Episode 684: Listener Tales 99: Campfire Tale Edition! | Morbid

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You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast. the choices we make, and the regrets we may have. Listen to the new, trashy, and true Audible original Final Thoughts, Jerry Springer, by going to audible .com slash Springer.

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Hey, Weirdos! I'm Ash.

And I'm Elena. And this is Morbid.

And we're dead camp counselors.

Although I have a lot of, oh, I'm stuck.

I have a lot of blush on today, so I feel like I look a little more alive.

So maybe I'm the ultimate final girl.

Yeah, you're like right before death, I would say.

Yeah. Because you're not surviving that.

Super duper bloody.

You're not surviving that.

I am not wearing blush, so I am dead.

she's dead she already died currently my legs look like they're definitely dead i have the palest legs known to man i mean same that's why i'm wearing the tube socks yeah um so we gotta we're excited about this this is fun and uh we wanted to hit on a couple of things first so nicholas is going to be in the episode that's on youtube yeah because we find he's a hot topic polarizing if you're polarizing but we understand in the audio version we're not going to use Nicholas.

No more. Because I can understand that if you don't see our reactions to Nicholas that it's not as fun and could be a little jarring.

Yeah. And like a little like screechy and not fun.

One thing that we don't want to happen is we don't want you to veer off the road because you got scared.

Yeah. We don't want that.

Yeah. So now you have two ways of watching.

One will have Nicholas or listening I should say.

One will have Nicholas where you can see us right here.

Yeah. And then the audio version will be sans Nicholas.

Sans. So you can choose your own adventure now now because we heard you.

It's like goosebumps.

Yeah, you know, and those are the best goosebumps to be honest. So yeah.

And the second thing is a really weird thing.

But we never did I ever think that we would have to address this.

Yeah. So this is just something that's kind of funny, but we just wanted to hit on it.

So nobody gets too up in arms. So Gypsy Rose Blanchard apparently made a video where she was talking about a few like content creators on TikTok, one of them being someone who's apparently called Sir Morbid not morbid but she missed the sir when she said it and she said morbid she's not talking about us we've never covered her case and we don't we don't plan to any Gypsy Rose Blanchard content and we don't plan to ever do it so she wasn't talking about us she was talking about Sir Morbid we did not come for Gypsy Rose yeah we did not come for Gypsy Rose uh but a lot of you were like there to back

us up and be like what the fuck you so we appreciate that we do we love you we love that you'll ride at dawn like couldn't tell you how much i appreciate that but i promise that was not about us uh she just missed saying the sir yeah you know so it was sir morbid not morbid sir morbid is different from morbid yeah we're not going to cover her case we never have no we've never done any gypsy rose blanchard content none yeah and we don't play it nope uh with that out of the way it's listener tale it's Brought to you, by you, for you, from you, and all about you.

There's nothing in this cup.

Don't worry. There's something in this cup.

It's coffee. Don't worry.

I love that. So we're going to be doing like camp summer tales kind of.

Camp Appalachia. Like foresty.

Foresty things. You know.

Yeah. That kind of thing.

Yeah. This is my favorite outfit.

Anytime we can get, even though I'm sticky as fuck.

look anytime we can get super bloody it's so fun i've ruined the couch yes that's unfortunate i'm sitting on a sweatshirt because underneath i put my legs down and it was just like it looks like somebody got killed on this couch yeah it truly does but you know what we suffer for our you know it's art it's just the way it is that's pretty honestly the couch should be bloody in the pod lab so facts you know it's just that the blood is sticky yeah Yeah.

You know. I never realized how much arm hair I had until I put blood on it.

When I dragged down, you know, when I got attacked and the blood dripped down, it really hurt my arm hairs.

It really hurt my arm hairs.

It did. I can understand that.

I heard them screaming.

Yeah. Yeah, every one of them.

That was me too because, you know, attacked.

All right. Are you starting or am I?

I'll start. Oh, facts.

Let's go. Whoa. So my first listener tale is Listener Tales, Lake Shawnee.

We covered that once.

We did cover that. It's somewhere I really want to see, actually.

This person saw it.

This is good morning.

Please see my attached listener tale about an overnight camping trip.

That means that we, you and I, can go to Lake Shawnee overnight.

Yeah, they camped at the amusement park.

Yeah, I'm not trying to camp, but we can go there.

I think that's the only way you can.

Yeah, you can go. Yeah, and then we'll stay at a hotel after.

We'll stay somewhere not there.

See, it didn't work out.

all right so dear ash and elena my name is april and you can use my name name and my dog's names freely okay you spell my husband too i know you spell your name really cool it's a -p -r -y -l i'm not sure how i stumbled across your podcast but i do know that the very first episode i randomly picked was frank and rose west girl and you said it correctly holy cannoli yeah that was was a doozy.

That was intense. It may or may not have traumatized me.

Us too. Us too. Yeah.

Yep. Me too. For life.

But whatever. It hooked me and now I'm like a walking commercial for Morbid.

Thanks so much. Love you.

In fact, it was you girlies that prompted my husband Wesley and I, I love that name.

Great name. Along with our two roadie dogs, Ozzie and Toccoa Goose.

Toccoa Goose. I hope I said that right.

Yeah. Ozzie and Toccoa Goose.

To make a seven hour road trip from Atlanta to the one and only Lake Shawnee Abandoned Amusement Park in lieu of spending Thanksgiving with our families.

Fuck Thanksgiving. Go to Lake Shawnee.

I love that we inspired that too with that episode because honestly, I get it.

I want to go. I want to go so bad.

Let me set the scene.

It's late November.

It's West Virginia.

It's cold as fuck, and we're the fools that decided it would be a good idea to sleep in a tent in a haunted amusement park.

That's the part I can't get behind.

And there was a massive rainstorm set to blow in that night.

But hey, at least we had firewood.

But rain. Yeah, you know, that fire, rain.

Bad. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Let me start at the beginning.

This road trip was for real.

Destination scary stuff.

We went to the abandoned mining town of Thurman.

Oh my God, you really.

You did it right. You guys rule.

We hit up Point Pleasant for all things Mothman.

Yes, my man. That place was creepy pants.

Like to the point it gave Wesley a panic attack because something was off, way off with the energy.

But that heavy energy story is best saved for another time and another place.

Let's get back to Lake Shawnee.

We arrived about 3 p .m. and met Chris, who is the self -proclaimed caretaker.

As you know, the park has been in his family since the 60s or something like that.

Chris is pretty awesome, and he gave us a tour of the property that included a detailed history of everything Lake Shawnee, from the natives who first inhabited the land to the white settlers who stole the land to the beginning development of the park during the Great Depression.

Stolen land? Topical.

Stolen land, you say?

That's crazy. After about an hour, Chris made a sweeping gesture and said, Welp, I'm out, the park is yours.

The fact that he was just like, G2G.

Like, damn. He climbed in his truck and before speeding off said, Oh, and by the way, because this place has lots of children who live here, I've heard that people who camp with their dogs are particularly magnetic.

He slammed his door and drove away.

Honey. He said, you got a big storm coming.

He said, have so much fun with the ghost children.

That's so scary. And then shit got real.

Remember, it's November.

Not a lot of daylight.

We quickly had to decide what to do first, set up camp or do our first round of exploration.

Duh. It was time to take a walk.

So it's dusk. I'm taking pictures like I was hired by National Geographic.

Speaking of pictures, feel free to share mine and the video.

We'll get to the video a little later.

So far, so good. Nothing creepy -ma -creepy yet.

After a quick dinner of gas station bologna and cheese sandwiches.

I'm sorry. That's fucking reckless.

Good for you. Do you like bologna?

I love bologna. I grew up on bologna.

Same. I don't like bologna.

I haven't eaten bologna in like a billion years or so.

So I don't know if I would still, I have fond memories of bologna.

I don't. You know who still buys bologna?

Who? From the deli.

My husband. Honestly, I love Drew.

Like this is why. Drew fucks heavy with bologna.

bologna i get him it disgusts me me and drew can eat a bologna sandwich at your house bologna and cheese and the yellow mustard i like yellow mustard yes i have a sandwich today but it's turkey it's turkey and um havarti dill cheese oh she's fancy yeah she's fancy yeah she doesn't know about this cheese and bologna sandwich from the gas station listen april i love you and i respect so much about you just not this just not this i respect it though i'll tell you i respect I respect everything you do, April.

You know, so they have bologna and cheese sandwiches and bad beer.

We knew it was time to set up camp.

Why didn't we just rent a little RV?

I know. That would have been a good idea.

These are questions.

Oh, I would go in an RV.

Yeah. I would go in an RV, I think.

We can glamp at Lake Shawnee.

Kind of be fun, actually.

Let's talk to people about that.

Corinne and Sabrina?

You guys doing anything?

What's you up to? Wait, that's actually a really good idea.

It is a good idea. We're going to text them later.

Yeah, we are. Before getting too far into the tent popping process, I decided to check out this little shed over by the cornfields.

Yup, the cornfields.

No. I opened the creaky door, and it's just an empty little building.

Let's call it a tiny house.

With the impending storms, we decided to toss our sleeping bags in the shed and call it home for the night.

Girl, no. Girl. Why stay in a shed?

What are you doing?

Why stay in a shed, babe?

In hindsight, this might not have been one of my better decisions.

We've all made bad decisions.

But honestly, I was beginning to wonder if this entire trip was a good idea.

That's fair. It's zero dark 30 in time for the night walks.

Wesley suddenly had knee problems or more likely scared of the dark problems. He volunteered to stay with the dogs by the campfire.

So you can have both hands for taking photos.

Wow, Wesley, that's making us fall.

Wesley. Wild reason.

So yeah, Wesley is being smart here and saying, you can have both your hands for taking photos and I'll stay back here with the dogs.

Really, I think he was a scaredy pants and wanted Ozzie and Tokoa for extra protection.

Off I went into the dark, dark night by myself.

You're a fucking badass, April.

Brave bitch. A badass.

Because I can't say I would do that.

I can say full heartedly I would not do that.

Can't do that. My first stop was the old ticket booth.

there was a small pinwheel on the ground hmm this seemed like a good place to start my unexperienced booty started to ask it questions and when it answered i almost pooped i'm sorry when it answered excuse me the pinwheel to be fair there was a slight breeze that i don't want to discount as an as evident in the video but i don't think that this was just the wind anywho when i asked the pinwheel if someone was there it began to slowly spin i asked it to change the direction.

It did. And wind doesn't just change direction like that.

I asked it to stop spinning and it also did that.

Yeah, you were communicating with something.

Next stop was the Creepy Trail.

I like that. I like that, too.

I like that a lot. I want to name my house that.

Yeah, just my driveway is just the Creepy Trail.

It runs along the back of the property line.

Chris says that it's the only place on the property where he refuses to go.

That's how you know it's bad.

I began a slow walk, partly because I was as scared as drew barrymore talking to ghost face and also because i didn't want to roll my old ass ankles on an uneven path both valid reasons smart i make my way around the bend and begin to approach the gravestone of the mitchell clay children as you may recall two of them were murdered by the shawnee while doing chores on the property the third was kidnapped and later burned at the stake anyhow this part of the trail has a couple of security lights i was feeling a bit braver with the light and began to walk with a little more pep in my step until i

realized that i saw my shadow and another smaller shadow walking next to me no that's a baby that's a little kid i don't like it that's a little kid when i say the hairs on the back of my neck went up in a cold cold chill ran down my body i am not exaggerating what does one do when walking towards the graves of three re -murdered children in an abandoned music amusement park with a ghost child companion in the middle of the night?

That's a good question.

One gets the fuck up out of there.

And that's a good answer.

I ran like the wind.

Okay, I'm old and chunky.

I ran like that. Back at camp, after I caught my out of shape breath, I drank a bad gas station beer and started to share my tale.

However, Mother Nature had her own agenda.

With a crack of thunder and flash of lightning, the sky angrily broke wide open and we made a mad dash for our tiny house slash shed next to the cornfield.

Once inside the safety of the plywood walls, we realized the only way to latch the door was from the outside.

Why? Yeah. That's not good.

Well, it's a shed. I was like, that's fucked up.

You said, nefarious.

It's a shed. I have to say, if you're only listening on audio, you're missing out.

Nicholas is great. Go watch on YouTube.

So the door seemed to stay closed fairly well on its own, so at the time it didn't present as a huge problem.

We settled in for bed.

Before turning off our headlamps, I reminded the dogs that if a small ghost child opened the door during the night and asked them to come out and play, they were to respond with a firm no. Before my eyes were even closed, Wesley had already begun to snore.

I tossed and turned and eventually drifted off to sleep.

Reality fell away to the dream world and all was well and our tiny house saw shed next to the cornfields until it wasn't.

suddenly the door flew open and my dumb ass was the one sleeping next to the door no i screamed the dog started to bark and snoring beauty awoke with a start we quickly determined that the wind blew up in the door not a ghost child trying to steal our dogs at this point i was awake and there was no hope of not being wide ass awake which turned out to be a good thing because all night long there was a wrapping at the door and it would slowly be pulled open and then closed again which the wind doesn't do this continued long after the wind and rain died down like imagine the door slowly opening and then

slowly closing and like a wrapping at the door no i just like it so much but we should totally go nonetheless dawn broke to a beautiful blue sky we survived the night packed up the car and drove off into the west virginia mountains that's even scarier to be honest uh that's it that's my story thank you Thank you for planting the seed.

If it weren't for y 'all, this trip would not have happened.

Keep it weird, but not so weird. You spend the night in a tiny house slash shed next to a cornfield in a haunted abandoned amusement park in the middle of nowhere, West Virginia.

Damn. April. There's some really good photos with this one that are awesome.

Really spooky. April, you did a really good job with the photographs.

It was really good.

And you made us want to go.

I want to go to so many abandoned places.

Especially amusement parks.

They give me like the, ooh, the oohs.

I know. So thank you, April.

Thank you. Get this.

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All right, my next one is called Lake Desolation Serial Killer and Abandoned Asylum.

that one has to be great so it says dear ash and elena i submitted this story last summer but since you have re -released the spooky lakes tm episodes i think i thought i would give this one another go it's on a listener tales i also have another tale of a haunted driveway to type up and send soon that's funny that you were just talking about yeah i'm a huge fan also a fellow spoopy new englander who grew up in southern new hampshire hell yeah thank you and come back every fall to enjoy the haunts of of nature i've attached my listener tale on a spooky lake asylum and and potential serial killer for you,

but in a friendly, double -spaced put -a -fuh.

You're beautiful. I hope you enjoy, and my soul would leave my body if you read this.

Well, soul, prepare for departure.

Congratulations on being soulless.

You are in jealous now.

Oh, God. You ejaculated your soul.

You'll have to listen to the rewatch. I don't make the rules.

That's not gross. Okay.

My name is Megan. You can use my name.

Also, shout -out to Rachel, Erin, and Liana, who will appreciate this tale.

i'm a 30 year old lady who resides in good old cheesy wisconsin cheesy oh i would love it there oh i love cheese we had cheese for breakfast this morning but who grew up in new hampshire in a house built in 1780 oh hell yeah and that isn't even the most haunted thing in my life oh shit this tale is dedicated to the creepiest yet most enchanting body of water i've ever witnessed in upstate new york so we could go there we could for the past 28 or so summers of my life i've I've been visiting an eerie, cold, quiet lake on top of a mountain in the foothills of the Adirondacks.

Lake Desolation. That is the most metal name.

Yeah. Lake Desolation?

All I can think of is Sparky from, I know it's Domination, but all I can think is, Desolation.

Total Domination. Desolation.

Damn. It's losing all meaning though.

Desolation. Desolation.

Desolation. All right, we're done.

Lake Desolation is a pitch black, freezing cold lake at 30 to 45 deep fed by cold springs.

The lake is literally 68 acres of blackness.

No. Yes. Nope. It is.

I don't want that. I kind of do.

Surrounding the lake today are old shanty but sturdy shacks that were built by the Irish in the 1920s as camps and have mostly stayed as such with very few people residing on the lake year round.

The scene is as picturesque as an old A -frame, one and two story camps painted bright blues, blues, reds and a white clash with the dark abysmal shade of the lake that absorbs all the sun and reflects nature in the camps like a mirror.

Wow that was fucking poetic.

That is and also there's an attached image.

Milton New York is a quiet town maybe one or two stoplights a general store and a few roads headed up to factories camps and scenic homes and apparently a ton of horror.

Horror. Horror. Every summer my family has headed up the winding mountain road and felt an eerie feeling of how desolate yes in the name it truly was up there jumping in the water was ice cold and so dark the depth of the water always made me feel a little bit afraid of it was there anything down there it always ran through my head there is a couple summers ago as an adult I was up the lake after moving to the midwest and not being able to go to upstate New York every summer like I did when I lived in New Hampshire my mom and I were visiting my grandma and decided to drive up from her house from her

hometown to the lake to stay a few days to keep keep cool.

My mom and I stood on the dock and I ran and jumped in the dark water.

I came up from underneath and treaded water as I shouted to my mom, I hate being in the lake alone.

I always feel like some dead body is going to come up and grab me.

Oh no. A trauma that I have faced since that are you afraid of the dark episode.

Hell yeah. I know exactly which one you're talking about.

She seriously replies with, they pull dead bodies out of that lake all the time.

Wow, mom. I go, what?

Naturally thinking she's messing with me.

But she continues to tell me that a couple times they have pulled a dead person out of the lake after a heart attack while swimming or drowning okay normal i guess then without missing a beat she also proceeds to tell me of the lake desolation serial killer the fucking what i'm sorry who that they have never caught what the helly what the helly berry what the hellionte what the helly burton the serial killings happened in 2003 and 2009 both were young girls with red hair one was found i don't want to go anymore well we have to it was 2003 and 2009 yeah they never caught him i'll go with you what i

don't i want to do it we're going no yeah no no then again i'm not young so that might help the self -realization the serial killings happened in 2003 and 2009 both like i just said were young girls with red hair one was found in an old logging site and the other found in the woods one girl was missing for years before they found her skull and bone fragments oh uh okay why was this not on the news that's not the only creepy thing about the lake by the way do you guys remember the app uh randonaut oh my god yeah like random randonautica or something like that i don't know i don't remember it yeah

i think it was like you could go oh it would send you to a place i think i do remember this yeah the app supposedly manifests something you'd like to see and then chooses a random point of longitude longitudinal and and latitudinal coordinates.

Yeah, I remember that.

That was like a big thing.

Yeah, that does sound familiar now.

The app actually led a group of teens to discover a dead body, if that refreshes your memory.

Absolutely. That was like huge right when TikTok came out, or like when we discovered it.

Yeah. I don't know when it came out.

Well, last summer, my 17 -year -old sister and I decided to try it.

The coordinates it had chosen for us were 13 minutes driving distance away from our camp at the lake.

We drove through the pouring rain.

The location? Oh, just the Saratoga County homestead what is that a literal abandoned and decaying insane asylum that has been closed and falling down since 1973 damn it manifested what you wanted to see yeah that's what you wanted to see i suddenly lost my feeling of adventure and we noped it back home without exiting the car we literally had no idea that that place even existed later that summer i did see a travel channel show about it though and had to immediately call my sister also in the lake linear episode i remember you talking about the fear of submerged man -made objects aka submec submechanophobia okay

well in the 1920s there was a hotel on what is now the piddly little lake beach and parts of the hotel structural docks are still submerged nope i don't like that at all yeah just to spice up the lake's creepiness in the woods surrounding it is an abandoned village Abandoned village.

I need to see that.

Yeah. I need to see that.

I don't want to see the submerged thing because it'll give me an existential crisis of some sort.

I want to see it, but I don't want to see it all at the same time.

It's one of those things.

But I want to see the abandoned village.

Yeah. Well, in 1842, a Glad factory was erected to bottle Saratoga mineral water and a thriving village built up around the factory of workers, but the factory closed in 1866 and was relocated closer to a rail track for logistical purposes.

I don't even have to write the creepy little tidbit that happened next because the article below described it horrifyingly, quote, with its only industry gone, the community had no purpose and the people moved away.

Some farming activity continued until the early 1900s, but one by one, the residents moved and nature took over.

Had this been in the arid out west, you would be standing in the middle of of a ghost town but in our climate the wood frame buildings quickly rotted and trees began to grow in the pastures and open land until a mature forest now occupies the site oh whenever just like nature just like takes something back yeah you know like takes over it freaks me the fuck out like yeah i'm for it i support it nature take what you gotta take back take everything if you want to it's just it's a spooky situation it is creepy that's spooky so anyway i'll be super happy to hear you read about my spoopy body of water

it's no like lanier or witch who wants to take a town with her to her grave but would you dive in feet first no hannah cranna is my favorite morbid episode hannah cranna is a great one so fun yeah anyway keep it weird but not so weird that you've been swimming for 28 summers in a lake that may have bodies in it but driving past a serial killer dumping ground touched a freaking hotel dock post with your feet and it was all covered in seaweed and it traumatized you and an app takes you to an abandoned insane asylum 13 minutes away from you that you didn't know existed damn yeah that's a lot that's

a lot in one summer that's a good one though now i want to look up lake desolation and i want to like learn more about it maybe next spooky leaks we'll cover it yeah maybe we can brought to you by megan brought to you by megan yeah i also want to try i always wanted to try that like randa randonautica or whatever it is i wonder is it still a thing i think it is let's try it i mean i imagine it is Let's try it in a safe way.

I don't know. You know.

You know what I mean.

You know what I'm saying.

So I'm going to read Listener Tales, Shadow People, Spooky Headlights, and Mystery.

Oh my. Oh my. Hi, Ash and Elena.

Hi. Please see the attached potafull and photos.

One attachment is my rendering of the ghost, we say.

One is us on the ferry, me on the ferry, the cabin in question, and the fire pit.

Wish I took more. Who'da thunk I'd need them?

smiley face i hope you love this story and i'd cry the happiest of tears if you ever read it much love from washington state and i don't know if i can say your name so i'm gonna wait i think you can i think i can yeah so i'm going to say katie and cody and maddie yeah yay so many e's i like it hello you wonderful land mermaids of morbidness thank you you're like leslie no that was amazing that was really good long time listener like i found your podcast back in the underwater days and still relisten to those episodes when i run out of new ones you two honestly bring comfort to the creepy and i

know i'm not alone in that giant thank you that you both deserve thank you thanks my name is katie pronounce katie feel free to use my name because how fucking cool would that be pretty fucking cool it's like catty heron it's that's what i thought of this story involves myself and my boyfriend at the time now fiance Beyonce hopefully never ex -husband Cody never ever this listener tale happened a couple of years ago and somehow after saying wow I should send my story in a trillion times I finally am yay I'm not a writer or a great editor for the fact for that fact so feel free to slim this story

as you see fit and you know your girl has attached a double space put a foot queen this is the tale of creepy headlights a shadow figure and a whole campsite disappearing right before our eyes it's a doozy my boyfriend Cody and I were heading a couple of hours away into the woods a recipe for pure fun, clean fun, to celebrate my 32nd birthday at a cute little cabin.

This was the first full year of COVID, and what better way to celebrate than puzzles and smooching in the mountain air?

We left our home in eastern Washington with our geriatric dog child, Maddie, who just left us in January after 16 wonderful years together.

I'm so sorry. And headed a couple hours north to stay the night with my mom before heading to the cabin the next morning.

The drive was going perfect.

I was being the ultimate passenger princess and bought us iced coffee and the playlist was giving, as the youth say, about halfway through the drive.

We had to take a ferry across a large river, which is always my favorite part.

No one else was on the ferry, which takes about 15 minutes to get over the river and another 15 at best to get back to pick up more cars.

Important details there.

This ferry is tiny, damn tiny, holds three cars at best tiny.

We were the only car on at the time, and no cars were waiting on the other side, which again, would be at least 30 minutes for the ferry to pick them up and get them across.

Remember that. We finally reach on the other side, and the ferry guy lets us off.

We depart the ferry, and our cell signal was instantly lost. Just for context, the nearest town is about 45 minutes from the ferry crossing, and pure no -signal mountain driving.

I have my downloaded Spotify playlist ready.

ready. After about 15 minutes of driving, it was dark as could be and I was rocking out to some 90s tunes.

As you should be. Brilliant.

Cody is being a safe, diligent driver and not bopping along with me.

That's fine. We can't all be fun all the time.

The moon is covered by clouds and there are no street lamps.

Just pure dark sky ahead of us.

I peep the rear -view mirror and see headlights far behind us.

No cars could be there, I thought.

Not unless they drove a zillion miles an hour after entering the ferry.

Like I said, it was It was at least 30 minutes for more cars to be picked up and brought to our side.

So what the fuck? I comment to Cody that it's strange to have a car behind us, and he agrees.

I feel slight unease because I'm an overthinking bish who assumes the worst. You gotta be.

You really have to be.

In this day and age, you have to be an overthinking bish.

In this economy? Yeah.

Just assume the worst and be really happy if that doesn't happen.

Yeah. I try to shrug the feeling off, but my tummy has been activated with anxiety.

The car stays far behind us for a while, then starts to get closer.

Finally, it's right behind us.

Now, my family had a run -in when I was a kid where my parents and I were driving over a mountain, and a car tried to shove us off the road three times before they themselves crashed.

Damn. Fuck. I have deep anxiety with mystery cars and mountains.

I don't fucking blame you.

I do too now. I keep my eyes on the road and my elderly dog child in my arms. Suddenly, I see something dark in front of us.

This took all of one split second, but I will never forget it, and hope I can even explain it.

A large, round object, now lovingly called the ghost. I was in front of us.

It was in front of us.

I truly thought it was a bear, but it looked like a void of some sort.

Round, yet jagged. Hallow, yet so deep.

I slam my imaginary passenger side brake.

I'm always doing that.

You are. I did that to you yesterday.

And gently say to Cody, bear, bear, bear!

bear. But as I say it, I realize nothing is there.

Nothing was there. Did I just make up a whole event in my head?

Feeling silly for yelling out, bear.

I look over at Cody and see his eyes are damn wet.

Glossy little eyeballs.

This only happens when he is very scared.

Like watching Nuke's Top 5 Alone at 2 a .m. scared.

He says nothing. I look behind me and the headlights in car are gone.

I look to my left at my wet -eyed man friend and he says, eyes not moving off the road and knuckles white did you see it too oh i gently reply the bear even though i knew in that moment it was not a bear no he replies still being a little too quiet for my anxious brain the dark thing the black deep hole i will attach my rendering drawn moments after the event just titled in my iphone notes app as ghost ghost and it's like question mark explanation ghost what what?

We slow down a bit, realizing there has been no turnoff for miles, and where the fuck did the car go behind us?

If it was a bear, did they end up hitting it or worse?

I never saw a crash.

No headlights on the side of the road.

We continue the slow drive.

No music, no giggles, and no chatting.

I was thankful in that moment that Maddie was mostly deaf by this 14 year of her life and was blissfully unaware of the stress we were feeling.

Maddie was just straight vibing.

Yeah, Maddie said, I don't care.

This is fun. She said, I'm almost on my way out.

It was another few hours to get to my mom's house.

We tell her everything.

She isn't big into spooky stuff and says it was just our sleepy eyes.

Mother, I am 32, not 92.

My eyes are not yet that sleepy at 7 p .m. I mean, I'm 35 now, so they definitely are.

I was going to say, mine are.

We kind of forget the ordeal, brush it off as a weird night of events and all, and the next day we leave Maddie with my mom and drive up to the cabin.

To paint this picture, as it will come in super big in a couple moments, The cabin is in a very old, very rundown, yet ever so perfect camping resort.

A couple cabins, a tiny little restaurant that doubles as the check -in desk, store, coffee station, thrift bookshop, some boats for rent, and so on.

I love the sounds of this.

I want to go to there.

It is old and it is perfect.

We rented the cabin at the very end of the resort loop, overlooking the other cabins, all like eight of them, and restaurant.

From our campsite, we see families making s'mores over their fire pits.

We have an RV somewhat close behind us With people laughing And talking and playing games Their low laughter and talking Feel comforting to me We hear music playing And kids laughing And dads cursing at fish they cannot catch I am deep in my happy place Sounds great It really does Like this makes me be like Okay I can do this That's great summer vibes We set up our fire pit Pull out the pre -downloaded music And scary stories from Reddit To tell after dark And prepare for a fun night We do puzzles Make coffee get cozy and sleep.

The first night was indeed bliss.

Yay. And it sounds like fucking bliss.

The next morning, everything is the same.

It's a Saturday in mid -October.

Oh, it's not even summer.

This is better for you.

And it's misty and cold and beautiful.

Oh, yeah. I want that.

The families are waking up and making coffee over their fire pits.

Why are you making this sound so delectable?

I know. I just need to be here.

People are renting boats to go fish.

The dock is full of people the rv of people rush to the restaurant for breakfast as do we i have chicken fried steak and biscuits fuck yeah cody has a corned beef hash black coffee and old mugs all the good stuff bustling for covid times for sure we all stayed very far away and the restaurant was outdoor seating mostly she's like don't yell she's like don't come on me we decide to rent a boat for that afternoon too the woman at the front desk tells us to pick a boat and at checkout tomorrow bring payment for it.

Sounds great. We love some small -town financial trust. She reminds us checkout is at 11 a .m. the next day, but she will be there from 8 a .m. to 2 p .m., which is another big detail.

We make dinner reservations for around 7 p .m. for that night, the last time slot available for dinner.

The restaurant is so tiny, it could only have like 15 people in the vicinity.

We have some fun at our cabin, puzzles and music and such, and go for a walk before deciding to go pick up our boat.

By this time, it's about 3pm, way past checkout times for everyone leaving that day.

But still, I see kids running and fires going at cabins along the lake and people walking their dogs.

They should all be staying the night, I think to myself.

I mean, someone took all those those other dinner reservations, right?

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We get in our little rickety boat that has a tiny leak and Cody starts to row us away.

the lake is small which lots of beat little with lots of little beaches to stop at and wildlife to see we row the entire lake which took maybe two hours and was so wonderful i just sat there painting in a sketchbook and drinking somewhat warm pbr oh that's great cody tried to catch a fish between what rowing when we had left the with the boat we passed by our cabin and as we rowed we saw the rv of people sitting by the fire drinking beer and playing a ball toss game This would be close to 4 p .m. After a couple hours, we're ending in the same spot, and it's getting dark.

I mention in passing conversation to Cody that I no longer see their fire from the RV, and he comments that they were up late last night and must have turned into bed early.

It's like 7 p .m., my dude.

Who are they? My mom's version of me?

We get back to land, and Cody drops me off in front of our cabin while he docks the boat before dinner.

I sit outside and finish my beer on our old little dock.

He meets up with me about 10 minutes later and says dinner is cancelled.

No one was at the restaurant.

This was a Saturday, and they were open until 9pm, as the lady earlier that day told us.

I was bummed because fish and chips were my main focus of the trip.

I researched food reviews for like a week before we got there.

We chit -chatted about why they would close when it was a Saturday night and busy.

He said there was no note on the front door, but everything was dark.

But oh well, we made our fire and had hot dogs and s'mores.

By this time it's dark, at least 7pm or later.

We started telling spooky stories to each other, just like the night before.

And I loved watching my boyfriend get all wet -eyed and scared again.

He keeps getting spooked out by the sounds in the woods around us.

But in the middle of my story about the goat man, because who doesn't love the goat man story, Cody hushes me, and I was getting all prepared to make a do -not -ever -hush -me -sir rant.

But his eyes and tone made me hold my sass back for a moment.

I asked what was wrong.

Was it an angry duckling or a rabid beaver we saw while boating?

He says, I haven't heard anyone since we got back tonight.

Have you? No, I say.

But so what? I like the piece.

My positivity had zero place in this conversation, I think.

Babe, when we left, there were so many people.

It was busy. The restaurant was open.

Fires were going. Look around.

No one's here. No smoke from burnt out fire pits.

The lights are all off.

So I do look around and I realize not one fire is going.

Not one person is talking.

Not one light is on.

the rv is even gone where did they leave when did they leave they would have had to drive past our cabin on their way out they were here when we returned from boating the cars are gone everyone's gone but that can't be right checkout was hours ago and everyone was still here way after that i say now let me preface this with my boyfriend and i love anything that gives us chills and wet eyes we love a good spooky we fall asleep to scary videos we are the weirdos mister yes but this This felt bad.

Oh, I don't like that.

I hate this. Imagine everybody just fucking disappearing.

Just gone. Like, like, inexplicably gone.

He slowly gets up and says to me while trying to play cool.

I'm cold anyway, you know, let's put the fire out for now and do something fun inside.

In the safety of the indoors.

He walks the 10 feet to the waterfront to grab our giant bucket and starts to put out the fire.

I decide to get the lights on inside and fire going in the fireplace.

place. When walking from the fire pit to the front door, I hear twigs cracking from ahead of me.

I can't see anything.

The moon is so covered, and it's just darkness.

So I race back to the fire and Cody.

He's being more frantic than I'd like to putting this fire out.

What started as basic speed of walking for water has turned into him running from waterfront to fire pit in mere seconds.

I call out to him and tell him about the twigs I heard. I know, Katie, he says.

I heard it before while we were telling stories i didn't want to scare you please go inside i love that he's like he's like going to i ran instead i ran inside because you don't need to tell me twice i mean he did actually but whatever we locked the front door which was barely a real door at best and a piece of plywood at worst god cody grabs knives hammers and other heavy items and places them by the door in the table just in case he says super comforting my god but lo and behold cold.

I was addicted to nicotine at 32.

At around 9pm, my addiction tells my brain that it's totally fine to go outside.

Totally safe. Oh my god.

What's the worst that could happen?

So much. I step out to the front porch to light a cigarette.

Cody stands in the door because he's a highly supportive man.

As he told me this is not the time to crave tobacco in a stern dad voice and watched over me with a grumpy look.

I got two drags in and heard not not just a crack of twigs, but a full on thud from about 10 feet in front of me in the darkness.

That made my skin go all goose bumpy, but I didn't move.

I couldn't move. Oh, my God.

Then the sound of very fast. No. This is a nightmare to me.

Nightmare, nightmare, nightmare.

Then the sound of very fast, increasingly loud running starts towards me from where the thud I thought I had heard was.

It's the running for me.

Never want to hear running in the forest walking slowly not really scary not awesome you're full -blown running i'm not into it fuck i'm not into it cody yells at me to get inside now i threw my cigarette into my coffee cup because safety first duh and started and darted back inside cody quickly locks the door and put a chain in front of it a chair in front of it and said i was not to leave again i was not about to disagree i was pretty sure i needed to change my underwear at that point yeah one more more thing about my boyfriend.

He can sleep anywhere, anytime, through anything.

And he fell asleep on the tiny cabin couch minutes after this happened.

I would have murdered him myself.

I would have killed him.

Somehow forgetting the events that just took place.

Okay, this is fine.

This is totally fine.

I don't want to call my mom and say, Mom, pick me up.

We're being hunted.

Not at all. Not that I could call without any service, cell service.

I made a fire in the wood wood stove and laid my painting supplies out i turned on my spotify playlist for sad indie girls who cry a lot and started painting by firelight i know the one now this is my jam i love that you like got it yeah the thoughts of what was happening outside and where the fuck did everyone go were leaving me i happily painted trees and happy little trees and listened to fleet foxes great band until i was brought back to my current reality by a loud insanely loud bang at the front door about five feet from me.

Shit, shit, your pants.

It shook the whole cabin.

It made my paint water ripple and made my throat clench. But it did not wake up Cody.

That's such man shit.

I sit up off the floor, grab my knife, and lean over to him as quiet yet stern as possible.

Cody. Cody. Cody, wake up.

Cody, wake the actual fuck up!

He finally does, and in a groggy state, sees my eyes filled with tears something just banged on the door dude it shook the whole house I whispered him it's like the strangers he jumps up and grabs a knife next to him now we do not know how to use knives and I'm a thousand percent sure in an event where we had to we would wait too long to use them and just be unalived by whatever was coming at us I get that but the false sense of security was much needed the reality of our situation sets in we're alone we have no cell service we are not built for survival under anything anything other than comfy

circumstances, what the fuck do we do?

We debate if we should go outside, stay inside, or if we just leave. Just so you all know, leaving was a thousand percent always an option.

Our car was right outside.

Full tank of gas. Snacks in the glove compartment.

Why we didn't take that is beyond me now.

That's always so scary though, like trying, like, it's like in the horror movie where you're like, get in your car, get in your car.

But sometimes that's how the killer thinks you're thinking and they've already slashed your tires and now you're just a sitting duck in your car and you paid for this apartment like I get it you pay for a fucking cabin you're such a cap yeah you pay for a cabin you're like I don't I fucking abandon this right now we paid for this night at that point I would not be thinking at all that would be my first I'd be like I'm calling for a reimbursement since we were hunted down we were hunted in the middle we were hunted could we please get a hundred percent of this trip money back well the good news

is there was no more banging after that one that's good luckily we decided the best thing we we could do is just go to bed remember cody could sleep anywhere like in a haunted house where the ghosts only come out when someone falls asleep he would fall asleep just fine we put the knives by our bedside tables and laid down bam he was asleep i laid awake all night i'm sure i know you think this has to be the end and i promise it almost is but not before this last part the cherry on top of this shit show now lovingly known as my favorite birthday ever we woke up super early the next next morning

and packed and clean our cabins up.

I didn't want to be charged a cleaning fee even when fearing for our life you know.

Same mindset. What time can we leave Cody asked me.

The woman said by 11 but she'd be here by 8 a .m. so we can leave now honestly.

We went outside and saw no one again.

We walked a two minutes walk to the restaurant front desk.

No one was there. It was around 9 30 a .m. at this point but no one was there.

The lady told me to come in before 11 a .m. girl here I am.

We still had to pay for our boat rental.

We had the keys to return but not one sign of life was anywhere.

So fucking weird. The sign on the door still did not say closed but it was locked.

We walk around the sites of other cabins the ones that had happy families and giant fires the day before and no one was there.

We decided to leave our keys in the drop box with our phone number to make payment for the rental and yeeted out of there so fast. On our drive back to my mom's to pick up Maddie about an hour hour and a half away we tried to make sense of the night before but we couldn't none of it made sense i then said something that i wish i hadn't out loud cody did something happen to us after the ferry was any of this real anymore are we in some weird limbo he didn't have an answer regardless we get back to my mom's answer what explain what happened and she shrugged it off as maybe being covid related she's

like i don't know it's the rona i bet uh why is mom shit is his mom shit why couldn't she dive into the spookiness with us come on mom no logic right now i don't even know if that's logical to end this story on another creepy note we did start reach researching what i had seen and it turns out a lot of people had seen what i had seen deep dark empty black masses that give you a feeling of doom and despair shortly after this incident my but my boyfriend had a mental health crisis and abruptly left and lived in the woods alone for three months after lots of therapy and hearing healing he came out

stronger we came out stronger together i'm glad to hear that but sometimes i wonder if this experience did something to him his feeling of hopelessness and sadness that almost ended him were a lot of a lot of what i read about these figures but this ends on a happy note y 'all damn and that is the end of my story it's been a couple of years and regardless of that event i booked another trip to the same cabin for this fall as well because we're getting married and wanted to be wanted to really pack a punch in the creepy department we've never seen another shadow figure the banging didn't follow

us home so i guess all is well i did start researching what i'd seen and it turns out a lot of other people had seen it so keep it weird but not so weird you almost crash into a shadow figure take on its sadness lose a shit ton of humans from sight and can never explain it again you went back you went back to the hell dimension mansion katie what i think something happened to you and i think you're i think it's like calling you back now i don't think you have free will anymore katie oh my god you guys are adorable oh i want to see hold on the ghost a ghost a ghost of the question we'll post these

don't worry that's so scary oh you guys are so cute you guys are adorable oh i love you guys oh my god and your dog maddie maddie um imagine that cabin half not happening did you see the cabin yeah fuck that that's intense katie that's wild katie what a good story though that was scary i think we have time for one more thinking of like a whole resort just disappearing like what i love that that's terrifying that's so scary yeah that was genuinely so scary that was a good one that one had really good like summer vibes yeah it did even though it was in october it had good like summer slasher vibes

it felt sometimes october is still warm you never know all right this next one is just called listener tale submission hi please enjoy my listener tale submission mystery mysterious as per what seems to be your preference i have attached a double space 12 point pedifa i think that's how you spell it it is well done it is nine pages long so it goes without saying that if you need to cut anything out please feel free no i've attached a sketch of our campsite as well as photos of all of us and the few things i have that show what the campsite looked like anyway way please enjoy the one time me and a few

of my friends almost died in the middle of the night while camping aka the plotline to the most basic horror film ever oh but some of the best some of the best all right ready hi morbid girlies I would like to start off this listener tale as everyone does with endless flattery cue fangirling my name is please say my name Kelsey Kelsey Kelsey we love you and I was put onto your show by my boyfriend Jake Jake we can say we love Jake we We love Kelsey.

We loved Kelsey and Jake.

Yeah. Cake. Who probably read this story.

Jake probably. Cake.

Sorry. That almost got lost on me.

Or Jelsie. Jelsie. Jelsie and cake.

Jelsie. I like it a lot.

It's great. Well, Jake probably read this story a gajillion times before I sent it in order to make my ADHD ramblings make sense.

Also, Ash, I am an Aquarius.

If that says anything about how this listener tale is about to go, hee hee.

Does it? I'm in an astrology class right now, so I'll let you know.

Oh. the first time jake and i ever listened to you guys we were actually on a five -hour road trip and i listened to four episodes back to back and just giggled along to your commentary and yes i have sent a photo of the two of us for your viewing pleasure you guys are really cute you are i'm pretty sure those episodes were the leaf killer episodes which have fucking haunted me those ones were rough yeah i'm in college and work a student job in a warehouse where i sit alone in silence for eight hour shifts so having you guys listen to really makes time fly and feels Feels like I have two friends

hanging out, spilling the tea.

You do. When true crime news pops up now, especially with the Idaho murders, Jake always makes it a point to ask what my morbid girlies had to say about it.

Everyone always will say that to their partners.

They're like, what do your girls have to say about it?

What do your girls have to say about it?

Anyway, I will get onto the story now, but please do your thing.

Keep doing your thing.

Thanks. I've changed all the names in the story beside my own, as well as tweaked some details that aren't really relevant to the story in order to keep everybody out of trouble and keep this mostly anonymous.

Please buckle up because this is long.

and i know you never shorten a story but please feel free to if you need to okay let me set the scene for you it's mid -summer of 2021 i'm from iowa and i had come home from college to work for the summer at what can be considered a summer camp of sorts that was focused on teaching kids water sports hell yeah the staff for this camp was relatively small so we were all pretty close -knit most of the instructors had either grown up in the area or had grown up vacationing in the area so we all knew each other pretty well each year the instructors hosted an instructor camp out The term campout can be

used super loosely here.

In years past, this could mean literally anything, ranging from a mini golf tournament to partying at somebody's cabin or even drinking out in the middle of a random cornfield.

Damn. Yeah, you read that right.

I said drinking in a cornfield.

Remember? It's very Freddy vs. Jason.

It's Freddy vs. Jason for sure.

Yeah. Remember how I said I was from Iowa?

Yeah. I meant like a real tiny town in Iowa.

Cornfields. Cornfields and such. much to give you a better idea of what i mean the town i grew up in had a population of 2700 people holy shit i graduated with a class of 100 kids whoa that's very small i knew every single person i went to high school with everyone and what their mother did for a living holy shit we're talking about drive your tractor to school day rural drive your tractor to school day that's my kind of rural i want to go there that is my kind of rural barely any light pollution at night So things are dark at night and it is very quiet.

But the sky must be so pretty.

Yeah, and the corn.

And the corn. Let's just glow in the moonlight.

That corn. Last year, long crime brought you the trial that captivated the nation.

She's accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O 'Keefe, with her car.

Karen Reed is arrested and charged with second -degree murder.

The six -week trial resulted in anything but resolution.

We continue to find ourselves at an impasse.

I'm declaring a mistrial in this case.

But now the case is back in the spotlight, and one question still lingers.

Did Karen Reed kill John O 'Keefe?

The evidence is overwhelming that Karen Reed is innocent.

How does it feel to be a cop killer, Karen?

I'm Kristen Thorne, investigative reporter with Law & Crime and host of the podcast, Karen the Retrial.

This isn't just a retrial.

It's a second chance at the truth.

I have nothing to hide.

My life is in the balance and it shouldn't be.

I just want people to go back to who the victim is in this.

It's not her. Listen to episodes of Karen the Retrial exclusively and ad -free on Wondery Plus.

Now remember I mentioned water sports.

This is because our town is located on a series of large blue water lakes, which are all fed by wetlands and smaller lakes in the region.

I got through that.

You did. This particular year, it was decided that we should actually...

You spoke too soon.

I know. This particular year, it was decided that we should actually camp out for the instructor campout.

All of us were at least moderately comfortable with the outdoors, so we were excited.

We picked a little lake that was about five miles outside of town.

i've attached a sketch to the email of the general setup of the lake and the drive -in area for reference about for what i am about to describe so you can get a general sense of what everything looked like basically you drove in on a long one lane gravel road one lane is always not good when it's one lane it freaks me out yeah i don't like it no room to turn around i need a way in and a way yeah surrounded by tall old growth trees that ran all the way up to the border of the lake Then you took a 90 -degree turn to proceed another half mile and end in a small parking area and boat ramp.

That's desolate. That's lake desolation.

That's lake desolation.

We wanted to be near the lake but have quick access to the road just in case, so we decided to camp in a small clearing that was just past the turn in the road.

The clearing had a bunch of tall grass and a large dead tree in between where we set up camp and the lake.

Tall grass? Ticks and murderous.

I was just gonna say and and spooky people.

And ghosts. Yeah. And corn.

All of that. And corn.

And also corn. We got to the lake around six or seven o 'clock just as the sun was beginning to set.

We were all coming from different places so we all came in with separate cars and parked in the little parking lot and just walked down to the campsite.

In total there were eight of us.

Me, Maya, Ella, Chad, David, Blake, Beck and Caleb.

My friend Maya didn't actually work with us but I asked her to come along on the camp out because this summer I was working two jobs, meaning 13 hour work days and a little time to see her.

Everything started off totally fine.

We met in the parking lot and decided we should have one car next to the campsite to have all of our supplies in.

So we packed my Jeep full of our tents, lawn chairs, drinks, snacks, s'mores, etc. and drove down to the campsite to set everything up.

I parked my car so that the back end was facing the campsite and the front was to the road so we could easily drive out of there if need be.

smart. We flattened out the tall grass and set up three tents, which should be enough for the six of us for sure.

Who were going to stay there all night.

A couple didn't want to stay.

And that was cool. After having, well, it's totally cool, man.

You don't have to survival instinct.

I get it. The survival instincts kicking in.

Yeah. After having Beck, the only truly outdoorsy guy in our group spent like an hour showing our dumb asses how to put up tents.

We got a fire started and hung out.

Honestly, it was a blast. I've never laughed so hard and we were all genuinely having having a good time.

More than a few alcoholic beverages were consumed and even more stupid dares were carried out.

We were really just a bunch of fucking idiots out in the middle of nowhere getting drunk and not causing anybody any trouble.

That sounds amazing to be honest. I want to go to there.

Maybe not to there, but I'd love to do it.

We did all the traditional camping stuff like toasting s'mores and telling spooky stories, especially about flesh pedestrians because that had recently made an appearance on all of our TikTok for you pages.

But looking back on this knowing what i do know about our fleshy ped pals this was dumb this was this was dumb our fleshy our fleshy ped pals i like that about the time things were winding down chad's girlfriend leah decided to join us this was because i brought maya along and she hadn't realized it was truly it wasn't just truly an employee's only situation we all like her so it was no big deal but it definitely messed up the sleeping situation of the three tents we had maya and i were supposed to be in one chad his brother david and beck were supposed to be in the middle tent and ella was supposed

to be in the third tent furthest from the road well because chad's girlfriend joined us beck decided that because he was still sober and didn't want to stay in the with the couple he was just going to drive home maya and i having consumed a few too many beverginos were the first two to hit the hay and we crashed in our tent which was nearest to the car and the road the rest of us stayed up a little while longer until david needed to go to bed so he took the single tent that ella was originally going to sleep in it was around that time that beck decided to leave taking caleb and blake with him

down to the parking lot they were the two that weren't originally going to stay and taking ella to her car she wasn't in any condition to drive but david was in her tent and she didn't want to sleep in the same tent as chad and his girlfriend so she decided to crash in her car this left four of the original eight in the campsite five five total counting leah david maya and i all passed out in our respective tents and chad and and Leah were still awake sitting by the campfire.

3 a .m. hits, and this is when shit starts to get weird. Of course it is.

3 a .m. Chad's starting to fall asleep in his chair by the fire, but Leah's still awake and on her phone.

At 3 a .m. on the dot, which I am now told is the witching hour, yoiks, yoiks, this strange noise happens.

Chad said this noise was so bone -chilling and raised all the goosebumps on his body, so he was violently sitting instantly awake and sober, looking at Leah to see if she also heard the noise.

she had and was sitting frozen staring in the direction of the sound suddenly the noise happens again but much closer and moving closer closer from the direction of the lake the noise happens a third time this time chad remembers within a dozen feet or so of the camp and they're both on their feet to get the fuck out of there when telling the story later they couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was that made them know for sure the noise meant that they needed to run but they They just said it was instinctual.

They put out the fire and start screaming for the rest of us to wake up.

While Leah grabs her keys and they sprint to their car.

I have to give them props for the thought of trying to wake us up.

But the three of us all were sleeping like the dead.

So one or two shouts were not going to do much. A lot of them were just like, wake up, bye.

Wake up, bye, we're fucking out of here.

Drive by. I vaguely remember slightly waking up and hearing Chad say, let's get the fuck out of here to Leah before he slammed her car door and they sped off the road.

Wow. Now, before you guys say wow, those are some sucky friends leaving you there.

I was just about to say.

But for yourselves, like my boyfriend and every person after said when I told them the story, just wait until the end of the story where I've provided a recording of the sound so you can decide for yourself if you would have stuck around.

Personally, I would have ran too.

Wow. That's what this person says.

After that, I was kind of in a sleep haze, like halfway between sleep and awake, where I was thinking there was no reason to really wake up because whatever was happening would definitely be told to me at breakfast the next morning.

She's like, this is fun.

She's like, they'll catch me up.

I then heard slow footsteps right outside of our tent, but assumed it was probably just Beck putting out the fire.

Remember, I had gone to bed before knowing that Beck and the rest had already left. I rolled over and looked over at Maya, who was also awake and also heard the footsteps.

She got up and went for the zipper of the tent opening to check what was going on, but I all of a sudden got a really bad feeling and stopped her.

She just looked at me.

She told me later she had the same bad feeling, and we both just laid back down, listened to the footsteps recede, and went back to sleep.

How are you just going to sleep?

You guys are brave. Everybody's just going to sleep.

Yeah. I'm never going to sleep.

Last story, Cody's just going to sleep.

Yeah, I can barely go to sleep in my home.

If something fucks me up in the middle of the night, like if I...

A bad dream even. Even if I have a bad dream where I get startled awake and I think, because you know those dreams where you wake up and you're like, was that real?

Was that in the house or was that a dream?

Yeah. Like, did I hear that sound or was that my head?

Yep. If that happens to me, I guess we're just staying up all night.

Like, I'm awake. I'm downstairs.

The kids come down in the morning, and I'm like, hello, children.

Good morning. I've been awake for eight hours.

Like, I'm, no. Yeah.

So, if this is happening to me in a tent, fuck that.

But what do you do?

Where do you go? Fuck that.

I sit up. I sit up and I stare.

At that zipper. I would do that, too.

And I will it to stay closed.

Yeah. And I will the sun to come up.

Fair. Yeah. Fair. That's what I do.

That's what I would do, too.

Well, around 4 a .m., we woke up to our phones blowing up.

It was Chad. Chad. I woke up to 26 missed phone calls from him.

Chad was really trying to warn them.

He was like, I'm really trying to get you guys out of there.

I woke up to 26 missed calls from him, all with panicked voicemails telling us we needed to get the fuck out of there.

He tried. I finally answered him and he poorly explained the situation in the most panicked way possible, thinking it might be a friend of ours out there messing with us or maybe an ax murderer or something.

Yeah, you know. But essentially that we needed to get in my car and get out of there right now.

Maya and I took took a moment to gather our strength and the only weapons we could find in our tent which were literal s'more skewers i mean that'll do it yeah depending on what kind of skewers yeah that's true the wouldn't ones just go for the eyes i guess i was gonna say and you get distance with those that's true that's why like a golf club or something is really good to have because you create distance a golf club is good because it has that like heavy end so you can swing it but a baseball bat i feel like isn't great because they can just grab it yeah that's true same thing with a golf club

but at least it's a little heavier yeah yeah well we made a mad dash to my my car.

Yeah, we've actually talked about this a lot.

I've never whipped out of anywhere so fast in my entire life.

Think Dukes of Hazzard style yeeting down this gravel road.

The entire drive felt like a horror movie.

The ass out of her jean shorts.

Yeah, literally. As I just knew someone was going to jump out from the dense trees by the road in the dark and kill us or something.

I don't know. I was freaked out.

I think you were correct.

After Maya and I calmed down a little and eventually made it into town we called chad back to let him know we're okay what was his response chad we're all right what was his response how was it how's david and our absolute panic to escape that axe murderer flesh pedestrian demon thing that chad had heard we had forgotten about his brother david who was now the only one left at the campsite and the in the furthest tent from the road Maya and I looked at each other and shit a brick.

Oh, no. Chad wanted us to go back there to get David.

Chad, you can go back there and get David.

I'm sorry, Chad. That's your brother.

Ultimately, and with an animated display of our vocabulary, we let him know that David is his brother.

Thank you. And not as much as we like him, there was no way in hell we were going back there.

No, you can go. Especially after Chad just left us there to fend for ourselves just over an hour before.

Thank you. Who does Chad think he is?

Also, you left your brother.

You left us and your brother.

Chad, you left your friends.

You left your brother.

And now you're like, go get my brother for me.

You go get your brother.

You go back to that campsite and get your brother.

Motherfucker. Go get your brother, motherfucker.

Chad did not want to go back there with just his girlfriend.

You're a bad brother, Chad.

So he ended up having to wake up his mom to help him.

Chad. Chad, you're being a pussy.

Chad, that's pussy moves right there.

They both went to the campsite.

What a bitch, Chad.

Bitch made. played.

I'm not saying I would go back there, but I do love my brother.

I would go back there for my sister.

Thank you. Which one?

Only this one. Just kidding.

We would go back for the others.

Of course. At least one of them.

Yeah. They both went back to the campsite and grabbed David.

It also grabbed Ella, who was still passed out in her car, clueless to everything going on.

Oh, my God. The following Monday at work, one as you would expect it to, we were all talking.

Talk about, like, team building.

Yeah, that's a team building exercise.

Although, did you guys do great at it?

Not really. It seems like you guys failed at team building.

yeah it was actually just like a higher up at the camp being like let's see how this works being like wow so you guys are really gonna you guys are bad at emergencies yeah you're just scatter i guess well we were talking about the camp out over lunch and doing the typical debrief you know to laugh ever about everything that had happened when the whole chad heard a noise situation came back up we all gave him a good amount of shit and we were gonna write it off until i said well it was a good thing that beck stuck around to at least put out the fire Every single set of eyes in the room looked at me

in confusion. Remember, I had gone to bed before Beck and the rest of the group had left, and both Maya and I heard those footsteps.

After a few minutes of going back through when everyone left and how the sequence of events played out along that timeline, we realized that at that time, that someone or something stalking around outside of our tent, the only people in the entire campsite from our group would have been me and Maya in our tent, and David, who was passed out on the other side of the camp.

Yeah, that's fucked up.

Safe to say this realization freaked us the fuck out, especially because Maya was seconds away from leaving the tent and investigating until we both listened to our gut and just went back to sleep for a while.

Honestly, I'm not psyched that you went back to sleep, but I'm glad you did not go out and investigate.

Yeah, and I guess like you probably don't snore because whoever that was would have come in and killed you if they heard you.

In the days, weeks and months following, all of us tried to rationalize what chad heard and the footsteps maya and i heard but none of us could come up with a solid answer some of the guys thought maybe it was some of our older campers messing with us some of us really believed it to be a flush pedestrian some of us thought it might have been chad tweaking out making the whole thing up and some even thought it might have been some farmer on the neighboring lands that didn't appreciate us be appreciate us being so loud so they came to mess with us i hope that's it this story honestly i do too it's

farmer john It is. This story became the bonfire story of all of them, which brought a lot of outside input of what it might have been.

And one theory in particular is worth mentioning.

The lake we camped on is said to be haunted by the Native Americans that once lived on the land.

I don't think I have to tell you guys that the murder of one person, let alone almost 40 people, can leave an area haunted as fuck.

But because of this, the inexplicable bad vibes that Chad and Leah got when they heard that noise at witching hour nonetheless at a spot once inhabited by the natives at one time our location being less than five miles from a massacre site and given the small lake that we were next to is a wetland tributary to a lake named after a native spirit i was convinced that this was what we heard that night there's something going on there until yesterday oh well ladies we finally get to why i decided after almost two full years to send this story in for a listener tale last night i got an instagram dm

from chad oh scary chad getting a late night dm from a man named chad is the scariest experience and i hope you said like i hope you're taking care of things yourself now chad yeah chad did you wake up your mom before you said this dm well chad solved the case of what the fuck was okay chad you took care of it when he came across a post that had the exact noise he and leah heard approaching him that night it was a motherfucking mountain lion Yes, we are from Iowa, but mountain lions are not a thing in our area.

In fact, the DNR has said that between 1995 and 2021, we only had 30 confirmed cases of mountain lion sightings, as our state has no self -sustaining mountain lion population, and most times they wander on over from the states to the west of us.

Chad tells me this, and I'm like, cool, cool, cool.

Okay, so I'm not being haunted.

Turns out mountain lions are opportunistic predators and will eat basically anything they can.

You're telling me that this big ass cat came down from the literal motherfucking mountains and walked across a few states just to happen upon our camp and isn't going to see that as an opportunity to be a predator?

I'm thinking Idiot's Out Camping was the main entree on his menu that night.

The one thing that we had going for us and why the cat probably didn't approach earlier was that apparently they're deterred by fire.

the fire that chad and liah had put out before they left calm down smoky the bear i know they did the right thing but how scary so when maya and i heard those footsteps outside our tent like 10 fifth like 15 minutes after they decided to leave and thought that we shouldn't go out there we made the right call because it was apparently a motherfucking mountain lion just strolling through i have attached the instagram dm that chad sent me so you guys can play the sound and truly know the absolute horror those two must have been in when they heard that noise not once not twice but three times moving

toward them i've also attached pictures of us as well as the few pics or videos that i have of our campsite from the blur of that night don't post those got it anyway that's it for my listener tale if you guys made it this far and are reading this on the show please know i have most likely either shit in my pants or passed out from excitement probably both oh damn wake up wake up change your pants change your pants lastly shout out to my girl gang for proofreading this for me and hyping me up to submit it ash i don't think i could ever hold a candle to your skills so please take keep it please

take it away keep it weird but not so weird that you think that you got haunted by flush pedestrians but really it was just a mountain lion coming to eat you in the middle of the night because you put out a fire which is scarier it is because that thing can actually eat you i want to hear what it sounds like yeah now we got to hear the sound i don't think i've ever heard a mountain lion scream that's fucking terrifying clarifying that's that sounds like a person screaming yeah that's unsettling yeah and it almost kind of sounds like like no yeah that's unsettling yeah i don't like my pants too i

probably want to shit my pants i'm not gonna lie yeah yeah yeah no why does it make that sound that's not what i expected a mountain lion to sound like i thought I thought it was gonna be, like, Yeah.

I thought it was gonna be, like, deep and guttural.

And, like, something, like, beastly coming at you.

But this is just, like, Frankly, I don't know what I was expecting.

I was expecting guttural and, like, deep.

Yeah. Something beastly.

Yeah. Damn. You guys have some crazy -ass tails.

We do. It's crazy. All right.

right well if you um want to send your listener tails in you can send them to um morbid podcast at gmail .com would make sure you put listener tale please let us know if we can use your name and the pictures and post them and all that good stuff know what we can use and what we can't use yeah and it's time for us to go wash this blood off of us yeah because i'm sticky i'm so sticky i'm gonna die so we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but not so weird that that you don't send us in phenomenal, awesome, wonderful, scary tales.

But, anyway. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

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Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery .com slash survey.

[Listener Tales: Haunted Campgrounds, Shadow Figures, and Unexplained Encounters]-[Episode 684: Listener Tales 99: Campfire Tale Edition!]

📋 Summary

The Uncanny Encounters of Morbid Listeners

Lake Shawnee: Camping with Ghosts

Lake Desolation and the Randonautica Mystery

Shadow Figures and Vanishing Campsites

The Mountain Lion in the Night

Conclusion

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript