Weird Darkness Records

SONG SYNOPSIS: She finishes her shift at the switchboard at ten and doesn't call home afterward, which is the first thing anybody notices. It's a Thursday in June of 1948, it's her first date with a lineman from the telephone company, and they spend it working through the taverns on the east side and the south side of a small Illinois river town. He's twenty-eight and she's seventeen, and by every account that ever surfaced, the eleven years between them didn't trouble her. Around eleven-thirty they leave the roadhouse on the south edge of town, the last stop anybody could name, and drive out toward the lovers' lane on County Farm Road; nobody who saw them go was ever found. A highway worker spots a shoe at the edge of the pavement the next morning and finds him in the ditch beside it. She lies five days in the weeds along the sand-plant road before a truck driver, sitting high enough in his cab to see down over the grass, catches sight of her. Neither killing was ever charged, and the county's own case file went empty somewhere in the decades after. The last hours belong to her: the wedding ring her mother gave her, still on her finger, and a cigarette stained with lipstick sitting on the floorboard of his Buick a mile north of the lane.

SONG INSPIRATION: On a Thursday night in June of 1948, seventeen-year-old switchboard operator Mary Jane Reed went out on a first date with Stanley Skridla, a twenty-eight-year-old telephone lineman, and the two of them worked through the taverns of Oregon, Illinois. He was found the next morning in a ditch along the local lovers' lane, shot five times. She turned up five days later, two miles away, shot once in the head. Nobody was ever charged, and the case file emptied out somewhere in the decades after. When her brother finally got the grave opened fifty-seven years on, the forensic anthropologist his family hired reported that the skull in the casket had belonged to someone else. Hers has never been found. The roadhouse where the two of them spent that last evening is still pouring drinks, and the people who work there have plenty to say about the jukebox. Read the full story at https://weirddarkness.com/mary-jane-reed/

ABOUT ALENA INGRAM: Alena Ingram is a solo vocalist on Weird Darkness Records – a voice built for the years between 1945 and 1965. Smoky, gravel-edged, and all attitude, she sings like she knows more than she's letting on. Sultry, guarded, and just a little dangerous, she doesn't have a single mood so much as a single presence: she becomes whatever the song needs. Candlelit lounge or packed ballroom, if it lives somewhere in those two decades, it sounds like it was waiting for her.

NOBODY SAW US LEAVE
by Alena Ingram
[VERSE]
Ten o'clock, the switchboard set me free,
Hung the headset on the wall.
He was standing there waiting for me.
I forgot to make my call.
[POST VERSE]
I bought the second round myself,
He never asked me twice.
They'll say I should have known better
They can keep their advice!
[PRE CHORUS]
What happened to me, poor Mary Jane?
Found bloodied on that lover’s lane!
[CHORUS]
Nobody saw us leave that night,
The barkeep turned to pour.
The band kept time, the room stayed bright,
Can we please dance just once more?
Nobody saw us leave,
Nobody knows why I'm gone.
Now I'm the cold that you receive,
Now I'm the record playing on.
[POST CHORUS]
Nobody saw us leave that night...
Nobody saw us leave.
NOBODY! SAW! US! LEAVE!
[VERSE]
Half past eleven, I followed on his arm,
The lot was almost bare.
He drove us out past the county farm.
I wasn't going anywhere.
[POST VERSE]
A stranger with a gun in his hand,
I never saw him plain.
Five shots went into my man,
Then the gun forced me down the lane.
[PRE CHORUS]
What happened to me, poor Mary Jane?
Found bloodied on that lover’s lane!
[CHORUS]
Nobody saw us leave that night,
The barkeep turned to pour.
The band kept time, the room stayed bright,
Can we please dance just once more?
Nobody saw us leave,
Nobody knows why I'm gone.
Now I'm the cold that you receive,
Now I'm the record playing on.
[POST CHORUS]
Nobody saw us leave that night...
Nobody saw us leave.
NOBODY! SAW! US! LEAVE!
[Tenor saxophone solo]
[BRIDGE]
Gardenias sent each fall,
No name attached at all.
The kitchen then grows cold,
While I never grow old.
The jukebox plays my song,
It’s here my heart belongs.
So pour me just one more,
While my spirit sweeps the floor.
[PRE CHORUS]
What happened to me, poor Mary Jane?
Found bloodied on that lover’s lane!
[CHORUS]
Nobody saw us leave that night,
The barkeep turned to pour.
The band kept time, the room stayed bright,
Can we please dance just once more?
Nobody saw us leave,
Nobody knows why I'm gone.
Now I'm the cold that you receive,
Now I'm the record playing on.
[POST CHORUS]
Nobody saw us leave that night...
Nobody saw us leave.
[OUTRO]
Nobody saw us leave that night...
Nobody saw us leave.
Nobody saw us leave!!!!
NOBODY! SAW! US! LEAVE.......!!!!
Nobody saw us leave!!!!


Hear more original music from Weird Darkness Records at https://WeirdDarkness.com/music. Explore hundreds of original songs by Dark Weirdness, Static Wax, Incorruption, Monster Flakes, Maggie Cross, Alena Ingram, and more!

Weird Darkness Records is the music division of the Weird Darkness brand, transforming the show’s strange, dark, true-crime, paranormal, supernatural, and macabre stories into original songs spanning multiple artists and musical styles.

All songs are also available on major streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and most other music platforms worldwide.

This episode includes AI-generated content.

Instrumental horror music from Weird Darkness, with no voices and nothing to follow. Music for sleeping with the lights on.
HORRORCHESTRA is a series of long-form instrumental beds written in the style of the old black-and-white horror movie scores: muted strings, a lone oboe, a piano decaying somewhere down a hallway, a church bell a long way off. It was built for the hours when the house has gone quiet and silence is the last thing you want.
Some people sleep to it. Others write to it, work late to it, run tabletop games under it, or leave it going on a night drive. There is nothing to pay attention to, which is the point. New volumes are added as they are recorded. Subscribe if you want them as they land in your feed.
The music in this video was generated with AI tools and arranged, edited, and produced by Darren Marlar for Weird Darkness. If you'd like to use it in your own project, please reach out via email — permission is usually granted and I'm glad to say yes, I just like knowing where it ends up. "Weird Darkness" is my brand and is not licensed for use on your own releases, artwork, or thumbnails, and I'd ask that you not put out your own projects under the HORRORCHESTRAname either. Please do not re-upload this content as a standalone release.

Hear more original music from Weird Darkness Records at https://WeirdDarkness.com/music. Explore hundreds of original songs by Dark Weirdness, Static Wax, Incorruption, Monster Flakes, Maggie Cross, Alena Ingram, and more!

Weird Darkness Records is the music division of the Weird Darkness brand, transforming the show’s strange, dark, true-crime, paranormal, supernatural, and macabre stories into original songs spanning multiple artists and musical styles.

All songs are also available on major streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and most other music platforms worldwide.

SONG SYNOPSIS:
For twenty years, Ken McElroy took whatever he wanted from Skidmore, Missouri, and walked free from all but one of twenty-one indictments, parking outside the homes of anyone who dared testify and staring at their windows for hours. When the single conviction that finally stuck put him back on Main Street on an appeal bond, the town gathered on a July morning in 1981 and watched him die behind the wheel of his pickup, the engine screaming under a dead man's boot. More than thirty neighbors stood close enough to name the shooters. Told from inside that crowd – an ordinary resident who lived through the fear and stood on the street when the rifles rose – the story is one of a whole town that agreed, without ever saying so aloud, that he needed killing, and that nobody saw a thing.

SONG INSPIRATION:
Inspired by the true story of Ken McElroy, the town bully of Skidmore, Missouri, shot dead behind the wheel of his truck on the town's main street on the morning of July 10th, 1981, in front of dozens of witnesses – not one of whom has ever named the men who fired.
As heard in the Weird Darkness episode "THE KERSEY TIME SLIP: Three Boys Who Walked Into the 1400s" (https://weirddarkness.com/KerseyTimeslip).

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Maggie Cross brings a worn, weathered contralto to Weird Darkness Records — a Southern Gothic folk-blues voice built for telling stories from the shadows. Chicago-Delta blues pulled back into acoustic-forward murder balladry and dark Americana, all storytelling and grit exactly where it's needed. Brooding, unhurried, and haunted, hers is the voice of someone who has seen everything and isn't rattled by any of it.

"Nobody Saw A Thing" by Maggie Cross
[VERSE]
He grew up hard, he grew up mean,
He took whatever caught his eye,
The biggest boy the school had seen,
A giant's shadow shuffling by.
[Guitar riff]
[VERSE]
He'd sit his truck outside your gate
And watch your window through the night,
Till you learned to lock the door and wait
For his tail-lights to roll out of sight.
[PRE-CHORUS]
He needed killing – everybody knew, but nobody saw a thing.
Twenty years of terror; no law, no justice it would bring.
[CHORUS]
When the rifles rose on Main Street, not a soul would say a name,
Not the mayor or the preacher, we all stayed quiet just the same.
You can ask me on my deathbed, I won't say who held the guns
Thirty of us witnessed, we pulled the trigger all as one.
[POST CHORUS]
That day in Skidmore when evil died, we could finally breathe relief
He needed killing – everybody knew, but nobody saw a thing.
[VERSE]
They judged him near two dozen times,
And near two dozen times he walked,
The lawyer smiling at his crimes
Every frightened witness balked.
[Guitar riff]
[VERSE]
He shot the grocer, old and gray,
All but put him in the ground,
The one charge that would finally stay
Till the bond came and turned it all around.
[PRE-CHORUS]
He needed killing – everybody knew, but nobody saw a thing.
Twenty years of terror; no law, no justice it would bring.
[CHORUS]
When the rifles rose on Main Street, not a soul would say a name,
Not the mayor or the preacher, we all stayed quiet just the same.
You can ask me on my deathbed, I won't say who held the guns
Thirty of us witnessed, we pulled the trigger all as one.
[POST CHORUS]
That day in Skidmore when evil died, we could finally breathe relief
He needed killing – everybody knew, but nobody saw a thing.
[Guitar solo]
[BRIDGE]
The engine howled with a dead man's foot
Still pressing the pedal that day,
His wife climbed out through the shattered glass
And a neighbor led her away.
[Guitar riff]
[VERSE]
Gun smoke in the cab, the back window gone
The rifles no one will name
We carried it home like a stone in the chest,
We carry it still, just the same.
[PRE-CHORUS]
He needed killing – everybody knew, but nobody saw a thing.
Twenty years of terror; no law, no justice it would bring.
[CHORUS]
When the rifles rose on Main Street, not a soul would say a name,
Not the mayor or the preacher, we all stayed quiet just the same.
You can ask me on my deathbed, I won't say who held the guns
Thirty of us witnessed, we pulled the trigger all as one.
[POST CHORUS]
That day in Skidmore when evil died, we could finally breathe relief
He needed killing – everybody knew, but nobody saw a thing.
[Guitar riff]
He needed killing…
Nobody saw a thing.
[Guitar riff]
He needed killing.

Hear more original music from Weird Darkness Records at https://WeirdDarkness.com/music. Explore hundreds of original songs by Dark Weirdness, Static Wax, Incorruption, Monster Flakes, Maggie Cross, Alena Ingram, and more!

Weird Darkness Records is the music division of the Weird Darkness brand, transforming the show’s strange, dark, true-crime, paranormal, supernatural, and macabre stories into original songs spanning multiple artists and musical styles.

All songs are also available on major streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and most other music platforms worldwide.

This episode includes AI-generated content.

Get all of the music at https://weirddarkness.com/music
SONG SYNOPSIS: Nine o'clock on a summer night, a boy and his mother are alone in the house when the doorbell rings — once, then again. Behind the curtain stands a man in dirty coveralls and yellow-stained gloves, a painted grin fixed on a hollow face, and he won't move, blink, or say a word. The boy turns and finds a second clown already inside, standing on the kitchen tile, holding old photographs of his father and wearing the same silent smile. His mother screams for them to leave, and they do — no argument, no sound, straight out through the screen. Then his father comes home and sits them down. He wore the paint once too, he tells them: the Circus of Creeps, silent stalkers who worked the crowd night and day. He quit the act when he met her, but the show never lets its crew go, and there's only one way out. He reaches into his bag, and the mask appears.
SONG INSPIRATION: Heard in the Weird Darkness MicroTerrors episode "The Clowns" (https://weirddarkness.com/mt-theclowns/). Based on the original Micro Terror "The Clowns" by Scott Donnelly.
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Monster Flakes are a six-piece bubblegum monster-surf band made up of the creatures usually doing the haunting. Hat Man fronts the group — the one creature with absolutely no facial features somehow still has all the stage presence — backed by Bigfoot on bass, Mothman on guitar, Chupacabra on drums, and the Flatwoods Monster on Farfisa, with the Fresno Nightcrawlers swaying in a line as the wordless "ba-ba-ba" backup trio. They set up wherever the haunting is that week, play till the candles gutter, and leave nothing behind but a sound in the walls and not one clear photo to prove they were there. All Monster Flakes releases eventually reach streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, and most other major services under Weird Darkness Records.
"The Clowns Never Speak" by MONSTER FLAKES
[SPOKEN]
If somebody in clown makeup comes knocking after dark… don't answer the door. And if you ask what he wants… and he doesn't say anything? That's when it's time to call your parents in!
[VERSE 1 ]
Nine o'clock, the sun goes down
Mom and me, no one else around
Doorbell rings — she says it's a bird
Then it rings again, on the second word
Pull the curtain, peek outside
Something there she's trying to hide
Coveralls dirty, gloves stained yellow
Painted grin on a hollow fellow
[PRE-CHORUS ]
He don't move
He don't blink
He don't say a thing
[CHORUS ]
The clowns never speak!
The clowns never speak!
They watch, they wait, they breathe, they grin
They're at the door — they're already in
The clowns never speak!
The clowns...
Never…
Speak!
[VERSE 2 ]
Turn around — I freeze in place
Second clown in our living space
Standing on our kitchen tile
Holding photos, wearing smiles
Daddy young in every frame
Daddy laughing — not the same
Mama screams "you better leave!"
Then he walk out through the screen
[PRE-CHORUS ]
He don't run
He don't fight
He don't say goodbye
[CHORUS ]
The clowns never speak!
The clowns never speak!
They watch, they wait, they breathe, they grin
They're at the door — they're already in
The clowns never speak!
The clowns...
Never…
Speak!
[BRIDGE ]
Daddy's home, he sits us down
"I wore the paint before I came around
Circus of Creeps, I used to play
Silent stalkers, night and day
Quit the act when I met you
But the show won't ever lose its crew
There's only one way out, my dear…"
Reaches in his bag — and the mask appears
[CHORUS ]
The clowns never speak!
The clowns never speak!
They watch, they wait, they breathe, they grin
They're at the door — they're already in
The clowns never speak!
The clowns...
Never…
Speak!
[OUTRO]
The clowns...
Never…
Speak!
The clowns...
Never…
Ever.
Ever.
Speak!

Hear more original music from Weird Darkness Records at https://WeirdDarkness.com/music. Explore hundreds of original songs by Dark Weirdness, Static Wax, Incorruption, Monster Flakes, Maggie Cross, Alena Ingram, and more!

Weird Darkness Records is the music division of the Weird Darkness brand, transforming the show’s strange, dark, true-crime, paranormal, supernatural, and macabre stories into original songs spanning multiple artists and musical styles.

All songs are also available on major streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and most other music platforms worldwide.

Get all of the music at https://weirddarkness.com/music

SONG SYNOPSIS: Twenty years back, a boy stood on a weathered dock at Lake Weeping Tree while his uncle pointed at the water, and something rose from it and slipped under before anyone else turned to look. The uncle spent the rest of his life as the family punchline — the man who swore a monster lived in the lake — and took the ridicule to his grave. Now the boy is grown, tongs in hand at the family cookout, grilling burgers and franks at that same water's edge and watching every ripple. His brother rolls his eyes. His nephew Billy tugs at his shorts and asks what he really saw. He tells the boy about Cthulhu — the cosmic sleeper beneath the ocean, and the smaller thing that found a path inland to this lake — then holds a hot dog out over the surface. A tentacled face breaks the water without a sound, wraps a slick arm around Billy's hand, takes the hot dog, belches, and sinks back into the dark. Billy has his proof now. So does the man nobody believed. One day Billy will be the crazy uncle too, and he'll have earned it.

SONG INSPIRATION: Heard in the Weird Darkness MicroTerrors episode "The Lake Monster My Family Refused To Believe In | 'Cthulhu Ate My Hot Dog!'" (https://weirddarkness.com/mt-cthulhuhotdog/). Based on the original Micro Terror "Cthulhu Ate My Hot Dog" by Scott Donnelly.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Monster Flakes are a six-piece bubblegum monster-surf band made up of the creatures usually doing the haunting. Hat Man fronts the group — the one creature with absolutely no facial features somehow still has all the stage presence — backed by Bigfoot on bass, Mothman on guitar, Chupacabra on drums, and the Flatwoods Monster on Farfisa, with the Fresno Nightcrawlers swaying in a line as the wordless "ba-ba-ba" backup trio. They set up wherever the haunting is that week, play till the candles gutter, and leave nothing behind but a sound in the walls and not one clear photo to prove they were there. All Monster Flakes releases eventually reach streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, and most other major services under Weird Darkness Records.

"Now I'm the Crazy Uncle (Playing Cthulhu's Game)" by MONSTER FLAKES

"Every family has that crazy uncle - you know who it is in your family, I'm sure! But sometimes there's a reason that uncle acts strange! Like that one time when a family kept laughing at their uncle for saying something was living in the lake... but then...
]
I was just a kid the day it showed its face
My uncle at my side out on that weathered dock
It rose up from the water then it left no trace
And now I'm back again and watching round the clock
They snicker when I grill at the water's edge
My brother thinks I'm crazy and rolling his eyes
I'm standing on the dock on that narrow ledge
Scanning every ripple, waiting for a rise
They said my uncle was crazy all along
Twenty years of telling it, but none believed his song
Lake Weeping Tree has a monster in its deep
Then I saw it, now it's my secret to keep
Now I'm grown up and they don't believe my claim
Now I'm the crazy uncle, playing Cthulhu's game
Billy tugged my shorts and asks me what I know
I tell him of the creature lurking in the lake
A cosmic thing with tentacles and eerie glow
Cthulhu baby down there, waiting to awake
They said my uncle was crazy all along
Twenty years of telling it, but none believed his song
Lake Weeping Tree has a monster in its deep
Then I saw it, now it's my secret to keep
Now I'm grown up and they don't believe my claim
Now I'm the crazy uncle, playing Cthulhu's game
A tentacled face rose without a sound
The most terrifying thing I ever found
Its arms locked onto Billy's hand
It snatched that hot dog, belched and sank
Back to the deep and dark and dank
Now my nephew understands
They said my uncle was crazy all along
Twenty years of telling it, but none believed his song
Lake Weeping Tree has a monster in its deep
Then I saw it, now it's my secret to keep
Now I'm grown up and they don't believe my claim
Now I'm the crazy uncle, playing Cthulhu's game
Now I'm the crazy uncle, playing Cthulhu's game

Hear more original music from Weird Darkness Records at https://WeirdDarkness.com/music. Explore hundreds of original songs by Dark Weirdness, Static Wax, Incorruption, Monster Flakes, Maggie Cross, Alena Ingram, and more!

Weird Darkness Records is the music division of the Weird Darkness brand, transforming the show’s strange, dark, true-crime, paranormal, supernatural, and macabre stories into original songs spanning multiple artists and musical styles.

All songs are also available on major streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and most other music platforms worldwide.

Inspired by the Weird Darkness podcast of the same name, "Church of the Undead"

[VERSE 1]
Ezekiel stood in a valley of bones
Dry, dusty, scattered, forgotten, alone
God said, "Can they live?" and the prophet replied
"Lord, only You know" — let me testify
[BRIDGE 1]
The Spirit blew in and those bones rattled loud
Sinew wrapped tight on that skeleton crowd
They stood to their feet, a whole undead army
Not zombies from hell, no — RAISED BY THE ALMIGHTY
[PRE-CHORUS]
Ephesians 2 says, “we were DEAD in our sin
But, God made us ALIVE together with Christ
Romans 6 says, "count yourself DEAD to sin again
But alive to God in Jesus Christ All right!
[CHORUS]
If you used to be dead
But now alive it's said
You need to get yourself to
The CHURCH OF THE UNDEAD
[POST-CHORUS]
The CHURCH OF THE UNDEAD
[VERSE 2]
Now Lazarus was dead, four days in the tomb
Wrapped up like a mummy, stuck in the gloom
Christ rolled back the stone, didn't flinch, didn't blink
Said "Lazarus, come forth!" — man, what did they think
[BRIDGE 2]
That's the loudest wake-up call this world's ever heard
Dead man walking 'cause of three short words
If Jesus raised Lazarus  out of the grave
He can raise YOU from sin — He's in the business to save
[PRE-CHORUS]
Ephesians 2 says, “we were DEAD in our sin
But, God made us ALIVE together with Christ
Romans 6 says, "count yourself DEAD to sin again
But alive to God in Jesus Christ All right!
[CHORUS]
If you used to be dead
But now alive it's said
You need to get yourself to
The CHURCH OF THE UNDEAD
[POST-CHORUS]
The CHURCH OF THE UNDEAD
[VERSE 3]
One day a trumpet's gonna sound in the sky Sound in the sky!
And the dead in Christ are the first to rise First to rise!
Corinthians asks, Where, O death, is your sting
The grave lost its grip when they crowned Him King
[BRIDGE 3]
Buried with Jesus, now we're walking anew
Undead to the old life, ALIVE to the true
So shake off that grave dust, and testify
You used to be dead... but Jesus said RISE
[PRE-CHORUS]
Ephesians 2 says, “we were DEAD in our sin
But, God made us ALIVE together with Christ
Romans 6 says, "count yourself DEAD to sin again
But alive to God in Jesus Christ All right
[CHORUS]
If you used to be dead
But now alive it's said
You need to get yourself to
The CHURCH OF THE UNDEAD
[POST-CHORUS]
The CHURCH OF THE UNDEAD
[OUTRO]
The CHURCH OF THE UNDEAD
The CHURCH OF THE UNDEAD


Hear more original music from Weird Darkness Records at https://WeirdDarkness.com/music. Explore hundreds of original songs by Dark Weirdness, Static Wax, Incorruption, Monster Flakes, Maggie Cross, Alena Ingram, and more!

Weird Darkness Records is the music division of the Weird Darkness brand, transforming the show’s strange, dark, true-crime, paranormal, supernatural, and macabre stories into original songs spanning multiple artists and musical styles.

All songs are also available on major streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and most other music platforms worldwide.

SONG SYNOPSIS:
A woman's gift for reading minds pulls her out of an ordinary life and into a classified government program, hidden away to turn her sight on the world's secrets. The child who learned to bury what she knew becomes the grown woman who feels unseen eyes watching, becomes the captive who longs for a wedding day that never came. At the end she discovers that the power which stole everything from her has quietly saved the one man she loved — and she chooses to keep the cage that lets her keep watch over him.

SONG INSPIRATION:
Inspired by "Vanishing Lady" by CBS Radio Mystery Theater from February 23, 1978, as heard in the Weird Darkness Retro Radio episode "The Vanishing Bride and the Government's Secret Experiment" (https://weirddarkness.com/wdrr0698/).

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Static Wax takes the stories told on vintage radio broadcasts and reimagines them as era-appropriate songs — the way they might have sounded if they'd been written for the jukebox instead of the airwaves. This track features the voice of Alena Ingram.

"Shadow for the State" by Static Wax (feat. Alena Ingram)
[Verse]
She was nine years old the night she learned to keep it all unsaid,
She asked one honest question and they sent her up to bed.
She'd felt the chill beneath the smiles, the things they wouldn't tell,
And learned the world won't love a girl who knows them all too well.
[Pre-chorus]
So she folded up the knowing,
Learned to bury it down deep,
And she carried every secret,
That was never hers to keep.
[CHORUS]
She's a SHADOW for the STATE, for the MEN on the HILL!
She sees in your mind, she has your SECRETS to SPILL.
They vanished the GIRL,
To make her spy on the WORLD,
A SECRET AGENT against her WILL.
She sees through love and hate, she sees your fate,
A SHADOW for the STATE!
[Verse]
They were watching from the corners, they'd been watching all along,
The men who'd traced the whispers of a girl whose gift ran strong —
Who could hold a stranger's photograph and name the road they'd take,
Who'd feel a lie the instant that a stranger let it break.
[Pre-chorus]
She felt the eyes upon her,
Felt the weight of being known.
And told herself it's nothing,
That a girl imagines on her own.
[CHORUS]
She's a SHADOW for the STATE, for the MEN on the HILL!
She sees in your mind, she has your SECRETS to SPILL.
They vanished the GIRL,
To make her spy on the WORLD,
A SECRET AGENT against her WILL.
She sees through love and hate, she sees your fate,
A SHADOW for the STATE!
[Verse]
Now the room is small and quiet, just a table and a chair,
And the photographs they bring her, and the lamp's unblinking stare.
But her mind has slipped to springtime, to a vow they'd make for life,
To the man who set a wedding for a day that can't arrive.
[Pre-chorus]
Does he wait beside the window?
Does he wonder where she's gone?
Did they tell him that she left him?
Does he keep the porch light on?
[Bridge]
There's no door that she can open, there's no letter she can send,
They never had to lock her up, never had to fence her in.
No road back to the woman that she was before the end.
The cage was never iron bars.
The cage was always skin.
[CHORUS]
She's a SHADOW for the STATE, for the MEN on the HILL!
She sees in your mind, she has your SECRETS to SPILL.
They vanished the GIRL,
To make her spy on the WORLD,
A SECRET AGENT against her WILL.
She sees through love and hate, she sees your fate,
A SHADOW for the STATE!
[Verse]
She hears it in the hallways, how the things she sees come true,
How a word she breathed in passing kept a war from breaking through.
They whisper of a phantom who can stop a strike mid-air,
A silent hand that shields the lives of strangers unaware.
[Pre-chorus]
And something in her steadies,
If she's never to be free.
Then let the gift that trapped her,
Be a mercy, she can see.
[Verse]
Then one grey morning came a file, and the breath went from her chest,
The name beneath the photograph: the man she'd loved the best.
A waiting car, a quiet street, a death he'd never see,
And the hand that reached to pull him clear from danger... it was she.
[Mini-Bridge]
She could ask them for her freedom,
She could beg them for the door.
She looks down at his photograph,
She doesn't beg them anymore.
[CHORUS]
She's a SHADOW for the STATE, for the MEN on the HILL!
She sees in your mind, she has your SECRETS to SPILL.
They vanished the GIRL,
To make her spy on the WORLD,
A SECRET AGENT against her WILL.
She sees through love and hate, she sees your fate,
A SHADOW for the STATE!
A Shadow for the State.
A Shadow for the State..



Hear more original music from Weird Darkness Records at https://WeirdDarkness.com/music. Explore hundreds of original songs by Dark Weirdness, Static Wax, Incorruption, Monster Flakes, Maggie Cross, Alena Ingram, and more!

Weird Darkness Records is the music division of the Weird Darkness brand, transforming the show’s strange, dark, true-crime, paranormal, supernatural, and macabre stories into original songs spanning multiple artists and musical styles.

All songs are also available on major streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and most other music platforms worldwide.

SONG SYNOPSIS:
A kid's homemade radio rig finally gets an answer from the Kuiper Belt — a green light screaming over the hill, car alarms cutting out, then silence. What answers isn't friendly: a car-sized, bug-eyed horror with clicking blade-legs that tracks the signal home, crashes through the front door, and skewers his sister on its way in. Smashing the radio doesn't end it. His sister's eyes go black, her voice changes, and the thing delivers its warning through her mouth — it hasn't slept in weeks, and it's coming back hungry if the noise doesn't stop.

SONG INSPIRATION:
Based on the Weird Darkness MicroTerrors episode "Night of the Insectoid," as heard in the Weird Darkness episode "Night of the Insectoid" (https://weirddarkness.com/mt-nightoftheinsectoid/).

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Monster Flakes is a band of cryptids and creatures playing bubblegum monster-surf — the things that usually do the haunting, plugged in and playing the chase music instead.

"Night of the Insectoid" by Monster Flakes
[VERSE 1]
Radio glowin' on the windowsill,
Wires and antennas givin' a thrill.
The car alarms blasted then it all went still,
And we seen a green light screamin' over the hill.
[PRE-CHORUS]
The Kuiper Belt heard my signal strong,
But I was beaming into space where I didn't belong!
[CHORUS]
It's the Night of the Insectoid!
Somethin' out there you cannot avoid!
A creepy space creature that won't be destroyed!
Giant clickin' legs and a bug-eyed stare,
Woke it with my broadcast, I know not where.
Now he's really angry, and I'm real scared.
He looks really really annoyed,
It's the Night of the Insectoid!
[VERSE 2]
Lifted its leg and swung it sharp as a blade,
Even more scary than the sounds it made.
We ran next door and we thought we were saved,
But the clicking came back and the front door caved.
[PRE-CHORUS]
Ran out the back but there's nowhere to go,
Then it skewered my sister with a single blow.
[CHORUS]
It's the Night of the Insectoid!
Somethin' out there you cannot avoid!
A creepy space creature that won't be destroyed!
Giant clickin' legs and a bug-eyed stare,
Woke it with my broadcast, I know not where.
Now he's really angry, and I'm real scared.
He looks really really annoyed,
It's the Night of the Insectoid!
[surf guitar break]
[BRIDGE 1]
It talked through my sister with a voice all wrong,
He warned me just once with a screeching voice.
"I ain't slept in weeks, and it was YOU all along,
I'm comin' back hungry if you KEEP MAKIN' NOISE!"
[BRIDGE 2]
(half-time, spooky Farfisa)
So I smashed my radio…
Thought the danger was done…
But my sisters eyes went black —
She blinked sideways, and my fear had just begun.
[CHORUS]
It's the Night of the Insectoid!
Somethin' out there you cannot avoid!
A creepy space creature that won't be destroyed!
Giant clickin' legs and a bug-eyed stare,
Woke it with my broadcast, I know not where.
Now he's really angry, and I'm real scared.
He looks really really annoyed,
It's the Night of the Insectoid!
[OUTRO]
The Night of the Insectoid!
Ba-ba-ba… ba-ba-ba…
The Night of the Insectoid!
The Night of the Insectoid!



Hear more original music from Weird Darkness Records at https://WeirdDarkness.com/music. Explore hundreds of original songs by Dark Weirdness, Static Wax, Incorruption, Monster Flakes, Maggie Cross, Alena Ingram, and more!

Weird Darkness Records is the music division of the Weird Darkness brand, transforming the show’s strange, dark, true-crime, paranormal, supernatural, and macabre stories into original songs spanning multiple artists and musical styles.

All songs are also available on major streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and most other music platforms worldwide.

This episode includes AI-generated content.

SONG SYNOPSIS:
A man cycles through every self-help book, every method, every attempt to fix himself by sheer will, and comes up empty every time. The striving fails again and again — no matter how hard he tries, he cannot prevail — until he stops reaching for the shelf and reaches higher instead. What starts as a confession of failure becomes a hand-off: he can't help himself, so he stops trying to and gives his life over instead.

SONG INSPIRATION:
A personal song, not tied to any Weird Darkness episode — written by Darren Marlar close to thirty years ago and left unrecorded until now, because it was always meant to be sung rather than played. A deliberate departure from Incorruption's usual heavy-guitar sound: four-part a cappella doo-wop, voices and finger snaps only, in the tradition of a band pulling back from the amplifiers mid-set to prove they can flat-out sing.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Incorruption is a Christian rock band building post-grunge, arena-sized anthems out of real theology and hard questions. Heavy guitars, gritty vocals, and lyrics that refuse to soften the gospel for mass appeal. Songs that wrestle instead of preach, that testify instead of platitude, that land somewhere between the pulpit and the mosh pit.

"Self-Help (I Can't Help Myself)" by Incorruption
[Chorus]
Self-help can't be found
In a troubled world with helplessness all around
Self-help can't be true
Oh, I need you
Because Lord, I can't help myself
[Verse 1]
I used to try and tell myself that I knew what was best
But deep inside I know that I'd just make life a mess
It always seems no matter how hard that I might try
I always seem to fail, I cannot prevail
Without you in my life
[Chorus]
Self-help can't be found
In a troubled world with helplessness all around
Self-help can't be true
Oh, I need you
Because Lord, I can't help myself
(Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah)
[Verse 2]
Every book or magazine that says it knows the way
Never can come close to what your book has to say
It always seems no matter how hard that I might try
I always seem to fail, I cannot prevail
Without you in my life
[Chorus]
Self-help can't be found
In a troubled world with helplessness all around
Self-help can't be true
Oh, I need you
Because Lord, I can't help myself
[Bridge]
And now I know
That you love me
Oh, if I want to grow
I give you my life eternally
'Cause only you can set me free
[Chorus]
Self-help can't be found
In a troubled world with helplessness all around
Self-help can't be true
Oh, I need you
Because Lord, I can't help myself
Self-help can't be found
In a troubled world with helplessness all around
Self-help can't be true
Oh, I need you
Because Lord, I can't help myself



Hear more original music from Weird Darkness Records at https://WeirdDarkness.com/music. Explore hundreds of original songs by Dark Weirdness, Static Wax, Incorruption, Monster Flakes, Maggie Cross, Alena Ingram, and more!

Weird Darkness Records is the music division of the Weird Darkness brand, transforming the show’s strange, dark, true-crime, paranormal, supernatural, and macabre stories into original songs spanning multiple artists and musical styles.

All songs are also available on major streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and most other music platforms worldwide.

This episode includes AI-generated content.

SONG SYNOPSIS:
A Fresno, California family installs a security camera by the garage after their dogs won't stop barking into the dark. The next morning's footage shows two pale, waist-high figures gliding across the front lawn — no arms, no visible torso, just a pair of long, backward-bending legs wrapped in something that flaps like loose fabric, more disembodied walking pants than any known animal. The clip goes public, gets picked apart on cable TV as neither obvious hoax nor solved mystery, and nearly two decades later the same unplaceable shapes turn up again — caught by Yosemite park cameras meant for vandals, one figure smaller than the other, crossing a hillside in the same fluid, silent gait.

SONG INSPIRATION:
Inspired by the Fresno Nightcrawlers — the best-known case among a wider pattern of thin, pale, often-crouching figures collectively known as "Pale Crawlers" — as heard in the Weird Darkness episode "Those Freaky Fresno Nightcrawlers" (https://weirddarkness.com/fresnonightcrawlers/).

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Dark Weirdness is the pop-punk wing of Weird Darkness Records — turning true crime cases, paranormal encounters, and historical horrors from the Weird Darkness podcast into hook-driven anthems. Expect power chords, sing-along choruses, and the occasional song that has no business being as catchy as it is, given the subject matter.


"Fresno Nightcrawlers" by Dark Weirdness
[CHORUS]
In the shadows of Fresno, they rise from the dark,  
Pale walkers creeping, no eyes, no remark.  
Long legs a-striding through the dead of night,  
Fresno Nightcrawlers, stealing the light.  
Fresno Nightcrawlers, bi-pedal fright.  
[VERSE]
Whispers in the orchards under midnight moon,  
White figures taller than the tales you assume.  
Silent as the grave, they glide without sound,  
Legs like stilts stretching across the ground.  
[VERSE]
Cameras barely catch their ghostly form,  
No arms to reach, and legs that deform.  
Pale skin that glows an unnatural pale,
Are they real or just an odd creepy tale?
[CHORUS]
In the shadows of Fresno, they rise from the dark,  
Pale walkers creeping, no eyes, no remark.  
Long legs a-striding through the dead of night,  
Fresno Nightcrawlers, stealing the light.  
Fresno Nightcrawlers, bi-pedal fright.  
[VERSE]
Legends speak of walkers from the unknown,  
Haunting Central Valley, always alone.  
They move like specters through fog and grass,  
They leave no footprints, just dread as they pass.
[VERSE] 
What do they seek in the quiet hours?  
Do they watch the living with hidden powers?  
No mouth to scream, no hands to take,  
Just endless walking and our minds to break.  
[CHORUS]
In the shadows of Fresno, they rise from the dark,  
Pale walkers creeping, no eyes, no remark.  
Long legs a-striding through the dead of night,  
Fresno Nightcrawlers, stealing the light.  
Fresno Nightcrawlers, bi-pedal fright.  
**Instrumental Solo**  
[BRIDGE]
Are they guardians or harbingers of fear?  
Do they vanish when the dawn’s drawing near?  
Pale as death, tall as Fresno’s trees,  
Carrying a secret only the camera sees.  
[VERSE]
One more sighting under streetlight’s glow,  
Legs unfolding as the night winds blow.  
They walk the line between our world and theirs,  
Are they just curious or here for scares?  
[CHORUS]
In the shadows of Fresno, they rise from the dark,  
Pale walkers creeping, no eyes, no remark.  
Long legs a-striding through the dead of night,  
Fresno Nightcrawlers, stealing the light.  
Fresno Nightcrawlers, bi-pedal fright.  
[OUTRO]
Fresno Nightcrawlers, stealing the light.  
Fresno Nightcrawlers, bi-pedal fright.  


Hear more original music from Weird Darkness Records at https://WeirdDarkness.com/music. Explore hundreds of original songs by Dark Weirdness, Static Wax, Incorruption, Monster Flakes, Maggie Cross, Alena Ingram, and more!

Weird Darkness Records is the music division of the Weird Darkness brand, transforming the show’s strange, dark, true-crime, paranormal, supernatural, and macabre stories into original songs spanning multiple artists and musical styles.

All songs are also available on major streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and most other music platforms worldwide.

This episode includes AI-generated content.