Ever since I was little, I felt cursed. Strange shit just kept happenign around me. I don’t know why, I don’t know how, but unexplainable things keep occurring. I’m typing this out just to share some of the things I’ve seen. I’m hoping at least one other person here shares at least one of my experiences. I can feel my grip on my sanity slipping.
I’m currently twenty three. I’ve worked a number of jobs throughout my life, but for the sake of this post, only three actually matter: the summer I spent as a lifeguard at a local water park when I was sixteen, the summer I spent as a camp counselor when I was nineteen, and the short-lived job at the zoo when I was twenty.
As time went on, the strange shit that keeps happening got more frequent and intense. Because of that, I’m going to start from the lifeguarding job and work my way forward. I don’t remember every detail about the lifeguarding and camp counseling job, since they were a while ago, and I’m leaving out certain details for the sake of keeping my privacy.
At the age of sixteen, I started working as a lifeguard. I had been on the swim team for several years at that point, and had been forced to get CPR certified as a grad requirement in my health class (which I always found strange but whatever), so I was technically qualified for the job. I needed money to fuel my addictions to food and the cool new video game, so I decided to go job hunting. Three weeks later, I’m sitting in one of those big lifeguard chairs next to a wave pool.
For context, the water park I worked at was attached to a regular amusement park. Picture Six Flags or Silverwood. Some of the stories relate to the amusement park side, but most of them happened during my time working at the pool.
Since I was young, I was assigned to the wavepool. There were two other lifeguards helping me and making sure I didn’t fuck up my job. The place I worked had a policy where new hires, regardless of age, could only be considered a full lifeguard after two weeks of not fucking everything up and at least one instance of doing something meaningful. I was essentially a deputy lifeguard. Everything I mention regarding this job took place in or around the wave pool, unless otherwise specified.
- We had one of those slides where the floor suddenly drops out from under you at the start. A younger kid, maybe seven or eight, went down. His mom wanted to go down with him because she was worried about letting him go on his own. The kid was exceptionally small. Whoever was running the slide told her that there wasn’t space, and it was dangerous to have multiple people go at once. The kid goes down by himself, and never comes out the other side. The whole slide got shut down for an hour while the people running it went through over and over to try to find the kid. They found nothing. No trace of him.
- People kept reporting an awful smell coming from the bathrooms adjacent to the wave pool. Not the usual “public bathroom at an amusement park” smell, but that of a rotting corpse. Every time someone went in to check on it, they found nothing. The smell would dissipate after an hour or so. Eventually, the smell returned and refused to leave. The stall furthest from the door was clogged, so a plumber was called to come fix the issue. He pulled up seventeen rotting human fingers. A police investigation was launched, and nothing was found. I wasn’t able to work for about two weeks while the cops tried to figure it out, but they couldn’t find anything. Eventually, the park just opened up again.
- Sometimes people would just vanish. Working the wave pool, it’s important to keep tabs on essentially a giant mass of flesh in a bigass pool. You learn to glance over people who are doing fine. I’ve only ever noticed it myself five or six times, but sometimes you’d blink and someone you were just looking at just… wasn’t there anymore. Or anywhere in the wave pool, for that matter. The people running the wave pool with me kept reporting the same thing. It always bothered me that there were never any missing persons cases for the people we watched disappear.
- Several times, I had people walk up to me at my lifeguard chair and complain to me about a “creepy man in the bushes” who keeps staring at kids. Every time, I would follow them to a set of bushes by the entrance. Every time, I never saw anything. Every time, the adults would insist that he was standing right there, menacingly staring down their kids. Every time, the kids and I would exchange a look of confusion. Only certain parents would complain about it. In one case, a couple consisting of a slightly heavyset woman with a muscular man, both probably in their early thirties at most, complained about the Bushman. They had a four year old daughter with them. The parents were complaining about the Bushman, and the kid and I just looked around in confusion. I stopped a couple with a kid who were walking by and asked them if they saw a creepy man in the bushes. They looked at me funny and told me no. According to that couple, the Bushman smiled at them when I told them I couldn’t do anything about a guy I couldn’t see. Later that day, their daughter went too close to the front of the wave pool and got sucked in by the machines that generate waves. Pool was shut down for a while, and was open again the next week.
- Side note to the last one, our pool had this system where there were these giant oil pump looking things that would move up and down to create the waves. I’m not sure if every pool had this, but imagine a very big and very slow electric hammer that moves up and down. When she got sucked under, she was crushed almost instantly. The sickening crunch was loud enough for me to hear it outside of the water.
- We called them the Watchers. They would stand around the pool and stare at the lifeguards. Sometimes they were reported as having abnormally large eyes and mouths, sometimes they looked just like any other person. Any time one of us noticed one and started walking towards them to confront them, they would walk around a corner and seemingly vanish into thin air. I experienced this a handful of times, and all of my coworkers have stories about the Watchers. I had a crush on one of my coworkers back then. She was nineteen, tall, pretty, and kind. We were good friends, since she was basically the only person there who bothered talking to the “dipshit kid.” The last time anyone saw her, she was complaining to me about a Watcher staring at her from across the park. I even went so far as to walk her to her car, since she was worried about it. She never made it home, and was reported missing the same day.
- This last one took place in the amusement park section. I was walking around with a few friends of mine on one of my days off, and we passed one of the bigger roller coasters in the park. It was called Knockdown, and it was one of those that had a huge, super steep drop. After the drop was this sorta underground section that was covered. It was completely dark in that part, but you went through it pretty fast because of the momentum from the drop. My friends and I were walking and laughing about something stupid when we heard the most bloodcurdling scream I had ever heard at the time. We ran over to see what was happening, and I barely got a glimpse of the headless corpse of some kid. A few days later, I overheard some of my coworkers talking. Apparently the kid had shimmied past his seat harness thing and stood up during the ride (which you’re not supposed to do) and got bonked by one of the support beams. Problem with that story is that A) nobody saw him move to stand up and B) it physically isn’t possible for someone of his size to get around his safety restraint. More than that, the restraint was safely across his lap when his body arrived back at the start.
I can’t remember anything else that happened at the water park right now. If I think of any more, I’ll either edit this post or make a part two.
The camp counseling job was so much worse. Essentially, I was the designated dad of a certain group of kids. The group was split by gender, with me being in charge of the boys and a female coworker of mine named Casey being in charge of the girls. Each half of the group had their own little cabin. Casey and I were supposed to lead the kids to the activities, make sure everyone was safe, prevent any weird shit from happening, yada yada. The usual camp counselor shit. Since the group we were with consisted of people ages fifteen to seventeen, we were also supposed to stop any “sinful behavior” from occurring.
The camp was a bit unique in that the older kids were given a lot of freedom. The cabins we stayed at were roughly forty feet apart, but that was it. There were no other buildings for quite a while. There were obstacle courses and campfire spots and other shit for us to use, but there weren’t any other people for at least a few miles. Every two days, someone higher up in the chain of command would come check on us. Simple enough, yeah?
The short version of events: We were supposed to be there for two weeks. Within the first five days, three kids vanished, one of the cabins burnt down, and I watched Casey die.
The long version: The first day was relatively uneventful. We unpacked our shit, did some icebreaker bullshit, and had a campfire before going to bed around midnight. It should be noted that, at this point, Casey and I had known each other for about a week because we helped get everything set up. We were pretty much dating at the time, just without the title. This is relevant later, I promise.
Day two, obstacle course day. Basically, we spent most of the day on this gigantic rope course thing. Y’know those giant wooden obstacle courses where you’re attached to the top by a rope, and they go up pretty damn high? Yeah, one of those. The kids had fun, Casey and I made sure everyone was safe, everything was great. That night, everyone came over to the boys cabin (because it was bigger for some reason) and we all sat down in the living room. We would’ve watched a movie, but the camp had a strict “no technology” rule besides like… lights and shit, so instead we resorted to scary stories, card games, truth or dare, the usual shit. Nothing to note, other than one of the camp managers coming by to make sure nobody had died yet.
Day three, lake day. About half a mile from the cabins was a giant lake. There was a boathouse on the shore closes to the cabins, and we took the kids to go kayaking and swimming. A few people went fishing, we played water sports, I threw a buncha kids around because it was fun, summer camp stuff. Pretty typical day. Everyone was worn out by the end of the day, and we all went to bed early. Except me and Casey, who snuck off to the rope course to uh… play a friendly game of chess. Right when I was about to… put Casey into Checkmate, we heard the most inhuman howl either of us had ever heard. It sounded like a mourning dog mixed with the unending wails of damned souls. Immediately, and to my dismay, we stopped, got dressed, and sprinted back to the cabins. Casey and I go our separate ways for the night, and I struggle to fall asleep.
Day four, everything falls apart. It’s raining, hard. The camp manager shows up around eight in the morning, makes sure we’re all fine, and fucks off. At ten, the thunder starts. Noon, the girls’ cabin gets struck by lightning.
All of the girls sprint through the rain to our cabin. Theirs is on fire, and everybody left all of their shit. Over the next hour or so, we watched the cabin burn to the ground, with all of their shit still inside.
Around four, the rain stops. We decide to go for a hike. I didn’t have reception where I was, and I needed to contact the main camp to let them know about the situation. We could’ve walked there, but it was a solid five miles away through thick woods with very little by way of directions. I knew for a fact that the lookout at the end of the hiking trail had about one bar of reception, and we figured it was a better bet than getting lost in the woods trying to find our way back.
Everybody put on their best shoes, or whatever they had left if their shit was just burned to ash, and we started walking. Casey was in the front, I was in the back. Along the way, one of the boys stops us and says he needs to piss. He scampers off into the woods and hides behind a tree to take a leak. Everyone stops to wait for him. A minute passes. Then two. We call out for him, and he doesn’t reply. Five minutes have passed. I go look behind the tree for him. He’s nowhere.
We spend an hour calling out for him. We all spread out a little, agreeing beforehand to meet back at that spot in ten minutes at the latest. Two of the girls never came back. We went looking for all three of them as a group, but couldn’t find them. It was starting to get dark, and I made the executive decision to hurry to the top of the mountain so we can call for help and a search party for the missing kids.
We make it to the top, call for help, and we’re told they’ll come by in the morning. We start heading back. By this point, it’s nearly pitch black. I turn on my phone flashlight, and Casey turned on a little pocket flashlight she had brought with her. They did barely anything to light the way. We make it back to the cabin, and everyone who’s still with us falls asleep in the boys’ cabin. Around three in the morning, Casey wakes me up suggesting another round of competitive chess. Not being one to turn down a fair duel, I follow her outside and a few steps into the woods. We were trying to be far enough away that none of the kids would hear us or, God forbid, decide to watch, but we were also too spooked by the events earlier in the day to go any further.
After we finish playing chess, Casey takes a few steps into the woods to piss. We knew for a fact the seat of the boys’ cabin toilet was caked in dried piss, and she decided she would rather test her luck with the monsters in the woods than sit on teenage boy piss. She chose incorrectly.
We were having a conversation while she was squatting in a bush, purely because she was scared and asked me to keep talking to her so she knew I didn’t get murdered or something. She demanded I look away while she was in the act, so I stood there with my back turned to her and whispered with her about the ghosts and goblins in the woods. I was being an ass, trying to scare her more. I regret it.
At some point, she stopped responding. Not wanting her to get upset, I didn’t turn around, but instead chose to whisper louder to make sure she was okay. No response. I turned around and almost vomited.
Casey was laying on her back, her face tilted towards me. Her eyes were dull, and fading fast. There was blood splattered on her face and neck. Panicked, I ran towards her to try to help. I quickly realized that the bush she had been sitting behind was hiding the fact she no longer had a lower half.
Her intestines were coiled next to her, neatly piled up like someone was putting away a garden hose. Her left arm was missing a few fingers. Her tongue was gone. I watched the light fade from her eyes. I was horrified by the fact that something had managed to mangle Casey this badly so quickly and quietly. I apologized to Casey’s corpse and ran back to the cabin.
The rest of the night, I kept hearing that same inhuman howl. This time, it seemed to stop and start, almost like someone laughing. To this day, I hear that sound in my nightmares.
In the morning, the camp manager arrived. I told her we needed to get everyone out of these woods immediately, and we needed to call the cops. Seeing that I was covered in Casey’s blood, she was hesitant. I explained that I found Casey severely hurt and was trying to help her, hence the blood. She took us all down the mountain and called the police.
After a long line of questioning, and finally being cleared of suspicion, one of the cops gave me his information. He told me to let him know if I could think of anything else that might be important to the case. I agreed, and I went home a week earlier than I was supposed to.
I called the cop a few days after getting home, and asked about Casey. Asked what happened, if they figured out who or what did it, etc. He told me the autopsy raised more questions than answers.
Apparently, her missing fingers were found inside of her throat. The search party sent to look for the missing kids also looked for her lower half and found nothing. Even more confusing, her spine was missing from her upper half. It didn’t seem like anyone had ripped or cut it out, but that it just… disappeared. Her lungs were full of water and her heart was facing the wrong direction.
It was around that time when I started thinking I was cursed. That feeling only got worse when I started working at the zoo. I still don’t really know what happened there.
A little context for the next few paragraphs: the zoo I worked at had a mascot called Gerard. He was this ridiculously long necked giraffe, and there was a mascot costume to go with it. I was working on the closing shift almost every day, and part of my job was making sure all of the animals were put away at night. We kept all of the animals in these indoor enclosures during the night to make sure they weren’t trying to escape or anything.
- One day, someone raised a complaint that whoever was in the Gerard costume was acting strangely, and it was making people uncomfortable. My boss, being the lazy asshole he is, sent me to take care of it. I found the Gerard actor hunched over behind the counter of one of the cafes we had scattered around the zoo. He was facing away from me. I gently touched his shoulder to let him know I needed to talk to him, and he collapsed. He was sitting in front of a blender that had been plugged into an outlet next to where I found Gerard, and the actor’s hands were completely shredded. Inside the blender, pieces of bone and flesh swirled around a pool of blood. What bits of hand were still attached to the actor were tattered. I could see tendons twitching across exposed bones. Whatever Gerard did, he did it long before I got there. I pulled of the mascot mask to help him breathe, and it was someone I didn’t recognize. I called 911. I never saw that man at work again.
- A kid fell into the lion enclosure once. As horrifying as that is by itself, it got worse the moment I showed up. The kid was staring directly at me. His eyes and mouth were too large for the size of his head, almost unnaturally so. The lions in the enclosure were cowering in fear from the little boy, who looked to be around five. Other staff went down to grab the little boy and pull him out by basically just tying a rope to one of them and lowering them into the enclosure. The lion enclosure had two sections, a higher sections where the lions were and a lower section with a little water fall where the lions rarely went. The lower section was separated by a short cliff, and the door to the enclosure was on the higher section. The employees figured it would be easier and safer to use the rope than to try to climb down and back up. The entire time he was being removed, the boy kept staring at me. He flashed a disgustingly wide grin, and bit the employee pulling him out of the enclosure. The employee accidentally dropped the boy, who landed with his upper half on the upper section of the enclosure, his lower half dangling over the edge. The boy walked over to the lions, turned around, stared directly into my soul, and practically climbed into the male lion’s mouth. I watched in horror as the lions tore this kid to shreds. We tried to find a parent after the incident, and nobody claimed to know the kid. Nobody even saw him fall in, they just noticed a boy standing in the lion enclosure.
- One time, a little kid who was walking past me said, “It’s really cool that you guys let the animals walk around with us.” I immediately started panicking, and asked which animal he saw. “The one that takes faces!” he said gleefully. It was unnerving how happy he seemed. I asked him to describe the creature in more detail, and he said, word for word, “The one that looks like a tall man with no eyes. It puts its face against someone else’s, and takes it.” He cocked his head to the side like a confused dog. “Isn’t it a part of the zoo?” I nervously laughed it off and assured him that it was, before running off to find my boss. He completely ignored it.
- One night, when I was putting the animals away, I stopped by the wolf area. We had three gray wolves, one male and two females. I always liked watching them for a while, cuz I always though wolves were cool. I noticed that one of the females was nestled into the corner, twitching. I was going to go grab my supervisor when an impending sense of doom came over me. I looked back at the wolf and saw this strange crab looking thing in her mouth. It looked like she was trying, and failing, to eat it. With a loud snap, the wolf’s jaw went flying away from the skull. I watched the crab thing crawl into her throat. She shivered, almost like she was having a seizure. The other wolves were backed intot he opposite corners of the room, away from her. The wolf suddenly stopped twitching, stood up faster than my eyes could follow, and turned around to stare at me. The usual rise and fall of the wolf’s chest was gone, like she wasn’t breathing anymore. The wolf continued to stare. I decided it was best to not stick around, and left to go home for the night. I see that wolf in the corner of my eye sometimes.
- My job at the zoo ended when the zoo shut down. The owner, my boss, hung himself in the chimp exibit. We found out about it when families saw the apes eating his corpse. The zoo shut down the same day, and declared itself permanently closed the following day.
These are only some of the many strange things that have been happening. I feel like this is a higher rate of unusual shit than most people deal with. Am I just losing it or am I really cursed?