Today, I'm going to tell you two stories that highlight how the world around us and even

our own eyes can play tricks on us. Sometimes what people see is not what's really going on at all.

But once people have convinced themselves of something, it can be very hard for them to change

their minds. And as you'll see today, sometimes that can lead people into deadly situations.

But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious,

delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do.

So, if that's of interest to you, please offer to, for free, beautifully detail the follow button's car. But instead

of doing that, once you have their car, just bring it to a huge cliff, put the car in neutral,

and push it off. Okay, let's get into our first story, which is called Her Smile.

Music Around 1.30 p.m. on the afternoon of May 18, 2007, a 57-year-old woman named Yvonne de Horde arrived at a park in Rotterdam, which is a city in the Netherlands.

She was there to meet up with her friend, and she had to cut through the park to get to his house.

Yvonne went to her friend's house almost every day. And usually, when she walked through the park during the week, there weren't that many people around.

But on this day, it was really crowded because it was the Friday of a long weekend,

and there was just a lot of families and visitors that were enjoying the spring weather,

which meant the playground, the pathways, and the park's little cafe were all packed. But Yvonne

didn't pay that much attention to the crowds because she was busy thinking about her friend.

They'd known each other for years, and they had what she considered to be a very special

connection that Yvonne didn't think she had with anybody else. Now, Yvonne knew that a lot of

people might say her and her friend's

relationship was sort of more strange than special. In fact, some people in her life actually

openly disapproved of it. But for Yvonne, it seemed like the main reason for that was, you know,

Yvonne was generally pretty friendly and social and sort of an outgoing normal person, but her friend

...