I went camping a few months back in New Mexico with a friend of
mine. David who has family there.
If you like rustic desert scenery.
There are few places in this country more beautiful than the
Sandia Mountains, north east of Albuquerque.
We spent a good part of our first day.
Just whooping it through the symbol Leah National Forest as
we made our way towards the mountain range.
We had plenty more ground to cover before we got to the foot
of the mountains and not much daylight left.
So we camp down for the night, when we found a place suitably
less Rocky than the majority of the trail had been in the
interest of traveling light. And for the simple fact that
we'd be in a pretty dry climate. We didn't bring a tent with us.
So our tiny Camp was essentially two sleeping bags.
Next to a fire pit where we cooked our dinner not long after
Sundown, we decided to call it a night.
So we could wake up Before Dawn and get on the move before the
day, got too hot. A couple hours or so later.
I managed to drift off to sleep. I woke up to the sound of my
friend David's voice. Calling out to me.
Hey over here. Come take a look at this.
I heard his voice off the trail, into the woods near the edge of
the clearing. I looked around the camp to make
sure I wasn't imagining things. And saw David sleeping bag was
open and just empty. I called back to him.
Sleepily asking what he'd found, but he just repeated himself.
Over here. Come take a look at this in my
bleary state. I didn't notice how strange the
voice sounded at the time. Maybe I was still just half
asleep. But looking back.
It was pretty out of the ordinary almost as if there were
two voices, layered on top of each other one was clearly the
voice of my friend, but the other was lower and
significantly, distorted groggily.
I made my way out of my sleeping bag and slipped on my boots
before walking into the darkness.
I was Early into the tree line when the voice called out to me
again over here. Come take a look at this.
It was almost mechanical and it's repetition, no shifting and
toner, urgency just the same flat bleat.
As I started to shout back at him that I was coming something
grabbed my wrist from behind. Then a second hand, clasped over
my mouth, stifling a short Yelp of surprise the grip on my wrist
loosened. As I spun to find, David staring
back at me. His eyes, the size of dinner
plates. He held one finger to his lips
and shook his head as he motioned with his free hand for
me to follow him. I was confused to say the least,
but the look on his face told me that whatever was happening.
It wasn't good. So I followed him towards our
little campsite. Once we arrived, he pointed at
my pack and sleeping bag before quietly, beginning to roll his
own sleeping bag into a tight bundle.
What is going on, man? I asked him stupidly.
As I stood in the middle of the clearing, he looked back at me
with that same urgent expression and brought his finger back to
his lips. He then pointed at my sleeping
bag again and made a rolling gesture.
I'm pretty thick sometimes but I understood his body language.
Well enough to know that something had, obviously spooked
him enough to make him decide to pull up the stakes and find a
new spot to sleep in the middle of the night.
So I collected my things and followed him into the woods back
the way we came earlier that day.
A David didn't stop. Until we were clear of the trees
back in the open, almost an hour.
After we started walking. He told me that the voice in the
woods, I heard was probably a skinwalker trying to lure me out
into the forest. He explained that the Cibolo was
a sacred place to the Navajo and the skinwalkers who hunted their
did. So to defile its Purity with
death and dark magic. I was not buying it.
I heard stories about skinwalkers, but I was pretty
sure. David was just trying to mess
with me. Me, he was always a bit of a
prankster, and I had fallen for a good number of his Russ's.
Thick as I am. I was about to call him on his
crap. When I heard my voice clear as
day, repeat the question. I had asked him just before we
left the camp earlier that night.
What is going on man. I spun around to see two glowing
eyes peering back at me from the Treeline about 20 Paces behind
us David. Let out running and I followed
him. We didn't stop running until we
were back at the truck. The parking lot near the
entrance of the national park. We jumped into the cabin after
the engine putter to life and turned over and we peeled out of
that parking lot to the screeching of rubber on asphalt.
We didn't talk as we flew down the highway but David's eyes
kept creeping up to check the rearview mirror.
So frequently, in fact that when an enormous black lumbering
figure, plotted into the headlights, he had to swerve at
the last second to avoid it. Holy crap.
Was that a bear? I asked.
Knowing it was far too big to be a black bear.
He just shook his head and kept glancing nervously up to the
rearview mirror as he redlined the old Fords throttle.
I watched his skin go pale as milk as his eyes locked on
something in the rearview. He turned to look through the
back window and nearly sent us careening into a ditch, but I
grab the wheel and straightened it out.
What the hell man was all? I could manage as I
white-knuckled, the steering wheel, it's chasing us.
He said flatly, get your hands on.
Wheel. I screamed as he returned his
full attention to the task of driving.
Again. I didn't want to look back but I
had to see it. Some part of me, still didn't
want to believe what was happening.
Once, I was sure David was focused on the road.
Again. I glanced in the rearview mirror
on the passenger side. I saw those same glowing yellow,
orbs beaming from the pitch silhouette of the thing.
That was way too big to be a bearer.
It was no less than 20 yards behind us.
I watched it rise from running on four legs to standing
position as it through its head back and let out the most
unearthly sound I had ever heard.
It was like the Drone of a siren mixed with the buzzing and
chattering of forest full of insects.
The old Fords radio crackle to life and the speakers in the
car, coughed out that same noise, the cacophony lasted for
five years, splitting seconds, then it was over and only the
Roar of the engine pervaded, The Silence of the night around us.
We drove back to his family's place in Albuquerque and never
Talk about what happened that night.
Even now, as I write this, it still feels like some kind of
horrible dream. When I was in my 20s, I took a
job as a park, ranger at a state park.
It was the perfect job for me at the time.
I loved working Outdoors every day, presented new challenges,
and I got to work alone on days. When I'd get my work done early.
I would find a beautiful Spot somewhere in the park and just
read or listen to music. It was therapeutic.
I had just gone through a tough year school.
Wiped me out and I had just broken up with my long term.
Girlfriend. I needed an escape and the park
provided it. While working during the day was
amazing. The night shift at the park
wasn't as relaxing. Do you know how uncomfortable
the night can make, even the most comfortable spaces in your
house feel? Well, the pitch black of Mother
Nature is like that. Feeling on steroids, the
absolute worst place to sit during the night shift was the
North End, Watchtower everyone who worked there called it.
The Centennial because it was massive and looked out across
the whole Forest that made up the park.
It was tall, just over 100 feet above the ground and made of Old
Pine that seem to retain the scent as if it had been cut the
day before. It was basically like a little
cabin on top of really tall stilts.
However, inside wasn't exactly a Luxury Box.
The wall that faced the forest was one large window that gave
pretty breathtaking views, but was also really good.
Giving you feelings of vertigo inside.
There was relatively meager furniture.
There were just two chairs, one for sitting and good weather.
And one insulated for bad weather and old desk and a
single bear, light bulb overhead and a small fan to help.
Keep you cool. I always brought something to
read or write because the night watch and the tower is dull as
hell. It was quite a hike to it took
about 10 minutes or so, to walk the tents.
Stories when you had to do it in the dark at night, it tended to
take a little longer each store. You climbed disappeared into the
darkness below you. It could be a bit unsettling.
Once you're on top of the tower. Your job for the shift is to,
basically look for fires or anything else out of the
ordinary when there was a full moon, you could see so much of
the woods, but when there was a new moon or cloudy, you couldn't
see a damn thing. If it wasn't for the bare light
bulb in the You couldn't see anything.
Typically, you would keep in touch with the people in the
walkie and just idle away the hours.
I'm not going to sit here and tell you, I never dozed off for
a while. But if you had come to visit me
on some nights, I might have had sleep creases on my face, most
nights when I was in the Centennial.
I brought a book and read or a journal to write in basically
occupy my mind for the shift and ignore the dark Rangers,
especially older ones. Is love to tell stories about
the weird stuff. They've seen over the years.
People tend to think of parks as safe zones where the most deadly
thing that can happen is an animal attack.
And yes, while animal attacks to occur.
Most of the violence comes from people campers drunk.
We'll get into fights or fall into fire pits or get lost on
their way to the bathroom. Drifters will sneak into the
park and stay an unoccupied cabins or buildings.
I cannot tell you. The number of times I've walked
into squatters chilling in a distant Ranger cabin and have
had to evict them. But one thing, no, one outside
of the world of Park Rangers likes to talk about is the
parks, especially at night tend to be a Haven for criminals.
I know it sounds crazy at the outset but it happens criminal
activity. You name it?
It happens. I was lucky to never deal with
any of the more heavy stuff a few times, we found drugs to be
sold. Or a small patch of weed growing
in the woods, but nothing horrifying.
But if you've put your time in at a park, eventually you'll run
into something. That will haunt your dreams.
Not too far off where the park was, there was a correctional
facility. It wasn't Alcatraz or anything
that high security, but the people there were serious
criminals. It was a distance away on clear
nights. You could barely make out the
lights from the yard along the horizon, but Loomed large in
your imagination, your rational brain knew that any criminal
could have to Brave the dangerous forest in Pitch Black
before they ran into you. But a tiny flicker of light,
kept a corner of your brain illuminated, it could happen.
It won't but it could it was near the end of summer and some
of the staff had already split for the year.
I was on for a few more weeks, but I was going to get night
Duty for most of those days since I was on the lowest of the
Totem pole worse. I would be on Sentinel Duty for
those nights. I know having the least amount
of seniority was the main reason, but I know that my boss
and a few older Rangers play poker those nights as well.
Since I had no money or skills. I was sent up to the tower as
the sun was starting to set. I walked into the Central
Station at the park entrance. A few of the Rangers were
Milling about messing around the day.
Shift was relaying night shift things that they Would be aware
of that kind of stuff. It was mainly nothing, not a ton
of campers in the park. This time of year, just a few
sightings of bears nearby. Someone also swears.
They saw a bobcat but wasn't sure but someone walked into the
station and the tenor of the night shifted, excuse me, a
woman about 40 said in an overwhelming polite way she
dressed in leggings and my guess was she was here to walk the
trails, my boss. Boss and want to be Casanova
Jonesy. Notice the outfit and lack of a
wedding ring and shot her. His ten cents smile.
Welcome to the state park. How can I help you today?
He said his words dripping with saccharine.
Hi. She said, taken back a little
bit. I want to report something.
Well, maybe report is a bit extreme, but just make sure
you're aware of something. I saw out on the trails.
Sure. What did you see?
She shifted her weight a little uneasy.
It seemed I clocked in and thought it was a little unusual.
Sometimes when people see a bear or a bobcat two things that had
been spotted recently. They might have their adrenaline
pumping and be a bit jittery, but that wasn't it.
This sounds crazy, but I think I saw something.
Stalking the out in the woods. I'm sorry to hear that probably
gave you a bit of a spook Jones. He Said we've had a few bear in
Bobcats sightings lately. No, she said definitively, it
wasn't a bear or a bobcat. I think it was a person.
What trail Sandalwood Loop be? I think it's called that's not
that far off from a few campgrounds and fishing cabins.
If they didn't look like a camper, everyone in the cabin
had stop talking and turn their attention to the woman.
She noticed. And you could see the red.
To her cheeks, what did they look like?
They looked shadowy. She said like they were afraid
of the Sun or something and they were following you.
I caught something in the corner of my eye, around the last turn
of the loop. I just stopped and pretended to
stretch and I saw something in the woods, just off the trail.
They were hiding behind a tree eyeballing me?
Jesus Jones. He said, I'm sorry that happened
to you. Thank you.
She said her voice going soft. They, they followed me until I
got to the end of the loop. I started running and lost sight
of them Jonesy turned back to the two older Rangers and told
them to hop in a gator cart and go check out the woods for
anything. He told him to keep their
walkies on and their side arm just in case they left in a
Flash and Jonesy turned his attention to the woman.
Can you tell me anything that might help?
Did they? Of any kind of identifiable
clothes. Did they speak to you?
They, she interrupted they made noises noises.
Jonesy asked slightly confused. Yes, a few.
They made kind of a chittering noise.
A faint yelling kind of sound possibly.
Cicadas. Another Ranger said, a group of
them can scare the fur off a cat.
Maybe, I don't know. No, they also whistled but not
like they were whistling at me. It's like they were trying to
blend in with nature. Can you describe the noise?
She whistled something that I knew right away.
That sounds like a Wood Thrush. How do you know that Jonesy said
not being able to help himself. My grandpa was an advert birder.
He turned his attention back to the woman.
Do you want to file a police report or?
No? No.
No, she said quickly. I don't even have that much
information. I was just scared and wanted to
let, you know, just in case. Are you sure?
Yes, she said. I don't think anyone else was on
the trail after me, but I didn't feel right.
Not telling you. I'm so sorry that happened to
you. Here.
The park is supposed to be a place to relax.
She laughed nervously, Jonesy shot.
Her a calming smile. Here's my card.
He said, handing her one. If you change your mind.
Please call me. She pocketed it and nodded, she
turned to leave and then stopped she turned back and after a
brief pause said something else. That's weird.
I saw this thing on both sides of the trail.
He crossed behind you. I didn't notice him doing that,
but he must've because I saw him on both sides unless there was
more than one of them. I said, instantly regretting, it
Jonesy turned and gave me a Jesus, too.
Dude, look, and I clammed up. Do you need someone to escort
you to your car? Ma'am?
No, I'm right out there. Thanks, though.
She said, as she walked out the door, we heard her motor away.
A few moments later. Sorry, I said before Jonesy
could say anything. He sighed.
No worries. Just don't go.
Freaking out guests. We need people like her to come
back. People like her to come back,
right? Was I too obvious Jonesy said
with a smile? What do you think?
She saw? I asked a wendigo.
One of the other rangers said and everyone laughed having read
about wendigos and skinwalkers in a mythology class.
I didn't find it. So amusing might have been her
eyes Playing Tricks on her. If someone is out there those
two will find him. They're good at tracking and
whatever is out there. Couldn't have gotten too far
great night to be up in the tower.
I said with a smirk. It's probably the safest place
to be Jones. He said no one climbs 10 stories
if they don't have to, I hung around for about another half
hour or so, to see what came of The Trackers, they came back and
said there wasn't anything around the sandalwood Loop.
No Footprints of anything. They saw granted, the leaves had
started to fall. So it was hard to see anything
on the ground, but I trusted their tracking skills.
Not gonna lie, even with those guys coming back empty-handed.
I was still a bit nervous about the shift Jonesy was right
though. No, one climbs stairs, unless
they have to, this was still America after all laziness
always wins. Also, there was nothing in the
cabin above the trees, except me a book and a journal.
Nothing worth making the journey as the sun, slid behind the
Horizon. I started to Trek to the
Centennial. When I got to the platform at
the bottom, something caught my eye, the A, our base is lousy
with stickers tags and names carved into Pine.
Usually, it's Joe plus Jane for Eva or something along those
lines, but what had been freshly cut was a bit different.
It was a pair of eyes had the earlier events, not happened.
I probably wouldn't have even noticed the eyes.
I chalked it up to my mind already, being primed to see
some spooky stuff. I assumed it had been some kids
earlier or some older Rangers looking to give me a Care,
whatever it was. I did a quick glance around me
before. I started up the stairs.
From the Vantage, Point high above the trees.
You can see storms rolling in tonight was no exception.
It was a waning crescent moon tonight.
So it would be a bit dark, but those rain clouds made it pitch
black. The only natural light.
I would see would be the occasional burst of lighting
inside the clouds. The wind had picked up to.
You could tell because There is a slight shift in the tower when
the wind gusts not a lot, but just enough to notice, you get
used to it, but when it first hits, it can be a bit jarring.
There are a few wind gusts, but I settled in for the evening and
stop noticing about an hour later.
My walkie crackled to life. How's the view?
It was Jonesy. Great.
I said we're about to do a pass around the park.
Wanted to give you a heads up Eileen.
Words might share in glance through the window towards the
base. I saw Jonesy in a few other
rangers getting into their Gator cards to head out.
Their headlights were bright, but only because there was
literally no other light down there.
The beams themselves. Only saw a few feet in front of
you. Thanks.
You guys need me to scout anything for, you know, we'll be
fine. But hey, if you see any
wendigos, let me know. Huh?
Funny. I said, if you hear any thrushes
singing, again, Then run those boys should be all in bed by
now. I'll keep that in mind, be back
in a half hour, 40 minutes tops over and out.
I said and I placed my walkie and watch those tiny ants drive
off into the woods and out of sight.
I kicked back in my chair and started reading again.
That's what I heard a board Creek.
At first my mind assumed. It was probably just the wind
pushing the tower, it can cause a creaking sound in the tower.
But my brain pushed away the fog of rationality and a more
terrible thought became clear. What if someone was outside the
door, I would have heard them walking up the stairs, right?
I looked around for anything. I could use as a weapon outside
of Smashing my walk your flashlight into the potential
person's head. There wasn't much if I did need
to escape light and communication would probably be
a good thing to have didn't want to go and break essential
equipment. I Grab my walkie and press the
button Jonesy. I said, trying to sound
confident Jonesy you there? I knew there was a chance.
He might be out of range. Sometimes, these walkies can be
wonky in the forest and I was praying.
He would respond, but the longer I heard the static the less.
Hope I had. He could hear me Jonesy.
Just curious if you guys had circled back this way.
Finally. Yeah.
Ed for God is light and we came back but we're heading out now.
Okay. I said hey odd question, but did
anyone come up to the Centennial by chance?
Just you. He said and then added why I
thought I heard a board Creek. It's Breezy tonight.
Storms coming in. Probably just the wind or the
one to go. He said chuckling to himself,
have fun. I said ending the conversation.
When I pulled my walkie back down and stared at the door that
leads to the stairs, the odds that someone would have walked
up here to put a scare in me was remote, like Jonesy said
earlier, no one walks 10 stories unless they have to.
But what if the woman from earlier had seen someone or a
group, and they were looking for a place to hide out with the
Centennial, be a good choice. Maybe I don't know how the
Criminal Mind Works regardless for my own sanity, I would To
swing open that door and see if anything was there.
It was probably nothing but I needed to be sure.
If not the rest of my shift was going to be miserable.
I quietly walked across the cabin to the door and grabbed
the handle I counted down from three in my head and swung the
door open. There was nothing there in the
distance, a flash of light, crashed and thunder rolled, but
no, person was standing there. I saw side and then stepped onto
the landing. You really feel the breeze up
here. Now, the storm was moving in
quickly. You could smell the rain.
Coming the earthy scent. That the raindrops stir up was
all around me, even though I was sure there was no one outside
the cabin. I wanted to check out the stairs
just in case I walked over the stairs and stared down in the
darkness. The stories below me just merged
with the night. I couldn't see anything.
I pulled out my flashlight and shown the beam down the stairs,
next to the landing. The flashlights we had were
decent but not ideal. Cops got 1000 Lumen flashlights
to shine in your eyes when they pull you over and we were lucky
to get half of that. It's not like we'd need adequate
lights, working in Pitch, Black or anything.
I walked down to the first landing, and glanced around.
Nothing seemed out of place. I flashed my light down the next
landing and something caught my eye.
The light reflected off of something on the stairs.
Not unlike a toddler. I'm My way to a shiny object.
I was a little surprised to find a small piece of reflective
strip on the stairs. I didn't remember seeing it on
my way up. I would have picked it up and
thrown it away. It looked like, it had been
ripped off a jacket or a uniform or something.
But how did it get up here? The wind might have blown this
up from the campsite, but that felt wrong.
It was I turned to climb back into the cabin.
When I froze on the railing, something had carved another set
of eyes. Sighs, I didn't move, I stood
there as my brain tried to piece together, an excuse that made
sense, but it was failing. Even when I started to feel the
patter of rain on my face. I didn't move what the hell was
going on fearing. That something might be looking
at me. I clicked off my flashlight.
I know I said earlier. I didn't want to waste essential
tools. But at this point, I was ready
to brain someone until the damn thing broke the rain started to
Calm down a bit harder, which help to break me from my Fugue
State. I was about to start back up
towards the cabin. When I heard the floorboards
above me, squeak. There was a crash of Thunder
nearby and it barely registered in my mind.
I was so tuned in to the symphony of pine stairs that a
bomb could have blown off near me, and I'd miss it after, what
felt like 17 hours. I hadn't heard anything else.
I relaxed a little bit. It was probably nothing.
My mind was over. Reactive.
And I was red stringing together.
Desperate events into a cohesive narrative to scare myself.
I was sure that was it. Then I heard something dragged
across the pine above me. It sounded like someone was
gouging out the wood. I didn't know what to do.
My legs felt like jello. I wanted to go streaming down
the stairs, but I was afraid I would make too much noise.
Plus the idea of running down eight stories of now wet steps.
Didn't sound ideal. I slowly.
Started making my way toward the stairs heading down when the
gouging noises above me stopped after a slight pause.
I heard footsteps head towards the door of the cabin.
Someone was up there. I was sure of it, but what they
wanted to do. Well, I didn't want to think
about that. I slowly started down the
stairs, careful to not let any of them squeak underneath me.
I kept my flashlight off and descended into the darkness.
I reach for where my walkie should.
Be and cursed to myself. When I realized I had left it up
there as if On Cue I heard the cabin door swing back open and
heard an object crashing through the trees towards the ground, as
it passed me. I heard the familiar static of
the walkie. Whatever was in the cabin had
just tossed. My only Lifeline to the outside
world. Well, that wasn't good.
I hastened my trip down the stairs.
As I rounded The Landing for the sixth story.
I suddenly heard the familiar call of a Thrush, three Landings
below me. Only the thrushes were gone at
this time of night. This, this was a person, he made
the noise again, and it clicked as to why they would give their
position up. He was signaling to the person
above me. He was letting him know where I
was one above one below. I was trapped above me.
I heard someone start down the steps.
They move slow and steady. Deliberate, whoever was up
there. Is coming down to me and I had
nowhere to go. I thought about jumping down and
tried to grab a branch on the way, but I knew that would end
poorly for me and the best of scenarios and deadly and worse.
They rounded down. The Second Story.
I was running out of time for a plan.
I could Rush down the stairs and tried to bull rush whatever was
down there. But the rain was coming down
harder now and we could slip and fall off the tower.
The only thing I had going for me was the darkness.
I had the only 8, and the outside of the occasional
lightning flash. It was dark as hell.
It would cloak me if I had a spot to hide as I rounded the
landing above me. I made a decision that looking
back was one of the wildest Things I ever done in my life.
I wake up some nights gasping for breath because I dreamed
about doing this. The instinct to survive is so
deeply ingrained into our animal brain that I suppress, all of
the fear. I would usually have and just
acted as quietly as I could. I could I climbed over the
handrail and just hung off the side of the stairs.
My feet felt for the handrail on the landing below to help steady
me. But my toes just grazed against
the wood. I couldn't reach them, my arms
started burning as I held my weight.
I clawed into the wood of my hands, hoping my nails digging
into the Pinewood counteract. My wet Palms.
I close my eyes partially to shut out the pain of my arms and
partially, because I was afraid of the whites of my eyes would
get noticed. I heard the footsteps, turn the
corner and start coming down the stairs right next to me.
I held my breath. My arms were burning and I was
so afraid. I would lose my grip.
The person took the steps one. At a time, slow as possible.
They were looking for me, on the landing, but didn't see me,
suddenly, whatever it was started chittering in the
darkness. A few seconds later, the Wood
Thrush called back, the footsteps stopped coming down
the stairs and started going back.
Cup, no, no in a flash, a solution came to me.
I use my right foot to kick off my left.
Boot. Suddenly.
I was glad I didn't take Jonesy's advice to keep the
laces as tight as a drum. I kicked my boot off onto the
landing below me, and they landed with a heavy crash, the
footsteps stopped going up the stairs.
I freed my other Boot and it crashed down next to their
partner on the landing. It sounded like I was down there
the foot. Apps walked right past me
heading down quickly to surprise me on the landing below as soon
as they rounded the corner. I called upon my strength in my
body to quickly pull myself back over the railing.
I landed with a thud, which gave away the ghost.
I popped up and dashed up the stairs to the top of the cabin.
I knew they'd be right behind me.
So I didn't hesitate in seconds. I was at the top of the stairs
and outside of the cabin door. I was met with another pair of
eyes carved into the wood. Would they stared back at me
watching and waiting to see what I was going to do next?
I dashed into the cabin and leaned against the door to brace
against anyone trying to burst in.
I knew two people, at least I hoped they were, people were
coming and they were not going to stop until they got into the
cabin. Another bolt of lightning
flashed nearby and the ensuing Thunder shook.
The tower. Things were closed.
I glanced up and noticed that someone had carved yet another
set of eyes staring at me above. The window only this time, they
left a message with the picture you watch us, but who's watching
you? I could feel the hair on the
back of my neck standing up. I swallowed hard as two sets of
footprints reach the top of the landing.
Sure enough. They charged unto the door,
pushing it open slightly. I braced hard against the door
and started yelling. Just the most Primal screaming
I've ever done. They kept thumping the door each
time, pushed the door, open a bit.
More and a bit more. I was struggling to hold out
against them. I was tired in my socks were
slipping on the wood. It was only a matter of time
until they burst through. I thought about my life.
I thought about my parents, my friends, all of the things I'd
never get to do, then the hair on my arms, started to stand on
end. Then my leg hair.
Then my hair started to rise only.
It wasn't fear. That was causing this.
It was something much more primal.
More natural, much more powerful.
I dashed across the room and sat on the insulated stool.
A beat-up, wooden seat with glass, lakes and held my feet up
the door, burst open and I saw two sets of eyes staring at me.
The two faces grinned, and the cabin light reflected off of the
blade of a knife. I screamed as everything went
white and what sounded like the sky splitting into two erupted
around us. Lightning had struck the tower.
I was safe glass and wood. Your crappy conductors but the
two men who were standing in a puddle weren't so lucky, the
Blasted shock them and sent them tumbling down the side of the
tower. When I opened my eyes, I could
see the burn marks across the pine and the smell of fire that
had been started without giving a second thought.
I dashed out the door, careful, not to catch myself on fire and
ran down the stairs of the Centennial.
It may take about 10 minutes to climb up, but it took me about
two minutes to get down as soon as I hit.
The bottom of the landing, I Saw the Light of the Gator cards,
pull up. I collapsed on the ground as
Jonesy and the other rangers rushed over me.
I glanced up and saw his face and I started to sob above him,
the Flames licked 1/8 away the tower floor by floor.
It would burn for over an hour later.
I learned that the two men taken by the lightning were escaped
convicts from the jail. Both of them had beat up a
guard, grabbed their clothes and headed out into the woods three
days earlier. Earlier the Escape had been kept
quiet because they didn't want to Spook anyone and thought they
track them down in the woods sooner rather than later?
Why scare people if they didn't have to also.
That's so ridiculous. They both have been convicted of
murder and I swear this is what the police told me.
The criminals had ill intent for me.
I told the officers I had gathered that thinking back.
They probably watched me climb up the tower later, and saw an
easy target. It when I had first heard the
floorboards squeak outside the door, the criminal that had
followed me up, made a quick decision to climb up onto the
roof of the cabin to prevent me from seeing him until he was
ready. I probably didn't hear anything
on the roof because of the fan and the rain, I think about what
he could have done to me. If he had caught me by surprise
jumping down from the roof and shudder at best.
I'd be stabbed by a Madman at worst.
I tumbled 10 stories to the end, either way.
Not a great thing to linger on during idle hours.
That was my last day as a ranger.
I was due back to school in a few weeks and I needed to calm
my nerves, everyone understood. They even paid me out for a
week, which was nice. I also took a small part of the
Sentinel as a Memento of the ordeal, every time I look at
that piece of wood. I took from the tower.
I wasn't reminded of what could have happened to me.
But instead of what I did to survive.
Someone was watching me. That night, but it wasn't just
the criminals. It was nature herself.
This incident was the most terrifying experience of my
life. This happened in the fall of
1982 in Baxter, State Park main, I lived in Manchester New
Hampshire at the time and desperately wanted to get one
last camping trip in before the weather changed.
And the region would become buried in snow and tourists from
out of state for the skiing season.
It was early November and it was still warm during the day and
nice and chilly at night. Perfect for sitting around the
fire and relaxing. I loved the outdoors.
I still do, but the events of that night in Maine, would leave
a mark on me for the rest of my life.
My husband worked all weekend at the hospital downtown and both.
The kids were at Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend.
I called in sick to work loaded, at my Bronco strap, the canoe on
the roof, and hit the interstate.
I was on the water late in the afternoon.
I loved this area because of how remote it was.
I was a few miles from my launch site where the truck was parked
when I spotted a perfect place to Camp.
I paddled toward the shore. This is a great spot.
I thought to myself. I set up my little tent, built a
fire and unfolded my pack chair to relax.
The day turned into night and I crashed out in the tent.
The following day. I awoke to, the sounds of birds
chirping. It was a little cooler, but
still great weather. I took my camera out into the
forest to take some pictures. I did some fishing, and just
enjoyed the peaceful Stillness of this remote wilderness.
The day was uneventful and soon after dinner.
I lay in my tent with my flashlight reading.
I must have dozed off because I awoke startled, by something
moving outside my tent. I laid still, but instinct told
me that there was something outside, I could hear the
carefully. Placed steps of something, there
are moose and black bear up here.
Moose can be very dangerous. If you walk upon them by
surprise, the Bears generally smell you before you see them
and keep away. I lay still and listened.
Whatever it was had stopped at the entrance flap of the tent as
my eyes adjusted to the darkness.
I could make out of faint shadowy shape.
I was wide awake now and on full alert.
Whatever it was, I could hear it sniffing around and panting out
of breath. I slowly began to unzip the tent
when it ran off. I open the flap of my tent and
looked out just in time to see the branch of swaying, and hear
the sound of something, moving through the brush and into the
Deep Woods. The sound of its steps.
Told me, one important thing. It was on two legs.
That couldn't be right. I hadn't seen any other people
since entering the park and leaving my truck at the
trailhead. The tourist season four leaf,
peepers, had passed and even. So someone could only reach this
location by the waterway. I suppose someone could be out
here. Someone, I hadn't seen or heard
until they came sniffing and snorting around my Campsite in
the middle of the night. I guess it was possible.
As the sun rose, I ate my breakfast, but remained on
guard. I couldn't shake the feeling of
being watched. I felt a presence in the forest
someone or something. Just out of sight.
I kept a 45 revolver when I camped out here in the North
Woods, I wasn't concerned about the wildlife so much as the
weirdos you might run across in my experience, the scariest
thing you can come across when you're alone in the Deep Woods
is another human. I couldn't be sure if someone
were out there, but the paranoia had began to take.
Hold. It was dark now and I was inside
my tent. I kept the revolver clothes and
my boots on. I was done playing games.
I sure didn't plan on shooting anyone, but I was sure to show
them. I was no easy target.
I sat up quickly. I must have fallen asleep again
because I was startled awake by movement all around the tent.
The Shadows everywhere on all sides in all directions.
I could hear sniffing and snorting low, growls and raspy
breathing. What is happening?
I thought in a panic, it didn't sound like people, but the
height of the Shadows, cast against the flaps of the 10th,
in the Moonlight revealed, prominent upright figures.
There must have been five or maybe six on all sides.
Beer shook me, as I made the realization.
I was surrounded. The low growling started.
It was answered back on the other side and all around me
low, deliberate growling. Were these coyotes were the
massive Shadows. Just the light playing tricks on
me? The growling increased in pitch
and intensified, and I knew an attack was imminent.
I pulled my revolver and fired straight up into the air.
The next moments were a complete blur.
I charge through the tent with just the clothes, on my back, my
45 and the truck keys in my pocket.
I bolted straight for the canoe and muscled it into the water.
I jumped in and began paddling. I never looked back until I got
far enough from the shore. I should have never looked back.
They were standing completely still on the riverbank, their
bodies Crouch down with heads, low eyes reflecting in the
Moonlight. They looked like giant coyotes
or maybe even wolves six in total.
I was transfixed by what I was seeing.
I had never seen a coyote, this large.
As I sat in the safety of my little canoe studying, these
creatures. They did something that I will
never forget. They began to stand up on their
hind legs. Each one would slowly raise up
on two legs. I couldn't believe what I was
seeing. They all stood like, men, these
things. These creatures that had almost
ambushed me. I turned and furiously paddled
as the howling rang out behind me.
I haven't been in the forest since This happened a year ago
and I can't stop thinking about it.
No matter how hard I try and quiet times.
My mind goes back to that night. The night, I found out, you
really should be frightened of the dark.
My sister lives in a Backwater town, a bit of a drive away.
I hadn't gone to see her in such a long while I decided to use my
week vacation to drop by. I was bringing over gifts and
clothing. I had grown out of for her.
She's a fantastic cook spending a week, having some good home
cooked meals and no reliable internet was just what I needed.
I packed up and got on the road. Pretty excited for my week away.
But I had been so busy tying up loose ends for my trip.
I got going very late in the day.
The sun was already setting by the time I got on the highway.
She knew I was going to get in late.
I might arrive by 11 a.m. And I would call her when I was
getting close. She could greet me by the door.
I found myself on a dark Highway surrounded by farmland for
Miles. When it wasn't Farmland.
The highway was cut through dense trees.
While I was driving. I saw something.
I never thought I would something that made me pull over
speeding along. I saw a figure walking along the
side of the road. My headlights, reflecting off
the white sweater. They were wearing, it was a
small figure so I felt Safe stopping.
And at least looking to see if they needed help my entire life.
I had never seen someone just walking along the side of the
highway. I hadn't seen a house for a long
time, or a car that had been pulled over.
I had no idea where the person came from or where they were
trying to go. I stopped my car and got out to
get a good. Look at the person in the dark.
They had also stopped when I pulled out in front of them.
I lifted my hand and gave a weak wave.
And got one back. Do you need help?
I called out and waited. When I didn't hear anything.
I started to walk towards them. It wasn't a good idea for a
short woman. Like, myself to approach a
stranger on the side of the road.
It could be an ambush but my brain wasn't thinking about
that. I was concerned because the
figure was clearly a child. When I got close enough to see,
I could tell that he couldn't be older than 13.
I was guessing it was a boy, but it was hard to tell with the
baggy, clothing and shoulder-length, wavy hair, a
white wavy hair. I had my cell phone out and
using the flashlight function on it to see if the boy was hurt.
I stopped a few steps away from him and he looked up at me.
One side of his face was covered by his hair.
One red, eye looked back. Me, I froze in fear for a half
second, but mentally berated myself for such a reaction.
The boys hair now made sense. You was albino.
I never personally met someone with this condition, but I had
seen photos. Would it be possible to get a
lift to the next town? Over the boy asked in such a low
soft voice even standing as close as I was, I could barely
hear him. Of course, why are you on the
side of the road sweetie? Come on, get in the car.
I have some water. He followed behind me silently.
He wasn't crying or anything. And the odd thing was he wasn't
wearing any shoes either. It was just so strange.
I had to call the police. I knew that but I wanted to make
sure he was all right. First, he climbed into the
passenger seat so I could see him more clearly.
He So pale his skin almost looks silver.
He looks so small and frail. He would have no chance with
someone with bad intentions. I gave him a bottle of water and
let him drink it before asking more questions.
What's your name? I asked, I'm Nikki.
I added my name in thinking that he would be more comfortable if
he knew it Ellie again. He spoke.
So softly. I could barely hear him.
I at least got a name out of him.
I needed some more. Or answers though.
What were you doing? On the side of the road?
Do you have someone? I could call?
I asked as nicely as I could hoping it would make him speak
some more. I'm heading to the next town to
meet an acquaintance. He's an officer.
I have no one you can contact if it's possible.
It would be nice to get a ride to the police station.
But please do not go out of your way for myself.
At least the kid was polite. I debated on what I should do.
He wasn't injured and he wanted to be taken to the police.
If that was the case. I could just drive him and not
bother calling someone to pick him up.
It really wouldn't be any trouble to myself and he wasn't
a threat to me, either. He was so small.
Even if he pulled a weapon, I could SWAT it away.
I decided to take him where he needed to go.
Alright, I'll take you. Are you sure there?
Isn't anyone? I can call I asked once more.
He only shook his head either the poor kid really didn't have
any family or he was running from them.
At least he was on the way to some help.
So I decided to not press the matter.
I started up the car and put the directions on my phone to the
police station. He wanted.
And we were on our way. The whole thing was a bit weird,
but not Supernatural weird, that came after Ellie didn't talk
while we drove the poor kid must have been.
So Lasted from the Walking. He nodded off.
I was glad he trusted me enough to nap.
Right? Beside me.
I would send a message to my sister.
Telling her, I would be late. We drove in silence for a little
while. When I saw yet.
Another thing that I never expected to see a car just
sitting in the middle of the road.
I saw it soon enough that I slowed down and stopped a few
feet from it. Just staring at the odd sight.
We were on the highway, but it was the dead of night and I I
saw no Cars. Plus, any cars coming from
behind us. Would see both cars.
Stopped soon enough to break safely.
The car had the driver side and passenger doors open.
I sat on a strange angle idling when I reach to undo my seatbelt
and get out to see what was going on.
I felt a small hand on my arm and it made me jump.
Keep driving. Ellie's voice was so Stern.
It froze. Me in place.
It was no longer the voice of the soft.
Can child I had heard before but someone could be hurt.
I stammered not knowing how to react.
They're already gone. My mind couldn't process.
Those words. I suddenly started to question
who I let in my car and if I was safe, but my rational mind said
that the car in the middle of the road was a trap.
Once I got out. I could be dragged into the
middle of the Woods, by whoever put the car there to start with
movement made me pull my Gaze away from Ellie.
And to the road out from the front of the car.
A large dog. Came trotting out, staring at
us. At first.
I thought it was a breed of husky, but it took a few moments
to realize my mistake. This wasn't a dog, but a wolf.
I had never seen a wolf in person before they were much
bigger than I had ever thought. It's yellow eyes.
Stared us down waiting for us to react.
Then another came from the trees.
This whole thing was crazy. My mind couldn't put it
together. The two facts of the car in the
middle of the highway and the Wolves wandering around it.
Wolves were native to the area coyotes.
Maybe but not wolves. If the car was place to ambush
people. Then why were the wolves in the
area? I don't understand any of it.
I understood less when the wolf by the car, started to stand up,
my throat closed up and my body tensed.
As I saw the creature seamlessly turned.
From a wolf just standing on its back legs to a hulking.
Monstrous, form that towered into the darkness before us
drive. Ellie ordered, and His Hands
gripped onto my arm hurting enough just to bring myself
back. I don't understand.
I said still, but a bit dumbfounded, silver King.
Oh silver King a pleasure. It is running into you here.
Come out to greet us, the figure standing in the road roared at
us in a booming voice and Reached its Claude arms in
greeting. It was covered with dark rough
fur with a body similar to a man.
Its head was large but looked like the wolf that had been
looking at us seconds before its Lakes were the same of a wolf
also and I wondered how it was even standing behind it.
A tail nearly half the size of its body moved back and forth.
Is that a werewolf? I asked the idea sounding
completely insane. Monsters weren't real.
All they just weren't. I couldn't believe what I was
seeing but it was in front of me standing there, beckoning us
out. I looked over to Ellie expecting
him to disagree or even call me crazy, but I only saw a look on
his face saying not to ask him to say the ridiculous truth out
loud before I could ask. Again, the creature outside
spoke come out. We have such treats tonight on
its odd legs. It walked over to the idling.
Car and easily ripped off the back door, so it could reach in
and bring something out. I froze when I saw he was
holding a stuffed rabbit, a person had been inside of that
car. My head started to swim and I
felt sick again. My hand went to my seat belt,
even though I had no idea how I could help.
In any way. I told you they were already
gone, do not leave this car. I cannot protect you Ellie
warned in his Gravely, Stern voice.
He just call you the silver King.
What's that about? I demanded in a low hiss.
That is my title. I am the king of them, the King
of Everything born in the moon light or the dark.
And as I could easily take them, I cannot do so in order to
protect a human. I am their King not yours.
So, stay in the car. I couldn't help but stare
silently at this helpless boy, you no longer looked like the
weak frail child. I had picked up on the side of
the road. He looked more frightening than
the monster outside, but I couldn't help but trust him his
hand gripped into my arm one last time then slowly pulled
back. He was done, warning me.
If I got out I would be taken. I may have already been taken if
he hadn't picked me up those monsters.
Those werewolves could rip car doors off.
I was idling and nothing was stopping them from.
Dragging me out of the car, to rip Me Apart, Nothing aside
from, who was sitting next to me.
Me. But I still felt like I couldn't
just leave. I turned my attention to the
dark Beast, still in the road teeth, gleaming in the
Moonlight. A cruel smile over what him and
his pack had already done without a second thought.
I got the car out of the park and slammed down on the gas.
Ali was jerked forward in his seat.
As my car, sped forward directly towards the monster in front of
us. The thing could have jumped out
of the way, but I think he wasn't expecting it and his
reaction had been delayed. The car slammed into the
werewolf, knocking him back. I expected more damage to both
him and the car, but we got off pretty.
All right? That was until the car was in
reverse and ran directly over the creatures legs it howling in
pain. It was not good for my junker of
a car, but it was worse off for the wolf.
I could only risk running it over once.
I saw more of the wolves in the woods glaring at us slamming on
the gas once more. We sped off leaving the Monster
in the road. Even as I drove I could see.
His legs were healing and snapping back into place.
I doubted I did any lasting damage, but I was sure I heard
it's Pride. The others in the woods could
have caught us before we got away.
But my passenger must have scared them.
Enough to stay away. We were silent for a long time.
As I drove along the empty road, listening to my car.
Making grinding noises from time to time.
Was that stupid? I asked finally.
Yes, but Justified I wanted to laugh, the whole night had just
been so out there. I didn't know what else to do,
but I held it in thinking it would be in poor taste.
Once my racing heart, slowed down.
I noticed I was going well over the speed limit.
I thought to slow down, but would rather a ticket instead of
those creatures catching up, Ellie didn't talk to me again
until we arrive to the police station.
Are those things going to find me?
I asked. Lowly, no, I doubt it.
They're unaware of your relationship with me.
If you had some future use and they got you.
I would be very upset with them and the creatures of the night
do not wish to upset me. I sighed in relief, but it came
too soon. However, since you have
encountered something like them, you are more likely to encounter
something else. You humans would call
Supernatural. You're almost guaranteed to be
taken by a supernatural threat. Yet after surviving the first
one. I am unsure.
When that shall happen. It could be when you're 100 or a
week from now going, by your luck seeing as you came across
myself and a pack of wolves in the same night.
I think you don't have a long life.
I should have been worried about my Bleak Outlook, but I couldn't
help but want to laugh again. Bye.
Ellie apparently being embarrassed calling them
werewolves. I wonder why he disliked them so
much. Is there anything I can do about
that? I asked hoping for a good
answer. Enjoy the life you have left.
You humans could be gone at any second.
You just so happen to know the, most likely reason why you are
to perish. I would suggest not to fear.
It just live the way you like. It wasn't the answer.
I was hoping for, but I would take it.
My face fell trying to figure out what my life would be like
from now on how I would be able to live.
Going up. There was some things in the
dark just waiting for me. Ellie noticed my face and let
out a small sigh he looked from me and the police station.
We were parked in front of you. Did do me a favor.
So I will grant you one in return if you come across
something of the night and if you have time to do, so tell
them you are useful to the silver King.
However, you may only use my name once and I do not promise
that things shall spare. You it only He gives you a
better chance of survival. I didn't know much about his
world. But even I could tell that this
was a huge favor. He was giving me.
I was thankful for it. Just dropping his name.
May give me a few more years to my life.
He saved me twice that night and all because I gave him a ride.
Thank you. I gave him a smile and watched,
as he got out of the car. I waited until he was on the
steps of the police station out of habit.
He could handle himself but Still wanted to make sure he got
inside safely. I sent my sister a message
saying I was going to be a bit late.
I then drove off leaving the odd person behind, since then.
I hadn't seen anything strange. I sold my car while I stayed at
my sister's place and got a new one.
Just in case to certain Wolffe remembered what hidden?
While I drove back home. I didn't tell my sister, what
happened aside from finding a kid on the side of the road and
turning him in. There was a report of a car
found on the highway, but I didn't want to know any more
information about it. I don't want to know who was
lost that night and how I couldn't do anything to help it.
I still can't help. But wonder how Ellie is doing,
and who he was meeting that night, but it's best.
If I never see him again and never find these answers.
I live in a small town in Central, Alabama, and on nearly
all sides. My town is surrounded by a
forest growing up. I never thought anything of the
forest, many kids would play in it.
We'd get our hands on BB guns and play War Games.
Some of my friends and I would build forts out there.
Nothing about it ever scared me. That was until someone went
missing. I was in ninth grade when it
happened. The kid that went missing was
in. Grade, my town has a population
of around 12:00. So there weren't many suspects
that the police could go off of the days of searching turned up.
Nothing after the fifth day. The search was called off, and
the boy was declared missing. It was our little towns tragedy
for the next couple of years. No one allowed their kids into
the forest for obvious reasons every year.
There'd be a ceremony, to remember the kid and all of the
schools would let out early that day.
Once again, however, more people went missing during a hunting
trip. I was the only Survivor it was
the end of my senior year and to celebrate my dad.
Wanted to take me on a hunting trip.
I was never really into hunting, like he was, but I decided to
tag along since I didn't spend too much time with my dad.
He brought along two of his buddies.
Randy, who was around 510 and had Shaggy brown hair and ha Who
is 61 slightly chubby and had balding, blond hair?
I hadn't really interacted with them before the trip.
So it was a little awkward at first.
My dad said we'd be in the woods for a good long time.
He had planned for us to go early in the morning and come
back late at night. He told me to pack, whatever
drinks and snacks. I wanted I only brought waters
for my drinks because I didn't want to get dehydrated as for
snacks. I brought the classics.
Little Debbie's chips, Etc. I was given a 300 Winchester
magnum for my rifle, I'd shotguns before.
So, I wasn't worried about misfiring or missing my target.
The day we were going. I was woken up at like 4:00 a.m.
By ha. He told me that my dad and Randy
were just about ready. I got up and put the clothes
that I had picked out for the day on.
When I went out to the kitchen to grab my iced coffee, out of
the fridge. I saw my Add in his two friends
outside smoking I could hear them loudly laughing and talking
about old times. I got my things ready.
And after a couple of minutes of being awake.
I stepped outside with my bag, over one arm and rifle over the
other. Hey there buddy.
Ready to go. My dad asked tossing, his Sig on
the walkway and grinding it with his shoe.
Sure. Am.
I got everything I need? At the time I was excited just
to hang out with the grown-ups and see what my dad got up to.
We made our way to my dad's truck where Randy and ha decided
to write in the bed instead of using their own cars.
I sat up front next to my dad who was starting the truck when
I climbed in, it was just barely starting to get to Dawn, the sky
still that deep early morning, blue.
The temperature was around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, the high
that day would Around 87, not too bad, as we drove to the
hunting grounds. Ha and Randy got tossed around
in the back because of the roads in town were not very well
maintained. So how do you feel about going
on this trip with your old man, and my fellow idiots back there?
He gave a hearty chuckle. I'm pretty excited.
I'm glad you brought them along. They seem nice enough.
Yeah. I figured it would have been
boring, just the two of us and hey, you Hadn't really talked to
them up to this point. So why not?
You know, the drive was about 10 minutes along the way, my dad,
and I had a nice chat about life and everything that had been
going on in each other's lives. Meanwhile, Randy, and Hector
were arguing about who missed shots more often.
It got kind of heated and my dad slammed on the brakes which toss
them into the cab. My dad, busted out laughing when
he did this. And the way he laughed made it
seem like it was the funniest thing in the world.
Old. Randy, and ha did not share the
same Amusement. We made it to the hunting
grounds. And another truck was already
there. It had a thin layer of dirt over
it, which anything around my town?
Got, if you didn't clean it regularly.
We got out and grabbed our things before making our way
down to the trail. My dad commented about some good
spots to start with. Before we went deeper into the
woods. Louise set up a spot about half
a mile down the trail ha Lie upon sitting down, pulled a
drink out of his bag. He tossed one to me and to
Randy. I instinctively caught it but
then I realized I shouldn't have and tried to hand it back.
Come on. Now, you can drink that.
You're an adult now. Ha said, I just don't really
like it. But thank you for the offer.
He Shrugged and took it back. Randy accepted the offer for
free booze and began to drink his rapidly.
My dad got my attention quiet. And pointed out towards the hill
in the distance. It was hard to make out exactly
what he was pointing at, in the early morning light, but I'm
sure it was a deer, ready to see the first one of the day, guys.
He got everyone's attention to try to show off how good a shot.
He was. However, right.
When he was about to pull the trigger, Randy slapped him in
the back of the head. This caused him to miss aim and
completely missed the deer, which ran away, Randy.
Cackle like a madman afterwards. Exclaiming about how it was
payback for earlier. I'll admit it got a chuckle out
of me as well. We waited at that spot a couple
more minutes before moving on when we got to the next spot.
I thought I saw someone off in the woods Away From Any Trail.
I pointed it out to my dad who thought the person must be an
idiot going off on the trails is a good way to get shot.
Whoever it was seemed just slightly taller than the average
person, but this wasn't really enough.
To make me nervous or anything like that.
As everyone was setting up the person vanished into a thicker
area of trees and was gone from sight.
I didn't think much of it by this point in the trip enough
time had passed that the sun was now above the Horizon and the
lighting was much better. I managed to hit a deer.
Getting it, everybody seemed happy that I was able to do it
on my first try. But like I said, I wasn't that
big into hunting. So I Isn't terribly excited.
The morning passed peacefully every now and again I could
catch glimpses of the dude moving throughout the trees.
I never could get a good look at him because of how far away he
was. It never crossed my mind that he
might be following us. Another thing that never crossed
my mind is that we never heard anyone else shooting.
Despite the fact that someone's truck was in the parking area.
The day was fairly uneventful. We did the usual hunting things.
Getting dear comparing accuracies.
And what have you by around evening?
I'd say we were about six or seven miles into the hunting
trail and I was starting to get tired.
I carried on however because I was having fun.
We made it to the next spot and when we got set up, we smelled
rot. Now this didn't really catch our
attention because it's a hunting trail actor decided to look for
the source of the rot. He said he wanted to move it.
Away, because it was foul. He wandered off where he
believed it was coming from and we paid little attention to
where he was actually going. He never came back.
After about 30 minutes of his absence, Randy noticed that he
still hadn't returned and the rot smell was still present.
When we were alerted to. This fact.
We started to look for him calling his name and leaving the
trail after a, while of searching and walking around.
We were lost. We couldn't remember which
direction the trail was in this resulted in an argument, which I
was forced to break up because it was the least productive
thing we could be doing in that moment.
When they stopped my dad, had the idea to try and listen for
footsteps and follow whatever Direction they were coming from.
We all sat silent and a realization made my stomach
sink. There was no noise at all.
No, wind. No rustling leaves.
No birds singing, nothing. It was still and silent.
I look to the sky to see if there was an oncoming storm, but
it was clear. We did hear footsteps after a
couple of Silence. Cans.
They were coming from thicker part of the forest by this
point. It was becoming increasingly
dark. So Randy pulled out his
flashlight and turned it on. We made our way into the thicker
part of the forest, we walk together.
So no one else would get lost. While looking around, I bumped
into something wet. I was stunned thinking that it
must be tree sap, but when I heard Randy scream, I was
plunged into fear. I slowly turn to look at what I
had bumped into. When I laid eyes upon it, I
proceeded to throw up the cheap snacks.
I had eaten earlier. It was skin strung up between
two trees based on the face. I could tell it was ha my mind
was flooded with thoughts. My dad told us that we needed to
get out of the forest. Now, my dad reasoned where, to
go based on the direction, the sun had set, Randy, and I
followed him out of desperation, not having any better ideas
ourselves. We were swiftly moving through
the trees trying to get out as fast.
Possible, occasionally, a branch with snag my clothes or hit me
in the face. I heard Randy scream from behind
me and when I turned around something that was around eight
feet tall had picked him up and was taking him away.
My Dad pulled out his rifle and opened fire.
The noise that thing made still haunts my dreams.
It was a mixture between several different animals screaming when
it turned around. I was able to get a good look at
it. It had one eye in its head and
that was the Only thing it had on its face as far as
proportions its arms seem longer than its body.
Although it was slouched over the texture of its skin was oily
and it was dark grey in color. It, rushed towards my dad at a
blinding speed and grabbed him in front of me.
It had dropped. Randy.
Who was unconscious. I turned out my flashlight and I
stood as still and as quietly as I possibly could, I heard it
walk over to where it had dropped, Randy?
It picked him up. Begin and stomped its way off
deeper into the forest. After what felt like an eternity
standing there. I slowly moved over to my dad
and I grab the truck keys off of his belt.
I went in the direction. He had suggested slowly and
carefully he was right. I came out of the forest, a
couple of feet away from my dad's truck.
I sprinted over to it and fumbled the keys until I could
unlock it. I left the town a couple of
towns over the police caught up to me.
Me because I was the primary suspect.
However, after discovering the bodies, in the shape they were
in, I was let go, they were under the impression that no
human could do that. I left, Alabama, all together,
and live in Illinois. Now, to this day.
I still wonder if that thing is still out there, preying on
Hunters, unfortunate enough to get lost into the forest, for
the sake of everyone there. I desperately hope not.
When I was 4 years old, my parents moved to a secluded town
in the West Virginia out back. This was because Charleston was
too noisy and too expensive for them.
They wanted the quiet and privacy of the wooden town.
I'm not going to say the name of the town here.
So you don't go there and bother the people who live.
There are new house was two stories with four bedrooms, two
of the bedrooms were going to be converted into an office and a
playroom, my parents both. Ted home.
So an office space for them was going to be very useful and the
playroom was for me to have all my toys and to not to bother to
clean them up when I was done. I loved our house.
There was nothing wrong with it. And in fact, it was the only
place where I ever felt safe in that town.
I started going to school at the normal age and there weren't
many other people. So making friends was easy.
And by the time I was in sixth grade, I was friends with
everybody at school I started Had to dislike the town around
age 12. Anytime.
I would walk to the bus, stop in the morning.
Something always felt off. Sometimes the air was
unnaturally still despite the lack of an approaching storm.
Sometimes the unusual bird songs would be present.
Nothing ever felt quite right. I usually woke up for school.
Around 6:00 a.m. Just to take a shower.
And then play on my dies before I had to go to school, my bus
would arrive around 8:15. So I like the extra time to
myself one day. However, I lost track of time
and I realized I missed the bus school started at 9 a.m.
So no big deal. It wouldn't take too long for me
to walk there. It was only a mile away.
When I left the house that day. I once again felt the unease
that I usually would whenever waiting for the bus in the
morning. I brushed it off and began to
walk. I distinctly remember, it being
silent and still. That day, although the town was
Tiny. You'd usually see people driving
at this time in the morning, but the roads were empty, not even
any kids walking to school. The walk felt like it took an
eternity. It felt like something had been
watching me that day. Even when I was in school.
I decided to sit away from the windows that day, that didn't
help shake the feeling though after class was over.
I was waiting outside the school for my bus to arrive.
I knew that something. He was watching me.
It wasn't just a feeling anymore.
It's like my mind was screaming at me to run that.
Whatever. It was was getting closer.
Just then I saw it as one of the buses passed.
I saw something that definitely wasn't human on the bus.
Its skin was Pitch, Black, it had white dots as eyes.
And it watched me through the back window, has the bus drove
off. I was Frozen with fear.
I was snapped back into reality when the bus driver.
Lord help me to get on that night.
I couldn't sleep. I could only think about what I
saw on that bus in the morning. I decided to tell my parents
that I felt sick and I didn't want to go to school.
They gave me a look like they knew I was lying, but they let
me stay home. Anyways, since I had all A's all
day. All I could think about was that
thing. However, I didn't see it again,
until a few years later. It was late, December, and the
last day of school before. For Christmas break.
And in all of my classes. We just watch the movies.
I sat near a window and looked out at the falling snow and saw
it about 10 feet away from the window staring at me all of the
sudden. I remember what I had seen a
couple years ago. I don't know how long I stared.
But after what seemed like an eternity it turned and walked
away into the snow. I got a better look this time.
It's arms were nearly to the ground.
Its legs were always bent it had Very noticeable slouch and it
was I guess seven or eight feet tall.
I was terrified when I got home that day.
My mind raced with questions. What was it?
Why was it following me? When I walk through the doors
that day. My mom immediately hugged me and
made sure. I was okay.
I was extremely confused. And when I asked what was going
on, they showed me what had been talked about.
On the local news, our 13 year old kid had been found on a
small Road. In the town, he had been mauled
by something. Although they didn't show any
pictures for obvious reasons. Police say it was most likely a
bearer when I heard this. My stomach sank.
I immediately jumped to the thought it was.
Whatever had been watching me that day.
My mom must have seen my pale face because she reassured me
that everything was fine and the police would deal with it
properly. I wanted to believe her, but I
just couldn't. How are the police going to
catch that? Monster.
And if I even went, as far as to tell police what I saw would
they believe me, I went up to my room and turned on Cartoon
Network to try to calm myself down, but it didn't work.
I eventually panicked myself to sleep.
I woke up in the middle of the night and Adult Swim was playing
American Dad, reruns. I decided to go to the kitchen
to get some water. As I descended, the stairs.
I looked out the back porch window at the bottom of the
stairs and right. Right there, staring in the
window, was the monster. I instinctively ducked back up
the stairs and I peeked out to see if it had noticed me.
It didn't seem like it did because it was scanning back and
forth. As if looking for me, my dad had
a gun in his room. So being the stupid kid.
I was, I thought the best idea was to get it with said gun.
I snuck into my parents room and found the hiding spot for it.
I made sure it was loaded, which it was and I crept.
Back down the stairs. I peeked out towards the back
door again, and it was gone. I slowly made my way into the
kitchen and I hid under the table.
Looking, through all the windows, to see if I could see
it. Just, then I heard the front
door open. I saw it slowly shamble as the
door swung open. It walked around.
I assumed it was looking for me. It walked up the stairs and I
heard my parents door, opening my hands trembling as I slowly
got out from under the table. Table, I made my way over to the
stairs. My parents door was wide open.
I saw the shadow against the dark blue in there.
I knew that was it. I pointed the gun at the top of
the stairs and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened because the safety was on all that
accomplished. Was that it noticed me.
I saw it turn towards me. The white dots pierced into me.
I fumbled the gun trying to turn the safety off when I got it
off. I looked back.
Open. The door was closed.
It took me an eternity to work up.
The courage to go up the stairs and open the door when I did, it
was gone. I nearly collapsed when I saw
what it had done to my parents. I'll spare the details here
because they still haunt me to this day.
In short. It looked like a bear attack.
I was only 16 at the time and had no job.
I didn't want to be put in foster care and then become
homeless, but I had no other choice other than to call the
police. Lise, when they arrived, they
asked me questions because they found me clinching.
A gun in my parents room. They ruled me out as a suspect
and like I guessed sent me to the foster care system.
Luckily. I was adopted by people who only
wanted older kids, so they could give them a nice home.
That was only four years ago. So, the memories are still
fresh. In my head.
I live in South Carolina now because my new family wanted to
move me away from the place that was giving me so many.
Bad memories. I can't ever thank them enough
for taking me in. I haven't seen that thing since
that day. I hope that by this point,
someone was able to get it. If not, well, we all know the
answer to that. Every night, they were closer
than the night before. Every time they grew in number.
They became easier to make out. I could feel them watching me.
I don't know where they came from.
But I knew they wanted to hurt me.
I could feel it. I saw the first one, three
nights ago. My house is the last one in the
neighborhood. I live alone at the end of the
street. So beyond my small yard is tons
of Acres of undeveloped land, which So if mostly Tall Pines
and lots of undergrowth, the street just ends a few yards
from my house the grass and tree roots, growing through the
blacktop, all we got was an almost useless Street Lamp.
I had petitioned for because the darkness of the woods creeped me
out the dull light from the Street Lamp illuminates, a good
portion of my yard, but because of the angle sum of the tree
limbs cast, Shadows across it, the light spans from a few feet
into to the woods to the wall of my house and almost completely
covers the front yard, one of the last benefits of the light.
Honestly, the orange glow in low hum of the Street Lamp used to
comfort me. Now.
It just fills me with dread dread for the day.
It goes out and I can't see them anymore.
I was on my screened in Side, Porch relaxing before going to
bed in the middle of my routine, scrolling through social media,
something. The edge of the woods caught my
attention, I wouldn't say I saw it at first.
It was more like I felt it. I put my phone away and strain
my eyes to try and make out what was making me feel, so uneasy,
it was just at the edge of the light as if I had caught it.
Trying to sneak out of the darkness Beyond eye shadow in
the shape of a person. I didn't believe it at first,
why would I? It was just standing there not
moving. Moving.
But I knew it was looking at me. It had no defining features.
No eyes, no mouth. No hair.
It was a perfect Shadow, just standing at the edge of my yard
like a person. I stared for what seemed, like
an eternity. Not sure that I was really
seeing this shadow person in my yard.
Finally. I called out to it asking what
it was doing. I got no response.
It didn't even move. I convinced myself.
It was a trick of the light and went back to scrolling the
unease continued and occasionally, I would sneak a
peek back at the shadow. It never moved.
Never made a sound. I finished my Sig and put it out
before. Looking out to the shadow again.
It was then the wind began to blow and all of the Shadows from
the tree limbs began moving. I watched waiting for it to move
as well. It didn't that was the Moment.
I began to panic. I called out to it again.
And again, I got no response, my stomach dropped and I began to
get angry. I stood and walked off of the
porch. I took maybe three or four steps
towards it. When I was overwhelmed with
fear. I began to sweat my mouth.
Dried up every hair on my body was standing.
I tried to take another step, but my body refused to move
every Primal Instinct I had Dad was telling me to run, I backed
away. Never taking my eyes off of it.
After I got inside the house. I ran to the pantry to find my
strongest flashlight, the side door of the house, led to the
kitchen. So it wasn't too much of a
stretch before going back outside.
I looked out the window to make sure it was still there.
Of course. It hadn't moved.
I walked back onto the porch, turned on the flashlight, and
aimed it at the shadow. Skin crawled as the light washed
over the Shadow and didn't go away.
This Shadow was opaque. I could almost see through it
when the light was directly on it.
The thing was pure Darkness given shape and not knowing what
to do. I backed inside.
Who could I call about this? They'd never believe me.
I pulled a chair to the window in my living room and watch the
shadow. I don't know when I fell asleep,
but it was some time before sunrise.
Rise. The next morning.
I woke up to the Sun, hitting me in the face.
I jumped up. Check the time 736, am the
feeling of uneasiness was gone, but I had to be sure I looked
out the window and almost collapsed from relief.
The shadow was gone. I ran through the previous
night's events over and over in my head.
Maybe I had dreamed the whole thing that had to be it.
Either that or I was going in. I mean maybe both it took almost
an hour to build up the courage and walk outside to inspect the
spot where the shadow stood, what?
I saw made me run cold. There were two imprints in the
grass as if something had been standing in the same spot for
hours. I felt sick to my stomach there
really was something in my yard last night.
I backed away from the spot, never taking my eyes off the
footprints. It might have been there still
but Was invisible waiting to get me.
But if that were true, why didn't I feel the uneasiness I
felt from last night? Did that even have anything to
do with the shadow? I prayed it wouldn't be back to
answer these questions. The rest of the day went by
normally it was my day off. So I just lounged around
watching TV. I went grocery shopping and paid
some bills. I don't really remember much of
the day. Other than that.
I just remember being in. Shits about Nightfall, hoping it
wouldn't come back man. What I would give to be able to
go back to that feeling instead of the absolute dread.
I feel now Nightfall came and I did my best to keep my mind
occupied. I cook dinner turned on one of
my favorite comedies, the night wore on and I began to feel a
little bit better. It was already past the time,
the shadow appeared the night before when I went outside for
his sake. I lit it and Without my phone to
check the time when the feeling came back stronger than before.
I looked up and there it was a few feet closer and more
defined. I didn't have to strain so hard
this time to see it a whimper forced its way out of my mouth
and I scan the rest of the tree line.
That's when I spotted the other one.
I was standing just outside. One of the Shadows made by the
tree, limb closer to the road. It was standing in the same pose
at first. Arms, just hanging to its side,
but it was facing my direction. I screamed, and jumped back
falling over a chair before I realized it.
I was yelling at them. Asking them what they want.
My fear had been replaced by anger, again, and I walked out
onto the stoop. I looked on the ground for
something to throw and spotted a small rock by my step without
thinking. I grabbed it and flung it at the
first Shadow, the rock, hit the shadow right in the chest and
And fell to the ground, but there was no sound when it
connected. It was, if it hit nothing, the
shadow didn't move. I called out again, asking them
why they were here. There was no reply.
Of course. I don't know what I expected.
That's when I realized. There were no sounds, No
crickets. No birds.
No natural, sounds at all. And just the humming of the
Street Lamp. I looked from the first Shadow
to the second the unnies, right? Sing the more, I look at them.
I wanted them to do something say something anything but they
just stood there watching me. I retreated to the porch and
continued watching them until it was done.
They still didn't move. What were these things?
Why did they fill me with so much dread?
I thought, again, about who I could tell about them.
That wouldn't send me to an asylum.
I don't really have any friends and my family lives hours.
A way I had never felt so alone. As I did in that five minutes
after finishing my sake, I went back inside and post it up
beside the window again, I could barely see the second Shadow
from my position. But as long as it didn't move,
it would be fine hours went by and they never moved but the
uneasiness stayed once again sleep crept up on me.
And before I knew it, I was waking up.
It was eight. 42. Am I was late for work?
I called my manager and apologized told her, I wasn't
feeling well, she said it was fine and they were overstaffed
any way to not worry about it. I asked her if she could find
people to cover my shifts for the rest of the week, as I
wasn't feeling well after a small back and forth.
She agreed. I needed time to either get this
thing, sorted out, or get out of Dodge.
I spent the day trying to come up with a plan for the Night, I
needed to get footage of them to show people.
Why hadn't I done that already so stupid.
But what was the plan after that?
I couldn't even get near them because of the feeling they gave
me. I thought maybe I could shoot
them, but I didn't have the money or time.
I just reserved myself to reconnaissance, for the night.
And after that, I'd see where things went waiting for
Nightfall was awful. I couldn't eat.
I tried to take Nap because I was exhausted from barely
sleeping, the previous two nights, but every time I started
to drift off, I would think about the Shadows consumed and
jump awake. I couldn't do anything but sit
and wait until it got dark the hours dragged on that day.
Seemed like an eternity of waiting finally night came and I
walked onto the porch and waited with my phone in hand.
Periodically, checking the time the usual sounds of nature were
there. Crickets.
Cicada. Has the odd bird.
I held out some tiny bit of. Hope that maybe the Shadows
wouldn't show then at nine. Oh seven PM.
This sounds stopped and all I could hear was the hum of the
Street Lamp. My stomach dropped so bad.
I felt physically sick. I already knew what that meant.
But I looked up. Anyway, the first Shadow had
moved a few feet closer to my house.
The second one, halved its distance.
I scanned the yard and spot. Two more one on the opposite
side of the yard as the second Shadow and the other, in the
middle of the street. Again.
They were easier to make out than the previous two nights.
They were more corporeal darker than before.
They didn't even blend in with the Shadows near the many more.
If anything, they stood out. I walked to the door and stuck
out my torso, the air felt heavy like it was made of pure malice.
I began sweating and felt I ain't shaking it off.
I open the camera on my phone and aimed it at the first
Shadow. Who was the closest one at
probably only 12 feet from my door.
I struggle to keep my hand steady enough for the camera to
focus in the low light after what seemed like forever it
focused. And I snapped a few pictures
once I got those, I backed into the porch and took a moment to
catch my breath. I looked back at the for
Shadows, looking for any type of change.
Nothing simultaneously relieved and frustrated.
I opened the pictures I had taken and of course, they
weren't clear enough to even make anything out.
I had to try again. But every fiber in me was
screaming for me not to it took me a few minutes to hike myself
up enough to even open the door again.
Same as before. I just stuck out my torso and
aim, my phone at the closest Shadow, it took a moment, but
the camera finally focused. The picture was going to be
clear. Thank God.
I would have definitive proof that I was being haunted by
shadow people. As I press the button to take
the picture, the Street Lamp flickered.
It was only for half a second, but it ruined the picture.
All I got was Darkness. I cursed my luck and the lamp
flickered, two more times as I was trying to get back to the
camera. I looked up and what I saw cause
me to scream, drop my phone and fall onto the porch in one
motion. In the shadows had moved very
slightly, but they had moved the first looked as if it had just
finished taking a step forward. The second and third were in the
middle of taking a step. The fourth seem to be slightly
hunched over, like, it was getting ready to Sprint.
I got off the floor with tears, in my eyes, and realize, my
phone was outside. I bolted to the door without
thinking burst out onto the stoop.
The phone was lying on the ground at the base of the bottom
of the step. Up.
I reached for it and the lamp flickered, again, a wave of
fear. Hit me.
And I threw up before, looking towards the Shadows.
The first had lifted, its foot, the second and third had
finished their step and the fourth was hunched further.
My body seemed to move on its own.
After that. I left my phone ran inside my
house and lock the door. I tried to figure out why the
lamp was flickering, where the Shadows doing it.
Know if they could do that, they Done it in the first place.
Most likely the bulb was going out.
I needed to call the electric company.
I reached in my pocket for my phone and screamed in
frustration when I realized it, wasn't there the lamp flickered,
two more times. I began feeling light-headed my
vision blurred. I leaned against the
refrigerator to steady myself, but it wasn't enough.
My last memory from that night was falling to the floor.
When I woke up, I was still on the floor.
Sunlight poured, Through the Windows.
I struggled to get up. I felt weak.
I didn't eat the day before and I had barely slept in days.
I finally got up, and looked at my stove for the time 11:48 a.m.
Wow, it was almost noon. I stumbled out onto the porch
and winced as the full brightness of the sun, hit me.
I walked out of the door to the stoop and picked up my phone.
It was busted. I sat on the step and cried
these things were going to get me.
I knew it. I ran through my options.
I could just up and move. I could maybe stay at my parents
for a night or two, but eventually I'd have to come back
home. How many Shadows would be here,
then? I decided I was going to fight
them. This was my home, as long as
there was light, touching them. They wouldn't move.
I could just buy a bow and take them out from the porch.
I hadn't used one since I was a kid, but I was pretty decent
back then. So I had a good feeling.
First thing I needed to do was get that light replaced though.
I drove downtown to the electric company and told them the light
was out and it needed to be fixed as soon as possible.
They told me. It would be later that
afternoon, but it would be fixed before dark.
I thank them and drove immediately to the nearest
sporting good store. Once there, I asked an employee
to show me the bows. I was a little hurt at some of
the prices of these things. I finally, settled on one in my
price range and stocked up on some arrows, on the way home.
I stopped by a drive-thru. I didn't eat much when I got
home. I began putting the arrows
together and practice. Accessing drawing the bow.
I felt pretty confident in my abilities, even though it made
me sore at about 4:00 in the afternoon.
The repair truck finally came and I walked out to the guy in
the street. He told me I looked sick which I
laughed off as having a week off of partying, a little too hard.
We had a laugh and he went to work.
Once he was done. We had made some more small talk
and he asked me if I was ready for the big storm, that was
coming through later. My heart dropped and I told him
I didn't even know it was coming.
He pointed up and the sky was extremely overcast and I cursed
myself as I realized that it had been all day.
I thanked him and he left. I hauled back to the sporting
good store. I ran to the hunting section and
bought the brightest battery-operated Spotlight and
headlamp, they had between the bow and these.
I had almost wiped out my account, but I wasn't going to
take the And so these things getting me, I could always make
my money back as I walked out of the store.
The first few raindrops begin Falling by the time I got home.
The storm was in full swing. The wind was terrible whipping,
the rain sideways so hard it stung in the short distance from
my car to my house. I was completely soaked.
Once inside. I grab my flashlight facing the
middle of the kitchen floor. If things got bad, and they got
into my house. So, I could turn it on and slow
them down. If not, stop, them outright.
I set up the spotlight in the living room, just in case the
flashlight didn't stop them. All I could do after that was
wait. So there I sat on the porch,
waiting for them to show. I was wearing the headlamp.
I couldn't take any chances. It was 10:52 p.m.
And they had yet to make an appearance.
Maybe they didn't like the rain either.
I thought There had been a few lightning strikes in the last
hour and they seem to be getting closer.
They finally showed up. I could feel them, the pressure,
the dread, it was worse than ever.
I looked out into the yard and spotted them.
The first was only 10 feet away now with for not far from it,
approaching from the side, two and three were 20 feet away as
if they were in. No hurry.
I scan the rest of the yard and spotted for more.
Or two were at the edge of the tree line.
One was directly below the Street Lamp and the last was
standing where the number four originally stood.
There were eight of them. I didn't expect this many but
there was nothing I could do about it.
I grab the bow and walked to the door of the porch.
It took everything to convince me to open it lightning, struck
and that got me moving in one swift motion.
I kicked open the door and Drew my bow.
I aimed it for the first shadow. And shot the arrow.
I missed. Of course I missed.
I hadn't shot one of these things in almost 20 years.
I was an idiot for thinking. I could just go full Rambo on
these things. The Thunder finally hit and
rumbled. My bones.
It was deafening. I shook it off and Drew another
arrow. I took a deep breath and aimed
trying to compose myself. I shot the arrow and it hit the
shadow in the hip area. It doesn't even react.
The pressure grew my head started hurting and I felt
nauseous lightning struck again. And my worst fear happened.
The Street Lamp goes out, I fell back a few steps in the darkness
and reach to turn on the headlamp but didn't manage to
before the light came back on the light was only out for two
maybe three seconds, but it felt like an eternity.
It came back on as the Thunderclap so hard.
The windows of my house rattled I quickly.
Assess the situation, Shadow one had pulled out the arrow and was
holding it to its side, two and three.
Were now facing 14 looked like it was in a mad Sprint to the
door. Only about eight feet away.
Now. Five and six were now hunched
over like they were about to start running 7.
Hadn't moved and eight had only taken a step or two.
I steeled myself and decided for was the most imminent threat.
I knocked a narrow open the door.
A named for its torso. I shot the arrow and got it
right in the neck. The shadow didn't react, but
pressure grew. I felt something on my lip and
reached up to feel it. I pulled my hand back and my
fingertips were covered in a red substance.
I had a nosebleed, the pressure was so great.
It caused my nose to bleed. Wow.
There was no time to worry about that.
I knocked another arrow and took aim at for again.
Lightning flashed and I shot the arrow causing me to miss.
Horribly. The Street Lamp went out again.
But only for a second for was already reaching for the arrow
in its neck? Thunderclap and the lamp went
out again as did every light in my house.
I immediately turned on my headlamp and looked at for it
was in the process of removing the arrow.
I looked around to see the others as fast as I could.
They were all in various phases of movement.
I had To be fast. I didn't know when the Street
Lamp was coming on. Again.
If at all, I knocked another arrow and aimed at for when the
Thunder clapped startling me and causing me to drop the arrow.
I heard a ripping sound to my right.
I looked and caught seven Frozen in Time tearing through my
screen. I looked back at 4 and my heart
sunk. He was four feet away.
Reaching for me. I jumped back, slamming the
flimsy door. I hooked the latch.
And backed up to the kitchen door, more ripping to my, right?
I swung around and saw seven halfway inside with eight
standing, right beside it. Then something slammed into the
door. I could only assume it was for.
I turned to see it pressed against the glass, like a kid
looking in a candy store window, even though there was no facial
features. I swear it was smiling at me,
Lightning flashed and I saw the rest of them were crowded
around. Not too far behind it.
I fell back into the kitchen and turned on the flashlight
Thunder. Boomed shaking the house.
Again, the light illuminated the entire Kitchen in a soft LED
glow. I heard the hook latch ripped
from the frame of the door way outside.
They were on the porch. Now, for some reason, I expected
to hear footsteps, but there were none.
They started banging on the kitchen door and windows next to
it. The door handle started turning
slowly, my heart stopped. I was in such a hurry to turn on
the flashlight. I didn't lock the door.
I ran over and was reaching for the lock.
When the window beside the door exploded?
Knocking me back for a moment. That's all they needed.
The kitchen door flew open and I could see at least five of them
gathered behind for they weren't coming in or moving which was
promising. The flashlight was doing its
job. I relaxed a bit but only for a
moment, the doorway was only about Five feet away, easy
targets. I knocked a narrow drew the bow
and shot the arrow. Right at four, I missed, but hit
one of the Shadows behind it. I'll take it.
I thought I was reaching for another arrow when something
flew through the broken window and knocked the flashlight over,
the light was now pointed down the hallway away from the door
causing Darkness behind it. I look to see what happened in
saw. One of my arrows lying next to
the flashlight. Looked up in Terror and caught
for in the process of crossing, the threshold of my door
instinctively. I turned and ran to the living
room. I should be okay in there.
I thought they had to get past the flashlight, blasting down
the hallway, to get, to me. I walked to the couch where I
left the bulk of my arrows. I grabbed them and shove them
into the quiver. As the lightning struck again.
I stopped what I was doing because something outside caught
my eye, Thunderclap out and I I looked toward the window.
I didn't have time to look out because I heard the distinctive
click of a button and the light in the hallway, went out.
I whipped around and saw one of their hands on the threshold of
the doorway in the living room without shifting my gaze.
I walked the spotlight Crouch down and press the button to
turn it on. Nothing happened in a panic.
I looked down at it. I quickly looked back and one of
their heads was peering around the corner.
It felt like it. Mocking me.
I reached down to pick up the light and immediately realized
my mistake. I didn't buy batteries, fear set
in true fear. I was going to be taken because
I didn't buy batteries for a battery-operated Spotlight.
Honestly, I probably deserved it for that.
No, I was getting out of here. I thought I drew the bow and
fired an arrow at the same Shadows head I missed but the
arrow lodged itself in the hand. And stuck into the wood of the
door frame, that would help me. By little time.
I shot another arrow and back to the front door of the house.
I fumbled to find the lock, with my free hand.
And without thinking, I looked down, quickly.
When I looked back up, two more heads were peering around the
corner at me. I finally got the door unlocked
and opened it. Never taking my eyes off the
shadows in the hallway. I got the door.
Open a little bit and managed to squeeze through without turning
around. I took a deep breath and turned
to run, closing the door behind me.
I was about to run down the steps when the lightning flashed
and I stopped cold in my front yard, stood 13 Shadows.
I couldn't get a good count initially, but I started
scanning the yard with my headlamp and I counted them all
quickly. 13. Have they been there the entire
time I never thought of the possibility that there would be
more than what was on my side of the yard.
I didn't have time to think of a plan, the door behind me.
Started opening. I dropped a bow and turned
around to grab the doorknob to keep it closed.
While turning my head, to try to keep some light on the Shadows
behind me. They were strong, it took
everything. I had to keep them from ripping
the door from my hands. The shadows in my yard were
steadily creeping closer because I couldn't keep the light off of
them for more than a second or two.
I could feel my nose bleed getting worse.
My head was bothering me. I felt nauseous and I was losing
strength, the door suddenly ripped from my hands, and I
stumbled back my balance thrown off.
I fell down the steps and landed hard on my back.
I couldn't breathe for a moment. I looked around and screamed.
They were all closing in. If I had ran as soon as I got
outside, I probably could have found an exit and made it
stupid. I turned back to the house and
there was a shadow halfway down. The steps.
I looked around it. Again, but they were closer.
I looked back to the steps and the shadow was reaching for me.
I close my eyes. This was it, no matter what I
did one of them would get me. The attack, never came.
I was too scared to open my eyes and I just laid on the ground
for what seemed like forever. Then I heard it a low hum.
I opened my eyes and started to cry.
The Street Lamp was back on my house lights were on.
Had power again, even the rain was beginning to slack off the
shadow directly over me froze. Its hand only inches from my
face. I scooted back and stood I could
feel the hatred coming from this thing.
I looked in my house and there were six in my living room, the
13 in my front. Yard were standing in a loose
circle around where I fell. It's like they were just going
to watch this one, get me. I felt slightly relieved, even
though the pressure in the dread was still way.
Weighing on me. I decided I was going to stay
somewhere else tonight. Anywhere else.
I reached in my pocket for my keys.
And of course they weren't there.
I'm pretty sure I left them in my bedroom.
Awesome. I managed to squeeze past the
circle of Shadows and walk around the house.
Since I wasn't making it through the front door.
I looked at the number they did to my screen and around the
porch and a shiver ran down my spine.
What would have happened if they had caught me walking?
Back to my bedroom. I felt good.
I won. I'm definitely moving out of
here tomorrow. I thought, but it's a small
price to pay walking past the doorway in the living room.
I looked at them frozen trying to get out the door, to get to
me in my rush. I clip the door frame of the
living room with the headlamp, knocking it off my head.
I didn't stop to pick it up. I didn't have time.
I had to get out of there, as I walked into the bedroom.
I reached To turn on the light and immediately realized
something was wrong the lights which was off and that wasn't
right. I had intentionally left every
light on in the house earlier before I could even react.
Something ice-cold grab my waist and I was flung to the darkness
on the other side of the room. I tried to stand but I was
pushed onto the floor, my wrist started to burn, it was so cold
screaming. I turned around to swing at my
assailant. I connected Nothing in a pain.
Shot up my arm, my throat when cold, and I was lifted off of
the ground and slammed into the wall.
I couldn't breathe. I kicked my legs.
Trying to force the shadow to loosen its grip, but had no
luck. I began to lash out trying to
get it. I only succeeded in hurting
myself. It felt like I was hitting a
solid wall. Finally, a last ditch effort.
I reached in my pocket and pulled out a lighter.
I tried to light it, but I was losing Consciousness.
It finally catches and the small flame illuminated, the darkness
around me, and the shadow, it stops, and surprisingly loosens
its grip around me. A little, I tried to move as
slowly as possible. So as to not put out the flame,
I reached up with my left hand to grab the Shadows forearm
slowly. I started to try and pull its
hand off of me, the flame flickered as I exhaled and tried
not to panic. It stayed lit.
I was good. The hand started to come off me
as I pulled at the forearm. I felt its fingertips on the
back of my neck lift ever. So slightly, and the Hand came
off suddenly the motion, cause my entire weight to shift and
the flame to go out my head, slammed into the wall.
Before I had a chance to try and relight the lighter.
The right hand closed around me again.
It felt like it was piercing. It was so cold.
The shadow, slam me into the wall again, and I dropped the
lighter and my head went through the sheetrock.
My vision was fading, I struggled against it, but it was
really like a small person, fighting off a grown man.
My head, hit the wall again on a stud.
This time. I could feel the pain from the
back of my head. I get hit again and I knew one
more will be it but I was okay with it.
Going didn't seem so bad anymore.
This Shadow pulled back and it feels like it knows this would
be the last hit as well. It paused and seem to be
savoring the moment. Smiled and a small chuckle
escaped me using every last bit of energy.
I had, who would have thought I'd be taken by a shadow.
That chuckle must have pissed it off.
It slammed my head into the wall harder than all the other times.
I heard a crack. I assumed it was me, but it
didn't matter. I let myself be consumed by the
dark Oblivion. It felt comforting.
All this time. I had been avoiding the dark if
I had known it feel this peaceful.
I would have run toward it. This isn't a skinwalker story in
those kinds of stories. The skinwalker follows the rules
if you don't fall for its tricks, if you don't walk off
into the bushes, with your friends, who vanished for two
hours and then came back acting strange.
Then you'll be fine. For some reason, the skinwalker
can't touch you. It can peek at you from behind a
tree or talk to you, but if you leave quickly and make sure to
stick close to your friends. It'll leave you alone.
So like I said, this isn't a skinwalker story.
This happened in Late July in a forest and Montana.
Although this was the same Forest, my dad.
And I hunted in every year that didn't mean much.
It was wild and huge stretch for miles and miles across Rolling
Hills until it finally merged with the backs of the Rockies.
We had one small patch of forest.
Who's Else he and I knew well and which my dad didn't like to
go far from. He used to joke that we take the
wrong, turn on the path one day and come out from the woods to
find ten years had passed and we were in California, but that
year I had been inpatient and board with our usual Trails.
I was supposed to go to college that fall and I was anxious to
shake off the parts of my life. I saw his childish and start
fresh as a man. I was the the one who picked out
the new set of trails that were further into the woods and
argued with my dad, until he wore down and agreed to try them
out. Right from the start.
The trip was a disaster. It was an unusually hot summer
that year. And by the time we unloaded our
gear from my dad's truck and started on the trail.
I had already swept through my deodorant about 30 minutes into
the first day. I realized there was something
off about the woods. They were Totally Silent.
Not even birds were singing. The only sounds were the wind
blowing through the trees and our own footsteps.
I've never before or since seen the woods that quiet.
We didn't come across any animals that day to tell the
truth. I tried to hide it from my dad,
but it was creepy. We camped in a clearing by the
trail that I had marked on our map.
By this point. I was honestly ready to call it
quits between the The Heat and the strange silence in the
woods. I didn't want to be out there
anymore. But this trip had been my idea
and I wanted my dad to be the one to call it off.
He didn't. And after a supper of ham and
beans, we spent a sleepless night in the hot tent.
It was around noon of the second day.
We noticed the smell. We were making our way up the
trail. When it seemed like somebody
flipped a switch and turn the forest on its head.
We were both Hit with a wave of stench like rotting animal,
which by the strength of the smell seemed very close by.
At the same time. The silent woods were filled
with sounds all around us. Birds were shouting warnings
like an alarm. We stopped in our tracks and
heard something crashing quickly through the underbrush to our
right. Turning.
I saw herd of deer running at top speed through the thick
bushes. My rifle was slung, over my
back. But even if I had it in my
hands, I wouldn't have been able to react in time after a pause.
My dad spoke. We need to turn back.
He said, something's frightening.
The animals, could be a bear. I nodded Bears although not
common in our area. We're not unheard of I
remembered to hunting seasons ago.
A couple of hikers had been attacked on the other side of
the state by what some people were saying was a Krisily, even
with our rifles. We wouldn't necessarily be safe
against a big bear. We made our way back up the
trail. But even as the sounds of the
animals quieted down all around us, the smell didn't go away on
the contrary. It seemed to get stronger and
stronger, all the time until we were both covering our noses
with our shirts and taking gasping breaths through our
mouths. There was a change in the
atmosphere to Nothing felt heavy and slow and somehow charged.
Once when I was a boy lightning struck a tree not 200 feet away
from me. This felt like that did like
something was about to happen. We were about a day and a half's
walk from our car and even though we both wanted to get out
of there as fast as possible. When night fell, we knew better
than to try to follow a strange Trail in the dark.
We made a camp by the trail. We didn't light a fire.
My dad didn't say anything but there was a tension in his
shoulders and his head swiveled quickly at every sound, we were
hunched on a log, eating cold beans, out of a tin and
wondering how we were going to get to sleep when we heard it
down the path further than I could see in the dark.
There came a low groan immediately dad and I had our
hands on our guns. This stench somehow grew again.
It was overwhelming now. And I swear, I Feel it in the
air around us, sitting thick and oily.
On my skin, another low groan, like a man sighing.
And as I peered up The Path, I saw a dark shape.
It was low to the ground and big.
It was waddling on all four, but something about its movements
seemed unnatural it. Look the way a big man does when
he crawls on his hands and knees, like, every movement is
forced and stiff my dad stepped between In me in the path Bill.
He said go into the woods and hide, don't come out.
I'll take care of the bear. I'd like to say, I told my dad,
I would never abandon him. I would at least, like to say, I
tried to argue sometimes very late at night when I can't
sleep. I lie, awake and think about
what could have been if I hadn't been a coward.
But those thoughts Belong to the Night.
They are only dreams. I was about 1,000 feet away from
our Site, when I heard the shots, 12 in the night practiced
and controlled, I didn't stop, I was crying then and I couldn't
stop until I ran through the clearing on a small hill and
tripped rolling down into the underbrush.
I stayed still down there. Sobbing uncontrollably.
I don't know how many shots my dad fired.
I don't remember when the screaming started or how long it
lasted only that it seemed to go on forever.
Ever and that it didn't sound like my dad more, like a woman
in a scary movie. I didn't know how long after the
screaming stopped that, I heard it running through the
underbrush moving faster than that awkward.
Unnatural thing on the trail should have been able to move,
but I do remember what it looked like when it bursts out of the
woods and crested, the hill, white patches of Flesh, gleaming
out from the holes in its skin. It was wearing, I remember
seeing it's yellow eyes peering through the hole.
And what looked like a hairy burlap bag on its head, it
reached the crest of the hill and stopped for a moment.
Stretching. Its body in the Moonlight.
I remember what it sounded like. When it yelled.
It's voice. Like my dad's when he was hoarse
and tired Bill yelled, the thing on the hill.
That's not a bear. My father was a determined man
who worked his hands to the Bone, nearly every single day of
his 72 year life, even after we basically forced him to retire
and relax for once. He was always busying himself
with some project around the house.
Mom used to joke that she swears.
He was born wearing a hard hat and growing up.
We believed it. I didn't see a lot of him during
childhood. As most of his time was devoted
to his career, he was Earth elements minor and often took
part in risky, but lucrative Ventures all around the world.
He would sometimes be gone for months at a time.
But when he returned, he had no shortage of stories to tell his
work, took him everywhere from the smoldering deserts of the
Sahara to the Windswept Tundra of Siberia.
This was back in the 60s. When many countries around the
world were first discovering Rich deposits of valuable
minerals. It's due to advancements in
technology. My father was already a veteran
of the trade having worked in the mines since he was 14 and
grinding his way up the ladder. He eventually became a roaming
prospector regularly offering his services to countries that
were looking for experts to help them develop a mining
infrastructure. He told stories of him
traveling, halfway around the world and to places.
He never imagined himself going. He once was caught in between
rival Warlords. Back when the diamond industry
began to Boom, another time. He was imprisoned in Moscow for
two months after being accused by the former Soviet Union of
being an American spy. He caught malaria in.
Argentina was almost taken by a landslide in China and stared
death in the face on a few other occasions.
My Mom hated his stories and how dangerous he made them out to
be, but Dad, just laughed it off.
It's hard to know how many of those incidents were flavored by
a Bit of hyperbole as my father. Clearly had a passion for
storytelling. Regardless, the man undoubtedly
LED quite a colorful life, but there's one story he told me,
which I know he didn't exaggerate on the story of why
he decided to leave the mining industry forever.
Did I ever tell you? The real reason?
I quit, he asked me that one day as he and I sipped on some
drinks in his back porch. My kids were out playing in the
backyard. Hard with the two of us serving
as impromptu babysitters while my wife and mother were out on a
shopping date. I took a swig of my drink and
thought for a moment, wasn't it? Because you tried fighting a
camel or something. I asked referencing another one
of his Infamous stories where my father got mule kicked in the
gut by a rather unhappy camel in Western Asia.
Dad broke into a raspy laugh and shook his head, as the smoke
from his sake wafted in the air. Hey, that Camel started it.
And boy, was it mad that day? I would have taken it down, but
I don't believe in hurting animals.
Like that. He laughed again taking another
drag off his smoldering Sig know.
This was a very different situation in a very different
place. I asked him where this
mysterious story. He was referencing at happened.
But he shook his head can tell you that his expression had
suddenly gone stoic. And it made me curious.
Why camel jumble your memory. I joked my dad smiled, but
averted his gaze to the ground as if contemplating whether or
not he actually wanted to say anymore son.
Let's just say some places are better off forgotten.
That was all it took to get me interested.
Whenever my dad told one of his many stories.
There was a certain alluring gleam in his eye.
He definitely enjoyed the attention and wide-eyed looks of
Sure, he got as he told his stories, but this time he looked
quite different. It's like what he was pondering
was something that truly troubled him.
He started off telling me that towards the end of his career.
He had an old friend reach out with an incredibly lucrative
offer Dad used air quotes around the word says He said them as
though he was skeptical of the claim from the beginning, the
friend went on to explain that a certain place, discovered a pot
of copper and needed assistance. Getting a proper.
In site up and running dad, spend some time corresponding
with his friend and learning the details of the operation.
He said, he honestly wasn't very interested in taking on the
project. But after a friend revealed, the
Hefty sum of money being offered, he just couldn't turn
it down. So, Dad, accepts and a few weeks
later. He's on a plane Bound for his
new office in this undisclosed location.
He said the journey to get there alone.
Took him over 24 hours to reach the spot.
So wherever it was, it had to be outside of North America.
Dad was very careful when he told this story to not.
Give me any clues about where this place was.
And I didn't really understand why at first, so Dad finally
steps off the plane and his friend who I'll just call Carl
from here, on out, picks him up. The two of them, discussed
details of the operation while they drive another three hours
to reach the spot part. Way through the trip and Carl
drops a bit of a new Conversation.
So we've encountered a bit of an issue, dad stared at him and he
said he was dreading where the conversation was headed.
What do you mean, Dad replied causing Carl to almost
immediately? Backtrack?
Well, okay, not even necessarily an issue more like a curiosity,
really Carl then explain to him that he and his team were
inspecting the site. They found some things, they
didn't expect the location. They were headed.
Was a small Cavern nestled near the base of a mountain in a
small Gully. It was a spot that was known to
locals for Generations. But none of them really paid
much attention until someone ventured a little deeper inside.
Apparently the cavern stretched on a lot further than anyone
expected and not far inside. They made an interesting
Discovery. One of the Prospectors found a
large circular stone slab. It was just lying there on the
ground at the end of one of the corridors, but the shape made
it. That someone had cut it
intentionally this meant that there is a possible conflict of
interest Brewing. If it was discovered that the
site contained evidence of ancient remains, then it would
be turned over to archaeologists instead.
The district at the site was located, had a mandate to always
prioritize archaeological Ventures over industrial ones.
If evidence of human presence was proved inconclusive, then my
father and the team would have no choice but to abandon it and
lose out on their payday. It may have been a moral but
Karl wanted to begin their operation before.
Archaeologists, had a chance to interrupt things.
My dad says he was a bit conflicted on what to do, but
figured at least he could do was see the site for himself before
making a decision. So they finally get there and
Carl, introduces, my dad to the team.
They waste a little time in formalities and quickly, decide
to venture into the cavern system.
Dad says, the entrance was tight with a twisting pattern, hidden
behind thick. Uh, the air was incredibly hot
and humid causing him to sweat like a pig in a bacon Factory.
As he put it once inside. He had to squeeze around three
bends before the cavern began to open up.
Carl had my dad deeper through the cave showing several
promising areas where they plan to begin Excavating, the walls
were lined with thick green veins indicating the likely
presence of copper Rich ores that initial chamber was
designed as Alpha and it branched off into two separate
directions from there. One of which contained a
circular stone slab. He led my father right to it and
pause does my father saw it for himself.
My dad described it to me as a massive stone.
Slab, cut in a near Perfect Circle.
He said, it had to have been at least 10 feet wide.
He said it looked like it was built to block something and
compared it to a manhole covers on the roads.
He felt like there was something underneath and said he got a
Really weird feeling when they were there but couldn't really
describe it beyond that. So he and Carl, hold a meeting
with the rest of the team and find an area to begin their dig
days go by and soon enough. They've got the operation up and
running with the logistics being formulated behind the scenes.
The team begins mining leaving the room with the slab alone and
focusing on the other portions of the cavern.
In just a few weeks. They had a full-fledged
operation running 24 hours a day.
Part of the team focused on expanding the second path from
the alpha chamber while the others were dedicated to
extracting exposed veins. Initial returns were very
promising and they knew they were onto something.
So the process continued growing larger and more refined each
passing Day, by all accounts, things were going according to
plan. But of course, I wouldn't be
here writing this story. If it stayed that way, it's
almost like things were going, too well for their own good.
My dad laughed as he said that and doused his Sig on his boot.
He then side and his face took on a grave and expression.
Dad was always making jokes and to see him suddenly.
So stoic. Sent a small shiver down my
spine. I still don't know how to
explain what happened down there.
Dad went on to explain that. He was in the mind working one
day, helping a few other men who were working on expanding the
tunnels. They were hacking away with
pickaxes and Stop for a breather.
After a few minutes of work, one of the men made a joke and made
my dad laughs, but was Suddenly shushed by the other the man who
silenced him held up his hands to his lips.
His eyes, traced around the room.
Dad says he was about to ask the man, what was wrong?
When he heard it for himself. He said he heard a dull droning
noise, echoing throughout the corridor.
Dad said it sounded almost like someone humming a tune.
It was early in the morning at the time and My dad in the two
men were supposed to be the only ones in the mine at the time.
The humming continued for about a minute before, just fading
away. My dad left, the tunnel and
check the rest of the cavern but found no one else inside.
He didn't really know how to explain it.
But he said he didn't honestly pay it much mind.
He said he didn't even know if that event is even relevant, but
he mentioned it nonetheless as something odd a few days go by
and things. Once again, our Operating as
normal, dad was outside, having a meeting with Carl and the
shift leaders. When suddenly frantic screams
emerged from the cavern, the group turned and waited for a
few seconds, as a man appeared from inside the cavern, his eyes
were frantic and hands. Trembling.
Dad says, there was an absolute Terror in his eyes like he had
never seen before the man was yelling and rambling away as he
dashed away from the cavern. One of the shift leaders asked
him to slow down, but the man refused Dad says, the guy
literally ran to the camp grabbed, his lunch and took off
into the surrounding, jungles still muttering and whimpering
that man never came back and no one could figure out what
exactly happened to him. He was alone in a semi isolated
section of the mine. At the time workers that were
inside. At the time said, he had heard
him scream and run out. They searched the area he was
working, but found nothing out of the ordinary, one of the
other workers later, translated, what the man was screaming when
he ran out. Out.
Apparently he said something to the effect of this place is
evil. We should not have come.
The crew was on edge after that, but Carl and the other Foreman
managed to calm down the crew. My dad says he didn't really say
anything but wished he did he said he wished he would have
listened to that man and had gotten everyone out of there
while he had the chance dad's side and sat back after he said
that as clearly the memories weighing heavy on his mind.
I haven't seen him look so Fallen.
Since his brother my uncle passed away.
He said the crew just went back to work.
But before that day was even out one of the other workers made a
curious Discovery. Remember that, massive circular
stone, slab laying in the tunnel off the alpha chamber.
Someone had moved it all of the crew swore.
They didn't touch it. Dad said the massive slab had to
avoid near a ton at least and he didn't think they could have
moved it even if they wanted to. Beneath that slab was a whole, a
very deep hole that stretched down farther than they could
see. Someone dropped a pebble down
the hole, but no one heard it, hit the bottom.
They wanted to drop a flare down.
But my dad refused to let them as he was worried about the
possibility of igniting flammable gas shimmering deep
below. He said he felt a wave of dread
roll over him as he stared down into that black pit and
described it as a feeling like someone was staring back up at
him despite the whirring. Stances the men continued
operations. Things went smoothly after that
but no one went near that hole. Dad said a few times.
He could have sworn. He heard Whispers in his ear,
the rest of the men seem to be on edge as well with the normal
jovial conversations all but suddenly absent.
Everyone just wanted to get through the day.
Dad said, over the next few days.
He felt like something was very wrong.
He said a few times, you could have sworn, he heard Whispers,
in the mind. They were always fail.
Faint and he couldn't be sure. He actually heard them.
He also said he'd see weird shadows.
That seem to move in unnatural ways.
They were always distance. Always just out of sight to
where he could never get a good clear.
Look at them. He said he had to have had at
least five instances of thinking.
He saw something. He also had trouble sleeping as
horrific nightmares. Plagued him each night.
He said he could never remember the details of them, but vividly
remembers waking up in a frantic.
But at the time, he just chalked it all up to being stress and
lack of proper sleep. He said, miners are known to
have their minds play tricks on them as a condition.
They knew as minor fever being underground in the dark for a
while. Can do strange things to a man's
mind. His expression was serious when
he said that and I knew he wasn't exaggerating.
He emphasized that that was probably his single greatest,
regret everything in his mind was screaming for him to leave.
Eve, but fear of ridicule and loss of income compelled him
onward. It's not an excuse.
I know it's just a Fool's attempt to rationalize the
impossible then about a week after the slab moved.
It happened. My dad was in the cavern with
Carl and a few others. When there was a sudden loud
crack, the men fell silent and waited a moment as the sounds of
faint rumbling began. They knew all too.
Well, what this meant without wasting another second, they all
Gambled for the exit, but it was too late.
My dad says the next thing he remembers was the deafening
crash of Boulders dirt and debris as the cavern collapsed
around them. Dad says the next thing he
remembers was Awakening in a confused Hayes swallowed by
Darkness with the Hard Rock. All around him.
His legs were pinned, down by Rubble leaving, only his upper
torso exposed to a small Nook in the rubble.
He tried pulling, but he couldn't get his legs to budge.
I can't honestly We imagine a more terrifying Prospect than
being buried. Like that.
Dad says he tried not to panic, but he could only do so much.
He managed to retrieve a Zippo from his pocket.
But as the flame ignited, he almost wished.
He'd remained in the darkness, the Crimson Hue.
Lit up the small area and my dad says the enclosed space was
barely larger than a cupboard. The light also revealed a much
more gruesome scene to his right.
Only a few feet away. He spotted a glove hand.
Poking out from the rubble. He followed the armed with his
eye and saw what used to be a man beneath a boulder, dad
gagged and looked away as the sickening scene caused him to
vomit. He said he'd never been able to
get that image out of his head. The man was obviously gone, but
all around him. Dad began to hear faint moans of
pain, stricken cries of others who had not yet succumb.
He couldn't see any of them, but one voice seemed near by a man
who was calling for help and Dad recognize the voice as belonging
to a local worker. He referred to as Rico dad
called back and Rico responded. Mr. Johnson, my father is that
you? Yeah, it's me.
Rico. Are you?
Okay? Dad replied?
Not really. Mr. Johnson.
My arm is stuck. I think it's broken.
It hurts, real bad. I can't feel my legs.
Either dad knew that was a bad sign and tried his best to keep
Rico and himself. Calm, how much?
Room. Do you have in there?
Can you see a way out? Dad asked?
No, sir. It's all dark.
I can't see anything. I can move my left arm around.
So I have a bit of space but I'm pinned down, dad cursed under
his breath and tried to reassure the man to remain calm.
He knew things weren't looking good for either of them, but he
couldn't reach the man, let alone free himself.
Rico when my father, continued talking for hours.
And after some time, dad said he heard Heard the sounds of
hacking in the distance as a rescue team began to try to
liberate the trapped miners. Rico told my dad about his
family, his wife and two sons, Rico feared.
He was never going to see them again.
My Dad tried to keep his spirits up but admitted to me that he
shared the same fears. The two of them could do nothing
but wait and pray that the rescue team would arrive before
the reaper did Guillermo was right.
Rico said words suddenly referring to the same minor that
my dad. Easily mentioned who had
seemingly went crazy and flood the site a few days earlier.
What do you mean? My dad asked Rico, panted hard,
and replied this place. His evil.
Dad. Didn't know how to respond to
that. Obviously.
The cave-in was a cruel act by Mother Nature or perhaps one
triggered by human error, but Rico seemed to think it was more
than that. We shouldn't have come here.
Mr. Johnson. We woke it up, Dad.
Then thought the man started. Offering from delusions brought
on by his injuries. But Rico was adamant.
I heard the voices. I saw it.
It warned me to go. I should have listened.
Dad. Thought the man was losing his
sanity and continue to try to reassure him.
It didn't seem to do much and not long after Rico stopped
responding at all. Dad said he could hear him
Whispering desperate prayers and weeping quietly.
He didn't know at the time how long they had been down there,
but the situation began to wear heavily on my All there as well,
his stomach growled from Hunger. His lips were dry and head
hurting from dehydration. His legs had since gone numb,
and the situation seemed helpless.
He began to wonder whether he'd ever.
See the light of day. Again.
Rico had continued praying, but, in between his Whispers, my dad
said he began to hear something much more worrying.
He said, it sounded like laughter.
Like the laughter of someone who was slightly amused by a decent
joke. Sometimes it seemed like it was
coming from. Um, Rico, but other times, it
did not. He heard it from up ahead back
behind, and even down below him. Rico suddenly stopped his
prayers sometime later and dad says, he didn't even notice at
first until Rico spoke. Again.
It's in here. Dad tried getting Rico to
respond, but he seemed to just ignore his calls Rico, then
began to hyperventilate and suddenly screamed.
Dad said he'd never heard a more gut wrenching Scream Of Terror
and all of his life. He tried to calm Rico down with
words, but our ecosphere was beyond that.
He kept screaming for maybe 30 seconds until his voice went
horse. Then as suddenly as it started.
Rico screaming stopped, dad doesn't think Rico, stop
screaming of his own volition, though.
Dad was on the brink of complete Panic at this point.
And says, he could barely contain his own mind.
He tried to remain calm and listen, but he couldn't hear
anything else. Things had suddenly gone eerily
silent and Go never spoke another word.
Sometime later. Dad heard something else.
He said there was rustling behind him, like the
pitter-patter of someone carelessly, kicking dirt.
He called out but no one answered.
He felt like someone was there but couldn't see them.
He heard the sounds of Pebbles skittering about and rocks
creaking but no more voices. Dad heard The Rescuers
continuing to hack away in the distance.
And at a certain point. He said the sounds became almost
erotic and led him to sleep in reality.
It was probably his weakened State causing him to lose
Consciousness. He said the nightmares returned
to him and when he finally woke up, all he saw was searing
light. He thought he was dead and had
entered the Gates of Heaven until his vision refocused
around him. Slowly, the Blurred images of
the screens and rhythmic beeping of monitors became clearer
several figures rushed in. As he stirred urging him to be
still the figures then appeared to physically.
Strain him causing my dad to panic and thrash out.
He only stopped once he recognized the voice of Carl
Rob. Rob.
It's me. Carl easy.
You're okay. Dad ceased his struggle, as the
face of his old colleague emerged.
He took a deep breath and tried to remember what had happened.
Carl then told him everything about the cave in and the
ensuing rescue attempts to free. The men.
Dad had been trapped underground for almost six days.
He was starving dehydrated malnourished and had two broken
legs when they finally dragged him out of that hellhole, but he
was one of the lucky ones. Carl told my dad.
He'd been unconscious for two days and doctors were not sure
if he'd ever wake up. Again.
My dad's memory of all of this was Fuzzy and he clung to the
hope that what he saw were just fragments of some fever dream,
but Carl seem to confirm the contrary.
He then explained that the rescue team had pretty much
cleared the whole cave in. Bye.
Point. But my dad was the last one.
They found how many were taken. My dad asked Carl sighed and sat
in the chair, besides the bed as he shoot the nurses out of the
room seven unaccounted for that response confused.
My dad. What do you mean unaccounted
for? There was someone right beside
me and I heard Rico dad trailed off and Carl just shook his head
not when we found you what? But Rob, they didn't find any
bodies. Dad.
Didn't know how to respond to that and it seemed Carl didn't
either. It doesn't make any sense.
The rescue team has cleared all of the debris out by now, but
there's no remains. There's no trace of any of them
silence. Then fell between them both as
both seemed at a loss for how that could be true.
Maybe they found another way out.
Maybe they're still down there, my dad argued, but Carl didn't
seem convinced. That logic, my dad said that.
Truth be told he wasn't either, but he refused to give up on
them. Carl cleared his throat, Rob.
They've searched the entire system.
There's nothing Carl lowered his head and my dad was still
reeling. How is that possible?
Dad asked Carl just shook his head.
I don't know. Oh, you remember that Big Slab,
right? Yeah, Carl crossed his arms and
scoffed. As if what he was about to say.
Seemed unbelievable. Well, it's back on top of the
hole now just like it was when we found it.
Dad. Just looked at Carl telling me.
He was at a complete loss for words.
Carl scoffed again. Yeah, I don't understand either
maybe the cave-in moved it. Although I don't see how that
would happen or maybe something else.
Did Dad said shiver shot down his spine when Carl said that he
remembered Rico's words, but said when he heard them he
thought they were Just ramblings of the fatally wounded starving
man. He was forced to confront the
thoughts again in that moment. But even as he was retelling,
his tragic story to me some 19 years after it happened.
He still didn't know what to think.
Carl then side and stood from the chair.
He gave my father, a look and put his hands in his pockets.
We may never know what really happened down there, but I think
enough damage has been done. I'm shutting down the project.
It's the only thing to do. Get some rest and give me a call
when you're ready to go home. So I can get you a flight.
Carl. Begin to walk away.
But my father posed him one. Final question.
Did they find out what caused the collapse?
Carl looked back at him and side once more nothing conclusive yet
seismic readings. In the nearby Town came back
normal. We could have struck a root of
the system, but I doubt it Carl. Then lowered his head.
I think there are just some places that are better off left
alone. Carl then left and my dad was
alone with his thoughts. Once more, he signed himself out
of the hospital later that day and 24 hours later.
He was on a plane back home. I remember this time.
Well, I was maybe 16 when my dad came back home in a wheelchair.
My mom was Furious and distraught at the sight of her
temporarily crippled husband. We were all concerned for our
father, but he calmed, our worries.
He told us, he was in a car accident and apologize for
worrying everyone. But he would make a full
recovery. He did just after a few months
of physical therapy. But clearly the mental wounds,
never really healed. I'm sorry.
I lied to you son, but I just didn't want to worry you.
I didn't even know how to explain it.
All your mother probably would have broken my arm's too.
If she knew what really happened.
He laughed as he said it, but I did not, I was still trying to
absorb the crazy story. He had just told me you really
went through all of that, didn't you?
I asked demanding confirmation one way or another.
He was well known for his wild stories after all, and part of
me expected him to admit. He was pulling my leg.
He just sighed, and looked me dead in the eye.
It's the truth son. And it's the reason why I left
the industry forever. The way I see it.
God gave me a second chance that day and showed me that there are
things in this world that we're not meant to find dark things
that we have. No power over.
I talked with For a while, after that after asking more questions
about the story, which I've pretty much described already.
I tried to get him to reveal where this story took place, but
he refused throughout every word.
He spoke. He maintained that the story was
the truth. I eventually asked him
permission to share the story with others and he agreed.
And so here I am sharing the story for all who read it.
My father would be pleased to know that another one of his
Tails has entertained people, even so long.
After he's gone. I wish everyone could have known
him like I did and seen the desperate fervor in his eyes.
As he told me this story regardless of whether you
believe this story or were just entertained by some words on a
screen for a couple minutes. I think we all can agree that
some things are just better off left buried.
There are things that we as a species are just not prepared to
encounter and God help us all if anyone ever digs them up again.
This is my first time really talking about this.
So please excuse any weird phrasing.
I've also changed my name and my associates names for privacy.
As I'm sure they wouldn't want to be connected to something
like this. I used to work in a coffee shop.
It was a rundown Place nestled on the line between Florida and
Alabama. It's situated, right?
Beside a highway and blocked off by linky Pines the owners.
I won't say their Due to privacy reasons, built it after they got
married, 15 years ago, but grew too old to take care of it.
They ended up giving it to their snobby.
Millennial son-in-law, who flunked out of business.
School, four years ago. He took all of the walls down
and got rid of the stain, brown carpet and yellow walls, made
all four walls completely glass and the floors white.
It looks good better than it used to be, but completely
wasted when you remember that. It's a crappy coffee place with
three employees in the middle of nowhere across from an Exxon gas
station. The manager, the snobby.
Son-in-law will call him. Robert rarely came around after.
He realized how slow business really wise.
It was kind of sad. Actually, he poured all this
effort into, it only to turn out, 25 or so, customers a day.
Now, Robert only comes in to deliver my check or a dozen
pastries to the Sheriff's Office, a few miles down the
way. If it sounds bad it's because it
is I work with two other people, but they can't afford to put us
all on one shift like they did before.
So now I work the night shift coming in around 3 p.m.
And leaving it around 9 p.m. Or so.
We closed for an hour in between each shift so we can Brew more
coffee and bake pastries. My coworker Molly would almost
always come in late for graveyard shift at basically 11
p.m. But it didn't matter.
Robert couldn't care less. As long as he didn't have to be
there. Molly was really sweet.
So today, I got in around 3:15 and entertained, a few guests
who came in for black coffee before a football game.
That brought in a bit of a rush since football was the only
notable thing this crummy town does on weekdays.
I had a few families come in for hot chocolate and warm vanilla
lattes. Those were fun to make since I
have all of the time in the world to practice.
Little art. I made a tiny lily pad and flour
on a little girls. Hot chocolate.
She didn't seem impressed, and I wish I drew a middle finger.
Instead The Rush ended at 7:30 with an older gentleman, with
tan skin who ordered hot water in a to-go cup.
Just the water. I always ask just in case, I
don't have to reopen the tab too many indecisive.
People who change their mind with their card in the slot
already. He looked at me for a moment and
nodded. Yeah, that's it.
For me. Do you need anything?
I stopped for a second to met his eyes.
They were dark and round big dark bags under his eyelashes.
He had wrinkles around his eyes and brows.
Heavy beard under his lips. I felt my face grow hot.
No sir. I'm good.
Thank you, though. I tried to avert my eyes to his
check which I then realized was free since he only ordered
water. You're all set, stay.
Warm out there. I smiled politely and turn back
towards my Barista bar cleaning off.
Meister spoon with a rag. After a few seconds of Silence.
I turned and he was still standing watching me.
Clean. Is there anything else?
I can get you? My stomach was turning.
I hate this being in the middle of nowhere by myself.
No, one around. If someone like this strolled
in, I glanced up at the Exxon across the road.
The lights were beginning to switch off with the Sun.
Set the clerk must be closing up.
I had a can of wasp Iran under the register, and I, I'd it
quickly, he shimmied from shoe to shoe big eyes.
Looking into my soul. What time do you get off
tonight? He talked.
Like, he knew me personally, like, we were supposed to catch
a movie afterwards. I flinched not wanting to tell
him the truth. I work a double tonight.
So I get off at two am late hours.
I nodded respectfully and tried to leave the situation.
Raishin by heading towards the back.
Why do you guys put all this glass in here?
He called me. After I entered the back
kitchen. I pulled my phone out and set it
to call 911. If need be I set my phone on the
counter and faced him finger, hovering over the green call
Button. You could never be too safe,
more natural light, thought it would bring more people in.
I said, he smiled a bit back at me looking around the empty
restaurant. Did it?
I laughed humorlessly. And shook my head.
He finally nodded and started toward the glass door in the
front. He took a glance up and down the
door, and then slit outside with a wave.
I breathed out the air that I had been holding in for his
stay. I cleared the numbers off my
phone and brought it over with me to the coffee bar.
Robert said, when I was hired, they have a zero-tolerance
policy on phone usage while on the clock, but Robert plays bit
life in the corner when it's slow.
So I stopped caring real fast. I scroll through Facebook,
aimlessly and ended up watching a few videos on YouTube.
The time ticked on, with no one passing through, I thought I saw
a car passing by, but it was the Exxon employee going home.
I waved widely. Good night knowing he would see
me through the glass. He offered a half wave back and
turned down the road into darkness, something stirred
behind him in the trees. My eyes darted up the pine tree
behind his car. Car and I noticed it swaying
slightly. Then it stopped.
I felt a cold chill race up my back.
When I say we're in the middle of nowhere.
It's not an exaggeration, the gas station and I were directly
across from each other. On the county, road on all sides
of us were thick Woods until about 10 miles.
When you finally hit a Dollar General, then another 15 or so
to the only School in the county.
I live about 40 minutes away. So the drive isn't too bad out
here. It's just so isolating,
especially when the gas station guy leads.
If there were Bears around here, they would probably be here for
sure. The only light in the woods for
miles would draw them in. With the promise of food.
There had been a few animal problems in the past few weeks.
The sheriff's office would come in after their shift talking
about Farmers having their chickens killed in the night.
There wasn't much they could do but show up to the farmers
houses after the Packed with guns drawn.
They hadn't caught anything yet, but the town's people talk all
the time about huge Footprints in their soil.
I hate the thought of a bear finding me out here.
Wasp spray probably wouldn't do too well, against one of those
beasts. I tried to push the thought, out
of my mind, I drew on a napkin and listen to Frank Ocean for
another hour. Finally 9 p.m.
Rolled around, I stood up and started cleaning off the
counters and tables cranking up the music louder.
It was finally time to close everything down.
I was jamming out. Scraping crumbs off the pillows
of the lounge seating. When my phone dings.
I slid over the coffee bar already knowing it would be
Molly explaining why she was running late.
This time. Probably her mom forgot to take
out the garbage or her boyfriend needed, a ride to Walmart.
I flipped my phone over and my stomach dropped.
The text was from Mali and stated.
Hey girl, I hate to do this, but my brother is sick and gave me
the stomach bug, so I can't come in tonight.
Can you cover my shift? I'll bring you food, next shift.
Dang it. I slammed my phone down and
closed, my eyes cover her shift an hour.
Before I'm supposed to get off. That means, I really won't get
off until 3. A.m.
I called Robert who didn't answer for the first five rings.
The conversation went as follows Robert.
This is Rob. Me.
Hey, Molly called out last minute and wants me to cover her
shift Robert. Okay me.
So, can you come in so that I can go home?
Robert, can't tonight. Have you tried, Scott me?
Heavy sighs. Yes.
I've called Scott and he's only available for mornings Robert.
Well, hey, extra hours, right? Good luck.
I fought every urge not to scream into the phone as
Disconnected. I decided to sit down and
re-evaluate every decision that led me here.
Yes. I do need more hours.
Hospital bills won't pay themselves, but I wish I didn't
live here. I spent the next few hours,
grinding, more coffee beans, and fantasizing about, having a cute
apartment in a busy City. Somewhere this and to vanilla
chai lattes accompanied, my time for the next few hours.
It was finally midnight, and I decided Robert wouldn't know if
I closed early. Even if he did, I didn't care.
Good luck jerk. I begin switching.
The lights off and packing away the stale.
Pastries, in the glass cabinet below, the coffee bar.
Finally. I headed toward the glass doors.
The locks were these long metal bars, that go into a hole in the
wood floors. Meaning the lock mechanism was
all the way at the bottom of the glass.
I slid. The glass door completely shut
and kneeled down. This one was such a pain, but
it's the only way to keep the glass door's locked without
Trashy Roberts says, like the blue neon coffee signed by the
highway wasn't already trashy. I sat up on my knees and fiddled
with the lock hovering over the lock a few times to line it up
properly. Finally, the lock fell into
place and slid in with a faint. Click.
I shimmied the door a bit to ensure it was locked properly,
satisfied and numb legged. I finally stood up.
I was met with the stare of something on the opposite side
of the glass, I yelped. Instinctively clapping my hand
over my mouth. It had two huge and vividly.
Orange irises that met mind instantly almost like it had
been staring already and then I came into view, its face was
pressed against the glass forcefully, pale skin flat
against it. I slowly realized it was an
animal, a deer. It was a do with huge orange
eyes, at least that's what my instincts told me since.
It looked more like a do than anything else.
I stared at it for a few moments more not knowing what to do.
At first. I thought it was not alive since
it was so still, but then I remembered it was still standing
and its body was moving fluidly with breaths in and out calmly.
I finally broke my stare and stepped backwards glancing at
its body. It was big for a do at least I
think so, I'm not too keen on animals like her, but it felt
way too big to be normal. Finally.
After Nature's longest staring contest.
I decided it probably wouldn't come up to a man-made structure
like this, unless it needed help animals have a strange way of
knowing when humans can help them or not.
And this one decided I could give it some help.
I turned back to my coffee bar, grabbing my phone to call the
sheriff's office. They have an animal control unit
that adored animals. They would be able to help it.
I thought I picked up the phone and dialed the number ring ring.
NG I was still watching the do. Who was watching me to face
still plastered uncomfortably against the glass?
Big eyes, not blinking. Thank you for calling county
sheriff's office. If this is an emergency, please
hang up and call 911. We are currently out of the
office or dealing with the previous issue.
Please leave a message and we'll get back to you shortly.
Thank you. I turned towards the kitchen
glancing at the wall clock. Since it's such a small town.
They Often stay open late at this hour.
I sighed and figured leaving a voicemail would help either way,
maybe someone would come in, after whatever accident was
holding them up and would come for help.
Hey guys, it's Jenny from the coffee shop down by the state
line. Um, I have something weird for
you guys. I'm looking for animal control
to come help me with something. A do came up to the shop.
And it looks like it's in trouble.
Its eyes are like super orange. I turned again toward the glass.
To check on the animal. Again.
It was sliding sideways shuffling its legs and keeping
its face pressed against the glass eyes.
Staying on me. It was shimmying sideways to the
right slowly. It caught me off guard and I
stopped talking what the its eyes are orange and it's acting
really, really weird and might be sick or something.
The do was catching speed legs, wobbly as it smeared spit across
the glass and slid. The entire other side of the
store. Never breaking eye contact at
this point. It's lips were pulling back on
the glass, revealing its mouth which were full of red teeth.
Perfectly Square teeth. They looked well, they looked
like human teeth. What the I took a breath
forgetting. I was leaving a message on the
phones of a very religious conservative police officers.
Sorry, something is wrong with it.
Like, I think I think it's really sick and you guys should
probably come see and check it out.
I don't want to mess with it. Just in case, please hurry.
I finally snapped out of it and hung up the phone.
I missed the counter with the phone since I was watching the
do and my phone fell in the floor with the crack.
The do stopped it froze, quite literally like a deer in the
headlights. It was halfway to the middle
door on the right hand of the store.
I watched her. As she watched me it felt like
Is that we stared at each other in Stillness and silence.
Then it began again, sliding itself across the glass but with
an unknown speed and purpose. I don't know why, but I grew
terrified of this do for some reason and wanted the doors to
be locked. I slid across the floor, on my
knees, shaking my hands, trying to lock the door into place
before it was there. She slid across the ground still
hovering a few feet above my crouched figure in height as I
tried to lock the door. Or I couldn't help but look at
it. Something felt so wrong.
It was moving so quickly and it's Lakes.
Couldn't keep up. Well, speaking of her legs.
They didn't quite look right. They were very long and the fur
around them had been. What seems like singed off
leaving dark red and brown skin. Underneath.
I was about to lock the door with her about six feet away
when I finally realized why it's Lakes.
Look so unusual instead of hooves in the dirt, this Oh, had
ankles joints, that connected. It's skinny legs to it's flat.
Pale feet feet. What the?
I finally yelled out. My skin going freezing.
My surprise was short-lived and I didn't have time to think the
door began opening. I clamped my fingers around the
lock. On the other side of the door,
forcing it closed. I looked above me where the do
had lodged its hand. Yes, hand into the crack between
the two doors. It's Aired at me, intently, not
moving. I didn't know what to do.
I used all of my strength to force the two panes of glass.
Shut over its fingers. I don't know how, but somehow I
had the power to force them out of the crack in the door and
slammed. It.
Shut. I slid, the lock in with tears
streaming down my face. I fell back watching it.
It looked unfazed as its fingers, dripped with wet
liquid. It just watched me unravel.
What are you? I couldn't help but Skin fear,
it didn't respond. Just sat in the dirt letting
it's damaged hands slide across the glass then it's mild.
It's human teeth visible beneath its lips.
I almost lost my latte over the floor.
I just mopped it started sliding again, but with a new intensity
towards the complete other side of glass to the other unlocked
door. Luckily.
I was faster and scrambled over locking it quickly before it
even reached the halfway mark. We sat on opposite sides of the
glass and watched each other intently.
I have no idea how I think it's because of all of my journal in
had been spent up crying, but somehow I ended up drifting off.
I only woke up when my head smacked, the side of the marble
coffee bar. That's when my eyes flew open
and the dough was not in front of me.
I flew to my feet. Adrenaline rushing to my head.
How am I? So stupid?
How did I fall asleep? Like that?
I scan the surrounding area. King like a leaf.
The only remnants of the do was the spit and red Trail across
the glass doors around me. I felt my heart start to slow
down. That's the worst thing to ever
happen to me. I took a deep breath and decided
morning shift could deal with cleaning the glass and my time
here was done. I waited about 15, more minutes
just scanning the night around me.
The trees and Highway were covered in neon blue light
Illuminating my lonely forward in the parking lot, but still no
sign of the do it was now or never.
In my mind. I started formulating a plan.
I would have my keys in between my fingers, Walmart parking lot
style and made a Mad Dash towards my car that I would lock
it immediately and drive like a bat out of hell until I reached
home. Yeah, good plan.
I never Park very far from the staff.
Entrance Outback probably only 100 feet or so away.
I sighed heavily and picked up my Phone.
The entire front was cracked all the way down blurring.
The LED lines into the jagged pink and blue lines.
I managed to activate Siri and dialed the sheriff's number
again, it rang and rang. I hung up.
I guess I'm on my own. I finally picked myself up
checking my surroundings one more time.
All clear. I took this as my sign and
started toward the staff door behind the kitchen.
I didn't hesitate and swung the door.
Ian keys, in hand, the air outside was freezing and
completely still. My car sat across the parking
lot, facing the trees, only a hundred more feet and I would be
safe and warm headed home to deal with whatever trauma.
I'll have after this. I was running when I saw it, the
tree right above my car was swinging, back and forth.
Heavily. The only thing moving in the
woods. No, no, no.
No, I stopped in my tracks. Realizing what was happening,
fine. The Familiar red fingers began
shimmying down the tree leading itself downwards toward the
ground. I saw the top of its head
illuminated with blue light. It looked like stitches trailing
all the way down its back, gross and draw.
It was moving at an incredible speed climbing.
Face-first down the tree. It took me a few seconds to
react and in that time it had landed on all fours on the
grass, right? Besides the driver side of my
car, it paused it. Orange eyes meeting mine.
Once again, except it didn't look like a do anymore, besides
the Pelt of speckled white and brown around its body.
It looked like a person or maybe something in between a doe and a
person. If that was a real thing, its
skin was half. Fur, half charred flesh.
Its teeth were bare now. No lips holding them back.
Just skin around. Its face like it had been cut
open. I couldn't help it and And it
came out of me before I even knew it was there.
And I started running back to the store.
I could hear. It's heavy footsteps behind me,
extremely fluid and only a few inches away from my steps.
I flung myself, inside holding the door handle closed.
It was obviously messing with the door on the other side.
Trying to hungrily. Open it, even though it was
struggling, it made no noise. No panting.
No grunting. It was soundless like a hunter.
It was hunting me. Then I heard it.
So clear. I could almost let go of the
handle entirely. Hey, Jenny.
Sorry. I'm late.
I had to stop and get gas. It's Molly Molly.
Right. Outside the door.
What is all? I could say tears on my
eyelashes again. Yeah, I'm sorry again.
I already talked to Robert. So you're good to leave
relieved, sweet relief that I wasn't alone.
Then Panic, Molly, you have to leave.
There's something outside. Can you let me in?
It's freezing out here. My body ran cold.
Yes, of course. I have to let her in.
I wanted to so badly. In that moment to open the door
and let Molly in on this nightmare.
My grip on the door loosened, then it hit me.
Molly, is sick. She wasn't coming in at all
tonight. Why is she suddenly here?
Can you let me in now, please? Her voice was strained and
wrong. It was pitched so much lower
than her normal bubbly voice. That wasn't Molly.
My grip was too loose with confusion.
The door was flung. Open.
I scrambled backwards on my back again.
I stood up on two legs and finally got a good image of it.
It was huge had to be six feet tall and skinny as the pine
trees behind it. It had something under its head.
Well, under its do head something that resembled the jaw
of a human except it was unhinged and swinging from side
to side with its motion. Red liquid.
Dripped onto the floor. Its body was wiry, and I could
see through its papery skin. And that's all I saw before.
My fear made me uncap the wasp spray behind me and shoot it
right in its direction. It stumbled backwards for a
second and I took my chance to get back off and run like no
one's business. Tipped over the coffee bar and
started unlocking the glass door.
It started sliding across the Slick door with its inhuman
speed, and the lock was not unlocking.
I screamed trembling so hard the lock slipped out of my fingers.
Somehow don't ask because I have no clue.
I managed to slip it upwards in the glass, slide to the side.
I got on my feet and yank the door shut behind me.
I didn't turn, but felt the glass shatter into pieces.
Only a few feet from my back shards of glass and bed.
Ed themselves into my back of my flannel.
As I propelled myself forward toward the Exxon station.
They have an outdoor bathroom that was always locked that I
used every now and again. And I've never wanted to be in
that tiny smelly, bathroom more in my entire life.
Before my feet, hit the asphalt on the road.
I felt it hands on my back on my caller.
Strong forceful hands on my shirt yanking me backwards.
No, I cried snatching. My arms forward desperately.
King my feet towards the highway.
I felt my limbs cry out in pain as its nails.
Dug into me. No, I thought it came from me.
Then I realized I hadn't spoke it wasn't me.
This thing has said it and it sounded just like me.
It was copying me. This is what broke me and I
finally launched myself over the threshold into the road.
I lost its grip and I twist it around to face, it crawling
backwards out of the road. My elbows hit the soft dirt and
I fell backwards pulling myself into a ball.
It geared up. Its body to LEAP.
I shut my eyes. Then.
It was gone, a huge wave of are zoomed between us followed by
squealing brakes. The do was launched yards and
yards away into the woods. I heard a sickening crack as its
back. Hit the bark of a pine tree.
I watched it stumble into the brush below.
How the truck missed me is completely Beyond me.
Did it hit a person was A person, the guy driving was
yelling. Eyes huge.
I wearily stood up grabbing the roll down window to look at my
savior. No, I shook my head and leaped
into the back of the truck. I asked the guy to drive me to
the Sheriff's Office, which he finally did after I convinced
him, that I was not going to turn him in for vehicular
manslaughter. He had been high as a kite
speeding up to 70 in a 35 road with his lights off.
That's why I And see him until he hit the do.
I really didn't turn him in. Not that he gave me the chance.
I got out of the back of his truck and he sped off turning
the lights on and getting the hell out.
Luckily, two of the officers were there awake and
overwhelmingly worried. When I showed up they went over
with their full unit and animal control, but I did not go with
them. Apparently, they followed the
red trails from the shop into the woods and it stopped
completely out of nowhere, right?
At the woods line, they saw were, my shirt had ripped by the
highway and collected it for me. They ran samples on the DNA
found. It didn't match.
Anyone. They had to close down the
coffee shop. Since I told Molly, what
happened and we both quit Scott and Robert were the only ones
working, but it didn't take long for the horror story to reach
Scott. Who then quit mid shift.
The town talked for sure. People came to my house asking
about it. The police chalked it up to
being a bear or a wolf or some large animal that had rabies and
was chasing me around. This was the story.
They went with writing it in the papers telling my family.
I told my family, what I saw and they decided I was too terrified
and traumatized to be seeing things correctly, though.
There was a glint in the sheriff's.
I when I told him what it looked like something inside of him
believed me, I moved to Seattle a week later.
Taking Loan and renting a studio, right?
In the Heart of the City surrounded by people.
I didn't work anything but day, shifts anymore.
And I haven't had a chai latte since I keep the red stain scrap
of my flannel in my wallet, as a constant reminder that somehow,
I'm alive. I've told no one except my
girlfriend who moved in with me. And now you guys, we keep the
lights on in the apartment constantly, even when we sleep
and I even passed a bottle of wasp spray without having a
panic attack since truly. I don't know what happened, or
what that do really was. I don't understand anything that
happened, except that. Now, I have crippling anxiety
when night time rolls around and that, I nearly scare myself.
Every time I see a deer of any sort, my girlfriend found a
therapist for me, and I go every now and then, but I don't really
talk about what happened, just how alone I feel.
And it happened that no one can relate to me and no one else
would ever believe me. Every now and then I get a call
from the sheriff. Who is genuinely concerned with
my well-being, after seeing me and that state that night, the
most recent time. He called I didn't pick up, as I
finally fell asleep that night, which was incredibly rare for me
to fall asleep without sleeping pills.
I woke up the next morning and groggily checked my phone.
He called once he left. Left a message though.
Hey, Jenny, it's me. Again.
Just wanted to check up on you. I haven't seen you in a while.
I didn't realize you left so quickly.
I didn't have time to say goodbye.
You should come visit again. Soon.
We miss you here. Take care.
I listen to it. Probably 12 times.
I played it for my girlfriend and we both listen to it for a
few more times, after comparing it to the other messages.
He had left, but she confirmed exactly.
Thought to something was off about this one.
It was lower-pitched and strained, not quite his voice.
It was Midsummer when I got the message from my friend Sam.
I was lying in the January son, in my back garden with my dog
Brutus at my side, when I decided to open up, Instagram
and saw I had a message it red. Hey, Cassie, Kyle, Olive Thea,
and I are getting together to go camping in a week.
And I was really hoping you could come I sat straight up
causing a sigh from Brutus, who had been leaning his head.
My shoulder, I wrote back. Yeah, of course.
Can I bring Brutus immediately? My phone pinged with their
response. Good idea.
Scare away the Cryptids. You're always talking about lol.
They were right. I was obsessed with the
Paranormal, especially Cryptids. So come Monday when it was time
to leave. I was sure to bring my notebook
Polaroid camera and of course. Course my knife, although
realistically. The last one was mostly for self
defense against any weirdos. We meet out there.
My family always says I'm paranoid, but it's better safe
than sorry, you know, we decided to take my off-roader so we
could head deeper into the woods without having to carry our
stuff. So after checking, my backpack
in the trunk, I drove toward my closest friend Kyle's house.
When I stopped outside his house.
He was already waiting in the driveway.
He jumped into the middle set of seats wanting to sit next to
Brutus. The huge black dog was Etched
across the back seat sluggish from the heat, but he offered
Kyle. A Tail Wag of acknowledgement as
my friend began to pet him. Hey, dude.
I said greeting, my friend. Hey, he responded.
There was a pause before he leaned forward.
So olives coming on the trip, huh?
Shut up. I said, it's not like I have a
chance with her. Anyways, he leaned back smiling
just Be yourself. You'll be fine.
You should really just ask her, I hit the play button on my
phone, Spotify, playlist, and turn it up way too loud to drown
him out. We proceeded to pick up Olive
from her house a quaint Cottage nearby.
And then Sam and Thea from their apartment in the city.
By the time we reach the highway, it was nearing 5 p.m.
I turn down the music and we were sitting and talking to pass
the time after an hour or so. Turned off onto a smaller Road
and started heading for the campsite.
Hey, Cassie, how long until we get there?
Kyle asked, who was still patting Brutus.
I Shrugged not taking my eyes off the road.
Sounds like a question for the Navigator was my response.
He turned to Olive who was in the seat next to me with her
phone linked up to. The GPS should be about a half
an hour until we reach the brush, then another hour or so.
Down the track to the campsite. He slumped back with a resigned
sigh, his arms crossed over his stomach.
Can we stop for a break soon? We stopped just before we got
onto the highway, you'll live, he returned to patting Brutus
after a moment Sam spoke up. Cassie.
Why don't you tell what you'll think we'll see tonight?
The others perked up watching me.
Well, wake has a type of bird. Are pretty common in this area.
The occasional deer possibly, if we're lucky, we'll hear the
birds calling this far out. We might even see one if we're
quiet. That would be excellent.
But I'm more meant the creepy stuff, you know, your area.
It was my turn to perk up. Although I'm far from an expert
on Cryptids or the Paranormal. I know my fair share of
information certainly more than the others.
It's highly unlikely. We'll see anything unnatural.
You know, I never see anything at this campsite and even if
there were it's a million-to-one we'd run into it.
We're more likely to run into a druggie.
Speaking of which do we all have our phones and we remember the
buddy system. Okay, Mom replied Kyle rolling
his eyes. I just want to keep everyone
safe. I responded evenly suppressing a
smile. There was another pause until
Thea leaned forward to continue the questions.
Seriously, though, even if it's unlikely, we'd see anything.
What do you think's out there? I decided I'd refrain from
scaring my friends for long enough while it's the woods.
So you never know. My best guess could be some kind
of crawler, a stickman or something like that.
Of course. Normally my first thought would
be a skinwalker or when to go but I believe those are Only in
America, some kind of dog man might be possible actually D, or
perhaps, hold up back up. The bus said Kyle, you're acting
like I know all of these words. Yeah, said Sam.
What on Earth is a Dior. I settled back in my chair,
easing up on the accelerator, as I turned down a dirt road
heading towards the approaching Tree Line.
Well, it's basically a deer but something's not right, you know.
Too many joints in the legs or even the legs bent, totally
backwards. Sharp teeth with a mouth that
hangs open like a dog's. I've even heard of some that can
bend their necks with a joint Kyle shivered.
I think the creepiest thing about them though, is their eyes
set forward on their face instead of on the side.
Like a deer's should be like a predator said, Olive exactly.
I replied pleased. Most Reports.
Say they're pretty harmless though.
Just because they say, they could rip you into pieces might
not mean they want to like, Brutus.
I suppose. I reach into the back seat and
pet Brutus who responded by licking my hand, regardless best
to keep a distance. As soon as I finished.
Thea had a question. You mentioned crawlers, flush
Gates. What are those?
The sunlight was slowly starting to to fade.
So I flipped on the headlights before answering humanoids.
You know, crawlers is a pretty broad term, pretty much covers
anything. That's more or less human shaped
but not quite Too Tall. Too thin often less facial
features than you'd expect flush.
Gates are shapeshifters. Think, Skinwalker, but without
the ties to Native American culture and those things are
real and they're out there said Kyle.
Turn on his face as he leaned a little closer to Brutus.
I Shrugged, I reckon all of those sightings can't come from
nowhere as for, in this place, specifically, no idea, but don't
worry about it too much. As I said, it's highly unlikely.
We'll see one Kyle. Nodded still looking a bit
worried. All of spoke from next to me
placing her hand briefly on my shoulder as she did.
My heart skipped, a beat as she did, and I had To force my eyes
on the road. So I didn't go red.
I barely heard her question over my own minor panic, but after a
second I registered her words. Is there anything paranormal
that actually scares you? I took a deep breath before
responding remembering what Kyle said.
Just be yourself. Well, obviously, I'd be
terrified if I ever actually came across one of these freaky
things, but, in terms of just chatting, not really It was
pretty quiet after that soon enough.
I reach the woods and we started down the old trail.
My car's Wheels easily carrying us over the Rocks.
Roots. And even the occasional stream,
not long. After the sun had fully set.
Kyle sat straight up. Do you hear that?
I slammed on the brakes and looked out the window.
I'd where he was pointing. Sure enough.
The bushes were wrestling. We stayed quiet all of leaning
over to me. Out my window, her closeness
pulled me out of my focus for a moment before I return my eyes
on the wrestling which was quickly.
Coming closer, the tension in the car was palpable and I could
see Kyle looking scared in my peripheral.
Maybe I shouldn't have taught them about Cryptids after all,
but before, I could Ponder much longer a deer sprung from the
bushes and leaped in front of the car across from us as it
passed. I noticed one of its antlers
seem to have been snapped clean off.
Weird everyone jump backwards and shocked at the sudden
appearance of the deer. But once we all saw what it was
we all started laughing. Wow, Kyle, that was scary, a
deer. Whoo, Sam continue to make ghost
noises and Thea and I joined in Kyle, rolled his eyes, whatever
guys, you were just as scared. As I was.
It could have been a monster. Nope, all its eyes and legs were
in the right places. Set the, the only Cryptid around
here is Sam, and I think they're with us.
I laughed and started up the car, continuing on Motion in the
rearview mirror, caught my attention, and as the others
laughed, I watch something. Leap across the road, something
about the way it moved made me nervous, but when I tried to
look closer, it was gone. I shook it off as a trick of my
mind, which makes me sound like just another stupid horror.
Ori protagonist. I know.
But to be fair, it's not uncommon for my mind to play
tricks on me. Something to do with my anxiety.
I've been told I easily put it out of my mind as I had trained
myself to do so and kept driving chatting with my friends, until
we reach to the campsite. I pulled the tent out of the
trunk and marked where we were going to set it up.
You for should set up the tent. Why don't you have to help asked
Kyle? I just Just drove four hours
Kyle. I think I can allocate the
chores. I'm useless at setting that
thing up. Anyway, I turned to head into
the tree line at the edge of the clearing but was stopped again.
Where are you going asked? Sam there look followed my path.
I'll go get some wood and start up a fire.
I set off into the trees flicking on my flashlight.
As I did. I started picking up, sticks
carefully, inspecting each one for any small animals.
I Want to accidentally set Ablaze as I turned one, over a
small vagrant. Spider crawled out onto my hand.
I smiled Crouch down and gently deposited him on the soft
ground. There You Go, sir.
When I stood up, I noticed something strange.
The night sounded quieter somehow, the cicadas still
chirped, but something seemed almost mechanical about their
sounds. I listen for the nighttime birds
or Possums. But nothing reached my ears.
Weird. I murmured to myself.
I hastily inspected. A few more sticks and carried my
bundle back to the campsite. By the time I returned, the
sound had returned to normal The Familiar call of the nearby
Birds. Reassured, me, and I dumped the
sticks in the center of the clearing between the four of
them. My friends had managed to
wrestle. My family's giant tent into
shape. Brutus was already snoring
inside. Seemingly exhausted despite
having done nothing all day. I pulled a matchbox from my
backpack. Lit it and started the fire.
You guys start bringing over some logs for us to sit on.
I instructed my friends as I gently encourage the fire to
grow, once it had grown to an acceptable size.
I stood up walked over to the car.
I grab brutus's bed and a bag of marshmallows from the back and
dropped it next to the logs calling him to join us.
He stiffly roses pause and Lombard over to it, accepting a
pat on the head before flopping down on his bed with an audible
flumph. I sat down on the logs end.
Spearing a marshmallow before, chucking the back to Thea, who
had sat next to me. We sat for a while laughing and
chatting eventually. I reached down to check the time
before remembering that I thought I'd left my phone in the
tent. Hey, does anyone have the time?
I asked Kyle put his hands in his pocket before.
Freezing and slowly turning to me with a sheepish.
Look Cassie. What have you done?
Normally he'd rolled his eyes at my instant assumption.
But this time he just continue talking slowly.
As if trying, not to get in trouble.
I think I left my phone, when we stopped to use the bathroom.
We had to stop for a bathroom break.
After the dear encounter about 10 minutes before we arrive to
the campsite because Brutus started whining and I didn't
want to risk him. His business on The Siege will
get it first thing tomorrow. I said, shaking my head in mild
annoyance, but Cassie in my train and you know, I don't have
the money to replace the thing. Can't you just go back and have
a quick check fine. But if I get there and I don't
see it. I'm coming straight back.
I briefly consider taking Brutus, but I knew he'd be
reluctant to leave the warmth of the fire to follow me down a
less than well-maintained path. Just as I Stood up Kyle motion
for me to stop. You can't go alone.
It's not safe. Maybe all of could go with you
jerk. I thought to myself even deep in
the forest in the middle of the night.
He still has to try to set me up.
If anyone should go. It's you you're the one who
dropped the thing. He shook his head quickly.
Nah, I've got little legs. Remember, I'll slow you down,
especially this late at night. You know, I'm right.
I'm glad you're finally admitting it.
I said with another sigh Olive. Do you mind?
She smiled and stood. Up course not.
Maybe we'll even see a bird. Like you said, maybe I replied
with a grin. Then you'll wish you had gone.
I said to Kyle, as we walked out of the clearing.
He ignored me as we walk down the track.
I kept my guard up constantly scanning the trees on each side
for a sign of any unsaved. Every people hiding in the night
was I worried about confrontation.
Not really, not only am I around six foot three.
I'm pretty heavy built especially for a 17 year old and
if I had to punch someone then let's just say it wouldn't be my
first rodeo nonetheless. I didn't want them getting the
element of surprise. Maybe I'm a little paranoid
after all the track was muddy and uneven and I had to slow my
Pace a little. So Olive could negotiate.
She ate through the dips and puddles.
As we chatted. I found myself starting to relax
a little. I still kept my eyes and ears
open but something about her smile and infectious laugh made
me feel a little less nervous in the darkness.
A few minutes before we reach the spot.
We came across two small stream about a meter wide, not wanting
to get my shoes wet. I leaned over and turned around
to her. Olive was about to jump.
I held my hand out to her and she took it without having
hesitation. I helped her cross the Gap and
she smiled that gorgeous smile. Thanks Cassie.
She said my heart leaped as she did and I smiled back.
No problem, ma'am. I responded jokingly adding a
little bow. She laughed and continued down
the track knowing I'd catch up in a second.
Once we arrived. I started to look around for
Kyle's lost phone. I cast my flashlight beam around
hoping to catch a reflection. Section of either the phone
screen or the obnoxious pink case.
He kept it in all of was looking around on the other side of the
road her own beam bouncing around my peripheral when it
stopped sharply. I turned around found it.
I asked following the beam of her torch into the trees.
She slowly shook her head. No, I I thought I saw something
in the trees. I raised my flashlight scanning
the forest. No sign of movement.
Aunt, let's go back. I said starting to head back up
The Path, I don't think the phones here.
Anyways, she didn't argue just nodded and followed my lead
sensing her uneasiness. I gave her a reassuring smile,
and flipped my torch in the are catching it holding it like a
weapon. Don't worry.
I'll protect you from anyone out here.
She giggled or anything I nodded with a chuckle but as soon as I
had, I felt a cold chill. She had brought my mind back to
Cryptids and I noticed for the first time that the forest was
silent. The birds hadn't made a noise
since we had left. The campsite.
I couldn't hear rustling of the small animals in the brush.
And the only thing, my ears could pick up on was the same
mechanical cicada chirps from before the more.
I listened the more unnaturally sounded as if someone was
playing a recording on Loop. I picked up my Pace a little.
Assuring Olive forward, she looked at me and confusion as if
to ask, why bit cold. I said, as quietly as I could,
without alarming her, we rounded a corner before all of suddenly
stopped us in our tracks. She inhaled a sharp breath of
air as if she'd seen something shocking.
I sense of dread washed over me as I followed her look to the
damage body, that blocked, the path.
Is that a deer? She asked eyes wide with.
Disgust and fear. I grimaced, looking at over.
I think it used to be. I replied grimly.
It was torn almost beyond recognition broken and stuff
judging from its back. I felt sick to my stomach.
Unable to tear my look from its eyes.
The broken antler on its head confirmed.
What I had feared. This was the same deal as
before. I had seen something chasing it
in my rearview mirror, whatever this thing was it had been
stolen. Talking us.
Since we had entered the woods waiting for someone to leave the
safety in light of the campsite. I cursed under my breath, and
realized we might be in serious trouble.
Just as I thought, I couldn't get any more scared.
I Heard a Voice from behind me. There you go, sir.
The Voice coming from a few meters behind us.
Was my own distorted and strained?
But unrecognizably mine. I felt the color drained from my
face as it repeated, what I had said.
That little spider only hours before I felt Olive start to
turn beside me, but I grabbed her arm to stop her.
Don't look at it. Don't respond to it.
Don't even acknowledge it. Look down.
If you can just follow my lead. Okay, I whispered waiting for
her, not of agreement before taking a slow step forward.
As I slowly stepped over the deer, my shoes instantly became
splashed with its Crimson fluids.
Grabbed my hand and I squeezed it reassuringly careful not to
look at the path behind us as I did.
She stepped over the deer her breath shaking and we slowly
continued up The Path. Every step we took we heard the
crunching of leaves behind us my heart raced and my mind reeled
with pure Terror. As I forced myself not to Sprint
into the trees. I knew full well that whatever
this thing was we couldn't outrun it after a couple of
minutes, it. Spoke again.
Thank you Cassie. I winced as it said my name, the
voice. I loved.
Now, striking Terror into my heart.
I heard all of whimper a little as she heard her own voice
coming from this thing. I squeezed her hand again,
making sure she knew I was right there.
We walked intense silence other than the occasional word from
the creature. When we were only a couple of
minutes from the camp disaster. Struck.
I tripped over a root landing hard on the ground and wincing.
As I felt a rock get my skin. The sudden movement seemed to
excite the creature as I suddenly heard it.
Pick up, its Pace considerably, I leaped back to my feet.
And once again, grabbed all of his arm before sprinting, down
the path, run I yelled, but she was already caught up to me, my
breath was quick and heavy with fear, my Lake screaming in pain
as I was forced to Bear it with my weight run run run.
It repeated my yells over and over as if taunting us it
probably was I felt Panic rise. As I heard the calls coming
closer, even if we're nearly at the campsite.
We'll never beat it. I veered off the path, pulling
all of with me. We duck down behind a bush.
A few feet from the path trying to quiet our heavy breathing.
I heard it's skid to a stop, a few feet ahead and turn around
sniffing to try to catch our scent.
I silently pray to And all God's, I could think of that.
It didn't find us to my horror. The disgusting.
Sniffing grew closer until it finally stopped inches from our
hiding spot found it. The invitation was just the same
as what I'd asked. All of his, she had found the
phone, but I knew that the connotations had changed.
It was telling us, it had found us for a few moments.
There was a complete silence in the forest, aside from my heart
hammering in my chest and olives, muffled sobs, as she
buried her face into my shoulder.
There was nothing. No indication.
It had moved closer or any further away.
It didn't even bother to fill the Silence with the fake.
Cicadas sounds. It had tried to trick us with
earlier. Suddenly.
It leapt over the bush, where we hid and stood before us, as much
as I didn't want to, we finally saw it in all of its repulsive.
Glory, its arms and legs were ridiculously long and thin its
legs bent. Backwards at the knees.
Like it was some kind of insect even on all fours.
It was a solid five feet tall. I saw Its Ribs slide under its
skin as it took a breath. It's bulbous veins bulging With
Every Beat of it's unnatural heart.
It tilted its head to the side, bones cracking under the skin as
its neck. Bent like the joints of a
finger, the severed antler of the deer hung from its jaws
caught between two of its needle-like teeth.
Teeth seem to sprout a Random from its gums creating a jagged
Minefield of spikes. And stumps what I initially
thought was just ingrown teeth in chunks of Flesh.
Quickly made me sick to my stomach as I realized.
They were, in fact, human teeth amongst the fangs, its tongue
hung from its mouth, slick and unnatural.
I avoided eye contact for as long as I could but eventually
it grabbed my gaze like a fisherman hooking in his catch.
Its eyes were completely So out of place on its pale
expressionless face that they were scarier than any of the
blackened holes you hear about, could ever be in that moment.
I knew it was the end. I wrapped my arms around Olive
for a moment before moving to a stand, she tried to pull me
back, but I was Stronger, forcing my shaking legs to hold
me up. Right?
As a tear rolled down my cheek. I pulled my knife from my belt
and held it just out of you at my side.
Run I said quietly to Olive. She hesitated not wanting to
leave me but after a moment she did as instructed the creature
jolted to the side as if to go after her, but I held its look
and it slowly return to how it was standing before.
A crept towards me sniffling at me through the holes.
In its face. I assumed was its nostrils, the
deer antler dislodged from its teeth and landed on the ground
with a sickening thud. The Unholy amalgamation of human
and animal. Can you just sneak towards me?
And the moment it was Within Reach?
I stuck my knife into its pale moldy skin.
It shrieked in pain. It's horrific Screech making my
ears ring it flung me into a nearby tree knocking the wind
out of me. It's scuttled towards me and I
close my eyes and preparation for the worst.
Just as I felt its breath on me. I heard a loud barking from a
few feet behind the creature. It spun around and as it did in.
L've just enough to let me see what was happening.
Brutus. My gentle giant, who had never
so much as growled at a passing cat was snarling, and snapping
its teeth. Like some kind of mad dog.
Before, I'd fully registered what was happening.
There was a disgusting squelch in the creature.
Once again. Shrieked in agony, the antler
from before protruded from its left eye black liquid sprayed
from the wound as Olive stood over its body.
Good thinking I said before leaping.
Over it and making a beeline for the campsite.
When we got back, the others had already packed everything into
their car and we're waiting for us Thea who was in the driver's
seat. Honk, the horn and recognition
and Kyle flung, the door open and leptin to the back row, all
live Brutus. And I piled into the middle
seat, slamming the door, and all of yelled at Thea to step on it.
The car roared into motion as we race down the trail as fast as
we could go without running the risk of crashing with.
No warning. A figure sprung from the bushes
and landed on the hood of the car, with a thunk, as it dented,
the metal Thea, screamed and swerve.
The car side to side trying to dislodge the thing, it dug its
long claw-like fingers into the hood and shrieked, raising one
more hand and scratching the windshield Thea floored the gas
and the sudden boost of speed sent it flying into the glass,
cracking it as it did, and then it fell under the wheels of the
car. We mowed it down.
Didn't stop desperate to get out of there as fast as we could.
I look back in the rearview mirror and watched as it popped
its slime back into place and scurried into the bushes.
Disturbing as it was, I didn't care.
I was safe soon enough. We were free from the forest and
heading back down the dirt road. As soon as we return to the
highway Thea changed her route and within the hour, we had
arrived to the nearest hospital, all Louvre and the other is
weighted with me as the doctor. Doctors disinfected, the wound
and stitched me up. Despite us being shaken up, to
are very cores. We chatted and even cracked a
few jokes about the thing. Because hey, what else can you
do? My parents arrived a couple
hours later armed with snacks and a few blankets for my
friends and I if it weren't for the traumatic event only a few
hours before and the fact I was lying in the hospital bed
suffering from blood loss. It probably would have been
nice. That was A few weeks ago.
Now in case you're wondering yeah me and Olive got together.
I wish it hadn't taken a horrific Cryptid to get us
there. But hey that's life.
The car was a pain to get fixed. But other than that, I'm doing.
Okay. Judging by the group therapy
sessions. I think we all are one thing's
for sure though. I'm never going into those woods
again. I had heard of skinwalkers
before, but always just assumed they were Native American
versions of werewolves. So I never gave them much
thought until last week, when one of my co-workers at my new
job told me that they were the most feared folklore creature.
He's originally from Utah. So that makes sense.
He suggested some YouTube videos to watch on the subject and
after work that night, I binged about four or five of the videos
I told. The understand his stance on
them. Now.
I live in rural South Carolina. So completely honest, I wasn't
too worried about the possibility of running into one.
My coworker told me that they're basically a Midwestern thing.
I'd be more worried about wendigos.
If I were you, he joked to the day after.
I watched the videos. We had a good chat about
skinwalkers and wendigos during our shift, and just reveled in
the creepiness of them. I mentioned how one of the tail
Al's said that the more you talk about the skinwalkers, the more
they're drawn to you. And he made a sarcastic ghost
noise to keep the mood light that night.
I showed the videos to my fiance.
She was way more creeped out than I was.
I became kind of obsessed. I love scary things and couldn't
help. Watch every video.
I came across, I discussed skinwalkers with my other horror
Enthusiast friends looked up, Skinwalker, art red true.
Skinwalker stories on. Reddit just dove headfirst into
all things Skinwalker. This went on for a few days
until I started feeling a bit burned out on the subject.
I live in a fairly nice neighborhood where all of the
houses are on one side of the street, on the other side, is
the property that used to belong to the Local Elementary School.
The building is on the next street over.
So basically, it was like the school's backyard or whatever
the school shut down about 30 or 40 years ago and the T, just let
nature reclaim it so directly across from my house as an old
chain link fence and just overgrown, Woods about two
nights ago. While I was outside.
I heard leaves rustling across the street.
I didn't bother looking up from my phone.
I live across from Woods. It was probably a deer, the
rustling stopped. Then it started again and it
sounded like, whatever was out, there was running back and forth
along the fence line. And like a dog, this caught my
attention. There had been a few rabies
cases in the town, two months back.
So a strange dog running around in the middle of the night was
definitely something I'd want to keep an eye on.
I look up from my phone in the direction of the sounds and they
just stop. It was like they knew I noticed
it I strain my eyes to see what it was, but it was obscured by
the overgrowth. I didn't look away.
Must have stared at that spot for at least a minute.
I didn't make another sound, didn't move again.
So I knew it was still there. A chill, ran down my spine, and
I began to think of every Skinwalker video.
I had watched over the last week and I felt sick to my stomach.
I quickly went inside the next morning.
I took my dog out for a short walk.
She's a pug Zoo named honey, and is like my child, my fiance and
I taught her. That peepee.
Poo-poo means time to go outside to go potty.
It's the cutest thing. Anyway, this particular morning.
I had to take her outside to the front yard to do her business.
She does her business and then walks around sniffing for about
5 minutes before walking to the side of the street and sitting
down. She's never done this before.
So I was a little annoyed. I tugged on her leash lightly,
and tried to coax her back inside the house.
Come on, honey. Got to go poo.
Poo. She didn't budge.
This dog. Could be stubborn, sometimes.
Times. But this was something else, she
tugged back against the leash and just stared across the
street sniffing. The air occasionally, it was
then I realized she was staring at the exact spot that I heard
the thing the night before I got Goose Bumps and I quickly picked
her up and began walking back to the house as I got closer.
I noticed something on the ground, on my front steps.
It was one of the Halloween decorations, my fiance had hung
up on our house. Stick black roses with plastic
eyeballs and spiders on them. The stems were wire, so they can
be wrapped around things to keep them.
Secured. This flower was torn apart.
Something had, come on, my porch, taken down the flower,
and torn it apart, leaving it laying on my front steps.
I picked up the flower and threw it away.
I didn't tell my fiance, I didn't want to freak her out.
The rest of the day, went by uneventfully that night, I told
My coworker about what happened and he looked a little concerned
but brushed it off. He said, what I heard was most
likely just a dog, and the flower was probably knocked down
by the wind. I had my doubts, as I was
walking to my door after getting home from work last night.
I heard the same panting as the night before and the clicking of
claws. Against asphalt.
I turned quickly to see a dog that looked like a brown mangy
bull terrier hauling down my street.
The street is probably 40 feet away from my porch.
So I couldn't get a great look at it, but I could tell it was
only running on three legs because one looked mangled, it
turned quickly and darted into the tree line, across the
street, through a part of the fence that had been pulled back.
The fence wasn't like that earlier in the day.
That's when I noticed the dog didn't have a tail.
I almost threw up, Skinwalker. Legends, say that when they take
the form of an animal, they never have Tails, I tried to
rationalize it to myself. Maybe it just had a stub tail,
and I missed it because I was running.
I immediately went inside, my fiance was sitting on the porch
petting. Honey.
She could see. I was upset and asked me what
was wrong. I told her nothing.
Just almost got clipped by a car before I pulled into the
driveway. She got up hugged, me and curse
that person that almost hit me. She asked me if I could take
honey out because she had been Get out by all the spooky
videos. We've been watching and didn't
feel comfortable going outside at night by herself.
Honey, perked up. She ran to the door and looked
between me and the door whining excitedly.
I stared down at her for a moment before agreeing to it.
I'll just keep her close to the porch.
I thought we walked off the porch and she immediately tried
to walk to the street. I tugged on the leash and she
tugged back eventually, moseyed her way to the edge of the porch
ended. Business after she began walking
around. Sniffing.
I told her the usual line. Come on, honey.
Got to go poo. Poo.
She hustled at me, stiffed around some more and eventually
started. I was on edge the entire time we
were outside, but being around her helped, calm me down a
little. I then heard it from across the
street. Come on, honey.
My voice in the exact same tone and inflection, as I had just
said it, it sounded. Sounded staticky like an old
radio broadcast, but it was definitely my voice honey.
Stop what she was doing and stood alert.
She looked over at me with a confused.
Look come on, honey. Again.
My voice filled across the street honey.
Began whining looking from me to the woods across the street.
I picked her up and begin walking back up the steps.
Not taking my eyes off the part of the fence that had once been
pulled back, honey. Come the voice sounded firm.
Now, like it was getting aggravated honey.
Squirmed in my arms, whining. I didn't know if she was trying
to get out to go, run to the voice or to run inside.
But I wasn't taking any chances. I turned and bolted up the steps
into the door. As I walked inside.
I turned one last time to look across the street.
They're standing in the part of the fence that was pulled back
was the dog. Its eyes were glowing a dull
Orange. And it had its teeth bared.
The fence was all wrong. Like someone had taken a
distortion tool and just dragged it around random features.
Once again, I didn't tell my fiance stupid horror movie
cliche crab. I know, but I really don't want
her losing her mind. I just told her there's a
strange dog running around in the neighborhood.
So to not take honey out at night later, that night, after
we had gone to bed. I woke up again with the sounds
of footsteps, pacing back and forth.
Outside my window against my better judgment.
I rolled over to try to see it. I don't, but the pacing stops.
Come on, honey. My voice called out cutting
through the quiet of the night. I prayed my fiance didn't hear
it called out two more times. Before I heard it walking away.
I didn't sleep a wink, the rest of the night.
Today, when I get to work. I'm going to ask my coworker
what I can do. Do to get rid of this thing.
I'm scared. I don't think there's a way if
anyone knows anything, please let me know.
I don't usually write things like this, but I find it
necessary. You see a few nights ago, my
friends. And I went hiking deep in the
woods. We live in a small town.
In Norway. The summers are short there.
So we try to profit as much as we can from them.
In our town. There is an old legend that if
you go too deep in the woods, you might find the monster of
many skins growing up our parents.
Choose it as a way to scare us from going too far into the
woods. The legend says that the monster
of many skins, eats the people who go too far into the woods as
we got older though. We started to realize it was
just a fable. We grew out of it, like most
kids do monsters don't exist. Do they?
My small group of friends never stopped believing in that
though, instead of staying out of the forest.
We wanted to go deeper and eventually find that monster.
That's why we held parties in the woods to test our luck that
particular day. We heard that some kids in our
school had found the Beast. By, we're lucky enough to get
away. I was always the skeptical one,
so I didn't quite believe their story, but my friends wanted to
know the truth. That night, we traveled deep
into the woods. We packed a case of drinks and a
notepad to log our encounter and headed off leaving at sundown.
We trekked into the woods. We were quite deep in the woods.
When we found a small rundown, hunting, cabin, and broke the
door open Moss was littering the outside and I can say more than
a few animals had made their home inside.
We open the door and intense Rush of dust.
Hit our face and made us wheeze. Even after we had left
everything inside had been turned around and pushed to all
corners of the room. The cabin itself was around 10
feet by 12 feet and covered in a thick layer of dust.
The roof of the cabin was caving in.
In the corner of the room, was a journal on a small round table.
The cover was made of a thick leather and it was bound with
string. The paper inside of it was thick
and darkened with age. We gathered around the journal
and opened it. Reading it.
It seemed like a normal diary written by an old Huntsman from
the late 1700s. Most of the pages contained, a
log of what he had caught and where he had been there was
nothing specifically unusual about it except for where it was
placed. As I said before, the rest of
the rooms Furniture was pushed to the corners of the room, but
the book was placed in the top of a small table in the middle
of the cabin to me. It looked almost antler-like.
Like nothing was out of the ordinary aside from the few last
pages. We presumed either the hunter
had died or had completely forgotten about the journal as
if he had left in a rush. I will write for you the last
few pages of the journal December 28th 1792 today.
I caught but one hair although it's the midst of winter and
there is not much Wildlife around.
I find it rather weird that there is not more animals out.
It is abnormally cold out and I sense a big storm coming.
The sun has just set but is Not Dark Yet.
I set up camp in a small overgrown area, where the cedar
leaves create a little shelter. I am quite afraid.
It will grow too cold for me to stay here.
My beard is covered in Frost and my face is going numb.
I have started a fire to keep warm.
I've been sitting around this fire for a while now and it's
starting to get dark. The storm is coming.
Ying. I feel the wind picking up the
snow is light for now, but at this rate the storm will get
worse quickly. It's starting to feel like
daggers against my Exposed Skin. I have decided to scout the area
for better shelter. I heard of an old hunting Shack.
Not too far from here. I will grab my things and head
out. Huzzah.
I had made it to the small Log Cabin.
The visibility was very low. And by the time I got to the
shack, the Bit of day had Crypt below the Horizon leaving me in
the dark and cold of the foreign Forest that's wrong.
It's not foreign. I have passed through here
numerous times and it never actually stopped and camped out
here because I've never caught anything except for a few small
rodents in this region. It's just here, it's hard to
explain. The aura is different, the snow
had already piled high against the cabin.
Making me have to dig too. Get into the darn thing.
When I entered the cold entered, my lungs.
The Stillness of the cabin was Eerie as if it had not been
touched in years outside, the wind howled, like a madman
banging against the outer walls of the cabin, but on the inside,
it was complete and utter silence.
The interior of this cabin has a small wooden Koch, pushed in the
corner in the fireplace. In the middle of the room was a
tiny table and two chairs everything in the room had Thick
layer of dust leaving me to believe the old tenants had left
a few years. Maybe a decade ago.
I unpacked my bags made my bed and started a fire to warm up
the place. Surprisingly.
There was unused wood in the fireplace as if the cabin was
expecting me. I skinned and gutted the hair
putting the remains outside to potentially attract larger.
More expensive, pray. I place the skin of the hair
outside under the snow to freeze.
Marking it with a cedar branch so that it would be easier to
carry out. When I depart from this cabin.
I place the meat of the animal on the fire to cook.
While I rest, I sit here writing this waiting for my hair to
cook. It's very late, or at least I'm
getting very tired in this moment.
I have nothing else to do, but get a bit of shut-eye.
I will retire to bed for now and we'll continue writing at dawn.
It is in the middle of the night.
I awoke with a great shot. Can my lungs the fireplace had
gone out for what seemed like hours because the cabin was
glacial, I could see my own breath and my skin stung to the
touch. I got up real it, the fire and
continue to cook the hair on the fireplace.
I checked outside and it was still dark from what I could
see. The only noise in that cabin was
my own labored breath and the droning crackle of the fire.
I sit here writing this as the cabin warms up.
I don't even know who would be reading this.
This, if you are, do you find this amusing?
I have not much to say for right now.
I'll sit here staring at the blank pages.
If I were not a hunter, I suppose I could have worked my
penmanship and become a writer. That would be the life, wouldn't
it? The cabin is warm now, and my
eyelids are getting heavy. I will get some shut-eye for now
since it is still black out and my bait has not been taken yet.
December 29th, 1792. I awoke again this time at dawn.
The storm has subsided. Although not completely the snow
has piled high against the sides of the cottage, but it seems, as
though the door is sheltered enough for me to get out.
The windows are frosted over lucky for me.
The wind isn't as strong as it was last night.
And as I write this, the snow is calming down outside is perfect,
huh? In conditions, I hope I catch
something more this afternoon. I glanced outside and saw the
bait was gone and whatever took it left large tracks.
Leading into the forest. I have decided.
I shall grab my gun and head out.
I hope I can catch whatever animal that was before, it
travels a length, too. Great for me to follow.
I am desperately, hoping that the storm which chase me here
will not return. I hope to return to this cabin
if I do not Not then one of three things happened, the storm
returned and this time I was not so lucky and could not evade the
howling winds and the needle like snow I found the animal I'm
about to track but was not successful in.
Conquering the Beast or when out in the forest.
I was not able to find my way back to the cabin and all but
one scenario. I am gone.
So let's hope none of those options have happened for now.
I say goodbye reader. Whenever you are and I hope to
ride again. Oh, dear God.
Oh, what my eyes have seen in this terrible Forest are enough
to Cripple. Even the strongest of men
sanity. Let me start from the beginning
in his much agonizing detail. As I can bring myself to right
after my last entry. I grabbed my gun and went
outside to check the scene. The snow was packed an easy to
walk on which was to my advantage.
I was shocked that not only The remains of the hair were gone,
but also the skin. I had placed strategically in
the snow had been dug up. I found this rather weird since
I had placed it. So it was rather hard to reach
the Beast or beasts had left deep gashes in the snow and the
tracks. In the snow were by far the
oddest thing about it. It seemed as though, 10 or more
animals passed by this very area.
I could identify deer bear and wolf tracks for sure.
The prince never over. Out.
They all followed the exact same route as the others.
It was not odd. Having animals passed by at
night and check out the scene, especially since I had left out
animal entrails but having this many of them was incredibly
abnormal, especially in this region.
I followed the tracks into the forest.
I contemplated turning around and headed back to the cabin,
but my curiosity got the best of me and I proceeded further into
the forest in that part of the forest.
It was very different. I cannot quite describe it the
trees seem longer in a sense more.
Foreboding the dark green spruce trees were spindly and twisted.
Looming over my head with a sense of indescribable evil.
The are in that region was dense.
Making it hard to breathe as though.
I was breathing in water before I used to hear winter, birds,
like crows and ravens, but here, there was nothing Nothing at
all, but the light howl of the wind as it passed through the
tree branches, the whole scene was ghastly here.
The sky was darker or the snow was reflecting light in a
different way. I noticed a large gashes in the
surrounding trees and small droplets of blood on freshly
fallen snow about 30 minutes away in a small.
Snowed in Grotto, under the Open.
Sky was a large creature, making seismic movements with its arms.
The creature was hunched over its back facing I'm me and most
likely concentrating on what it was doing with its hands.
I crept forward to get a better look at what this creature was
and what it was doing. The thing was unnaturally gaunt.
As I got closer. I made a noise.
I cannot quite recall what it was.
Now it might have been a twig snapping, the horrible creature
snapped, its head around violently creating the snap and
pop of bones, but didn't seem to care.
It saw me what I witnessed. They're still makes my stomach
churn. The creature was about 10 feet,
maybe more, since it was hunched over.
It had multiple animal parts, sewn into it.
There was Wolverine and rabbit limbs protruding out of its side
with dry blood kicking to it. The height of the limbs of many
animals have been sewn into it with a black thread.
It was sagging off the ancient beasts Bones.
The monster had limbs of varying sizes under the fake flesh,
which I presume to be organs. The Beast was wearing the
appendages as if it were a shell, like a hermit crab.
As I reread through my notes. I realized I cannot begin to
describe the sheer horror of the thing.
It had animal heads, rotting and blackened with frost.
The head of the creature was the head of a young buck.
The face of an old wolf was sewn on the left side and the face of
a bear on the right. The eyes of the buck were sunken
in and glazed over the eyes of the thing were milky white.
Of disease on the head of the buck, the antlers of a moose and
deer were Butch together with thread and dried blood.
There was an opening where I could see that it was in the
process of sewing. The hair that I had caught onto
its body. The creatures Anatomy was
something, I had never seen before.
A torso way too long with too many limbs arms long and
shoulders sagging touching the snow.
I could not see the lower portion of its legs.
But from what I could make out it was the Legs of that poor
Buck the creature, let out a guttural.
Shriek striking me with a most foul.
Stench of Decay. I could see inside of the gaping
mouth and saw nothing. Its mouth was empty, but I knew
that behind the hollow emptiness.
There was something horrifying something.
I didn't want to see it stood up even from a distance.
I could see it towering over me. Spit mixed with small droplets
of blood poured out of its mouth hitting the No and staining, it
yellow with rot as it lifted its body out of the snow.
I could see the horrible Clause that made those marks in the
snow and trees. They were bony darkened hands of
a humanoid being no not humanoid.
Not even that. It was a parody of a human as if
it tried to replicate a human figure.
But failed horribly. It's fingers were too long.
Maybe four times longer than mine, and you could see every
bone from afar. The skin on its hands was dark
from the frost of years of existence.
Its torso was long too long, it made up most of the beasts
figure. I was stuck in fear and had no
control over my body. As soon as I regained control
though. I shot my gun at it stumbling
around because of the recoil of the old rifle.
The beasts fell with such a violent Force, as it got up, and
I saw Crimson leaking out of it onto the snow.
It had the internals of various different.
Shapes and sizes in it, most were of, that of small, rodents.
It howled. I couldn't tell if it was from
pain or anger, but it howled louder than anything.
I'd ever heard from anything before it, put its vile hand
over the open wound to hold back, the gore.
It bent over and started to pick itself together with handfuls as
it was distracted. I sprinted away for the cabin
when I reached it. The sun had dipped below the
Horizon and daylight was limited.
David. My lungs were burning and my
Lakes could barely hold their own weight.
I got into the cabin, and here I am.
Now, it has gotten too dark for me to leave the cabin.
So, I will stay here for one more night.
I can only hope it doesn't come for me.
Tonight. I have not started a fire and
fear that it will make it easier for the Beast to track me down.
I am writing this by the light of a very small lantern that
admits a fair amount of heat. I pray to the Lord, that it does
not find me. I will keep this Lantern on
tonight to keep me warm. Good night.
It's currently the middle of the night.
I have awoken with a strange sense in my gut almost like
having butterflies, but instead of a nervous fluttering, it's
more like wasps stinging. My stomach and buzzing violently
inside me. I cannot tell if it's purely
anxiety, mixed with sleep deprivation, or if I truly am
ill. My eyes are playing tricks on
me. I have seen tens know, hundreds
of rodents Race Across the floor of the cabin.
I hear movement outside the feeling in my stomach has grown
into disoriented nausea. And I feel as though I will
faint beads of cold sweat have gathered on my forehead.
Keeping me awake. The room is different.
I cannot tell how but it just is almost as if everything in the
room was moved by half an inch. If anyone is reading this and
believes I am but a mad, man, I am not.
I know what I am seeing and I know it is true.
The rodents are now crawling all over the walls.
The flame of the lantern is dying out but I have no clue
what to do. I feel a pounding in the back of
my head as though, the rodents are crawling annoying at my
brain. Through the white noise that the
scurrying is producing. I can hear.
No feel something pulling me outside a for stronger, than man
itself can conceive. Almost like a Inseong.
Pulling a young sailor out to sea, I will go check.
I feel the only thing keeping me sane and focused is this
journal? I'm back and I must describe
what has happened to me. I lifted myself off the bed and
stood up nearly vomiting. My legs.
Shook under the weight of my own feeble body.
I directed myself to the door, my head, pulsing with the sound
of the rodents. They scurried under my feet,
forcing me to hold on to the wall.
I staggered to the cabin door and opened it.
I was suddenly so bird with what I saw, hundreds of eyes staring
at me and in the middle of the mall.
I saw the grotesque silhouette of the Beast illuminated, By the
Light of the full moon. The animals were just staring at
me with such a fury. I had never seen in my life.
I have never been much of a religious man at all.
But in that moment, I wondered if there was a God above, if
this was a way of repayment for killing his creatures, his
children. The Beast was silent, all of the
animals were, I retreated slowly and tripped over the mice and
rats. That were Racing toward the
Beast. What I saw will forever haunt my
nightmares. The moon Shone down on a part of
the Beast that I had never seen before.
A human head was sewn onto the side of the Beast, the man's
face Forever, Frozen an expression of dread.
I made the realization. Then the hands of the Beast
ancient human that had been mummified by the frost and
wrapped around its own skeletal hands.
My body trembled with a hollow ache.
I was so disoriented. So Scared yet.
I felt something a quiet sense of Comb.
It started at the back of my head and grew.
As I got closer to the Beast. Then the Beast opened, its mouth
and howled, but instead of making me recoil and fear and
disgust, it was enchanting, the whole scene was so beautiful.
No words in the human language can begin to describe the beauty
blood dripped from its mouth as a chanted.
It's song. I ran inside tripping over the
rodents that now poured, Out of the cabin, like a raging River,
shutting the door behind me and dropping to my knees with tears
streaming down my cheeks, the creature continued, its CH and
blood started to drip from my ears pooling around my finger
tips for. I was not crying because of the
amount of pain I was in. It was because of the beauty.
I had just witnessed. I gathered my composure and
crawled to the table. I sit here.
Now writing what I think will be the last thing I ever write, my
fate is sealed. And I know that I do not fret
the end of my life. In fact, I desire it.
I will repent for my sins. The Beast is my Lord and I know
it is here to make me join its Army.
I regret the loss of life. I have caused in my complete and
utter carelessness. I will follow its voice and
become one with it. It will save me.
It will forgive me. The air of the cabin feels like
acid in my lungs and it's getting harder to breathe.
With the rodents are starting to break down the cabin door and
have already broken through the window.
It's waiting for me. The creature of many skins.
God. I will repent.
Goodbye. As you can see, after reading
that we all got freaked out. Of course, being a skeptic.
I am. I first thought it could be some
stupid guys that had decided to play a sick prank on whoever
read the journal but that's just impossible.
The book itself. Too old, too brittle.
It looks so genuine and I guess that's what made it even more
unnerving. There was no name anywhere on
the journal. Believe me.
We triple-checked. So we could not identify the man
in this journal. This journal was all the proof,
my friends needed to be convinced.
It was real all of it. I wanted to leave but my friends
kept pushing to look through the cabin and I didn't feel like
trekking through the woods alone pushed to the side.
Of the cabin was a cot with blankets on it, moths had gotten
to the blankets and chewed them up in the cot Was A Rat's Nest
that had long since been vacant under.
The bed was a bag made from unidentifiable Material because
of age thrown violently at the wall was the smashed and rested
remains of a lantern. This was no doubt where the
hunter had stayed during the harsh winter of 1792, of course,
everything in the cabin was distorted with age, but Was
expected. Finally, I convinced my friends
that we had seen enough and that it was getting dark out.
We left the cabin, asteroid cradling the lantern remains
Eric carrying the notebook, Daniel carrying the drinks, and
chips, and me holding the hunters journal.
The sky was getting dark, and the temperature was dropping
quickly. I was falling behind my group as
they chattered ahead of me. I turned around to face the
cabin one last time and saw hunched over.
Per the large figure of a creature with large antlers and
many faces, its hands dragging against the ground.
I turned, as white as a ghost and ran to my friends screaming
at them, to run in retrospect. That was the worst thing I could
have done. But the fear mixed with
adrenaline made me act upon my stupid.
Impulses. We all bolted for home.
Luckily. We got there.
It's now the wee hours of the morning.
I've stayed up all night. I keep glancing.
Over the hunters Journal. My head is pounding and my heart
is racing because outside at the forest edge, facing the window
of my room, is the silhouette of the thing I had glanced at once
in the forest writing. This is keeping me distracted
for the meantime, but I've already seen a few rats, Scurry
out from under my bed. It's calling me.
It's calling me to be one with it.
I don't know if I'll be able to make it.
So if you're reading this I want you to know there is something
in the woods. I am writing this as a complete
and total recount of the events. I experienced on silly and
Mountain almost three months ago.
So I can have my facts straight if the police decide to listen
to me know, when they decide to listen to me, they have to
because I'm terrified of what will happen.
If they don't. I know I already lost my And
Ethan and I'm afraid that whatever.
That thing was make it more people.
I've already tried to contact the local authorities, the news,
hell even the local wildlife conservation group to see if
they know anything, but I've either been laughed away or
thrown out for wasting their time.
So this document is a way for me to gather my thoughts, but also
as a warning At this point, I think I have to be the one to do
something about this and in case I don't make it back and things,
get worse. I want someone to be brought up
to speed. My name is Ned Harris.
I have dark hair brown eyes missing.
The tip of my pinky on my right hand and a small scar on my left
cheek. If you read this and later see,
me casually walking on the streets of Jericho West
Virginia. It means I failed get It while
you can and please do not go into the woods.
This nightmare came to be when my friend Ethan Lancaster and I
decided to camp out on sealian Mountain for a week in
celebration of his recent promotion.
This was going to be a first for us but one we were more than
excited for silly and Mountain was a notoriously difficult
Mountain to hike and even more difficult to survive on only a A
full of people ever made it to the peak and returned more than
a handful were never seen. Again.
This would turn most people away, but Ethan and I were out
of at hikers and campers. We met on a camping Forum five
years earlier and became close friends almost immediately, due
to our mutual, love of the outdoors.
We had been on numerous hikes Through The Years varying in
difficulty, but when Ethan became a general manager for the
firm, he worked at We decided it was time to finally tackle the
big one after a month of planning and saving up for New
Gear. We found ourselves in Jericho,
West Virginia. Jericho was a small Gatlinburg,
ask Town. That's at squarely at the bottom
of Cillian. Consisting of only two roads, in
a population of a few hundred. It was hardly the Gatlinburg
competitor that the ads lead you to believe it.
Had a few attractions like bars restaurants.
It's museums and most famously Sweet Tooth, the concerning Lee
obese, Grizzly that spent her days roaming.
Herr, Baron enclosure tourists were beginning to trickle in now
that the seemingly Eternal snow was beginning to melt, but for
the most part Jericho was in mend for tourists.
It was the place where all hikers began their Journey up.
Zillion after purchasing all the overprice, gear at the local
shops. Of course.
Ethan. And I found a motel for the
night and we were up the next morning Before Sunrise, so we
could get a jump start on the three-day hike.
Two are chosen Camp spot, which we had marked on our map aside
from a twisted ankle and Ethan being charged by a particularly
aggressive raccoon. The hike itself was uneventful
the Steep yet relatively short slopes of Cillian, scared.
Most of the ill fit hikers away quickly, but we trekked up the
45-degree slopes with ease. He's having trained for this
journey for months. By the second day.
We only occasionally ran into other experienced hikers in
which we would return their friendly wave and continue on
our separate paths by dusk of the second day.
We arrived at our chosen Camp spot.
It was a small clearing that provided some leg room from the
suffocating Pines at speckled the landscape and we had a small
Creek babbling away nearby. Thanks to the melting snow.
We had camp set up. but under an hour and begin the rituals we
had become accustomed to after many years of camping together I
began preparing tonight's dinner I'd lovely pack of dehydrated
mac and cheese while Ethan went out to find firewood once I had
all the cooking utensils out of their cases and set up how I
liked them I grabbed a large pot and headed over to the creek so
that we could undo the pesky dehydrated part of our meal the
area surrounding the creek was picturesque uuuuuugh like
something you'd see on a water bottle wrapper the crystal clear
water trickled softly down the slopes with evidence of local
Wildlife regularly stopping by for a quick drink I took a
moment to appreciate the scenery taking a deep breath of Cold
Mountain Air and feeling the high that made me fall in love
with hiking so many years before I knelt by the creek bed and
begin to fill up the pot whistling softly to myself when
something made me stop I glanced around at my surroundings,
scanning the tree line behind me and the Steep.
Rocky slope ahead of me. My ears strained for a sound
that I hadn't heard, but my brain still warned me of the
hair on the back of my neck shot up.
As I quickly looked to my right at the slopes above me.
I saw nothing in the Crag Peaks above but I couldn't shake the
feeling that I was being watched.
The one softly babbling Creek. Now sounded like a Roaring River
as I stared into the Rocks above.
Of Frozen to the spot with a confusing Terror that seemed to
come from nothing. I slowly Rose my knee and face
the Peaks to my right. It's hard to explain but it felt
as if they were watching me. Not a creature that resided in
them, but the mountain itself, the skin of my scalp tightened
and my stomach, churned as the chirping birds around me fell
silent. As if some kind of Predator had
just came into view. I backed away from the creek
continuously scanning The Cliffs above me.
It felt as if I was staring into the eyes of an Old Guard asleep
for Millennia that had just decided to wake up and stare
directly into my soul a for so old and eternal that my
existence was a mere blip in comparison, my life blink and
you miss it moment. I was suddenly overcome with an
enormous wave of Terror. That would have caused me to
drop the Pod and Sprint back home had it not subsided as
quickly as it came the birds began to chirp once more.
And The Creeks deafening Roar return to a trickle.
I stood for nearly 20 minutes, unmoving and staring at the
cliff above before, eventually gaining the courage to step away
from the creek and return to the camp.
Never taking my eyes away from what felt like an unseen
assailant, a half hour later. I was back at Camp running the
water through the purifier and staring off into nothing.
My rapidly Beating Heart, finally began to slow and I
began to feel silly. Look at you Harris, jumping at
Mountain ghosts. I muttered to myself chuckling
at the absurdity of my experience, but unable to shake
it completely. It was like a small rat was
inside of my skull gnawing away at my brain.
No matter how hard I tried to shake it Loose.
I glanced at my watch and frowned.
It was almost nine. Ethan had been gone for almost
an hour and it was nearly dark. It wasn't uncommon for him to
take long collecting firewood. I would, but we both agreed to
be back at Camp Before Sunset. I looked East the direction.
He had gone and grabbed my flashlight.
I knew he would give me crap for worrying about him.
But if he had gotten lost or hurt, it would be near
impossible to find him in total darkness.
I click the button and a beam of light illuminated, the woods
ahead of me, casting the trees and rocks with a harsh, white
light and everything. Outside, the circle to be
shrouded in darkness. I took a deep breath and It into
the woods. Ethan.
I called out following the tracks.
He left in the melting snow. It's almost dark.
You should head back. The only response I got was that
of crickets beginning to chirp. I swallowed grip, the
flashlight, Tighter and pushed on.
Come on, man. Seriously.
Let's get back to Camp. I passed the beam from tree to
tree my nerves causing me to jump.
As I expected to see some Twisted face peering from behind
the tree. Honks, but never seeing
anything. I eventually lost his Trail.
As he seemed to turn and Ascend upwards.
I turned and pointed my flashlight, past the trees and
my heart jumped, the same Peaks as before loomed over me staring
down with a smug, stoicism that seemed to say, welcome back, my
hand trembled causing the light to dance across the Rocks.
Above me that feeling of existential Terror, washed over
me once more crashing into my And with such a force that I
immediately turned and ran not as a man who made a decision but
as a Mindless animal relying on instinct to save it from
imminent danger. I crashed through the woods
crying out as sharp stick seem to clawed my face and arms, I
felt the distinct presence of something behind me.
An immense invisible force, that was bearing down on me like a
thundering. Avalanche closing, the distance
between us faster than I was closing the distance between me
and the camp. I picked up the speed pumping my
legs as fast as I could. And ignoring the stinging pain,
as the branches raked against me.
I have panted and half sobbed as I exploded through the brush and
fell into the clearing. Going into the fetal position
and waiting for an attack that never came after a moment.
I peered through my fingers watching the gently rustling
branches in front of me as everything, Beyond them was Now
cast in total darkness from the Setting Sun.
I took a deep breath and Rose to my hands and knees.
Is desperately trying to slow my heart rate before I either
collapsed or vomited. Once I felt like I wasn't going
to pass out anymore. I Rose to my feet.
Backed away from the woods. I had just escaped from and
turned back to Camp. Ethan was standing in the center
of the clearing. His arms held firmly at his
side's and his head lolling around lazily as if he were
drunk Ethan. What the heck, man, I panted
glancing around behind me into the woods again.
Again before making my way over to him.
Are you? Okay, I was looking for you
Ethan. What the heck, man?
Ethan responded, still facing away from me.
I froze. His voice sounded rough.
As if he's suddenly aged 30 years and smoked a pack every
day have been same time. Even more strange was that the
inflection of his voice? How he said was identical to how
I did almost like listening to a Back recording.
Yeah. Listen, I what is that?
He suddenly screamed out making me jump.
Oh God, please. I he cut himself off each word,
sounding more like, Ethan's normal voice before.
Mimicking a strange, snapping noise like a Broken Twig or
Ethan. I said, slowly approaching him
from behind. This isn't funny, man.
You're scaring me. Scaring you.
He responded. Swaying slightly as I
approached. He sounded totally normal now
which didn't make me feel all that better.
I stretch my hand towards him as he made a sound that still
haunts me to this day. A noise that sounded like a mix
between a click and a short shriek and seemed almost
impossible for a person to be able to make before I was able
to touch his shoulder. He Whirled around and faced me
causing me to jump back in yellow.
In Terror, he bared his teeth at me a horrific and failed mimicry
of a smile. His blond hair was filthy and
shrunk over his face and eyes. My God, his eyes were pointing
in opposite directions before sliding together focusing on me.
My stomach churned and my hair stood on end.
As those eyes seemed to stare straight through me and a gaze
that I had only ever felt before never seen.
Come on, Ned. I have something I want to show
you. It's stammered.
Like it was still trying to figure out how to work.
It. Stung, get away from me.
I squeaked out backing away from whatever.
This thing was every animal Instinct in me was screaming at
once to run to get away from this foul mimicry of Life of my
friend. It isn't far just a few hundred
yards. It stammered lurching towards
me, a nun. Natural movements as if
controlled by unseen strings, I turned to run in tripped.
Over my hiking bag. Landing hard crying out in pain
as my previously twisted, ankle became a sprained ankle.
It is beautiful it. Cried out as it descended upon
me. We are beautiful.
It. Grabbed onto my face.
As I grasped out in horror the skin on its hands were rubbery
like frog skin and it caused my own skin to Crawl in an attempt
to avoid contact with this crazy thing of nature.
You are not beautiful. I struggled against the Ethan
thing. Eventually Landing a hit to its
face with my elbow. It stumbled that horrific face
still frozen to a false Smile as it Rose back to its feet and
turns towards me. I jumped to my feet and ran
screaming in agony is my sprained.
Ankle became a broken ankle. The trees around me.
Rustled violently the branches, clotted, my face as if they were
trying to slow me down. I cast a glance behind me and
screamed in Terror. The Ethan thing was behind me
that false human expression unmoving has it followed me at a
full Sprint. Its arms, plastered stiffly to
its side. I ducked, and dodged the
branches, as best as I could breathing.
So loudly that I didn't even notice that thing behind me
wasn't breathing at all. I could feel it.
Closing in those, yellow eyes, staring hungrily.
At the back of my head. I was done for, I couldn't
outrun it. Even if I didn't have a broken
ankle, my legs weren't even bending.
How in the it continued gaining on me.
The branches almost seemed to part for it.
Tears, stream, down my face, as I gasped for air pumping, my
good leg as fast as I could closer.
My head pounded from the Cold Mountain Air closer.
I could feel its presence. Reasons.
Right behind me now. It emanated a scent that smelled
old closer, very old closer, older than everything.
I stumbled and begin to pitch and spin down the mountain
slopes crying out. As I slammed into the tree
trunks and rocks. I felt my ribs splinter in my
vision, went white as my head. Collided with a large root.
I rolled off an overhang and free fell for two or three
seconds before slamming into something below.
Causing whatever it was to scream out and surprise and
anger. I swam In and Out Of
Consciousness as people crawled their way out of the tent.
I fell upon their voices, sounded distant, and echoed in
the void. I was quickly sinking into, I
felt hands, Pat me down and assess my condition and heard
the distant beeping and worried voices of someone on the phone.
The last thing I saw before, blacking out were the trees on
the ledge. I had fallen from looming above
me like Ancient Giants. That was almost three months
ago. Now I spent a few days in a
hospital outside of Jericho before being released with my
injuries tended to I immediately went to the Jericho police
department and told them my story in which I was reminded
that it was strictly forbidden to have drugs of any kind on
Cillian. I spent the next month trying to
find someone anyone who would believe me.
I pushed my friends and family away with hysteria and was put
on leave at work and till I could figure my crap out the
strangest thing. No one seemed to remember Ethan
whenever I'd bring him up. I would just get weird.
Looks with people saying that I had done all my camping trips
solo. Even Ethan's family looked
extremely concerned as they hug their daughter and only child.
Afraid of the man in their living room, screaming about a
son. They never had.
I felt like I was losing my mind.
So I decided to return to Jericho, and try to settle this
once and for all I walk the streets of the small Mountain
Town, jumping, and every noise, and recoiling from anyone who
walked too close. I took a swig from the bottle of
Jameson. I carried in a brown paper bag.
The closest thing I had to a friend these days.
I passed the hotel Ethan and I had stayed at which, of course,
didn't have him on record and continue down Main Street toward
the path that led to the mountain.
I fidgeted with my hands brushing, my unkempt unwashed
hair in my face as I Watched the trail passing by a group of
tourists who were listening to a Trail Guide.
I froze that voice. I slowly turned towards the
group of middle-aged tourists, taking pictures and listening to
the tour guide standing on a large.
Log. The man wore The Telltale brown
and green, khaki outfit of a Forest guide, pointing toward a
map and telling corny jokes to a group, as he pushed the blond
hair out of his eyes. Ethan.
I rushed towards the group shoving tourists away from me as
I pushed it. Earth towards Ethan.
Hey, I screamed startling people around me, Ethan, turned and
locked eyes with me. The briefest flash of
recognition in his eyes before he smiled.
Hello, sir. If you'd like to join the group,
you can sign up in the Hut over the.
I tackled him, ripping him off the stump and slamming him into
the ground, the crowd gasped, as I slammed my fists into his face
over and over again. What are you, what did you do to
my friend? I roared trying to pull.
His hands away from his face so I could get him again.
I felt a pair of hands. Grabbed me from behind and pull
me off of Ethan roughly sending me sprawling onto the grass to
cops pounced on me, forcing my hands into a pair of cuffs.
No, no, you don't understand. I screamed struggling against
their grip, Ethan Rose to his feet and wiped.
His nose smiling down at me, go easy on him fellas.
He said, flashing a warm smile to the cops.
No harm done. Just needs to work out,
whatever. He's on, I'm sure I wrenched
against the cops and tried to Lunge at him but they held me
tight and begin to drag me away. No, you don't understand what
you're doing. I cried fighting against the
men. I whipped back towards Ethan,
who only smiled at me. I noticed his assistant was
watching me to with an awkward looking smile.
That looks like she hadn't quite mastered it yet.
No, please, I yelled. As I was thrown into the back of
a cop car. Our hearing Ethan's voice carry
over the lot as the door slammed closed.
Sorry about that, folks some crazy people.
Huh? Anyway, let's get on with the
hike, shall we? I have something very beautiful.
I'd love to show you all.