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The River

Tiffany Smith, Alaska, USA
December 2006

Before you read this story you should know that I am a firm believer in the supernatural and have had more than just this experience in my life.

In the summer of this year, I was sitting alone in my house, bored out of my mind because all of my friends were out of town. Suddenly, I decided that it might be a neat idea to ride my bike to the nearby park and hang out there. So I got my bike and rode over there. Seeing that no sports teams were having practices, I found myself, once again, alone. Deeply depressed, I wandered across the street and went down to the river that ran alongside the road. People aren't supposed to go down there, but I had nothing else to do and nowhere else to go.
I sat down on a rock on the bank and closed my eyes, listening to the sound of the water. For some reason, I felt like someone else was there with me. You know, that eerie feeling when you think someone is watching you? Anyway, I kept my eyes closed and tried to think about what might have caused this. I found that the more I thought about it, the worse the feeling got. I started to hear splashing noises in the water. Of course, that isn't really anything special when sitting next to a river, but this sounded like someone was trying to swim. It sounded like somebody was drowning. I made the move to get up, I just got this gut feeling that I shouldn't be there anymore. But as I tried to stand, something came up out of the water and grabbed my ankles, dragging me under! This river has a pretty violent current and I have to admit, I was scared out of my wits. Strangely, instead of pulling me downstream, the current was pulling me down towards the riverbed. I tried to swim to the surface, but whatever had me wasn't letting go, and I couldn't hold my breath any longer. Even knowing that you shouldn't take a breath under water doesn't make it any easier when trying to resist the temptation. I opened my mouth and took in a lung full of water. As soon as I did, everything got dark and quiet. I forced my eyes open and looked around me only to see dead bodies floating in a circle around me! Suddenly, I was back on land, sitting on the rock, completely dry. But for some reason, I couldn't breathe. I managed to get enough air to cough and out came all of this water! I kept coughing and spitting out water. I heard this voice coming from somewhere out in the middle of the river telling me to leave, and I didn't question it. I left the river, went back to the park to get my bike, and peddled home as fast as I could, spitting out water and coughing the whole time.
I did a little digging around after I got home and found that numerous cars had driven off of the road and into the river back when the pavement was level with the riverbed. In heavy rains the river would swell and flood the road. Some people have swerved off the road and into the river, drowning.
I don't go near that river anymore and I advise others not to as well. I'm not sure what the whole episode meant, or why it happened to me, but I hope that I never have to go near that general area ever, ever again.

Tiffany Smith, Alaska, USA
00:00 / 01:04
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