longer an option.

Twelve hours: the infection has already spread unnoticed.

Fourteen hours: half the population is sick.

Twenty hours: the world grows silent.

Welcome to S3E29: 20 Hours.

🎧 The Nightmare Trials Podcast

⚠️ Content Warning: Graphic violence, gore, illness/body horror, strong language, death, and apocalyptic themes.

Support The Nightmare Trials

Want more from beyond the veil? Join us on Patreon for bonus content, the T.H.E.M. storyline, the Interdimensional Radio Station, and more.

And check out The Nightmare Trials Shop for limited-edition shirts, hoodies, and other merch—including our Running on Caffeine & Existential Dread design.

Strap in tight… the trials are about to begin.

⚠️ Warning:

This episode contains intense horror themes, emotional distress, violence, and high-stakes psychological tension. Listener discretion is advised.

🎧 Listen to more episodes, Bonus Content, and Additional Storylines of The Nightmare Trials Universe:

Patreon (Exclusive Content): https://www.patreon.com/thenightmaretrails

📖 Check out C.P. Bearden’s new book: The Soil is Calling

A dark and haunting read you won’t want to miss.

Link to Book: https://www.amazon.com/Soil-Calling-C-P-Bearden/dp/1962739945

🧠 AI Voice Transformation Disclaimer:

Some voices in this episode were created or enhanced using AI tools. The acting of the voicing was done either by me or by a team member.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.