STAD Ep. 1- The Devil Lived In My Parents Bathroom

Sweet Tea After Dark: 

When Holly was six, that summers minor inconvenience turned into a full-blown paranormal standoff. One long hallway, one forbidden parents bathroom, and one horned silhouette whispering her name in the dark.

This episode walks through a 70s mobile home time capsule — mustard-yellow appliances, shag carpet, brown paneling, and the kind of layout that plays tricks on a kid’s brain. We talk about fear, memory, and why the body believes what the mind tries to explain away. There’s laughter in the “Bladder Olympics,” honesty in the moments we can’t fully explain, and a question that still lingers: was it shadows and sleep, a sibling prank, or something stranger?

Along the way, Holly and Pearl swap stories about seeing faces in wood grain, getting snagged on ridged paneling, and how certain homes accidentally manufacture ghosts. It’s cozy campfire energy in podcast form.

If you’ve ever frozen at a doorway because something felt wrong on the other side, you’ll feel seen here — and maybe a little braver by the end.

🎧 Listen now, subscribe, and share with a friend who still avoids the long hallway after dark.  
📬 Got a story of your own? Email us at holdmysweetteapodcast@gmail.com or message us on social media.

We’re looking for listener submissions — true crime encounters, paranormal experiences, urban legends, or moments you just can't explain.

📜 When you submit, please include:
•Your name or an alias
•The type of story you’re sharing
•Your story in your own words
•Where and roughly when it happened (if you’re comfortable sharing)
•Whether you’d like identifying details changed
•Confirmation that we can read and record your story on the show
•Submissions can be anonymous. Every story is treated with care.

Send it to: holdmysweetteapodcast@gmail.com 

Transcript

After Dark Sets The Mood

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Welcome to Sweet Tea After Dark. I'm Holly. And I'm Pearl. And tonight I'm reading a story that is a personal recollection of six-year-old me.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

And I sat here and went, did I just hear myself say my name like that? Yes, you did. Yes, you did. Rr. We're just we're trying to go a little more, you know. Well, I mean, it's sweet tea after dark.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Dark. Dark. Right. So maybe we should ASMR it.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

I don't know. Sweet tea after dark.

The Bathroom No One Could Use

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Tell us what you think. What do you want to hear? Do you want us to soothe you to sleep? Right. Or give you nightmares. Exactly. Which one? So either way, light a candle, lock the door, and get under the covers. Because on nights like this, even shadows have secrets. I was like, I was waiting for it. There we go. So we are going to just jump into this, I guess. This is our first after dark, so let's go. So this is this is the devil lived in my parents' bathroom. Alright. As told by Holly, age six, and already done with demons and their bullshit. Amen system. Because this literally happened to me. Have you ever had a childhood memory that is so vivid, so terrifying, so burned into your tiny, underdeveloped brain that even as an adult, you're like, yeah, that definitely happened. I didn't imagine that. It wasn't, I wasn't that creative at age six. Are you sure? No, I'm just sure. So this is mine. And I I swear to you that this happened. It there's I have looked at it in so many different ways. It happened. When I was around six years old, we lived in a mobile home. One of those long, skinny ones where all of the bedrooms are like lined up on one end, like little train cars, you know. You're in one of those 14 by 80s. Yep. 80 feet long. I would say that the other end, we had a we had a special mobile home. It it was a split level. So you actually had two steps going up into the kitchen. Oh, fun times. And there was a wet bar, you know, because the 70s, late.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Everybody's getting drunk on.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

Gotta have a wet bar.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Yeah. And burnt orange shag carpeting. Oh, beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

This image inside my brain.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

All the appliances. Nice brown paneling. Yes, brown paneling and all the appliances were that that mustard yellow.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Oh. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

What about the sink?

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Was the sink also mustard yellow?

SPEAKER_02 3:37

No, I don't think the sink was. I think it was just like a regular stainless steel. But all the appliances, like, and and the linoleum. Oh. The linoleum in the kitchen. That yellowy brown orange stuff. That yellowy brown orangey stuff. Yep. Sure was. Fantastic. So let's let's get this in our head. That little time capsule right there. So my parents' room was, of course, all the way at the very end of the hallway. And next to it was their bathroom. So there was a door that came from the hallway, but also there was a door going into their bedroom. So they had two ways into their bathroom. Yes. Their private bathroom. The fancy one.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

They just left the hallway door locked, right?

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Most of the time.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Because that's what my parents did.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Yeah, most of the time because they didn't want us to go in there. Because you know, that's the one with the good towels that you weren't allowed to touch. Right. And the fancy little soaps that nobody used, but my mom had to have them in there. Still wrapped. Yes, still wrapped in the plastic, little seashells.

unknown 4:38

Yeah.

First Night: The Silhouette And The Hiss

SPEAKER_02 4:39

They were there. So normally, like we didn't have to go anywhere near it. We had our own, me and my siblings, we had the Jack and Jill bathroom in between our rooms. And it wasn't like a fancy bathroom. It was just a regular sink toilet bathtub type bathroom. So one summer though, the toilet broke. Oh no. And not like jiggle the handle broken. I mean broken, broken, like out of commission, condemned because I had brothers. And apparently I they destroy toilets. Destroy toilets because it was literally falling through the floor. Oh my gosh. I don't know what they did, but maybe it was they maybe they peed around it. I don't know. And it just got all rotten. But yeah, I mean it happens. The seal breaks, it leaks. So and that's what was happening. So we could not use that toilet at all. So suddenly, tiny six-year-old me had to use my parents' bathroom at the end of the world's longest, darkest hallway. And when you're six, a hallway at night is basically a horror movie set. Mm-hmm. Because you're looking down here and you're like, every shadow is alive, every creak is a threat. Every dust bunny is like plotting your downfall. You're like, I don't want to go down there. You get down there and it's got sharp teeth. Right. Dust Bunny. During the day, you're like, fine. You're like, do-do-do-do, go down there. But at night, mm-mm. So I woke up in the middle of the night, half asleep, hair sticking up like a baby porcupine, slid out of bed. I started down the hallway, rubbing my eyes, thinking only about how fast I could get back under the blanket. And that was, you know, in the days when my Holly Hobby nightgown was made of flammable material. Oh yeah. You know, the good old days. That scratchy stuff. Yes. I don't know why they ever thought that was comfortable. And they're like, it's flammable. Don't wear them anymore. I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Like, sweet, y'all try to set us on fire as children.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

So I get down to the end of the hallway and I literally froze. And I still remember the terror I felt because on the bathroom door, my parents' bathroom door was a perfect silhouette of what I perceived as the devil. I'm talking horns, tails, shoulders, hunched, like he'd been waiting for me specifically. Like literally standing there. Like, not in a spiritual sense. I mean, literally, like he like he paid rent and everything. He was in that bathroom. So like I didn't move. And then I swear, like, on everything I heard him hiss my name.

unknown 7:36

Holly.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Six-year-old me was not equipped for demonic negotiations at 2 a.m. So I turned around and I ran as fast as I like I could. I probably like broke.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

You're like, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna pee the bed.

Daylight Doubts And Bravery

Second Encounter At The Bedroom Door

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Yeah. So literally, I when I got into my door, I realized I had peed my pants. I like, or my my holly hobby nightgown. So like I I I did. So I had to go in the bathroom, my bathroom, and at least we had a sink in there that worked. So I just clean up. So like my my six-year-old brain was not prepared for that spiritual trauma at all. No. So the next morning I crept down the hallway, like I was approaching a haunted museum exhibit. You know, Annabelle was up in there or something. There was sunlight, so everything looked normal. No devil, no silhouette, no hissing, because that freaked me the hell out when he said my name. Just a regular bathroom door. So I was like, whew, okay. Maybe it was one of my brothers. Maybe they were trying to like freak you out. Freak me out because they heard me coming down the hall. And they accomplished that if that were the case. Maybe I was, maybe I was dreaming. Maybe, maybe Satan had just clocked out early and he didn't work the day shift or something. But he wasn't in there. So I went and peed, did my, did my thing, washed my hair hands like a responsible child. A couple nights later, woke up again. And this time, like I was determined. I was brave. I was gonna go down there. I had some confidence. I was like, There was nothing there when I got up. There was nothing there. I'm fine. It's uh everything's good. Marched down the hallway like I was about to fight for my honor. I tiptoed up to the bathroom door, kind of held my breath. There was no devil, no silhouettes, no hissing. Okay, so it was just my imagination. I went in, I did my business, did all that stuff. And I, you know, we had a light, there was a little night light in there, but I had flipped the big light on, of course, because you know, yeah, we light repels the devil. So I turned the light off and the glow of the little night light came on. I stepped out of the bathroom, and that's when I saw him. Not on the door this time, but standing at the other end of the hallway, right by my bedroom door. A tall dark figure. He was like perfectly still, perfectly shaped. I saw the horns and everything, like it was like a slow motion thing in my brain. And it was like a standoff. We were just standing there staring at each other. And then I heard him hiss my name again. I literally screamed, like, busted up in my parents' room, launched myself on the bed like a missile. My dad jumped up half asleep, ready to fight like whatever demon I had brought with me. He checked the hallway, my bathroom, my room, nothing. No double, no silhouettes, no hissing, just me like having a meltdown. Totally freaking out. Right, right. So the rest of the summer is what I like to call the bladder Olympics from that night on until our bathroom finally got fixed. I refuse, refuse to go down that hallway after dark. I would lay in bed, legs crossed, bladder screaming, absolutely determined to not let the devil literally scare the piss out of me again. I would wait until I could see light coming and then I would get up and go. I don't know, like making sense. I don't know what I saw, I don't know what I heard. Maybe it was shadows, maybe it was sleep, maybe it was my brother's, maybe Satan really did take up temporary residence in my parents' bathroom. But to this day, if a hallway is too long and too dark, I'm holding it just in case. Not gonna do it at all. But you know, if you're you were still with us here, thank you for walking down the dark hallway with us.

unknown 12:03

Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

When you were little and living in a place like that, because you you know what we lived in.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Yeah, and it was kind of like the mobile home you lived in.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Basically set up the same way, minus the steps up into this kitchen, because I think it was an 80s model.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

And the washer and dryer was in the hallway. Yep, same thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

So I used to like lay in my room because my brother shared what the room on one side, and then I had my own room because I was the only girl. Yes, lucky me. Um, but I used to lay in there and like look at the shapes in the paneling and see faces. Yep. I used to do feet and all kinds of weird stuff.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Yes, you would see like all these wood-grained, like little weird things, and yep. Same thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

So I'm like, I really feel like they build these things to freak you out. At least back then.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Yeah, they're not.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

I mean that it's not a thing now. Y'all don't get all these brown paneling looking things. Yes, they're they're built with drywall and crap now. But that brown paneling was hideous. That was hideous. Horrendous. And your clothes, if you leaned against the wall or anything, or you brushed against the wall trying to get past somebody in the hallway, like it's like causing pills on your shirts and poles and because it had these little ridges in between it and they were like rough. Yeah, and they would just catch everything, and it's like your hair would get stuck in there. It's like, gosh, these are dangerous.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

The whole place is dangerous. Let us know if you grew up in a mobile home like this, or if you had any like demonic encounters in your parents' bathroom. Or anywhere else, or anywhere else in there. Yeah, yep. And you know, before we turn the lights out tonight, if you have a story that's brewing, something strange, something personal, something that keeps you up after dark, like we definitely want to hear it.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Yeah. Spill the tea, share it with us. You can send us an email at hold my sweet tea podcast at gmail.com. Yes. You can always message us on social media. And if you guys don't like find the little form to follow along anywhere, which we need to post that on Facebook too.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Yeah, we'll post it on Facebook and then I'll attach it to this episode.

The Bladder Olympics Begin

SPEAKER_01 14:36

So wherever you're listening, you'll see the And if you don't see it, you can send us a send us the message and we'll ask questions if we need more info.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

And like just like I told this, that's all you gotta do. Tell your story. You don't have to be as funny as me, but you know. But I know a lot of y'all are like trauma hilariously with trauma. So like let it out. We all are like that, especially at our age. That's how we cope with things.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Yeah, we just like laugh it off. Like we weren't the kids crying because we didn't get the participation trophy. We just like we swallowed our trauma. Right, we swallowed it and turned it into jokes, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Yep. So, but yeah, absolutely. So, and until then, keep your tea sweet, your night spooky, and keep your stories coming because we want to hear from you. That's right. Yeah. Good night, y'all. Good night. Bye.