Creep Radio
Creep Radio is a spine-chilling weekly podcast hosted by the Master of Creep, uncovering eerie tales, true crime, and the darkest corners of the paranormal world.
Creep Radio
Running Through the Dark: The Last Family Camping Trip
The boundary between childhood imagination and supernatural reality blurs in this bone-chilling story that will make you think twice about dismissing your child's "imaginary" friends.
When a family of three embarks on their annual camping trip to Colt Creek State Park in Florida, they're redirected by an elderly, somewhat unsettling forest ranger to an isolated, "undeveloped" campsite away from other campers. Their five-year-old son PJ seems to settle in just fine—perhaps too fine, as he soon begins conversing with someone named "Billy" inside his tent.
At first, parents chalk it up to an active imagination fueled by campfire ghost stories. But as PJ reveals increasingly disturbing details about his new friend—that Billy is a ghost hiding from his ghostly father who murdered him—their concern deepens. The true terror arrives at 3 AM when the temperature drops inexplicably inside their tent and PJ wakes them in panic, insisting Billy's dad is coming. Moments later, a chilling, deranged voice calls through the darkness: "Billy, where are you, Billy?"
The family's desperate midnight escape through the woods is just the beginning of the nightmare. When they return later to collect their abandoned belongings, they discover something far more terrifying than anything they imagined: the campground has no record of an elderly ranger, and campsite LL376 doesn't exist—and never did.
Who guided them to that isolated spot in the woods? Was it merely a child's overactive imagination, or something far more sinister? Listen now to hear the full account of the family who made a solemn vow never to go camping again after their encounter with Billy and his dad.
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AHHHHH, Welcome to Creep Radio, where we dive deep into the dark, the bizarre and the unexplained. Dim the lights and lock your doors. Prepare to get creeped out because the unknown is calling and we're about to answer. I'm your host, the Master of Creep.
Speaker 2:Ghost turns a relaxing camping trip into a nightmare. A relaxing camping trip turns into a run-for-your-life ghost experience. A child's imaginary friend becomes a nightmare for the entire family. If you're going to go camping, don't forget to pack your running shoes. We don't have a lot of money, so when it comes time to take vacations, we usually go camping. We have a son named Paul, but we just call him PJ.
Speaker 2:Last year we decided to go to a place called Colt Creek State Park in Florida. Now Colt Creek State Park is one of our most favorite places to camp. We have been there many times. You can hike in and camp. Plus, they have several good fishing ponds. Colt Creek is a place where they used to harvest limestone, so there were several pits that have filled up with water and they stocked them with fish. When we reached the park we went into the main office and a very old, creepy looking forest ranger told us that all of their regular campsites were booked. He said there was a new section that was under development and didn't have complete road access. We could stay there, but we'd have to hike a little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm sorry we're all booked up, but I'll tell you what you guys look like. You're pretty experienced campers. If you're willing to walk a couple hundred yards, well, that's your camp here over here.
Speaker 3:This is a new area that we're developing, uh you just park your car here, where I got it on the map here, and walk across the field. It's a couple hundred yards there. You'll see some tractors and it's going to be camp number. Let's see it's ll376. That's the one one. If you'll just promise to keep it clean when you leave, I think it'd be okay if you camp there.
Speaker 2:We talked it over and decided to go ahead and book the camping site. The forest ranger gave us a regular map but didn't have the new sections printed on it yet, so he took a pencil and he drew a path from the main road to show us how to get to the undeveloped area. He said to ignore all the keep out signs and just look for the campsite numbered LL376. We followed the map and finally found the new undeveloped area. I finally found the new undeveloped area. They still have a few tractors parked in the field and you could tell where the new camping sites were being built. We found our site LL376, and started to go back and forth from the site to the car, which was about 300 yards away. After several trips we got all of our tent and gear at the campsite and started setting up our tent. The first day pretty much wore us out. I was surprised that the rest of the campgrounds was booked solid, yet the old forest ranger let us camp in the undeveloped area. No one else seemed to be anywhere near us. That night I told ghost stories around the campfire, something that I always have loved to do. My wife Linda said maybe you shouldn't tell these kinds of stories to PJ. Remember he's only five years old. We seemed to have the entire camp area to PJ. Remember he's only five years old. We seemed to have the entire camp area to ourselves. The next day I took PJ exploring. We found a great place to fish, so we went back to our campsite and got our fishing gear. Pj loves to fish, but he has a very short attention span. Pj loves to fish, but he has a very short attention span. Linda stayed back at the campsite to read a book. She isn't a big fan of camping, but she does like to get away from work, relax and read. After fishing for about an hour, pj wanted to go back and play with some of his toys. I knew he wouldn't last very long at fishing because he just gets too bored. I took PJ back to the campsite, which was about 200 yards from the pond. I decided to go back by myself and do more fishing. I took a lantern so when the sun goes down I could stay and fish a little at night. Our plan was to stay at the campsite for an entire week. We considered it our annual vacation.
Speaker 2:On the third day I got up early and went to the fishing pond alone. I fished all morning long and caught a few fish. When I came back to the campsite I could hear PJ talking to himself in his tent. He had his own little tent right next to our tent. I poked my head into his tent and asked who are you talking to? He said it's Billy. I said oh, that's nice. Well, y'all have fun.
Speaker 2:Now I know that PJ has a great imagination, so I wasn't too concerned that he had an imaginary friend named Billy. The next morning I asked PJ if he wanted to go on a hike. He asked well, can I just stay here and play with Billy? So I went on a little hike by myself, just me and my camera. I enjoy wildlife photography and I was happy to get out on my own and take a few photos. After a couple of hours I circled back into the camp to check on PJ and Linda. I was surprised that PJ was still talking and playing with his imaginary friend.
Speaker 2:I was getting a little more concerned that PJ was spending so much time with his imaginary friend, so I decided to sit with him for a few minutes and talk to him. I wanted to find out what was going on in his head. He said Billy was his ghost friend. And that's when Linda reminded me see, this is why you don't tell ghost stories to children. I asked PJ well, tell me more about this ghost named Billy. Pj started telling me things that made a chill go through my spine. He said Billy is hiding from his dead. I said what PJ said yes, billy's dead is a ghost too, and he's really mean. And I said okay, can I talk to Billy? Pj said no, he doesn't like grown-ups. And I asked because his dad is a grown-up and his dad killed him. At this point I was more than ready to put an end to all of this. I told PJ I don't want you playing or talking to Billy or any other ghost anymore, do you understand? And PJ said yes, yes, sir, pj could tell that I was getting mad.
Speaker 2:I talked to my wife about PJ and his imaginary ghost friend, billy. I asked her if she knew that PJ imagined that. That Billy said his father had killed him and she was stunned. What, yes? I said, and I think we need to maybe get to the bottom of this right now. And she agreed.
Speaker 2:So we had a little family meeting in our tent to talk to PJ about Billy and the ghost. I told PJ that he shouldn't make up things that were bad. I asked him where did he get the idea that Billy had a bad father? Pj insisted that Billy was real and that Billy had told him about his father. I asked PJ how did you meet Billy? Pj said I woke up and he was just sitting in my tent. So I asked well, what does Billy look like? Pj said well, he's brown and he has on really dirty clothes and he has dirty hair. The more details that PJ gave to me, the more upset I got. What I really wanted most of all is to understand why PJ would make up a ghost friend like Billy.
Speaker 2:That night it was raining. Pj wanted to sleep in our tent. We had a much larger tent, so we moved his sleeping bag and cot into our tent. About three o'clock in the morning PJ woke us up and he seemed very scared. He said we need to get out of here.
Speaker 2:I turned on the lantern and I noticed that it seemed to be very cold in the tent.
Speaker 2:In fact, it seemed to be at least 20 degrees colder in the tent than it was outside, to be at least 20 degrees colder in the tent than it was outside. Pj said we need to get out of this place because Billy's dead is coming. Pj was on the verge of crying. I could tell that he actually believed that Billy was real and I have to admit, I was a little scared too because of the way PJ was acting. I tried to calm PJ down. I said, look, this was probably a bad dream and this is why you shouldn't make up imaginary friends like Billy in the first place. I told PJ to just go back to sleep. Pj said yes, sir, and he crawled back into his sleeping bag and and I turned off the lantern and we tried to go back to sleep, but we talked a little bit in the dark. We finally got PJ calmed down and as we drifted off to sleep in the distance I heard something that I will never forget.
Speaker 3:Billy, where are you, billy?
Speaker 2:I could tell this person was completely deranged. It felt like someone was pouring ice water down my spine. His voice scared me to a new level of fright. All three of us heard this man yelling. We flew out of our sleeping bags. We ran as fast as we could toward the car in total darkness, running through briars and sticks and small trees. My wife was crying, pj was crying. I was just too scared to cry. We reached the car and started it up and drove out as fast as we could to the main road. We didn't stop until we reached home more than three hours away. By the time we got home it was starting to turn light. We went to bed and slept till about 5 in the afternoon.
Speaker 2:The next day I drove back to the campgrounds to retrieve my tents, my camping gear, my fishing gear and, most of all, my camera. We ran out of there so fast that all we had were our clothes, and I was lucky to have my car keys in my pocket. Otherwise I don't know what I would have done. I stopped off at the campground's main office to let them know that I was driving back to get my stuff, and I was surprised to see that they had already had my stuff at the office. The construction crew who was working on the new campsite found our stuff.
Speaker 2:They were confused and perplexed. Who and why would someone leave all of their stuff in the middle of the night? And, most puzzling, why would there be camping in the undeveloped area that was supposed to be closed to the general public? Well, I told them that the old forest ranger gave us a map of the campsite and told us that it was okay to camp at LL 376. He asked me to describe the forest ranger and I told him well, he seemed to be pretty old and a little creepy and grumpy, and the person at the camp office said we don't have anyone like that working here and, furthermore, there's no such thing as Campsite LL376. We don't number our campsites like that. I was glad to get my stuff back, especially my camera and my fishing gear. As far as the tents and sleeping bags were concerned, I didn't care much about those items anymore because we talked it over as a family and made the decision to never go camping again go camping again.