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Hi listeners, I'm Kirsten Lee and I have a story I want to tell you.

A story of a road well lit but haunted by the darkness we can see.

So gather around and listen.

Close.

It was just supposed to be a scary story.

And it wasn't even a very good one.

It was a kind of thing a parent tells their kid to make sure they're home before dark.

Or something an older brother would use to scare his little sister.

I should know because I was that little sister.

I was that kid being scared by a silly monster story once upon a time.

But as I learned, the old saying was not far off the mark.

Truth could be stranger than fiction and far more devastating.

It happened the first time when I was nine.

My older brother Ryan and I were walking down the street after a day at the local swimming pool.

We lived in a run of the mill suburbia in the time when things felt generally safe.

Like, leave doors unlocked safe.

Still, my parents weren't entirely lax about supervision.

For instance, I wasn't allowed to walk to the pool alone yet,

but going with Ryan was okay because he was 14.

I guess I thought that was old enough to be considered safe in our neighborhood.

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