Speaker 1: The following is a special presentation of the micro Terror's
original novella, Skinless, written by Scott Donnelly narrated by Darren Marler.
If you've not heard the first four parts of this series,
you'll want to go back and listen to those before
moving on to this final episode.
Speaker 2: Welcome to micro Terrors, scary stories for kids where it's
always the spooky season, full of chills, thrills, and spine
tingling spooks. Micro Terrors are family friendly frights for those
ages eight and up, and while our stories are for
younger years, we are still talking about things that go
bump in the night, and some children may not be
able to handle what others can. Parental consent is recommended now.
Fortsal Knights micro Terror Skinless, Part five. I couldn't even
begin to corral my fear. I was shaking, gulping in
heavy gasps of air. I felt sick and dizzy. How
could any of this have been real? Lightning lit up
the outside world, and not a second later, thunder crashed overhead.
My nerves were already shattered from the horrors of what
I was seeing and experiencing, but the storm was only
making it worse. I turned back around and faced Max,
who hadn't moved from his spot near the wall. How
can you explain that, I desperately asked him. How can
you explain a monster outside dragging people away? See him
with your own eyes? Max oddly held his sights on me,
almost like he was refusing to look past me and outside,
where you would clearly be able to see the horror. Seriously,
I cried, you think that if you don't look, it
just won't be there. It's there right now, taking away
my friends. Max closed his eyes for a moment. I
felt like, maybe, just maybe he was going to smarten up,
but that wasn't the case at all. When he opened
his eyes, he immediately charged at me. I didn't know
what he was gonna do or what he was thinking,
so I ducked and rolled out of the way. You
need to just forget everything you've seen, Jay, he said
to me, turning to face me again. I can't, I said,
bracing myself on the check in desk.
Speaker 1: I won't. When I get out of here, I'm gonna
tell everyone us going on. The police will come, maybe
even the FBI. This place will be shut down forever,
and you and your family will be held responsible for
everyone who's missing. Max didn't say anything. How are you
going to explain this to the parents, I pleaded, knowing
we'd already asked this question. Another blast of thunder and
lightning exploded outside. Keeping my eyes on Max, I reached
for the phone on the check in desk and put
it to my ear. It was dead. Then with a
deafening crack of thunder, the lights went out. Max frantically
looked around, fear and panic now pouring out from him.
He turned and ran outside into the storm. Max, I
called out. I rushed to the open door of the
office cabin and breached myself on its frame. I looked outside,
but the rain and wind was too much. I didn't
see Max anywhere. I didn't see skinless guts either, which
meant Nol and Gemma were gone. I rushed back into
Max's little office and scoured it until I found a
yellow raincoat stuffed in a closet with the camp Resting
Stone logo on the back of it. I tossed it on,
covered my head with the hood, and ran outside, splashing
through the swampy parking lot. I looked around. The storm
was dark and intense, hindering my views from its incursion
of rain and furious winds. Luckily, it was only the
late afternoon, so there was still a touch of daylight.
If it wasn't for that, I would have needed to
find a flashlight to go trapsing around the camp, and
that would have been a death sentence for sure. I
wasn't sure where to go, but then a sickening worry
for the other campers filled my body. I raced to
the closest cabin, one of the girls cabins. When I
got there, I pounded on the door. When there was
no answer, I took it upon myself to force my
way in. The cabin was set up just like ours,
and it was empty. Hello girls, Irena, I called out,
not really knowing exactly whose cabin it was, but my
call fell on deaf ears. There was nothing here aside
from a dark, empty cabin. I rushed to the next cabin,
which was the one that neul and I had found
Jemma lounging out in front of, and found the same results.
Inside dark, quiet and empty. I ran down the slippery,
muddy slope and through the trees until I hit the
boy sector at the camp. I threw open the door,
and unsurprisingly found it empty. I checked the next cabin,
and it too was vacant of any living or breathing thing.
I stood outside the third boy's cabin after only peering
through one of the windows. There was no one inside.
Thunder crashed above, and a blinding blast of lightning made
squint and shield my eyes with my hand.
Speaker 2: I was alone.
Speaker 1: Everyone else was gone, taken by the legendary skinless guts
the camp ghost story. As I stood there in the
pouring rain and thrashing winds, I wasn't sure what to
do or where to go next. The camp was too
far off the main road to make a run for it.
The phones were dead and the electricity was out. I
was trapped. I was alone. My breathing began to pick up,
my heart began to flutter, and then it all stopped.
The breathing, my heart, I couldn't feel any of it anymore.
After the cold, bony fingers of someone behind me touched
the back of my neck, I closed my eyes and
just let him take me. I was awake, but my
eyes were closed, and I was not conscious enough to
understand what was going on or where I was being
taken to. I could feel my limp body being dragged
across the slick, muddy ground and a relentless rain battering
my face. I could hear the thunder above, but it
echoed and reverberated in my head every couple of minutes.
I could see the bright flashes of lightning on the
other side of my eyelids. I seemed to dip in
and out of consciousness. Things eventually became quieter. The sounds
of thunder and rain reduced to deadened versions of themselves.
I stopped moving and felt like I was now standing upright.
I could hear voices, the voices of children. They were muffled,
but they were close. They seemed panicked and afraid. As
their cries and words became crisp and clearer around me,
I used all my strength in my body to open
my eyes. I was secured to a dirt and wooden
wall by heavy chains around my wrists and ankles. I
quickly realized I was in an underground bunker. What are
the old, abandoned ones underneath the camp above me? I
could hear the muffled onslaught or rain pelting the ground,
and thunder commanding the sky. The bunker was lit by
flaming torches sporadically fastened to the walls. There were overturned
empty barrels of toxic waste scattered about. There was a
giant steel vat in the middle of the room with
the faded stenciled word acid wrapping around the side of it.
Then the real horror kicked in. Along with myself. In
the large underground room were all of the other campers.
They were all restrained to the walls, just as I was.
Heavy metal chains held their arms against the dirt and
wood behind them, and their feet to the ground. This
is where Skinless Guts had been taking everyone. This was
where his spirit had been laying in unrest for so long,
only now manifesting itself as the physical, intimidating presence of
his skeletal remains. Jay I heard my name shouted from
a couple of kids down. I looked over and saw Nol. No.
Are you okay? I asked, for now? He unassuringly said,
I don't know what this thing has in store for us.
I counted the kids. You were the last one he
brought in here. He has everyone now, even Max. I
was arguing with him at the office a little bit
ago gots dragged him in right before you, Nel said,
and that room. Nul snapped his head, as if you
were giving me a sub nod. I looked in the
direction he indicated and saw there was a dark arching
tunnel dug into the wall that led into another chamber.
I think that's where he took all the adults. Nel
added max Otto Irena Brody. Where's Jemma? I asked him.
He nodded his head in the other direction. Across the way.
I could see Jemma secured to the wall talking to
the girl next to her. It was Mallory Killin's her
missing bunk mate. Now, thinking about bunkmates, I frantically looked
around and spotted everyone else that I'd been curious about.
Arnie Crumb was there, as was Riff TERRESI. Noel was right,
I was counting twenty four kids. Also, that was the
entire roster of campers. Hey, Noel whispered loudly over to me.
Now that Skinless Guts has everyone down here, what do
you think he is going to do with us? I
faced forward, pondering Noel's question for a moment, but ultimately
not wanting to know what our fates were going to
look like whatever Skinless Guts had in store for us,
it truly wasn't going to be pretty. As the storm
clamored mutedly above us, the cold breeze blew through the bunker,
giving rise to a sea of fear induced goosebumps all
over my body. I could only assume the other kids
felt the same fright. The rushing breeze carried the stench
of death with it. Then the room began to fill
with a soft green haze that took on a wispy quality,
a green mist. It was Skinless Guts calling card the
imminent threat of his arrival. I told you, guys, Riff
called out, almost in tears. I told you on day
one the dish was real. Riff was right. On day one,
he had stood at the cabin window, afraid of what
lurked outside. He told us about the legend. He said
his dad was the one who told him. Could his
dad have also been a counselor at the camp twenty
two years ago? Is that what this was were the
children of the parents who were all involved with the
camp beforehand, the ones invited to this little soft reopening
of Camp Resting Stone. If the Cunningham Estate were to
convince the people who were traumatized by the events that
happened here long ago that the camp was safe now,
they would have had some solid endorsements. They just didn't
realize the restless spirit of Emory Gut had been lying
in wait this entire time. I couldn't be sure of
the Cunningham of State's true motives or reasoning for inviting
us all here. It didn't really matter at this point.
What matter now was what I saw materializing in the
dark tunnel that led to the adjoining bunker chamber. It
was the camp boogeyman, skinless Guts. His bony presence seemed
to float through the mist, out of the shadows and
into the room that all the kids were chained up in.
He stopped in the middle of the room near the
large vat labeled acid. From what I could tell, the
vat was empty and didn't pose an acidic threat, and
could have still been there all these years later as
a relic from the past, possibly even the same exact
relic that Emory had fallen into that fateful day over
two decades ago. I trembled, as I'm sure everyone else did,
in silence, we anxiously watched the skeletal wretch as he
delicately turned around in circles, looking at all of us,
taking in the sights as if he were looking for
his best option or best pick. Was he picking one
of us? And if so, for what? Oh my god,
I heard Jemma shriek from across the bunker. Skinless Guts
was facing me at the time, So whatever had alarmed
her to the point of screaming was something that he
had behind his back. He has a knife, she added
with a tense whimper. The word knife triggered a panicked
response in everyone. The kids all began to yell, scream,
and cry. The sudden commotion only enraged and disrupted Skinless
guts mysterious selection process. Without warning, he whipped the knife
out from behind his back and brandished it for everyone
to see. He emitted a mournful cry, a sound so
haunting that it roughedured my nerves. As all the kids
screamed and yelled, shouting at the ghastly creature in the
center of the bunker, it only provoked and overwhelmed him.
His jaw opened, his sorrowful cry, howling louder than ever,
threatening to slice through our ear drums. Then Skinless Guts
landed on someone, someone completely at random. It was Null.
The skeletal horror pointed his knife directly at Null, and
I was able to get a better look at it.
It was a large, curved Forley knife, modified to include
a serrated edge on its spine. It must have been
a tool Emery had handcrafted himself to clean and scale
a fish with flawless, award winning precision. He was known,
after all, as the master of catching, cleaning, and frying
up the perfect fish dinner back in his day. So
why was he pointing it at Null? Why was he
Why were any of us? Oh? No, I uttered out
loud in a shaky voice as I realized what Skinless
Gut's plan was. It was why he gathered all of
us here in the first place. He wanted revenge. He
wanted his skin back, any skin, He wanted all of
our skins. It didn't take long for Noel to come
to the same realization as I had. Skinless Guts had
risen from the hollowed grounds of Camp Resting Stone to
reclaim the skin he had lost twenty two years ago,
to bring a perception of life back to his death.
No no, no, Noel screamed at the ghastly horror before him.
Stay away, stay away from me. Skinless Guts wheezed and
hissed in a sickening way, and then adjusted the knife
in his bony grip. He sauntered toward Null, arousing further
screams from the kids shackled to the bunker walls. I
felt my heart beat faster. Nol was shaking, sweat pouring
from his forehead. Skinless Guts stopped in front of him
and slowly extended the tip of the filet knife outward.
The sharp point made contact with Null's shirt. He began
to squirm. He cried out for help, screaming at the
top of his lungs.
Speaker 2: This was it.
Speaker 1: Skinless Guts would start with Null, cutting the skin from
his body before moving on to the rest of us.
One by one, Skinless Guts, with a little more force,
poked the tip of his filet knife through null shirt
and immediately sliced downward. We all heard the shirt material rip.
Everyone turned their heads and closed their eyes, including myself.
No one wanted to see what was going to happen next.
I heard another slice and rip of Null's shirt. I
heard him screaming and panicking uncontrollably. I had to look.
I slowly turned my head and watched as Skinless Guts
grabbed Null's shredded shirt and tore what remained of it
away from his body. Some what have me? Nell screamed out.
His shirt was gone, his exposed skin was visible, and
I was now certain that's what Skinless Guts had gathered
us all here for. I watched the knife twirl playfully
at his gaunt grip before securing it tightly, then aiming
it directly at Null's stomach. He slowly and methodically pushed
it forward emery stop. A woman's voice suddenly cried out
from nowhere. Everyone including Skinless Guts, turned to look. It
was one of the girl's voices, and it wasn't IRENA's voice.
It did, however, sound familiar. Just then, mud and rain
water fell in from above through the hindered hole. We
were all dragged down in from along with the mud slide.
Someone wrapped in a black raincoat also dropped in and
perfectly stuck the landing as if she were spied her woman.
When she stood up and removed the hood, I couldn't
believe my eyes, it was my mom. In one of
her hands was a long spaded shovel. As she stood
to her feet, Skinless Guts faced her and released an
angry shriek. He raised the filet knife and charged at her,
but my mom was quick to wind up and whack
the fleeting monster with a shovel. Skinless Gut's bones jangled
as he flew to the side and slammed into the
dirt floor. One of the bones from his arms cracked
and fell off. He restlessly tried to stand on his feet,
but my mom swung the shovel again, smacking his other arm,
sending the knife soaring across the bunker, where the blade
was driven into the dirt wall right between Arnie Crumb's legs.
Skinless Guts howled again, trying to unnerve my mom, but
it wasn't going to work. Not even a long, dead,
ghastly monster could stop a mother who was locked into
protective mode. She swung the shovel again, cracking Guts in
his exposed rib cage. A couple of the ribs shattered
on impact. A couple more of them dangled off im
momentarily before eventually falling to the ground. With Skinless Guts
still down, my mom had her first chance to look
around the underground bunker. She looked at all of the
kids with worry on her face until her eyes landed
on me. Then she smiled. Are you okay, she calmly asked.
I nodded back to her, also smiling and feeling safe
for the first time since I'd arrived here. My mom
turned back to the skeleton monster that was struggling to
stand again. Oh no, you don't, she growled. She pulled
back on the shovel, and with one or hard swing,
she delivered the final blow. The metal spade crashed into
the side of Skinless Gut's head, shattering his skull into
hundreds of sharp pieces that exploded all over the underground chamber.
The rest of his body collapsed, rattling to the ground,
where it then lay still and silent in a heap
of broken bones. My mom took a deep breath, dropped
the shovel, and came over to me. First. She knelt
down and was able to unlock the chains in my
feet and hands. She hugged me tightly, and I felt
her warm tears fall onto my neck. How did you
know to come back, I asked her. I just had
a gut feeling, she said, when we dropped you off
here the other day, I couldn't shake it. This place
just doesn't feel right. I nodded. This place definitely isn't right,
I said, half joking, but also completely terrified. Um hey,
Noel called out, can someone help me please? A little
naked here? But then I shired on My minnows are exposed.
My mom and I then went around to all the
other kids and helped unlock them from their chains and shackles. Then,
in the adjoining chamber we helped Max, Brody, Arena and
Auto as well. My dad, who was trying to help
from above, found a ladder laying in the bushes behind
Otto's cabin and brought it to the bunker. He slid
it down so we could all climb out one at
a time. Once we were all out, we were relieved
to see that the storm had stopped. However, the gloomy
clouds continued to linger over the tops of the trees.
It somehow felt like a metaphor for what had just
happened to everyone. The calm after the storm, the bushy
leaves on the trees all dripped with remnants of rain,
and muddy puddles were scattered all around the woods. We
then worked as a team to cover the whole back
up that led down into the bunker. We tossed on
fallen tree limbs, mud brush, and well as many other
things as we could find. My mom drove the shovel
spade into the soggy ground next to the concealed tomb
and then draped her black raincoat over the wooden handle.
She said it would act as an easy beacon for
the police to locate once we got back and were
able to call for help. And with that we began
our march back toward Camp resting Stone. Only instead of
Max or Brody or Irena leading the way, it was
my mom and dad who heroically led us to safety.
Camp Resting Stone was shut down for good after its
experimental grand reopening. Fences and metal gates were erected around
the plot of forested land the camp sat on, along
with a few brightly colored no trespassing and do not
enter signs. My parents did call the police once they
were able to, and unfortunately it took a couple of
days for a search of the woods to be conducted.
The police were pretty skeptical about the story we all
tried to tell them from the beginning, so the ground
search was fairly minimal, and of course they found nothing.
When my mom asked about the shovel with the black raincoat,
which she had purposefully posed in that very specific way
to help the police find the bunker, they confirmed that
they did indeed find a shovel, but it wasn't sticking
out of the ground. Instead, it was stuffed in an
overgrown area of bushes. The black raincoat, however, was not found,
and that little fact itself has always been interesting to
me because in the years that followed the horrors that
I experienced at Camp resting Stone, strange sightings have continued
in the region. Sure, the camp is closed for good
and blocked off from trespassers, but that doesn't mean it
actually keeps people away. Teenagers looking for a dare or
a scare will hop the fences to impress their friends
or have a story to tell. There's also a hiking
trail that snakes through the woods fairly close to where
the old abandoned camp remains, and it's easy to go
off trail and get a little too close. There have
been many reports over the years about the area strange reports.
Some say they've noticed a strange mist crawling through the
woods close to the camp. Others claim to hear the
mournful cry of Emery Gut in the dark night time hours.
But the most interesting stories I find are the ones
where people claim to see a slow moving figure roaming
the woods, cloaked and a black raincoat with a hood up.
They say, as it walks, they can hear its bones
cracking with each step, they can hear its haunting moans,
and if it ever turns to face them, they claim,
without a shadow of a doubt, to see a rotting,
cracked skull within the awning of the hood. For me,
this is proof that legends never die. Sure, my mom
saved us that day by destroying Skinless Guts in the moment,
But how can you truly droy something that's already dead
and gone. You can't kill a ghost. That means Skinless
Guts is still there, aimlessly roaming the woods, waiting for
his next chance to reclaim his skin.
Speaker 2: The end.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Skinless micro Terror's original novella. Be
sure to stop by micro terrors dot com for your
chance to win the Skinless Prize pack, which includes an
autographed copy of Skinless, an autographed copy of Where It's
Always Spooky Season in micro Terror's book mark, and penn
as well as a one year free membership to the
micro Terrors Fan Club. You have until August thirtieth to
sign up. The winner will be announced on September first
in the micro Terrors monthly newsletter.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to micro Terrors. Join us each
Saturday for another scary story. For more fun, visit our
website at microterrors dot com, where you can get the
latest micro Terrors news, read fun facts about each story,
sign up for our monthly newsletter, and even send in
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can become one of the Terrify by joining the fanclub
at microterrors dot com, who enjoy exclusive perks like reading
stories a week early, receiving complimentary books, and communicating directly
with micro Terrors writer and creator Scott Donnelly. You can
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at microterrors. I hope you'll join us again soon for
micro Terrors scary stories for kids