Hey y'all, we're so excited to tell you about a show that we think you're going to love. I was already a fan of the Cassie Askin Creepy Real Photo series on Instagram. Maybe you've seen it on TikTok. So I was thrilled to find out that she also has a podcast. Tell me your ghost story. Tell me your ghost story is a podcast where real people share their real life encounters with the paranormal. Post Cassie Askin invites guests to share their unexplainable encounters in their own words. Some stories are terrifying, some are heartwarming, and some just might change the way you see the world. Cassie isn't looking for answers or theories, just stories that are sure to haunt you. Also, tell me your ghost story doesn't only feature ghost stories. For example, there's David's story. He thought he delivered mail to a swanky hotel in downtown LA until he later found out the place had been vacant and condemned for years. Or Jordan's story. She woke up in a historic English inn to see a small goblin-like figure appearing at her and whatever it was, it followed her home. The episode you're about to hear, the Treehouse, is a spooky classic. If you loved this episode, you can follow Tell Me Your Ghost Story on Spotify, Apple or wherever you listen to podcasts. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Hello and welcome back to Tell Me Your Ghost Story. I'm your host Cassie Askin, and today we hear Hunter Peterson's story. Hunter and his brother spent their childhood exploring the oak groves around their home in Temecula, California. One day, they stumbled upon an old forgotten tree house and claimed it as their own, fixing it up and making it their secret hideout. But everything changed the day a strange little boy appeared inside. There was something unsettling about him, the way he talked, the way he moved, even the way he smelled.

From then on, the boy seemed to follow Hunter, showing up in ways that still haunt him to this day. So without any further ado, let's hear Hunter's story. Hey Hunter, Tommy or Ghost Story?

Which one? There are a lot of weird things that I can explain in my life. Whether you call them ghost stories, whether you call them divine interventions, whether you call them things that I just can't explain. Eight days before my ninth birthday on November 11th, 2002, I lost my father in a very traumatic way. It was not expected. He passed away from pneumonia. It was the defining moment of who I am now am. It does not make me who I am, but yet this is sort of the beginning of more of me recognizing things that I just can't explain.

Even before that, there were things in my life that I, you know, as a kid, you're just like, oh, well, that was weird, but you don't think about it. From this point on, after I lost my father, I started to pay attention a little bit more. Three weeks after he died, we're having lunch, friends are over. We're still at a school at this point. My brother and I, you know, we were taking out a school for a couple weeks and we're having lunch and I look up from the kitchen table and there's my dad. And mind you, he has been buried. Earn in the ground, buried. Clear as day, that's my father. And I say, hi, Dad, my mom turns everyone, is like, what are you talking about? My mom's like, how? Hunter, you're lying. Later that night, she comes up to me and she says, I saw him too. Now, I don't know if that was her trying to comfort me so that I don't feel weird or that it's like I'm still dealing with grief, but my mom and I, I give her a lot of props. She raised two boys by herself. She never remarried. She and I have a very interesting connection with the divine, with the paranormal, with whatever energy in general, is what I would call it. More recently in my life, I'd say probably in the last like year, I would say I'm becoming even more attenuated to energy, the idea of alchemy as above so below as within so without. That phrases, honestly, something that has guided me, I've understood that the alchemy of my own energy is something that's incredibly powerful

and something that I've shared with my mom.

After my father passed away, we were living in an area of San Diego in the hills. We used to live in an area of Temecula called Duluths. Duluths is effectively a plateau that sits above the Temecula basin. It is a very ancient, old land. It is a grove of old dark oak trees. And there are two times in my life that I have lived in Duluths. The first time where I was born, we had a house called the Big House. I just called it the Big House because it was, I guess a big house. My mom and dad got it during a bank auction. It was like really, really nice, very large house that was sold for pennies on the dollar and they just happened to get lucky. And at this big house, it was surrounded by these dark oak trees. On the property was a creek that ran right off the property. Like if you're looking at the house immediately on the right-hand side, there's a creek that runs next to it. And there were these boulders. On the boulders were depressions where Native Americans had ground up acorns, corn, what have you. And this was an area that they had lived in for centuries prior. This was not our land by any stretch of the imagination. Like we were certainly not the first people to be here. When we were kids, we would find arrowheads, we would find tools, you know, buried in the dirt. And when I was a kid, ever since my father passed away, I started to remember the times where I started to hear voices in the trees when I would go out in the backyard and I would play and

You would hear wind but you would hear voices So that was the first time we lived in Delus kind of coloration to give you an idea that things were weird

But there was one specific time

Indulose the first time where one night I

Wanted to get a glass water. It was like the first time in my life that I kind of like woke up in the middle of the night and I wanted like to drink something. I woke up my dad to walk me downstairs. We walked downstairs and looking out from this plate glass window in the kitchen were these giant orange eyes, these giant unblinking orange eyes and I was terrified. It was like I still every single hair on my body is standing on end thinking of these orange eyes. It could have easily been an animal. The thing with these eyes is like they were so round. They were so unblinking. There was no slits. There was no nothing. It was just like these orange rings with this darker than night, darker than void oppression, like just staring into them made you feel like you were being like pulled. And in my dreams, in my nightmares to this day, I am 31 turning 32 this year. I still see those eyes. Those eyes are forever. Those eyes are eternally burned into my retinas into my skull. So after my father passes away, we move back to Deluce into a house called the Sunset Terrace House because it was on Sunset Terrace. It was a very beautiful home. It took a long time to remodel. We wanted to change a pace, but we wanted something that felt that we knew. We knew Temecula. We grew up in Temecula. My brother was born in Temecula. I was born in Temecula. It's quite area, you know? Hot as hell, but it's nice. So I'm in fifth grade. My brothers in fourth grade, Fourth grade for Californians, they would go to Sacramento and learn about the gold rush

and... I'm in fifth grade. My brother's in fourth grade, fourth grade for Californians. They would go to Sacramento and learn about the gold rush. And so it was one of those sleep away trips. My mom went with my brother. I stayed with the neighbors, the Nash's. And when I was staying with the Nash's, this is sort of where kind of picks up. When we had moved to Sansa Terrace, my brother and I were exploring around riding our bikes through the neighborhood, meeting people, trying to find other kids our age to play with. Sansa Terrace basically dead ends to a cold attack. But on the right hand side, to this day is a vacant lot. On the vacant lot is a grove of oak trees. And in those oak trees, we find a tree house. And it is like the most decrepit tree house possible. It is basically just like flat planks of wood, haphazardly like nailed, screwed, whatever into this tree. It honestly, I don't even consider it a tree now. When I was a kid, like it was a giant tree. It's more of like an overgrown bush I'm honest with myself anyway. We were stoked. It was a tree now. When I was a kid, it was a giant tree. It's more of like an overgrown bush if I'm honest with myself. Anyway, we were stoked. It was a beautiful tree house to us and it became our thing. We would go work on the tree house. So as I'm staying at the Nash's while my mom and my brother are often Sacramento on this field trip, finish my homework, get on my bike, and Taylor's mom, Taylor Nash's mom, comes out and says,

Hunter, where are you going? And I said, well, I'm gonna go work on the treehouse. And she's like, what treehouse?

I'm like, oh, the one up on Sunset Terrace, and she says, honey, don't go there. I'm like, why? And she's like, just promised me you're not gonna go there. And so I went because I'm stupid and I was like 11.

I don't know. So I go to the tree house and the weirdest thing is there's this kid. There's

a I go there. And so I went because I'm stupid and I was like 11. I don't know. So I go to

the tree house and the weirdest thing is there's this kid. There's a kid working on the tree house. And I'm like, oh, new friend, new friend moved to the neighborhood. Hell yeah. So I come up and I'm like, hi, you know, what's your name? Are you, did you just move here? And he only says, I'm working on the tree house.

I'm like, yeah, I can see that.

So I climb up in the tree house and we have left tools.

Every... What's your name? Did you just move here? And he only says, I'm working on the tree house.

I'm like, yeah, I can see that.

So I climb up in the tree house

and we have left tools everywhere. Like I got a bunch of my dad's old tools and we just like left them there because stupid kids of, we're gonna just constantly work on the tree house and no one's gonna take our stuff. So we just had toolboxes lying around this tree. And this kid has a hammer.

...