Speaker 1: I'm honestly not sure where to even begin with this.
Speaker 1: It's been well almost a year to the day now,
Speaker 1: and I still can't fully understand or comprehend what happened
Speaker 1: that day. Neither have I been able to fully get
Speaker 1: over it. I floated from one psychologist and psychiatrist to another,
Speaker 1: which tell me that what I experienced couldn't possibly have occurred.
Speaker 1: And yet as much as they try to make my
Speaker 1: mind believe that, both with words and medication, as much
Speaker 1: as I try and make my mind believe it wasn't real,
Speaker 1: I know, deep deep inside myself than it was. So
Speaker 1: I'm choosing to post my account of this here, both
Speaker 1: as a admittedly rather pathetic attempt to release some of
Speaker 1: the guilt and horror that I've carried with me since
Speaker 1: that day, and more importantly, as a warning to anyone
Speaker 1: who listened. You see, I used to love scuba diving.
Speaker 1: I became certified when I was sixteen years old. I've
Speaker 1: dove both in fresh water and saltwater ever since. I've
Speaker 1: met and become friends with many great and talented people
Speaker 1: because of it, and Tyler. Tyler was one of them,
Speaker 1: daredevil at heart and always up for an adventure. I
Speaker 1: took him under my wing, as he was less experienced
Speaker 1: than I was and a few years younger than me.
Speaker 1: He eventually became close enough that we called each other brothers,
Speaker 1: and though we lived in different states, we always met
Speaker 1: up at least once a year to go on a
Speaker 1: scuba diving trip. That was up until the pandemic hit
Speaker 1: a few years ago, And when it hit, due to
Speaker 1: the quarantines and difficulty to travel that it made, we
Speaker 1: wrote off our annual meet up for twenty twenty and
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. We kept in touch, but it just
Speaker 1: didn't feel the same. One afternoon in April of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, I received a phone call from him. All
Speaker 1: the usual cheeriness and the bravado seemed to have been
Speaker 1: sucked out of his voice. He told me that his
Speaker 1: work had chosen to lay him off as a way
Speaker 1: to cut back spending costs due to the strain his
Speaker 1: business had been put under. Had he been forced to
Speaker 1: go on food stamps and cash assistance as a result
Speaker 1: of it. To make matters worse for Veronica, his longtime
Speaker 1: girlfriend of almost seven years had decided at the same
Speaker 1: time to break off her relationship with him. Let me
Speaker 1: tell you that woman truly did complete him. And losing
Speaker 1: her on top of the stress I'm losing his job
Speaker 1: and the inability to find a new one quickly, it
Speaker 1: quite literally deflated him. I felt helpless, unable to do
Speaker 1: anything to cheer him up. Standing in my kitchen holding
Speaker 1: my phone, an idea that had been floating around in
Speaker 1: my head sprang to the surface. Hey, ty, I asked,
Speaker 1: trying to fill my voice with as much excitement and
Speaker 1: mystery as I could. I thought of something we could
Speaker 1: do that might make you feel better? Yeah? What? He asked,
Speaker 1: his voice inflectionless and hollow, like that of a robot. Well,
Speaker 1: I've been thinking, I mean, I have a few days
Speaker 1: off coming up in the next few days from my
Speaker 1: remote work. So what about just packing up, you know,
Speaker 1: having me come drive and get you and we take
Speaker 1: a scuba diving trip. I heard a slight stir on
Speaker 1: the other end of the line, but his voice remained
Speaker 1: the same. I guess, So, but where could we go?
Speaker 1: So many places are off limits due to the you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, have you taken a look at the news?
Speaker 1: A slight smile crept across my face as I prepared
Speaker 1: to spring my little idea on him. The place I'm
Speaker 1: thinking of is one where there won't be as many
Speaker 1: people right now, just because of the season. You know,
Speaker 1: my smile grew wider. What's one of the places you
Speaker 1: wanted us to dive together the most? But we've never
Speaker 1: been able to a pause? I mean, there's plenty of
Speaker 1: places like Superior Blue Hole, Great Barrier Reef, I cut
Speaker 1: him off. No, I'm talking about someplace much closer to
Speaker 1: both of us. I dropped my voice low. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about Greater Lake. There was the longest pause of the
Speaker 1: call yet, and then he spoke, his voice now filled
Speaker 1: with something I'd been hoping for, curiosity and a bit
Speaker 1: of excitement. Crater Lake. Huh, Yeah, that's one place you
Speaker 1: and I have had on our bucket list for years.
Speaker 1: A hint of doubt crept into his voice. But I mean,
Speaker 1: how you know as well as I do that scuba
Speaker 1: diving isn't allowed there. I mean, if we get caught,
Speaker 1: I cut him off again. Don't worry about that, bro,
Speaker 1: I've been doing some scouting of the area, and there
Speaker 1: aren't many park rangers in the area as there would
Speaker 1: be in the summer or fall. If we go at
Speaker 1: a certain time. We have a few hour window to
Speaker 1: check out what we can and grab some quality picks
Speaker 1: and video. Another second of silence, Then why well not?
Speaker 1: I got nothing to lose and this might help get
Speaker 1: my mind off the world of shit surrounding me. So yeah,
Speaker 1: let's do it man. A grin spread across my face
Speaker 1: as I heard the first hint of his old self
Speaker 1: creep back in. We spoke for a few minutes longer,
Speaker 1: fine too in the details, and then we hung up
Speaker 1: to both get some slip. As I walked to my bedroom,
Speaker 1: I glanced at a framed picture of the lake that
Speaker 1: hung on my wall. Couldn't help but grin as my
Speaker 1: gaze lingered for a moment more, looking from the edges
Speaker 1: of the water to Wizard Island. I climbed into bed
Speaker 1: and drifted off into a sound sleep. That night was
Speaker 1: honestly the last decent night of sleep I ever got.
Speaker 1: The next morning, I packed all the gear we' knead
Speaker 1: into the back of my battered Ford Probe and then
Speaker 1: made the many hour long drive from northern California to
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City. When he answered the door, he was
Speaker 1: clearly beyond excited. He almost seemed like a kid on
Speaker 1: Christmas morning, ready to open his presence. He was infectious.
Speaker 1: As we left back west, couldn't help but revel in
Speaker 1: the same feeling of excitement and a bit of risk
Speaker 1: and danger that we were about to undertake. After a
Speaker 1: few fill up combined with many snack and restroom breaks,
Speaker 1: we passed into Oregon, stopping a final time and clem
Speaker 1: Falls to spend the night before entering Crater Lake National
Speaker 1: Park the next day. We told the ranger at the
Speaker 1: entrance that we were merely heading in to do some
Speaker 1: snow shoeing around the lake, showing him the snow shoes
Speaker 1: we bought in town as a front. After a moment
Speaker 1: of taking down our names, he smiled, Be careful, boys,
Speaker 1: he said, he had some recent snowfall and some areas
Speaker 1: are tricky going. He thanked him, then drove up into
Speaker 1: the parking lot, getting out and retrieving our packs, attempting
Speaker 1: to hide the obvious yellow glow of our scuba tanks
Speaker 1: underneath them. After a few minutes hike, we were rewarded
Speaker 1: with an amazing view of the place we'd come for.
Speaker 1: For those of you who had never seen Crater Lake,
Speaker 1: it used to be an active volcano called Mount Mazama
Speaker 1: with a volcano collapsed around seven thousand years ago. It
Speaker 1: formed what is known as the Caldera. The view is amazing.
Speaker 1: You can look from the top ridge and see the
Speaker 1: rim of the dormant volcano wrapping around the forested sides
Speaker 1: leading down to the water's edge. On the west side
Speaker 1: of the lake lay Wizard Island, having pushed out of
Speaker 1: the water from a secondary eruption. You could also see
Speaker 1: Miriam Kane, a smaller spigot of land rising up. Tyler
Speaker 1: and I shared a grin and a high five before
Speaker 1: carefully making our way down to the shore of the lake.
Speaker 1: We looked around for a few minutes, catching a glimpse
Speaker 1: of some snowshoers disappearing into the treeline, before hiding our
Speaker 1: packs behind a rather large group of rocks that stripping
Speaker 1: off our clothes, revealing the dry suits that we had
Speaker 1: underneath them. Helping each other put on our tanks, vests
Speaker 1: and weight belts, we made our final checks of our
Speaker 1: gear before pulling the hoods up over our heads to
Speaker 1: protect them from the cold water. I glanced at Tie
Speaker 1: as I picked up my flippers. Ready for this man,
Speaker 1: I asked him He gave me a dopey grin his trademark,
Speaker 1: signed that he was beyond stoked. Does the bear shit
Speaker 1: in the woods? He asked, earning a shared laugh between
Speaker 1: both of us. I picked up both cameras and handed
Speaker 1: one to him. Let's do this while we still can,
Speaker 1: I proclaimed, slipping on the flippers and turning to walk
Speaker 1: backwards into the water. Even with a dry suit on,
Speaker 1: the water temperature still sent a small shock wave through
Speaker 1: my body. As soon as the water reached my waist,
Speaker 1: I pushed off to get myself into deeper water. A
Speaker 1: moment later Ty joined me. Staying close to each other,
Speaker 1: we dropped below the surface, marveling at the view around us.
Speaker 1: The waters of Crater Lake were extremely clear, very blue,
Speaker 1: giving a large amount of visibility. Feels so surreal, to say,
Speaker 1: Flashing each other the OK sign, we pushed out towards
Speaker 1: the shoreline of Wizard Island, snapping photos and taking everything in.
Speaker 1: There have been a few other people to scuba dive
Speaker 1: here over the years, with a National Park Service's approval,
Speaker 1: of course, but recreational diving was barred to according to
Speaker 1: the reasoning that was given, not wanting to bring any
Speaker 1: invasive species or creatures into the lake, or to mess
Speaker 1: up the ecosystem anyway. As we followed the rocky bottom
Speaker 1: next to the island, I felt at peace. The only
Speaker 1: sound that could be heard was the streaming of bubbles
Speaker 1: each of us made as we breathed in and out.
Speaker 1: I checked my air gauge quickly, noting that we had
Speaker 1: about two hours of air remaining, plenty of time to
Speaker 1: enjoy everything, I thought to myself. The thought was interrupted
Speaker 1: by a poke in my shoulders. I glanced and saw
Speaker 1: a tie pointing out ahead of us. After a moment,
Speaker 1: I saw what he spotted. Swimming just ahead of us
Speaker 1: was a large school of Kokanie salmon, one of the
Speaker 1: two species of fish that the lake had been stalked for.
Speaker 1: Their large, bright red bodies stood out clearly in the
Speaker 1: clear water. Had it made for an amazing shot That
Speaker 1: brought the camera up to my mask and snapped off
Speaker 1: a few photos. Then noticed Time motioning to me. It
Speaker 1: began heading out towards the salmon, and after a hesitant moment,
Speaker 1: I followed. As I followed him, I spared a glance
Speaker 1: downward and felt almost a sense of vertigo overtake me
Speaker 1: even under water. Not far off the shore of the island.
Speaker 1: The bottom simply dropped away into nothingness. The bottom of
Speaker 1: the lake is over one thousand feet deep, making it
Speaker 1: the deepest lake in the United States and one of
Speaker 1: the deepest in North America. It was so deep that
Speaker 1: submersibles had traversed the lake bottom before. I stared down,
Speaker 1: feeling an almost unwilling sense of my He's creep over me.
Speaker 1: As I noted that for all the water's clarity, it
Speaker 1: was so deep that you couldn't see the bottom. I
Speaker 1: shook my head. Get a grip, Marcus, this is landlocked lake,
Speaker 1: not the Pacific Ocean. Only salmon and trouting here with you,
Speaker 1: nothing that could attack you. Refocusing, I noticed t I
Speaker 1: had gotten a little too far ahead of me, and
Speaker 1: I kicked hard to catch up with him. He had
Speaker 1: drifted close to the school of salmon, and as I approached,
Speaker 1: I must have been making too much noise, because they
Speaker 1: quickly scattered into the distance. Tie shot me a bit
Speaker 1: of an annoyed glance over his shoulder, and I raised
Speaker 1: both hands to the universal sign of sorry. As I
Speaker 1: joined him, something caught my eye out in the distance,
Speaker 1: something bobbing up and down in the water. A large
Speaker 1: cylindrical shape. I topped tie on the shop than pointed.
Speaker 1: After a moment of looking, he gave me a cry
Speaker 1: of excitement, the sound muffled by the regulator in his mouth.
Speaker 1: The old man of the lake. I'd seen it countless
Speaker 1: times from the shore of the lake, and others from
Speaker 1: the tour boats which crisscrossed the lake in the summertime.
Speaker 1: It was a huge floating tree stump, almost thirty feet
Speaker 1: in length. The thing had become as famous as the
Speaker 1: lake itself due to the fact that it had been
Speaker 1: floating around in the lake since at least eighteen ninety six,
Speaker 1: when it had been first spotted by a man named
Speaker 1: Joseph Diller. For one reason or another, Even after over
Speaker 1: one hundred plus years in the water, it refused to
Speaker 1: sink and floated freely from one side of the lake
Speaker 1: to the other. It also held a lot of superstitious significance,
Speaker 1: as in nineteen eighty eight, a submersible expedition tied up
Speaker 1: the stump on one side of the island, resulting in
Speaker 1: storm clouds to immediately move in. They disappeared when it
Speaker 1: was released, and thus the legend of it being more
Speaker 1: than just a dead tree began. All this flashed through
Speaker 1: my mind as I watched it bob up and down
Speaker 1: in the water like a buoy, at least a mile
Speaker 1: away from our location, deep out near the center of
Speaker 1: the lake. I spared another glance at TYE could immediately
Speaker 1: tell what he was thinking. By the look in his eyes.
Speaker 1: I knew it was one that I shared. He pointed
Speaker 1: toward it it held up a finger before again checking
Speaker 1: my air gage two hours left. I held it up
Speaker 1: and pointed at him. He came beside me and showed
Speaker 1: that he was roughly the same amount of air in
Speaker 1: his tank. Nodding, I pointed toward the log and gave
Speaker 1: a thumbs up. Tie gave an underwater fist pump, and
Speaker 1: I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of an
Speaker 1: underwater fist pump, letting in a small amount of lake
Speaker 1: water into my mouth around my regulator. Shaking my head,
Speaker 1: I led the way out into open water. It took
Speaker 1: us about ten to twelve minutes to reach it, but
Speaker 1: when we did, we couldn't help but stop swimming, bobbing
Speaker 1: up and down vertically in the water as we marveled
Speaker 1: at how big it was. Close up at the waterline.
Speaker 1: The top of the stump rose about four feet out
Speaker 1: of the water. It was about two or three feet
Speaker 1: thick down here, though it was much thicker. I mentally
Speaker 1: calculated that it had to be about four or five
Speaker 1: feet thick. In the middle. The entire underwater section of
Speaker 1: the stump was covered in a thick green moss. It
Speaker 1: was also present much farther down in the lake, but
Speaker 1: this was the only place near the surface in which
Speaker 1: it resided. I raised my camera and snapped off a
Speaker 1: few pictures, some looking head on in the mass of shape,
Speaker 1: and others looking down as it fell away from us
Speaker 1: at the few roots which still clung to its bottom.
Speaker 1: TI padded my arm, then motioned for me to go
Speaker 1: float next to the stump. He raised his camera, indicating
Speaker 1: he wanted a snapshot of me with it. I shrugged
Speaker 1: my shoulders, then fulfilled his request by kicking over a
Speaker 1: few times until I floated almost directly in front of it.
Speaker 1: As he prepared his camera for the shot, I felt
Speaker 1: an odd sensation began to creep over me. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: call it outright fear, but it was almost uncomfortable. I
Speaker 1: felt like all the hair on my arms and legs
Speaker 1: had stood straight up underneath my dry suit. I glanced around,
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what had caused the instinctive reaction
Speaker 1: in me, but I saw nothing. I glanced a tie
Speaker 1: and motion for him to hurry up. He motioned for
Speaker 1: me to be patient and kept fumbling with his camera.
Speaker 1: The feeling amplified within me, now accompanied by a feeling
Speaker 1: of being launched, and not by something that you would
Speaker 1: want its eyes to have on you. I glanced around,
Speaker 1: but aside from the stump, I saw nothing, and that's
Speaker 1: when I realized something odd. All the while before we'd
Speaker 1: been diving, we'd seen dozens of salmon and trout. I
Speaker 1: mean how the salmon population in the lake was over
Speaker 1: sixty thousand, But now I couldn't see a single fish.
Speaker 1: A chill went up my spine. Something's not right here.
Speaker 1: As much as I wanted to shrug it away as
Speaker 1: a paranoid thought, I knew better than to ignore my instincts.
Speaker 1: I waved a tie, but he was too preoccupied with
Speaker 1: a camera to see me. I made a grunting sound
Speaker 1: around my regulator, but I still got no response. That's
Speaker 1: when I felt something sly against my leg. It was
Speaker 1: only for a moment, but there was the most unnatural
Speaker 1: feeling I've ever felt on or over my body. It
Speaker 1: felt it felt like bark, but alive. At the same time,
Speaker 1: I shot a glance down but saw nothing near my body.
Speaker 1: As I looked, I felt the sensation again, this time
Speaker 1: on my shoulder. I spun around quickly, so fast that
Speaker 1: I left a small trail of bubbles behind me. There's
Speaker 1: still nothing there, only the stump. Okay, fuck this shit,
Speaker 1: I thought. It began to kick back towards my friend,
Speaker 1: and that was when I felt something wrap itself around
Speaker 1: my ankle. This time, however, it didn't let go. In fact,
Speaker 1: it tightened almost painfully, so I instinctively reached down to
Speaker 1: swat at whatever it was, hoping i'd frighten it off,
Speaker 1: but instead I felt something thin, hard there, still refusing
Speaker 1: to let go of my leg. I shot a glance
Speaker 1: behind me and couldn't help but let out a muffled
Speaker 1: scream at what I saw? What the fuck? The object
Speaker 1: that was gripping my ankle looked like a fucking tree root.
Speaker 1: He was thick and black and covered with green moss.
Speaker 1: That wasn't what had caused me to scream, though what
Speaker 1: had caused that was where it was coming from. It
Speaker 1: came from the goddamn stump. I could see where it
Speaker 1: had slid out from under the very bottom of the log,
Speaker 1: and it was not alone. From the bottom and sides
Speaker 1: slid out many more of the tree things, for all
Speaker 1: intents and purposes, looking like the roots they appeared to be,
Speaker 1: but slithering through the water and snakelike fashion, they were
Speaker 1: coming from me. I screamed again, kicked out as hard
Speaker 1: as I could, attempting to free myself, but unable to.
Speaker 1: A blur appeared besire, and after a moment of confusion,
Speaker 1: I realized it was tie He'd seen and heard my struggling,
Speaker 1: and now floated beside me, his eyes wide and full
Speaker 1: of fear. Reaching down, he attempted to pry the root
Speaker 1: for my ankle, but to no success. The other root
Speaker 1: appendages had almost reached me now, and I involuntarily let
Speaker 1: out another muffled scream, almost in defiance at my fate.
Speaker 1: In that moment, I felt with certainty that I was
Speaker 1: going to die. Tye reached down and unsheathed the knife
Speaker 1: from his ankle, and with a fury I didn't know
Speaker 1: he possessed began slashing at the appendage that clutched me,
Speaker 1: But then a few cuts the water began to cloud
Speaker 1: with a strange greenish fluid. I felt the grip on
Speaker 1: my ankle loosen unwind, and I instinctively kicked forward to
Speaker 1: fully free myself from its clutches. And after a few kicks,
Speaker 1: my mind caught up with me, and I realized something
Speaker 1: tie wasn't with me. I turned and was met with
Speaker 1: a horrific sight, one which I still see when I
Speaker 1: close my eye. The reason the root had loosened itself
Speaker 1: from me was to go after what was attacking it, Tyler,
Speaker 1: Oh my god. It had caught him by the arm
Speaker 1: that he had used to slash at it with. It
Speaker 1: was tightening its grip far more than it had on me.
Speaker 1: I heard the sickening crunch of his wrist breaking, a
Speaker 1: sharp sound that pounded through the water along with his
Speaker 1: muffled scream. And worse, the other roots had reacted as well.
Speaker 1: They had reached him, one large one as thick around
Speaker 1: as my thigh, wrapping around his chest and squeezing. Still
Speaker 1: more of varying sizes slid in and wrapped around his
Speaker 1: arms and legs, breaking myself free from the horrifying sight.
Speaker 1: I kicked back towards him rapidly when the root had
Speaker 1: broken his wrist. The knife had fallen from his hand,
Speaker 1: disappearing into the depths. But I had to do something,
Speaker 1: and as I approached him, however, this seemed to move
Speaker 1: away from me, almost to keep me just out of
Speaker 1: reach of my friend. A particularly large route made its
Speaker 1: way out beyond all the rest, But unlike the ones
Speaker 1: which were gripping Tie's body, this one lashed out like
Speaker 1: a squid's tentacle. It struck me upside my head and
Speaker 1: my vision blurred as I spun a circle from the impact.
Speaker 1: For several seconds, I saw nothing but fuzzy shapes, and
Speaker 1: then then my vision cleared and I saw a red
Speaker 1: cloud begin to surround me. I reached up to feel
Speaker 1: a rather large gash dear my hairline. Trying to keep
Speaker 1: myself conscious, I turned back towards the stomp and Tie
Speaker 1: and God, I wish to God as much of a
Speaker 1: coward as that makes me that I hadn't. If you've
Speaker 1: seen John Carpenter's The Thing, you remember the scene where
Speaker 1: Cooper attempts to defibulate Norris, who turned out to be
Speaker 1: the thing in disguise, and how his chest, his chest
Speaker 1: opens to bite off his arms. That was the sight
Speaker 1: that greeted me as I fell frozen in place. It
Speaker 1: was opening up the middle of the stump, split apart
Speaker 1: and opened like it was on hinges, like it was
Speaker 1: a mouth. More roots slid out from inside the darkened shape,
Speaker 1: and I heard my friend let out another muffled scream
Speaker 1: as his air tank was ripped off of his back
Speaker 1: by a few of them. The regulator torn from his
Speaker 1: mouth as the appendage tossed the tank out to the side,
Speaker 1: and more wrapped around his neck and head, effectively rendering
Speaker 1: him unable to move. I tried again to kick towards him,
Speaker 1: feeling my head spin with dizzyness as I thought to
Speaker 1: keep from passing out, but I already saw it was
Speaker 1: too late. The roots had a firm grip on him
Speaker 1: and rapidly pulled him back towards the opening. I wanted
Speaker 1: to look away, but I couldn't. He still had his
Speaker 1: mask on and behind the lenses I could see his
Speaker 1: eyes wide with fear as he fought in vain to
Speaker 1: free himself, and then he was pulled inside, and I
Speaker 1: heard my friend scream one last time. As the opening
Speaker 1: and the stump closed, I saw a quick flash from
Speaker 1: the camera still attached to his wrist, momentarily illuminating the
Speaker 1: hellish interior, and then it sealed up. It floated further
Speaker 1: away from me and the roots. The tendrils retracted back
Speaker 1: in the span of thirty seconds, it again looked like
Speaker 1: nothing more than an ordinary tree stump. Feeling a wave
Speaker 1: of nausea pass over me, as well as a growing
Speaker 1: blackness and enveloped the edge of my vision, I could
Speaker 1: do nothing but kick for the surface. My head broke
Speaker 1: the water into the chilly afternoon air, and I spat
Speaker 1: the regulator from my mouth. I began kicking backwards towards
Speaker 1: the shore as hard as I could, all the while
Speaker 1: keeping my eyes locked on the four foot tall white
Speaker 1: shape bobbing up and down above the small waves, until
Speaker 1: I reached shore, where I passed out. I awoke two
Speaker 1: days later in a hospital. A bandage covered my head
Speaker 1: where I had been gashed open and hurt like hell.
Speaker 1: I was greeted by the nurse, along with two policemen
Speaker 1: and park ranger who had led a center. After a
Speaker 1: few questions from the nurse about how I felt. I
Speaker 1: was left alone with the policeman and the ranger, who,
Speaker 1: after telling me that the snowshoers that I had seen
Speaker 1: earlier that they had found me unconscious on the shoreline
Speaker 1: on their way back, proceeded to bombard me with questions.
Speaker 1: I tried explaining what had happened to them, doing full
Speaker 1: well that I would sound insane and not caring. They
Speaker 1: needed to know what had happened. You've kind of believe me,
Speaker 1: I shout out. I swear I'm not making this up.
Speaker 1: The fucking thing is alive. But of course they didn't
Speaker 1: believe me. They chucked my story up to my head injury.
Speaker 1: They also decided Tyler had drowned, having something faulty happened
Speaker 1: to his air supply. Apparely got to mention in the
Speaker 1: local paper, just another drowning victim. I was slapped with
Speaker 1: a huge fine for illegally diving, and given a lifetime
Speaker 1: ban from the National Park with a penalty of jail
Speaker 1: time if I ever stepped foot in it again, like
Speaker 1: I would ever want to. Veronica and Tyler's parents blame
Speaker 1: me for his death, and as much as the doctors
Speaker 1: I kept seeing telled me that it wasn't. I can't
Speaker 1: help but feel consumed with guilt. After all, why shouldn't I,
Speaker 1: I mean, I was the one who thought it up.
Speaker 1: I would still be alive if it wasn't from my idea. Now,
Speaker 1: the one year anniversary of that horror flying day is
Speaker 1: fast approaching, only weeks anyway, I can't help but think
Speaker 1: about anything but it says I said on my couch
Speaker 1: night after night, and try to drown my memories and
Speaker 1: guilt with bottles of whiskey and vodka. But not even
Speaker 1: the alcohol is enough to chase away the memories of
Speaker 1: that day, of the thing which pretends to be a stump,
Speaker 1: one which has floated around the lake for over a century.
Speaker 1: Every year there are a few people who are reportedly
Speaker 1: drowning Crater Lake. Oftentimes, their bodies are never recovered, the
Speaker 1: lake being too deep to retrieve the remains. I'm pretty
Speaker 1: damn sure that the true reason swimmers disappear is much
Speaker 1: worse than that, Because when the camera flashed in Tyler's
Speaker 1: hand before it closed around him, I saw something that's
Speaker 1: still wakes me up in the middle of the night,
Speaker 1: screaming as it closed, I saw the routes forcing their
Speaker 1: way into his mouth, down his throat. I think about trees,
Speaker 1: about how their roots dig into the soil to slowly
Speaker 1: extract the nutrients from it, and I shake uncontrollably at
Speaker 1: the thought that that thing might have had a similar
Speaker 1: purpose for my friend. So I'm posting this as a warning.
Speaker 1: You can go visit Crater Lake National Park. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a beautiful place. You can even go walk around
Speaker 1: the edge of the lake or take a tour on
Speaker 1: one of the boats, both perfectly safe. But whatever you do,
Speaker 1: stay the hell out of the water of Crater Lake. Heither. Kids.
Speaker 1: It's me mister creep Pasta, and I just wanted to
Speaker 1: tell you thank you so much for watching tonight's video
Speaker 1: or for listening to tonight's episode of the podcast. And
Speaker 1: as always, I want to give a very big thank
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