Feb. 25, 2026

On The Ice: Fishing Horror Story - A Monster Beneath the Frozen Lake!

On The Ice: Fishing Horror Story - A Monster Beneath the Frozen Lake!
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Ice fishing turns into a frozen-lake nightmare in this chilling winter horror tale. A widower heads out onto thick, steel-strong ice for a quiet day on the lake—testing every step like his grandpa taught him—until the silence becomes unnatural, the surface starts to crack, and something black and slick glides beneath his fishing hole.

What begins as a peaceful survival routine spirals into supernatural terror tied to old local secrets: an abandoned lakeside development, whispers of missing children, and a backwoods history that never stayed buried. When the ice finally breaks, it isn’t just freezing water waiting below—it’s a monster that shouldn’t exist, and a fight that demands more than courage to survive.

If you love scary stories, winter horror, creature features, and supernatural suspense with a hard-hitting emotional core, this one will hook you and drag you under. Don’t trust the quiet. Don’t trust the thickness. And whatever you do… always check the ice.

ON THE ICE — by Douglas Waltz

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🎵 Music by Ray Mattis 👉 Check out Ray’s incredible work here !
👨‍💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
🌐 Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com
WEBVTT

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The ice is solid, but the air is razor sharp.

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You're alone on the lake until the wind dies. The

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world goes silent, and something slides beneath you, like a

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shadow with teeth. Then the cracking starts and your nightmare begins.

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What's that you want to be scared? He come with me.

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You will experience tales over over ang ghosts and it

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is not recommended for the weeded heart listeners. In the

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dark crk, it's more fun than way way. This is

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weakly speaking, Hello, my spookies. It's Wednesday, and you know

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what that means. It's time for a little spooky in

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your weekly. I'm your host and narrator, Enrique Kuto, and

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tonight we're heading up to Michigan for a cold and

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icy fishing trip that is more than it appears. But

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before we get to that, I just want to say

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thank you all so much for joining us. We bring

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you scary stories, true crime, and so much more all

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year long, because October is far, far too short, so

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make sure you're subscribed on your favorite podcasting app. And

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if you love what we're doing here and want to

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support us, just head to Weeklyspooky dot com slash join

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for as little as one dollar a month, you get

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two bonus shows and over five years of exclusive creepy

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pasta readings and audiobooks at weeklyspooky dot com slash join

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ninety other spookies have already signed up, and now is

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the best possible time to join them. But now, as

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for tonight, they tell you the rules like their prayers,

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test your steps, read the cracks, trust the thickness. Out

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here the lake is a wide white nothing, quiet enough

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to hear your own thoughts echo. But tonight the quiet

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feels staged. A man who's already lost too much heads

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onto the ice for a few hours of peace, just

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a drill, a line, and the cold doing what the

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cold always does, until the surface gives him something back,

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not a bite, not a tug, a presence, something that

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moves where nothing should, A shadow sliding beneath the frozen

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skin of the lake as if it's choosing him. And

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when the ice starts to answer with that deep, hungry crack,

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he realizes the worst fate isn't falling through on the ice.

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By Douglas Waltz. Every time I go ice fishing, there's

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one thing I'll do before I haul any equipment to

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the shore. I test the ice. I'll put the toe

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of my boot near the shore that tends to crack

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a little, and ain't nothing to worry about. I go

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a little farther out and take its's low and easy,

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listening for any noise. Last thing a man my age

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needs is to take a slip and break a damned hip.

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The air was nice and crisp, and thanks to a

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polar vortex, whatever the hell that was, it had been

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in negative numbers for over a month. Lake Paul Dune

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was frozen pretty good, probably a nice three to five

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inches of solid ice, strong as steel and going nowhere regardless,

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I still checked the ice. Goes back to when I

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was seven and my Grandpa Clyde was going to show

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me how to ice fish. I love the cold, and

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I was the only kid of mother's brood of five

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that showed any interest in going. He had a huge

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pond in the back of his property, a nice spring

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fed thing full of fish. There was even a little

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island in the middle that US kids would swim to

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in those hot Michigan summers and try to look for

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frogs and turtles. But now the air was still and

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crisp and cold. And we were going ice fishing. We

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got about halfway across the pond to where Grandpa Clyde

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said the fish always bit when we heard the crack.

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Have you ever heard the ice on a lake give

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that loud crack, threatening to give way at any second?

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I never seen my Grandpa Clyde move so fast. He

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dropped the equipment, scooped me up, and ran like his

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life depended on it, thrown over his shoulder. I saw

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the crack in the ice, and I could swear it

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was chasing us. My eyes were as round as saucers

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as the jet black water appeared closer and closer. But

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my Grandpa Clyde out ran the ice and we both

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flopped in the snowba next to the shore. He was

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huffing and puffing, and when he saw my worried seven

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year old face, he stopped and grinned that huge grin

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of his. Sometimes, that rainery old ice don't want you

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on it, no matter how thick it is. You remember that,

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always check the ice. I nodded my head and we

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went back inside, and he just told everyone the ice

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was too thin to fish. And now I always check

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the ice. I decided I had nothing to worry about,

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and went back to my truck for my gear. I

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almost grabbed the gas powered auger, but decided to get

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some exercise with the manual one. I grabbed my two

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five gallon buckets, one for my equipment and one for

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my ass. I never used those little enclosures you see

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on the ice. Like I said, I like the cold,

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and besides, the last place I would want to be

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if the ice decided to crack was in one of

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those things. They'll haul your corpse out of the water

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in one of those damned things. It seemed like I

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was out on the ice more and more the last

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couple of years since my wife of forty years passed away.

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It's true what they say, cancer sucks, and it took

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her away from me. I found things to occupy my

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mind because I'm pretty sure if I didn't i'd go

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stark raving mad. I got a good start with my

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small pick axe for the auger to catch, and it

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really didn't take long before I reached water. Then I

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cleared the hole with my ice scoop, turned over the

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empty bucket and set up a couple of tip up

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and proceeded to get my bait soggy. I'm a fan

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of stinky bait, and ever since I caught that sturgeon

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near the railroad bridge with a cane pole and a

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hunk of liver sandwich, I swore by that. My children

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always referred to it as cat food, but I thought

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it was pretty tasty. So did the fish. Lake Paul

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Dune was an odd lake. A third of the shore

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was wooded, with a huge woodland that stretched for a

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few acres before it hit farmland. A third of it

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was a nice shoreline where people swam and brought their

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boats and like me, fished. Then there was the odd part.

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See back in the early nineties, these three fellas came

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up with the idea of putting up a housing development

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along the shore of Lake paul Dune. Everyone thought they

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were crazy. The lake was pretty far out in the

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country past Vicksburg towards Fulton. It was a glorified cow

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path that they just called a road which would get

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you there. But they were determined to put up about

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twenty houses around scenic Lake Paul Doon and started with

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the foundations. They poured concrete with the intention of the

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houses having finished basements when they were done. Not anything

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like the typical Michigan basement that has a shelf about

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three feet up all the way around the perimeter of

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the basement. Well then the money started being a problem,

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and everyone discovered later that their idea of raising funds

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were by selling a popular recreational drug of the nineties.

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If you guessed cocaine, give yourself a gold star. After

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that bad element that tends to go with that particular

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drug reared its ugly head, it didn't help that two

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of the three gentlemen building these houses got a taste

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for it. When it all came to a head, two

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of them were dead and one went to prison in Jackson.

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For a very long time, no one ever did anything

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with the foundations. Mother nature took hold and they just

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laid there and slowly crumbled away. There's always talk in

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town of demolishing them to make the area safe, but

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who's paying for that? Not me. So there I was

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just listening to the wind blow and noticing that I

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was the only one on the lake today, not too odd.

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I had the cell phone my oldest son makes me

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take everywhere with me in case an emergency came up.

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Pretty sure I'd be too busy saving my sorry ass

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to be making a phone call, but if it gave

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him peace of mind, so be it. That was when

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I heard the crack. The sound went through me like

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a cutlass from one of those old pirate movies, and

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my eyes checked the surface of the lake. I didn't

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see anything, and there was nothing making my feet vibrate.

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If you're on the ice and your feet start to vibrate,

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you move it before you lose it. The ice was calm,

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and I told myself it must have settled. That was

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when I noticed something odd. There was no noise, no

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birds making a fuss, no wind making the bones of

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the trees rattle. It was still. I checked my fishing

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hole to see what might be causing it. After all,

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I did hear a crack. Then something slid past my hole.

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It was black and shiny. One of my tip ups

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must have caught it, because it got yanked in that

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hole like it was nothing. I dropped the pole in

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my hand, you know, just in case. Before I tell

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you what happened next, I feel it's necessary to take

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a side trip to explain what I learned later on

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was pretty damned important. Back in the day, there was

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Watkins family farm, the patriarch of the farm, Emil Watkins

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ran the place with an iron fist. His youngest son,

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Franklin Watkins, was what you would call a sickly child, short, small,

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and most likely on the spectrum. As they would say nowadays.

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All of that would be fine, but Emil couldn't see

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how the Good Lord had given him offspring like Franklin.

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But Emil wasn't a heartless man. He loved his son

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and was determined to make a farmer out of him,

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until at age la, Franklin fell off the tractor his

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father said he could drive, and managed to run himself

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over with it. If Franklin looked in rough shape before

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the accident, it just got a lot worse. Emil washed

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his hands of the whole business and just left Franklin

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to his own devices. Unfortunately, he spent a lot of

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time in the attic of the massive Watkins farmhouse. It

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was there that he found the notebooks of his great grandfather,

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Jebediah Watkins. No one in the Watkins clan talked about Jebediah,

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and for good reason. He was a sorcerer of the

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dark arts. I know it sounds weird and unbelievable, but

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you would be surprised at how many backwoods, small town

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sorcerers there are in the world. It's a lot, really. Anyway,

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Franklin pored over these notebooks and was fact but he

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wasn't stupid. He mentioned none of this to any of

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his family. He kept to himself, bided his time, and waited.

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Twenty years later, Emial was dead for four years and

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his mother was just a sad alcoholic. Franklin started going

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deeper and deeper into Jebediah's notebooks. Shortly after that, children

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started going missing in the small towns of the area.

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People gossiped as they are wont to do, and no

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one ever found any children. The local law enforcement blamed transience,

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and people mourned their dead until the Tompkins twins went missing.

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Alfred Tompkins, owner of Tompkins's garage, was a mountain of

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a man, six and a half feet tall and weighing

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in at around three hundred and fifty, a thick shock

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of red hair and a curly beard to match. Alfred

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Tompkins had one joy in his life, his twin sons,

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Harry and Barry. They were seven when they went missing.

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Alfred decided to act on what everyone else whispered about

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in town. He hopped into his pickup truck and made

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a bee line for Watkins family farm. The huge farmhouse

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had been fallen into disrepair for years, and Alfred skidded

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to a stop in front of the house and bolted

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up the stairs to the giant oaken front door with

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a solitary kick. It shattered into pieces, and Alfred started

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bellowing the name Watkins so loud people swore they could

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hear it. Three towns over, Franklin appeared from a side

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door into the foyer, where Alfred towered over him. He

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went to speak, and Alfred picked up him up by

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his neck. Where are they? Franklin started to speak, and

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Alfred rattled his entire form like a hound dog with

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a bone. Answer me, Then the sirens came. Sheriff Monahan

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and Deputy Williams came running into the house. Alfred put

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him down. Sheriff Monahan talked slow and quiet. He knew

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what kind of damage Alfred was capable of. He whirled around,

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his eyes blazing with a red fire. There was no

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dealing with him at this point, and both lawmen knew it.

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The sheriff saw his deputy pull his revolver. He stared

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him down and shook his head, motioning for him to

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just put his gun away. This is how it works,

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Alfred bellowed. This fucking freak has taken my chin children.

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He produces them unharmed, and he lives or I tear

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him into pieces right before your very eyes, Sheriff, I

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recommend you tell Franklin to cooperate now. Franklin's eyes were

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bugging out from lack of oxygen. Alfred heard him gasping

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for air and dropped him to the floor. Franklin went

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to crawl away, and Alfred's size fourteen boot crushed his foot,

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pinning him to the floor. Stay put, you fucking freak,

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Franklin howled in anguish. Sheriff Monahan thought it was a

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reasonable request and told Franklin so he just sniveled and

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cried in pain Alfred. Sheriff Monahan finally spoke up, why

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don't you go get your kids and we'll keep an

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eye on Franklin. Here. Franklin found his voice at that.

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You have no right. Where's your search warrant? I'll sue

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this whole town back to the stone Age. Sheriff Monaghan

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crouched down in front of Franklin son. The way I

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see it is, you got two choices. You let Alfred

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get this out of his system and clear your name

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if you're innocent, or me and my deputy will just

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leave you here alone with him, and you get to

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see what happens all by yourself. Franklin nodded, and Alfred

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took his boot off of his ankle, causing him to

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scream again. Alfred lumbered through the house, yelling for his

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sons until he thought he heard a whimper in the

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attic and made a dash for the stairs. The sheriff

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and deputy did as they promised and kept an eye

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on Franklin. Minutes later, Alfred appeared in the main room

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of the farmhouse with his two sons, eyes as wide

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and his saucers and shivering, but alive and physically unharmed. Well.

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Sheriff Monaghan spoke up, that's prison for you, Franklin, get

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your ass up. Deputy Williams went to help Franklin off

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the floor when he leaped to his feet and started

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screaming words no one had heard in thousands of years.

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Electricity filled the air and everyone's hair stood up. On end,

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and then Franklin Watkins was just gone. Now you might

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wonder why I brought this up. My answer would have

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to be that the ice started to crack and four

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giant black tentacles irerupted from the surface of the ice.

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I turned to run and made it about fifty feet

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when one of the thick, ropey tendrils wrapped around my

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ankle and knocked me down. I hit the ice with

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a thud, and then grabbed the thing that had grabbed me.

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My fingers sank into it a little, felt like a

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giant worm, and there was this odd electrical current like

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you get when you lick a nine volt battery to

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see if it's any good. I gagged a little and

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realized I wouldn't be able to break this grip. So

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there I am, flat on my back on the ice,

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being dragged towards a huge hole and three more tentacles

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waiting for me to get there. I looked up at

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the clear blue sky passing by and talked to my wife,

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as I had so many times since she was taken

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from me. Well, Darling, I guess I'll be seeing you soon.

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I started panting to force my lungs full of air

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purely on reflex, since I had no eye idea what

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I was going to do. I knew the cold would

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try to force the air out of my lungs, so

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I needed them saturated with as much oxygen as I

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could carry. Then I hit the water and forced my

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mouth to stay shut. I had bundled up for the cold,

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so it wasn't too bad, but it was still damned frigid.

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The water was black and I couldn't see a damned thing.

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The cold started to numb me, and then I saw

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a silver glow in my peripheral vision on my left.

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Then I heard a voice in my head sort of now,

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what have you gotten yourself into, dumbass? On reflex, I

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thought back, it's pronounced dumas about to die and hear

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in my wife's voice didn't prevent my punchline to a

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forty year old joke between us. Then the silver light

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came into me, filled me with radiance. I could see

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under water as the light pierced the darkness, The abomination

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in front of me looked like nothing I had ever

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seen before. The tendrils were attached to a spherical object

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that must have been ahead with two giant eyes. And

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a mouth filled with huge white teeth. It was then

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I realized I wasn't drowning. Time to go. The voice

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spoke in my head again, and I left the water

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like a missile and landed on the beach. The voice

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spoke one last time. I love you. I have to go,

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but I'll put a world of hurt on this abomination.

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But you need to kill it. Understand, it can't leave

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this lake. Then with a woosh, the silver light flew

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out of my body and went right at the monster,

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hitting it like a freight train. The noise it made

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filled me with revulsion. Then I remembered I had a mission.

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I got to my feet and headed to my truck

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as the unearthly screams filled the air. A few minutes later,

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I was on the road and headed for my cousin,

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Edgar's house. Edgar lived to hunt, but that's not accurate.

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Edgar liked killing more than hunting. Only man I know

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who still fishes with a quarter stick of dynamite. He

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uses a rifle designed to take down a rhino. For

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deer hunting. Edgar is what we like to call odd.

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It didn't take long before I got to Edgar's house,

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I ran inside and started talking, maybe a little too fast,

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because I saw Edgar's face furrow into a worried grimace.

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Then the more I talked, the more I saw a

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light go off in his brain. He brought me a

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mug of strong black coffee and excused himself to go

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fetch a wooden crate from his garage. I told my

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cousin what had happened, and for a moment considered leaving

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my dead wife out of the story and just went

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for it. Edgar nodded and listened, and opened the crate

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and started making bundles of dynamite, four sticks per bundle.

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He set the fuses, and when he was finished with

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the task, stood up, grabbed the crate of dynamite, and

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headed out the door. Come on, cuz, let's go get

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this monster. For the entire drive back to the lake,

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Edgar just sat and smiled. I caught him whistle in

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more than once. I parked the truck and had to

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force myself to walk back to the lake. Well, cuz,

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where is this monster? As if in response, the four

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tendrils erupted from the hole in the ice and roared.

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I noticed that more than one tendril looked a little

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worse for wear. That's my wife. I turned to look

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at Edgar and he was smiling, and tears of joy

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ran down his face. Let's go fishing, cuz, and he

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lit the fuse on one of the dynamite bundles. That,

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my spookys is why winter doesn't need jump scares. It

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just needs a little patience, because the lake doesn't roar,

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it doesn't chase you down the street. It just sits there,

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innocent looking until you lean in a little too close

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and the dark beneath decides you're the warmest thing it's

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00:25:57.839 --> 00:26:03.119
felt all season. Now, if you're hungry for more nightmare fuel,

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00:26:03.400 --> 00:26:07.359
We're not done this week. This Friday, cutting deep into

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00:26:07.400 --> 00:26:12.160
horror is digging into confessions of a serial killer, a grimy,

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00:26:12.279 --> 00:26:16.680
overlooked slice of nineteen eighty five true crime dread that

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00:26:16.839 --> 00:26:20.359
feels like somebody found a VHS under a police station

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00:26:20.559 --> 00:26:24.039
floorboard and said, sure, let's watch it in the dark.

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00:26:24.960 --> 00:26:27.960
So make sure you're subscribed on your favorite podcasting app,

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00:26:28.160 --> 00:26:30.519
and make sure you join us Friday for all the

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00:26:30.920 --> 00:26:34.599
gruesome details. And remember, if you love what we do

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and want to support us, head to Weeklyspooky dot com.

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Slash Join for as little as one dollar a month.

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You get two bonus episodes every month and over five

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years of Creepypasta readings and exclusive audiobooks. And speaking of

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00:26:49.240 --> 00:26:51.119
I want to say an extra special thank you to

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00:26:51.160 --> 00:26:54.480
our Patreon podcast boosters, folks who sign up and pay

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00:26:54.599 --> 00:26:56.799
just a little bit more to hear their names at

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the end of the show. And they are Johnny Nicks,

365
00:26:59.160 --> 00:27:04.119
Kate and Lulah, Jessica Fuller, Mike Escuey, Jenny Green, Amber Hansford,

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00:27:04.200 --> 00:27:07.680
Karen we Met, Jack Kerr and Craig Cohen. Thank you

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00:27:07.720 --> 00:27:09.759
all so much, And if you want to hear your

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00:27:09.839 --> 00:27:11.680
name at the end of the show, just head to

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00:27:11.720 --> 00:27:15.200
Weeklyspooky dot com slash join and sign up at the

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fifteen dollars a month or higher tier. But now, my spookyes,

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00:27:19.400 --> 00:27:21.160
I've got to get back to work. There is so

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00:27:21.279 --> 00:27:25.240
much more fear for your ears coming very very soon,

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including a little surprise on Saturday you won't want to miss.

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00:27:29.680 --> 00:27:33.119
So for myself, for my executive producers Rob Fields and

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00:27:33.200 --> 00:27:37.000
babbletopia dot Com, my producer Dan Wilder, and of course

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00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:41.119
my creepy composer Ray Mattis. I will talk at you

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next time. Hope you catch a big one out there.

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Thank you for listenzies. Make sure to find your way

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00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:53.680
back next week weekly, But for now you are safe.

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Trust me.