ATRD Ep. 135 - Summer Camp, Cryptid, and Parallel Universe Stories
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Four years. That's how long it took Democrats to ruin our economy and plunge our southern border into anarchy. Who helped them hurt us? Ruben Gallego. Washington could have cut taxes for Arizona families, but Ruben blocked the bill. And his fellow Democrats gave a bigger break to the millionaire class in California and New York. They played favorites and cost us billions. And Ruben wasn't done yet.

We'll be right back.

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If you have a true scary story you'd like to share with the podcast, go to aztheravendreams.com and click the button to send it my way. Also, if the platform you're on has the option to rate the podcast or leave a comment, please consider doing so. And as always, thank you. As a kid, my parents loved to ship me off on any summer event that they could find, including the week-long camping retreat hosted by a small local church.

My parents rarely attended church themselves, unless it was a holiday like Easter or Christmas, but they always made me go to these events. It was kind of a pain, but I made some friends there, as well as a few from school who also attended it. So needless to say, we still had fun with it. The retreat usually centered around group activities, something about being stronger in numbers and trusting each other, something like that,

I typically spaced out when they gave their talks and looked forward to the swimming, rowing, hiking, and the games that we played. But one of my favorite things about this trip was venturing out into the woods at night with my friends when we were supposed to be in bed. It was a time for us to get a look around the area more, discover new things, and for us to just do something we shouldn't be. You know, normal rebellious kid things.

It was normally just the three of us. Ben, Ryan and I, but Ryan was crushing pretty hard on a girl named Hannah, so we agreed to invite her and her twin sister, Rachel. They went to our school too, and they were pretty laid back, so we knew that they wouldn't snitch on us or anything like that. We all discussed what night we should do it, and agreed that it should be towards the end, as we normally did.

We always chose then because everyone, including the counselors, were typically pretty tired, hot, and just ready to go back home. They didn't do rounds as much, if any at all, and we could easily sneak out, saying that we needed to use the restroom and they would let us. So we agreed to do it the second to last night. And just to make sure our trip was entertaining,

The three of us took a short trip the night prior to scout out where we would go to impress the girls. We all agreed on a time and place to meet up, around midnight and by the restrooms. There were probably about thirty kids total and it was just the two cabins, boys and girls, so it was pretty easy to gather together and sneak out without someone noticing, especially if it's not your first time that you've snuck out. You know how to fluff your sleeping bag to look occupied.

So, we all met up in our agreed spot, made sure that we all had a flashlight and nothing more, and headed off into the trees. At first, we were all filled with excitement and nervousness. I loved exploring and walking around out there. The trip would honestly be a lot more fun if they took us hiking like this. Ryan and Hannah seemed to be busy teasing each other, but otherwise we were all talking, laughing, and having a good time.

About 15 minutes into our adventure, Rachel paused, shining her flashlight at the ground. She asked if what she was looking at was a shoe. We followed her light, and Ben approached it, gave it a small kick, and confirmed that it was a lady's sandal. It looked pretty dirty, so we shrugged and told the others that someone probably lost it while they were out there. Ben tried to be funny and suggested that it was left when someone was running away from something, trying to spook the girls.

It failed. We left the shoe where it was and continued walking. A few minutes later, we spotted something on the ground ahead of us. At first, it looked like a blanket as the grass was flattened where it was. Getting closer, Ben picked it up and confirmed that it was a denim skirt. Someone had lost a shoe and their skirt? To me, it was definitely bizarre, but I wasn't alarmed. This was a public park, after all.

The church hosting this camping trip was small, so they always chose a public park because they were cheaper. I assumed it was someone that was previously out here. Maybe they had these items sitting out for whatever reason and they forgot to grab them when they left. Ben again tried to scare the girls, but it seemed to be working this time, judging by how quiet they became. We were in a pretty dense area at this point, having to zigzag a bit through the trees.

I had turned off my flashlight, using the light from everyone else's and watching straight ahead to avoid the trees. For the most part, we were walking in a straight line, making it easier for us to find our way back. But since I wasn't paying attention to the ground, my foot got caught on something soft but solid, sending me straight to the ground with a thud. I heard Ryan laugh, and before I could say anything to him, one of the girls nearly screamed.

"'Is that a body?' We all fell silent and followed her flashlight beam across the dark ground until we saw a woman lying on her stomach motionless. I quickly got up, freaking out that I just tripped over or stepped on her. Someone asked if she was dead, and I was basically chosen to check on her. I slowly approached her and quickly realized the shoe and skirt that we saw earlier must have belonged to her.'

She was wearing a yellow shirt, now dirty and ripped, and underwear. She had no pants on and no shoes. I went to try to roll her over with my hands shaking when I heard a loud groaning sound. It made me jump backwards towards the others, and we all watched silently as she rolled over onto her back. After a few seconds, she went back to silence.

We all looked at each other, trying to figure out what to do. She was still alive, but was she hurt? Was she in trouble? Judging by the state that we found her in, she had to have been, right? We were trying to decide who should stay with her and who should run back to the camp when we all heard this awful wet gurgling sound coming from the woman. We looked over and watched as she arched her back and stood on her hands and feet like a crab. I was not amused.

I saw no way that this situation could end well, but Ryan, maybe to try and seem unfazed, laughed and tried to make a joke. But he was cut off by another gurgling noise, and the woman started crawling towards us, in the same position. One of the girls screamed, and the woman screamed back, and we all took off. We ran as fast as we could, some flashlights being left behind. What the hell had we just witnessed?

Why was the woman half-naked in the woods? We couldn't even see her face because her hair was covering it, appearing wet and caked with mud. When we got back, the girls said nothing to us and immediately ran back to their cabin. I saw the lights kick on in both of them and we were greeted at the door by a very angry and confused counselor. I didn't even care about getting in trouble. I wanted someone to know what we had seen.

I wanted them to know that either a woman was out there hurt and needed help, or that there was something else wrong with her, and maybe we all needed help. His confused expression quickly turned to one of concern, and after explaining our path, he told us to stay in the cabin and not to leave. The other counselor stayed in there, not that we needed a reason to leave. I didn't want to.

We waited there for quite some time, trying to explain what happened to a couple of the other boys there, when the counselor wasn't paying attention. The excitement died down after an hour or so, and we all laid back down to try and sleep, per the counselors. I can't speak for the others, but sleep certainly was not happening for me. I was still freaking out, and I feared that I would have nightmares. So I waited and listened for the counselor to come back.

Unfortunately, when they did, they called two other adults outside to talk instead of in the cabin, but I still laid there wide awake waiting for the sun to come up. The next morning, as everyone woke up, I learned Ben and Ryan had trouble sleeping too. After breakfast, the five of us were brought into one of the cabins again to discuss what had happened, and we all explained the same thing, exactly alike. None of us lied or left anything out.

We weren't looking to do anything mischievous, we legitimately just wanted to explore. Overall, we were told that we did the right thing by telling them the truth about the lady, but we did get in trouble and had to sit out that day's activities as punishment. No one seemed to mind though, not even the girls, which was a relief. We had to help the adults pack up everything to prepare to leave the following day.

Once back home, our parents were informed about our little adventure, but they were also told what occurred, which my parents shared with me. Apparently, the girl was there partying with friends and was heavily intoxicated. She had wandered off in search of a restroom when she ended up collapsing where we found her. She was out of her mind when she did the crab walk thing and didn't even remember doing it.

The counselors found her and took her back to the park ranger's post, who was able to find her group to go pick her up. Thankfully, she turned out fine. I was still scolded for sneaking out and was not allowed to go the next year, but that was fine by me. She still gave me nightmares for a few following weeks. I'm glad that there was nothing actually wrong with her, and I know it was a public park.

but I hope she realizes that she scared the hell out of five little kids. I have a strange story that may be uneventful to some, but was seriously weird and bizarre at the time. This was in the 80s, so I have no evidence or proof of it happening, no photos or news articles or anything, it's just a story that I can tell, and all I can do is say that it's true and that it happened.

When I was young, I used to love going camping in the summer with my dad, uncle, and cousins. I was the only boy that my parents had, but my uncle had three boys that were all kind of close to my age. So we all went as a group. So, six people total. I won't get into their names because it's not important. I'll just refer to them as my cousins.

We had always gone camping at the same place. I don't remember exactly where it was, it's been a long time, but it was a campground that was on this massive lake, and it always took us an hour or so to get there when we would go. We would spend about a week out in the woods going fishing, swimming, and just doing whatever we wanted within reason. This was my third year going with them, so I would have been around ten at the time.

We got there, got set up, and the first night and even the next day were uneventful. The third day is when things got weird. Or at least, I guess started to. We had all woken up with the same thought. It was time to go swimming in the lake. My dad hated going into the water, but my uncle didn't mind, so my dad was going to be fishing a bit down the shore, and the five of us would be in the water.

We all got our stuff together and started to head down to the part of the shore where it was most shallow and easiest to swim in. But when we got there, we all kind of paused. There near the shore were several dead and completely destroyed fish corpses. It looked like something had taken a full bite out of them and the remainder had floated off to the shore. But it wasn't just one or two. It was a solid dozen or so.

It was kind of gross, and it really did hurt the vibe for me, so I decided I would just go over and go fishing with my dad, because I didn't want to be near dead fish parts. So, I was sitting over by my dad. My cousins were swimming, and my uncle was watching from a chair on the shore when my youngest cousin made a comment about one of the other two touching his leg. They said that they hadn't. They weren't even close enough to do so.

and the younger one kept complaining that something was rubbing against his leg. My older cousin stepped over to him to see what was going on, when he grabbed my younger cousin and told the other one to get out of the water right there, and then ran to the shore. My uncle stood up and asked what was happening. I was watching them, and my dad was just as confused. We walked over to them to see what was up, when my older cousin started explaining what he saw.

He claimed that when he stepped over to my little cousin, he saw what was brushing against him, and it wasn't like anything he'd ever seen prior. The way he described it was like an eel. It wasn't like a fish. It was long, had a very pronounced mouth, and was kind of slithering like a snake, so again, like an eel. The thing was that he said this eel was at least eight feet long.

Obviously, I don't know if he was mistaken or exaggerating, but I have to imagine that even if he was mistaken, as a scared child, he couldn't be too far off the mark. My uncle told him to stop messing around, that there weren't any eels in the water, and especially not ones that large, but it was actually my dad that cut him off. He grabbed what I now know to be his polarized sunglasses from his fishing vest pocket and put them on.

and was watching the water surface intently. I remember the tremble in his voice because it was the only time I had ever heard him scared at that point in my life. He said, "Uh, Ron? I don't think he's lying," and handed him the glasses, and then pointed in the direction where my cousins were. My uncle's mouth fell open as he watched.

They both said that they saw the eel thing that my cousin had mentioned, and that it was slithering around where they were, and then it went into the deeper water further off. Obviously, they were in awe. They had never seen anything like this, and even now, I've never known of a freshwater eel to get that large, and we had never seen eels in that water.

We ended up taking our stuff back to the campsite, and my uncle went and reported that there was a very large, possibly non-native creature in the water. The forest workers said they would go and check it out, see if they could find it, but obviously I have no idea if they ever did. We didn't go back in the water on that camping trip. We fished on the other end of the lake, but not at that shore. I know a lot of people may say, oh, it was an eel, so scary, but...

It wasn't that it was an eel. It's that it was this giant eel that was, for whatever reason, very active near the shore and was clearly hungry. It's also the thought that it kept swimming around and rubbing against my little cousin that is scary to me. Like, was it trying to determine if it could tear into him next? Was it measuring him up and trying to see if it was capable of tearing some of his flesh off? Also, I know we do have freshwater eels in the U.S.,

But this thing was, based on the description given, way larger than they get. I've read that they can get around 4 feet long, but the adults and my cousin have stated that this thing was minimum 8 foot, and was very thick around, not slender, like normal eels. To me, this was a terrifying event because it was so strange.

I've heard a lot of cryptid stories out there, but never anything about large water creatures like this. Though maybe this was just a natural thing and not a cryptid per se, but it was cryptid parallel. A strange and possibly unidentified creature. Either way, it was scary. And the next time we went camping, we actually went to a different campground and stuck with that one until we were all just sort of done with the camping trips.

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I'm not one for superstition.

I have a pretty bad memory, so I'll often get details mixed up, get corrected, and move on with my life. So for me to be here, I have to be completely convinced that I'm right, and a detail has absolutely changed. No question about it. I've never been one for music or instruments. I have no talent for it, no ear for it. I don't enjoy it. I've tried some stuff, but nothing stuck.

I did, however, try to learn the piano, and that didn't stick either. But I did it enough, and messed around with pianos in general enough, that I know which side is high-pitched and which side is low-pitched. My sister has been learning piano lately. A few weeks ago, she showed me a song that she learned. Something seemed off with the keys, but I brushed it off and assumed I was just unfamiliar with the black keys, since I never got that far in learning.

That night, she did something with the white keys for our parents. I was in the room and that's when I actually paid attention. The low side of the piano was on the right. In my memory, piano keys go high to low, left to right. I asked my dad why the piano keys were switched, and he and my mom looked at me like I was crazy. They said I had failed and that the keys had always been low to high. There's no way in hell I would misremember a detail like that.

Absolutely no way. I'm not thinking of a xylophone or anything. I've run through it in my head so many times. High was always left. I wish I was making this up, but I even texted a couple of friends about it because I was so freaked out. When I try to remember myself playing piano, it's right in my memory, but the memories are fuzzy, and I feel weird trying to think about it. I don't have the same feeling trying to recall other memories.

I think it happened when I was cleaning upstairs. I wiped down a window, looked downstairs, and almost pissed myself because my front door was in the wrong place. It was just a reflection from a new mirror my family had gotten, but I was staring at it way too long before I realized it was a reflection. The reflected floor and walls lined up perfectly with the real ones. I went down and touched the mirror, and it felt normal, but after that is when I noticed the piano.

and I've never felt so disoriented by a mirror before. I don't know if the mirror was the cause, or the angle at which I saw it, or if the piano is the thing that changed because it was in the room that belonged to the window I was cleaning. I don't know, but it's freaking me out. The damn piano changed, and this is one thing I know that I didn't remember wrong.

It's not Mandela. I'm not superstitious. I don't think the heart or kidneys moved places, and I don't think it's ridiculous that I misremembered Berenstain instead of Berenstain. If anyone knows what's up, feel free to share. Everything is similar enough, and I don't feel like I need to get back. I just want to know if anyone has felt anything like this, or if anyone remembers the pianos like I do.

As a side note, I sometimes get a weird vertigo feeling when I walk into certain places, even if I've been there before. Like something is urging me to get out. I recently went into one of my house's bathrooms and felt it. I don't know if that's a universe thing or a spirit thing, and it doesn't seem to affect anything else, but I thought I would mention it.

So, my wife and I work in the same building, which is great, because we often walk to work together. This morning we left the house, and my wife realized, as we passed by the doctor's office, that she forgot she had a doctor's appointment. So, she stopped off there, and I continued on to work. Nothing crazy. It's the same walk I take every morning. A straight shot down the main street until you reach downtown.

I noticed a familiar face in the distance. An old Italian man who would routinely sit outside of his apartment on the main street to say his hellos to neighborhood commuters. I guess something to just keep him busy. I always looked forward to his good mornings. But, see, this guy died a couple of months ago. So I crossed the street and convinced myself it was just a lookalike.

Almost simultaneously, I saw him, knew he was dead, and dismissed it all as a case of mistaken identity. I thought nothing else of it and continued on to work. Once I made it to work, I dove right in, sipping my morning coffee. My wife calls me and says, ''I think I'm hallucinating.''

I was slightly concerned because she'd just had blood work done, and then she explained to me that she has just seen our dead neighbor in the exact same place that he always was in the morning and exactly how I saw him. What's crazy is that I've just started reading into this sub and felt truly connected to the idea of switching across dimensions. I never spoke about this with my wife.

because I was a bit embarrassed to explain such an out-there concept. She literally said to me that she thinks we switched dimensions. I feel like this is something she would never say, but I guess I also thought I would never see my dead neighbor sitting on the side of the road. We literally saw this guy's funeral, and multiple posts on social media mourning his death. He had somewhat of a neighborhood legacy, yet nothing now.

It's all nowhere to be found. Has anyone experienced something similar? This memory comes back to me every summer since it happened, especially when someone mentions going camping. I swear the thought of it still nearly induces anxiety in me. Back as a young adult from the ages of 19 to 22, I volunteered to help with a local summer camp for the kids. The program was hosted by the school district, which had a lot of programs for kids in need.

Kids that have a troubled background, kids whose parents can barely afford new clothes and school supplies, and kids whose parents don't have a babysitter or daycare. They hosted a lot of summer programs so that the kids had a safe place to go when the parents weren't home. I had a similar childhood, and I really thank them for it because I feel like it made a difference in my life. This is why, when I was old enough, I volunteered there a lot to help.

hoping to do the same thing for someone else. Plus, my job gives a lot of paid time off for volunteer work, which, win-win. The summer camp was always fun, both as a kid and an adult. There were tons of activities for the kids to do, and we rarely came across any issues more than a scraped knee or something. But the last time I volunteered was when I was 22.

Something completely different happened that completely ruined it for me. And plenty of others, I'm sure. During breakfast one morning, I noticed one of the kids looking a bit disheveled. They were new to the camp, so I went to talk to them to make sure he was okay. He explained hearing strange noises at night, and it made it hard for him to sleep because it scared him. I asked him what it sounded like, and he said it sounded like someone scraping and tapping on the window behind where he slept.

He said he was too scared to look, so he just covered his head until it finally stopped and he fell asleep. Now, we were out in campgrounds near a lot of trees. There were also signs around about keeping trash bins closed or put up because of raccoons, so this is what I assumed it was too. I explained to him that it was probably a raccoon. I told him a few things about them and what they liked to do, which seemed to make him loosen up.

I successfully calmed him down and thought the problem was solved. But then, as some of us adults talked later that night, some of them reported hearing the same noises. But they weren't in the same cabin as the boy. Other than the one guy he always tried to tease and have fun, the rest of us agreed that it was probably just the wildlife and shared stories of seeing deer or rabbit previously. But the next day, there were more accounts of weird events in the night.

and they were more than just the scraping sounds. There were a few kids, not including the kid from the night prior, who said they heard a patterned thumping sound and what sounded like someone whispering outside the cabin. I could tell that they were struggling to explain it, but I very specifically remember them saying, "It sounded like it was coming from inside, but was loud enough to be in my head." Something about that did not sit right with me.

I asked if they could make out what was being said, and three of them said no. One of them said he thought he knew, but he wasn't certain, but when I asked what he heard, he just said, "I don't know." The way he responded, his tone, and the fact that he wouldn't look at me made me feel like he didn't want to talk about it. What could he have possibly heard that made him so uncomfortable? I did my best to assure them, though, explaining what I told the boy the previous night.

and said that I would tell the other adults so that we could check out the sounds. They understood, and we left it at that. Later that day, while the kids were swimming, the adults got to talking again, and Riley explained how one of the girls, I'll just call her Emma, wouldn't leave her bunk. She said that she heard the same noises, but that she actually looked out the window as she previously heard other kids talking about it.

Emma was a real animal lover, and I believe that she probably would have tried to pet the damn thing if it was a raccoon. But she said that what she saw wasn't even close to a raccoon. She explained that there was a tall, dark figure staring into the window. She said at first the being looked like a human, but it had what appeared to be glowing yellow eyes on the side of its head, like a deer.

She said she immediately dropped back down to her bed and covered her head, but could hear someone whispering her name. She wouldn't look up, and it scared her so bad. She actually had an accident in the bed. From pure terror and embarrassment, she didn't want to leave the bed. But Riley managed to get her out and help her get cleaned up. Many adults said that she must have had a wild imagination, or maybe she dreamt it. But Riley didn't feel the same.

She said she couldn't say she experienced the exact same thing, but she did say she heard the noises and the night prior, she saw a dark figure going into the woods. Some of the guys once again made fun of her for it, but she wasn't the type to back down or be offended by it. She stood her ground with what she saw with a basic "believe me or not, I don't care what you think" mentality. She didn't have any idea of what it was, because it was bipedal, which threw her off.

but I believed her. There are far too many things out there that we don't know about. Nothing could be done anyways, so we continued on with our day and one of the leaders said that if it happened again, they would do rounds the next night to see if anyone else could spot it. But things escalated quickly after that night. As the kids gathered for breakfast, I could see the girls looking over at the cabins and whispering. Then some of the adults gathered around it too.

I didn't want to leave the kids, so I just waited for someone to tell me what was going on. Finally, they did, and it was one of my worst nightmares. One of the kids was missing, and it was Emma. They asked me if I had seen her at all since quiet time, and I hadn't. They asked the kids if anyone saw her, and they all said no. Several of us took turns searching the restrooms and showers...

We looked all over the cabins and at every crevice or spot that she could possibly hide, thinking maybe she got scared again. But again, nothing. It was like she just disappeared into thin air, but how? We had two adults in each cabin, and a few more that slept in their own tents in the center of our campsite. We didn't normally have adults walking around, and there was a single bathroom stall in the cabins, so they didn't even have to wake up an adult to go to the restroom outside.

There was no reason for her to leave. After our search, we sent the kids back to the cabins, giving them some free time, as long as they stayed in there and one adult stayed in each. The rest of us reported it to the park ranger, and we all started a search around the woods. I was terrified. I know I wasn't the one in her cabin, because being male, I was in the boys' cabin, but I still felt like a failure. And if I felt that way...

I could only imagine how Riley felt, who was in charge of that cabin. I remember fearing all the possibilities. The thought of having to tell her parents that we lost their little girl, the place she was supposed to go to be safe and supervised, and she was missing. It was probably two hours or so into the search when some of us heard yelling. We received the report through our walkies that they had found her.

She was curled up in a ball and just her pajamas and no shoes, laying under a rocky overhang. She'd been crying and she was covered in dirt. But the bizarre part was that she was about three miles from the campground. She was practically on the other side of the park. When we got her back to the camp, Riley got her cleaned up and calmed down and talked to her. Emma seemed like she really trusted Riley and she clung to her.

She explained to Riley that she remembered hearing her name again, so she squeezed her eyes closed until she finally fell asleep. Then she said that she had a dream that something woke her up, took her by the hand, and led her out of the cabin. She said that she looked up at the creature once, and again all she could see was darkness and the yellow eyes. She did say they looked fuzzy, and had what looked like leaves falling off of them, but then it told her not to look at it anymore, so she didn't.

She said she walked for a long time until they told her to stay there and she did, until she became really tired and fell back asleep. But she woke up when it was still dark, and when she realized she wasn't in her bed, she didn't know what to do, so she froze in place, crying until she heard one of us calling out for her, which seemed to snap her back to reality. What the hell was that? What led Emma into the trees for nearly three miles, and why?

No one had any answers. And after speaking to Riley, she seemed just as distraught because she didn't know what to tell Emma either. After looking Emma over, she didn't seem injured and she said that she didn't feel ill or in any pain either. In fact, after eating and getting to color with some friends, she seemed to be just fine again. But none of the adults seemed to be back to normal. All of us realized how bad that situation could have become

and realized the risk that we were facing. The following night, we all took turns doing walks around the grounds at all times to make sure no one left, and to see if we could spot the culprit. But thankfully, it never seemed to come back. And no one, not the adults, nor the kids, not even Emma, experienced it. In fact, Emma slept great, and all through the night. So what was that? What happened there, and what did it mean?

It couldn't have just been a dream, right? We did tell her parents about what happened, and while they were suspicious, they didn't think much of it. Again, some of these parents were far from parents of the year. I was too freaked out to volunteer for the following year, and I moved away the year after that for work, so I didn't get to do any more of them. But I do keep in touch with some that do, and they say they have never experienced that creature since.

Hopefully this thing is long gone, and no one ever has to go through that again. I often go camping and hiking on my own as a way to decompress from everyday life and enjoy the gift that is nature. After sleeping under the stars, I always felt rejuvenated and ready to take on the world again. But after this specific trip, I did not come back with that same energized feeling, and I will never forget it.

I was taking a trip through a remote forest in northern Michigan. It's not the first time I've been in this particular set of woods, so I had an idea of where I was at and where I wanted to stay. I set off with my always well-prepared pack and scouted out where I wanted to stay for the night. The first few days and nights even went exactly as I wanted. I hiked the trail, spent time in the small creek,

watched frogs and other creatures in the water and birds in the trees. It was absolutely rejuvenating. Then on the third night, things took a turn. The sky was starting to darken unexpectedly, so I was anticipating rain. I reluctantly set up my tent to sleep in for the night, not wanting to be potentially soaked by morning. I settled into my tent for the night and listened to the sounds of wildlife to lull me to sleep.

I was starting to doze off, right in the in-between states of awake and asleep, when I noticed something. Or rather, the lack of something. The sound I was listening to was now gone. The crickets chirping was gone. The owls were silent. Even the slight swaying sound of the tree branches from the wind seemed to have lost their voice.

I held my breath to see if maybe I was mistaken, but I quickly picked up on a prickling sensation creeping up my spine. Something now felt off. Again, this wasn't my first time camping in these woods, so I assumed it was wildlife. Something was nearby and probably spotted my tent, or even picked up on my scent and became curious. I can usually just let it pass and be fine, but this feeling was giving me "Predator" vibes.

I decided to look out of my tent to see if I could figure out what it was, and if I needed to try and scare it away or run away myself. I unzipped part of my tent and scanned the treeline. It didn't take long for me to spot a dark shadow that, if I'm being honest, seemed to shift and writhe in ways that defied logic. But then I noticed what I believed to be eyes. They were huge and had almost a red hue to them.

But the height of those eyes was even more alarming. Even from the distance, the eyes reached the lower branches of the trees. That's when I started hearing a low rumbling sound, almost like a growling. But I could feel it in my feet where I stood. For once, since I've started going on these trips, I was frozen, not knowing what to do. I didn't have a car, so I had no chance of running or driving away.

I just slowly zipped back up my tent, laid down and listened, praying for whatever it was to lose interest in me and walk off. Of course, I couldn't get that lucky. Shortly after, I could hear the crunching of leaves and sticks as if someone or something was walking on them. The sound was getting closer and closer to my tent, and I tried my best to control my breathing and remain calm.

As I continued to listen, I could hear the creature's massive breathing. It sounded similar to a dog sniffing around, but put through an amplifier. As it got louder and closer to my tent, I could sense its presence. With the moonlight against my tent, I could make out the silhouette of a creature that was now too close for comfort. It was just as enormous as I thought. It had to be eight, maybe nine feet tall.

The shape was bizarrely unnatural. It had a mix of human and animal features. It was walking on all fours, but then stood on two as it pressed its face against my tent. That's how I could tell not only its height, but the fact that it had a snout. The spine also seemed to have a sharp curve to it, like it had a hunched back or how a cat looks when it's frightened. But the stench was honestly what nearly got me in trouble.

It was a stomach-churning mix of rotting meat, wet dog, and something chemical. I couldn't really tell what, though. I tried to remain calm, but the smell was making me sick. I was holding back from gagging, hoping the creature would pass soon and not realize there was someone in the tent, but I couldn't hold back anymore. The stench was unbearable, and I actually dry heaved.

That's when the creature let out another growl, but it seemed to carry a hint of almost a human-like vocalization. It was like it was trying to speak, but couldn't form the words. The sound was just uncanny, and made the whole situation that much more terrifying. That this weird beast or creature was maybe trying to talk to me? But after it tried to speak, I could hear it walking back the direction from which it came.

I continued to lay there, too afraid to move. But once the stench was completely gone and I couldn't hear the growling or walking, I mustered up the courage to look out of my tent again. It was definitely gone, but it was also still silent. I went back into my camp, took out my little hatchet from my bag and laid still, waiting to fall asleep. I figured it was safer for me to try to stay put for the night and then leave the next morning.

rather than to try to take down my tent and walk through the dark trees. By morning, I awoke to birds chirping and even a few nearby frogs, so whatever came by that night must be long gone. I got out of my tent, hatchet still in hand, and walked around the area as I wanted to look for tracks. And it certainly didn't take long. It seemed like it rained a little bit, but not much. My tent wasn't even wet anymore.

but on the ground near my tent, I could see the prints. They looked like massive canine-like prints, easily twice the size of a wolf's. I followed them to where they stopped at my tent, faced forward towards it, and then followed the prints back away from my tent and into the trees, where the prints were lost in the leaves and grass. But back in those trees, I saw something that added to my fear.

There was a spot in the ground where the grass and leaves were flattened. Something was obviously lying there. Was that creature watching me? And was it watching after it left, or before? The thought of being watched like prey made me even more uncomfortable. Something was not right about this. This was no longer a fun, get lost in nature sort of trip, so I packed up and left.

Since then, I researched known animals in the area, trying to convince myself that it was just an abnormally large wolf, but I can't get past the part where it stood on its back legs. This wasn't a quick up like some house dogs do. It stood as if it was a natural position for it. Not to mention that it walked like that. But as silly as this is going to sound, the only thing that keeps coming back around is that I may have witnessed the dogman.

I didn't pay much attention to cryptids and things of the sort prior, but I mean, it could just be some kind of deformed creature. Or maybe something we haven't quite identified yet. It's entirely possible. I've told a few friends about my sightings before, and they were intrigued. We've gone camping in the same area since, hoping to spot it, but so far, it has yet to come back. Or at least it hasn't made itself known.

Who knows? Maybe it just watched us in the distance without us having the slightest idea. Maybe it's waiting for us to trail off alone before... it'll come out of hiding. Before we begin, thank you for the existence of this sub. As you can see, I just created an account, and I must admit that I never had a particular attraction for the site, but... after telling my story to my best friend, he encouraged me to tell my story here.

hoping that doesn't seem weird as possible and maybe some of you can help me see it more clearly. I'm going to keep my real name anonymous, so you can call me, let's say, Jared. I'm 20 years old and I'm from the west of France. I grew up as an only child in a happy family where I never lacked for anything.

It was made up of my father, my mother, and my maternal grandparents, who are like my second parents, or so close. I had a fulfilling childhood and adolescence without any major problems or various traumas. I am therefore, at least in my opinion, not predisposed to dementia or fabrication. However, there is a reason why I call this story "Special Memories".

Indeed, since I was very little and until very recently, until I was 17 or 18, let's say, I sometimes remember things that no member of my family has the slightest memory of, and this even when I remember having experienced these moments with the people concerned. These range from very simple anecdotes from my childhood, like remembering that someone finished the bottle of soda when everyone told me it wasn't them,

to perfectly remembering that one day my mother had argued with me about absolutely getting my Netflix access, around the age of 15. Even today, my mother assures me that she never did that, or even having a huge feeling of deja vu on events that have just happened, but the memory of which seems to be much older. I often have the impression of being outside my body, and telling myself that I'm living a life that I have already lived.

I don't know if I phrased that well. And I often tell myself that I'm in a sort of eternal beginning, as many people believing in the theory of perpetual reincarnation can sometimes put it. I was able to talk to a psychologist about it monthly between the ages of 18 and 19, but she found nothing abnormal about me. After talking to my best friend about this, he encouraged me to share my story here and interact with the community.

The story starts out in the very early 1990s. The story takes place in Northeast Ohio. I wish I could tell you exactly what high school this occurred at, but if I did, I would never hear the end of it from people who know me. While in high school, I vividly remember a girl by the name of Carrie Keith. Carrie Keith was a short, blonde-haired, skinny girl who was always very nice to me.

Nothing serious ever happened between Carrie Keith and myself. It's just Carrie Keith always treated me with kindness at a time when some other students were bullying me. I also remember some other memories of her. Not only did she live down the street at the end of the block that I lived on, but Carrie and myself were in the same class together. I also remember Carrie getting into a fight with another girl who accused her of flirting with her boyfriend.

She denied it, of course, but the other girl didn't believe her and a fight ensued. Needless to say, Carrie won that fight. I also remember in home ed class, we were learning how sewing machines work. Don't ask me how, but Carrie Keith managed to get her thumb right under the sewing needle when it was in motion. She screamed the loudest F-bomb I ever heard when that happened. I have all these memories of her.

After high school, I lost touch with Carrie, and I never saw her again. About a year, perhaps two years ago, the memories of Carrie Keith came back into my mind. I was wondering what happened to Carrie all these years. I tried to look her up on Facebook, but nothing showed up. I looked on Instagram and Twitter, but nothing showed up. Then I started asking old friends from high school about her, and that is when my search took a wild, crazy turn.

Every single friend from high school that should have known her looked at me with a puzzled look and asked me what I was talking about. They told me that there was no such girl in high school named Carrie Keith. I even asked a friend named Janet, who I remember being in the same class as Carrie and myself, about Carrie Keith. She didn't know who I was talking about. Why am I the only one who remembers this Carrie Keith? The memory of her is so vivid.

Did I cross over into a parallel universe in which this Carrie doesn't exist? My memories of her are vivid and clear. One other thing about this that has me asking more questions, in 1987 through 1991, those were my high school years, I remember everything I did during those years and what transpired. All but the summer of 1990. The summer of 1990 is... a blank.

I can't remember anything I did during the summer of 1990, while the other summers are very vivid in my memory. Why can't I remember anything about that specific summer? It's like a memory block was put up and nothing makes sense about it. I'm the only one who remembers Carrie Keith. I wonder if parallel universes have anything to do with this. Am I living in a parallel universe in which Carrie doesn't exist?

and what happened to me during the summer of 1990 that a block in my memory prevents me from recalling that specific summer. I may never know. Growing up near the Great Lakes, I spent countless summers swimming, boating, and just exploring the shorelines. Ever since I learned to swim, it was hard to keep me out of the water. Swimming, boating, or just walking along the coast could change my mood in a heartbeat.

Like it just wipes away all of my stress and concern. Lake Superior was always my favorite. I loved being out there on a calm, clear day, seeing the deep blue waters reflect the fluffy white clouds above. The water is so clear that you can practically see straight to the bottom of the shallow areas, revealing all the pebbles and small fish.

Then there are the surrounding Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore of colored sandstone cliffs streaked with mineral stains of different colors. Being out there is truly humbling and awe-inspiring. It's no wonder I would spend several days a month out there when I had free time, but after one trip to the lake back in early 2000s, my view of it's considerably changed.

It was early September and I decided to take advantage of my extra time off work due to the Labor Day weekend. It was unseasonably warm at the time, so I figured I could sneak in one last kayaking trip for the year. I was in my mid-twenties at this point and had gone on this route countless times with my parents, friends, and even alone, so it was nothing new for me.

I always found something new to appreciate along the way, but I at least knew where I was going. As I paddled past the more populated spots, the sense of isolation began to settle in. I reached a more secluded cove that I had discovered on a previous trip, and I decided that that would be my stopping place to enjoy my lunch and my book. After I finished eating, I got myself settled to read a few chapters, much like I had done in the past.

I was probably only a few pages in when I noticed something odd. At first it started with a weird sensation, one that told me that I needed to look up or watch my surroundings. I looked around and when I didn't immediately spot another person or any kind of wildlife, I told myself it was probably just from being alone out there. But then I noticed the water. The water that was just crystal clear when I had arrived was now murky and dark.

I focused on it, puzzled as to what could have caused that in such a large area. I mean, I could spot where I was from the shoreline. Then, the bubbles began to rise to the surface. I've seen bubbles before from air being trapped under rocks or something else in the water, maybe even some small bubbles from fish, but these seemed to have no end to them. I watched on, trying to figure out the source of the bubbles.

I was curious if maybe it was a large snapping turtle, but part of me also kept saying that this was far too large of an area to be a snapper. I know they can get big, but I have never heard of one this size before. I remember telling myself, as a joke of course, that it must have been a submarine because of the size. That's how large it was. But then something started emerging from the water and it was far from a submarine or a turtle.

First, I saw a lump of grey-purple emerging. It looked slick and rubbery like a giant salamander. I couldn't make out any discerning features, so I still didn't know what I was looking at. Then, as it came up more, all I can say was I was frozen in awe and terror. It opened its eyes, and what I'd been looking at was an eyelid. It was kind of cone-shaped, similar to a chameleon.

It seemed to be looking all over the area, scanning it in a sense. I sat still and silent, my book obviously closed now, watching to see if it would emerge more. But while the eye didn't move from its position, I saw something moving in the water in front of it. It looked as though it was a snake, floating across the water. I slowly stood up to get a better look at it, but again, I was wrong. It was not a snake that I was looking at.

It had to be connected to this thing because it was the same grey, purplish color and rubbery texture. So it had at least one eye above the water that was probably the size of a turtle. Now something's slithering towards me. A tentacle, perhaps? But what on earth was living in Lake Superior with tentacles? Startled, I jumped backwards, which also seemed to startle this creature. My small self, in comparison, scared this large beast, I know.

The next thing I saw was the water splashing back towards the creature's eye, and then both quickly disappeared into the water, leaving me with a deep resonant call that seemed to come from everywhere at once. It was like a whale song but distorted, and honestly just sounded otherworldly. It gave me goosebumps all over my body. Once it was silent and the water was still, I composed myself to think over what I just saw. That didn't go very well.

because I didn't have the slightest clue. But at that point, the realization that I was secluded and alone no longer felt serene, but dangerous. I gathered my belongings and quickly made my way back to my kayak. I watched the water where this creature had emerged from, but the water was back to being unbelievably still. I rode away, looking back several times, worried that it might come for me again, and I would have nowhere to go.

I don't think I've ever rowed that fast in my life. I finally got back to the shore and tried to pick up as quickly as possible, and tried to control my breathing to not appear crazy around others. Unfortunately, being about 2004 when this happened, cell phones weren't what they were. The phone that I had didn't even have a camera, and I didn't bother to take it with me as it didn't get a signal out on the lakes anyways.

So all I have to go off of is my memory. When I returned home that evening, I called my dad to immediately tell him what I saw. He thought it was bizarre too. And we both went into this rabbit hole of sorts to research and try to figure out what it was. To this day, we still don't have an answer. My dad even asked a few of his friends who were park rangers and a woman who worked at a wildlife conservation and they had no idea.

I've taken my dad and my friends to the same spot, hoping that it might come back, but there was nothing there. So what did I witness? What could this have been? The closest thing I've come across are legends surrounding Lake Superior and those ancient underwater creatures, but nothing I've read comes close to matching what I saw or heard. However, I feel it's closer to one of these than it is some disfigured and overgrown lizard.

I've continued to search for what I saw, but ever since then, seeing and experiencing this creature has humbled me, and really proven just how small I am to the world in comparison. And really, just how little we know about what lives in the deep waters below. So, here is my experience. And I started doubting that I'm shifting universes because of it. I had a girlfriend for one year, and it's been great.

Her family was nice to me and my time with her has been more amazing throughout the year. I met her when I was on a really high vibration, and even though her relationship with her family was problematic since the beginnings of the relationship, it didn't have an effect on us. Suddenly things started glitching, and my energy started to drop when I got pulled into the negativities they created with her.

and the stories of them not liking me out of nowhere, and it kept my head spiraling out of control. My mind got cornered in a very bad place of fear and doubt. I noticed that my once very sweet and loving girlfriend started changing into this manipulative, opportunistic, and selfish person as well. I noticed the bad behavior and doubted that I was trapped in a narcissistic family dynamic, and decided to leave her immediately.

She didn't even try to talk to me, which is so unlike her. Suddenly, all my memories of us started feeling like it was unreal and made up by my perception. I didn't think of parallel shifting possibilities until then, and I accepted that I was just manipulated. If so, I think she's a really skilled actress. I started going to therapy and focusing on myself. After a few days of the breakup, I broke my ankle and stayed at home in a cast.

Today, I called a long-distance friend of mine who was a very solid character in my life for over ten years, who had been supportive and loyal and a good listener. I considered him almost a mentor because of his wisdom and unique way of looking at life. He was saying the most immature and ignorant stuff all of a sudden, out of nowhere today. He was very disrespectful and dismissive.

I've been noticing that he was changing and becoming more distant over some time, but this person who spoke to me on the phone? I don't know him. So suddenly, over a very short course of time, I lost my beautiful girlfriend and left with this ugly version, and my best friend is also this really crappy version. Did I shift reality, or was the veil of BS lifted from my eyes? I really don't know these people.

Also, a very distant friend from the past suddenly connected with me, and we speak every day now. He lives in London and he convinced me to move there, and things are getting really fast-tracked into this direction. I have no idea what's going on. The OP did add an update. I shifted. It was very tough because it's a big shift. I keep reuniting with people from the past. People who knew me before I grew to the person that I am.

They are showing me that I matter to them and that they value me. Fake people are falling one after another like they never existed. New energy is present. The energy of love and of truth. Since it is summer, I thought I would share a story from my childhood. As a kid, I wasn't exactly outgoing, but I also wasn't shy. I had a few close friends, but since we had moved a city over, I was no longer going to the same school district

which meant that I wouldn't be going to school with my friends. My parents' solution to this was to go to a private summer camp. It wasn't through any particular school or church, if I remember correctly. Anyone could sign their kid up for it if they could dish out the $400 per kid. My sister was old enough that they didn't make her go, but I, on the other hand, was voluntold for it pretty quickly, with promises of fun and new friends.

I wasn't going to hold my breath, but I did at least hope that it was true. We met up at the local community center where my parents were given more details about our itinerary. We were split up into groups, and then the parents all left. The trip included both boys and girls, but the groups had us more separated, as well as the cabins that we slept in, of course. My group included two girls named Ellie and Becca.

both of whom I actually would grow to be good friends with. Ellie had been to the camp before, but this was both mine and Becca's first time. Ellie quickly claimed us as her responsibility and promised to show us around and make sure that we had a good time. She was very kind, and to be honest, I thank her for that, as she became very important to me.

So we arrived at the campgrounds, and after being given our assigned beds and putting our stuff away, aka under the beds and laying out our sleeping bags, we all made our way to the circular seating area, where the counselors again went over the rules and our daily schedule. I don't remember all of the counselors' names that were there, but the ones I do remember were Derek, Noah, Izzy, Charlotte, and Paige.

I only remember them because they had some importance to this story. Derek and Izzy stood in the center explaining how the trip was going to go. Ellie explained to us different things that we could do with free time. Charlotte was our cabin counselor, and when she heard us talking, she would look at us and tell us to hush. She was probably one of the oldest counselors there. Old enough to be my grandma, which I found odd.

She didn't leave the cabin area. She couldn't go on the trails, and the one time I saw her go to the beach, she was out of breath by the time she got there. Maybe she still enjoyed it. Who knows? We were quiet and listened to the counselors talking again. Derek did most of the talking. He was lively and looked kind. He cracked jokes and would walk up next to the kids near him and nudge him on the shoulder or something.

At first glance, he seemed very nice, but when he looked over towards me, I got this very weird feeling that I couldn't explain. That feeling only seemed to get worse the more I interacted with him, too. First, it would be him stopping by our table as we ate lunch or dinner. He would stop by all the tables and ask how everyone was doing, but when he stopped at ours, he personally introduced himself and asked for my name.

He asked me a few questions about myself, but never took his eyes off of me. I had an issue with eating in front of people. I couldn't eat when people stared at me, and it was difficult to eat in front of strangers. So, eating in that environment was difficult as is. But with him staring at me, I couldn't eat at all. Finally, he had said since I was new, he would show me around any time I wanted, or if I was curious about anything.

Then he walked away. But staring seemed to be his thing. When we went swimming, his eyes were locked on me. I would be splashing and playing around with Ellie or Becca and would begin to feel like I was being watched. To no surprise, I would look over and see Derek staring right at me, confirming this when he would smile and wave when we made eye contact. This was the first time I've gone to something like this.

I tried telling myself it must be normal, and maybe it was because I was new, so they were watching over me and making sure I was having fun and doing what I was supposed to. Then we had the opportunity to shower before bed. Again, the bathrooms and showers were separated, so we went in with Paige while Charlotte stayed at the cabins. Paige was always a lot of fun to be around and very sweet.

I remember wishing that she was our counselor leader instead of Charlotte, who was a no-funny-business type of woman. When we finished, we left the showers and were surprised to see Derek standing outside the girl showers. It was the three of us again, and that time, Ellie told Derek that he was at the wrong showers, and pointed over to the boys. He laughed and said something like that he was just checking on us, and then he patted us on our lower back to head back to the cabin.

Thankfully, Ellie found it weird too, so it wasn't just in my head. Why would he need to check on us? We had our own counselor, and a female at that, but we just dropped it and went to get ready for bed. But again, as I laid there trying to sleep, that feeling came back. The feeling of being watched. I sat up in my bed and looked around, trying to get my bearings back and calm myself down, but then I found the reason for this.

There was a figure standing in the doorway. Based on their build, I could tell it was a man. And while I couldn't confirm this because of how dark it was, the only light coming in the cabin was from the moon, which casted a shadow across the front of said man, I just had this feeling that it was Derek. He's the only one that has been everywhere. All the other male counselors stayed with the boys unless we were all gathered or eating. I didn't know what to do.

We were supposed to stay in bed no matter what, per Charlotte. She even told us that if we needed to use the restroom, that we would have to hold it until morning. So I pretended like I didn't see him and laid back down, facing him. I covered most of my body and head, but kept my eyes just barely open to watch him. I couldn't tell you how long he stood there because, as I watched, I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and eventually fell asleep.

The next day, we were playing some game in a big field. The boys and girls, as well as the counselors, were all intermingled for this, so when Derek ended up on my side, it was normal, but still didn't make me feel good about it. I was sitting on the side waiting for my turn when he asked if I would go with him and get more drinks and beanbags for the game. Being a kid, I didn't feel like this was him asking, but more so telling me, so I went with him.

As we walked, he asked more questions about me, including when my birthday was, and my age again, and what kind of sports I liked to play. Right before we reached the cabins, he stopped and rubbed my back and said that he wished he could protect me from the world. I didn't know what he meant by this, so I remember looking at him waiting for an answer. He knelt down to be at eye level, and grabbed my hands and said...

He then said that he was going to give me his phone number and email to contact him after the camp, so that we could get to know each other more. He stood back up and continued walking, holding my hand and mentioning something else about wanting to protect me, but we were then met by Charlotte who was filling a cooler and telling Derek to hurry up.

He let go of my hand and ran to her to grab it, and we started heading back. Once we were there, I ran to Paige and told her I wasn't feeling well, and she seemed to notice something wasn't right with me. She told Izzy and Derek that she was going to take me back, when Derek looked concerned and asked if I was okay. She said that I wasn't feeling well, and he called out that I was seemingly fine a moment ago. He even tried to joke around and say that I was just trying to get out of the game.

Paige immediately became defensive and told him it was girl problems, and that I didn't want to tell him. I remember distinctly that his face started turning red, but his smile only grew and he apologized to me, and said that he hoped I felt better. Thankfully, we walked back to the cabins, and Paige took me to my bed. She asked me what was wrong, and I wanted to tell her everything. I was worried that she would think I was just overreacting or something.

I was the new girl. I didn't want to be known for causing problems, so I just told her I felt sick. But she gave me a look that reminded me of my parents. The look they give when they want to try to get the truth out of me. So I finally told her about how I was feeling. I told her about feeling watched at the beach. About feeling like we were followed out of the showers and the person standing in the cabin in the middle of the night.

She thanked me and said that it was very important to tell someone about this, and to never fear telling someone. And while she didn't say a name, she asked me if it was one of the counselors. I just told her who it was, and even the conversation that we had just had earlier that day. She looked very sad, but not surprised. I still wonder today if it was because she had a feeling about it. She told me that I could stay in the cabin and would tell the others that I didn't feel good as well,

and that she would take care of everything. I stayed on my bed and read a book that I brought, and even though we still had two days left to the trip, I only saw Derek once, and that was from the dining area. He had his suitcase and was walking the trail back towards the entrance. To try and wrap things up here, things seemed to happen pretty fast. Ellie and Becca both said Paige talked to them too, and while they didn't experience as much as I did,

They confirmed as well as other girls that he had been lingering nearby and making a lot of us uncomfortable. Paige brought it up to the other counselors. They then took it to the main person in charge, who agreed that it was best for him to leave for the time being so that they would investigate, when we were all back home, so as to not cause a scene and scare the kids more. I can tell you that I never saw or heard from Derek after that.

However, I'm not sure whatever came of him. My parents talked to me about what happened the day after we returned, and I had to go over it all again. I could tell by their faces that there was definitely something wrong with all this. My parents also never talked about it again, and I didn't go back to that camp. Ellie and Becca said they both went to it the following year, and Derek wasn't there.

They also said they went over in the individual cabins an important "see something, say something" type of message to everyone, and that the rest was normal. I can only assume that it was partially due to my incident. I hope that Derek never did anything more than what he did with me, but seeing how my parents would never talk to me about it, and they added that to the camp, I feel like something bigger came out of it.

I want to look into it more, but to be honest, I'm kind of afraid of what I may find. Well, I'm not sure what exactly this would fall under. I'm very skeptical of the Matrix Hypothesis, but I do believe in the possibility of alternate universes. I've heard many people describe my situation as a form of quantum immortality as well, but that doesn't seem to fit right either. Here's my situation.

I've seen my own death more times than I can count. The first and most frequent was when I lived in Federal Way, Washington. I didn't drive at the time and I was walking to work. Suddenly, a garbage truck comes around the corner where I'm waiting to cross the street and drives by a little faster than it should be going. Nothing actually happened to me. However, the second the truck was past me...

I suddenly had the memory and a slight physical sensation of the truck taking the corner way too fast and falling over sideways and crushing me. It scared the crap out of me, and that particular scenario happened enough times to give me a phobia of garbage trucks. However, there have been more scenarios than that.

One time I was exiting the store that I was working at early in the morning, and a plane fell out of the sky crashing into the store from above, three days before Christmas. Another couple of times my husband and I were on the bus to Seattle, and on the freeway, the driver had a heart attack and would either drive us into oncoming traffic, or over the edge of a cliff. But every time this happens, I don't ever actually see it happening.

Like a lot of the people who claim the quantum immortality theory. It's almost as if a different version of me has died and their final memories get uploaded to my brain seconds after they die. For a while, the occurrences were happening very frequently. It was freaking me out. But they seem to have subsided a bit in the last few years, and I'm not sure if I'm just not dying as much, or if my connection to the other me's has gotten weaker.

I've tried explaining this to my family and friends, and I'm sure they think I'm either making it up or I've got something seriously wrong with me mentally, but thought the listeners here would understand what I'm going through. This first encounter took place in the summer of, I believe, 2016 in Ontario, Canada. Although it was a while ago, I still remember every detail like it was yesterday.

If I'd been alone, I would have chalked it up to something else, but the fact that both of us saw this thing is what really puts me off. A friend and I were walking on a trail that runs alongside the main river that cuts through the city. There are some great wooded trails along the river, and some of them even lead to neighboring cities, but I digress.

The sun was setting and it was that time of evening where it was insanely dark under the tree coverage, but still fairly light beyond the leaves. I turned on my phone flashlight to light the way, and put on some music for the two of us to listen to while we hustled home. The bugs were starting to bite and being so close to the river, they get pretty nasty. I had paused to change the song on my phone, and my friend glances to our left into the woods. She asks me,

What's that? And instinctively, I turned the light to where she was looking. In the darkness of the bushes and trees, we watch as this thing takes off running deeper into the brush, with its back turned to us. It was making a ton of noise. Twigs snapping, leaves rustling. It really didn't seem to care. Now, there are deer on this trail. I've seen a few on my walks during the day, but this was absolutely no deer.

Even in such a short amount of time, the image of this thing running from us is burned in my mind. It was on all fours. It had an awkward gait like a human trying to run on its hands and feet, meaning its arms were far too short compared to its legs to be running like that. This thing was white, and the light reflected off its leathery-looking skin. It was skinny with thin arms and legs.

The two of us didn't stick around much longer after that, and instead chose to run the rest of the trail until we hit the end that leads out into a set of soccer fields. We never spoke about it after that, and if we did, it was sort of in passing. That was until yesterday. I was scrolling the subreddit for my city, and paused the minute I saw a title informing people to stay away from the river trails. Curious, I checked the post out.

The post described exactly what my friend and I had seen that night on those exact sets of trails by the river. I broke out into a cold sweat and immediately texted her despite not speaking for a while as adulthood has kind of caught up to us both. She told me that she still thinks about that encounter and does so at least once a week. I linked her the post and she was floored by it.

I unfortunately won't be able to link to the post as it gives identifying information, but reading through the replies, it was what you would expect from Reddit. People chalking it up to the guy being mentally ill, joking about him doing drugs, and people who genuinely took him seriously were being downvoted and mocked. Someone mentioned it was all bull and that stories of these things had been going around the area since 1972.

Meaning this probably wasn't a one-off experience from the beginning. I'm always a little hesitant to share the story out of fear that I would get the same reception. I know what I saw that night, and knowing it's possibly still in those woods, along a set of trails I still walk to this day, is kind of unsettling for me. Hey everyone. I'm new here, so please be kind. This happened in 2010.

I was in primary school, in my first ICT class. Our teacher was a white male, maybe 50 years old or less, kind of short, 5'7" and chubby. I remember him being calm and kind. His initials were NDA, not saying his name for security reasons. I can vaguely remember his personality and I think he had blue eyes. This is important.

I don't know or remember what happened to him, but the next year he was no longer our teacher. I continued going to the same school. It has primary plus high school. And here starts all the weird things. It's 2017. I was in high school and it's our first ICT class that year. The teacher presented himself as NDA. I couldn't believe my eyes.

He was the same teacher we had in 2010, same exact name, but he was a completely different person. Where was the short, chubby, blue-eyed man? The imposter was very tall, so skinny that his shirt and pants were too big for him. He had a gangly appearance and a strange accent. Now, NDA could have lost some weight, but this is a whole different person.

No blue eyes. He grew over 5 inches and also his personality was different. A bit unpleasant. I asked my mates but no one remembered the 2010 NDA. The majority of them were new at the school and my old friends from primary school had no memories about him, considering we were 6-7 years old. I searched NDA on Facebook and I found his page.

He has old photos, but none of them look like the NDA that I remember. I don't know what the hell happened. If this is my mind playing some weird trick or what. Maybe it's a Mandela effect or some crap like that. Please, tell me if you have experienced something like this. Church's original recipe is back. You can never go wrong with original.

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This one particular night, I realized that I wasn't breathing and awakened looking at my curtains, which had little red cherries in a leaf pattern. Then I looked again and the red cherries were gone. There was only the leaf pattern. My immediate thought was that I had actually died, and my consciousness had shifted to a parallel world with another version of me. I went back to sleep, and when I awoke, I realized that this was not a dream.

Over the next few days, I noticed different changes in this new reality. What really shocked me was that the geography on a globe I was looking at was different in many ways. The more I researched this, I found out that it was being referred to as what people call the Mandela Effect. There were so many things different than what I remembered. I know that this is not my home planet, but a parallel world.

I'm beginning to believe that I may be one of the millions, and that maybe there was a disaster on my home world. That explains why so many people notice all these changes. I've studied things like quantum physics and superposition, of course, parallel worlds, to try and understand this. The fact of the matter is that this did happen.

A version of me died that night, and I shifted, or rather my consciousness shifted, to this reality. This story may not be as creepy or as exciting as many of the other stories on here, but it has had my head spinning for days now. Recently, my brother got me into a new anime called Demon Slayer, and I really ended up liking it.

My wife and I recently finished the Mugen Train arc, which introduced my new favorite character, Ren Goku, who is the Flame Hashira. I won't spoil anything, that's not what this is about. What really has my head spinning is that when we watched it, his name was not Ren Goku, it was Sen Goku. Usually I'd write this off as a mishearing his actual name, but no.

I remember it clear as day, in Tanjiro's voice, and the voice of all the other characters referring to him as Sengoku. And we were watching the English dub version, so there's no way any sort of foreign translation flew over my head. I even remember looking up replicas of his sword because I was excited to buy one from a vendor that makes battle-ready anime swords, and it's even there in my search history.

As I'm writing this, I see that there is a character in the One Piece anime named Sengoku. But the thing is, I've only seen the first three episodes of that anime, and that character was never introduced. I don't have anything against One Piece, it's just a long anime with too many episodes. I'll probably never catch up. Not to mention, Sengoku is a real Japanese name as well. I'm getting a little off track, so I apologize.

Nothing else in the Demon Slayer story is different, as far as I'm aware. I haven't gone back to rewatch every episode. I want to ask my wife, but I'm afraid that she'll put me in the crazy people house, so I keep it to myself for now. Am I currently in a different reality? Maybe I was just in a different one periodically. Just to watch an arc of Demon Slayer? It doesn't scare me in any way. If anything, it amazes me.

But to think that I could be the only one right now that heard a name in a popular anime where the name of the character is one consonant different from what everyone else currently knows. I dreamed of being in a supermarket sitting on the floor next to this boy named Richard. He was platinum blonde as if he were albino and had blue eyes, but sometimes they were green.

He told me, "You're back. Things have changed here. Now, you have to stay silent." He covered my mouth with his hand because I was asking for explanations, and suddenly I saw this woman opening the door wide. Her clothes were torn and dirty and she was looking for something. It was as if she were blind. She tried to hear walking noises and smelling all the time. She looked like a zombie.

I don't know what happens next, but Richard put his forehead against mine and whispered, "Don't worry, I'll come get you. I promise." He was taking deep breaths. I can still hear those breaths in my head. He ran away and I saw black. Suddenly, I found myself running. Behind me, there were two women chasing me. As I ran, I held onto my phone and the pendant because it makes noise. Then darkness again.

I was motionless against the wall of a room, covered with old red and black carpets and red wallpaper with gold decorations. The furniture was dark wood and old. There was a woman with me in the room and she was looking for me. She was trying to pick up every sound that I made and sniffing. I got annoyed and told her, ''Stop looking for me. You know I'm here anyway. Just let me go.''

I don't remember what she said, but a child entered the room and I tried to escape by walking fast and holding my phone pendant still. I went down the stairs. Everything around me was grey and looked like a factory. I heard someone running behind me when suddenly Richard reappeared in front of me. He took my hand and led me into a ventilation shaft. He hugged me tight and said, "See, I came to get you," while he looked at me.

It was too real. I can't forget his face and what he told me also shocked me. I've never seen this person in my life. So, what do you think? Hey there, friends. I hope that you enjoyed this collection of scary stories on this episode of the As The Raven Dreams podcast. If the platform you're on has the option to follow podcast and you enjoyed my work, please do consider doing so.

Also, leaving ratings and reviews are super important for the algorithm to support the growth of the podcast. I'm just one guy doing this. I don't have a team. It's literally just me doing everything. So any support like that is greatly appreciated. Never expected, though. So if you go above and beyond with that, I do appreciate it. Some platforms also allow you to leave comments, and if you feel inclined to do so, please do. I would appreciate that.

I do have a Patreon and a merch store that you can also check out if you want to support a little further. The Patreon side of things gets you early access to all of my content. It is formatted differently as it goes in line with what my YouTube channel is, but it is the same stories, just different collections. There is also a website, astheravendreams.com, where you can check out pretty much everything about me, my social media platforms, and fiction stories I've written if you want to read those.

as well as submitting your own stories, which there's a big button on the front page, you click to do so. And those stories basically keep the podcast alive, to be honest with you. So, yeah. All that said, friends, I do hope that I see you again here very soon. Until then, remember that you are loved, that you are valid, that you are important. You're the best you that you can be. Don't forget it. And until next time, much love and sleep well.