# They Dared Him to Carve His Name Into the Black Cursed Tree | 3 Stories of Horror Fiction!

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/weird-darkness-paranormal-true-crime-stories-475827/they-dared-him-to-carve-his-name-into-the-black-cursed-tree-3-stories-of-horror-fiction
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/weird-darkness-paranormal-true-crime-stories-475827/they-dared-him-to-carve-his-name-into-the-black-cursed-tree-3-stories-of-horror-fiction.md
Podcast: [Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories](https://stenobird.com/podcast/weird-darkness-paranormal-true-crime-stories-475827)
Published: 2026-06-15T00:00:03+00:00
Episode link: https://weirddarkness.com/BlackTree
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72517994/wd20260614a_blacktree.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/weird-darkness-paranormal-true-crime-stories-475827/episodes/they-dared-him-to-carve-his-name-into-the-black-cursed-tree-3-stories-of-horror-fiction
Duration seconds: 3600

## Resource

Three nine-year-old boys in a Massachusetts port town go looking for the schoolyard ghost called Skeleton Jack and instead find a tree that should not exist — black and leafless, cold enough to seem to drink the life out of the air — a tree one of them is dared to carve his name into, while something he can't see breathes in the dark just behind him. EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/BlackTree FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: "The Abandoned Drive-In Theater" — A newcomer to North Carolina, biking past the ruins of a drive-in theater that's been dead for decades, hears an engine roar and turns to see a film flickering across the filthy, torn screen — then finds every speaker smashed and every wire long since severed, with no way the movie could have been playing at all. *** "He Showed Up To Work After His Funeral" — Six days before Christmas, a security guard helps lower his coworker Jake into the ground after a fatal heart attack — and two mornings later, arriving alone at the snowed-in, empty worksite, he finds Jake's car already parked in the lot. *** "The Black Tree in the Woods" — In a Massachusetts port town haunted by the schoolyard legend of a flayed pirate ghost, three nine-year-old boys push deep into a forbidden forest and find a short, withered tree that grows no leaves and seems to drink the life out of the air — and when one of them is dared to carve his name into its strangely soft bark, something he cannot see begins breathing in his ear. CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = Show Open 00:02:17.025 = The Abandoned Drive-In Theater 00:07:35.119 = He Showed Up To Work After His Funeral *** 00:17:39.759 = The Black Tree In The Woods *** 00:58:35.975 = Show Close *** = Begins immediately after inser…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/weird-darkness-paranormal-true-crime-stories-475827/episodes/they-dared-him-to-carve-his-name-into-the-black-cursed-tree-3-stories-of-horror-fiction/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/weird-darkness-paranormal-true-crime-stories-475827/they-dared-him-to-carve-his-name-into-the-black-cursed-tree-3-stories-of-horror-fiction.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.