Hello again, Story Club members.

I'm Ivy, your ghostly host with the most and keeper of the strangest,

spookiest tales on earth.

Today is another Ivy's chilling tale.

This murky plot story club members might make you stay out of the swamps.

It's one I call Mississippi Mud Monster.

There's a mud monster out there.

That's what the old hermit who lives in the swamp told us.

He had one good eye and the other was pale and lifeless like a

spider's egg. His crooked, blackened teeth appeared more so when he cracked a grin.

It's best to take your fishing poles and go someplace else. I'm warning you. My cousin and I did what

the old man in the crusty Bibb overall said. He was kind of creepy and smelly anyway.

I was visiting my cousin in Yazoo City, Mississippi for spring break.

We were out near the Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge with our fishing poles.

The swamp was incredible with all the trees draped in Spanish moss.

Even in March, it was hot and muggy in the early part of the morning.

Just ignore old Clyde, my cousin Jason said, his biscuits aren't quite done if you know what I mean.

What does he mean about a mud monster? That sounds so random. It's just an old story, Jason said,

but the locals really just use it to scare people away from their favorite fishing spots, that's all.

I followed Jason to another fishing spot in the swamp.

He rode the seven-foot aluminum boat through the dark, murky waters of the swamp.

I saw some alligators sunning themselves on the shore.

...