We're Probably Wrong ep. 2: The Girl Who Saw a UFO

Simon Carver

Hey, welcome back to We’re Probably Wrong. I’m Simon Carver, here with Lachlan Reed, and tonight we’ve got one of those stories that makes you lean closer to the speaker and maybe also check the locks twice.

Lachlan Reed

Yeah, this one’s a proper skin-prickler. We’ve got a guest with us, Nina, and she says she had a close UFO encounter that went from weird to absolutely not-on in about, what, a couple minutes?

Simon Carver

Nina, thanks for doing this. And, genuinely, no pressure to sound polished. Weird stories are messy. Start wherever it starts for you.

Nina Calliger

Yeah. Um, I was driving home late, maybe a little after midnight, on this back road outside town. No houses right there, just fields, a drainage ditch, and those patches of trees that look blacker than the sky. I pulled over because I thought one of my tires felt off. It was really still out there. No wind, no bugs, nothing. That was the first thing that felt wrong, actually. It was too quiet.

Lachlan Reed

Too quiet is always a bad sign. Like when the bike engine suddenly stops making a horrible noise and you go, ah, cool, now I’m in real trouble. What did you see first?

Nina Calliger

Light. But not like headlights or a plane. It was low, behind the trees at first, this pale white glow with a sort of blue edge to it. Then it rose up slow, and I could see the shape. It wasn’t a perfect saucer. More like two shallow bowls pressed together, really smooth, kind of dull metal, and wider than any car by a lot. Underneath it were these lights in a ring, not flashing in a normal pattern, more like they were breathing. Bright, dim, bright, dim.

Simon Carver

That “breathing” thing is such a specific detail. Did it make any sound?

Nina Calliger

That’s the part I still can’t explain right. It wasn’t loud. I kept expecting this huge roar, but instead it was this low hum, almost like standing near a power station, except I could feel it in my ribs more than hear it. And there was a second sound, sort of a clicking or ticking, but soft, like metal cooling.

Lachlan Reed

Okay, that’s creepy as hell. I mean, I wanna be fair here, because people misread stuff at night all the time. Drones, helicopters, stars doing weird horizon tricks. But what made you go, no, this is a real object, right there, not my brain having a shocker?

Nina Calliger

Because it blocked the stars. That’s what locked it in for me. When it moved, the stars disappeared behind it. I could judge the edge. And it wasn’t drifting like a balloon. It would stop dead, then slide sideways without turning. Clean. Controlled. Also, the air felt strange. My arms got goosebumps, and my hair lifted a little, like before lightning.

Simon Carver

So you’ve got a visible edge, a physical sensation, and motion that didn’t match anything familiar to you.

Lachlan Reed

And you were out of the car at this point?

Nina Calliger

Half in, half out. Door open. I remember gripping the top of it so hard my hand hurt later. I wasn’t thinking, wow, aliens. I was thinking, I need to understand what machine I’m looking at. But the more I stared, the less it made sense, and then it started coming toward me.

Lachlan Reed

Right, here we go. This is the bit where, if I’m being honest, I’d be in the car, seatbelt on, absolutely flooring it. When you say it came toward you, how close are we talking?

Nina Calliger

Close enough that I stopped wondering if it was real and started panicking. It moved over the road, maybe thirty feet up? Maybe less? I’m terrible with distance, but it was low enough that the light hit the hood of my car. Not like a beam exactly. More like the whole underside was glowing and washing everything out.

Simon Carver

What happened in your body right then?

Nina Calliger

First, pressure. My ears hurt, like going up a mountain too fast. Then this wave of nausea, really sudden. My mouth filled with saliva, my hands went cold, and I got dizzy. I remember trying to take a step and feeling unsteady, like the ground had tilted. I thought I was going to faint. Then I threw up in the gravel by the driver’s side door.

Lachlan Reed

That’s rough. And that’s not a subtle reaction either. Did it feel like fear-sick, or physically sick in a different way?

Nina Calliger

Different. I mean, I was scared, obviously, but this felt forced, like my body was reacting to something around me. The hum got stronger, and my chest was buzzing. I know that sounds ridiculous. That’s the best word I’ve got. Buzzing.

Simon Carver

No, honestly, that tracks as a human description. Sometimes the plainest word is the right one. Did you feel like it was trying to pull you in, or is that too dramatic?

Nina Calliger

I don’t know if it was pulling me physically, but I had this horrible sense that if I stayed there one more second, something bad was going to happen. I looked up once, and there was a dark section underneath it, like a circle or opening, not fully open, just there. That’s when I lost it. I got in the car, slammed the door, and for a second my hands wouldn’t work on the keys. I kept dropping them.

Lachlan Reed

Mate, that tiny key-fumble detail? That’s the bit that gets me. Not cinematic, just human.

Nina Calliger

Yeah. I finally started the car, reversed badly, nearly put a wheel in the ditch, then turned around and drove. I didn’t look back at first. When I finally did, in the mirror, the light was above the trees again, smaller, and then it was just gone. No fading. Gone.

Simon Carver

And afterward? What stayed with you?

Nina Calliger

The sickness faded after maybe twenty minutes, but I was shaking for hours. For days after, I kept hearing that hum in my head when rooms got quiet. I still avoid that road at night. The part that stuck most wasn’t even the shape. It was the feeling that I had been noticed. Like whatever it was had turned its attention onto me, and I only just got away before something worse happened.

Lachlan Reed

I’m skeptical, but I’ll say this: that is one heck of a story, and you told it straight. No extra sauce, which I respect.

Simon Carver

Yeah. We may be probably wrong, but we are definitely unsettled. Nina, thanks for trusting us with it. Lachlan, I’m sleeping with a lamp on.

Lachlan Reed

Fair enough, Simon. We’ll be back with more conspiracies, more strange tales, and probably more bad decisions. See ya, mate.

Simon Carver

Goodbye, everybody.