Speaker 1: I realized my phone was dying when I tried to
take a video of the trees by the road. There
was something about the sun rising behind them. When I
scanned the silhouettes of the trees, it looked like a
barcode that told the stories of those who lived long ago.
Sometimes you could relax your eyes and picture them old hunters,
children running, and wild animals looking for a place to
stay in the winter. I think it was a lack
of signal that made my phone die faster. I don't
know if that was a thing back then, but I
had charged it up that morning and now it was
at less than ten percent. The charger was in my
bag in the back part of the van. I could
have reached it if I tried hard enough, but all
five of us were squeezed together with more bags on
our laps and on the floor. I told them we
wouldn't need that much food for such a short camping trip,
and that was right, but not for that reason. Fear
has a way of ruining your appetite. The story will
bring us into the mysteries of the woods again, but
this time with a chance to find some answers. My
name is Edwin, and here is a scary story. Darren
was fast asleep in the front passenger seat. The only
two comfortable people in the minivan were him and the driver. Well,
the driver had a bunch of sheets and maps in
front of him against the window, and he thought it
would be a good idea to decorate the entire dashboard
with these mini hairy monsters collectibles. From there, I think
out in these areas, people seem to have their own
things going on. It's why we needed them for the trip.
Otherwise you would have just taken two cars. They knew
how essential they were, though, so they charged what it
were worth. He was friendly enough though. He showed us
a few viewpoints that were off the regular path that
hiker and campers like us would miss because they were
out in loops of dirt paths away from the main roads,
and yet after zigzagging through some more pines and dry trees,
he would somehow end up back on the road. If
you have any trouble, he kept saying, the signal is
best the top of that hill, and he kept pointing
to it every time he came into view. He looked
more like a flat mountain than a hill, But we
understood we had his number and could spot that thing
from anywhere where there was a clearing. Because of how
strangely shaped it was. I called it a stack of pancakes,
but my friends called it a pimple. Others called it
the button, but I was glad they were on the
same page in terms of safety. In having a plan,
the guide made us take his business card and put
it in our wallets. The phone number was crossed out
on all of them, rewritten in blue ink on the back.
It was good. When I was a kid, I got
lost at Dizzeyland, and fortunately it's common enough there that
it didn't get too traumatizing for me. But I did
get scolded by my mom, who had told me time
and time again if I got lost, I should go
to the entrance of wherever we were and wait there.
But where was the entrance of a large walkway with
hundreds of people passing with strollers, all of them looking
the same with t shirts, hats, and sunglasses. So I
just stood there and cried until the kind lady with
the broom came by. She tried to help me for
a few minutes before trying to find my lost parents.
I'd gotten lost before, and I would always be found
if I stayed by the entrance malls, grocery stores, subway stations.
Come to think of it, it might have been my
parents' fault all along. And I knew that this trip
was going to be something else, because there was no
way I'd be able to make my way back to
any entrance to any part of the woods, especially after
all these twists and turns. But hey, that was a
point of all of this or last trip before everyone
went off into the real world after graduating college. The
guide caught me looking at him through the rear view
mirror and he smiled. About another half an hour, he said, smiling,
or do you want to turn back? Everyone in the
van knew he was talking to me. I shook my
head no, thinking that maybe he had noticed that I
looked sick from all the turns on the road. But
I smiled back and turned to the window. Out there,
in the hypnotizing trees, I saw the images again, like
a flip book, the children running toward the car, chasing
each other until I got to see their frightened faces.
Tall strange creatures with legs like crabs were chasing after them,
and from the top of the trees, a hooded thing
rising up and passed the try branches, and then zooming
passed the car and through the trees. It was the
size of a human, faceless and dark. It vanished the
trees somewhere in the next turn. I could feel the
guides eyes reflecting on me again. He knew what I
had seen, and he wasn't smiling anymore. This is where
we're gonna be staying, Tracy asked out loud when we
were dragging our legs between the bags to get out
of the van. We had all been wondering that same thing.
To the guide's credits. It looked exactly like in the
pictures he showed us. He said it had a refrigerator
and an emergency generator if we needed it. The stove
needed wood that to be honest, we probably wouldn't be using.
A couple of us brought camping stoves for when we
needed to boil water for the boxes. Yes, boxes, a
couple of noodles. A cabin would be too much to
describe this. This thing was like a bungalow with a
makeshift porch. The nicest part was the bathroom that actually
had tile and was near the back of it. We
had more than enough lawn chairs, and there were board games,
a radio, a first aid kit. What do we do
about the bears, Mark asked, out of nowhere, no bears
this time of the year, but if you find one,
we need to send out an alert because it's probably
hungry and dangerous. We weren't sure if he was joking
or not, because he changed the topic quickly to the
signal that installed a booster nearby. But the pancake Mountain
hill was blocking it and it wasn't working where we were.
Do you see it? He kept asking? Do you get
in touch with me if you get in trouble? What
kind of trouble, Darren asked, serious this time. If someone
gets lost, you turn out of food, You see smoke
out there in the woods. No one else should be
out there anyway. I'll be back here on Sunday four pm.
Or do you want to turn back, he asked again,
Looking at me. For an instant I could tell he
wasn't making some type of joke in the car. Then
his expression was serious, and that's how he was when
he first booked the trip with him. He tried to
convince us to take us instead to the other side
by the desert, nicer areas, mountain views, and actual cabin.
We were thinking that he was trying to upsell us
that whole time, and I wish you would have listened.
He was worried for this group of strangers, I could tell.
Everyone started unloading the bags, mainly food and drinks and
plastic bags. Michaela brought a suitcase that she couldn't carry
on her own, but everything was now on the porch
and everyone had gone inside to check out the place,
the one where we would stay for that weekend. It
didn't look too bad now. It had a lot of space,
we were in a nice clearing and the lake was
a short walk away. No one around for miles, just friends, food,
and a weekend without homework or finals to worry about.
I walked up to the guide. Tom was his name,
as he sat in his vand taking notes on one
of the many maps he had on the dashboard, looking
at us every few seconds. You can see them, huh,
he asked, sitting completely still as he rolled down his
window A little more what I asked? Trying to get
him to tell me instead of embarrassing myself with the
thoughts and visions, the ones of something flying through the trees,
children running, and all the things my crazy imagination came
up with whenever I got to that level of boredom.
I think those were the bad ones, he said quietly.
The good ones are the ones you never see. He said.
To stay where we were, and not to go out
too far, to not open the doors at night. If
we hear knocking, it might be, in his own words,
an animal or something else. R Do you want to
turn back, he asked, completely serious again. Thank you, Tom,
We'll see you on Sunday. Here's something for you. As
I handed him, I'm a twenty dollars bill. Feeling guilty
for doing so. For some reason, he took it in
thinking putting it in his shirt pocket. He tapped on
a steering wheel, started up the van, and rolled away,
leaving behind the kind of silence that seemed completely unnatural
out there in nature. We spent the rest of that
afternoon lounging and that clearing. The lake itself was beautiful,
though dark enough to make me wonder how deep it was.
It was one of those places that wasn't in the
maps like the others. I mean, we could see the
blue of the lake in the green of the forested areas,
but knew little else about it, no names or details
about landmarks and stuff like that. I think it's what
brought Oscar here. He's the one that found it and
told the rest of us who didn't want to go
with the others on their usual summer trip, another trip
to a cabin with a pool, beer, loud music, and
coming back more tired than anything. So we just passed
on that. Two of the guys got in the lake,
following the rule about jumping in a natural body of
water when they saw one, and they came back, rinsed
off with the well water, and sat outside, drawing off
by one of the lawn chairs with their towels. The
last normal thing we experienced were the setup of the
camp fire and sitting around it talking about politics and
some of the plans for the future. He already felt
like a proper good bye, even though our weekend was
supposed to only be starting. I think of our conversations
often we all had dreams. I mean, why struggle for
so many years with money, stress and staying up so
late at night with our work For the money, sure,
but why do you need the money to have whatever
we want? And why what do you want? Some of
our reasons were to help our families. Others were to
prove something to ourselves. A couple of us were in sure,
myself included. We'll just figure it out as we go,
was our conclusion. Once the ember started glowing dim, we
decided to head inside. The darkness around us was dead
quiet without the crackling of the firewood. The buzzing of
the insects had stopped, and the wind started to pick
up in a deep whistling that none of us had
ever heard before. We were quiet as we boiled up
some more water for the noodles, oscar ate from a
cold can of Ravioli's, and we just sat on the
enormous couch that took up the whole front part of
the place. Tracy was messing with the radio, trying to
find some music, but only kept cycling between the same
two stations, one with what seemed to be church music
and the other was a news announcer warning the public
on an alert where he kept repeating this message is
for the Vernacua areas south of Slugba Hill. Then she
just changed the station back. Jesus as the sunset on
the ocean, the rocks on mountain. Oscar jumped up, snatching
the radio from her lap. Is that what this place
is called? Changed the station again? Twenty two miles south.
They was spotted again? Stay indoors, answer no calls. Thank
you for your attention on this matter. Thank you for
your attention in this matter. What was spotted? We were
all a little scared, I could tell, but none of
us wanted to seem like we were, so all of
our questions started flooding the conversation very calmly. Who was it?
What was the announcer talking about? What was spotted? Oscar
put his phone back on the table and leaned back,
hands on his face. No signal, he said, sighing as
loudly as a person could. Vernaqua, That's what he said, Right,
We're at Blackwood's not that other place. Or is Vernaqua
the original name? Mark asked him what the matter was,
Why was he so worried, tapping him on the back
as he walked away from him and went to the
kitchen for another Can we read about a place like
this one? You remember, Mark? Right? We took this class together.
We all chuckled. Mark doing the readings for any class
was a joke, the stories of the voices and the
very real documented deaths in the areas that surrounded it. Mark,
you don't remember. Mark shrugged, looking at the rest of us,
holding back a smile. But Oscar seemed genuinely concerned and
grabbed the radio again. He was the smartest out of
all of us by far, the only one on track
for a PhD, and the only one interested in learning
whatever we went through in college. He turned up the
volume and then lowered it once the station kept flipping
back to the songs about Jesus. He stood up and
quickly went to the front door, the kitchen side door,
and then went through the windows. He sat still for
a moment before grabbing his phone again. Tom said, the
hill has signal how far we can still stay somewhere else.
Once we reached the base of the ridges that we passed,
Tom can just come get us. But we had just arrived,
and even though we wanted to listen to the things
he told us about the events as early as two thousands,
some stories from the eighties and many more from earlier,
we had just gotten settled. Plus we all knew that
the guy would get carried away and was always looking
for something to be anxious about. Kayla told him that
it was probably some joke or a late night radio
drama like they had them before. Oscar was familiar with him,
and we all knew about it after he made us
listen to War of the Worlds when he was the
designated driver and he picked us up from a concert.
One time, he stayed quiet for a second, grabbed the
radio and held it in his lap, listening for anything
else aside from their music. He remained that way for
most of the night until we all started getting ready
to go to sleep. Mind you, it was not even
ten pm by this time. Two were at the table
playing some made up game, others were talking on the couch,
and I was sitting in a lawn chair by the
front door, with a cup of soup in my hand,
in a magazine from nineteen ninety eight, my Reader's Digest
kind of thing on my lap. Now it's at this
point where I noticed that things were off, and still
I remained quiet. I heard soft tapping on the door,
quiet enough to ignore it. I looked up at Oscar.
He was nearly falling asleep by the radio. I vaguely
remember Oscar roaming around checking on the doors at night,
had fallen asleep in the dark living room area with
the other girls. Just as I started to doze off again,
I heard another soft tapping, this time by the window.
It was clearly separated, tap tap tap, rhythmic, unnatural. Again
I tried ignoring it, but it persisted, tap tap tap.
I looked to my left and saw Tracy's head turning
to face the window. Do you hear that? I whispered,
startling her. She moved her head, but I didn't know
as she was nodding or shaking it. No. Then Mikayla
turned round, wide eyed. Is that Oscar? She asked, confusing
us even more. Mark, we heard from the outside, Mark
you in there? It was Oscar's voice. Now, the first
thing I thought was that he had gotten outside to
get to the hill in order to get signal to
get us right back, literally in the middle of the night,
and I knew it was something he was capable of doing.
The guy was a little weird to everyone else, and
we were the only ones I had gotten used to
the way he was. So I stood up and walked
across that cold floor to look at the window, and
sure enough, Oscar was standing by the corner of the property,
far enough away from the front door that he had
to shout. Why he didn't go up to knock on
the front door like a normal person. I didn't know
at the time, but it gave me a strange feeling,
even after that relief from seeing a familiar person out there.
Maybe it was the way his pale face stood out
from against the dark trees behind him. Again, I don't know.
I started walking towards the front door when I felt
something grip my arm. It was Tracy. Are you sure
it's him? She whispered, her voice shaky. Why wouldn't I
be sure it was Oscar? We all knew his voice,
the way he hunched over sometimes, and the way he
phrased his sentences like a question every single time. But
again there was something about it. Why doubt such a
normal thing, something we were used to and had heard
a thousand times? Why now? And why in this place?
I thought about it enough to make me crouch down
and hide from the window. I heard the voice outside
calling my name, now, Maggie, is that you? It was
a changed tone that made shivers run up my spine.
But even worse, Oscar had always called me Mag's for
as long as I had known them. Never, Maggie, I
don't know how we ran while hiding from the curtainless
window like that, but we did. Tracy followed close behind
as we went over the bathroom and leaned into the
section where the two large beds were. Right there on
the first one closest to the door was Oscar, his
eyes wide open and turned directly to us. It's not me,
he whispered, voice trembling with fear. That section of the
cabin or whatever this was, had no door, so we
all crouched down in a position where we couldn't see
out through the window, the one that faced away from
the lake. Mark and his brother were moving themselves, awake, slowly,
asking out loud what the matter was. Mark was probably
still half asleep. He stood up as if nothing was
happening and glanced over to the window. Dude, he screamed, Oscar,
you weirdo. You scared the hell out of me. We
all stayed quiet as we watched him reach toward the windowsill,
and then all rushed over to stop him. We yelled
for him to not touch it, that Oscar was in
there with us, and crouched down too to hide from
the window. Whence things got quiet again. Oscar told us
about the legends of the place, the one that was
mentioned in the radio by the announcer the play is
where he thought we were in right now. Voices they say,
call your name, aim to lure you out there, and
they've been tied to crimes, and they have evenen shown
up in court records. Oscar mentioned a few cases, but
all were dismissed as lore or ghost stories, unacceptable by judges.
Legends say that they lure you out into the lake,
but nobody knows how or why they happen. But even
in ancient writings and stories, they claim that the voices
come with familiar shapes, ones that we make ourselves from
the trees. There are so many that they blend together,
and our minds pieces them into familiar faces. The voices
of the wind combined to do the same thing. We
all stayed still as he explained what he knew, and
we listened. For the first time, we really truly listened
to Oscar until the sun came up. Now we had
one more night remaining in that area, and for the
rest of our stay we actually kept close to each other.
We thought about going up to the hill and calling
Tom to come get us, but felt silly at the
thought of giving him our reason why. Mark's younger brother
was scared the whole time, but didn't say much, just
asked Oscar a few questions here and there, but stayed calm.
Now there were no more creepy incidents like the one
from the night before, and I remained suspiciously calm, even
to myself now. When Tom arrived earlier than expected the
following day, we littered him with questions about what we
had heard and seen, and he listened closely before speaking up.
Isn't that what you came here for? He told us
he had taken all sorts of people to these grounds,
and apparently most had been searching for spirits out there.
I saw relief in his eyes right when he realized
that we were just a dumb group of students looking
for something adventurous to do on a weekend. The stories
he shared with us on that right back were hard
to forget, although the details themselves I've started to escape
me over the years. Turns out there's something out there
in the empty wounds in the lands that whold secrets.
But I often think of what that thing could have been.
We all saw it the exact same thing, some type
of oscar or a copy of them out there. And
then I thought about the haunting words of Tom himself.
The good ones are the ones you never see. Scary
Story podcast has written and produced by me Edwin Corujas.
Thank you all for your support on my other podcast,
The Paranormal Club, where I read some listeners submitted stories.
In our latest episode, you can find it and send
me your stories through there. Someone actually sent in a
real photo of an apparition that freaked me out. You
can find the show on Paranormal Club and in this
particular episode I'm talking about, it's called We See Ghosts
Listener submissions number four. Anyway, thank you Scary Plus members
for your support. I'm Edwin cove E, d w N
coov on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook if you want to
stay in touch. If you're following the show, I will
be back next week to tell you another story. Thank
you very much for listening. Keep it Scary everyone, See
you soon.