[woman 1] When I woke up from my surgery,
my mother was standing beside my bed.
But there's a lot of dark
in the hospital as well.
[woman 2] You would get this uneasy feeling...
[growling]
...because you knew that you were not alone.
[woman 1] I saw this apparition...
[screaming]
Whatever it was had ill intentions.
Get out!
[woman 2] His eyes were black.
Something was taking over my body.
I have never ever been that scared in my life.
[theme music playing]
[screaming]
[narrator] It's 2019, in a Canadian industrial town.
Michelle Wadge is facing the fight of her life.
July 2018,
I was diagnosed with a form of thyroid cancer.
I had surgery to have my 18.5cm tumor removed
out of my chest.
Finding out at 37 years old
that you have cancer is absolutely terrifying.
You don't know what's gonna happen the next day,
you don't know if you have six months to plan for the rest of your life.
[machine beeping]
In order to crack my chest open,
they had to stop my heart, and I was physically dead for 4 minutes and 31 seconds,
while they proceeded to take the tumor out.
[narrator] Six hours later,
Michelle is in her recovery room.
[Michelle] This is where it's gonna get really emotional for me,
because I haven't told anybody this.
Except... you guys.
Mom?
My mother passed away May of 2013,
and when I woke up from my surgery,
my mother was standing beside my bed.
She didn't say anything to me,
she didn't speak in anyway,
but, the love in her eyes,
and the warmth that I felt from her,
made me know that everything's gonna be okay.
Mom?
[sobbing]
[Michelle] That was my first encounter
with an apparition ever.
But that wasn't the only one.
Something in me
and about me had completely changed.
[narrator] Six months after her surgery,
Michelle is in remission
and working at the very hospital that saved her life.
It has a place in my heart.
I'm very drawn to that place.
I work in the cafeteria.
I love my job because
I have a sense of pride.
Keeping the doctors and the nurses and the PSW's fed,
and keeping their brains all to their full potential,
so they can do whatever they can for the patients of our hospital.
But not everything that occurs in a hospital is always a good thing.
There's a lot of dark
in a hospital as well.
[gasping]
It was very, very early morning
and my supervisor and I, we were prepping for the breakfast rush.
Where's the bacon?
It's right there.
[Michelle] I had set the tray of bacon on the cooling table
in order to get prepped.
What the hell?
[Michelle] How does a huge pan of bacon
just up and disappear?
It doesn't have legs. I know it didn't walk away.
It... It can't be.
I... I took it out.
The tray of bacon is back in the warming oven.
It was about eight o'clock in the morning.
Nobody else in there whatsoever.
The other staff don't start until about an hour and a half later.
My supervisor and I were flabbergasted.
Very weird and confusing. I was very, very puzzled.
When we close the cafeteria at night time,
the kitchen has to be in a certain pristine order.
Everything has a place.
[objects clattering]
The next morning, there was another incident,
[gasps]
It was almost like somebody
had flipped all the pots and pans upside down,
and they were stacked on each other.
But how they were stacked was weird.
[screaming]
[objects clattering]
What the hell?
[Michelle] We did not know what to think of this whole situation.
Both of us bought it down to,
there was something in that kitchen with us.
Something definitely wanted our attention.
Maybe there was a message for somebody,
maybe there was a message for me.
I was definitely scared.
Shortly after, I had to go to the basement
to have a photo ID made for a staff member.
The photo room also happens to be where the morgue is as well.
I was so nervous, I had this feeling
that somebody was watching me.
It was like, all the little hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
I could not shake that feeling.
We've all had that experience
of being alone in a room but being convinced
that somebody else is in there with us.
That we're being watched by unseen eyes.
Maybe it's just our imagination.
But maybe,
especially in the case of somebody who's sensitive, like Michelle,
it's something more than that.
[Michelle] There was a wheelchair leaned up against the wall.
The wheelchair started moving very slowly.
Almost like somebody was sitting in it
and taking their foot and moving themselves
back and forth and back and forth,
and back and forth.
[breathes shakily]
[gasping]
I saw this apparition or mass or thing,
or whatever you wanna call it.
Whatever it was,
had ill intentions.
[screaming]
It was every single thing I have ever been scared of
in my entire life.
It was as black as night, is the only way I could describe it.
I was terrified.
It was making its way in through the doors to the morgue.
This seven foot solid black thing
slid through this crack.
And I knew at that point I had to get out of there right away.
[gasping]
[panting]
I was visibly shaking, almost to the point of tears.
You okay?
Yeah.
[Michelle] I didn't say anything to him at that point
because I couldn't explain
what I saw or what I had felt.
I couldn't gather my thoughts at first,
and that's not me.
[sirens wailing in distance]
I went back to work, tried to get into my groove,
you know, tried to forget everything that's happened.
[eerie giggling]
[Michelle] As I was coming out of the fridge,
I could hear what I thought
was a distinctive little giggle.
[mimicking giggling]
[eerie giggling]
Did you hear that?
Nothing.
[Michelle] I kind of brushed it off at first.
[eerie giggling]
[Michelle] Later, as I was closing, the giggles started again.
[giggling continues]
It was pretty much anywhere I walked in that hospital.
It was like I was being followed.
Next morning, it started again.
[eerie giggling]
[giggling continues]
Did you hear that?
[Michelle] And he goes, "Can you hear that giggling?"
At that point in time, I knew, right there,
that it wasn't all in my head,
and there was something that was following me around, giggling.
[eerie giggling]
All these occurrences in the past couple of weeks
happening, basically surrounding me,
really had my red flags up.
I really, really felt that something was
specifically trying to get my attention.
[eerie giggling]
Hello?
[giggling continues]
So I started talking to it.
- I know you're here. - What are you doing?
[shushing]
I'm trying to find out what you want.
[eerie sobbing]
Do you need help?
[sobbing continues]
I thought maybe they don't know that they're dead.
They don't know that they have passed on.
[sobbing continues]
And things like moving pots and pans and the giggles,
maybe this was somebody trying to reach out to me
saying, "Hey, I'm here. I need your help"
- Dear Lord... - [sobbing continues]
...a lost soul is here with me.
A soul that needs your help to cross over.
I said a little prayer, sending them into the light.
Please help them.
Help them find their way.
[sobbing ceases]
[Michelle] And after that was done,
I didn't feel anything in that kitchen anymore.
It felt a lot lighter.
[sighs in relief]
It was almost like the air
was a little bit easier to breathe.
I sat in the cafeteria table on my lunch break,
and just tried to process my thoughts,
and that's when I came to the conclusion,
"Okay, Michelle, you got something here that everybody else doesn't have."
The surgery, and dying on the table
has allowed me to connect with the other side.
Michelle has undergone a life or death surgery.
She had her heart stopped by the surgeon
for four and a half minutes.
Which means she was technically dead for that period of time.
And time and time again, we hear these experiences of people,
men and women that passed through death's door,
even for a brief period,
and when they come back, they are changed.
Their perception of the world has broadened.
They're able to see spirits.
They're able to hear spirit voices.
[Michelle] Once I confronted the spirit,
I honestly thought that would be it.
That would be it for the experiences
that I've had at the hospital.
And that's when I had the most terrifying experience of my life.
My supervisor had informed me
that we're not allowed to keep any of our personal belongings
up in our workspace,
and that there's a locker room downstairs.
So I had to go to the dreaded basement again.
I could feel my anxiety rising.
It's a huge room.
There has to be about 1,500 to 2,000 lockers in there,
if not more.
This is the locker room for the entirety of the hospital.
[rattling]
Hello?
Is... somebody in here?
It was eerily silent.
You couldn't hear the furnace, you couldn't hear the lights above.
And usually, with fluorescent lights,
you will hear them... [mimics buzzing]
[breathing shakily]
[exhales]
There was no sound at all. Nothing.
A locker is made out of metal.
I would think that there would be some sort of sound.
Nothing. Not a sound at all.
And I started to feel really, really strange.
It almost felt like something was taking over my body.
Almost like I was being engulfed
in a big cloud of fear.
My heart was pounding out of my chest.
The hairs of my neck were standing.
My mouth went very, very dry,
and I had this really distinct metallic taste,
like having a mouthful of blood.
My brain was saying it's time to run,
but my feet didn't wanna move.
[locker opening]
[lockers rattling]
The one set of lockers, they started opening slowly,
one by one by one.
[gasps]
[breathing shakily] Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
Stop.
And then, boom! There was the black mask again.
[screaming in terror]
I was terrified.
There was something in there that wanted me to know,
"Hey, I'm here," and that's terrifying.
Stop. Stop.
[Michelle] The feeling that I got from it, it wasn't a good feeling.
It wasn't a feeling of light-hearted play.
Stop!
Leave me alone!
[screaming in terror]
Whatever was in that locker room with me
was not of good intention. It was evil.
It was dark.
It had an intention in mind,
and I did not want to be the one to find out what that intention was.
[sobbing]
[breathing frantically]
I got out of there and I physically cried.
[sobbing]
[sobbing, panting]
Hey.
Are you all right?
I'm never going into that basement again.
What the hell happened?
[Michelle] And from that day forward,
I refused to go down into the basement.
[sobbing]
Anytime they try to send me down there,
"Nope. You can fire me before I go back down there."
That's how terrified I was.
I'm willing to lose my job
as long as I don't have to go back into that basement.
I definitely now believe that it doesn't matter.
A hospital, anywhere that there is life,
or death, traumatic experiences,
natural experiences,
there's gonna be paranormal activity.
If you have unfinished business,
that you will stay behind to finish your business.
Usually, every day, there's something that happens at work.
- [crashes] - [terrified scream]
[Michelle] I might see something, or I might hear something,
but that's become my everyday normal now.
This is what I'm used to. This is what I'm subjected to.
So, unless anything feels malicious, or dark,
or bad or evil in any way, shape, or form,
I just embrace it.
I let it go, and I say, "There's enough room here for the both of us."
And that's it.
[growling]
[narrator] At a group home for youth,
May Gagne is starting her shift as a caseworker.
My duties include taking care of the clients
of their daily routines, bathing, feeding,
recreational activities.
That is so gross.
I enjoy making them laugh.
- Oh. - No, no.
[laughing]
- Hey. - [laughing]
And it puts a smile on your face everyday.
[suspenseful music playing]
- [growls] - Screw you, Steve!
[Steve laughs]
I'm gonna kill you for that.
I spent my night shift with my co-worker,
and he was quite the character,
and he would scare the crap out of me
just because he thought it was funny to see me freaking jump.
He was a riot. We had so much fun on the night shift.
[narrator] But May senses that the facility holds dark secrets.
[May] The house is approximately a hundred years old.
[exhales]
The house had a weird vibe to it.
It was creepy...
[growling]
...especially in the basement.
I hated going down there by myself.
The hair would kind of go up on the back of your neck,
you would get kinda like this uneasy feeling because you knew
that you were not alone
and that you were being watched.
All the time, all the time.
It was just a feeling that you're not alone.
[eerie panting]
I could feel something breathing on the back of my neck.
I started to shake,
and I got shivers going up and down my entire body.
The little hairs on the back of my neck were standing up
and it was like a tingling feeling going up into my head
and over my body.
[growling]
What was behind me. From what I felt...
[inhales]
...was dark.
[growling]
I saw this vision, a man,
and he was very angry.
[growls]
And then he disappeared.
[panting]
Boy, did I ever bolted out of there.
- [sobbing] - Hey. What's up with you?
There's something down there.
You want me to call ghostbusters for you?
I'm serious. I'm not imagining it.
He didn't really believe in the paranormal.
Hey. It's okay to be scared. It's just a creepy basement.
Yeah.
After all our work was done, we ended watching ghost shows.
- [growls from laptop] - [gasps]
-Don't worry. I'll protect you. -Stop it.
[distant knocking]
[May] We heard knocking,
and someone running up and down the stairs from the basement.
There's no way anyone could have got past us.
[knocking]
[May] We assumed that it was a client from upstairs coming down.
There's no one here.
[growling]
There was nobody there. No one.
[footsteps approaching]
We could hear footsteps running up the stairs.
And it was fast, it was like, not normal walking up the stairs.
We could hear...
the urgency in the footsteps going up and down,
like someone was trying to get out.
[eerie panting]
I was so scared 'cause I've never experienced that before.
[exhales]
[narrator] Despite feeling uneasy,
May is unable to avoid the basement.
[May] I had to go downstairs 'cause it was my job, and I had to clean the fridge.
I was scared.
I felt something around me.
An uneasy feeling of that I was not alone,
and that someone was there with me.
[eerie panting]
I saw this young adolescent boy.
Who are you?
He just...
stood there.
How did you get in here?
Are you okay?
[gasps]
My God.
Oh, my God.
I was terrified.
[growling]
My heart was racing.
Oh, my God!
[May] I got out there like a bat out of hell.
[gasping]
[growling]
[panting]
[narrator] Despite the terrifying encounter,
May continues to work at the group home.
But things are only about to get worse.
[sniffing]
Do you smell that?
[May] We started to smell weird things in the house.
[sniffs]
Yeah.
What the hell?
[May] And it kinda smelled like rotten eggs.
It was a smell that it was like, "What in the heck?"
It smelled like something died, really.
Smells that were coming throughout the house in different spots
were just pretty freaky and eerie,
and it gave me the chills,
especially with that putrid smell everywhere.
I was very nervous, and we had completed all of our chores early,
and it was about 3:00 a.m. in the morning.
[eerie grunting]
- [Steve] What the hell? - Oh, my God.
There was this weird,
weird, weird sound
coming at full blast from upstairs.
I turned to Steve and I said, "Oh!
Clyde upstairs is playing his wonky music again."
It kinda sounded like whales.
And it was like coming through, like, the walls.
Charlie?
[growling]
Clyde was sound asleep in his room,
and we couldn't hear the music anymore.
Let me tell you, I kinda got the shakes a little bit there.
It scared me,
and Steve too.
I could tell from his eyes that he was a little bit unsure
of what was going on, and it was kinda freaking him out a little bit too.
He wouldn't admit it though, because he's Steve.
[door closes]
[growls]
I was kinda hoping that it was gonna be the last of it,
that shift, but...
[clicks tongue] I was wrong.
Things were getting worse and worse.
[woman] May's goin' home!
A female client, all of a sudden,
I heard her get quite aggressive, verbally.
[girl] Go home!
[May] When we went upstairs,
he goosebumps, instantaneous, came over me.
The... The rapid heartbeat,
the, um,
uneasy feeling.
The air in there was heavy and cold.
[girl] May, go home!
Natalie.
Can I come in and talk to you?
[shouting] May, go home! Steve, go home!
[May] She opens up the door and she says,
"May's going home, Steve's going home!"
[Natalie] Go home, May!
She was not in her normal state of...
She wasn't... She wasn't her.
[upbeat electronic music playing]
All of a sudden, I heard music at full blast.
Charlie!
[music continues playing]
[exhales] That was one heavy, heavy, heavy air in there.
Charlie?
[Charlie growling]
Charlie?
[growling continues]
And he's growling, and he's rocking back and forth.
Charlie!
His eyes were black.
[in distorted voice] Get out!
- Get out! - Charlie!
I have never, ever seen black eyes before.
Charlie! Charlie!
- [demon] Get out! - [in distorted voice] Go!
[May] I was petrified.
- Charlie! - Get out!
Charlie!
Get out!
That really scared me.
And I was trembling. [sighs]
[pounding on door]
I just wanted to get out because I was so scared
that I didn't wanna be there.
I didn't...
I didn't wanna get hurt by him.
- [pounding continues] - [Natalie] May, go home!
Steve, go home!
This is insane.
I knew right then and there
that it was that dark presence,
- that man from the basement... - [pounding continues]
...that affected him.
[breathing heavily]
The disturbing physical manifestations
experienced by the client,
especially those of his eyes turning completely black,
suggest that an outside force
is trying to, if not just influence him,
perhaps even take him over.
[narrator] Desperate for peace,
May looks for the cause of the dark disturbances.
I came to learn the history of this house.
There was their former staff member
who worked in the house.
He was taking care of the children.
He was the one that was
administering the medication to them.
He overmedicated them
and they fell asleep and they drowned in the tub.
And that is who I felt...
was that dark presence in the basement.
[exhales]
The question remains,
why is the entity still attached to this location?
He may be worried about being judged
in the next life.
And perhaps he's sticking around
because he's frightened
of what comes next for him.
He tortured himself after he passed away
with his anger, guilt,
and pain.
And I needed to set him free of that.
I have never, ever
been that scared in my life.
[exhales]
[growling]
[breathing shakily]
[growls]
You know what you did to those children.
You have to forgive yourself.
I forgive you.
[growling]
You have to leave here!
[roaring]
Oh, my God.
Then all of a sudden, the air changed.
And there was no more heaviness in the basement.
[Richard] One might expect the last meeting
to be a confrontation,
but that's not how it actually turned out.
Instead, she goes downstairs to the basement
to seek him out
on his own terms, in his own place,
and she offers him forgiveness
for the things that he's done.
And it's possible that all he's ever wanted
is some form of absolution.
He wants to be redeemed.
And once he has that forgiveness,
he is able to move on
and leave the location behind for the living.
The activity in the house just stopped.
[laughs]
The house has been very calm.
It's back to normal.
[laughing]
This event has changed my life in a lot of ways.
It has given me more insight into the paranormal,
the history behind what has happened
in that house.
I do have a respect for the dead.
And I do feel that...
[in distorted voice] Get out!
...some of them, not all of them,
can turn around and go towards the light.
[somber music playing]
And I felt that I really helped this dark presence,
and that was very satisfying to me
because I kind of feel like
it's a lifelong passion, is to help other people.
Hence why I'm in this field.