As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 162 - Scary Party Stories & Cryptid Encounter Stories

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

Today, on the 162nd episode of the As The Raven Dreams podcast, we have 8 True Chilling stories. These stories come from the shadowy corners of reality, where everyday life takes an eerie twist & ordinary people experience the extraordinary. Today we will be diving into Scary Party Stories, and Cryptid Encounter Stories. So, turn down the lights, tune in, and let the haunting tales of everyday people take you down that dark and creepy road. Remember, these aren't just stories... these are true experiences that remind us that our world can truly be scarier than fiction. Have a Story To Submit? ➤ https://www.astheravendreams.com Or Post to the Subreddit ➤ https://reddit.com/r/TheRavensDream Thank you to all of the authors that have stories in today's Video... GraceBear, Zackary, MissourianSurfer, Queball898, christina o, JustAPhase, MaddieX, DandyDana As Well As Any Author That Has Requested Anonymity. 'As The Raven Dreams' is a community where we explore the darker parts of human existence through true and harrowing stories. From sinister encounters with strangers and stalkers, to terrifying experiences that defy explanation and unsettling mysteries that linger in the shadows, I am here to tell you the most haunting narratives ever whispered. Much Love, and Sleep Well... ----- #TrueScaryStories #AsTheRavenDreams #GlitchInTheMatrix #RedditStories ➤ Stories include a content warning for language and sensitive/disturbing content. Viewer discretion is always advised. ➤ ALL Audio of this Podcast are copyright of AS THE RAVEN DREAMS / RAVEN ADAMS and may not be duplicated, in any format, without explicit permission ➤ If you like any of the following stories, consider subscribing! - Dark Web horror stories, creepy lets not meet stories, stalker stories, Glitch In The Matrix Stories, Unexplained Horror stories, Paranormal stories, cryptid encounter stories, Crazy ex lover stories, creepy neighbor stories, quantum immortality, true scary stories from reddit, or any other True horror Stories! ➤ And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. [Time Stamps] 00:24 ➤ Story 1 13:34 ➤ Story 2 24:27 ➤ Story 3 36:26 ➤ Story 4 41:24 ➤ Story 5 50:14 ➤ Story 6 1:03:37 ➤ Story 7 1:07:58 ➤ Story 8 Ad Breaks at about 13 min and 50 min+ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Also, if the platform you're on has the option to rate the podcast or leave a and please consider doing so. And as always, thank you. I was invited to this house party by one of my friends from work. We had known each other for a few years. She'd been invited, but she was single. In fact, both of us were at the time. And she didn't want to go alone, so she invited me.

I'm not usually the party type, especially when it was people that I didn't know, but with how much Yassenaa was begging me, I finally caved and agreed to go. To be honest, I don't know why I agreed, other than to just be nice to a friend. I knew the likelihood of me having fun was going to be slim. I wasn't going to know anyone and would have no one to talk to,

so when we got there, I initially wasn't in the best of moods. Yassinia introduced me to a few other people, and then ran off to talk to someone else. I was left to linger around the living room and bob my head to the music. I was often scrolling through something on my phone, too. There were a few people that approached me and talked for a bit before they walked away, which was nice of them, too. In between talking to some of those people is when I initially noticed him.

He was a pretty tall guy, maybe mid-30s. He was leaning against the back living room wall, Other than being really tall, he stood out because he was carrying around a bottle of Jack and drinking straight from it. The way he looked at people that walked by kind of made me uncomfortable. I just told myself to avoid him and hoped the bathroom wasn't town the hall that he was standing by. Maybe an hour or two into the party, I saw a girl that I recognized. Her name was Rachel. She was a barista at a coffee shop.

shop that I frequented most mornings. I remember thinking, what are the odds that I would see her there and decided to call out to her? I knew her by name since we talked most mornings that I was there. She seemed to have the same surprised face as myself when she spotted me. She came over to me, laughing, and asked who I knew, and I jokingly said, really, no one. I told her about Yassinia who had invited me, and she said that she didn't know who that was, but she knew the person hosting,

as it was a friend of their families. We started talking from there, but at some point, I mistakenly made eye contact with the bottle of Jack guy. I'm just going to call him Jack. He winked and smiled at me, but I didn't reciprocate, and just looked the other way.

I asked Rachel if she knew the guy, and she said that she didn't recognize him. I told her about how he made me feel weird, and how he had just winked at me, and she sort of curled her lip. She agreed that he seemed really awkward, and then also agreed that we should probably just avoid him. But, of course, as we talked and laughed, Jack ended up walking toward us, and I warned her as her back was turned to him.

He approached, and while practically stepping in front of Rachel, he spoke to me. He tried to flirt with me, but I couldn't get past how much he reeked of alcohol and cigarette smoke. It made my eyes burn. Rachel scoffed, and I said in a flat tone that we were having a conversation. He looked over his shoulder at Rachel and laughed, and then looked back at me and made a pass. I was pissed. not only did he just rudely step between us as we talked, and then he thought that I would just, what, drop my pants right there

in an awful attempt at flirting? I called him out for being a jackass, walked around him, and then motioned for Rachel to follow me. We both left him standing there, and we walked to the back patio. I hoped that he would get the hints and we could just go back inside soon. It was cold, but I really didn't want to be around. him anymore. We did go back inside soon after, but stuck around the kitchen, picking up the random snacks

covering the kitchen island. We spotted Jack a few more times pacing around the living room, and coming and going through the front door. Eventually, he started getting in someone else's face, and then some guy approached him, the homeowner, according to Rachel, and told him that he needed to leave. They both pushed each other a few times, but then he eventually left. I remember feeling relieved, thinking I could finally relax with him gone. It was getting late.

I was enjoying the party, thanks to Rachel showing up, but I mentioned that I was kind of just ready to head home soon, and she asked to come with me. I think we both had our fill of the party at that point, so I agreed, seeing as I'm seeing as I. I wasn't working the next day anyways, and we prepared to head out. Before we left, Rachel said that she needed to use the bathroom, so while she went, I followed her upstairs and waited in the hallway. I didn't know anyone else there, so when I find someone, I kind of just cling to them. I know some people might think that's weird, but that's just how I am. I didn't stand next to the bathroom door, though.

I was standing around the corner at the top of the stairs. That way I could lean against the wall. The bathroom was down the hallway. While Rachel was in there, I could hear what sounded like people arguing. I peeked around the corner and looked over the balcony to see what was going on, and that's when I saw Jack, back at the party, now fighting with someone. They were in each other's faces, shouting about the party being unfair. Jack said something derogatory about the women at the party,

and the other guy told him to leave. I went back to my position, and since Rachel had given me her number earlier that night, I sent her a text about the guy being back. I went back to watching the show below when I saw Jack pull something from his pocket, and time seemed to slow from there. Someone shouted,

He's got a knife! And Jack lunged at the guy he was arguing with, with, causing him to bend forward, holding his stomach. People started screaming and scurrying around, and that was about the time I felt a hand on my shoulder. I quickly turned to see Rachel, and, of course, I tried explaining to her what just happened. As I explained, I could hear someone shouting, he stabbed him, leaving Rachel and I frozen

in place. What were we supposed to do? Should we go down and join them and really? risk being a victim as well? Should we hide? Thankfully, Rachel was faster than me, and she already had her phone to her ear. She started whispering to the purse in the address and explaining what was going on. I could still hear people screaming and scurrying below us. Furniture being moved? Things being thrown?

And then Jack shouted out that anyone still there needed to come down to the living room at that moment. threatening that there would be consequences if they didn't. He then said something to someone downstairs, and I had a moment of relief that maybe he didn't say that to call out us specifically. Rachel then grabbed my arm and pulled me down the dark hallway we had previously been in. She pulled me into a bedroom and started opening a window with a phone still to her ear. I helped her to get it open and watched as she pulled the screen out of the window. Then she motioned for me to follow her.

We both climbed through the window, and were standing on the roof that slopes downwards into the backyard. It wasn't the top part of the roof, so it wasn't as tall, but it was still a good way up. One that could definitely break, or at least fracture something, if you landed wrong. After some coercing, she finally convinced me that we needed to jump down and get away. telling me the police were already on the way. I did it. I worked up the courage, still hearing shouting and screaming inside,

and I jumped. I landed on my feet, and they hurt like hell, but I managed. We ran to the side gate, easily unlocked it, and ran down the road where Rachel had parked. She had to park a little further down the street

due to all the cars taking up the space. We both got in, locking the doors but kept the car off. We didn't want to alert the wrong person that we were there. It felt like an eternity sitting there in silence when we heard the police sirens getting loud. We watched as they passed us, and the sirens cut off as they pulled into the driveway. Now, feeling a little safer and worried about our friends, we got out of the car and slowly walked back to the house.

I was honestly worried about Yusenia. Was she still in the house? Did she get out, or was she hurt? Rachel knew the person that lived there. Was she worried about them too? We reached the edge of the driveway and could hear shouting inside from the police, but shortly after, I saw them walk out, one cop on each side of Jack as they dragged him along.

He was still fighting them, dragging his feet and wiggling around. An ambulance was already there, and the paramedics were brought. being rushed in by another officer. We started heading towards the house when another cop stopped us. We explained that we had escaped the window upstairs, so they walked us away to ask what we saw. After a lot of back and forth, they finally allowed us to go in and look for our friends. I didn't see Asenia anywhere, but her car was still out front, so I was worried that she had been injured. I tried calling her and texting when she didn't answer her phone.

The cop confirmed that only two people, other than Jack, were injured. One had been cut a few times, but they were minor, but the person I watched get stabbed was Caleb, the homeowner, which was the one that Rachel knew. After confirming that Caleb was going to be okay, we decided that there was nothing left for us to do, and Rachel offered to take me home, which I accepted. On my way back, Yassenae called me and said that she had ran through the back, door with another friend who had taken her home since her purse was still in the house. That's why her car was still there.

I invited Rachel in and together the four of us sat in the living room going over what happened. It was such an insane night. We were all just having fun, even not knowing most of the people there. They were all still friendly and tried to include us in activities. Then this guy showed up and not only ruined. it but traumatized a lot of people. I know we were only four out of the couple dozen people that were there, but none of us recognized Jack.

We didn't know who it was, but Caleb obviously knew who they were. Who was this guy that decided the only solution was to try and kill someone? After that night, Rachel and I ended up becoming pretty good friends. I saw her at work a few days later, and she let me know that Caleb was okay. he had managed to stab him more in the side, missing any vital organs. He had some pretty gnarly staples in his abdomen, though. Jack was later charged for assault, and, as far as I know, he actually went to prison for some time, because this was not his first violent act.

I try not to let it affect me, but when I go to parties now, I get nervous when it's around people I don't know, or the moment someone raises their voice, whether it's just playing around or someone is once again getting kicked out. Because you just don't know what's going on in that person's head. And you really just don't know what seemingly little thing could make them snap. My friend and I saw something at Lake Cushman. When we were younger and still to this day, very few people believe us.

My family went on an annual family camping trip, typically a week after school was out, so in May or June. At the time of this event, I was 14, and being around family long term was considered lame, so I asked if I could bring a friend. Luckily, for all involved, they treated my friend Claire as a second daughter, and agreed immediately. I do have two younger brothers that went with us.

They were eight and ten at the time. Claire was always sweet to them, too, and we were both typically willing to play with them, not to mention babysit as well, but I just wanted some time with someone my own age for a change. We made our own itinerary for what we would do when we got there. My parents even brought a bigger tent so Claire and I could have our own space, which was exciting.

When we first got there and found our place, We set up our tent with my dad's help, and then went off to do things on our own. We went swimming, sat at the beach with our journals, and talked. We even helped with dinner and roasting marshmallows by the fire. I will also include, since I haven't yet, that this was 2006, so I didn't have a cell phone. Claire did, but it was one of those bricks of a Nokia phone, and it was useless bringing it to the lake. So she left it at my place. It was just us and nature, so we had a lot of opportunities to use our imagination and explore the area.

It wasn't until the third evening that things got freaky. Claire and I had found this little cluster of trees and low-hanging limbs. We thought it would be cool to make a fort out of it as kind of our own little space, so with permission from my parents, we grabbed. our sleeping bags and an extra sheet that we had brought, and hung them up the best that we could over the branches. Maybe we were a bit overzealous in our abilities, but we made it work, and we were proud of it. We sat under it with our magazines and journals again, and talked and shared stories. We were told that we could stay there until it was dark, but that they didn't

want us sleeping outside of our tent due to possible wildlife. That's when we knew. We knew that we noticed the splashing. At first we thought it was maybe someone swimming. We were still in a popular camping area, and even though it was starting to get dark, it was possible others were in the area swimming. However, the splashing sounds were wrong. It wasn't like the normal. I know that sounds weird, but if you think about what it sounds when people splash,

it's kind of rhythmic while people are swimming. and then pauses like they stopped. But this sound was way too rhythmic. Like something was methodically moving through the water. It didn't speed up or slow down. There weren't just normal swooshes of water being moved as you waited in it. It was so patterned that Claire and I got it down. Splash, splash, wait three seconds, splash, wait three seconds.

Over and over. I thought maybe it was someone in a paddle boat or something, but there wasn't a boat in sight. Not to mention, they would have had to go pretty far to be where we were because there wasn't a boat dock by us. After listening to it for a while and both of us wanting answers, we decided to walk towards the lake to check it out. The sun was just peeking out from behind some trees, so we had a little bit of light left. but the water was doing something I've never seen before. Usually, you can see the water lap at the shore in random patterns. You see it hitting some rocks and the ripples coming off of it,

or the divide in a ripple when it meets the driftwood sticking out from under the water. But this was different. The waves were coming in perfect intervals. Like a metronome creating what Claire and I have come to call geometric patterns, on the surface that almost looked artificial. Then we saw something glowing. They were like the bioluminescence things you sometimes see in tide pools, but deeper, and with a greenish-blue tone.

They were moving in a perfect circle about 30 feet out from the shore. I remember standing there in amazement and confusion as I watched this circle of light get smaller and spiral inward. What the hell were we witnessing? The last thing we saw and heard was a low humming or gurgling sound. It was like someone was trying to hum with a mouth full of water. And in the very center of the lights, something started poking out. The more it came out of the water, the more confused I became.

The closest I can get is this. Imagine if someone tried to make a swan out of broken mirror pieces, but made it four times too big, and gave it a neck that would bend in impossible ways. Its head, if you could call it that, was smooth and reflective, like polished metal with these dark indentations where eyes should be. But it only got more bizarre. The whole thing rose up about four or five feet out of the water, but somehow never made a sound.

The splashing had completely ceased. Everything was silent. You couldn't hear a single drop of water drip off of this thing and land back into the lake. You couldn't hear the splashes around it like you would when someone left the water. Even the usual nighttime forest sounds of crickets and frogs had gone quiet. Claire grabbed my arms so hard that it hurt, causing me to finally break from my trance and look over at her. She said that she wanted to go back to my parents, and I agreed. Something about that moment told me that we should not be witnessing whatever was happening in the lake.

We left our journals and our magazines at the fort, and then ran back to the camp. When we got back, my parents could tell that something was wrong, and they asked us. I told them that there was something in the water, and when my dad asked us to describe it, we were both at a loss for words. He laughed at first, not in a way to make fun of us, but more so because we were stumped. And then Claire mentioned the metallic swan thing, and both parents were back to looking at us like we just spoke in German. My dad said that we probably didn't see something right and just left it at that. We stayed by the fire for a while, too creeped out to really do anything until my brother demanded smores.

That really got our mind off of things until it was time for us to go to bed. As you may recall, we left our fort as it was, including our sleeping bags. We didn't want to go alone, so we asked my dad to walk with us back over there, and he agreed. We all walked back there together, and as soon as we were within view of our fort, we knew something was wrong. The sleeping bag and sheets had fallen to. the ground but there was no breeze, no reason for it to have fallen. We got closer and were shocked to find everything was soaked. It was like everything had been knocked down, formed in a circle with it, almost like a nest,

and in the center was a small puddle. There was no way the water could have reached where we were set up, and it certainly hadn't rained either. But there was a trail, almost like a very, small and shallow trench that led from the lake up to our fort. You could tell that the sand and dirt was still a little wet, but not as wet as our stuff. I could tell that even my dad was perplexed. I asked him what could have caused that, and for a while he didn't say anything. He just started grabbing the bedding and asked us to pick up our books.

Not that I would have left them, there was no point. Everything was waterlogged. our journals, the magazines, all of it. I was so upset, but was still just as freaked out. Was it the thing that we saw in the water that had caused that? What would have happened if we would have stayed there? As we walked back, I tried asking my dad what it was again, and he said it was probably just an alligator or something.

I thought that was weird, but I also wasn't going to question him. I could see an alligator making a trail up to our fort, but I didn't understand how it could soak everything like that. Again, I know some of you are probably thinking, there are no alligators in Washington, what are you talking about? And you are absolutely right, and I'm with you on that. I understand that better now that I've looked into it, but as a young teen, all I could do was take my dad's word for it. But I know he was wrong. So if we know it's not alligators or crocodiles, then what was it that we saw out there? To this day, my parents stand by that we either didn't see something right,

or we were just exaggerating details, but I know what I saw. I know that Claire saw the same thing, because we both wrote about it before we discussed out loud everything that we saw. If we were making it up, how could our description be so exact? and never change over the years. All I know is there is, or at least was, something out there, creating its perfect spirals of water and lights, and no one believes us.

With it being the season of celebrations, I wanted to share a story from two years ago that was mostly about my friend. She gave me permission to tell it because, frankly, it's an important story to share. My friend and roommate, Paige, and I were wanting to have a little New Year's party at our place. We were renting an older duplex that was pretty close to our school, and they were open to anyone from what the landlord said, but it was typically students that rented them. I assumed because it was a great area, rent was cheap, and it wasn't the prettiest.

A lot of us split our time between work and classes, rarely getting downtime. I know Paige and I certainly didn't mind the ugly brown paint peeling on the outside and the carpet that was beyond deep cleaning. We threw together a rough pastel theme on the inside and slapped down some rugs and we were satisfied with it. Anyways, we were planning on only maybe 10 or so people showing up. It was a duplex. It's not like we had a huge house to party in.

What we didn't anticipate were the people we invited, inviting others. So, we ended up with about 20 people there. It wasn't bad, though. Nobody was too rambunctious, and everyone seemed to get along. Some people brought drinks, and a few others brought extra snacks, which was also nice. Most of us there drank that night, some more than others, so we just sat everything out on our kitchen table as a free-for-all. We had music playing, drinks flowing, people laughing and dancing. It was exactly what I was hoping for.

Even Paige was having a good time, which was nice to see, she had been pretty stressed. She'd been having a rough semester with not only her classes, but her parents were also getting. a divorce, and it seemed like almost daily she was telling me about a call she got from one of them, trying to frame the other as the bad guy. She even told me she'd been having trouble sleeping, so she definitely needed a break. She started drinking pretty early into the night, since, at first, it was all fun for us. We were doing shots, playing a game, but then things started to change, and I really should have noticed the red flags a lot sooner. Paige had already gone through two beers and a few shots before 10 p.m.

And you could tell that she was fairly intoxicated. I wanted to tell her to get some water, but I also didn't want to be a killjoy. Instead, I just kept asking her a lot if she was okay and how she was feeling. At one point, I even got her a glass of water and she drank about half of her. of it before setting it down and never touching it again. I still regret my decisions. By 11, she went from being the life of the party and dancing around to barely being able to stand. At first, people just thought she was drunk and laughed about it, but I noticed that her

breathing was becoming irregular. I was in school to become an RN, and those things start to really stand out to you. I kept asking her if she was okay, and she finally said, I just need some air, and tried stumbling towards our back patio. I let her go, but it was still bothering me, so after a few minutes, I went to check on her. Her face was a ghastly pale color. Her lips seemed colorless. She was sweating profusely despite standing out in the cold in a t-shirt and leggings.

I asked her again if she was feeling okay and mentioned that she didn't look too good. That's when she looked over at me, her eyes glossy, and collapsed against the sliding door. I screamed, not expecting her to collapse the way she did, and immediately went down to pick her up. That's when the seizure started. A few people had since run to see what was happening, and I asked them to help me. I held her head to keep her from smacking it and yelled for someone to call 911. If you've never seen someone with a seizure in real life, then count yourself lucky. It's nothing like in the movies.

We've talked about seizures extensively in school, so I knew what to expect, but to actually have someone in my lap actively seizing, you just feel powerless. You want to be able to do more. Page's body went rigid, her eyes rolled back, and she started making these horrible choking sounds. Someone inside was panicking and screaming about how she was going to die, which really didn't help at all. Thankfully, I knew how to handle a seizure, but it still didn't stop my heart from racing. Our mutual friend Zachary was there, and I told him to watch the place as I went with the paramedics and Paige. I didn't want her to be alone.

I spent my New Year's countdown in the waiting room of an ER that year, pacing and waiting for them to tell me she was going to be okay. Finally, someone came out and told me that she was awake, and I could go see her, but they had a few questions for me. I was confused at first because I figured she had just drank too much, but I was wrong. Way wrong. They asked me if I knew of any prescriptions that Paige was on.

I told them I wasn't aware of anything, so they then asked me if she used drugs recreationally. This question caught me off guard. I never knew Paige is the type to take anything like that. The hardest thing I'd ever seen Paige take was excedrin if she had a severe migraine. What were they getting at? That's when the doctor hit me with a hard wake-up call.

They'd found an amphetamine, in her system, as well as another drug that I won't mention here in her system. They said the combination of those and the alcohol is what was causing the sweating, the collapse, and the seizure. They had to pump her stomach, and she also hadn't eaten, so she had an empty stomach to boot. I was floored. I would never have guessed this with Paige. Was she really using? or based on the second drug, did someone spike our drinks at our party?

I felt fine. I later called Zach and asked him about everyone else, and he said that no one else had mentioned feeling ill either. I didn't want to say too much since it wasn't me, no matter how close the three of us were. He also said a lot of people left after we did, and the few that remains didn't drink anymore. They tried playing a board game,

but the mood was definitely ruined. Eventually, everyone left and Zach stayed behind to clean up the place for us. Bless him. Finally, I went back to see her. So badly, I wanted to yell at her. Just say, what were you thinking? But I knew that I needed to hear her out first. This wasn't like her.

There had to be more to this whole thing. Thankfully, she was honest with me and explained how she had bought some. some pills, and had been taking them to help her studies and finals. She said someone told her about how much they helped them. Then between the stress of school and family, she had trouble sleeping, not thinking about the fact that what she was taking was an upper causing her heart rate to spike, and possibly not being able to sleep. But she then took those pills anyways.

As for the last drug, the doctor had mentioned, Paige swears she never was. took any of that, and wasn't even too familiar with what it was or did. After talking to a doctor and a cop, the doctor called them due to the facts that there was a possible drugging or spiking, and that's the only thing we could think of. Maybe someone spiked her drink, trying to take advantage of her already intoxicated state. I would like to say that we knew everyone there really well, but as the details of the parties spread, and friends invited others, it became a little more complicated.

I felt awful. I felt betrayed and vulnerable. Someone we possibly knew, or someone they were friends with, came into our home and tried to drug her, maybe even multiple people. There were a few people that we could absolutely roll out, but otherwise,

we had no way to prove if someone did or did not. We had to provide the cops with some of our information, something about it being state law, even if we didn't press charges because of the situation. I gave them some names, but there were some that we just barely knew. I even spoke with Zach to see if he could come up with the list of people that were there, or if we noticed anything suspicious. To this day, we still have no idea who could have done it.

no one claims to have seen anything. Zach felt bad for not catching anything, but he was being an entertainer just as much as we were. I've known him since middle school, and Paige and he met in high school. We were thick as thieves, so I knew that I could trust Zach. There are also some other reasons

why I know he didn't do it that aren't relevance to this story, but the bottom line is, I know he didn't do it. in case anyone did suspect him. This experience turned out to be quite the awakening for both of us. Page learned that she needed to take better care of herself. She couldn't rely on controlled substances like that to get her through, and she now knows how stupid that was.

If she would have been caught with it, she could have been charged with possession or worse. Now, if she's stressing or trying to cram for finals, she just takes better care of herself and paces herself. I realize that I could have been a better friend, too. When I see something off, like how she was acting early in the party, I speak up. I won't let anyone do that to themselves if I can help it. I'm going to school to be a nurse anyways, so how awful would it be if I just turned away from something like that?

And lastly, we've all learned to put our foot down when it comes to, parties or guests. If we don't know you, you're not allowed in our place, no matter what. This way we can keep better track of people and the drinks. So next time you go to a party,

be aware of your surroundings. Keep a hold of your drink and trust your gut. And, of course, the obvious, don't do drugs, kids. This happened back in the summer of

2008, in a little town of Wind Ridge, Pennsylvania. I was 13 at the time and off from school for summer vacation. I had all my homework done for when school got back in sessions, so I had all the time in the world to goof off. Plus, my mom and dad were out of town at this country music festival called Jamboree in the Hills, like they go to every year. But the added bonus this year was that I was finally old enough to stay by myself, so I had the whole house to myself until they got back. It was a nice summer day. The sun was shining, a nice cool breeze was blowing, kind of refreshing, really. My aunt had just brought me back home from getting a haircut and taking me to Burns delight for lunch and ice cream. I'm all dressed for the summer. A pair of black shorts, a pair of black

Crocs, a white tank top really showing off the gains I'd been putting in for when wrestling season rolls around. Gotta keep my top wrestler position on the team. I figured I would enjoy the day by hanging out on our front porch and playing some Mega Man ZX on my DS. It was an extra treat that my best buddy in the whole world, slash cousin, got to stay with me during this too. We've been super close since forever.

and had a lot of similar interests, like both being big fans of anime. He's a bit of a stockier guy, but didn't let that affect his confidence any. He's a bit shy, but funnier than heck, once you get to know him. He was sitting beside me on the porch swing, a bottle of Pepsi in his hand. He had his laptop on a table in front of us, watching some squid billies. Now, my house is in the middle of nowhere on a hill, surrounded on three, three sides by deep, dense woods. The only side not covered by woods is the front,

which is where our driveway snakes down the hill to the road. I was entranced in my game when my cousin jostled my arm. I looked up and asked him what it was. He pointed down at the road and asked if that was a bear or not. Well, all I saw was this big black thing just slowly coming down the road on all fours. It was bigger than any bear I had seen on any nature show. It was also super muscular. We're talking muscles on top of muscles here.

The darkness of its color was also kind of strange because it was so deep black. Well, this thing must have felt us looking at it or something. It turned its head toward us, and that's when my heart dropped. The face looked like that of a wolf in a way, but... Also, something about it looked human. It's hard to put into words. I kept my eyes on it the whole time. It stood upright, and this thing must have been nine feet tall.

It then just let out this human-sounding scream that drained all of the color from my body. That's when another one of these things came running down the road. It was soon joined by another one. It was a smaller one. It came to the larger one's shoulders. It had dark brown fur and looked more slender and female, to be honest, for some reason. It had the bloody head of a dough in its maw. Wrapped in its razor-sharp claws, soaked in blood, was the rest of the dough's body.

Or what was left of it. It was missing some pretty good-sized chunks in two legs. I couldn't even move. I was frozen in place with fear, locking eyes with this thing. My cousin was cowering behind me. Both of his hands clasped onto my shoulders as he slowly peaked his head over my shoulder. I could only back slowly towards the door along with my cousin who had the similar idea. These two monsters soon take off down the road,

but I thought they were going to flank the house or something. That's when we booked it back inside. We spent the rest of that day running around, locking doors and looking out windows to see if they ever would come back, but they didn't. We didn't even dare go near the sliding door in the living room, and we tried our hardest to pull the curtains over it, without being in the eyesight of the woods as hard as possible.

I don't know if you'd be interested in this, but it's something I witnessed as a child. too many times, not only when I was a child but now as an adult, people have told me that I'm probably just exaggerating on some of the details or that I was mistaken. But I know I wasn't. I saw this thing several times, and at the age that I was, I wasn't scared of it.

I was more curious, which gave me the opportunity to look at it more, and it seemed to realize that I wasn't afraid of it either. I used to spend many summers at my grandparents' old farm in rural Missouri. Both my parents worked a lot, so it was easier to have me stay there for the week, or part of it, and then come home to be with them on the weekends. I didn't mind it, though, because I loved my grandparents and their property. They had two German Shepherd mixed dogs.

I would spend hours outside with them, playing fetch, hunting for bugs, or other, cool finds. They even had an old barn, but their days of farming were long gone. I rode on the tractor with my grandfather when he was mowing the lawn before, but that was about the gist of

farming for them. Well, that and their old cow Daisy. She was a dairy cow, but she was very sweet, like a really big dog, so. Even after they sold the rest of the herd, my grandpa couldn't bring himself to get rid of her, too. And she became

another pet. She just got her own home in the old barn. I also loved Daisy. I would often go into the barn and pet her or brush her. They would let me feed her carrots or an apple too. On those particularly bad days, like if I was in a bad mood, I would just sit in there with her and read out loud

and it always made me feel better. This event took place when I was nine. I was in the barn playing something. I remember I had found an old bucket and was pretending to feed all the animals in the barn, talking to them as I went down the line. Then I caught something moving in my peripheral near the back of the barn,

where the light from the hayloft window came in. When I turned to look at it, I saw what I initially thought was a person crouched behind some old farm equipment, except I soon learned that it wasn't a person. At least, not like any I'd ever seen. The proportions were all wrong. It was about the size of an adult human,

but its body looked soft. Not like it was necessarily fat, but soft like gelatin. Its skin was pale and slightly translucent. Like those salamanders that are found in caves, It had no hair on its body, but even on its head or face, and its limbs seemed to fold in ways that limbs shouldn't. Like I mentioned earlier, I wasn't scared of this thing. That's the strange thing about being a kid.

You haven't quite yet learned what should or shouldn't exist, what truly is weird or just something you just don't know about. So I stopped what I was doing and I stared at it. The thing is, the thing stared back. Its eyes were gray and cloudy. I remember them so specifically because it reminded me of a pair of marbles that I had at home from a game. After staring at each other for some time, it ran off and exited through the back of the barn. I had to be back in the house before it got dark because they didn't have many lights around the property.

The sun was starting to set, so after... After the thing took off, I slowly walked to the back of the barn, closed the little door, and left through the front. Once I got back inside, I very calmly told my grandparents about what I saw, and asked what it could have been. Both of them assumed that it must have been a stray cat or dog that was just really sick. I tried explaining that it was a lot bigger than that, and the most I got out of them was, oh, well, maybe. maybe it was a sick deer. And that's about where the conversation ended. They were the adults, after all, so why shouldn't I believe them?

They probably knew a lot more than I did. The second time I saw it was about two weeks later. I remember going home for the weekend, at least twice, in between there. The second time, it was in the evening again, just before sunset. I had already gone back in the house. but I realized I had left something in the barn. Between bugs, mice, and sometimes even the weather, I didn't want it to get messed up,

so I just thought that I would run back in there and grab it really quick. This time, I heard this wet, squish sound and looked around to see where it had come from. And that's when I saw it. It was actually perched on the loft floor above the barn, staring down at me. I remember it was nearly dangling above me. And when I say dangling, I mean it's flesh.

The pink soft tissue was drooping so much that it reminded me of slime. But I could tell that it was still attached. All it did was stare at me with its cloudy eyes. I tried to call out to it this time and ask, What are you? But it only seemed to be afraid of, of me. It pulled backwards, and I could hear the scattering upstairs. I walked a little closer to the

ledge where the ladder was, but then I saw the fat ball of whatever it was practically tumble down the ladder and speed out the back door again. I'm not exaggerating on that either. It looked like what you would expect a ball of dough to do if it was poured down a ladder. What could that be, and how could it still be alive? or alive enough to have eyes and run away. This time I ran back to the house and once again told my grandparents about it, and their first thought was that I shouldn't have been in there since it was getting late. I explained to them why I went back and again tried to tell them what was out there.

My grandma didn't really respond, my grandpa mentioned something about there being a lot of animals out there that are sick, and that there are too many for humans to keep track of, and just left it at that as if that explained everything to my little nine-year-old brain. I didn't see the creature for the rest of that summer. There were a few times that I went in there really early hoping to catch it while feeding Daisy, but the only new thing in there was the smell of wet bread that had been left out too long. It was like that soured smell of yeast and mold. I wish that I could have seen it more as a child.

I thought if it was some kind of bizarre animal, then maybe I could befriend it. But the size alone is what startled me. Now, as an adult and going into the barn for the last time after my grandparents' passing, that thing had to be the size of at least a teenager, based on just how much space it took up on the ladder alone. But for some reason I was not afraid of it. it, not once.

It did startle me when it ran away, but that was it. Now I think about it, and I wonder what would have happened had I tried to get closer, or touch it. My parents and grandparents, while they were still around, all thought that I was exaggerating some of the details, but I still remember them clearly. I remember its size, those eyes, and especially that smell. I just want to know if someone else out there had experiences with fleshy animals that may have hung around at barns. So I know that I wasn't alone in witnessing something so bizarre.

Back in my college years, I went to a lot of parties. It didn't even have to be someone I knew. I could just have been invited by a friend of a friend, or my friend and I saw or heard something about a party happening. New Year's was no different. I preferred being in public for New Year's. The amount of people in such a good mood, ready for a new year and a clean plate, was infectious, and instantly put me in a good mood too.

I did get lucky. I rarely experienced a party ending because of a fight or something worse, so I never had that feeling of this as a bad idea. I just enjoyed everyone that. that I went to. But then, I had something insane happened to my friend and I one night back in 2012. My friend Kat had told me about a party someone was throwing on New Year's Eve. We planned on hitting up a few bars first, and then we were going to this house party out

in the middle of nowhere to finish off our night. Kat said the party was hosted by someone she grew up with as a kid that she had recently reconnected with. He put out a public post on Facebook, inviting anyone that wanted to come and just requested to B-Y-O-B, making sure there was plenty to go around. Cat and I could get by drinking some pretty cheap beers, so we both agreed to chip in. We both got dressed up, as we do, and started at the first bar. We had a friend that worked there, so we spent some time with her before it got too busy.

after we left there, we met up with a few more friends between two other bars. We didn't want to drink too much, as we still had to drive to this house party. It was probably about 45 minutes out from the city. We'd been out for a few hours before we decided to head to the house and grab our beers before the stores closed. Again, I didn't know this person, nor where we were going.

so Cat drove. She was also a lot better at controlling her intake, so I trusted her to drive. I remember thinking on the way that this was kind of like a setup to a horror movie. We went down a long road that was surrounded by trees on one side and a lake on the other. The house really was in the middle of nowhere, and we joked that if anything happened to us, no one would be around to save us. We told each other how it was for the new years, so if it happened then, then it was meant to be. We have a dark sense of humor, but I really didn't feel scared.

This was someone that Kat knew, and she'd known them for quite some time. There were supposed to be a lot of people there, too. And when we turned down the gravel driveway, I knew that it had to be true. The yard was lined with cars. It looked like a makeshift parking lot for an outdoor concert. It was pretty impressive. Christmas lights lined the house, and they had a few blow-up decorations closer to the house. I remember loving it because you couldn't see those from the street.

So it had to have been done out of pure joy for the holidays, which made it that much better for me. I was at ease with the whole situation, and I was ready for a great night of summer. celebrating. The house itself looked like a fairly normal farmhouse. It had a large raised porch that wrapped around the front, and even had those old wooden shutters. It was actually pretty cute looking, but we also noticed walking up to the porch that it was

pretty rickety. The handrail was wobbling as I used it. Kat's friend answered the door, and she introduced us. His name was Brett. He invited us in and he gave us a quick tour. He showed us the living room with lots of people dancing and talking to the loud music. He showed us the kitchen where we could sit our drinks down, and even pointed us in the direction of the bathrooms if we needed it.

It was definitely a run-down kind of house, but it was still nice, not to mention the perfect place to hold a loud party like that one. You didn't have to really worry about disturbing the neighbor. The last place he showed us was his basement, as he had turned it into a sort of game and movie room. It looked like he actually had some old theater seats lined in the front. There were four of them. He had an old-looking pinball machine that someone was playing

and a couple of other people playing beer pong. It was actually pretty impressive, and he was telling us about how he got the chairs from a theater that was closing. Hell, if I had the money in the space, I would have loved to have done something similar to his basement. We all went back upstairs and continued talking for a bit before I ended up wandering off myself. I introduced myself to a few other people, and we just enjoyed each other's company. I was off talking to someone when the time got closer to the countdown. Someone shouted over the music how much time we had left, and we all started preparing.

More and more people huddled into the living room getting ready for the countdown. The music was being turned down and the TV turned up. As more people piled into the little room, you could feel the floor creaking beneath us. I didn't think much of it passed that. Our floor creaked in our place and it was newer than this house, so it shouldn't really be a surprise. Once everyone was in the room that wanted to be present, The music was nearly turned off, and the TV now was full blast as we watched some local countdown. Everything was great.

I saw a cat across the room flirting with Brett. There was a girl that I had been chatting with next to me that had refreshed our drinks. Then the countdown began. We reached one, and everyone was shouting, happy new year to one another, hugging and kissing. It was full of life. And then, in that, That same moment, I felt the floor shift under me. For a split second, I felt like I was floating.

Then, my brain processed the cracking, in the groan of the wood and the metal giving way. We all went crashing through the floor, people screaming. I couldn't react in time and went tumbling with everyone else below the ground. The impact drove the air from my lungs. I landed on something both soft and hard, and remembered laying there just unmoving from shock. Was this real? Did I pass out and just imagine this?

But then I looked around and realized that I was on top of part of the floor, and another person. The silence, even for just seconds, was eerie. As I slowly moved to my resting spot, I started to hear the groans and cries of other people coming too. People were calling out for others, and someone else was shouting, asking if everyone was all right. Slowly we all started confirming, at least those of us that could. The guy that I landed on was out cold, it seemed.

Another guy came over and was helping me uncover him and calling him by name. I stood sore and in a daze around me. people were confused and struggling, just like myself. Then I saw Cat across the room struggling to get what looked like a shelf off of her. I helped her out, and then we found Brett unconscious. We got him up, and after he awoke, he started panicking. To be honest, I would have, too, hosting this wonderful party, and now seeing your living room and your friends in your basement.

We all did what we could to dig out people that had been in the basement that were now buried. A few people had blood dripping from their heads, or arms. There appeared to be at least two people with a broken leg. One pretty severe. I remember seeing it made me feel sick. Part of the stairs had been damaged, so some people were helping everyone else over the broken parts to get out. Finally, we got most of the people out through the garage, seeing as how the front door was out of the question.

We still had four people in the basement that we had to find. Three of them were buried in the debris that fell and were unconscious until we finally found them. The fourth one was the girl with a severely broken leg. I felt so bad because I'm pretty sure I got sick in the basement, trying to pull her out and hearing her scream with every move. We finally got everyone out, and while everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, emergency services seemed to get there pretty quick, much quicker than I would have expected.

As the paramedics helped the more severely injured people, Brett explained to the firemen what had happened. Apparently, his neighbors that lived down the road were able to hear the boom as the floor collapsed. and they heard everyone screaming. They couldn't hear the music and the party, but apparently the screams in the distance were pretty terrifying to them, which prompted them to call the police. When all was said and done,

Brett was telling me how his neighbor drove up to his house on his ATV, and that's when he told Brett about calling for help. He told us about how he typically kept to himself. He wasn't rude or nosy or anything, but he was thankful that he called, because a lot of us had lost our phones in the wreckage. I know mine was in my back pocket, but it was gone by the time I got out of the house.

At the time, checking for our phones was the last thing on our mind. Ultimately, we all got out of the house alive. Some had some pretty bad injuries, but we all got out. At that moment, though, I was, dazed, but terrified. I remember trembling as I was trying to stand up, worried that I may have just killed the guy that I landed on. It may have just been a floor collapsing,

but when it's not something you're expecting, and who would expect that, you're just left in this surreal moment. Of course, the silence was soon interrupted by cries of pain and people calling out for others. At the moment, I may have been acting to, help others, but I was still in shock. In fact, Kat explained to me later what all I did to help because I pretty much blacked it out.

I was tearing through floorboards trying to find people, people that I didn't know just a few hours prior. I was scared and also impressed and in all with our ability to all come together and help each other out. Brett, of course, apologized to everyone. He and Kat actually started dating short. shortly after, and when he came over a few days later, he explained to us what had happened with his neighbor.

He then told us about how he knew the floor was old and wanted to eventually get it looked at and replaced, but he just hadn't found the time and the money to get to it. He didn't know that it was that bad, and he was looking back to his realtor as structural damages like that hadn't been mentioned or brought up. I don't know all the specifics on that, though, but now he had no choice but to fix it. if he wanted to live there. He stayed with us for a while until they could get his floor and structure fixed,

but I didn't mind. To be honest, it was kind of nice knowing the process and how it all went, and knowing that everyone was okay. He was also an awesome cook, so there's that. I will never forget that night, though, as being the most memorable way to start a new year, with a fresh new hospital bill.

I still have a nice scar down my elbow, too. I just now have a slight fear of creaky floors, and not because of ghosts. Now, I just kind of tiptoe dramatically across them. Hey, Raven, I've got a story that's been haunting me for a few years. It happened when my friends Scott, Dan, and I went hiking deep into the forest, far away from anyone, just surrounded by nothing but trees and silence. It started as a regular hike, but by the end of it, we had encountered something that none of us can explain. We were making our way through a thick part of the woods, chatting away when we heard it,

a deep, earth-shaking roar. It wasn't like any animal that I'd ever heard before. It was low and guttural, like a lion, but different? We froze on the spot, exchanging uneasy looks. What is that? Is it a bear? I whispered. Dan shook his head, putting his finger to his lips, gesturing for us to keep moving. After a tense moment of standing still from fear, we did keep moving, though none of us could shake the feeling that something was watching us. The forest seemed darker.

and the usual sounds of nature felt muted. A few minutes later, Dan, who was leading the way, suddenly stopped and pointed ahead. Guys, you need to see this, he said. His voice barely a whisper. What we saw made my stomach turn. Lying ahead of us was a deer that had been completely torn in half. Not like a predator had killed it, but as if something had just pulled it apart with pure strength.

like it was nothing. Blood covered the ground, and parts were spread unnaturally far from each other. There was something sickening about the way this poor creature had been killed. But that wasn't all. There, caught on a nearby branch,

was long, thick, brown fur. It wasn't from the deer, and this was coarse, like it belonged to something much bigger, something that shouldn't have been out there. something like an ape. We didn't even have time to process it before Dan spotted a massive footprint in the mud.

Right next to the scene, it was far too big to belong to a human, with deep, heavy impressions. The print looked fresh, like whatever made it had just been there. It almost looked human, but it was much bigger. The thing would have had to have been at least nine foot tall or larger, and then the smell hit us.

It was disgusting, like rotting meat mixed with a wet dog. The air felt thick with it, and it was enough to make us gag. The stench hung in the air like a warning, letting us know that whatever did this was close, and it wasn't something that we wanted to meet. This isn't a bear, Scott muttered, backing away. He was right, bears don't tear animals apart like that, and they don't leave prints like what we were seeing.

I could feel my heart racing as Dan, wide-eyed, said the words that none of us wanted to hear. Sasquatch. Before any of us could react, we heard that roar again. It sounded closer this time. It was so loud and deep that it felt like it shook the ground beneath us. I felt a chill run down my spine, and we all knew that we had to leave. Now. We ran, hearts pounding, tearing through the forest as fast as we could.

The whole time it felt like something was following us, like we were being hunted. The forest seemed unnaturally quiet except for the echo of that terrifying roar behind us. Even when we reached the main trail, that fear did not leave. To this day, we don't talk about it much, but none of us have forgotten that footprint, the hare, or the deer. It was something beyond explanation. Hey, Raven, I love your podcast, and I spontaneously decided to submit a story, so here I am. Now, let me explain my yard before I start.

I have an acre of land, and I have a swamp really close to the fence that borders the deep woods. It's Virginia, so there are a ton of swamps, and the woods are cluttered with briars. and bushes, and paired with fallen trees. It's hard to see past 200 to 300 feet deep into the woods, if you're looking at them from my yard. My yard is a perfect square, and my double wide is at the very front of my property. I have neighbors that share a dirt and gravel driveway, but I'm only close to one neighbor. But anyways, we have a lot of trees in our yard in the hill in the back right corner.

This is the closest part of our property to the swamp, which connects to my neighbor's pond. The swamp next to my yard is creepy, to say the least. Dead trees standing tall in the black water, the whole shebang. I was playing near the hill in my yard when I saw a small cream-colored thing sitting just outside my fence. I went to my fence to look at it and being the dumb 11-year-old that I was. I was, I jumped the fence to get a close look at it. Then I saw it move. It was a lot bigger than I thought originally. It was a weird thing. You know, cockatoos? It looked like a cream-colored cockatoo with four legs. It was crouched down, its back to me. It had fancy-looking tail feathers

that curled at the tips, that couldn't be less than two feet long. I stepped on a twig and it startled it, and it started to run away. I chased after it, again, like the dumb 11-year-old I was. I chased it until I ran behind a tree and it disappeared. I was knocked out of the days that I'd been in while chasing it and looked around for it, and I realized that I was very close to stepping into the deep water of the swamp. I feel now that it had been trying to get me to fall into the water and drown. A couple of years later, when I was 13, I told my mom about it while we were talking about strange things that had happened on our property.

Mind you, I had never told my parents this story before this discussion. My mom said that that was odd, and I asked why. She said that years before, she had seen the same thing, but it had flown above her when she was doing yard work outside, and it landed in the treetops in the woods. She thought that it was someone's pet that had gotten out, so she walked to the edge of our property and hopped the fence, thinking to go retrieve it so it didn't die. She snapped out of it when she realized it had disappeared.

It was nearly impossible for something of that color to disappear in the Virginian woods, especially in spring when the woods were still bare. She had realized, just like I would, years later, that she was close to stepping into the mud close to the swamp. I was shocked when she told me this story because, like I said, neither of us had ever said anything about it to anybody. Hey there, friends, I hope that you enjoyed this collection of scary stories on this episode of

The As the Raven Dreams podcast. If the platform you're on has the option to follow podcast and you enjoyed my work, please do consider doing so. Also, leaving ratings and reviews are super important for the algorithm to support the growth of the podcast. I'm just one guy doing this. I don't have a team. It's literally just me doing everything. So any support like that is greatly appreciated.

Never expected, though. So if you go above and beyond with that, I do appreciate it. Some platforms also allow you to leave comments, and if you feel inclined to do so, please do. I would appreciate that. I do have a Patreon in a merch store that you can also check out if you want to support a little further. The Patreon side of things get you early access to all of my content. It is formatted differently as it goes in line with what my YouTube channel is, but it is the same stories, just different collections.

There is also a website astherravendreams.com, where you can check out pretty much everything about me, my social media platforms, fiction stories I've written if you want to read those, as well as submitting your own stories, which there's a big button on the front page, you click to do so. And those stories basically keep the podcast alive, to be honest with you. So, yeah. All that said, friends, I do hope that I see you again here very soon.

Until then, remember that you are loved, that you are valid, that you are important. You're the best you that you can be. Don't forget it. And until next time, much love and sleep well.