Lighthouse Horror Podcast - In 1982 students WENT MISSING. I know what took them | Scary Stories

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

I found my school's horrifying secret... Scary Story by Saturdead Check out more of the author's work here u/Saturdead  Cover Art from Ninerio More of the artist’s works at ninerioarts                     Original YouTube link: In 1982 students WENT MISSING. I know what took them      Merch: lighthousehorror.shop For more stories like this one, check out my YouTube channel: Lighthouse Horror | YouTube  Patreon: Lighthouse Horror | Patreon Music: Lucas King - YouTube Myuu - YouTube  Incompetech Darren Curtis Music - YouTube  Thank you for listening to this scary story! If you enjoyed this new creepypasta story, please check out some of my other horror stories. We'll be uploading new episodes every week, featuring ghost stories, haunted encounters, mysteries, true stories, creepypasta, and anything supernatural and paranormal. Don't miss out on the thrill and suspense that await you in each episode!

When I was a kid, my mom used to take me to the community pool all the time. She'd spend the afternoon doing water aerobics with the other moms, while me and the other kids played in the shallow end. It's a nice place, you know, plenty of slides, pool noodles, and colorful murals. There was even a little jungle cave area where they had water jets making the water bubble, you know. There were a couple of colored lights and a little speaker playing jungle sounds. parrots, elephants, tigers. To my six-year-old mind, that was my favorite place in the world.

However, it wasn't constructed very well. Once when I was sitting in there, a piece of the concrete wall came off. A disc-shaped slice of concrete struck me at the base of my skull, knocking me out like an off-switch. I have little painful glimpses of memory from being underwater. looking at the blinding green light while my lungs refused to listen. They didn't notice me until the blood came out the other end, thanks to the water jets. I was without air for about four and a half minutes before they got the water out of my lungs.

That's how I lost my sense of taste. Agusia, I think they call it. It's the one piece of brain damage that is permanent from that accident. In every other way, I'm fine, but it's strange how much such a small thing can affect you. For example, the last thing I remember tasting was a piece of strawberry mint gum that my mom handed me in the changing room. I still remember it after all these years. And whenever I see something colored a combination of pink and green, that taste comes to mind. I can still feel different textures.

And some textures are better than others, but, I can't differentiate sweet from sour or salty. I can also feel spice to a degree. That's not a taste. That just kind of hurts. After the accident, my family couldn't stay. Mom got in a nasty legal battle with the local municipality. We moved from Chatterblind's New England, all the way to the town of Juniper, West Virginia.

My dad got a job with sheet metal, while my mom worked part-to-earned. time at a travel agency. The change was devastating to my budding social life, but by the time I got to high school, I was just another face in the crowd. My New England accent was buried deep. High school can be rough for anyone, but for a tasteless kid in the early 2000s, it was downright violent. I wouldn't notice how some asshole dropped dishwater powder into my food until I got sick during recess. They'd just watch me shovel it down, bite, by bite, and laugh. I once made the mistake of saying that I loved classic Coke. I know, I know, I just wanted to say something relatable. Turns out I was given a red cup of Dr. Pepper. I couldn't tell them apart.

And from that day forward, I was Classic Coke or C-C, a name that mutate into various slurs over time. I want to tell you about my last year of high school. It was early autumn. We'd all been ordered to the indoor pool, where we'd be spending our next three PE sessions doing CPR training and swimming exercises. I was banking hard on being allowed to skip it, not only because I didn't want my classmates to see me in my swim trunks,

but because I'm not very fond of water, standing in it, or even near it, It makes me hyper aware of my breathing and my heart starts racing. It's not even a conscious thing. It just happens. Trying to suppress it just makes it worse. I guess you could call it a sort of mild phobia or something psychosomatic. But yeah, no, I wasn't allowed to skip it.

My gym teacher, Mr. Bauer, wouldn't even talk about it without a doctor's note. appealing to his kinder nature was not going to get me anywhere. And since I hadn't brought my own swim gear, I had to use loners. Not only were they way too big for me, but they'd been lying in a box for at least a couple of years, I think. How the hell does fabric get crusty? Anyway, our first session was predictably awful. I stepped out in my cherry purple loner trunks that reached way past my knees. We started out with a couple of CPR exercises on a training dummy.

I was selected to go first, since I couldn't taste the plastic anyway. It was a different time. After that, there were swimming exercises. While my classmates finished their exercise in the deep end, as intended, I just couldn't do it. I had to stick to the shallow end with the kid's stuff. There was even one of those big-mouthed Billy Bass toys that got triggered, every time I swam past.

Every time that jingle started playing, it got a big laugh out of someone. Take me to the river, the mechanical fish would sing. Drop me in the water. I asked Mr. Bauer to move it, but he just urged me to finish without making such a fuss.

Yeah, the second session was even worse. I was forced to swim in the deep end and I had some kind of panic attack. I remember this intense, tense sensation of the air not being enough, and my lungs feeling like they just couldn't fill. I yelled for help. Mr. Bower had to drag me to the shallow end, where I clung to him like a scared cat. I couldn't look at my classmates after that. They, however, invented a couple new nicknames. C.C. as it turns out, rhymes with both P.P. and Weewee. Some kind person suggested.

that I probably was so scared that I pissed myself. I didn't, for the record, but that didn't stop them from suggesting that I did. Needless to say, there was no way in hell I'd ever go to that third session. The morning of the third session, I chugged some dish soap and I threw up in the bathroom. I couldn't taste it anyway. Might as well have been orange juice. My mom called me in sick, and I got to spend the day at home. I think she figured out I was faking it, but maybe she realized that if I was ready to drink dish soap to get out of something, it must be really bad.

Either way, I had a great day. I watched movies, listen to music, and I caught up on my comic books. The kind of thing you say for a rainy day. When I got back to class the next day, I was told I had to finish the mandatory third session at a later date. But by the grace of God, the pool was shut down before I got the chance. Turns out, there was some kind of ground water leak thanks to a small geological event. The water was tested positive for parasites. Nothing serious, but something you shouldn't be swimming in might get bug bites. Now this is where things started to take a strange turn.

A few of my classmates were taken in by the police for breaking into the pool area at night. No one really thought too much about it, since just kids being kids. But I could see something was up. They weren't looking for a place to party. They had the Masterson's house for that, one of the rich kids whose dad was out of town six days a week. So, I started paying attention to the whispers and the halls. There was nothing outright wrong, but I'd pick up. little bits and bobs that hinted at something going down.

There were these two kids in the basketball team that I picked up a couple of whispers from outside the gym. You gonna see her? One of them whispered. Yeah, first chance I get, he laughed back. I can't wait. They're gonna be watching the place. Ah, just people going in and out. Another responded.

They won't notice if we go in by day. day and stay the night. My classmates started to behave. This might not seem like such a big deal, but they were paying attention in class, answering questions, and then retreating to the dark corners of the school to plot and whisper. Something was clearly up, but I wasn't in a click close enough to the action. Still, it had me worried. The most obvious proof of this came to me during a math class.

As Miss Levinson walked us through a couple of handy techniques, one of my classmates suddenly stood up. Everyone turned to him. Is there a problem, Ron? Miss Levinson asked. Do you mind? He just looked at her and raised his hand as if he was about to ask for permission.

And then he made this awful noise and threw up all over the floor. The others looked at him with disgust. But it wasn't discussed about what he'd done. It looked like they'd been offended. I overheard one of the girls from the Yearbook Club whispered to her friend. Okay, he's out, she said. She doesn't want him.

There were other signs, too. Some of the core cliques were reaching out to new people, even sophomores and freshmen. People were getting invited to hang out, and more and more. of them were being suckered into something I couldn't quite put my finger on. It was related to the pool area. Whatever it was, it was going down there, that much was clear. The final nail in the coffin for me was in the locker room ahead of basketball practice. One of the guys, Morris, took out what looked like a metal snuff box. It was full of this dark, purple-like powder. He licked his thumb, dipped it, and ran it across his tongue. One of his buddies turned to him, astonished.

They spoke in low voices. That shit works? Yeah, it's like I can hear her, man. It's like she's there. I wanted to ask him about it, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. If they wanted me in on it, they'd have reached out to me already. I'd see them bring these strange things to put their lockers. One guy brought a bag of fertilizer. Another had a couple sleeping bags. Some of the girls brought frogs from a nearby pond. And flowers. A lot of flowers. Tulips, petunias, violence, even some novelty blue sunflowers from the train station gift shop. They'd stuff away entire bouquets into their lockers, and the next day, they'd be gone. They were bringing things in, but nothing was going out. So where was it going? I wanted to check the pool out for myself,

but I didn't get the chance. Teachers were keeping an eye on the place during the day, and there were cops going by at night. So while students were clearly getting in somehow, I was not in the loop. This all happened really fast. A couple of weeks at most. Some people had changed rather radically. For example, there was this guy named Everett. He'd been an absolute pain in the ass for people in his class.

And all of a sudden, he was a model student. He even addressed his teachers as sir and ma'am. It got to the point where people suspected trouble at home, but there was nothing of the sort. He just changed. And while others weren't sure as to how or why, I had a sneaking suspicion that it had to do with that closed-off pool. There were too many things congregating in that one area for it to be a coincidence, and I knew for a fact that Everett was one of the people that had been invited early on. So fine. Finally, I bit the bullet.

Once after class, I walked up to some of the more sympathetic girls in the yearbook class. They looked at me like I was an alien. Um, hey, I said. Any of you go into the pool? It's closed, they replied. Don't you know that? Um, yeah, yeah, but... I looked around, making sure no one overheard us.

I, uh, I know some people go there anyway. You do that, right? Why do you even want to go? Aren't you, like, scared of water? Um, no, no, I just want to see what's up, you know. Everyone's going, right? I asked. Um, yeah, no, not everyone, not you, for example, she replied. So much for them being the nicer people in class. Some of the others stayed late after class under the guise of catching up. Teachers allowed it and even encouraged it. I figured they'd use that excuse to sneak into the pool,

but I had no way of knowing for sure. I couldn't make up a good excuse to stay late myself since I was ahead in most classes, so I had to do the opposite, end up in detention. So I cheated on a quiz, copying the answers from my deskmate, and I did not even try to hide it. School looks different in the dark. Erie.

The corridors look longer. And the lack of people buzzing about makes every footstep echo. When I was done with my detention, I managed to sneak off to see if I could find the others. Going past the pool, I could tell the door was locked. There was a warning tape on the front, unbroken. They hadn't gotten in that way.

As I was skulking about, I turned to see a figure at the end of the hall, The X Menace Everett. He walked up to me, looking me up and down with curiosity. What are you up to? he asked. I just want to see what you guys are doing, I said. You're in there, right? You sure? He replied. I don't know. I'm... I'm... I'm... just curious. Yeah, I get that, but you got to be sure, he insisted.

Once you're in, you're in. Well, how can I be sure if I don't? I'm asking you, C.C., he interrupted. If you're sure, you don't sound very sure to me. We just looked at one another for a while. He was taking this seriously and was asking me to do the same. I obliged. Yeah, I nodded.

I'm sure. He took me to the janitor's closet, and onward through a floor hatch. There was an old maintenance hall that handled the water flow from most of the school, and the pipes ran back out through the pool area. The space was so thin I had to walk sideways to get through. But at the end of it was this locker-sized door that led straight into the pool area, stepping out, didn't know what to say. The plastic cover of the pool was gone, leaving the water open.

They'd covered most of the bottom of the pool in dirt, and there were flowers littered all over the water. The water itself had taken on a sort of purple tint. There were electric lanterns lining the edge of the pool, and about two dozen students chatting, swimming, and place. "'Everett grabbed my arm.' "'The others looked up at me, some curious. "'Most of them confused.

"'First off, you got to take a dip,' he said. "'That's step one.' "'But it's closed, are you?' "'You just gotta,' he interrupted. "'Strip down, all right?' "'I'm not gonna—' "'You said you were sure,' he interrupted again. This is you showing me you're sure, okay, now strip.

So I did. I'd just gotten my last sock off when one of the guys from the basketball team grabbed my other arm. The onlookers cheered as I was dragged to the pool. We got a new one. They laughed. Throw them in. She's going to love you, another said. Deep diving into.

bacteria-infested waters withstanding. I wasn't eager to go head first into the deep end. I asked them to slow down and hear me out, but it fell on deaf ears. Seconds later, I was pushed in. A moment of perfect silence. Then I broke through the water. Flower petals stuck to me, and I could feel the grains of dirt scrub against my skin. The water was so dark that I could barely see. see my own hands beneath the surface. The others were gathering around a watch, giggling eagerly. Something brushed against my leg. I came up, gasping for air. I swam towards the shallow end, shoving petals and debris aside. Everyone just waited and watched. Here she comes. A girl grinned. You think she's going to like him?

I didn't see anything or anyone as I continued to the shallow end. The moment my feet touched the dirt, there was a sound, a strange mechanical sound. Looking up, I noticed the big-mouthed billy bass fish swinging its tail back and forth at the end of the pool. Something had triggered it. There was movement, something dredging up grime. Bubbles popped, and there was a splash somewhere behind me. As I turned around, I could see ripples in the water. I could feel the waves move as something pushed its way forward.

My heart raised as I looked up at the smiling faces. What the hell are they happy about? What is this? And then something grabbed my leg. It was so unexpected. I barely had the time to gulp for air as something pulled me beneath the water. I only caught a glimpse of it, a long, warm-like body moving out of view. Every segment as thick as my arm and as wide as my torso. I burst through the surface and be-lined for the edge of the pool,

but they weren't letting me out. I told you he couldn't do it, someone said. He's going to screw it all up. Kick him back. He needs to stay in longer, someone else said. What's wrong with him? The kids kicked at me, pushing me back down. No matter where I looked, there was someone there to fight me. I could feel hands.

A worm-like, a worm-like. body brushed against my back as it squirmed past me. Then it grabbed my feet and pulled me under again. It had been swimming around me, clearing out the grime of the water. It pulled me to the bottom of the pool making my ears pop. This thing, it was at least 25 to 30 feet long. It had a slight purple color, which seemed to affect the water. to affect the water around it as it moved. It had bent itself in a sort of sea shape, where the

bottom half had me grabbed, and the top half faced me. It had no head. I was staring into an open neck like the mouth of lamprey, vibrating beak-like teeth in perfect formation, and undulating back and forth with each passing heartbeat. Randomly spaced across its body were these thin twig-like arms, ending with three webbed fingers. These were what grabbed me. I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't think. Every bone in my body wanted to fight my way out. I was convinced these people had thrown me in to be eaten. a sacrifice to whatever the hell this was supposed to be. Was this her, the one they'd been referring to? It had to be. There were vibrations coming from it. I could feel them.

But the more I listened, I slowly came to realize that it wasn't just vibrations. They were sounds. A voice? I clawed my own. way to the surface, kicking and screaming. It let me go. I breached the surface, screaming for help, crying, begging for it.

And again, everyone just laughed. Some seemed genuinely confused. I waited towards the shallow end, watching the segmented body wriggle just under the surface. The others gathered around the edges of the surface. pool, ready to kick me back in. Turning back towards the thing, it suddenly rose out of the water like an angered cobra, closing in at alarming speed, it came up to me, face to face. Damn, someone muttered. You just can't, you know. It's gorgeous. Not even one of them.

reacted as I thought they would. They were praising it, complimenting it, speaking about it, like it was the most beautiful thing in the world. The guys were drooling, and the girls were awestruck. They all gathered around to see what I do.

It closed in on me. Six little twig-like hands touched my arms, then my chest, feeling my pounding. hard. Carefully, it descended under the surface again. This time, it gently pushed on my head, just enough for my ears to go under the water, while keeping my mouth above the surface so I could breathe.

It was speaking. I could hear it in the vibrations. Listen. It said. Listen, please. It was the most surreal moment of my life, lying their belly up in front of a spellbound crowd, like a nightmare I'd never had, feeling the poking and prouting fingers against my back, my thighs, my arms. You don't see me, it asked.

Yes, I see you. I replied, You see other me, not me. The segmented body bumped against me, as it moved under, then beyond. The vibrations were clear, but a little more distant. You're not affected, it continued. You are faulted.

I don't understand, I said. I can't live on your tongue. It vibrated. I can't help you. I lay there for at least ten minutes, just feeling the vibrations. The others relaxed. Some even jumped in with me, seemingly unafraid.

There was no word for this thing. It was just her. It didn't want a name. It didn't need one. She was frustrated. She seemed to have a strange effect on the others that just didn't work on me. I didn't understand why. And it didn't either. That is, until I explained my lack of taste. See, a human tongue has thousands of taste receptors, allowing us to translate complex sensations for our minds to register. Apparently, this is the way she could affect others by having them taste her. I was told a story. There was a cave with hundreds of kin. In the dark, all you could use to find and discern others was taste and vibration.

which was all it could utilize. Then there had been pressure coming from beneath, a breach pressing dozens of kin to strange lonely waters. There she had looked for others, only to find herself sucked into a pipe. She'd been stuck in there for days, just wriggling around. Listening to us, other living beings, learning and adapting.

She managed to make her way into the pool, which had been closed by then. The water was bad, but not anywhere near what she was used to. Chlorine was common in her home. It wasn't until a couple of students broke in to swim, that she realized the effect she could have on us. The substance she used to communicate with others of her kin, was intoxicating to humans, making us experience a dream-like high and more. But without taste, I couldn't translate that sensation.

All I could do was listen. By the time I stood up, I looked to the others around the pool. They spoke in unison. She lives in us, they said. We listen. They stretched their arms out, ready to pull me in. I couldn't see her the way they did, but I was still a part of this. I was in on the secret.

I was in the know with the others. And I'll be honest, it felt kind of good. Terrifying, yes, but kind of good. For the next couple of weeks, I was a part of it. a government assigned official came by to check the waters, and a couple of students pushed them in. Once in, they were as infatuated by her as everyone else. They were eager and willing to lie to keep the secret, shutting the pool down for the foreseeable future. I talked a lot about her with the others.

To them, she was this gorgeous, otherworldly human woman. like a fairy tale siren or mermaid. They couldn't even put her in words. It was just this thing that she was. I tried explaining how I saw her, but they couldn't grasp the idea. In a way, I think they found it offensive. It was about a week before Christmas,

when I saw Ron coming down the corridor, the guy who'd stood up and vomited in class. I asked the girl from the yearbook club about him, seeing if she knew what this was about. If you're not worthy, she hurts you, she said. She kicks you out. That's how she does it. By making you sick? I asked. No, by pushing out everything she's given you, she corrected. It just looks nasty as all.

It all started to make sense. The purple powder I'd seen the basketball players with was just from the pool water. Tasting it would give them a bit of a leftover high, like swimming with her. And swimming with her they did. I usually stayed out. But on nights when I came to see her, the others would flock into the water. The massive worm would wriggle between them, brushing against them as it went.

people would laugh and play, hugging her and each other. It was like watching a human snake pit with that one thing moving between them. At first, I loved it. I loved being a part of something. But I wasn't. Not really. It started with Everett. I noticed lines, long, thin,

lines along his arms, like the segments of a worm. His gums were looking a bit purple, and his eyes were red. You could barely tell at a glance, but if you spent some time with him, it was obvious. I'd see it in the others. Someone had grown extra teeth. Another one had their nose shrunk. One of the girls had her fingers grow another three inches. Every other. Every, it eventually stopped coming to class. He'd just sit by the pool all day. His hair had fallen out, along with his nails and teeth. He'd grown a new set and didn't need his old ones. They'd started to feed her, mostly fish, but she didn't shy away from raw meat either. She'd just suck it into her gullet. I'd watch the teeth chomp down in a circular motion.

grinding the flesh to a mush for her to drink. There was a rumor going around. The remaining unaffected staff and students were all going to be dragged into the pool at once. There was going to be an uprising. It wasn't really talked about. It was just sort of felt by those involved. A collective, subliminal thought.

Not me, though. I was assumed compliance. for now. Some brought zip ties and ropes. Others brought knives and tasers. Duct tape, plastic bags, power tools. It would be violent. But she was tired of waiting in the dark.

She wanted to be out in the open, praised and worshipped, not hidden away like a dirty secret. But this was crossing a line. A creature seeking to survive was one thing, but this was crazy. I wanted to speak out, but I knew the others would silence me. And since I couldn't be influenced, there was only one thing they could do. They would kill me. I had to be careful.

The night before the planned attack, I joined her in the pool. Only a handful of others were around at the time. She'd grown by then, each segment, almost twice as thick as when I'd first seen her, with skin like rubber. I waded out, feeling the water reached my stomach. You don't agree, she vibrated. I don't, I admit it. I don't want anyone getting hurt. They are improving, she responded.

We, we are improving. We improve differently, I explained. You're hurting them. There was a brief pause. From every nook and cranny of the room, I saw the other students emerge. Had they been waiting to ambush me? Their eyes look different, brighter.

Your wish differs from mine, she explained. We are different. That's not a bad thing, I said. That's how we... Enemy, she said. There were screams then. Anger? Someone grabbing a hammer, another grabbing a saw, a young girl tearing out chunks of her hair, crying with rage. Everett, at the far end of the room, kept slamming his hand against his chest like a gorilla.

Enemy, she repeated. This time she knocked me down like a bowling pen. There wasn't the usual careful movement. They were quick and erratic. Not afraid to wound me. Some people jumped into the pool ready to tear me to pieces. There was no way out. This was it.

Fight or flight. Dozens of twig-like arms grabbed at me, dragging me into the deep end. It was so fast. Forcing my eyes open, all I saw was this gaping. tooth-filled maw coming towards me. Teeth moving independent of one another. Expelling every breath of air in my lungs, I scream for it to wait, to listen, to stop, and to think. I pushed all these things I wanted to say into one sound, but it just came out as a scream. I felt the insides of its mouth with my fingertips, hips, trying to hold myself from being swallowed whole.

As a tooth brushed against my scalp, I felt it pierced my skin, and then it stopped. Much the same way we were affected by her. She was also affected by us. At the taste of my blood, she seemed to understand. She tasted my fear, my depression. causing, she released me. I clawed my way to the surface, feeling hot blood poured down my face, forcing air into my lungs. I could see I was surrounded. Even more students and some faculty had gathered around the pool. She rose out of the water, her body at least three feet longer than when I'd first seen her. The others spoke in unison, not even mine.

the sea serpent. I understand, they all said. I will bargain. I didn't have a choice, but to agree, I was given a simple task, and in return, she'd go away. She'd return things to normal. All I had to do was borrow my dad's car and do an errand.

It seemed so simple. I was to drive Everett east, to the ocean. Nothing else. Just drive Everett. The following day I got up early. I took my dad's keys, got in the car, and backed out. I made my way across town and picked up Everett. He was sweating bullets, staining the seat.

He said nothing and kept his eyes closed. He looked even worse in the morning light. We made our way to Delaware through Sharpsburg and down to Chesapeake Bay. Everett didn't say a word. By late afternoon, we stepped out on the cold winter beach. Everett took a moment to sit down. I joined him. Neither of us seemed to know what was going to happen next.

He shuddered and women. He was scared, shaking his head. He was scared, I could tell. Then, by the snap of a finger, he turned silent. With newfound determination, he turned to me. I accept, he said. Our bargain ends. He pushed his hand against my chest, much like she had done in the pool.

He felt my heart. Then he got up, heading straight for the ocean, dropping his clothes along the way. Last thing I saw of Everett was him wading into the ocean, never to be seen again. The segments along his arms were clearer, and his skin had taken on a rubbery texture. He'd been changing. Back at school, people were getting violently. ill, throwing up bucket loads of parasites, much like Ron had done in the middle of class. The creature in the pool seemed to have withered and died, leaving only chunks of fossilized flesh behind,

resembling nothing but dirt and sandstone, something that easily could have blown in through the damaged pipes. She upheld her part of the bargain, it seemed. I could go on for hours about what happened in the aftermath. For example, the state-sponsored investigation blamed our collective madness on parasites in our drinking water. Something related to a small-scale earthquake in Greenbrier Valley. And just as curious, the massive efforts to quiet down the disappearance of Everett. There wasn't even a police report filed. I was grounded, of course.

Stealing my dad's car wasn't a popular decision, especially when I couldn't explain to them why. Years later, I still get news alerts about strange sightings along Chesapeake Bay. Marine life was found shredded. Strange circular wounds on humpback whales. And as a couple of months ago, A diver who swore he saw a mermaid. There was an interview about it.

I'm not going to pretend like I know how they work or how they live. But I can't help but believe that I have made a terrible mistake. To what end? I can only imagine.