Awaken: Bloodlines

Audio version

The audio version uses the following sounds and music:

The narrators were generated using ElevenLabs (with whom I have no affiliation).

Text version

Intro

Welcome to Awaken, the podcast where the unsettling aspects of reality comes to light. I'm your host, Harlan Shadows, and tonight’s story is one of those experiences that will make you question the boundaries of the known world. Our listener, Adam, grew up in a remote house in northern Sweden. But what happened in that house, and later, in a different one he thought he knew so well, will leave you uneasy long after you hear it.

Adam’s life seemed to have settled into a rhythm, despite the chaos of his past. But the arrival of his own child will awaken old memories and turn his world upside down.

Let’s turn it over to Dominic, who will read us the chilling details of Adam’s story.

Letter

When I was eleven years old, my family lived in a small, blue, relatively remote house in northern Sweden. The rear of the house had a small deck facing a dense old-growth pine and spruce forest, while the front had a garage, a shed for firewood, and a fairly large lawn. My little brother, Oskar, had just been born about a month prior, and my parents were beginning to settle into their new routine. On the day in question, my father was away shopping for groceries, while my mother was inside tending to the house and keeping an eye on Oskar, who had colic and demanded a lot of attention. I was outside playing with my toy tractor in the front yard.

Suddenly, I hear screams and commotion from inside the house, followed by silence. I called out for Mom, but got no reply, and it took me several minutes to muster the courage to open the front door and take a look. The house smelled like iron and moss, and the atmosphere felt oppressive. Mom was laying on the floor in front of the bedroom, in a pool of blood. Bloody footprints led away from their room toward the door to the back yard. Sobbing I tried to get a reaction out of her, but she remained lifeless. Unable to find the courage to pass her and enter the bedroom to check on Oskar, I assumed something had happened to him as well, since he was completely quiet. I got on the phone and called 112 (Swedish emergency services). The lady on the other end of the line tried her best to calm me down and told me that police and an ambulance was on the way, she kept talking to me right up until they got here. They arrived just as dad returned from the store. He panicked of course, yelling first at anyone in sight, then at me specifically, demanding I tell him what had happened, but I could only sit in my corner and cry. I think it took him a moment to realise that Oskar was quiet, because he suddenly turned around and forced his way past the paramedics surrounding my mother to get to the bedroom. Surprisingly, Oskar was just fine, as I saw through the door the relieved expression on dads face when he picked him up and embraced him. At this point, a nice police woman knelt down in front of me, and offered to take me outside.

We slept at grandma's apartment in town for a couple of days. The first night, dad sat me down and apologised for acting the way he did earlier. At the time I had a hard time forgiving him, I'm still struggling with the trauma left behind from those events. I've forgiven him now, I realise he was panicking and not thinking straight.

Nothing was stolen, and the perpetrator was never caught. The police attempted to search the forest behind the house with dogs, but even though they initially did find a trail, it led nowhere. For a while, they suspected that my dad had either done it himself or hired someone to assassinate my mother, but there was no evidence to support it and they also found no motive. I knew he didn't do it. Oskar was like an entirely new baby though, the colic was gone. Of course, neither me nor my father got much sleep for a few weeks afterwards anyway.

Growing up with a single parent wasn't easy. I spent most of my time as a teen running around causing trouble, getting drunk, and hooking up with girls. Dad didn't have the time or energy to reign me in. As a result, Oskar and I were never very close. I suppose the age gap is to blame for a lot of that as well. I was getting into puberty at around the time he started talking, so we never had much in common. Actually, he was always a bit of a loner, seeming to prefer to spend most of his time alone in the forest. I don't think he ever brought friends home. Even now, 15 years later, we don't really talk much at all. Not to be unkind or anything, but he's got some pretty distinctively non-flattering features, with a large nose that seems especially prone to acne, black wild hair, protruding eyebrows, strangely large eyes, a somewhat hunched back, and an odd gait. Still, he never suffered from bullying, since he has a lousy temper and is freakishly strong, even for a 15 year old. No one dares pick on him. My dog, a 4 year old Alaskan malamute named Teddy, has always been weary around him.

I prefer to live life day by day, not tying myself down with too many obligations. However, 10 months ago, my girlfriend Hanna announced that she was pregnant. We certainly hadn't planned to have kids just yet, we'd only been seeing each other for about a month. She wanted to keep it, and I wanted to do right by her. Besides, I liked her quite a bit already. I've always been the practical type, and have been working as a car mechanic ever since finishing school, rather than pursuing higher education. Hanna was two years older than me, had just finished nursing school, and had already been offered a number of jobs, so our economical situation was pretty bright. I was still living at home, and raising a child in Hanna's one bedroom apartment didn't seem ideal, so we started looking for a house. As luck would have it, a nice, relatively well kept house from the 1970s (and within our budget) was for sale in the neighbouring village. It was fairly typical for the region, two stories, red facade white corners, and included 30 hectares of pretty dense forest in direct connection to the yard. It was decently secluded without being out in the middle of absolutely nowhere. The house isn't very big, but with 3 bedrooms it's certainly enough for us. We won the bidding, and moved in just 2 short months later.

Preparations for having the baby went smoothly. Our relationship hit a few bumps along the road after moving in together, but we settled in. Hanna had a chance to set up a pottery studio in our basement and I toyed with the idea of opening my own business out of the garage. The previous owners had left a couple of bits and bobs around. We threw most of it out, but kept two old but serviceable leather couches, one of those cushion storage chests on the front porch, an old swing set in the backyard, and a couple of lawnmowers in various states of disrepair that I thought I could possibly salvage something out of. We got the house pretty much in the middle of summer, and Hanna discovered her love of gardening. All in all, we found it surprisingly easy to live together so suddenly. Pretty soon, we both realised that this wouldn't just be a convenient arrangement for our unborn child, a deep connection grew between us.

The birth itself was pretty dramatic though. Hanna started going into labour in week 30 and had to be admitted to the hospital for medical intervention. They managed to delay the delivery for 6 more weeks, but Hanna was under near constant supervision. When our son, William, decided to make his entry into the world, the delivery was so quick it caused serious haemorrhaging. Luckily, the medical team was already on alert, and they managed to stabilise her. It did mean another week at the hospital though. William, although somewhat premature, was a healthy baby, and he stayed with Hanna. I took out my paternal leave and spent most of my days in the hospital with them. Hanna was discharged on the 30th of December, and we got to go home to our house and feel like a family. Hanna jokingly said that I shouldn't feel bad for what she'd gone through, William was the real victim for being born so close to Christmas eve.

We couldn't keep the hordes of relatives away for long. They arranged a pot luck and arrived all at once just a few days later to congratulate us and meet William for the first time. All of Hanna's and my siblings, parents, grandparents and even a couple of aunts and uncles showed up with enough food it would be enough to host another two parties of the same size. I suppose that was part of their plan. The house was packed. Oskar seemed especially fond of the thought of being an uncle all of a sudden, he was never far away from William. He tried holding him for a while, and seemed to really enjoy the whole thing. I was glad for him, it wasn't often I saw him come out of his shell like this. They didn't stay very long, and we rounded off the day by frantically trying to figure out where to put all of the leftovers.

That night, I was woken up by Teddy whining and tugging at my sheets. At first, I assumed he needed to go outside, but when I got out of bed he dashed downstairs and darted between the back door and all windows facing that direction, as if he had seen something. I got an uneasy feeling. It was completely dark outside, so I couldn't see what it was. We're used to wildlife roaming, and so is Teddy, he doesn't usually get worked up like this. I tried cupping my hands into makeshift binoculars, and pushing them up against the glass to try to make something out, but it was no use. I made sure both doors were locked. At this point, Teddy was running to the windows at the front of the house, barking at whatever was outside. I could hear William crying upstairs, woken up by the noise, followed by creaking floor boards as Hanna got up to tend to him. Whoever was outside attempted to open the door. The sight of my dead mother flashed in my mind, I had to push it aside as I turned on the porch lights and rushed to the living room window. Still nothing, but I could see plenty of tracks in the snow. Teddy seemed to calm down, probably hearing that whatever it was had been scared off. I double checked that the doors were truly locked. Luckily, all of our windows are far enough off the ground that they are difficult to get to without a ladder. Hanna came down the stairs, cradling William in her arms, asking what was going on. I told her someone had just tried to break in, but was scared off when I turned the lights on. She asked if I was serious, concern written all over her face. Both of our cars were in the driveway, who in their right mind would try to break in when we're clearly home? I asked myself. We called the police, but they didn't show up until morning. From the tracks, it was clear that something large had been moving around the house, but there was no evidence of foul play. It had been snowing a lot that night, so the tracks were obscured and they assured me that it was probably just an animal. After all, the tracks led in and out of the forest. However, I was certain that I had seen, and heard, the door handle move and someone tugging at the door.

Despite keeping the porch lights on, this happened again the following night, and the night after, but whoever it was made sure to avoid the front of the house. The police told us that there was nothing they could do. Nothing had been stolen and there had been no visible attempts at forced entry, they had nothing to go by. I was paranoid of course, terrified that what happened to my mother would happen again. Hanna was equally freaked out, but unlike me had the clarity of mind to make an excellent suggestion. We took a family trip down town, and found what we were looking for at a hunting store: a motion activated infra-red camera trap. I proceeded to mount it on the wall to our shed in the back yard as soon as we got home, so that it sat at a right angle to the forest and our back door. We were going to uncover who was trying to get into the house.

That night, all four of us waited on the living room couch. Hanna, Teddy, and I were snuggled up, with William sleeping quietly in a bundle of blankets next to us. Soon enough, Teddy reacted to something outside. This time, his reaction was far from as pronounced as it had been the previous nights, I suspect he understood from our body language that we were in wait for our nightly tormentors. Teddy did not get up running between windows and doors, instead his head and ears were turning to follow the sounds of whoever or whatever was outside. Hanna and I both following his example. Strangely, the insistent pulling at the door never came. We could all hear the creaking of snow from movement outside though, but with our focus entirely on listening, it took us a moment to realise that the sounds were coming from the front of the house, which was at least partially illuminated by the porch lights. Hanna quietly turned around to take a peek out the window behind us, which was facing in that direction. She couldn't help but give out a little yelp as she fell back into her seat. She'd just barely managed to catch a glimpse of the back of the head of whoever was outside as he passed out of view towards the side of the house. She described his head as big, with long, black hair with streaks of grey that appeared quite tangled. My heart was thumping, Hanna whispered to me that she had never been this scared. I had, and I couldn't get the image of my dead mother out of my head. Eventually, things appeared to settle down, and Hanna brought William with her upstairs to the bedroom, Teddy got up and followed. I couldn't even think of sleeping, so I stayed up with the TV on low volume for the rest of the night, reruns of bad sitcoms keeping me company.

I wasted no time the following morning. As soon as it was bright enough outside, I put my shoes on and got out the front door to retrieve the SD card from the camera trap, it didn't even take a minute, so I didn't bother locking the door. As I came back in, my heart was fluttering with a mix of anticipation and fear to the extent that I had to use both hands to insert the SD-card into the little slot on the side of my laptop. The footage showed two figures, one larger and one smaller, emerging from the forest. Amazingly, the larger figure stops right away and appears to point the camera out to the smaller figure. They stood there for a moment, apparently discussing something, then began moving, one after the other, with determination toward the house. The footage wasn't good enough to make out their faces, but they walked slightly hunched over, were both well built, and strangely, quite clearly not wearing any clothes in the middle of winter. The smaller one was carrying something that seemed to be wrapped in some cloth. They passed the side of the house and out of view. I watched the footage on repeat a couple of times, and was eventually interrupted by Teddy coming down the stairs, closely followed by Hanna. Hanna was slightly annoyed, asking why I was making so much noise downstairs and that I woke her up. I thought I'd been pretty quiet, but apologised, then showed her the footage! She was clearly disturbed and didn't want to look. Though we both felt like we had something solid to show the police that there really were people terrorising us at night.

Right about then, Dad called me. Oskar had told him that he was going out last night, and when Dad woke up this morning, he still hadn't come home. He also wasn't answering his phone. Dad was in a panic. I tried to reassure him that Oskar was 15 and probably just sleeping off his first hangover on someone's couch, but according to Dad, he'd seen him stroll into the forest, like he often does. The police were on their way. I promised I would come right over and help search for him. I put my phone down to give Hanna a kiss, and briefly told her what was going on as I hurriedly put my jacket and shoes on. I brought Teddy with me as well.

I'd only barely pulled out of the driveway when I realised I'd forgotten to bring my phone, which would definitely be good to keep on me so that we could communicate amongst each other. I backed the car up again to go get it. As I got out of the car, I heard commotion from inside the house. Hanna's raised, pleading voice carrying out through the second floor window to our bedroom. I rushed out of the car, Teddy right behind me. In fact, Teddy turned out to be much faster than me, squeezing in through the crack in the door as soon as I got it unlocked, and bolting up the stairs. I wasn't far behind but I heard Teddy growling and a pained yell from a man before I managed to catch my first glimpse. Hanna was blocking the door to our bedroom, tears streaming down her face, pleading to a naked, hairy, misshapen man standing in front of her, holding something wrapped in cloth in one of his arms. William was crying in the bedroom, and Teddy was hanging from the unknown man's right arm, biting down hard enough that I could see blood dripping onto the floor. I ran up to him and wrapped my arm around his neck, trying to wrestle him to the floor. He was strong, managed to get loose and turn around on me, swinging his right arm forcefully enough in the process to wrench Teddy's grip loose and sending him flying across the room.

In front of me stood Oskar, blood running down his right arm. I was in shock and didn't know what to do. I shouted angrily at him, asking what the fuck he thought he was doing. Teddy didn't waste a millisecond, he was right back on his feet, jumped and got a new grip around Oskar's left wrist. The cloth around what he was carrying came undone and I was greeted by the face of the ugliest baby I've ever seen. Oskar grinned at me and told me he thought it was time our sons got to know each other. He grabbed the lumpy, misshapen baby with his right hand, and sent Teddy flying again, who let out a whine as he impacted the wall, then Oskar came charging at me. Teddy got right back up though, and managed to grab a hold of his ankle. That just barely got me enough time to get out of the way and give Oscar a good kick in his side that sent him tumbling down the stairs. Teddy and I came right after, Oskar stood up in the hallway, looking us over, then made a run for it, out through the front door, which was still open. Teddy went after him, though I yelled for him to stop and come back. Oskar ran straight into the forest at the back of the house. Teddy was giving chase, and I was chasing Teddy, who luckily stopped at the edge of the forest. He made his way back to me, where he collapsed from exhaustion. I picked him up and hurried back inside to lock the door and check on Hanna and William! They were both fine, we'd made it just before Oskar had a chance to do anything. Though Hanna was absolutely traumatised. She couldn't stop crying and hugging William for over an hour.

We called 112, and the police came right away. They had already been on their way to look for Oskar, since Dad had called him in as missing. They got us into one of their cars and drove us straight to the hospital. I told them to bring the SD card in my laptop as well, since it had footage on it that they needed to see. Dad arrived at the hospital shortly after. He had a hard time believing that it had really been Oskar, but was convinced when both me and Hanna insisted that it had been him. The timestamp of the footage on the SD card also corresponded to when Oskar would have been in the forest the night before. No one had any idea who the other figure would have been. We think he probably hid in the cushion storage chest on the porch until morning, then sneaked inside while I was checking the camera, and hid somewhere in the house to wait for a good opportunity to strike. To some extent, I guess he counted on Dad calling me when he realised that he was missing. Dad brought Teddy to a veterinary clinic while Hanna and I got checked up, answered questions, and made a formal report to the police. We were both unharmed, while Teddy had two broken ribs and bruising over large parts of his body, but amazingly nothing serious.

We've been staying with Hanna's mother who has an apartment in town since then. We're planning on selling the house. Neither of us feel safe living so close to the forest any more. An apartment in an urban area would be perfect. Oscar still hasn't been seen, even though the police has been searching the area around both houses with dogs. Just like with my mother, they found a trail that led nowhere.

In folklore, there are mentions of changelings, which are babies snatched by mystical creatures, and replaced with the creatures own babies, somehow made to look like the original. I never believed in things like that, but now I wonder if the person I've always thought of as my brother, has actually been something else.

Outro

Thank you for joining us on this unsettling journey into the unknown, here on Awaken. Adam's encounter with the shadowy presence behind his house is only the beginning, and the eerie whispers in the woods are far from being silenced. As the mystery grows deeper, one can’t help but wonder what other secrets lie hidden just beyond the edge of the forest.

What does it all mean? Is there a force at play that we can’t fully understand? And most importantly, is Adam’s world about to unravel further as he delves deeper into this dark and unsettling mystery?

Until next time, remember to lock your doors, check your windows, and tread carefully. Some things should never be uncovered.

Thank you once again for listening to Awaken. Stay curious, stay cautious, and as always - keep your lights on.

Last modified: 2025-01-13 19:08:40