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Saint Anne's Retreat

Personal narrative from interviewees who describe their experience legend-tripping at St. Anne's retreat.

Saint Anne's retreat
Martin Tige
Utah State University
Fife Folklore Archives
Logan, Utah
Mythology /Fol klore
Instructor: Brad Gibbons
Trimester 3, 2013
Mountain Crest High School
Hyrum, Utah
xvi
Table of Contents
Field Collection CD Cover Sheet
ii
Informant Release forms
iii
Collectors Release form
xvi
Table of contents
xviii
Cover Essay
xxix
Autobiographical Sketch
xxx
list of informants
xxxi
TranscriPtio"/ .. c... ....... \V
1-9
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Cover Essay
ST. Anne's Retreat
xviii
Now just a week ago, I knew not even the name St. Anne's retreat. But this past week, I
have visited the place that so many spirits call home. I myself am not much of an adventurist
paranormal wise. Just the mentioning of a spirit and I would nearly run for the hills. The story
behind St. Anne's retreat however intrigued me. A friend of mine named Silver Pena told me that
she had been researching about a place in Logan canyon called The Nunnery. She told me that
there had been many stories but the only story she had told me that really had me hooked, was a
particular story about how Christens used this camp for impregnated nuns. In this particular time
children born by nuns were believed to have been the work of satin, they were to be disposed of
at birth so that they had no chance to do damage to this world. One particular nun however felt
the need to keep her child, so she decided before the birth of this child, she was going to run
away. From the start, the head nun had suspected that this nun would have second thoughts so
she had decided to keep a close eye on her. When she had finally put her plan into motion, the
head nun was not too far behind. Realizing this once she had given birth to her child, she thought
to hide the child in some bushes and lead the head nun away and pick up her child at a later time.
Soon the head nun gave up, or so she thought, going back to pick up her child she was astonished
to find that her child was missing. She, went back to the camp and as she approached the camp
there was a peculiar object floating on the far north side of the pool. As she came to focus in on
the object she had a sense of recognition. Once she could see the object in full she saw that it was
her child lying face down, no more than a lifeless corps. All of the grief due to this event caused
• the nun to go insane and later commit suicide.
•
The property though is owned privately, meaning people are unable to visit this place of
folklore. "a former Catholic summer camp located a few miles up the canyon from Logan, Utah,
where
some young people were charged with trespass not long ago"(Toelken). I feel this place of
historic event should be given to the public however with some restrictions some people chose
to disrespect abandon private properties. I feel they should open it up almost as a museum just
for people who are just like me who would like to experience the chill, to be in the same place as
these said sprits and learn things first or in this case second hand. Honestly they could even make
a profit off of the place selling admission tickets.
What makes this place so great? Well there are many different things that are being held
behind the walls ofSt. Anne's Retreat. This place to me was a battle ground, nuns stayed here
fighting for the lives of not only themselves but for the children that they had brought into this
world. The pool at St. Anne's has taken many lives but has little to offer, visiting it, there is said
to be a cold spot in the pool where a particular nun has committed the ultimate sin, which is not
taking the lives of others but taking her own life. In sprit she sits at the edge of north comer of
that pool grieving for her lost child. Not only is there that, but in the basement of some of the
cabins there's said to have been rituals to have been taken place here.
•
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Work Cited
Toelken, Barre. "The end of folklore. The 1998 Archer Taylor memorial lecture." Western folklore 57.2/3
(1998): 81-101 .
•
xxx
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Martin Stephanus Tige was born January 6, 1996 in Sudan, Africa. He moved into the United
States in the year of 1999 in search of a better life, he soon found himself living in the state of
Utah. As a young boy Martin was very curious about how many things worked, taking apart
nearly four VHS players and almost able to reassemble the mechanism by age seven. He mainly
grew up all over the small cities of Utah but always somehow ended up in Rose Park. He
attended four elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools, soon to be a
graduate from Mountain Crest High school. Martin was never academically the smartest kid but
was a quick learner when it came to hands on projects. This led him into High School Clubs such
as the Mountain Crest Robotic team, as the head designer and builder in his team. His
fascination however has nothing to do with what his dreams are. Martin hopes to become a
Law Enforcement after graduating from High School.
•
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xxxi
List of informants
Silver Pena: Silver has attended Mountain Crest high school since sophomore
year and is hope in make her way into music. She has and outgoing personality
and is almost always caring for others
Camila Triana: Camila has also attended Mountain Crest but only for sophomore
year, then later moving to Intec High near USU (Utah State University)
•
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CD Track: 1
St. Anne's Retreat
Transcription cover sheet
Interviewee: Camila Triana & Silver Pena
Place of Interview: Hyrum library
Interviewer: Martin Tige
Recorder: Martin Tige
Recording Equipment: Iphone 4, voice memo
Transcription Equipment: Microsoft Word
Transcribed by: Martin Tige
Brief Description of Contents: Silver gives brief interdiction about St. Anne's Retreat.
Camila explains in detail the tour that we had toke a week before
Reference: MT: Martin Tige
CT: Camila Triana
SP: Silver Pena
Note: as we had the interview there was some laughing in the background and also
people were moving around .
•
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Transcription Paper
Martin Tige - MT
Camila Triana - CT
Silver Penia - SP
MT: So today's May 17, and we're at the Hyrum library; the weather outsides pretty good, looks
like its about to rain though. And I'm here with Camila Triana, and Silver Penia and we're here
talking about The Nunnery or better known as St. Anne's Retreat; so what's the story behind St.
Anne's' retreat, like how did it become known that way?
( brief pause)
SP: well um, there's many stories to it and the one I became mostly familiar with or the one I
heard a lot of was, it first stared as a camp and I don't remember the exact name of the camp
but .. um a famous building person he created it for a summer camp for him and his family so its
more like a summer home. and there are tons and tons of cabins in there and then after that he
gave it to his son who was living in New York at the time and his son was really famous here in
America cause he was one of the wealthiest guys, and because of him-because of him being so
recognized in the nation a lot of Hollywood movie stars asked him permission to use it as a
summer home just a place to get away and one of the stars herself was Marilyn Monroe she
stayed in one ofthe cabins, (chuckle) I don't know which cabin exact but she was one ofthe
famous people here .. Um later after they were done using it, he. Tried to give it, he tried to sell
it to the LOS church but they didn't want it and he tried the same with jahobo Witness and they
didn't want it so he ended up donating it to the Catholic church and they used it; well theres
different versions of this they say that they used it as an abortion clinic for teenagers or a clinic
where they'd have their babies and um they'd put them up for adoption. And as for the nuns,
the other version is that nuns who got pregnant they would be sent there in secret and they,
once they had their babies, they would be drown in the bathtubs which were supposedly filled
with holly water (brief pause) um so yeah.
MT: Kay, now you've been there ten- eleven times?
SP: (chuckling) Eleven times
MT: and every single time you've token a different group of people.
SP: um hm
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• MT: What's the pool. The cold spot in the pool?
--
•
SP: the cold spot. Urn there's, they say like theres always a different version to everything but
for the pool urn. It was actually open I think thirteen years ago and they were using it as a camp
after the catholic- after the catholic church and a thirteen year old boy drown there in the pool,
no one knows how they say his spirit could be the one haunting the pool there's a certain spot
like on the east side of the pool that's cold. And the other version is that there was a nun who
had a baby. And she wanted to keep that baby and so when everybody-when all the nuns were
getting ready to sleep or something she decided to get her baby and run away with it and
manage to you know, wanted to keep her baby and so the head nun caught her and she started
chasing her. The innocent one is what we'll call her the innocent one with her baby an they
chased each other around the forest or the woods and when the innocent nun got, you know a
few feet away she was able to hide her baby in bushes and runaway and she hoped that when
she'd come back her baby would still be there so when she realized that the head nun finally
gave up she came back to pick up her baby and her baby wasn't in the bushes anymore so she
went back to the camp and her fear became a true thing like her nightmare just became reality.
She found her baby flouting face down in the pool and so that could be another reason why the
pool has a cold spot. Due to that baby and or the nun who commended suicide after seeing her
baby there she drown herself
MT: Okay, now we were there just a week ago and Camila will you explain what happened
while we were there?
CT: What part?
MT: Just run them through everything
CT: Okay, so we first went up there after touring this like run down chimney which wasn't to
interesting. But we went to the pool like Silver described and she wouldn't tell us the cold spot
so we had to find out where we thought the cold spot was and it was pretty ligament all of us
claimed it was in the same spot. Except for Martin, he got really warm
( background laughter)
MT: For some reason I felt warm when I got there
CT: yeah, so anyway we kind of went around the pool, kinda checked it out then urn after that
we were proceeding to look through the rest of the houses but they were boarded up for
security reasons and so we went through the rest ofthe neighborhood ofthe cabins and
discovered urn. One of the larger cabins had a wraparound porch with screens and one of the
doors were open so we went through the door and urn we kind of went inside to look and see if
t.
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we could go inside of the cabin but it was still boarded up um. We went around that area and
um some people like me claim that we heard noises but we still haven't verified that um but its
all in the video and um after we weren't really interested the fact that it was closed we exited
out of one of the, it was randomly swinging doors and we visited the "fake" grave site and um
then we went um to look at the rest ofthe cabins at the end ofthe hill and um all ofthem were
closed at the top except when we went around one of the last cabins um it was like a beautiful
mint green cabin it was pretty cool they all had really cool designs and the architect was really
inspired just I don't know simple designed it was really beautiful so it's kinda sad that it has-has
a depressing story and kind of bad mantra with it because no one could really visit it I guess
'true grandeur' anyways so we went around that and it turns out the basement, it didn't have a
door just had like a hole through the cement and um I guess you could say was it like trails
siting like the stuff that locks the end of the house to the- to the floor? That stuff it was under
the porch so 'we decided it would be really smart to go under there and take a tour'
(sa rcastica lIy)
SP: we were hoping that somehow; well before- before it was all boarded up um like all the
doors were busted down and so; um before I went with you guys there was um we found our
way from the basement up to the stairs and I mean nothing was boarded up so, that's what we
were kind of hoping for (laugh)
CT: um hm yeah
MT: and we found something else instead though
SP: we did ( still laughing )
CT: yeah, uh we went in it was really creepy and some people were kind of wussy but you know
we at least got some footage anyways we went in and it was; with some of the lights we were
able to see where, what kind of rooms were in the basement it was just a cellar and a food
storage area; Obviously they were empty and then there was is one room that had uh. (small
pause) that had a shelf and uh coat hanger bar and on the shelf uh was a open uh, it was closed
I think. It was open
SP: it was open, I lost the page. Oh my gosh (laughing)
CT: Oh my gosh I wonder what page it would be interesting to know what page It was on cause
it was a child's bible and it was open, we don't remember what page it was open at but um; and
then there was like a short challis I guess used as like a candle holder but it obviously didn't fit
the candle and the candle was red and then there was a nail on the c-on the - on the wall and a
rope tied to the nail that was tied in a nus on a bear and the bear- and the bear was mutilated
in the eyes, both of the eyes were pulled out whatever, plastic button whatever they were both
_._----- --------------------------
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out and stuffing was leaking out him the same with the neck-part of the neck that was on the
nus was also ripped and then urn. Going vertically there was a cut in the stomach and it was just
kind of creepy to see a mutilated bear that like an open pair, it was like an open scripture and
then a candle so we went in there and we kind of creped out well actually we went in there
twice. First time we got scared and we freaked ( brief moment with Silver) Second time we just
took in and get out and then urn. We decided to take a tour of the rest of it urn so were going
through the cellar kind of like backtracking if you were to go through the front door but
obviously it'd be the end ofthe tour ofthe house so we were at the end and we were going up
and it seemed like there was a dead end cause its really, really small in these sort of houses I'm
guessing if they're built in the early 1900's they still had small- small construction guidelines
and they're more building permits really didn't have like fire safety restrictions, so everythings
really small and urn instead of finding a dead end we turned the corner we all kind of creped
out because we were getting actually into the house and it was gonna be a realistic tour urn and
then we found that there was stars at the- at the - at the- at the turn of the corner of the wall I
guess and there were tinny and really steep and they went around a corner so they would be
like half of a spiral staircase obviously not as urn, grand I guess and so we're going up and we're
wondering if we could go through because at the top of the stars was a door. And so I had
luckily been the front; not; (laugh) and I had the flash light at least and so. Was it just me you
and Nick
SP:yeah, Yeah
CT: yeah, just us three anyway so this big huge party of children of three (laughing) so secure
anyway so we're going up and I flashed the light through the door and the door was open a
crack and I could see some graffiti and I was curious as to what it was because most times
people have swear words or do not enter or random I guess you could say as straight as you can
and frankly as you can like pictures of genitalia nasty stuff so anyway I was thinking it was one
of those things cause I've heard of that before and um instead I saw half of a pentagram and it
wasn't just a star pentagram or upside down stars because you could also draw a devil goat
face inside of it and do a whole satanic ritual with it so it kind of creped me out and in any kind
of situation when you're going in a unknown everybody feels really scared and there really­there
senses when you know you can't- you can't see very well your other senses are high end a
lot more and its one of those six sense tale tale sign when you just don't feel good it's a cold
chill feeling and you're like dude let's just get out of here so after seeing that sign I was like
yupp uhm not going up there not unless there was a big crew of people and it was like some
documentary and we had these big bal-bulky cameras than it'd be fine but .
•
SP: yeah you know and I was reviewing um the video I took while you were going up. You
yourself before even seeing the graffiti or anything you were like I guys I don't feel good I I was
like are you sure? You were like yeah I don't feel good.
CT: oh eah, I was like I don't wanna be a wuss or anything but I don't feel good.
SP: yeah, and once you looked at it you were like yeah there's not there's not good signs up
there
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CT: yeah that's right not good I was like guys let's just stop. Yeah, so after seeing that I um I
don't like feeling scared a lot because I've gotten over it I guess you could say; after watching so
many scary movies you don't get scared sometimes I guess.
SP:yeah
CT: But in this situation I was pretty scared because my adrenalin was kinda rushing through
my veins. But I was trying to like keep it chill you know- like keep it chill
SP: (laughing) yeah you didn't look scared like
CT: that's what I was trying to do like you know I was trying to keep it together I didn't wanna
run out and scream and scare everybody. So I was like okay you know just breathe let's get out
of here
SP: I kinda felt like that though cause when I first saw the teddy bear
CT: and your like ahh.
SP: I was like guys this isn't
CT: and you ran out oh my gosh
MT: and as we were running out I bumped my foot and everybody runs out
( moment of laughter)
SP: one simple little noise and this whole thing
CT: well its cause I was like looking at it and um I don't know If I could say it in this audio (
looking over at Martin)
(Martin gives a nod yes)
MT: you can
•
CT: but umm the bear- the symbols with the bear reminds me of masonic rituals and so I was
just curious as to what it was but you guys hadn't heard of that before and so, I don't know If
you had heard of it you probably would've heard urn a bias pers- like a bias perspective as well
and I was just- I just wanted to see what it was like and what they had in there and stuff and so
when we shon-when we shined the light on it you were so scared like oh my gosh! What is
that?
SP: you know at first I was; I first noticed the teddy bear and I was like guys this isn't normal
cause at first you know in the process ofthe mind it's like oh someone's trying to scare you
know trying to scare you. But once I looked at the shelf I saw a bible and a candle and that's
whenl~artedhea~ngout.
CT: yeah because you - and then we thought it was blood earlier to and it was actually just
candle wax so I'm guessing they were trying to read the bible with the candle which would
make sense ritualistically but urn
SP: who would go in there by themselves though, I wouldn't dare do anything like that
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CT: well if- I don't know I guess if it's abandoned and you wanna practice something that not a
lot of people agree with urn, you do it alone. Or maybe if there intent was to be alone to be
more satanic or whatever but I don't know you can't really judge that because mas-masonry is
kind of an obscure ritual not a lot of people know about they just know that it's either good or
bad. But it can kinda go in-between because like the mutilation we saw on the bear that wasn't
right.
MT: that was not normal
SP: that was not
CT: the different symbolism with the neck the throat and the gut makes sense with masonry urn
and then also the candle and anyway.
SP: well yet again they were no demonic symbols
CT: besides upstairs if- if my fear was right but I'm like oh my gosh I sees nothing but anyways
that was- that was pretty much it and after we kind of left were like okay we're good lets just;
and it wasn't it was barley even twilight it wasn't even like (both CT & SP) 'dark' and so I'm like
dude I'm glad we really didn't go at the dark or else things would've been so much more high
end and we would've freaked out; cause you were even saying when we were entering the
whole cabin complex it really doesn't feel that scary you know I kinda just feel like a chill. You
• didn't feel (brief pause) I guess your adrenalin pumping as much as it had the other ten times.
7
SP: yeah, well actually I'd say my first five times (mumble) but the weird thing is like every time­every
time I go there's always bound to be that one that one point where it's the depression
feeling that last a few seconds then leaves but like the first time the vary first time I went
(pause) urn (pause) I was- I was terrified I was so scared urn. It was actually my first time going
in a haunted place and uh urn after we were done, like I started feeling like all my energy just
going down that's the weird thing to because four of my friends entered the red cabin right
next to the pool and it was three guys and one girl and .. as soon as she stepped on the door
step urn her and my other friend freaked out, looked at each other and were like 'did you hear
that' and they both said it- it was funny they were like 'yeah' and so they both ran out and so
the other two that were in there ran out and uh and I was outside. I was like guys what's going
on-whats going on? And there like 'oh we heard something' and the other two that were in
there were like yeah 'we didn't hear anything you guys are tripping' later on through the day
we went to first dam and we started reviewing the video and clearly it was-it was recorded on
an ipod and you could clearly hear a woman in the background that sounded like she was crying
CT: oh was this the video you should me later?
SP: Maybe
CT: perhaps I think oh yeah
SP: but yeah she sounded really sad and uh it was just like (pause) I don't know how to explain
it - it was just a short amount of time but by then when we were reviewing everything I just felt
dead I felt drown like drown out of energy they were all joking around they were like 'oh the
spirits must have gotten your energy"
CT: oh yeah, that must have been true though cause maybe yeah.
MT: Actually while we were there I felt super light headed so
CT: Are you serious?
MT: yeah
SP: I'm telling you you're always bound to feel or hear something
CT: yeah, in my case what the heck?
SP: you're like woe I hear something
CT: and then I was like okay chill out, it could've been the wind
• MT: wait so what was the sound that you heard? (speaking to Camila)
•
CT: I heard the first sound urn the audio that I took with the video captured the same sound
twice so it was basically reputation but I heard "inside inside" but it was such a faint whisper I I
thought I was insane and I thought oh maybe it's the video recording you and your cousin
SP: and that's weird though, that's the weird thing I was like guys we cant go inside its boarded
up in a few minutes later I mean a few seconds later you hear that
CT: uh hm yeah I know
8
SP: actually when we were there my first time the girl that heard the moan not the moan. The
cry yeah the sad sigh urn we were in that cabin and we heard a thing shes like 'guys I see a man
sitting by the fireplace' and she ran out. We didn't see anything we didn't capture anything in
that but I find- I find it kinda interesting how her point of seeing a guy sitting next to the
fireplace and your point of hearing the 'inside'
CT: yeah but it was really faint to and I thought I was mor- when I was there it didn't sound as
faint as it sounds on the video recording it sounded like anybody whispering during a test
SP: like they were next to you?
CT: yeah, and it wasn't as soft either it was like a sharp whisper and so I thought maybe it like
when you play back a video on not like the most expensive video camera you have it sounds
kinda like sharp and kinda like small and then when nobody; I looked behind me and all the rest
of our group were taking a video
SP: in front of you
CT: and they were still currently doing it then I realized nothing was playing back and 1- I waited
a minute longer to see if anything happened and then I was like dude I don't feel good and then
I was like what the heck. Did you guys hear that and then I was like I'm insane and then when I
later heard it like I was replying it urn the next day cause that night I went to bed and I was like
I'm not gonna play that urn I wanna go to bed; cause so many times I've watched movies in my
room and then I'm like freaked out because I'm alone obviously it's just my room anyways so
yeah urn it was right before we had gone on a hike as a family so my sisters were there with me
and they were listening to it and urn I didn't hear it actually the first time and there like wait did
you hear that wait go back. I'm like wait did you guys hear that too than? And there like yeah
we heard some kind of whisper and so I was like so I'm not insane and urn so we played it back
and it was the said twice but it was faint I guess "You have to have special be really special to
hear it" no I don't know but I guess It does explain cause my sister Naomi has a really really
good sense of hearing like when I'm eating food she tells me not to 'chomp' like I'm eating
normally and you know when you're eating cereal whatever and you hear it? She hates that
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sound and like anything she'll be like did you hear that? And she is the worst for paranoia like
anything, loh my gosh did you hear that?' anyway so that explains how she could hear it I guess
a lot better than I could when we played the video still I don't know just kind of interesting to
have experienced
MT: it's still kind of creepy but what was the practice with the bear?
CT: the practice with the bear is a masonic ritual according to; I'm not a professional at all 1- I'm
just; I've been interested in what's going on with different kinds of practices whatever and I
guess I could say when I started reading urn Dan Brown's da Vinci code, The lost symbol. Other
ones he's written, there all really full of syb-sy- like symbology and urn different kinds of I guess
you could say urn motives of symbols like different kinds of patterns and how symbols kinda
repeat itself through history and urn I was interested after I was reading it because he was
talking about how the Masons are kind of un-un- kinda- not under privileged cause most of the
really rich bureaucrats are Masons and it's kind of like this brotherhood and each time- the
whole point of going in this brotherhood is kinda like when you're sorority or a- what's the
other one called? There's like a female and male one, what's the other one called? Sorority and
SP: oh I have no clue
CT: it's like- like- it's like the is it an F? I think it F anyway those little clubs you go into when
you're in collage and urn anyway so the whole point is to kinda get in the group where you can
kinda be friends with them and the other point is especially in Masonry is to learn urn urn they
call themselves secrets because urn once you learn them you're not supposed to tell anybody
about it and its really strangely tied to Christianity which explains the open bible uh that's really
interesting I really wanna know what it was open to cause it'd be really interesting to find out
SP:yeah
CT: anyways so urn according to like what's been given by them and what's been linked by
people who've been in them it's what they do sort of thing kind of exposed them is that they do
different rituals kind of like when you get into a club and you get blind folded or something go
through these different tests but some oftheir symbology if you tell where you've learned the
secrets to other people urn you symbolically cut your throat, urn cut your stomach and I think
with the eyes I still haven't remembered exactly what part of the eyes but I'm guessing just
cause eyes are one of the main things we use in life as our sight and (Silver laughs in
background)
CT: what? What's so funny dude?
•
SP: sorry
CT: anyways I'm not really sure with the eyes though because lots of times the eyes have a
symbolic meaning as what you see with your eyes like that's the whole thing
SP: isn't it like you decide to go bind if you tell a secret?
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CT: yeah, like they'll cut your eyes but the whole point of the eye is besides your hearing and
your smell I guess your eye sight is like one of the most things we use to and everyday like any
kind ofthing is like 'oh I saw it' but you trust me like you know so I'm guessing it's like one of
those things one of those senses you use the most so part of that whole ritual is if you tell the
secret they'll cut your eyes out I'm not- I don't know - I don't know if it's progressive order
each secret you tell like oh my eyes are cut out I'm gonna tell another secret or if they do it all
at once. I don't know. I'm not really sure but that kinda interested me and then that sort of
thing but I'm not an expert at all so I don't even know anyway that's alii know
MT: now just- With me I don't know I just kinda see that as see no evil hear no evil for some
reason
CT:yeah,yeah
SP: that's so true
CT: that makes sense
MT: cause its just if you see something I guess then without eyes you wouldn't be able to see
anything anymore so that's kinda creepy
CT: creepy stuff in the basement
MT: just don't go around fallowing into basements anymore
CT: yeah, kick the door open that's a lot better
SP: there you go
(laughing)
MT: im pretty sure if you kick the door open you're gonna find a super surprise
SP: a big surprise.
CT: a dead body or something
MT: something like that

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St. Anne's Retreat

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