As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 024 - Creepy Easter and Middle Of Nowhere Stories - 08 True Scary Stories

Episode Date: April 29, 2022

Hello and Welcome to the 24th episode of The ATRD Podcast! Today we have some intriguing and terrifying stories submitted by everyday people. In Today's Episode we will have stories about Creepy things that happened on Easter, and some stories that take place way out in the boonies.  ➤ Want your story featured? Go to https://www.astheravendreams.com/Submit ➤ Want to know where to follow me on the internet? Go to https://www.astheravendreams.com/the-nevermore for all my links! ➤ You can also get EARLY ACCESS By joining my Patreon! https://patreon.com/astheravendreams Today's Video contains stories by the following Authors... CassidyIsCareFree, Mr. E-Meat, and any authors that requested anonymity or didn't include information.  ➤ All stories within are used w/ Either direct permission from the author- or under some level of CC license (where noted) True Stories are not verified, and should all be considered 'supposedly true'.  And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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am. My family moved around a lot when I was a kid. It was pretty hard on me each time because I would always meet friends and then we would end up

moving elsewhere, potentially in a new school district. One year we actually moved a state over to New Hampshire into this small, quaint neighborhood where everyone knew everyone else. It was nice as a kid because everyone knew your name and your parents and always gave you stuff like cookies or presents, things like that. My parents said that they didn't care for it, because everyone was also very nosy and tried to involve themselves in everything. thing. Everyone except one neighbor, Paul. But he told us to call him Polly. Polly was interesting, to say the least. He was very eccentric, outgoing, and he wasn't afraid to speak his

mind. He lived in the house to the left of us. He was one of the first people we met when we moved in, as he was quick to come over and give my parents a hand in moving some of the heavy. heavier and bigger items. I was about 12 at the time, so I wasn't much help with moving, other than small stuff or my stuff, really. My parents basically had me sorting out boxes, or setting up my room if it meant not getting in the way. One of the first days that we were moving in, Polly showed up and started helping and introduced himself. He wasn't married and didn't have any kids, but he did have pets. chickens.

He had about a dozen of them, and they were probably the most pampered chickens that I'd ever seen. He built this coop that was just tall enough for me to walk in, and was like a life-sized playhouse. Each chicken had their own bed, and each was a different color. He told me they had assigned beds, but I don't know how true that actually was, like if he had them trained to go to specific bed,

or not. But anyways, there were also small doors on the side where he could collect their eggs. He always told us that he never bought store eggs because they were gross, and that his were all natural. Several of our other neighbors bought eggs from him, too, including my parents. I did like to go over there to pet and feed the chickens, as we didn't have any pets, so it was the closest thing for me. I did have an older sister, but she wasn't interested in them like I was.

So it was typically just me wandering off. We also saw him sleeping outside a lot. It wasn't in a tent or a hammock or anything either. He was just lying in the middle of the yard. My parents thought there was something wrong with him one time, as I remember my mom yelling, telling my dad to go check on him, and as she was on the phone with what I think was 9-1-1, my dad ran over there to see what had happened.

I stared out the window with my mom as I saw him stand up just fine, smile and talk with my dad. After explaining to the emergency people that it was a false alarm, they both came walking back and he apologized for scaring my mom. From then on, if we saw him out on the lawn, and we didn't even bother him, as that was just who Polly was. So he definitely had some weird quirks about him, but he was also harmless. We lived there for almost a year before we started having issues.

Polly was also the type where, if you gave him an inch, he would try to take a mile. My dad had a lot of tools in our shed, and sometimes Polly would come over asking my dad for help, or he would ask to borrow something, and he would let him, but then he started taking stuff without telling my dad. My dad used his tools for his job, so when something came up missing, it could cause him to be held up on a job. One day my dad saw Polly carrying something of his, put it back in the shed, and then walk off.

He was upset because he didn't even ask or tell him he was using it, and it was gone. for a few days. This caused my dad to put a lock on the shed to prevent stuff from coming up missing. There was another time that we started hearing what sounded like running water, and it would happen while we were all in the living room or having dinner,

so no one was running water in our family, taking a shower or anything like that. My dad was worried about a pipe bursting or something, until one night my dad went out to a shed and could hear the sound. He found our water spigot on the side of our house was on, and Polly came walking over with two buckets.

He said his water had been shut off, and he was needing water for his chickens and to take a bath. As mad as he was, I remember, based on the conversation he had with my mom, that he'd helped him fill the water for the chickens and offered to let him take a shower at our place, but again told him, that he couldn't just do that, as it was wasting water, and it was using our water, of course.

So, this was a normal thing for him. And my mom told us when we were older that this was something he did to a lot of the neighbors. She talked to one of them who said if you weren't hard on him, he wouldn't stop. She also said he seemed to hold it over their heads that if you bought eggs from him, You owed him something. Even though everyone paid him with cash or check for those eggs. They weren't getting them for free. They also learned that his water was never shut off.

Another neighbor had told them that, again, he will do that to pull the pity card. He really tried to cheapen his expenses, I guess, at the expense of others. If he wasn't going to move any time soon, then my parents decided they were going to have have to be more strict on things. And that included not buying eggs from him anymore. This, of course, annoyed him too. He kept trying, but my parents would always refuse. They had locks on the shed and garage.

My dad actually turned off the water that went to the spigots so he couldn't use those either. However, he still showed up to parties, or if we had a cookout, things like that. it was harder to make him leave at that point, because he had other neighbors over, so it was a little harder to try and make just one specific person leave. It was in April that we finally stopped seeing him around. Again, at the time, I was still pretty young, so I didn't quite understand everything that was going on with Polly, except that I could tell that my parents didn't really want him around anymore. One day I was standing at the bus stop by myself when I saw Polly walking up to me. I didn't get any weird vibes from him, and my parents never said that I had to avoid him,

so I just smiled and waved at him as he approached. He stopped next to me and made a joke about me being suspicious standing here alone. I told him I was waiting for the bus. We made some small talk, and he brought up East Side. and asked what we were doing for it. I told him probably nothing, since neither me nor my sister still believed in the Easter bunny or anything like that.

He actually looked surprised and asked me why not. I remember not knowing how to respond to this because he was an adult, and it clearly wasn't real, so why would he be so surprised that a 12- to 13-year-old didn't believe in it? He then went into this whole, long story about some legend of the Easter Bunny and how you can still get candy and goodies from him even if you're an adult, as long as you believed in him. I laughed because who the hell

would believe this. But he actually looked confused and offended that I was laughing. I apologized, but he basically said, if you don't believe it, you'll soon realize your errors. Thankfully the bus was pulling up because I couldn't see him laughing and saying just kidding at this point, so I got on the bus saying sorry and nothing else. I went through the rest of the school day just fine, and without seeing Polly again for the rest of the week either. That Sunday was Easter, and part of me thought about what he said and what he had meant by it. I told my sister when I was in her room with her about what he said, and she basically said the same thing that I was thinking,

that he was trying too hard to convince someone to believe in something that we already knew didn't exist. She then told me it would probably be best to just avoid him as much as possible, calling him weird. I still didn't really think he was weird, but I let it go and went to bed as normal. At some point in the night, I'd woken up and remember just, laying in bed, facing towards my door. I decided to roll over to maybe try another position to fall back to sleep. The opposite wall had a window that faced the side of our yard, facing towards Polly's house. And I liked to have it cracked open when it was cooler.

I had a dark purple curtain, but it was still sheer, so the wind could easily catch it too. It was really peaceful, so on this night, I had it cracked open some, and I watched the curtain move as I slowly drifted back to sleep. I remembered that night, though. I had a strange dream or what I thought was a dream. I heard weird noises coming from my window, and then I heard someone whispering my name. But when I looked out there, I couldn't see anyone. But I kept hearing someone walking around.

The next morning, I woke up. remembering my dream and immediately looked over at my window where I saw a small envelope. It was sealed on the back with a small flower sticker, and when I opened it, there was a small card in there with handwriting on it. I think my parents threw it away after this, but it said something like, Dear Amanda, I heard you don't believe in me, and that made me sad. However, maybe I can prove to you that I'm real. Please check on my friends in your front yard. Sincerely, the Easter Bunny.

What the hell does any of that even mean? Friends? I had no idea what this had to do with anything, but it definitely piqued my interest. So, in my pajamas, I swiftly walked out of my room into the front door. I passed by the living room where my mom was making breakfast. I'm sure she saw me, or at least heard me open the door.

I walked out, and I saw a basket sitting on the front porch first. They were all colorful like someone had painted eggs and just left them. Then I saw something furry in the yard, and then I saw another furry lump in the yard. Curious, and also an animal person, I walked toward the closest one. To my horror, it was a dead rabbit, missing its head. I was terrified, but as I looked over to the next one, I noticed that it was dead too. I immediately started crying and ran back into my house, screaming for my mom.

She met me at the door, and I tried explaining to her what had happened between the tears. She told me to go back in the house and sit in the kitchen, as she closed the door and yelled for my dad. I remember my dad walking out in the yard when my mom stood in the doorway, and it wasn't long after that that my dad walked up to my mom furious, telling her to call the cops. The rest of the day was kind of everywhere, and my parents seemed to talk forever to them while my sister tried to keep me occupied and get my mind off of what was going on. so obviously I didn't believe in the Easter Bunny before this definitely didn't convince me either how the hell was it supposed to anyways I learned from my sister when I got a little older

that it was definitely Polly that did it too I showed them the card that I got and they had a feeling that it was him he also had the gall to approach my parents while they were picking up the dead rabbits asking how we were, and asking for me specifically. My sister said our dad looked like he was about ready to kill him, but he just yelled at him and threatened him that if he ever came back onto our property,

he would take care of him. From then on, we would find random eggshells in our yard, stuck to our house, shed, or car. Oh, and the basket of eggs, by the way, were also raw. They weren't fake or even hard-boiled. so even weirder. Because of him actually damaging property and other neighbors witnessing this, we were able to get a restraining order.

The neighbors always tried to get more information on what was happening and tried to tell us about him, but my mom didn't want anything to do with it. I know she definitely did not feel comfortable being there anymore, and since it was clear he wasn't going to move anytime soon, we did. He may not necessarily have been dangerous at the time, but that man definitely had something wrong with him. And sometimes it felt like it was only a matter of time before he snapped.

Thankfully, we moved with minimal issues, and he was the weirdest neighbor that we ever had. This all happened back in 2015, which wasn't that. long ago, but it honestly feels like it was several decades ago. Completely off topic, but these last three years have kind of felt like three lifetimes. And remembering 2015 makes me feel seriously old, and I'm only 32 as of last month. This happened before my wife and I were married, and we were just dating, and honestly we weren't even.

even sure if we were going to be a permanent thing. I won't give the exact location of where I live, but we live in a northern state with a good amount of wilderness and backroads, back roads that nowadays pretty much just lead to nowhere. I'm sure there was a time where they were important, but now it's just dirt roads that have no real destination, and you could spend way too much time on them getting lost, just kind of absorbing the scenery.

Eventually you'll end up back in the main roads, or a small town, sure, but if you're not careful, you can seriously pull up into someone's backyard and get greeted with a shotgun to your face. Some of these roads were used as logging and mining delivery roads, but as time has passed, those industries have died down in our area, and the roads have all been practically reclaimed by nature.

We've gone and gotten lost a few times in those areas, but there was one time that we actually found an old abandoned mine that was more or less just a cave now with the back end collapsed. On this particular day, we had actually wanted to go back out into the area with the cave, and we were thinking about getting some nature shots of the inside of, that cave and the woods around it. It had been a year since we'd actually been, and we kind of had the way memorized,

but at the same time, the growth had changed and made it to where things were looking a bit different. What made it worse was that it was actually starting to rain a bit, which was going to make navigating the abandoned dirt roads harder, and also make it more likely that we would end up getting, stuck. We'd been driving for a while, and at that point, I had decided that we likely weren't going to find the cave, and the rain was coming down pretty hard. I then decided that we should go ahead and pull over and just wait out the storm. I turned down what looked to be a flat road without much

in ways of hills or valleys, and then pulled over to the side and parked the jeep. At first, I was pretty happy that we'd found a nice flat area to park to waded out. But then it kind of hit me. Where we live, it's not really flat. And this area kind of felt unnaturally placed, in the middle of the old mining roads. My girlfriend didn't seem to realize how strange it was, but as I was looking around, I started to kind of feel uneasy about it. To the left was pretty much just normal woods, but to the right was what looked to be an empty field.

Like purposely empty. It was as if someone had completely cleared it out and was just leaving it dead. After a while of just sitting there and talking and resting my eyes for a few minutes, because as uneasy as I was feeling, the sound of heavy rain against the roof of your car enough to knock almost anyone out. The rain had started to slow down. So I was more so able to see what was around. For the most part, it looked to be pretty empty,

just the trees to the left and field to the right. But then I noticed what looked like an old camper near the edge of said field. When I say old, I mean old. It was beaten up, rusted, and it looked like it had been abandoned for a few years. I pointed it out to my girlfriend, and she excitedly said,

Let's go check it out. Maybe they'll know where the cave is. Yeah, she actually said that we should get out and go toward the creepy old abandoned camper or RV or whatever you want to call it and ask if they knew where the abandoned mine was. I kind of laughed at her and mentioned that that was how horror movies started.

She just kind of laughed me off and said, Yep, and then opened the door, which meant that we were about to go check it out. As we were walking towards the RV, I was feeling a really deep sense of this is a bad idea, all wrapped up with the feeling like we were being watched. My initial thought was that maybe there was somebody in the RV

and they were camping out here, but honestly with how trashed it looked on the outside, I really didn't think someone could be living in it. We got up to it and she knocked softly on the door. After a few moments with there being no answer, she knocked again. And I decided to kind of look around the RV because I was pretty well convinced that there was no one in it. When I got around to the side that I couldn't see from the road,

I was proven correct. There was a massive hole in the side that I could see into. She yelled over that she didn't think anyone was there, and I told her that she was correct, and as I was sitting there just kind of staring into the hole, she opened the door and walked into the RV. I was genuinely surprised and asked her what the hell she was doing. She said that it was most likely abandoned,

that no one was going to kill. care. I mentioned that it could be a crime scene or that there could be a dead body in it. While that last statement was a joke, she actually responded with, you might not be far off. I asked what she meant, and I walked around to follow behind her. In the RV was a bunch of clothing, like really old clothing, that was dirty and torn up. and some of it was stained brown with what was either blood or something else which is more disgusting it got worse the more that we looked around there was the clothing sure but then there were also what looked like toys lying around there were boxes of really old food in the kitchen net area and then when we got to the bedroom area there was what looked to be really old handcuffs connected to a pole that was a fixed to the floor. Both ends were still closed, like the person that had them on was able to slip out of them,

or like they were relocked. But they were dirty and rusted over at this point. After seeing that, I was done looking around at this thing, and I told her that we should probably go. To my surprise, considering this was her idea, she actually agreed. We got out, and, as... As soon as my feet landed on the grass, I seriously got hit with the sense of somebody was there. I looked around and I didn't see anyone, but I just knew that there was someone watching us, which scared me even more.

My honest thought was that there was someone living in that RV and that we had intruded on their home. Obviously, we just showed up when they weren't in it. I don't know how someone could have possibly been living there, but I think they were. We quickly made our way back to the Jeep and decided to just give up looking for the cave, and we seriously never went back down those old roads. Something about the RV and what was in there was too much for us, and there's literally nothing in this world that will ever make me want to go back to see if it's still there, or go anywhere near it.

Nowadays, when we get that feeling that we want to go out and be one with nature, we just go to the park. Back in the late 2000s, me and my then-boyfriend Omar were taking an impromptu road trip. And we just wanted to get away, so we just set off heading east and whatever direction we were pulled, and stopped at places we were drawn to. We didn't have a lot of money, so we slept in our car lot. which was fine, as it gave us more time to look around at places to go. However, our idea of places to go also included urban exploring. It was fun enough finding places local to explore, but even better went out of state.

Places you've never been to or heard anything of, and just going in blind. We were driving through Mississippi at the time when our calls, started having issues and overheating. Thankfully, we were near an exit, so we got off the freeway, and, with our hazards on, slowly drove into the closest parking lot and turned the car off. We had to figure out what was wrong with our car, and most likely without moving it, so we got directions to a nearby gas station and started walking. I was so incredibly thankful it was September, so it wasn't very hot.

On our way there, we noticed what looked like this big old house with the fenced-in yard, until we started looking at it more. It was actually an old church that looked like it had been closed or abandoned for a while. At that moment, we could read each other's minds. We knew we were going to be staying in this little town for the night. We got to the gas station where they thankfully sold antifreeze, and started our walk back. On our way, we looked around to see if there was anyone watching.

We checked for no trespassing signs and looked for the best way in. However, the best way in would turn out to be the front gate, didn't have a lock or a sign on it. Once we got back to the car, we poured in the antifreeze, and thankfully that seemed to help. We decided to eat while we were there, and then left to find a good place to leave the car while we went exploring. Turns out, there was a small motel not far off from the church, so he agreed to park it there.

It was already evening when we first pulled into that first parking lot, so we didn't have to wait much longer until it got dark. Once we were good and didn't see anyone loitering around the motel, I emptied my purse, so all that I had on me was my... pepper spray and a flashlight, and we left. As we walked to the church, we opened the gate and quickly ran up to the door to get in. The door looked like someone did a poor attempt at boarding it up, but missed one whole side of the frame as we could slip through and inside easily. Once in, I immediately noticed how creepy the main hall was.

There was spray paint on the walls that said welcome. It looked like someone had taken the boards that covered the windows and made a sign that, again, said something like, She welcomes all here. It was weird, but probably people that snuck in trying to make a church creepier than it already was. We walked over to the right that had a couple of rooms. It looked like it was for children based on the decorations and the bright colored paint that was peeling from the wall. The first room seemed to have a really old TV in it, but the actual center of it was busted out. There were a few toys in a small chest in the back as well, as a little cubby shelf with different names on it.

Don't get me wrong, I love doing this, but seeing places like this with a name attached to it, it gives me a weird feeling. It makes it more real or brings it back to life, in a sense. I proceeded down to the next room, which was when things started getting weird. The room had been stripped. The cubbies and shelves on the wall had been all ripped out. The light fixtures and wiring seemed completely gone. The carpet had started being ripped up where it could be, leaving the bare wooden flooring underneath. But the creepy part was in the middle of the room.

There was a pile of toys, or rather things. More specifically, it looked like anything with a face. Dolls, cars with faces, VHS tapes with faces on them, the clock with literal hands in it and eyes, all anything you could really think of. However, it was all red. It looked like someone had poured buckets of red paint on this stuff and then just left it. I thought that once again it was just someone trying to be creepy, so I just left it.

As Omar and I started walking to check out the other side, we could smell something that was like an incense or a candle. Going further in the hallway, though, we couldn't smell it, and we definitely couldn't smell it on the other side either. Curious to know what it was, though, we decided to go to the only other place left, which appeared to be the main chapel area. We slowly creaked the doors open and went in cautiously. This is where we became a little more on alert. At the altar, we could see what looked like lit candles.

Omar was hesitant to continue at first, worried that someone could be in here. but it wasn't that big and I couldn't see anyone from where I was. So, we agreed to walk further in together. As we did, I started to notice weird symbols in the walls, and they appeared to be written in the red paint, just like the room that we first saw. Omar then pointed at the pews that also had the symbols all over them. I was starting to get some weird vibes from this place at this point,

I had never seen these symbols before. I was far from being well-versed in different religions, but these all seemed more cryptic. However, the altar is where I waved the flag. From the entrance, I could see the candles, but couldn't really make out anything else up there. Once we approached it, there was a pew that was up there, but still facing the same way.

I was startled at first because there was a tarp over it, and it looked like someone was underneath it. Omar softly kicked the pew to see if whatever was under there would budge. When nothing happened, he slowly pulled the tarp back. I almost got sick. It looked like a pig that had been dead for a very long time, which explained why we couldn't really smell anything. The podium, though, had a disdain. disturbing framed picture on it.

It was a naked woman that looked like she'd had a long cut from her neck to her belly button. She looked like she was sitting on one of these pews. Legs straight down and crossed at the ankles and arms stretched out across the back rest. However, she was alive and smiling. The podium also had what we were smelling. It was an incense that was almost out. And the candles that we saw were those fake battery-powered ones. At this point, we were on edge.

This meant that someone had to have been there fairly recently. Omar didn't want to stick around anymore, and I certainly didn't want to get to know anyone that did this, so we bounced. We quickly and as quietly as we could went right back out the front door. Omar had me go out the door first, and when I turned back to hold the board open some, I noticed he was looking to the left. I told him to come on when he finally walked out and pushed me towards the gate. Once we got out, we took off to our car, and when I thought we were just going to chill for a bit,

he actually drove off. He said he would feel more comfortable if we got away from there. He didn't talk much while he was. driving, so I did a lot of the talking, trying to just make jokes about what we saw to lighten the mood. I think we went a few more exits before we ended up at another hotel. After we slept that night and headed off the next morning, it was at that time that he finally told me what was wrong. He thought he had heard a noise when we were leaving, and when he looked over, he saw a man

in a dark blue parka-looking thing, holding a huge knife. He was just watching us leave. He wasn't comfortable staying there in case they came looking for us, so that's why we left. He hadn't said anything to me, because he didn't want me to worry. I was okay with that, too. I felt bad that he had to carry that on his own, but I'm thankful that he was watching out for us. We still like to do this, and it hasn't stopped us, but if we see anything even remotely off, it's not worth the risk, so we leave. And thankfully, we haven't run into any more pigs since.

My family isn't really huge on get-togethers or gatherings, with literally two exceptions. Thanksgiving and Easter. On Thanksgiving, we typically have all of the family come over to my grandmother's house, which includes those of us that are out of state. Easter is a bit different, though. It's usually just those that are nearby, mostly immediate family, and we typically reserve one of the party areas at our local park. Since where we live has a perfect spring pretty much every year, we've always had our east. Easter parties outside at the park. And it normally goes pretty well.

We're always respectful to the people nearby. We clean up after ourselves, and we try our best not to be too loud. We've actually had a few times where we would just invite people that happened to be at the park over to have some food if they were interested. We always make too much. And even if you're not family, we would prefer to spread some positivity. and joy to others. Most of the time, this will result in some awkward looks, and once the people realize we're being genuine,

they come over and get to know us. There have been a few times where things went a bit south, and there was one specific event that actually almost ruined this tradition for us, which is what this story is about. This happened back in 2017, which would have been April 16th of that year. I remember this because it was actually two days before my 20th birthday, so I was 19 at the time.

We had prepared for the same Easter festivities as we'd had every year. We bought the food we needed, made sure everyone was going to be there, and we made absolutely sure that we had the park's party area reserved. I don't really know what to actually call it, but it's like a gazebo by the pond. This park is very specific about reservations with large parties using this area, and they actually require a $50 deposit for it, which basically reserves your date.

We paid it, got the paper that showed we had it reserved, and we were ready to go. The day arrived. We got all of our food prepared and headed up to the park as a family. While we were a decent-sized group, we aren't necessarily a huge one. The group on this date was myself, my three siblings, my parents, grandparents, and then my aunt and uncle on my mom's side with their two kids. So it was a grand total of 12 adults, 16 people total if you count my nieces and nephews.

We all got there and got our stuff ready to take out to the gazebo, when we noticed that there was a small group of around 6,000. six or so people sitting there and eating as a group. No big deal, really. It looked like they were just eating their lunch together, which honestly meant that they would likely be going elsewhere pretty quick. We all decided to go ahead and head over to set up, and we would just inform them that we had it reserved.

As we approached, I could tell that at least one of the people wasn't happy seeing a large group approaching them. For the record, the gazebo has a few tables under it, so we weren't crowding them in or pushing them out. We were just loading our stuff to the back end and setting up on the other table. After we got all of our stuff loaded into the gazebo, my uncle very politely informed the people sitting there that we had the spot reserved and asked them if they would be much longer, because we were going to get set up for the party. Most of the group seemed to be okay with what was going on, if not a little annoyed, sure, but they said they were just about to leave. However, the older man of the group was visibly unhappy with it,

the same one that was rolling his eyes at us as we approached. The rest of them got up, but he just stayed there and retorted to my uncle's statement that you couldn't reserve the gazebo. it was first come first serve. My uncle told him that that was incorrect and pulled the copy of the reservation notice from his pocket, saying that we had paid for the spot so we could all have our get-together.

He mentioned to the man that they were free to join us and have food when it was all done, but in the nicest way he could basically told them to leave until that point. The man threw a few experts, our way and told us where to shove our food, but then got up and walked away, all while calling us names and just being a brash individual. I get that he was upset, but we had it reserved. It wasn't like we just called the police or park rangers or whatever and had them removed.

My uncle was nice about it, and even invited them back when it was all done, but he'd asked them to leave so we could have some time as a family. Obviously, this isn't where this all ended, though honestly it should have been. We all kind of thought that this guy was going to just be rude and walk away from the situation, which is what pretty much happened at first. We got the tables set up. My uncle, dad and grandpa were over at the grill making food and chatting. I was sitting with my nieces and nephews and chatting it up with them as much as they wanted me to.

everyone else was just having a good time with the family. After a little while, my sister motioned for me to look up, and, when I did, I saw the rude guy and another man walking back up the trail toward the gazebo. With how it was set up, you could see anyone walking up to the party area, and there was no way that they could be going somewhere else. The trail was basically a dead end that led to where we were. I shook my head and just kind of thought, maybe he's here to apologize. Maybe he realized he was being rude.

But of course, that's not how things went. As they approached, my uncle and my father looked up and asked if they could help them, basically just cutting it to the chase. The rude guy started shouting about how my uncle and our family had violated his constitutional rights by kicking him out of a public place. I'm not joking. This guy said it was unconstitutional for us to use a public parks party area that we had paid for and reserved for this day. My uncle stared at him and basically laughed at this comment.

He told him that we had reserved the space, that we had paid for it, that we had signed a document that allowed us to be there, and that he hadn't even kicked him out, just asked if they would leave for a little while and possibly come back later. My uncle was a super calm and collected man, as evidenced by his response to the man's earlier regression, but he was pretty clearly done with this crazy guy's BS. This is where things started to get a little hairy.

The second man approached my uncle and started shoving him, basically saying that he was going to beat the hell out of him. All the while, my uncle was a little bit of him. All the while, my uncle was attempting to de-escalate the situation. This guy, however, was not interested in de-escalation. And he started to grab at my uncle, which caused my dad to try and intervene. And pretty quickly, it was a four-man fight with my uncle, father, and the two men all scuffling over this stupidity.

It hit its peak when the man that was fighting my uncle ended up getting the upper hand on him, and actually slammed his face against the grill. All I could hear was my uncle screaming in pain, which caused everything and everyone else to go silent and stare at the situation. I think the guy realized that this minor fight had quickly escalated to potential permanent injury, that he was about to get into major legal trouble. Thankfully, being a public park, there were other people around, and someone had called the cops already,

basically calling them by the time the argument had even started. By the time these two men attempted to get away from us, the cops were already pulling up. It was insane to me that a family get-together had turned into a quick fight, significant injury, and my uncle in an ambulance with major burns and part of his face in less than five minutes.

Like, the entire feeling, of the day shifted hard in an instant, because this guy was upset that we wanted to use the area that we had reserved. Obviously, he was arrested. They both were, and the

cops took statements from the entire family. We packed up and took everything home, and decided that we would just eat at my grandma's house later. None of us really wanted to eat anyways with my uncle in the hospital. He actually actually

did recover, for the most part, but he does have a gridiron-looking scar on the side of his eye where the grill seared into his skin. And my uncle, being my uncle, he likes to make jokes about it. He now says that he knows what it feels like to be a stake. Thankfully, this didn't dissuade us from having our Easter get-together at the park, and we actually have it reserved in a couple weeks for this upcoming Easter. Whenever I was 18, I met this girl in an online game that lived in a different state, about 17 hours away. We talked for months about anything and everything, and got to know each other and became really good friends. We shared pictures and even video-chatted, so we knew that we were the real person in the pictures.

After a while, it became more than just a friendship, and we gave long-distance dating a try. We promised each other that, after we graduated, we would save up money and fly to be together in person. At the time, I'd been working with my dad at a shop that he owned part-time while I was still in school. Then, instead of finding another job, I decided I would start working there full time to save up more money. When you don't have to drive to work and still live with your parents, you tend to have some extra spending money. I was thankful that they let me stick around, though. So, after a few months, I bought a ticket and I flew out to see her. It was definitely nerve-wracking at first.

Not seeing this person before, but it was a lot of fun. We did a lot of things, like going to the movies. She suggested some of her favorite restaurants and parks, and we got to play the same game together, next to each other where we first met. I was there for about a week, but I loved it there. I loved the area. I loved the neighborhood.

I loved the weather. It was late summer, early autumn, and it wasn't hot or humid like it was where I lived. I also fell even harder for her, so, as some young people in love do, we started making plans for me to move there. She was currently living with her mom, so we could both save up money to get a place of our own. After I went home, we started looking for places to apply and move to, and started saving for the fees, deposits, and moving expenses. Now, I did have some belongings that I, of course, wanted to bring with me, as well as a car,

so flying was going to be out of the question at the time. It took us a little longer than we wanted it to, but we had some things come up and halt our process. But then we were finally ready to sign for the move in the next spring. so it was my turn to pack up all my stuff and drive out there to start my life. I also figured once there, I could look for a job and maybe even go to college or something if I found something that I wanted to pursue. Now, of course, I'm 19, almost 20, full of excitement and love and thought, sure, I'll be tired when I get there, but I could totally drive the 17 or so hours in one sitting and be fine.

So I packed up my car and went to bed early the night before. I got up and had some coffee with my parents. Mom was still a little hesitant and worried about me going alone, but my dad was pretty happy for me. I grabbed some things to eat and energy drinks the day before as well, so I gave my parents' hugs goodbye and I headed out. Finally, I was on the road and felt really good about myself and my future. I had music blasting.

Katie called me a few times to see how I was doing, and I helped myself to some snacks to keep me going. I was definitely a little overconfident, though. This was the first time I had driven by myself longer than an hour, and I didn't really know how to pace myself. I also had trouble sleeping that night as I was so excited and nervous, so I ended up sleeping in longer than I wanted to, and also got held up talking to my parents, so I left later than I wanted. I was about 12 hours in, and I was starting to feel it. I could feel my eyes getting heavy, it was already dark, and I was on a long stretch of highway that didn't have any exits coming up soon. I called Katie to talk to her for a bit, even though I shouldn't talk on the phone while I was driving, but it was at least keeping me awake.

She convinced me to stop and sleep, though, just to make sure I was okay and didn't get into any accidents. So I did end up speaking to her until I found an exit that literally only had a cast station on the sign. I said I was just going to pull into that parking lot and sleep there for a few hours. Then I would get back on the road. So we said good night, and I made my way to the gas station. I followed the arrow to the right from the exit, like the sign said, but there was no gas station. I ended up finding a gravel path that led to just a concrete slab and a small, shack-like building.

There was no pump or any sign of one. The dilapidated building had a white sign that went across the top, but there was no text. It looked like this was once a gas station, or maybe just a convenience store, but it definitely wasn't at this point. While it looked a little creepy, I was too tired to care, so I got out to relieve myself before I went to sleep and then got back into my car. But as I was lying there, preparing to doze off, I got a strong smell of sulfur.

It was just weird being where I was, so I got up and looked around, and I didn't see anything. I wasn't the smartest at the time, but since I didn't immediately see anything and didn't care to check the building, I just made sure my doors were locked, tried to ignore the smell, and went back to sleep. I don't think I ever went into a deep sleep, or the dreams were very surreal, because I started hearing what sounded like someone rubbing against my car, like running their hand and nails along the side of it.

I opened my eyes, and I continued to stare at the roof of my car. trying to process what was happening. That's when I started hearing whispering. I couldn't make out what was being said, or if it was even words or hanglish for that matter. But I again sat there listening, not knowing what to do. But when I began hearing them pull on the passenger side door handle,

that's when I sat up really quick. I looked over at the passenger door and didn't, see anything. The whispering, the noises, it all stopped. I was pretty much parked parallel to the building, so I looked over to see if someone may have ran in there to hide, but I didn't see anything. Again, I was stupid and tired at the time and feeling like I could take on anyone that had the gall to mess with someone's car while they were in it. I decided to check it out and confront them. Don't worry. I still regret it to this day. The front of it just had a small door with a window that was almost impossible to see through.

I could, however, make out a small counter and shelves along the back. I tried to reach for the door and, to my surprise, it was unlocked. I started to slowly pull it open when I heard a blood-curdling scream come from inside. I looked up just to see someone completely naked and nearly skin and bone run from the right side and jump and tumble over to the other side of the counter. I let go of the door and immediately ran back to my car. I locked the door, staring at the building to see if anyone would run over to my car when I heard a banging on my hatchback. I looked back to see another or maybe the same man trying to climb on top of my car. My thought was, I was in the middle of nowhere.

No one knows really where I am, so if anything happens to me, what the hell was I supposed to do? So, with only a couple hours of sleep, I started my car and burned out of the parking lot, watching the guy kind of tumble backwards away from my car. I got on the road and I was shaking, trying to start the navigation back up, but not wanting to stop. I finally got it started and I just drove the rest of the way fully awake. I was terrified that they might try to come after me. There weren't any cars around from what I remember, but I didn't know if there was somebody waiting or what.

When the sun was finally peeking up, I called Katie and told her that I was already back on the road, and that I was a few hours out. I think she could tell that something was wrong, so I pulled over to explain what had happened. She was trying to assure me that it was probably just a homeless person that had taken over the place, and I probably spooked them, too. It made sense to me at the time, so. I calmed down. I found an open gas station to stop and got some more coffee and tried to get a hold of myself.

She had me send her my location, so she at least knew where I was. Something we probably should have done in the first place, and then I left again. By the way, being able to send your coordinates to someone via text is an absolutely incredible tool and very good safety measure. Anyways, I finally got there with no further issues or scares, and after having lunch, I slept for the rest of the day. The kicker, though, was the next day when Katie told me that I actually wasn't too far from an asylum of some sort. It was on the same road, but probably a few miles up. So I may have come into contact with the patient that somehow got loose, maybe. I'll never know because I never went back to look for them.

It was just an all-around unpleasant experience, and I wouldn't suggest driving alone at night in some unknown area outside of civilization to anyone. I'll start by saying that I was a pretty onry kid growing up. I'm a middle child, and at the time, my older brother was 18, so he was hardly home at this point. I was 13, and my little sister was about six. My parents' attention was pretty focused on her at the time,

so I guess you could say it was due to the lack of attention. Middle child syndrome, who knows. I had troubles in school as in not turning in assignments, not paying attention, just things like that. I wouldn't say I was really a troublemaker, just more so acted out some. I don't blame anyone for it, though, because my parents were fine. I was just a crappy kid. I bring this up to explain briefly how I got into the following situation.

It was Easter weekend, and our neighborhood typically got together and did an Easter egg hunt for younger kids, and had a few games or activities. They had someone dressed up as the Easter Bunny a few times as well. I, of course, didn't have anything to do with it. I didn't believe in the Easter Bunny but was always told to keep quiet, or I would get looks from my parents if I made remarks about it. My sister still believed in it so I couldn't kill her fun. This year, though, I was allowed to have a friend stay over

since they were going to be busy at the egg hunt. That way I wasn't bored and home alone. So my friend Nick and I had stayed up late that night playing cod, so we were still asleep when my parents left for the egg hunt. When we finally woke up, we went and had leftover pizza for breakfast, played some more call of duty, and just screwed around in the house.

As kids do, though, we started getting bored. So we decided we would try to sneak around to where the egg hunt was to grab a few for ourselves. We may not have been interested in the whole Easter aesthetic, but we were still kids, and we didn't say no to free candy. And so we walked over towards the community center. It had a pool there and a small gym, and I noticed that one of my friends, Jacob, was standing near his parents. I remember shouting for him, and his face lit up when he saw us like the finally someone is here to save me kind of look. He turned and said something to his mom.

She looked over at us and motioned for him to go, so he took off towards us. He came over and said that his mom told him he could go, but he had to be back by the center in an hour or so, as they had somewhere they had to go. So, we decided to start walking around the trail, as Jacob didn't have any eggs either. He said the hunt was already over, but they were doing games and stories, so we were free to take any other eggs that we found. We got around to the other side of the trail, which was a good distance from the center. We'd only found like four eggs or so at this point, so we were just messing around, grabbing sticks and rock. to jab or throw at each other, finding bugs to crush or throw, climbing the trees,

dumb things like that. Like I said, I was a menace, I'm sure. While on the path, we were approaching one of those pet stations that had bags to pick up after your dog, but there was someone standing there in a rabbit costume. It being Easter, we assumed that they were there for the party to take pictures with, and things like that. Jacob said that he hadn't seen anyone in a costume while he was there, but we just thought maybe they were late,

or maybe they were inside the community center instead. I mean, no one would just be walking around in some kind of rabbit costume otherwise, right? I didn't think anything else of it, other than if it was me, I would take it off as soon as possible, and I made a comment about it to my friends. They laughed and agreed.

And that's when Nick finally decided to ask him. He shouted, Hey, do you normally dress like that? And we all chuckled a bit. They turned and looked at us, but they didn't say anything. Jacob decided to jump in and made some comment about laying eggs for us, squatting as he did it. This got us both to laugh again.

The guy just tilted his head to the side and was making a fist. There were a couple of other comments made by all of us, including me, but nothing physical. I know teasing and making fun of this guy was not cool now, but as a kid I didn't really think anything of it. Hell, part of me also thought that I was a kid. What's he gonna do? Yell at us?

Tell our parents. So, we just had our fun. I finally made a comment about how maybe the costume was turning him into an animal since he couldn't talk back, and Jacob made a motion to dismiss him, and we continued walking down the path, passing him. As we passed him, he turned with us, watching us as we walked by. That's when we all noticed the smell. At the time, all I could think to describe it as was like a chemical. It was strong and nauseating.

Now that I'm older, and in the field that I'm in, I realized the smell was formaldehyde, which confuses me even more now as an adult. Why did he wreak a formaldehyde? This kind of became off-putting for us, so we all stopped laughing and just kept walking, if not a little faster to pass him. After we were so far ahead,

I looked back and saw him facing toward us making a fist with the bunny hand. I mentioned it to my friends, and they turned back to look as well. I think Nick was trying to act tough at this point, so he said, What are you going to do, not bring us candy next year? And started laughing. Jacob and I lit out a weak chuckle again, and that's when this guy started charging at us. We all took off running as fast as we could, we didn't get far when the guy quickly caught up to us

and managed to grab Jacob by his hoodie, knocking him to the ground. We stopped a few feet ahead of him waiting to see what he was going to do, but we're also frozen not knowing what we should do. That's when, without saying a word, he got on his knees over Jacob and put his hands around his throat. He was mumbling something that I still have no idea what he was saying. saying to this day, and Jacob was groaning, grabbing at his hands and trying to stop him. We were just kids. We did not know what to do here. I watched as Jacob's face turned colors,

and Nick ran up to him, jumping on this guy and hitting him in his head, and anywhere else he could swing. Nick was yelling, I was yelling for help, as I looked around trying to figure out what to do. Something must have snapped him out of it. As the guy seemed to loosen his grip, and I charged at him as Nick was still halfway on his back, which we somehow managed to knock him off balance, and he rolled to the side. We got Jacob up as quickly as we could, and as he was trying to catch his breath, we dragged him to run with us. We took off down the trail yelling for help. When we finally came across a couple of old ladies jogging. They looked annoyed, maybe confused at first, until they noticed how distraught we were and

dirty. We told them what happened, and one of them immediately pulled out their phone and called 911. They walked with us back the way they came from, and we cut through part of the grass to get back to some of the houses where we stayed until the cops and our parents arrived. We told them what had happened. maybe not being completely honest at first about what we were saying to the man, but they immediately started patrolling the area to find this guy. My dad had that look on his face that he knew I wasn't being completely honest,

so I told him what all had happened. Again, I know that what we did wasn't okay, but we just moved on. Nothing ever got physical until this guy decided to attack us. a bunch of kids. I got a small talk about how I shouldn't have done that, but what he did was far from okay as a reaction. The worst part of all this, they never even found the guy. My mom also said they never had an Easter bunny there

and confirmed it with the staff. No one knew why there was some guy dressed in a rabbit costume walking around the trail, who he was or where he went. I wasn't allowed to walk around alone anymore, but to be honest, I was too afraid to. Hell, I didn't even want to stay home alone fearing this guy might know where I live and come back for me. I didn't believe in the Easter Bunny before, and from then on, I never really cared for rabbits or costumes like that. And don't worry, I learned my lesson. Don't make fun of people like that again.

adults or kids that were my age. I used to work for a company that did a lot of survey work out in the woods and national forest areas. Basically, we were paid to walk the trails, take pictures of everything around, and report anything we find back to the park services. It may seem like a really weird and pointless job, but it's more about trying to determine

if we have people coming out and using the land for things they shouldn't, camping in parts of the forest that are considered off limits, and also to survey the wildlife. Sometimes we get migratory animals that make nests in part of the trails, that are fully open to the public, and if that happens, we have to shut that part of the trail off, as it is a felony to disturb them.

It's one of those positions that most people really don't even know exists, and it's probably one of the most important ones for the park services in my area. Now, doing this job was mostly uneventful. It was a pretty by-the-book kind of position, where I just had to determine what information was relevant, irrelevant, and write out the reports with the photographs. That may upset some people. A lot of people out there seem to believe that being out in the national parks all day every day must be super exciting and eventful. It's not. Go walk around in the woods for a full day, and then multiply what you see by five.

That's pretty much a normal week for us. And that said, we did see some weird stuff sometimes. A lot of the time, we would just see homeless people trying to set up small gatherings in places they weren't allowed to. or drug addicts getting lost on the trails after a bad trip. Sometimes we would find things that were a bit odd, but, again, it was mostly tame. I actually have two specific stories that I wanted to share, that were both pretty creepy. The first one happened during one of my first outings. I was still working as a trainee, and I was required to go out with one of the more seasoned employees for the entire thing.

They pretty much teamed you up with someone that was a senior for the first year, then after that you were expected to do the work on your own. On my first survey, I was with an older gentleman named Dan. Dan had been doing this job for somewhere close to 12 or so years. Having done this for so long, there wasn't much that Dan wasn't accustomed to. He'd pretty much seen it all, knew exactly what to do in all situations. On the first outing, we had to camp out for a majority of the trip,

as there weren't any nearby ranger stations for what we were doing, which was fine by me, as I've always loved camping and hiking, hence why I took the position that I did. Anyways, we were set up on our second or third night. The tents were ready to go when we were finishing up dinner. At around the time the sun had fully set, and it was pitch black, and we were about ready to call it a night. Then I started hearing what sounded like something rustling around a bit to our south. It was like something or someone was walking a bit beyond the tree line, and I couldn't see them.

This really isn't abnormal at all. when you're out in the woods you encounter tons of wildlife like dears, foxes and typically you can just ignore it and continue on with your evening. I just assumed it was something like that but when I looked over at Dan

I noticed he had his service weapon in his hand and was staring out into the trees. I asked him what was wrong and no later than the last word exiting my mouth, did we hear what sounded like a child screaming at the top of their lungs. When I say screaming, I mean like they were yelling in absolute agony. And it 100% sounded childlike. High-pitched, whiny, and followed with what almost sounded like a sobbing.

I stood up, confused, and started looking over to where it had come from. Dan grabbed my arm and pulled me back down as he watched the darkness. I asked him what the hell that was, and he just looked at me and said, I have no earthly idea, but we're going to treat it like it was just a coyote and not pay it any more attention than we have. I was beyond confused, but the stern look that he was giving me was enough to tell me that I needed to follow his lead. I nodded, and we both turned in for the night. I will say that nothing else did happen. It never got any closer or made any other sounds,

and there was nothing around us in the morning, but I laid there the entire night with my firearm near my hand and ready, just in case. The second story happened closer to the end of my tenure with the company, and was probably the weirdest thing that any of us, us have ever found on one of our surveys. It started pretty normal. I was on the trip by myself, as I wasn't training anyone,

and I was about done with the whole thing when, on one of my trips, I saw what looked like a small hole in the ground off the trails. When I say off the trails, I mean practically in the middle of nowhere in this forest. There weren't a lot of people that came out this way, honestly. We'd never had any issues with the surveys out here. I walked over to the spot where it looked like it had either been dug out or sunken in, and I noticed that something was covered in the leaves that had collected there. I moved them all out of the way and was surprised to see what seriously looked like a manhole cover.

It was round and metal, and was pretty damn heavy. I was able to lift it up and kind of roll it over to. the side when I realized why it looked like the spot had sunken in, because it had. I was looking down a concrete tunnel into what kind of looked like a bunker that had somewhat collapsed inside. This area wasn't owned by anyone, and there was no one that should have been living here, and this bunker wasn't marked on any of the maps or the documentation. I grabbed my radio and I called it in to the station. They told me to stay there and informed me that they would call the authorities to check it out.

They did, and I was pretty spot on with my guess. It was a bunker. It was a nuclear fallout shelter, to be exact. One that apparently no one ever knew existed. It was built some time in the Cold War, most likely, because of what it was and the fact that no one knew what could be in the bunker, the officials had determined that they actually had to dig it up, which I completely understand. There was no way of knowing if this was a stash house for illegal goods or anything potentially dangerous. They dug it up with an actual excavator, and they found

some interesting things. First and foremost, they found the person that was living there. He was long dead, mostly just a skeleton at the point that we found him, which told me that he had probably passed away years ago and no one ever knew that he was there. It was pretty weird. They couldn't find anything that identified who he was, why he was there, or honestly how he had managed to build and hide in this bunker for so long. There wasn't anything illegal in the bunker, just a lot of canned foods and books, as well as a few photos of seemingly random landscapes. It's the weirdest thing that this guy had managed to build this bunker that long ago and fly under the radar.

My thoughts are that he built it and then just never left. But this begs the question of why. Why did he decide to go underground like that? To the best of my knowledge, they never identified. who he was at all, and he's basically marked as a John Doe. This was several years ago at this point, so he probably fell into the cold case files, as there wasn't any evidence of foul play, and he likely just died of natural causes. It's just that no one found him or knew he was there until the bunker had collapsed.

In the end, he went off the grid, and even after death, that's... That's where he remained. That was today's episode of the As the Raven Dreams podcast. Thank you so very much for listening, and I really hope you enjoyed these scary stories. If you want to support the channel further, please do consider checking out my YouTube channel. Just search As the Raven Dreams on YouTube and subscribing.

You can also join the channel or go to my Patreon for early access to all of my content, all of it's appreciated, and never expected. But if it happens, thank you. All that said, friends, I will see you on the next episode of the As the Raven Dreams podcast. But of course, until then, sleep well.