Fear the Woods (2017) s01e06 Episode Script

The vast
North American wilderness
is home to evil forces
thought only to exist
in nightmares,
but the terrible creatures
that roam here are all too real,
and some ghosts
who haunt the land are driven
by a single
terrifying thought
- What about me?
- Vengeance.
Ah!
No! No!
If you've been told that
there's nothing there
in the dark, that's not true.
Is there anybody here?
Oh!
They're going to fight back
to exact revenge.
Something is wrong.
- Jerry!
- Claws ripping at me.
- We got to get out of here.
- They're here to do evil.
Hello?
This story is just so bizarre.
I've never heard anything else
like this.
This mountain has a very evil
feel to it,
and almost everyone that goes up
there can tell you that.
One of the reasons that ghosts
stay on this side
is in a pursuit of justice.
Ghosts will stick around
and actually influence
the outcome of certain scenarios
where they feel vindicated
so that they can move on.
These mountains
separating the U.S.
and Mexican border
near San Diego
are exceptionally dangerous
for border security officers
on the lookout for smugglers.
There's an area up on
Otay Mountain,
it's called the White Cross,
where the Mexicans would
come up every Sunday,
and they would, you know,
do their prayers
at the White Cross.
It stood about 10
to 12 foot tall,
and it had been erected there
in memorial of all the people
who had lost their lives
trying to cross the mountain.
Patrolling this area
is a treacherous task,
especially at night,
but agents Luis Santiago
and Rocky Elmore
are up for the challenge.
It's very important to work with
someone you know you can trust
and you can count on
because when things go bad,
other help is not going
to get there in time.
But tonight Rocky isn't here,
and Santiago is heading up
the mountain alone.
On March 28, 1995,
I was scheduled to work with
Agent Santiago as his partner.
Unfortunately, I'd been
working that area
really hard for sevel nights,
so I got overheated,
and I'd become ill,
and I had to stay home
and miss my shift.
The canyon is probability
just about the darkest place
I've ever seen in my life.
Down in the bottom, there's
no visibility whatsoever.
You walk totally by feel
of your foot.
You were taking a big risk
if it was dark.
Very mountainous terrain,
very dangerous,
loose rocks and hazardous trails
and a lot of dangerous animals
out there,
rattlesnakes and cougars,
mountain lions.
But it's not just the animals
they have to worry about.
The area is apparently
teeming with spirits.
Things that go up on that
mountain at night
that can be very scary,
questionable, ghostly.
People are afraid of what
they can't see,
so, right off the bat,
we're emitting fear.
We're emitting that energy,
and, unfortunately,
that's kind of the worst thing
we can do
if there is spirit activity
because that's what
they feed off of.
But the biggest danger
is the criminals.
That was a good place
for bandits
and the smugglers to come prey
on their human cargo
coming over.
You would occasionally encounter
a smuggler
with a handgun or a knife.
It was also a place
where agents got shot at.
And there was countless rapes
and murders and robberies
happening there.
Some of them were very gruesome.
It's Agent Santiago's job
to chase down
these dangerous smugglers.
You don't know if they're armed.
You don't know if they're
going to fight back.
Agent Santiago ran uphill
toward the top of the cliffs.
Santiago is facing
a desperate criminal
while his backup
lies sick in bed.
And, in the middle of the night,
I heard a rhythmetic
beeping inside my room,
sounded kind of like
a distress call.
I looked at the clock,
and it said 12:02.
I started looking for it
and realized
it was coming
from my work radio.
But when I realized
that the radio was actually off
and it was still beeping,
thought,
"Well, maybe it's got a short,"
turned it on and off
a couple of times,
and that fixed the problem.
The next morning,
I got up feeling much better,
but I had a phone call
And I was informed
that Agent Santiago
had gotten killed that night.
An officer heard him scream
and saw his flashlight
tumbling down the cliff
And they estimated
the time of death
two minutes after midnight.
And then it hit me
That was the time
that my radio was beeping.
The night of his death,
investigators come out,
try to surmise
what had happened to him,
and they came to the conclusion
that he had
just simply lost his balance
and that it was an accident.
But Rocky and his
fellow agents know better.
We all thought somebody was up
there, and somebody pushed him.
Santiago may be dead,
but he is not gone.
One of the reasons that ghosts
choose to stay on this side
is to seek justice.
They want to find an end
to something that
they left unfinished.
It was very bizarre because
usually when you hear
ghost stories,
it's a form of entertainment.
Because usually it's someone
who lived 200 or 300 years ago.
Nobody alive today
actually knew them.
But, in this case,
this is somebody
we had just been working with.
We knew this guy.
Agent Luis Santiago
is brutally murdered
by a smuggler while on patrol.
When you lose someone
that's a friend,
you know,
what are you going to do?
It's tough, but we also know
that's the nature of our job.
But his partner, Rocky Elmore,
has a powerful sense
his story isn't over yet.
The night of his funeral,
I went to bed that night,
probably about 10 o'clock.
Again, I was woken up
in the middle of the night
by the same rhythmetic beeping
I had heard
on the night of his death.
I picked up my walkie-talkie,
and it was beeping
the same fashion.
And, this time, I turned it on
and off a couple of times
to try to get it to stop,
and it wouldn't stop.
I looked over at the clock,
and the clock said 12:02
just like the previous time.
And I felt that there was
a presence on that radio
that wanted me
to push the talk button
and say something.
But I didn't have
the courage to do it.
These radios don't go off
by themselves.
No reason his radio
should have beeped.
I knew this was no coincidence,
and there was shivers
just going up and down my spine.
Rocky wonders if Santiago
is trying to contact him
about his death.
They can actually connect
to people in what I call cords
where they'll actually
draw energy from people.
It happens quite a bit.
I mulled it over many times,
how things would have changed
had I went to work that night.
Would I have prevented him
from going over,
or would it just
simply happen the same?
Couple of nights
after his death,
I reported to work as usual.
Things started to happen up
on the mountain.
The night was dark,
very, very dark.
There was no moonlight at all.
I asked myself many times,
"Why would he be trying
to contact me
over the radio like that?"
Sometimes, I wished I had
answered to find out,
but I just couldn't
do it at the time.
Now the screams of
terrified border jumpers
open a chilling new chapter.
When I got up top,
the entire group was just
standing in the road, frozen,
and some of them
were still crying.
One of the people in the group
said
they had been stopped
by a border patrol agent
who identified himself
as Agent Santiago.
Santiago?
They said, "He's covered
in mud and blood,
and he's very pale,
and he told us
to come up here and wait,
and we were so frightened
that we did."
When I heard of the story
of Santiago's ghost,
I had chills up
and down my spine,
and my hair was
standing up on my arms.
And this is only the beginning.
Over the next 7 months,
more tales of the angry ghost
haunting the mountain
terrify many
who try to cross the border.
Soon, it had become
fairly common knowledge
that groups were reporting
being stopped
by a phantom
border patrol agent
And he always identified himself
to them as Agent Santiago.
The people crossing soon began
to call him El Phantasma.
I've seen a lot of cases
where ghosts continued
to operate
in their jobs that they had
while they were alive.
They feel such a connection,
and that job was such a big part
of their identity
that they either choose
not to let go of that,
or they can't let go of that.
But many believe
that Santiago's ghost
has a more sinister reason
for stalking the area.
Everyone started to think that
maybe a signal is being sent,
something was being told that
he had not received justice
and he couldn't move on because
something wasn't finished.
The spirit of Santiago
is hunting for vengeance.
It's vindication, I think.
A lot of ghosts feel like
they have to seek that justice,
and they choose not to leave
until that happens.
Rocky Elmore's
partner, Agent Luis Santiago,
is murdered by a smuggler
while on duty.
Now his ghost haunts the land,
seeking vengeance.
Well, a spirit might seek
revenge on somebody
if their life
was taken prematurely.
There's a message
to be conveyed,
and that was, "I was murdered,
and I'm crying for justice."
After the sighting of
Agent Santiago's ghost,
there was always a presence
back there that, you know,
that seemed like Santiago
might still be there, haunting.
Every time I would see
a single person
crossing the border up
on the mountain in these areas,
I would wonder,
"Is that a real person,
or is this going to turn out
to be a ghost sighting?"
The sightings of Agent Santiago
carried on for about 7 months,
and then, one night in January,
they came to a very abrupt
and permanent end.
When the smuggler
who murdered Santiago
is back on the mountain,
Santiago's ghost is ready
to exact its revenge.
We're often asked
if a spirit could kill you,
and our answer is, "Yes."
On the very same cliff
that Agent Santiago fell from,
a group was detected
coming up with a smuggler.
No! Mercy!
He was on top of the cliff,
screaming for help.
No!
There was one dead body
at the bottom of the cliff.
The person killed that night
was that smuggler
that killed Santiago.
Agent Santiago avenged
his own death.
The death of the smuggler
ends the terrifying visions
of what the locals
called El Phantasma.
After that night, there were
no more sightings
of Agent Santiago.
His ghost was never
reported again.
But Rocky still
doesn't understand
why Santiago reached out to him.
Although the ghost is gone,
Rocky is still haunted
by the experience.
I realize how scary
that really can be
How terrifying it is
to go into the woods at night
and realizing that there
really are spirits out there.
There really are things
you can't explain
And they're not nice.
They're very, very evil.
The ghost of Agent Santiago
was able to avenge his murder.
But there are other spirits
out there seeking vengeance,
and they don't care
who receives their wrath.
You just knew something
bad happened there,
and I do believe
they're here to do evil.
I have come across angry spirits
in the past
Just tell me what happened.
Nothing that would be
as brutal
Ah!
As the one
Oh, God! Oh!
That happened that day.
Jerry!
Jerry, what happened?
Rocky's friend
and partner, Luis Santiago,
haunted the mountain
where he was murdered
until he achieved vengeance.
No!
No!
No!
A spirit with a mindset of
revenge could be very dangerous.
It depends on how deeply
they feel
about what has happened to them
or why they want revenge.
Jerry and Stephanie Ayres
are headed out
to find the spirits
of those
whose lives were cut short
and may still have
a score to settle.
I mean, all your life, you know,
you've heard
that there's ghosts,
and, you know,
we just want to know
for sure what's out there.
The ruins of this
building are almost all that
is left of a horrifying legacy.
In the beginning,
it was called Walcott Mills.
In 1895, the mill burned down,
exploded.
Years later, the state hospital
purchased the area.
It was known as an asylum.
There was a lot of abuse
in there.
There was
Females were having
babies from the doctors.
The dark stories say
that they were born alive,
and they were killed and thrown
in these unmarked graves
in this place.
There was over 200 children
buried up there.
The hospital was
torn down decades ago.
Only remnants of the original
structures remain.
Some people claim that there
was horrible energy there.
We wanted to see it
for ourselves.
I've been a paranormal
investigator now since 2010.
Jerry and Stephanie Ayres
are professional ghost hunters.
My wife and I formed a team
called Supernatural
Investigators of Minnesota.
Well, we want to prove
that spirits exist.
A lot of people
don't believe in them.
We know they're here.
We see them.
We sense them.
SIM's mission is to document
and prove their existence,
that there is
something out there
that can come into our reality.
The minute you get out
of the car at this area,
the feeling there is
very oppressive, very sad.
It is.
Experienced
investigators don't go anywhere
without the right equipment.
Instruments that I like to use,
a K-2 meter.
That can pick up
the energy of a spirit.
The K-2 meter measures
the electromagnetic frequency
of different areas
in the places that
they're investigating.
This is really a good way
to help prove what's going on.
Got everything?
Yeah.
All right.
Our voice recorders can pick up
voices, plain and simple.
It might be something that
you can't hear with your own ear
such as through a radio signal
or something like that,
but through EVP,
electronic voice phenomenon,
session, on a voice recorder,
you should be able to pick up
what they're saying to you.
Ready to go?
Yep.
Let's do it.
When we started walking through
the woods down this trail,
it almost felt like there
was something
watching you
from within the trees.
Jerry, do you feel that?
It's like
Listen, let's get out of here.
Okay?
Come on.
This area is a very desolate,
sad place.
This is a graveyard.
There's really no telling how
many children are buried there.
You can feel these negative,
sad energy.
It's a feeling of hopelessness.
It was just like you were being
assaulted by all these souls.
This is heartbreaking.
That place hit you
across the face.
It says, "You've got
something here.
Now that you've went
all this way,
what are you going to do?
Are you going to run,
or are you going to stand
and find out what's there?"
You could feel that something
was in there,
more than one something.
There was many somethings.
It was kind of uncomfortable.
We need to get ready.
When we go to places
that are haunted,
one of the first things
that we do is smudge.
Smudging is a art that
the Native Americans
came up with thousands
of years ago.
I like to smudge myself
with sage
to keep all the negative
entities off of me.
Sweet grass opens up for
your ancestors from the past
to help if you need it.
And I think it's important
to kind of
bring that energy
around yourself,
you know, kind of imagine
a bubble around yourself
and filling it with energy
that protects you from
the other energy that's there.
I think entering a place
like this can be
a very dangerous proposition.
A lot of people were held
against their will.
This creates a different energy
with the souls
that remain there
And you could feel the energy
in that place,
and once you start walking
through and asking questions
Is there anybody here?
Then that's when the excitement
starts to pump into you.
We turned on our voice recorders
and, you know,
asked a few questions.
Will you speak to us?
Can you tell us
what took place here?
There's nothing.
I know, and I really thought
there was this time.
So did I.
So did I.
Is there anybody here?
Despite
the unmistakable energy
There's nothing.
Their equipment doesn't
pick up any paranormal activity.
All right.
Let's go.
We were blown away
by the amount
of energy that was there.
The feelings of sadness,
you just knew something
bad happened there.
Okay.
That's too bad.
I really thought we were going
to find something today.
Yeah.
Definitely felt like there
was something there.
When they return home,
Jerry and Stephanie
check their equipment
All right.
Let's see what we got.
Just in case something
was trying to contact them
and they couldn't hear it
at the time.
Is there anybody here?
Once we're done, I can't wait
to tear into the audio
to see what we caught.
You never know
what you get, right?
Mm.
All right. Let's go.
What about me?
Did you hear that?
There was a voice
of a little girl that said,
"What about me?"
And that was the biggest thrill.
Play it again.
All right. Let's go.
What about me?
It's clearly the voice
of a girl child.
That's enough to make my
toenails curl, let me tell you.
What about me?
She sounds so sad.
You want to help.
You want to help somehow,
and I just knew
we had to go back
and find out what the story is.
The ghosts of children are just
as unpredictable
as a living child.
You heard that, right?
Yeah.
We're definitely going back.
Yeah. Yes, we are.
We're going back.
I would never have believed
that what was about
to happen to me
Oh.
Oh, god.
Was going to happen.
Jerry, what happened?!
What about me?
Paranormal investigators
Jerry and Stephanie Ayres
have evidence of a little girl's
spirit haunting an old asylum.
What about me?
Did you hear that?
It's good to have proof,
and this is why we got
into this field
was because we wanted to have
the data, have the evidence.
What about me?
She sounds so sad.
That these spirits are still
walking on our Earth.
Yeah, we're definitely
going back.
Yes, we are.
We're going back.
I just knew that things
would be going on,
but I never thought it was going
to be at the level that
Ah!
That happened.
And, this time,
they haven't come alone.
Stephanie and I and the rest
of our team
decided to make
an event out of it.
I was smudging people to try
to keep the entities off.
There was a lot
of spirit energy there.
I felt like they were looking
at us as if saying, you know,
"Who are you? Why are you here?
Why are you looking for us?"
But this visit doesn't
feel like the last one.
It's definitely
more threatening.
It's scarier.
It could've been because
there were so many people there,
and, as we know,
entities and spiritual beings
feed off of other energy.
And then it's kind of almost
like a fever pitch.
I'm going to go check out
the grounds now.
Do you want me to go with you?
No.
No.
I'll be okay.
Just be careful, please.
Mm-hmm.
We split up.
Let's go.
Hello?
Come on.
When we first walked up
to there,
you could feel it immediately.
Our team actually backed up
a little bit
and were very, very nervous
about going in.
Come on, guys.
Come on. Come on.
The big hope is that
you're going to pick up sounds
when you ask questions.
It's okay.
My name is Jerry.
I just want to know
what happened here.
I started out by saying,
"My name is Jerry,
and we're here
not to bother you.
We're here to talk to you.
Is there anything
you want to say to me?"
I'm sure there's something.
There's something here.
Is there anybody here?
Just tell me what happened.
You can feel the energy
around it,
and you can sense that
there's something there.
Is there anybody here?
I believe that there are things
in this area
that are not nice entities.
They don't belong in this world,
but somehow they're here.
Stephanie suddenly realizes
that the little girl is not
the only ghost
haunting these woods.
There's nothing.
It was totally dead,
and that's when I felt
that there was something there,
but it wouldn't speak to us,
so I decided to yell out at it.
It's a move
he instantly regrets.
Would it kill you
to show yourself?!
Would it kill you
to show yourself?
Kill you to show yourself.
Oh!
Oh, God!
Oh!
Jerry.
Oh.
No, it's okay.
It's okay.
So I said, "Come on.
You can do better than that."
Is there anybody here?!
Oh!
I made that very large mistake
of deciding to provoke.
Provoking spirits, I don't
think that's a good idea.
You do open yourself up to a lot
of kind of scary stuff.
I just had this terrible feeling
that something was wrong
at the other site
and specifically with Jerry.
Jerry.
And that's when I started
feeling it in my chest.
It was
It felt like butterflies,
a bunch of butterflies
going off,
and then it started
feeling like claws
and just started ripping at me.
I couldn't believe
this was going on.
And then it kind of stopped
for a moment.
My K-2 meter was going crazy.
Ah!
Then the pain
started back in again.
Ah!
And it started in my heart
and my lungs,
and it was just, like,
a ripping sensation.
Ah!
Then that's when I started
getting really scared,
and my teammate that was with me
kept telling me,
"You need to pull yourself up."
Ah!
Don't touch me.
And I told him I wanted to see
what was going to happen next.
Jerry is pushing his
luck by not leaving,
but he can't help himself.
It was the worst thing
that's ever happened to me.
Ah! Oh, God!
No!
Stephanie and Jerry
return to the grounds
of an old asylum in the woods
to help the spirit
of a little girl.
What about me?
Is there anybody here?
Instead, they found
something else
You're not that little girl,
are you?
Bent on revenge for
what happened to the children
in the asylum.
Oh.
Oh.
The dangers of
a revenge-seeking spirit
is the amount of energy
they have at their disposal
to manifest and share that pain
or that anger in the form
of a revengeful act.
It was just a feeling of dread.
It's like, "What is going on
over there? I need to know now."
Then, finally,
I couldn't take it anymore.
All I wanted to do was run.
I would think, "Could that have
been a heart attack,"
but it didn't take
my breath away.
Jerry!
Jerry, what happened?
When I got to Jerry,
he was pale,
and he was sweating.
Jerry.
His heart was racing.
He was definitely not well.
Can you walk?
The fear coming out of his voice
definitely freaked me out.
I don't know what's happening.
We got to get out of here.
My first thought was,
"Oh, my God.
We have to get in the car.
We have to go now."
Guys, we got to go.
I don't think that that spirit
that attacked me
was the little girl at all.
I believe that these things
that attacked him
are these
supernatural creatures.
I think they were there
to protect these poor kids
that had such a horrible
existence there at this place.
I don't know what they were,
but I believe
they can cause great harm,
and if you provoke them,
they're going to lash out.
He finally was at a place
where I thought
he was going to be okay.
Are you okay?
Jerry?
But it's not over.
Jerry is definitely
very confident
when he goes into situations
and, a lot of times,
can be overconfident.
Oh!
Oh, God!
No.
Don't.
He can feel that his energy
is big enough
that he won't be harmed.
Oh, don't.
Don't touch me.
Don't touch me.
Don't touch me.
He stayed because he wanted
to see what would happen,
and he stayed too long,
and the damage was done.
I went to the doctor,
and my doctor was
He was floored.
They came back with the tests
and everything to tell me
I had an advanced stage
of histoplasmosis,
which affects the lungs.
You have to remember
that we are magnetic,
and if we pick that stuff up,
it will stick to our aura,
to our energy.
Whatever spirit
entered his body,
it has damaged him,
so Jerry decides to return
to make peace
with the entity he provoked.
I was very scared and nervous
about going back to it again.
I did go back,
and I did apologize
for what I had done
because that's not me.
I don't do that kind of stuff.
I felt this presence.
It felt bad, you know.
It felt dangerous to me,
and knowing what had
happened to him,
I panicked.
What's wrong?
We have to get out of here.
It's still there.
We got to go.
When we started paranormal
investigating,
I guess we did know
that there was a danger,
that there were
dangerous things out there,
that they could hurt you,
and this definitely
was the case,
and Jerry's health
has been impacted.
He will be on medication
for the rest of his life.
He has to be very careful
what he does.
The experience is over,
but Jerry never recovers
from his mysterious illness.
Like Stephanie and Jerry Ayres,
Rocky Elmore learned
that some spirits are driven
by a thirst for vengeance.
No. No. No!
I definitely do believe
in the afterlife.
Where Agent Santiago's spirit
is right now, I don't know.
I have my beliefs,
but I don't know.
I think hauntings affect people
because they touch our emotions.
They stoke our fear.
Ah!
They create a situation
where our senses
are heightened
to such a level
You're not that little girl,
are you?
That it's almost hard to forget.
I do regret the way I conducted
myself that one particular day.
Would it kill you
to show yourself?
I'm the one who provoked,
and I'm the one who paid
the price for it.
Ah!
I think that that paranormal
experience
touches a different
part of ourselves.
What about me?
Did you hear that?
And it's a part of ourselves
that leaves us sort of open
and wondering to really
what's going on out there.