"Stinson Beach"

**"Stinson Beach"** is the fourth tale in the 4th episode of the 1st season of The Nosleep Podcast. Written by Walter Smith, it has a running time of 12:58 and was originally read by Alex Beal. It is the 13th tale overall on the podcast.

## Summary

A man, Walter, goes for a walk on a shore called "Stinson Beach" with his best friend, John. While walking, John stumbles upon a camcorder half-buried in the sand. Though it appears to be ruined, Walter agrees to try and find out what is on the tape.

The next week, the two sit down to watch the tape. In it, a woman in a torn bathing suit, with her hands tied behind her back, is being forced to walk down a thin dirt path sometime in the late evening. Her hands are tied so tight with twine that they are bleeding. She walks forward for about a minute before a voice somewhere off-screen berates whoever is recording for filming too early. The tape cuts off there. The two attempt to put it as a file onto Walter's computer, but are unsucsessful. John takes the tape home and agrees to try and get it onto his computer.

Three days later, John calls Walter and tells him that he was able to get the file onto his computer, but was unable to get the sound to play. Over the next few days, Walter tries to call John, but all his calls go straight to voicemail. Then, suddenly one night, John calls him. He says that the tape "is not important anymore", and that they need to go back to the beach, as there's "something [he] needs to see". Walter refuses, as Stinson Beach is a two-hour drive away from his home. The two fight for a few minutes before John hangs up.

The next morning, as he is taking a shower, Walter notices a thin layer of sand covering the bottom of his bathtub. He assumes that it's from his girlfriend, Sara, hanging her bathing suit to dry, but he can't see it anywhere in the bathroom. John calls again, pleading him to go to the beach. He declines and hangs up.

Walter waits all night, but Sara never returns from work. He calls her relatives, but no one has seen her. The next day, she still hasn't shown up, so the man files a missing-person's report.

That night, he has a nightmare. In it, he is lying in bed next to Sara when suddenly the sounds of the ocean fill the room. Sara turns to look at him, revealing that she has long, sharp teeth and her hands are tied behind her back with twine. She says he needs to go down to Stinson Beach. He wakes up the next morning to wet, sandy footprints leading from his front lawn to his front door, and a piece of twine has been wrapped around the handle.

While watching TV the next morning, the news caster yells at Walter, telling him to go down to the beach, before yelling about how tons of bodies, with their hands wrapped behind their backs with twine, have washed up on the shore. His TV suddenly short-circuits and the house smells like salt water.

He receives a call from a sheriff, telling him if he wants to continue the investigation into Sara's disappearance, he needs to meet him down at Stinson Beach. Walter hangs up and calls Sara's parents, and they think it's a good idea to go down to the beach. That night, Sara's voice can be heard coming from outside his second-story bedroom window, pleading him to go to the beach. Walter finally caves and heads down to the beach.

An unspecified amount of time later, Walter updates, saying that he saw what everyone wanted him to see, but that it's hard to type with his hands tied behind his back with twine. In the final sentence of the story, he tells the reader to go down to Stinson Beach sometimes, as there's something they need to see.