Oroville, a lake located in Butte County, California, is often frequented by young adults, looking for a cheap and easy way to spend a day with friends by the water.
Updated 2/11/2020 – Megan (Names have been changed for privacy), a nearby high school student, had just received her license and decided to surprise her friend Monica, by picking her up at her house and playing hooky for the day.
“I was scared that we would run into our parents in town, so I remember thinking that going to the lake was a good idea,” Megan remembered.
A Day in the Sun
“I had packed a picnic, and Monica and I found an open spot of grass to munch on the food.
As we sat there, Monica started telling me a story, and I found myself—suddenly and surprisingly—growing more and more angry with her.
She wasn’t saying anything insulting or anything like that.
“It was as if I was being invaded by someone else’s thoughts and emotions…and they were extremely ugly,” Megan whispered, looking confused.
“At one point Monica looked at me and told me that I looked strange, unlike my usual sunny self.
The more she talked, the more I wanted to hurt her.
“I glanced down at our picnic spread and was shocked to see that the knives I had packed all seemed to be pointing right at her.
I stared down at them, unable to escape the desire to start picking them up and plunging them into her flesh.”
Megan shook her head as a tear fell from her eye.
“I felt like I was being invaded inside my own body, like someone was taking over my thoughts and desires and forcing their will onto me.
It felt like I finally knew what it was like to go crazy…but I had been completely of sound mind not ten minutes before.
I glanced at my fingers, terrified how they itched to grab the knives, sitting not a foot away from me.
“Monica continued to talk, watching the water as she spoke.
As I sat there, trying to regain control over my body, I couldn’t help but feel like there was a presence, an otherworldly presence, near me.
I jerked my head to look behind me, but I couldn’t find anyone nearby.
Is There a Murderous Ghost in Butte County?
ghostsinvelvet/tumblr
“From what I could tell, we were all alone.
I felt a pressure pushing on me from behind, and the more I let it in, the more I felt that crazy desire to hurt Monica, my closest friend.
At one point she looked over at me and gasped in alarm.
Later she told me that I was staring at her as though I had just seen her drown a kitten.
“It all became too much to handle.
‘Monica,’ I hissed at her.
‘I need to go.
I need to go before I hurt you.’
‘What?’ she cried out in alarm—but I was already running, past my car, beyond the lake.
I wound up walking the five miles back to my house, and with every passing step, I felt that presence, that pressure, slowly leave my body.
Monica drove all over Butte County and eventually found me.
“We avoid the lake, and I’ve never felt any violence towards her since.”