As The Raven Dreams Podcast - 3 Lake Side Scary Stories - True Horror Stories By The Lake

Starting point is 00:00:00 Quick warning. Some of the subject matters in these stories could be considered sensitive to some viewers, and as always, viewer discretion is advised. And of course, if you have a story you want to see on my channel, go to astherravendreams.com slash submit, or check the links down below, and of course, thank you. A long time ago, way back when I was young, probably around 9 or 10, I would spend pretty much the entire summer vacation over at my grandmother's house. which was lakeside property. The edge of her backyard actually lined up with one of the larger lakes in our area, and it was a really neat place to stay for the summer. I'm sure my parents did it just to get rid of me for a couple of months, and to keep my grandmother happy,

Starting point is 00:01:00 but I loved it, and it really didn't feel like I was being exiled from my own home at all. Even better, one year my aunt and uncle had, to move in with my grandmother while they found a new place, which meant that I got to enjoy the summer with all three of my cousins. Back when I was that age, my cousin Pete was actually one of my best friends. When he and I would get together, we would be inseparable. He was older than me by only four months, so it was almost like we were twin brothers,

Starting point is 00:01:36 Always doing the same thing, we enjoyed the same things, and we acted pretty much the same. That is to say, we were both a bit rowdy and considered troublemakers. Anyways, on to the story. This took place back when I was about 10 going on 11. I was, like I said, a bit of a troublemaker. I was a smart kid, but I also had a bit of a mouth on me, and that I would talk back and make witty quips or remarks to the adults that would typically land me in trouble. I guess you could say that I was a bit rude, honestly.

Starting point is 00:02:18 The only person that could really put me in my place was my grandmother. She knew the exact tone that would make me behave. And she had a way of making me shut my mouth and be good. typically involving an old fishing rod that belonged to my late grandfather. My cousin, Pete, wasn't phased by it whatsoever. He would take the lashings, he would talk back to her, and he was mean to her, which is probably the only thing with him that I had a major problem with. I loved my grandma, and he treated her like garbage.

Starting point is 00:02:58 This specific year is, as I said, said, the year that my aunt and uncle and cousins had to temporarily move into the lakehouse. My aunt and uncle still worked, so they weren't home most of the time. My oldest cousin was 17, so he had landed a job at the grocery store, and my middle cousin, Shannon, wanted nothing to do with us, so it was mostly just Pete and I. On the day in question, we were inside the lakehouse, and I think we were playing the old Nintendo

Starting point is 00:03:33 when my grandmother asked us to help her with some housework. I stood up and I went to leave, and Pete angrily asked me where I was going. I told him I was going to help Grandma, and then asked if he was coming. He sneered at me and said that he didn't want to help the old bat, but he said much harsher words than what I'm willing to ever put in the same sentence as my grandmother. I told him that I didn't care if he helped, but I was going to go help her.

Starting point is 00:04:07 He reluctantly threw the controller down and said, Fine, and then followed behind me. We both went to see what we were needed for, and my grandmother asked us to start a load of laundry for her while she made us lunch. She then told us that my aunt and uncle would probably be home soon, so we needed to hurry. We left the room and went to start the laundry. I turned on the washer and started loading in the clothing that was in the basket by the washer.

Starting point is 00:04:39 It was mostly my grandmother's clothing, shirt, pants, dresses, all that. About halfway into my loading the washer, Pete tells me that he will do the rest and tells me to move. Obviously, I did. I didn't really want to do the laundry and was only doing it for, her because she wanted me to. As he's filling the washer, he stops and looks at me and then lets out this evil little chuckle and says,

Starting point is 00:05:08 Hey, watch this. He then proceeds to grab the bottle of bleach and pour half of it into the washer, shuts the lid, and then walks out of the laundry room. The only thing I remember about that moment was that I was shocked and appalled at what he did. but I was also ten, so I didn't know what I should do.

Starting point is 00:05:34 I kind of just walked out of the room and let it be. Obviously, this wasn't the end of it. Later that night, when my aunt went to change out the laundry, she pulled the clothes out of the washer, and the night went to hell. My grandmother was crying, and my aunt was screaming, asking who had done that. At first, I was going to let it go, but seeing my grandma cry broke my 10-year-old heart. So, I told her.

Starting point is 00:06:04 I told her that it was Pete, that we went to do the laundry, and after we had put all the clothes in, he poured the bleach into the washer. Pete tried to deny it at first, but then yelled about it being an accident, that he thought it was the detergent, that he just grabbed the wrong bottle.

Starting point is 00:06:24 He tried everything he could to get out of it, but they weren't having it. I got in trouble for not telling anyone when it happened, but Pete seriously got the bad end of the stick. A couple days had passed, and Pete was basically grounded to his room. I was allowed to roam the house, but I wasn't supposed to play Nintendo or anything like that.

Starting point is 00:06:49 It was that following Saturday, because my aunt and uncle took my grandma out to get new clothes to replace what Pete had ruined. They left me and Pete, who was confined to his room, under the watch of my 15-year-old cousin Shannon, the one that wanted nothing to do with us. Shannon's babysitting skills were definitely lacking, to say the least, mostly because she was always in her room, on the phone,

Starting point is 00:07:21 doing whatever it was that she did. That day, just being the three of us, I asked her if I could go swimming in the lake. To my surprise, she said yes. This was surprising to me because I knew that I wasn't supposed to swim in the lake without supervision, but I was about to because she said I could. Like I said, I was a bit of a troublemaker, too. I got my swim trunks on, and I ran out back on to the dock, and I jumped in. I was enjoying myself while everyone was gone, and then, out of nowhere, Pete walked out the back door and just stood on the dog, staring at me.

Starting point is 00:08:05 He tells me that I'm not supposed to be swimming in the lake without an adult around, and that something could happen to me. I told him to buzz off, and that I was going to enjoy myself while I could swim alone, and that he should go back to his room before. he gets in trouble again. He walks away, and within a few minutes, he walks back out with his swim trunks on. He walks out onto the dock, and jumps in the water near me.

Starting point is 00:08:36 I was annoyed that he wasn't going to leave me alone, but in the end it was what it was, and I just went back to enjoying the water. After about a minute or two, he calls me over to where he's standing in the water, and I swim over to it. him. In a hushed tone, he asks me why I told my aunt that he put the bleach in the washer.

Starting point is 00:09:00 I told him it wasn't right, and that I told because he hurt our grandmother. He huffed at me and told me that I shouldn't have told on him, and that it was my fault he was grounded for the rest of the summer. I told him that it was his own fault, and that he shouldn't do the things he does to get into trouble. Unfortunately, that's one of the last things I remember about this encounter. Because within a moment's time, Pete had his hands around my neck and my head underwater. I remember splashing, I remember trying to yell, and I remember trying to scratch at him or hit him,

Starting point is 00:09:43 or do anything that would get him to loosen his grip, but none of it worked. Obviously, I didn't die. I'm here to type this story out, but I know that I came close. The next thing I remember is lying on the dock with my cousin Shannon standing over me, alongside some random guy that I'm assuming was at the lake and saw what happened, and I remember that someone else was holding Pete down on the ground. The next thing that is in my hazy memory of the events is being in an ambulance, and being checked on.

Starting point is 00:10:20 I'm assuming they were checking my breathing. They had an oxygen mask on me, and I was being talked to by a paramedic. The rest of this story, unfortunately, is what I was told by my cousin Shannon. She said that she was in her room and had actually gone to get Pete to tell him to go outside and to swim with me,

Starting point is 00:10:43 because she was going to join us, and she didn't want him stuck in the house. alone. She said that she went to his room and he wasn't there, and when she had gone to the kitchen where the back door was, she saw him jumping into the lake. She went back to get her swimsuit on, and when she had gotten out back, she actually caught the tail end of Pete holding me under the water. She said that, as she ran outside, I had actually stopped flailing, so I was out. She told me that the other guy was a good Samaritan that. She told me that the other guy was a good Samaritan that had actually seen Pete choking me, and that he had run over to help me get out of the water.

Starting point is 00:11:24 And the person holding Pete down was the guy's son. The guy was apparently a nurse and had managed to get me breathing again, but he said that they needed to call an ambulance because I could have brain damage. I was apparently out for a few moments before I faded back into consciousness. Of course, this was probably the worst summer of my life. My own cousin, and, at the time, best friend, tried to murder me because I snitched on him. I got to spend the day in a hospital, and I got to experience nearly drowning. If you're curious, my cousin Pete is in prison. Not for this, but for other charges.

Starting point is 00:12:09 A grand larceny attempted murder and assault of a police officer with intent to do bodily harm. Obviously, he never changed. and that summer was the last time he and I ever spoke. He was in and out of juvenile as a teenager, and then moved up to much worse crimes, obviously. So, while that was a summer full of experiences, it's one that left me just a bit mentally scarred. I'm now terrified of water,

Starting point is 00:12:41 and I really hope that someday I can just forget about it and go swimming again. Though, that's not likely to happen any time soon. Way back when I was a kid, my father, my brother, and I would spend most of our summers off school out in a certain lake near Ontario, Canada. I'm not going to name the lake because I don't want to be more detailed than Ontario, but I'm sure you internet sleuths out there could figure it out with enough time and detail. Anyways, we lived pretty close to said lake, and my dad was all about nature, so the three of us would spend hours each day on the lake, either at the shore or in our small rowboat, fishing.

Starting point is 00:13:42 We had a lot of luck out there, and we always caught something. We were strictly catch and release, though. We never kept or ate any of the fish that we caught. After my dad passed away when I was about 15, my brother and I wanted to keep the traditions alive and wanted to keep going out to the lake to go fishing in his honor. I know that sounds weird to honor someone with a fishing trip, but it was the closest we ever were to our father,

Starting point is 00:14:13 and it was some of the best memories that we had ever created. Basically, it was kind of like being there with him, without him being there. It was a bit emotional, but it was nice. Now, with the backstory of my dad and why we were there out of the way, I think I should kind of explain how this lake was situated. It's a fairly small lake, situated in a number of larger lakes,

Starting point is 00:14:44 in that it's part of its own grouping of lakes, and is kind of off on its own. It's got a few areas that cove off, and there's actually one section that almost looks like an underwater cave. Like, it goes under the land that's been lifted a little bit over time. Because of this, it's actually a really good fishing spot for the bottom dweller-type fish, namely catfish and bass. We typically would take our small boat onto the lake and fish in the center,

Starting point is 00:15:19 but sometimes we would fish off of the edge. Near where the cave-like area is, there are a lot of trees, and it leads into a decent-sized forest area. Now, this all seems like it's completely boring and irrelevant to the whole thing, but I think it's actually critical to know that this lake is by wilderness and areas that aren't commonly traversed by people. This story is actually the last time that my brother and I ever went to that lake, mostly because of what happened.

Starting point is 00:15:56 This happened around the time I was 17, so two years after my dad had passed, and our third year of going together. Everything went as normal. We got out onto the lake early in the morning, we got our small boat into the water, and we were ready to catch some fish. The lake was a bit cooler that morning, and it had rained some overnight, but it was also summer, so it was muggy and foggy. I didn't expect to catch anything, to be honest, but after about half an hour, we actually had a few hits, and caught some smaller fish. About two hours into the morning, so somewhere around 7.30 or so, we were floating in the lake and came to the lake. came up near where the cave area was. When I say near, I just mean in the general vicinity. Nowhere actually near the cave itself.

Starting point is 00:16:58 We could just see it. I'm sitting there with my pole in the water. My brother is dozing off behind me, and out of nowhere, we kind of start hearing this weird, gurgling noise. We both kind of perk up and look around, just thinking, what the hell is that, when it slowed to a stop? By this point, we were both invested, searching around us for bubbles, and then we hear it again.

Starting point is 00:17:31 After doing this back and forth a couple of times, we decided that we should probably head away from whatever it was that was making the sound, mostly because it sounded strange, kind of creepy. really it was just weird. We started rowing away from the cave area and back to the other side of the lake when we saw...

Starting point is 00:17:56 Something. We saw it crawl out of the cave area, and when I say crawl, I mean crawl. This thing was acting like a person would if they were super tall and lanky, and living underwater. It grabbed on to the mud at the top of the cave-like area and pulled itself up onto the shore.

Starting point is 00:18:18 Then, it started crawling towards the woods. The best way I could describe it, take a mental image of a seven-foot-tall person, slim down any in all fat or muscle so that the skin and bone are touching directly, paint it mostly dark brown to black, and then remove all of the hair. I have no idea what the hell it was,

Starting point is 00:18:44 but it was terrifying. Both myself and my brother saw this thing pull itself out of the water and up onto the shore. Then we watched it as it crawled out into the woods. As soon as it was out of sight, we got our back ends out of the lake and into the car. We talked over what it was and what we should do about this thing, but really neither of us had any idea.

Starting point is 00:19:12 He said we could call the police, and I told him that we would sound like we were crazy, trying to describe some monster crawling out of the lake. He agreed. My thoughts? We should just leave and never come back to the lake. Ever, like at all. Because that thing scared the living hell out of me.

Starting point is 00:19:36 It was unfortunate, but as I said, that was the last time we went to that lake. We didn't go back the next year. My brother and I still do go fishing. We just do so at Lake Ontario now, and we have yet to see any sort of creature crawling out of the water. But I suppose there's always that possibility. This happened a few years ago during a hiking and camping road trip that my sister and I were taking during my last summer vacation.

Starting point is 00:20:18 Basically, the summer between my junior and senior year of high school. She had already graduated two years back, and was about to go out to college, so she wanted to go out and have a week to ourselves, one last time for my last summer break. Obviously, we had to take extra precautions at my parents' request. We were two late-teenaged girls, and the world can be a genuinely terrifying place. So, basically, we had to keep them up to date on where we were at all times, call them if anything happened, and keep ourselves armed with mace and all that. I get where they were coming from, but at the same time, it was a bit annoying having them writing the rules for our road trip.

Starting point is 00:21:15 Aside from that, we were told that we needed to stay on main routes and in large parts, parks during our hikes. Honestly, that wasn't a big deal to me. I knew of a few large lakes with really beautiful scenery around them, and I had one in mind that I wanted to go see. Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in the U.S. and is nestled right on the border of Nevada and California.

Starting point is 00:21:46 And if you've never been, you need to go. or at least look up pictures that people have posted of it because it is heavenly. We had decided that this would be our main destination as we live in Twin Falls, Idaho, and Lake Tahoe is literally across the diagonal of Nevada. Most of the trip went swimmingly. We chose to actually go east a bit, down to Salt Lake City, and then across Nevada on Interstate 80. This way, we got to see two really cool places, and we're on a main highway the entire trip.

Starting point is 00:22:26 It was a road trip, and we were supposed to take in the sites, really, so that's what we did. We stopped and we enjoyed the open air several times across the state, and really, this was just such a lovely time. The part of this that makes this a scary story is when we actually got to the Lake Tahoe, area. When we got to the area, we had to make a bit of a decision. The campgrounds weren't going to be available as they fill up fast during this time of the year, and honestly, I wasn't much for camping. So, we decided to find a place that had a parking lot that would have a lot of cars each night to spend the night in.

Starting point is 00:23:14 The main place we chose was the Walmart in Carson City. It was about half an hour away, but it was relatively safe, and we weren't likely to get told to leave if we just kept it on the down low. This whole thing started the second night of us staying at the Walmart, or the morning, rather. We were both asleep when we heard a knocking on the window. I woke up and looked over, and there was some random guy standing by my sister's window.

Starting point is 00:23:47 I shook her, thinking it was, possibly a police officer or an employee, going to tell us that we needed to leave the property. She wakes up, rolls down the window, and asks if she can help him. He kind of introduces himself. He just kind of shyly says his name is Frank and that he's homeless and a bit of a drifter.

Starting point is 00:24:09 He then makes a remark, like, You two ladies aren't from around here, are you? I was a bit concerned, but my sister retorted with What makes you say that? It was pretty clear that he was able to get the hint that she wasn't going to be intimidated, but he also wasn't trying to be intimidating. He kind of laughed and said, Well, your license plate says Idaho,

Starting point is 00:24:37 and you're currently sleeping in a Walmart parking lot. That kind of dropped my sister's defenses a bit, mostly because her aggression was a bit unwarranted, and a bit, well, dumb. Anyways, this interaction ended with him asking us if we were heading back up northeast to Idaho. We told him that we weren't, and that we were going to be in the area for a few more days,

Starting point is 00:25:05 and that we were spending a lot of our time at Lake Tahoe. He seemed a bit annoyed, but then he asked if he could catch a ride out to the lake with us this morning, and that he would give my sister $20 if we could get him. him there, and then that's all he would need. I don't know if it was the money, or just my sister feeling like an idiot with the whole thing a few minutes prior, but she told him that he could hop in and that we would take him there at the time. I just kind of stared at her, like, what the hell are you doing?

Starting point is 00:25:39 But she dismissed me and said that he just needed a quick ride, and that I needed to be more trusting of people. Anyways, we helped him load his belongings, which was pretty much just a tent and a few groceries, into the trunk, and we headed off towards Lake Tahoe. On the way there, which really wasn't much time, this guy started telling us all about who he was. He said his name was Frank, that he was actually from New Mexico originally, and that a few months back, his wife had tragically and suddenly passed away. He said that she was pregnant, and, when she passed, they couldn't save the baby, and that it had

Starting point is 00:26:24 completely devastated him. He mentioned that ever since it happened, he'd been trying to find himself, and that he had ended up a bit of a vagabond, just traveling places and living out in nature, which was the happiest that he had ever been. It was a bit weird that this guy was telling us all about who he was, what his life was and all that, but at the same time, I figured maybe he just didn't have anyone to talk to. We drove up to the lake and into one of the lots,

Starting point is 00:27:01 basically where we had planned to park for the day. The guy thanked us for the ride and handed my sister an old torn-up $20 bill. We all get out and are looking around the area. He grabs his camping gear and heads out into the woods, just without another word to us, and we decide that we're going to head the opposite direction on the trails and spend the day around the lake. Now, if this was where it ended, that would be fine,

Starting point is 00:27:32 but it's not. Not at all, actually. We were at the lake for a couple more days before we had to make our way back, and on the last day, we actually drove to the same lot that we had dropped the guy off at. We went off into the forest area,

Starting point is 00:27:50 and we ended up near a clearing. In the clearing, we see a small green tent, one that is identical to the one that the guy we dropped off was carrying, except this tent was torn up. It was halfway pulled out of the ground, the cloth was cut up, and there was a number of papers strewn around the area. We walked up to see if he was in what was left at the tent,

Starting point is 00:28:17 but the only thing that were left there were a bunch of photographs that were damaged and what appeared to be blood in the bedding that was in the tent. Obviously, we were a bit taken aback by this, but there wasn't much we could really do. My thought was that he may have been attacked by a bit. bear, but if that was the case, then he was definitely gone. My sister thought that maybe another vagabond had attacked him, but all we could really think to do was call the cops and let them know that there was a tent with blood, mostly because

Starting point is 00:28:55 the blood meant something bad had most likely happened. We called them, we made our report, and then we moved back on to the trail and spent the last day at the lake. The next day, we were on our way home when we actually got a phone call from one of the police that had taken our statements. He asked us if we could come in and give them some more information. Unfortunately, by the time he called, we were already several hours back into the state and turning around would set us back a full day.

Starting point is 00:29:29 Thankfully, the officer understood and asked if we could just conduct the interview over the phone. My sister pulled over, put her phone on speaker, and we had a quick conversation with the officer. It went pretty standard at first, as far as conversations with police go. He asked us if we knew the individual that owned the tent that we had reported. We informed him that we didn't know anything beyond his name being Frank, and that he was homeless. He asked us how we knew the individual, or more so how we had met the individual. We told him that he asked for a ride from the Walmart down to the lake. The more questions he asked, the more it felt like he was trying to associate us with him.

Starting point is 00:30:19 And I ended up basically just telling him that we really didn't know the guy, that we had only seen him the one time and we had no idea where he was. That is when he dropped the bombshell on us. They knew where he was. They had actually found his body in a shallow section off of the lake, in a small coat. He informed us that they went out to look after we called it in, and after doing a sweep, they actually found him floating in the lake. He then informed us that the blood in the tent appeared to be his,

Starting point is 00:30:56 and that his cause of death was being listed as a suicide. It had appeared that he had injured himself and then wandered into the lake, and drowned. He then informed us that Frank was actually wanted by the police back in New Mexico in connection with his wife's death. Apparently they believed that he had killed his wife and their unborn child, and they had been looking for him ever since. The purpose of the call was basically to clear us, and to make sure that we really didn't know the guy, and to satisfy the investigators that we didn't have anything to do with his death. So, that is the story of the one time I went to Lake Tahoe,

Starting point is 00:31:39 and the last time my sister and I took a road trip, also the last time she gave a ride to someone that she didn't know. Thankfully, he didn't seem like an absolute psycho, but the fact that he was wanted in connection with his wife's death really freaks me out, especially since I was sitting right in front of him. It's actually almost terrifying how normal he seemed, especially considering what he had done and how he was living his life.

Starting point is 00:32:10 As for why he ended his own life, my guess is that he couldn't take it anymore, and the lake was just the right opportunity. It is a very unfortunate situation, and I don't think I'll be forgetting my summer at Lake Tahoe for a very long time. So that was three Lakeside horror stories, or three horror stories by the lake. However you want to call it, I know I called it lakeside, mostly because it sounded good. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:32:51 A huge thank you to everyone who lets me use their stories, and a huge, huge thank you to everyone who listens. Without y'all, I wouldn't be where I am, so thank you so very much. I love y'all, and I hope you're having a great day. All that said, friends, if you enjoyed this, please do hit that thumbs up button, leave me a comment, letting me know what you thought. Also, leave me a comment and let me know what kind of stories you want to see. topic. Nothing is off limit. Well, almost nothing's off limits. Um, no promises, but I'll see what I can... Excuse me. Hick-uped. I don't know why. Anyways, no promises, but I will see what I can do.

Starting point is 00:33:22 Uh, I'm always open to suggestions and I'm always open to recommendations. So, all that said, friends, if you're new to the channel, hit that subscribe button, hit that bell icon next to it. Hit it all to always or whatever it is, you know, if you enjoyed the content, obviously. Uh, if you want to support the channel further, you can hit that join button down below the video, or go to patreon.com slash as the Raven Dreams, and for as little as $1 a month, you can get early access to all of my content.

Starting point is 00:33:46 How does that sound? Because to me, it sounds pretty exciting. Of course it does. I'm a little biased, but you know what I mean. Anyways, I hope that you all have a beautiful day, and I hope I will see you on the next video. But, until then, my lovely friends,

Starting point is 00:34:03 sleep well.

As The Raven Dreams Podcast - 3 Lake Side Scary Stories - True Horror Stories By The Lake

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