They lurk in your unlit basement or under your kid's bed, in crumbling old houses and the bushes outside cheerleader's slumber parties. Come to think of it, some creatures of the night aren't just physically dangerous. They kinda have a creepy, Cosby-like, "cop a feel while you're sleeping" type vibe. So we asked horror writer J.W. Ocker to help find the source of our fascination with these frightening figures.

J.W. Ocker is the award-winning author of macabre travelogues, spooky kid’s books, and horror novels. His nonfictions books include The New England Grimpendium and The New York Grimpendium (both Lowell Thomas Award winners), Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe (Edgar Award winner), A Season with the Witch: The Magic and Mayhem of Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts, and Cursed Objects: Strange But True Stories of the World's Most Infamous Items. His novels for kids include Death and Douglas, The Smashed Man of Dread End, and The Black Slide. Ocker is also the creator of OTIS: Odd Things I've Seen, where he chronicles his visits to thousands of oddities of culture, art, nature, and history across the country and world with photos, articles, and through Odd Things I've Seen: The Podcast. His work has appeared on or in CNN.com, The Atlantic, Rue Morgue, the Boston Globe, The Guardian, TIME, and other places people stick writing. Ocker is from Maryland but has lived in New Hampshire for more than a decade.

Follow our spooky storytelling comedian Sandi Benton at @sandi.benton on IG or go to her website: sandibentoncomedy.com

Here's some homework for you nerds who love to read:

https://www.openculture.com/2020/03/the-foot-licking-demons-other-strange-things-in-a-1921-illustrated-manuscript-from-iran.html

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/persian-demons-from-a-book-of-magic-and-astrology-1921/

https://vocal.media/futurism/10-strange-vampires-from-around-the-world

https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/vampire-history

https://news.virginia.edu/content/more-disease-dracula-how-vampire-myth-was-born-0

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-new-england-vampire-panic-36482878/

https://news.virginia.edu/content/how-spread-disease-juiced-lore-vampires-pandemic-proportions

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/07/cursed-from-circe-to-clinton-why-women-are-cast-as-witches

https://theconversation.com/most-witches-are-women-because-witch-hunts-were-all-about-persecuting-the-powerless-125427

https://www.ushmm.org/antisemitism/what-is-antisemitism/why-the-jews-history-of-antisemitism

"Indecent with Kiki Andersen" is a production of Next Chapter Podcasts.

Hosted by Kiki Andersen

Produced by Pete Musto & Max Wolfson

Executive produced by Jeremiah Tittle

Follow the show at @indecentkiki on Instagram and follow Kiki at @itskikiandersen

Email us at indecentthepod@gmail.com