Marika’s Halloween Call-In Collects Love Horror Stories, From Festival Gifts to a Bite

INDEPENDENT — Marika spent Halloween night taking calls from viewers on a stream titled as a call-in for romantic ghost stories, the more thrilling the better. Callers went on air one at a time to tell true stories of relationships gone wrong, and Marika reacted as host, laughing, scolding and, near the end, consoling.

One caller described a university girlfriend, a year ahead of him, who asked for gifts on every holiday, including Qingming and the Dragon Boat Festival, because she was a “traditional girl.” The requests grew from clothes and shoes to gold jewelry and diamond earrings, and eventually he handed over his card. He said the lingerie she bought did not seem to be her size, and the person she was seeing turned out to be a woman. Chat asked whether it was a scam ring.

“That’s a question of values. It has nothing to do with what you were doing at the time.” — Marika, to a caller explaining a past relationship

Another caller told of a first meeting on Christmas that ended with him in the driver’s seat of his car after a woman stormed off because he would not confess his feelings. She came back, yanked open the door and bit his arm hard enough to leave a bruise. He said he locked the doors afterward. Marika called the story absurd and summed up its moral as a list of three things that should not be done together, among them leaving a car unlocked. Chat joked that cars should be locked.

Later calls turned more serious. One caller admitted to developing feelings for someone who had a partner, and Marika told the caller that circumstances did not excuse it and to go back to studying and reflect on it. Chat thanked her as a counselor. Another caller, who said a wedding was coming next month, got Marika’s congratulations. A final storyteller recounted a school dispute in which a classmate’s mother, who led the parents’ association, blamed the caller and pressed for a face-to-face confrontation. The caller left school in the end and said telling her own mother was what helped. Marika thanked the caller, and chat answered with messages of sympathy and advice to choose partners carefully.

Wrapping up, Marika said the night had shown her the darker side of people and that the simplest way to stay happy might be to stay out of relationships. She added that her own relationships had been short, the longest about a year. She said she would open a text-based version for more stories, with an announcement to follow, and a sequel next week. Two Super Chats came in during the stream.