A sixteen year old boy sets out on a rubber raft with four other teenagers. They get caught in currents, so decide to swim back to shore. Only the sixteen year old survives. He's interviewed by newspapers a day or two after the incident. He says the raft got caught in currents, so they decided to swim to shore, and he lost sight of them as they developed cramps. He finds out a week later that one of the bodies of his friends was found on a beach.

A year later, he writes an extremely detailed and horrific story to Fate Magazine, saying he witnessed a fictional character from a children's show released the year prior crossover into reality and proceed to kill his friends one by one, with his friends all reacting to the character's presence. Many details of this version of the story are inconsistent. Some of which directly contradict the physical evidence (no wounds on the body that washed ashore a week later, other key details such as the weather - no fog or lightning was reported by the papers at the time, or reported by Old Farmers Almanac Historical Weather Records system).

He then explains the discrepancies by saying ''the newspaper reporters wanted to cover it up and keep it a secret''. He says he immediately told authorities the paranormal version of the story to authorities and they all believed him. He also claims his paranormal version of the events held up in court. He then sticks to this story for the remainder of his life, going so far as to send letters to paranormal investigators in other countries, and write about it on online forums relating to encounters with the paranormal, asking others if anyone else had seen this character in real life. Some of which jokingly replied that they did, so he contacted them by telephone to talk to them about their 'encounter'. He worked at a Mental Health Resource Center.