Episode 684: Listener Tales 99: Campfire Tale Edition!
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Hey, weirdos, Elena here. If you're looking to kick back and relax with Morbid, Wondery Plus is the way to go. It's like having a cozy seat in our haunted mansion. No ads, just you and early access to new episodes. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast.

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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. Okay.

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. So we're excited about this. This is fun. Yeah, I like this. And 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 will. Very polarizing. But we understand. In the audio version, we're not going to use Nicholas. No more Nicholas. 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. Mm-hmm.

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 because we heard you. It's like goosebumps. Yeah, you know, and those are the best goosebumps to be honest. Yeah. And the second thing is a really weird thing, but we hope to 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. We don't plan to. And we've never done any Gypsy Rose Blanchard content, and we don't plan to ever do it.

do it so she wasn't talking about us she was talking about sir 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 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 Jetsie Rose Blanchard content. None. Yeah. And we don't plant. Nope. So with that out of the way. It's Listener Tales. It's Listener Tales. 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. Yeah. Camp Appalachia. Like foresty. Foresty.

You know? Yeah. That kind of thing. Yeah. This is my favorite outfit. Anytime we can get, even though I'm sticky as fuck, anytime we can get super bloody, it's so fun. I've ruined the couch. She has. That's unfortunate. She has indeed. I've ruined the couch. 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, we suffer for our art. Yeah, it's art.

It's just the way it is. That's pretty much all it does. Honestly, the couch should be bloody in the pod lab, so. Packs. You know? It's just that the blood is sticky. Yeah. You know. Yeah. I never realized how much arm hair I had until I put blood on it and it started. When I dragged down, you know, when I got attacked and the blood dripped down. Yeah. It really hurt my arm hairs. It really hurt my arm hairs. Yeah.

I did. I can understand that. I heard them screaming. Yeah. Yeah, every one of them. That was me too. Every one of them. Because, you know, attacked. All right. Are you starting or am I? I'll start. Oh, facts. Let's go. So my first listener tale is listener tales, Lake Shawnee. Oh.

We covered that once. We did cover that. It's somewhere I really want to see, actually. This person saw it. This says, good morning. Please see my attached listener tale about an overnight camping trip. That means that we, you and I, can go to Lake Chani 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. I don't camp. Not there. Yeah, I don't camp. See, it didn't work out. All right. So, dear Ash and Elena, my name is April, and you can use my name and my dog's names freely. Oh, and 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. Girl.

And you said it correctly. Holy cannoli. Yeah. That was a doozy. That was intense. It may or may not have traumatized me. Us too. Me 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, Ozzy and... Toccoa Goose. Toccoa Goose. I hope I said that right.

Yeah, Toccoa. 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 family. Fuck Thanksgiving. Go to Lake Shawnee. Fuck Thanksgiving. Go to Lake Shawnee. I love that we inspired that, too. I know. With that episode because, honestly, I get it. I want to go. I want to go so bad. I want to go.

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. Send it to us. At 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. So scary. And then shit got real. I bet.

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... He's so weird. Drew fucks heavy with bologna. I get him. It disgusts me. Me and Drew can eat a bologna sandwich together. At your house. Bologna and cheese and the yellow mustard. I like yellow mustard. Yes. I have a sandwich today. That was always iconic. But it's turkey. It's turkey. Excuse me. 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 it. 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.

Yeah. I would go on an RV, I think. We can glamp at Lake Shawnee. That would kind of be fun, actually. Let's talk to people about that. Hmm. Corinne and Sabrina? Yeah.

You guys doing anything? What 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 are you staying in a shed? What are you doing? Why are you staying 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. Honestly, valid.

It's zero dark 30 and time for the night walks. Wesley suddenly had knee problems or more likely scared of the dark problems. I have those. 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, he, you know, 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 Ozzy and Toccoa for extra protection. Off I went into the dark, dark night by myself. You're a fucking badass, April. Great badass. A badass bitch. Because I can't say I would do that. I can say full heartedly I would not do that. Yeah, 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 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. 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 Ghostface, 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. 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 and a cold, cold chill ran down my body, I am not exaggerating. What does one do when walking towards the graves of three murdered children in an abandoned 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, but... It's a shed. It's a shed.

I was like, that's fucked up. You said nefarious. It's shit. 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 in our tiny house-thaw shed next to the cornfields until it wasn't.

No. No.

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

I dislike 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. That's it. That's my story. 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 without the photographs it was really good um and you made us want to go i want to go to so many abandoned abandoned i want to go to so many abandoned places especially amusement parks they give me like the i know so thank you april thank you

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That one has to be great. So it says, Dear Ash and Alina, I submitted this story last summer, but since you have re-released the Spooky Lakes TM episodes, I thought I would give this one another go. It's on a listener's list.

I also have another tale of a haunted driveway to type up and send soon. That's funny that you were just talking about creepy driveway. 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 nature. I've attached my listener tale on a spooky lake asylum and potential serial killer for you, but in a friendly double-spaced...

Potiphar. 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 rewatcher. I don't make the rules. That's not gross. Yeah. 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. I would love it there. 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 have 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 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.

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. Oh. Surrounding the lake today are old shanty but sturdy shacks that were built by the Irish in the 1920s as camps.

Wow. That was fucking poetic. That is. That's gorgeous. 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.

Yeah.

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, Barry? What the helly, Ante? 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. You're fine. Yeah, they never caught him. I'll go with you. What? What?

do it we're going no yeah no no then again I'm not young so that might help the self-realization

Oh my god.

Oh my god, yeah, like Randonautica or something like that. I don't know, I don't remember it. Yeah, I think it was like you could go, it would send you to a place. I think I do remember this. The app supposedly manifests something you'd like to see and then chooses a random point of longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates. Yeah, I remember that. That was like a big...

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. And that was like huge right when TikTok came out. Or like when we discovered it. 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 Lanier episode, I remember you talking about the fear of submerged man-made objects, a.k.a. submechanophobia. Yeah.

Okay. Well, in the 1920s, there was a hotel on what is now the piddly Little Lake Beach, and parts of the hotel's 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.

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 a ghost town, but in our climate, the wood-framed buildings quickly rotted and trees began to grow in the pastures and open land until a mature forest now occupies the site.

Whenever just like nature just like take something back. Yeah. You know, like takes over. It freaks me the fuck out. Like I'm for it. I support it. Yeah. Nature take what you got to 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? Hannah Cranna. No, Hannah Cranna. Hannah Cranna is my favorite morbid episode. Hannah Cranna is a great one. It was 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 bought you a boat.

Mm-hmm.

Damn. Yeah, that's a lot. That's a lot in one summer, Megan. That's a good one, though. Now I want to look up Lake Desolation and I want to learn more about it. Maybe next Spooky Lakes 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 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 like a safe way. Okay.

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. Please see the attached photo full 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, you can. 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 Knope. That was amazing. That was really good. Longtime listener, like I found your podcast back in the underwater days and still re-listen 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. 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. That's what I thought of. This story involves myself and my boyfriend at the time, now fiance. 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 that fact, so feel free to slim this story as you see fit. And you know your girl has attached a double-spaced pout-a-fou. 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. 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.

Remember that. Yeah.

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.

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.

So what the fuck? Yeah.

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.

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'm always doing that. You are. I did that to you yesterday. Yeah.

and gently say to Cody, 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 2am scared. He says nothing. I look

behind me and the headlights and 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.

Ghost? Ghost? Ghost? 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. I'm such a quick. 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. It sounds great. It really does. 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. Yeah.

Yeah, I want that. Fuck yeah, he does.

bustling for covid times for sure we all stayed very far away and the restaurant was outdoor seating mostly she's like don't 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 3 p.m., 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 other dinner reservations, right? ♪

Today is the worst day of Abby's life. The 17-year-old cradles her newborn son in her arms. They all saw how much I loved him. They didn't have to take him from me. Between 1945 and the early 1970s, families shipped their pregnant teenage daughters to maternity homes.

and force them to secretly place their babies for adoption. In hidden corners across America, it's still happening. My parents had me locked up in the godparent home against my will. They worked with them to manipulate me and to steal my son away from me. The godparent home is the brainchild of controversial preacher Jerry Falwell.

the father of the modern evangelical right and the founder of Liberty University, where powerful men emboldened by their faith determine who gets to be a parent and who must give their child away. Follow Liberty Lost on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, it's Mr. Balan here, and I am so excited to tell you all about a podcast from Balan Studios called Redacted Declassified Mysteries, and it's hosted by the incredible Luke LaManna. From covert government experiments to bizarre assassination attempts, Redacted dives deep into the astonishing true stories of uncovered secrets, lies, and deception within the world's most powerful institutions. Stories like the mind-bending truth behind Operation Paperclip,

where former Nazi scientists were smuggled into America to advance U.S. technology and intelligence during the Cold War. Or the shocking story of Charles Manson and the CIA, revealing how a notorious cult leader might have been entangled in a web of covert operations. Trust me when I tell you, the stories are real and the secrets are shocking.

Be sure to follow Redacted Declassified Mysteries with Luke LaManna on the Wondery app or wherever else you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. We get in our little rickety boat that has a tiny leak and Cody starts to row us away.

The lake is small, with lots of little beaches to stop at and wildlife to see. We rowed 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 rowing. When we had left 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 canceled. No one was at the restaurant. This was a Saturday and they were open until 9 p.m. 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 peace.' 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 felt bad.

He's, oh, I don't like that. I hate this. Imagine everybody just fucking disappearing. Just gone. Like, like, inexplicably gone. Oh, 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. 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.

I love that.

He's like trying to keep you safe too. 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. Cody grabs knives, hammers and other heavy items and places them by the door and the table just in case, he says. Super comforting. But lo and behold, I was addicted to nicotine at 32. At around 9 p.m., my addiction tells my brain that it's totally fine to go outside.

Totally safe. Oh, 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 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 had heard was. It's the running for me. Never, 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 that. I'm not into it.

Yeah. Yeah.

I would have murdered him myself. 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. Self-service. I made a fire in the 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 one.

You're 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 listened to Fleet Foxes 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, your pants. Shit, shit, your pants. It shook the whole cabin. It made my paint water ripple and made my throat clench. Nor. 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 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. 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 Capricorn. Yeah, you pay for a cabin. You're like, I don't want to fucking abandon this right now. We paid for this night. Why are we leaving? At that point, I would not be thinking at all. That would be my first thought. I'd be like, I'm calling for a reimbursement since we were hunted down. Since we were hunted in the middle of the night. Hi, we were hunted. Could we please get 100% of this trip money back? Well, the good news is there was no more banging after that one. That's good. We decided the best thing we could do is just go to bed. Okay.

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 morning and packed and cleaned our cabins up. I didn't want to be charged a cleaning fee, even when fearing for our life, you know? Same mindset. Are you also a cabinscore? 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-minute 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. Not one sign of life was anywhere. So fucking the sign on the door still did not say closed, but it was locked. We walk around the site, 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 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, or are we in some weird limbo?

He didn't have an answer. Regardless, we get back to my mom's answer. 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. That's mom shit. That is 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, dude,

We did start 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 boyfriend had a mental health crisis and abruptly left and lived in the woods alone for three months.

After lots of therapy and 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 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. It 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? What?

something happen 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 ghost the 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 um imagine that cabin 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. Sometimes October is still warm. You never know.

Alright, 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-spaced 12-point pedophile. 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, please enjoy the one time me and a few of my friends almost died in the middle of the night while camping, a.k.a. the plotline to the most basic horror film ever. 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 his name. We love you too! We love Jake, we love Kelsey. We loved Kelsey and Jake. Yeah! Cake! We probably read this story, Jake probably- Cake! Cake!

Sorry, that almost got lost on me. Or jealousy. Jealousy. Jealousy and cake? Jealousy. 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. Damn. 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 ever since. 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 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 on to 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 midsummer 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 campout. 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 versus Jason. It's Freddy versus 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. Yeah.

To give you a better idea of what I mean, the town I grew up in had a population of 2,700 people. Holy shit. I graduated with a class of 100 kids. Oh. That's very small. I knew every single person I went to high school with. I was just going to say you knew 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 beautiful. Yeah. And the corn. And the corn. Must just glow in the moonlight. That corn.

Last year, law and 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 Reid 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 Reid kill John O'Keefe? The evidence is overwhelming that Karen Reid 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 Retrials.

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+. ♪♪

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.

Yeah, I don't like it. I need a way in and a way out. 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? At ticks.

and murderous i was just gonna say and and spooky people and ghosts yeah and corn all of that in court in court also court 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. It's cool, man. It's totally cool, man. You don't have to start. Survival instinct, I get it. Survival instincts kicking in, yeah. Yeah.

After having Beck, the only truly outdoorsy guy in our group, spend like an hour showing our dumbasses 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 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. It does. 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. Oh, hell yeah. Especially about flush 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 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 employees 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 tent 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 total counting Leah, David, Maya, and I all passed out in our respective tents and Chad and Leah were still awake sitting by the campfire.

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

Oh. Yeah.

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 others 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.

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.

How are you just going to sleep? You guys are brave. Everybody's just going to sleep. Yeah. In these stories. I'm never going to sleep.

I can barely go to sleep. 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 like, 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. 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. And I will it to stay closed. 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. 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'm trying.

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 axe 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 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 wooden ones might be rough. Just go for the eyes, I guess. I was going to 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 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. Just Amy Duking it.

out of here 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's David?

In 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 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.

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. Yeah. 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 me. You go get your brother. You go back to that campsite and get your brother. Motherfucker. Motherfucker. 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. 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 and also grabbed Ella, who was still passed out in her car, clueless to everything going on. Oh my god. The

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. And being like, wow, so you guys are really going to. You guys are bad at emergencies. Yeah, you just scatter, I guess. Well, we were talking about the camp out over lunch and doing the typical debrief, you know, to laugh 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 going to 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

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 am. 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. Yeah.

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 and making the whole thing up. And some even thought it might have been some farmer on the neighboring lands that didn't appreciate us being so loud, so they came to mess with us. I hope that's it. This story... To be quite honest. 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. Ooh.

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. Ooh, scary. Chad. Getting a late night DM from a man named Chad is the scariest thing one could possibly 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 that noise. 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.

A 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 Idiots 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 Leah had put out before they left.

Calm down, Smokey the Bear. I know they did the right thing, but how scary. So when Maya and I heard those footsteps outside our tent 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.

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 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 scarier. Because that thing can actually eat you. I want to hear what it sounds like. Yeah. Now we've got to hear the sound. I don't think I've ever heard a mountain lion scream. That's fucking terrifying. That sounds like a person screaming. Yeah. That's unsettling. Yeah. And it almost kind of sounds like, yeah.

Yeah. I don't like that. That's unsettling. Yeah, I would have pooped my pants too. I probably would have shit my pants. I'm not going to lie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. Why does it make that sound? That's not what I expected a mountain lion to sound like either. I thought it was going to be like... Yeah.

I thought it was going to be like deep and guttural and like something like beastly coming at you. But this is just like, wow. 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 tales. You do. It's crazy. All right. Well, if you want to send your listener tales in, you can send them to morbidpodcast.gmail.com with the subject listener tale. And 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 going to die. I'm going to die.

So we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you don't send us in phenomenal, awesome, wonderful, scary tales. Do it. 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. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.