I grew up in Northern Wisconsin. STRANGE things happen in those woods.

this happened back in 2004 in northern Wisconsin I was 16 at the time and out deer hunting with my dad and a friend of his Frank I do remember this day like it was yesterday though the dialogue isn't word for word but the idea of it is 100% accurate as a side note it was one day after eight people were shot less than 2 hours away my dad and I had a few different stands over an area of maybe 3/4 of a square mile he had been hunting there for at least 10 years and I

had been going with him since I was five up until I was 12 legal aged to hunt with a rifle I had just been tagging along this particular morning we walked to my stand first it was about 5:00 a.m. so still dark outside I got situated and my dad and Frank went off to our other two stands over a ridge maybe another 500 to 600 yard off sitting there in the dark is always a little Eerie not long after my dad and Frank left I see a flashlight from the general direction of where they headed

maybe 200 yd away roughly moving my direction I figured they forgot something from the truck or something so I radioed to see what they were doing we're sitting at in my stand Frank is about to head to the other one he says obviously this flashlight is someone else this isn't super uncommon and isn't really a big deal those woods get crowded sometimes and there is a spot to park in that general direction I turn on my light so the other Hunter can see that there is someone there he stops I see the light turn and

go a different direction no big deal I end up dozing off while it's still dark out when I wake up the Sun is up it's around 8:00 a.m. I sit there for a bit radio my dad to see if he has heard or seen anything moving nothing yet a couple gunshots off in the distance is all I get up and go for a slow little walk to get my blood moving a bit not far maybe 30 yards out and back trying not to make a sound I come back to my stand sit down and take

a real good look around nothing really going on I finally look out to my left where I had seen the flashlight before and see orange for anyone unfamiliar Hunters have to wear blaze orange during gun season I radio my dad and Frank to see if either one of them were moving around dad says no I hear nothing from Frank I grabbed the binoculars out of my backpack to see if if it's Frank it's definitely not this guy is looking at me through a scope rifle aimed directly at me this is a huge no no massive

rule we all learn in Hunter's Education never Point your rifle that's something you don't intend to shoot dumb people still do it though it's few and far between but it happens this is why normal people use binoculars my first thought was what a jackass thing is even with me looking at him he doesn't put his gun down now I'm starting to panic thinking I'm going to be the next hunting murder victim I slowly grab my rifle and get up staying behind as many trees as I can and walk down a little path to the side

of my stand my stand was on this kind of little null on the side of a much larger Hill radio my dad telling what's up he tells me to sit tight and stay out of sight obviously as a 16-year-old I couldn't do that and had to keep looking every time I looked the guy was still aiming my Direction but it was always standing in a different spot like I would look go back to hiding look again and he would be 30 yard from where he was the last time about 10 minutes of this goes by

when my dad radios me how are you doing bud looking back he was very obviously trying to keep me calm at the time I thought he just wasn't taking me seriously he's still there but he keeps moving I don't know what his problem is dad told me just to keep hidden and he'll figure it out that he'll be coming up near him in a minute or two that's when I hear the shot I lost my mind trying to get a hold of my dad did he just get shot where the hell is he did he

have to shoot the guy what the hell is going on I sit there for maybe 2 or 3 minutes that felt like hours all right come on out and head toward my stand I peek up over the little null I was behind and see my dad waving from along the ridge the random guy had been on I make the Trek on over to him to see what happened turns out Frank was feeling a little restless and took a little stroll and ended up on the other side of that particular Ridge The Stranger was on not

knowing he was there he had knocked his radio battery loose while he was getting situated earlier in the morning and had no idea anything was even going on the shot I heard was actually Frank shooting a deer dad said as soon as Frank shot the guy walked off away from us toward the Logging Road we helped Frank out with his deer and decided to call at an early day although I was extremely nervous the rest of the week went on with no incidents so dumbass stranger in the woods with no common sense let's never meet

to understand my story you need to know a bit about trespassing laws in our country basically we don't have any as long as you're respectful and don't damage anything thing you can walk over any Hills you like and in my case camp on any Beach of your choosing so long as you leave the area as you found it I used to love camping when I was little our family would go multiple times a year with a large group of my parents' friends and their kids on average there were maybe 10 of us at a time

which was a bit of a logistical challenge since we always headed out to this one really remote beach on the coast we Act actually weren't the only ones there were always Yachts bobbing just offshore with people in them and other campers lined up and down the beach most of them also had children or teenagers so it wasn't a wild party scene it was very much an informal family holiday spot there was even a small building with toilets and showers nearby even though this was the middle of nowhere I guess the local Council must have figured

it out and got sick of people peeing behind bushes we took a trip up in the spring of 2011 I'm really bad with time but I know this because I got my dog in the winter of 2010 after picking her out that November from the shelter is a birthday gift to myself since I paid her adoption fee I know most of you love dogs and she will be very important to the story later on so let me tell you a little bit about Parmesan Parmesan came to me as a six-month-old puppy who had been rescued

from a dog fighting situation we're not entirely sure what breed she is exactly but my best guess is a lurcher in staffy Mex she's a wonderfully well-tempered dog with people in most dogs but you absolutely do not threaten her she'll have you so by the time of this camping trip I'd had Parmesan for a few months she'd never come camping with us before but as far as my family is concerned dog dogs go on camping trips so when we all piled into the car she came too unusually though none of the family friends could make

it so it was only me my sister my dad and my mom I didn't mind I wasn't that attached to the other kids I'd rather play with my dog and I still had my sister the drive took the better part of six hours and because we'd left a bit later than usual although I don't remember why we arrived at Sunset not a good time to be building a tent but we'd expected to arrive to other campers already set up with the beach illuminated by campfires the beach was empty in spite of this my parents started

taking stuff out and trying to build the tent they asked us to fetch some of the lighter bags from the trunk of the car while they held a flashlight to the sand to see better I rolled down the window of the car for a Parmesan before getting out it was pretty hot for that time of year and I wanted her to have air always got to look out for my furry little homie as we're fumbling about in the dark on a beach in the middle of nowhere it's pretty spooky the one road that led to

this beach was circular and had a bridge over the water meaning you could basically circle around the beach like a big O shape if you felt like it I wasn't really paying attention to the road I was complaining that I was tired as kids do but my mom was after maybe 15 minutes of my dad trying to nail the tent into the sand my mom asked him if he had seen that car drive around it's been a few times my dad kind of shrugged her off he's like that I don't know if he said anything

back to her but after a few more minutes A car pulled up next to ours on the road and someone got out it was maybe 15 or 20 ft from the Cars to where we were and the light was pretty low except for the flashlights we weren't expecting to see anyone else out here at this point and I think my mom said it must be security I don't know why a random Beach would have security I think she meant someone from the wildlife trust as they do occasionally come down to look around the guy was

walking pretty unevenly he must have been drunk or high because he had that stagger to him there was no way this guy was sober cool a junkie not an unusual find but it's rare to see them in the wild as he walked into the flashlight range we realized he was carrying a large knife maybe 15 in although I was small at the time so maybe my sense of scale was off I don't like my dad but credit to him once he saw this he got up immediately holding on to the camping Mallet and put us

all behind him the man began to shout wildly at us that we couldn't Camp there and that he was just letting us know my Dad tried to stay calm and told him that was fine we'd leave but this didn't work he kept coming closer so my dad started shouting and the man kept shouting back my sister and I were cry crying I remember shaking I was utterly terrified as I'm sure anyone would be in that situation it really did seem like this guy and my dad were going to fight and to be honest I didn't

fancy my dad's chances I'm convinced the man would have killed my dad and possibly us as well once he was done I don't think my mother would have had the common sense to run with us I love her but she's always put dad in her relation ship with him above us and this isn't how it went down though out of nowhere like a wolf descending on its prey parmesan took us all by surprise most of all the man with the knife in that moment parmesan was the apex predator large dogs represent in nature she got

him good by the arm and clamped down hard ripping his jacket and shredding the skin underneath he dropped the knife as it was in the arm she had grabbed he kicked her he punched her and eventually got her off he grabbed the knife from the sand and ran back to his car and drove off parmesan didn't follow him she stayed with us muzzle covered in blood as quickly as we could we gathered our things and got back in the car all pretty shaken up I looked par me over she was okay but the car's window

was much more open than I left it we think when the shouting started she must have put her paws up on the Gap I'd left for her it was an old car with a roll down window so we think she managed to hit it with her paws forcing it down enough to squeeze out this isn't the end of the story we were all pretty scared and since we had the dog with us we couldn't book into a hotel for the night my parents decided to drive home so we could all feel safe but first we

had to drive into the nearest town for petrol as they were running low I spent the time trying to clean parmesan up a little I'd always loved dogs but what she'd just done for me blew my mind as we drove into town we came across a petrol station but it looked closed my dad drove up closer to see the sign my mom asked him what he was doing and he told her he was trying to see when it opens never my heart sank parked in the corner behind a van so we hadn't seen him at

first was the man with the knife he was sitting on the hood of his car using tissue paper to clean up his arm it looked pretty bad without stopping to refuel my dad drove right out of there he decided to go to the next town but this was remote the next town was 60 m miles away he didn't have that much petrol we realized as we started driving we were going to break down my dad said it's fine we had roadside assistance and they'd come tow our vehicle better than staying in the last town after

driving for maybe 5 minutes lights flashed us from behind another car the same car the man had been driving it was him following us he must have realized realized we were low on petrol the next half hour was one of the worst of my life I had a complete breakdown as did everyone really I could tell my parents were trying to keep it under wrap so it wouldn't upset us but we weren't little kids we knew how dangerous this was dad turned off the radio to conserve petrol and the man followed us for 55 miles

before he finally peeled away onto another road our fuel meter was on empty for the last 10 miles we were driving on fumes I don't really believe in God but if he does exist that was definitely one of his miracles once we got there we drove into a petrol station and filled up before driving the rest of the way home my sister and I slept in the car after that I only woke up once we made it home just grateful nothing worse had happened after some sleep my mom called the unan emergency line for the

police to report what happened they never got back to her but apparently the woman she spoke to said they might in the future as he matched the description given of a suspect wanted in relation to a murder charge no idea if he actually was that guy or just a random psycho as I said they never got back to her so what's the takeaway then other than crazy man on the beach let's never meet for me it's that I love parmesan she's still with us now old as the hills and twice as grizzled as one of

my mom's friends likes to joke I don't know why she did what she did that day I couldn't tell you her thought process what I do know is that this poor puppy was born into an environment where people abused and neglected her only to be rescued and taken to a shelter where her mother and siblings all found homes before her despite how badly people treated her when I took her home she forgave but never forgot I think the saying goes I never trust a person who doesn't like a dog but I always trust a dog

when they don't like a person dogs have a very good understanding of human body language and I think she must have understood how much danger we were in if you're able to please adopt you might find yourself in a situation like mine one day I promise you if you're willing to save a four-legged friend's life they'll pay you back tenfold if they're able without a thought for their own safety I paid 78 for parmesan adoption fee which is a lot when you're a kid but it chills me to the Bone knowing that if I hadn't

insisted on a dog I might not be here today edit I was not expecting this to get the sort of reaction at all especially not so quickly I'm going to answer a few frequently asked questions quickly and then turn notifications off as I need to get on with my University work I live in Scotland and this happened in the highlands pretty remotely the drive took so long because we always used this one specific Beach and the car was loaded down with camping supplies two small children and a dog the car was heavier than usual and

we took frequent pee braks we didn't call the police while we were being followed because we had no signal or at least that's what my mom said but I suspect the real reason was that there was weed in the car my parents used to smoke and deal I didn't include this in the original story because it didn't affect my EXP experience of it I was a little kid and I'm telling it from my perspective as I remember it thank you all for the awards and for saying so many sweet things about Pary at the time

I'm writing this the story that happened to me was 5 days ago it was on a Saturday for context I am a 16-year-old French boy so sorry and Advance if I make any grammar mistakes I was with my friend this Saturday in my small French Hometown casually hanging out on the edge of town for about an hour my friend is a 17-year-old girl we were sitting on Big Rocks behind the kindergarten of our town right in front of the Beet field it was around 8 in the evening and the sky was starting to turn dark

nothing has ever really happened in our town since we've lived there except recently when a dad stabbed his daughter and wife 40 times but that is nothing to do with my story just note that there aren't many foreigners around since it's a bit of a remote Country Town although it's not too far from Paris so there we were sitting and eating snacks like we usually do when we hang out when suddenly I noticed a man with a beanie his hand hands were in his sweatshirt pockets and he was walking directly toward us he was way

too close for my friend and me to get up and walk away he comes right up to us and starts speaking in English my friend doesn't speak English so she didn't really know what was happening the guy comes right in front of me realizes I can speak English and tries to shake my hand which I refused he didn't look like he was drunk or on drugs just off in a strange way the guy started talking to me and pointed to the field behind me which meant that if I wanted to look I'd need to turn

away from them then he says very insistent is that cabbage I responded Yes but he didn't seem satisfied and kept trying to get me to look behind me I could actually see part of the field out of the corner of my eye off to my left he tried again and again to get me to look back back which was stressful because he was less than a meter away close enough to do anything he wanted then he started saying some strange things like my driver told me there was cabbage and I asked people and they didn't

understand right after he said that he patted my shoulder moved behind me and crouched down by the edge of the field he kept telling me to come over to check if it was cabbage even though I had already told him many times that that it was cabbage though really it wasn't but I was just trying to get rid of him from where we were sitting it kind of looked like cabbage though the moment I realized I was out of his reach I told my friend to grab her bag and start running at first she thought

I was joking but when she saw me running she quickly changed her mind we were about 20 M away when he started walking toward us but then disappeared behind in the kindergarten building we were both really unsettled and decided to head home quickly we said goodbye and split up each going in a different direction to get home I needed to walk by the elementary school which was right next to the kindergarten suddenly I saw the guy again he was coming from the road that ran between the field and the kindergarten and he was holding his

phone which was lit up in his hand I quickly turned around and went to my friend's house waiting there until her father could drive me home later that night my friend and I were talking and we wondered if it might have been an attempt at kidnapping or something worse like organ trafficking it was the first time we'd ever seen a foreigner who didn't speak any french and it was strange how he left quickly once we started running it seemed like he was trying to make us lose time with his whole whole cabbage distraction that night

I told another friend who lives in our town and he mentioned seeing the same guy hanging around with the strange Behavior earlier that day we were both really unsettled and scared after what happened but now we're completely okay I just wonder if we're overthinking it even though my intuition told me to get away from him to the creep who made me feel like I was in a horror movie let's not meet again I live in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Northeast Georgia it's a beautiful area with hundreds of miles of national forest some

great state parks and plenty of fantastic camping spots unfortunately my hometown is also relatively poor while there are some outof Town residents from Atlanta and other places many people where I live are struggling financially I do freelance work as a technical writer which allows me to work online if I didn't have that I'd have to move somewhere else it's just one of those small towns that can rob you of your ability to accomplish anything in life if you stay too long at least without some other opportunities excluding a handful of doctors lawyers and Georgia Power

employees employ es the only employment options in the area are at Walmart fast food restaurants and a couple of grocery stores to the east of my town There's a massive National Forest filled with great camping sites and many relatively unused hiking trails I really enjoy hiking with my dog but it can be a bit unnerving sometimes it's about a 10m drive from town and there's no cell phone service or homes for miles in the past there have been numerous vehicle break-ins at the trail heads the gravel parking lots at some of them glitter with bits

of broken glass from what I assume were car windows sometimes there are really suspicious people hanging around these Trail heads or just driving on the forest Service Roads these roads are quite rough and you'll see beat up $500 cars barreling along roads meant for four-wheel drives some of the people in these cars look like the guy who got crushed by an ATM and Breaking Bad All that being said it's still a great place to Camp you just have to be careful a few years ago two of my friends and I decided to go play paintball

in the National Forest which was probably not legal I know we thought we'd turn the paintball trip into a camping Adventure so we could play again the next morning after a pretty uneventful day of shooting paintballs at each other we drove a couple of miles to one of the more popular camping spots unfortunately a church group had taken up all the spots in the area this was the only camping spot we were familiar with and it was getting pretty late we decided to keep looking so we drove for about an hour further into the woods

by this time it was getting dark and we were getting a bit worried about finding a place to camp we all had GPS on our smartphones but none of us had any service we turned off onto an unfamiliar road that wasn't in great shape in fact it looked like the forest service Rangers had used a backhoe to block off the road with a mound of dirt a broken metal barrier lay nearby in the woods that said it looked like four-wheel drive vehicles had gone over the mound so it was pretty worn down our F-150 had

high clearance so we decided to drive over the mound on the other side was an old Gravel Road that was mostly clear of debris we drove a few miles down this road and came across an opening next to a small Creek there were some blue tarps hanging over a plywood table nailed to a tree which seemed kind of odd however it was dark at this point and we didn't want to keep driving around all night looking for a camping spot we left the truck light running and we set up the tent as we were setting

up I started to notice a lot of trash in the woods surrounding the site I saw a green bottle lying on the ground when I looked at the label I realized it was a bottle of Home and Garden insecticide I was really tired at the time and just thought someone had been dumping their garbage out here none of us thought it was weird that someone would dump trash in an area more than an hour from the nearest home we set up camp had some beers and made chili from scratch by this time it was probably

around 11: in the evening as we were eating we noticed a faint glow from the other side of a nearby Hill at first we thought it was Moonlight filtering through the trees however the angles didn't make sense it didn't seem to be a bright light and it wasn't moving it was kind of like the glow you see over a bright City but we couldn't see the light source itself since there were no other access roads in the area we figured it wasn't other campers the hill was about a/4 mile from our campsite so we decided

to go investigate under normal circumstances I know I wouldn't have done so however we all had a few rum and cokes in our stomachs and two of us Jacob and I decided to take a look my other friend Isaac stayed behind to pop some popcorn over the fire as we started walking toward the light source the situation became even stranger all the trees in the area had their bark knocked off in a circle around their trunks we thought it could have been the work of a beaver living in the creek but it seemed odd that

a beaver would go around all these trees and just knock the bark off in a circle Jacob and I started joking about the ghost beaver probably talking loudly due to our drunkenness as we neared the top of the hill Jacob tripped and yelled oh my God a few seconds after he yelled the light whatever it was went out we looked at each other and decided maybe we didn't need to see what that light was after all we walked back inside silence glancing behind us every few seconds we decided to turn off our flashlight and just

use the Moonlight to find our way back to the campsite when we were a couple of hundred feet from the campsite I saw Isaac walking around he was wearing a hooded coat that I hadn't seen him wearing before and for some reason he was carrying his paintball gone that seemed a little odd to us the fire had started to die down so we couldn't see our campsite very well at that point we'd probably been gone for almost an hour from a distance it looked like Isaac was looking for something he kept walking around the site

and peering into the tent as we got closer to the campsite we saw Isaac walk up the road we had come in on we figured he was going to use the bathroom and didn't want to wander through the woods like us when we got back we sat next to the fire and waited for Isaac to return suddenly he stumbled out of the tent lurched a few feet and vomited after we left he said he had a few more Ramen Cokes we asked him why he kept wandering around the campsite with the paintball gun and he

gave us a strange look they're locked up in the cab of the truck did you unlock it we went to check the truck entered the the door code and found all our paintball equipment just as we had left it before the keys to the truck were still hidden in a magnetic fob underneath I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach Isaac what were you doing after we left I asked um I was watching a movie on my phone and then I fell asleep I guess you were walking around with your paintball gun

right did you just change jackets Isaac said he had been in the tent since we left and that he had been wearing the same unhooded fleece all night someone had been walking around our campsite and it wasn't Isaac we decided to go ahead and pack up and go back to my house for the night we didn't bother to pack up the tent we just folded it down with the sleeping bags and everything still inside we jumped in the F-150 and I started to drive out when we reached the dirt Mound we saw something gray blocking

our path the metal barrier that had been lying in the woods earlier was now back on its stand right on top of the mound at this point we had all sobered up to the situation no one wanted to get out of the car to try to move the barrier I had a metal guard on the front of the F-150 so I drive forward slowly tapping the metal barrier with the front of my truck it fell right off as it must have just been balanced on top and we drove over it slowly we were terrified it

would pop one of the truck's tires but it didn't as we drove down the road we noticed a vehicle following us with its lights off it was probably about 1,000 ft behind us but we kept catching glimpses of it as the Moonlight reflected off it I started to drive as fast fast as I could on the forest service road and the other vehicle kept pace it didn't get any closer though it stayed just one or two turns behind us we could only see it when the road straightened out after about 45 minutes of speeding along

gravel roads we made it back to the main paved Road I started to drive everyone back to my house but I decide to go a different way just to be safe camping can be fun but very rural camping can also be dangerous I've driven past that metal barrier since that time but it's always been in place I would never go down that road again though I have had The Misfortune of coming across a few scary guys in my life my friends say I'm a weirdo magnet so I'm pretty wary and clude up now that I'm

a bit old older but when I was a teenager I suppose you could say I was very naive back when I was 20 my family my mom and little sister moved from a small rural Village in the shes to a town down South it was a huge change and since I had been having a difficult time I welcomed the change of scenery it was a beautiful town in an affluent part of the country but I struggled to find a job and became very frustrated ated since my mom needed a bit of help with money over

the course of about 3 months we became fairly friendly with a middle-aged guy who owned a takeout shop in town I will call him Phil whenever he saw his shopping he would come over to chat and ask how the family was he genuinely seemed like a decent caring guy so when he mentioned he might have a job for me in his shop along with the small flat upstairs that I could rent for next to nothing I thought okay great maybe things are looking up Phil got our address and told my mom and me he would

pop by early in the evening after he finished work to take me to see the flat I got myself looking fairly casual but presentable and felt excited and confident thinking I could kill two birds with one stone here I just needed to show him I was suff phisticated and would make a great employee around 8:00 p.m. he knocked on the front door and my mom answered he told her we would probably only be about half an hour and that he would have me back safe and sound in no time I didn't take my phone with

me since I had no credit to call out and didn't think I would need it for a quick trip up the road and back in hindsight that was a pretty stupid thing to do maybe if I had my phone it would have have deterred him from what he was about to do it was already dark out since it was March I got into his car and we started driving he chatted away asking how I was and telling me what the flat was like within a few minutes I noticed that we were not taking the conventional

route into town at first I thought he was taking a shortcut around town but then I realized he was driving in the completely opposite direction I could tell we were moving away from the populated town and into an area where trees swamped both sides of the road my brain was working overtime thinking where the heck is this guy taking me I managed to keep my composure and asked him outright where are we going Town's back the other way he replied I just thought I would take you on a little tour it's beautiful here with many

forests and peaceful places I would love to show you he said this in his normal cheery tone I was Inc capable of saying anything at that moment because the logical and reasoning sides of my brain were in a full-blown War I tried to keep calm thinking he seemed fairly normal why wouldn't he want to show me around it was a stunning area full of natural beauty and he was probably proud to show me where he lived The Logical side however disagreed a wave of panic washed over me and a little voice in my head shouted

hell no are you stupid so I just sat there in silence taking in the scenery which was becoming more Sinister by the second every cell in my body screamed at me to find a way out of the situation I started looking for signposts houses any distinctive landmarks ditches huge trees anything that would help me recognize my way back if I had to bolt from his car Phil must have sensed I was nervous because he kept talking about what the job was like and how his staff were friendly before I knew it he slowed down to

a crawl and turned onto a little muddy road with a dense tree line on one side and Pitch Black Open Fields on the other my stomach literally dropped and my body contemplated power vomiting all over his car the reality of what was about to potentially happen hit me like a freight train I thought if I jump out here I have to run over muddy Fields into literally nowhere my imagination helpfully flashed images of him grabbing me before I could get out the door so I just sat there buckled in the passenger seat not saying a

word I told myself if he attacks me don't make a sound don't give him the satisfaction of showing him I'm scared my brain was about as useful as a chocolate teapot and I was starting to get angry with myself for not doing something but I was terrified we emerged at the top of the little dirt road and found a tiny car park surrounded by a woodland with one car parked there it was clear there were people in that car having sacks as he pulled up next to it I realized he had brought me to a

local dogging spot he turned to me and put his hand on my knee we should do what they are doing he said with a deadly serious expression on his face I make this bizarre half nervous laugh half garbled high-pitched whine and try to laugh off the suggestion to show I'm not into it and I'm super uncomfortable right now the alarmed expression on his face at my weird gurgled cackle clearly freaked him out and I mentally congratulated myself for my socially awkward and grossly unsexy reaction it will be fun no one will see us he persisted

no I don't want to plus I'm kind of seeing someone right now I lied but he just sat there smiling at me like a chesher cat as if I would miraculously change my mind at the sight of his weird face my mom will be expecting me home now I told him after an insanely uncomfortable 30 seconds seconds of this trying my hardest not to make eye contact I'm sure she won't mind you being out a bit longer with me you can trust me you know he said this with a straight face as we sat next

to the sex wagon parked next to us I sharply pulled my leg away from his grip and told him again take me home I looked him straight in the face and he knew I wasn't messing around okay that's fine I'll take you back now without another word he drove me out of that creepy seedy place and back home I breathed a sigh of relief as I could see my safety literally a few feet away and before he could stop me I was out and slammed the door behind me as I stepped over a tiny rope

fence around our garden he got out of his car and my heart sank I think I'll pop in and see your mom quickly he told me I swear I could see a smirk on his face but I knew he was only doing this because he was freaking out Knowing damn well I was going to tell her he was trying to delay the inevitable or scare me into keeping my mouth shut before I could try to talk him out of it my mom heard us pull up and open the front door I barged past her grabbing

a small knife out of the kitchen drawer and flying into my little sister's room like a mad woman don't you dare leave this room no matter what you hear I whispered to her seeing the knife stuffed up my sleeve she just looked at me with panic in her eyes and whispered back okay I walked back into the living room and the cheeky guy was sprawled out on one sofa comfortable as if he were at home I saw red I swear I felt like the Hulk I was ready for the bastard I awkwardly perched myself on

the arm of the sofa my mom was sitting on the absolute furthest away from him I could manage while he made small talk with my mom about how she was finding the area and if the neighbors were friendly all the while keeping his beady little weasel eyes on my every move why don't you come and sit over here next to me he patted the sofa cushion next to him no I'm all right here thanks I told him fidgeting with my sleeve to keep the knife from falling out in front of him why are you sitting

over there come on I won't bite he laughed and patted the seat next to him again no I'm quite comfortable here thank you very much I said this through gritted teeth my mom blesser was looking at each of us during this back and forth like a tennis match I could see something registering in her eyes she noticed my behavior was off I was perched weirdly on the sofa arm half standing and half sitting and I was Twitchy as hell staring my mom in the face intensely mentally trying to speak to her through the power of

telepathy alone I must have looked like a Nutter it's getting late now so I think you should go she finally spoke my mom started to look anxious as she had finally twigged that something had happened Phil got up agreeing and mumbling something about having to check something at his shop as he walked by me and was nearly out of the room he paused and turned to me putting out his hand to shake mine I thought to myself what a weird thing to do I took the opportunity to kindly offer him my hand that had the

knife taking it with a bit more Force than his polite he soon yanked his grubby mitt out of mine when the tip of the blade had jabbed him he looked down and saw the blade then he looked at me I looked at him with such a disgust Phil High tailed it out of our home so fast without another word a prick for a prick I told my mom everything and she was fuming we did discuss going to the police but there wasn't really a crime committed on his part asides from being a major creep sadly

when I mentioned to a couple of girls my age who lived down our stre Street they clammed up and shot each other a strange look I guessed he had probably done this type of thing before we moved away from the area after that so I'm glad to report I never have to see his smug face ever again since my last post sparked quite a discussion I decided to share another unsettling experience tied to local forests I grew up in these woods and felt quite comfortable there however I stumbled into a few unsettling situations that have

stuck in my mind forever this was one such occasion I was 18 at the time one evening my two friends Mike and Paul and I decided to go camping camping might not be the right word since we didn't intend to spend the night we just wanted to chill and have some fun around a campfire for a while the plan was simple head out build a campfire drink a few bottles of wine eat something and head back home for a good night's sleep we met at my house while it was still sunny outside got ready and

headed out our destination was an old abandoned Quarry in the middle of the woods about 40 minutes from my house even though the Quarry had a tragic and frankly creepy history it was a popular spot for such occasions when we arrived the sky was already painted red as the sun sank behind the hills we quickly gathered all the firewood we could find so we wouldn't have to look for it later as Darkness fell absorbing our surroundings into impenetrable Blackness we managed to get the fire going we were in a great mood and were getting ready

for our first toast when we realized we had made a horrible mistake we forgot the cork screw we tried to open the wine without it but quickly gave up since the bottles were quite expensive and we didn't want to damage them at that point it was clear that one of us would have to sacrifice himself and Jog back to retrieve the cork screw after some haggling I volunteered however I had two conditions first they would give me a hatchet in case something went wrong along the way second no pranks while I was gone Mike and

Paul agreed without hesitation they shoved a hatchet into one hand and a flashlight into the other then sent me on my way as I joged through the forest I heard a noise resembling a wild boar suddenly I remembered a warning I received from an older Hunter a few days earlier he said that this time of year bores were getting dangerous especially at night I felt a bit nervous but luckily I managed to survive without harm I arrived safely at home much to the surprise of my mom who didn't expect me so early I explained the

situation and she just laughed I grabbed the cork screw and was on my way again not wanting to encounter an unpleasant boore I chose a slightly longer path this time cutting through an open field after after a while I reached our spot it was a small clearing surrounded on one side by Massive rocks about 70 M tall and On The Other Side by thick forest somewhere in the middle of the clearing was our campfire when I approached I realized there was no one around Although our backpacks were still on the ground and the fire was

burning bright great we specifically agreed that there would be no pranks when I got back those dicks think they're funny I thought to myself resigned I sat down near the fire facing the woods that's the only place where those two could have hidden I reasoned I was really tired and all I could think about was the taste of that Exquisite Pon Noir we brought with us I really wasn't in the mood for their games and was getting quite mad that's when I heard the snapping of twigs and rustling leaves from the the edge of the

forest about 30 m from where I was sitting the sound was rhythmic and unmistakably the sound of someone walking I aimed my flashlight at the spot where the sounds were coming from between the trees I spotted a tall person wearing a dark hoodie as I shined my flashlight on him he stopped walking turned to me and just kept staring motionlessly even though he was directly facing me I couldn't really see his face Paul you fat I know you're trying to scare me we agreed on this so stop messing around and come out I shouted as

I finished the hooded figure simply turned around and walked deeper into the woods just then my phone started ringing hastily I took it out of my pocket it was Mike I answered and started barking at him really funny you I thought we agreed on this what are you talking about I'm talking about you trying to mess with me I clearly saw you so you can come out now Mike seemed to freeze for a moment for what felt like an eternity all I could hear was his heavy breathing and Paul mumbling something in the background when

he finally snapped back to reality he said dude we're at your house we heard some footsteps at first we thought you were messing with us but then we got scared and decided to come look for you I forgot my phone at your house so we couldn't even call you just get the hell out of there and we'll come back for our stuff together that's just another one of your pranks and I'm not buying it hold on a second for a while all I could hear was some incoherent mumbling hey what's going on asked my mom's

voice coming from the phone my head suddenly spun and my heart skipped to as I realized that they weren't kidding a freezing wave of fear washed over me however I managed to convince my mom that everything was just fine and that she didn't need to worry she handed the phone back to Mike just leave everything and come back we're heading out now we'll meet you halfway there I'm not going anywhere alone again you better get your asses here quickly I'm waiting for you but I hung up I didn't want to make any more noise than

I already had I quickly turned off my flashlight and started to back away from the fire's light I moved all the way to the massive wall of rocks I figured that if I had my back covered by the Rocks I would eliminate one possible way The Unwanted visitor could approach me I stood there in complete darkness trying not to make a sound while tightly clutching my Hatchet which would be my best friend for the next half hour power I had to constantly convince myself not to curl into a ball in fear even my own body

started to betray me as my hearing worsened due to my heart's Savage beating I tried to calm myself but then again in the worst case scenario every little bit of adrenaline would help after what seemed like an eternity I spotted two weak beams of light coming from the forest I heard Paul shout my name I had never been so relieved I ran out of my Hiding Place to greet my two friends for quite some time we just stood there laughing like maniacs from relief we even started to get a bit cocky and thought about staying

after all there was just one supposedly creep lurking among the trees and there were three of us funny how just minutes earlier I had been terrified and now I was suddenly full of Macho brav AO thinking what could possibly happen in the end Common Sense prevailed and we decided to leave we packed our things put out the fire and got out of there we took our bottles of wine to enjoy somewhere else somewhere that was nice and brightly lit hello I'm French so I apologize in advance if I make any mistakes as I just said

I live in France and this story happened to me this summer just after the lockdown ended I was 19 years old at that time after the lockdown ended I went to my grandparents house to spend a few weeks my grandparents live in a small City in the north of France and they have a dog who is quite large when I was really young I lived with my grandparents for a year and at that time the dog was only a puppy her name is Chippy which means little devil in English but in an affectionate way since

I played with her a lot when I lived there we are really close and that will be important later two of my hobbies are taking long walks and running thus every evening I would take chippy for a long walk there is a path through the forest that leads to a small hill and at the top there is a large open area with Fields I run there a lot so I know the place well the air is fresh and the view was beautiful I went there with chippy every day which also helped my grandparents by giving

her plenty of exercise the first time we went there nothing special happened we just enjoyed our walk which is about 6 to 7 km so it takes about an hour the next day when we arrived at the top of the hill in the field it was probably around 10: p.m. but there was still some light because it was summer there were three other people walking in the fields they were younger than me probably about 15 or 16 years old I also noticed they were smoking so I guess they came here to avoid being seen by

their parents we passed by them I greeted them and they greeted me back once again nothing special happened for an entire week I took the same walk around the same time at 10 p.m. and passed by those three boys with nothing unusual occurring I was perfectly fine with that the second week as usual I went for a walk with chippy and arrived at the fields this time only one of those three boys was there and he wasn't smoking when he saw me I was at the entrance to the field just after climbing the little Hill

with the entrance to the forest just behind me he waved his hand to get my attention and asked if I had a lighter which I actually had in my pocket I told him yeah sure so he walked toward me with his hands in the pockets of his hoodie as he came closer for some reason I felt a shiver it's crazy how sometimes your instinct knows there is a problem but you don't listen to it because nothing seems off I handed him the lighter as he passed by and at that moment my dog was staring at

him then everything happened very quickly he made a swift movement with his hand coming from his hoodie and I only saw something shining I instinctively threw myself back so hard that I fell down and I realized that he was holding a knife and had just tried to stab me what saved me was my dog when she saw the guy trying to stabbed me she jumped on him and he fell down as I mentioned before she is a big dog I immediately got back on my feet and heard something behind me from the entrance of the

forest I saw two guys wearing animal masks running toward me they were probably the two friends in that moment your brain takes over you don't think at all and in this case the response I found was simple the other guy was still on the ground and I just looked looked at my dog and told her run I started running and she followed me but then I heard the worst possible thing from the guy who had gotten up catch him don't let him go at that moment I was completely terrified I just kept running hearing them

behind me thinking only how long will they follow me who the hell are they this was the first time I was truly grateful to be a runner I was clearly faster than those guys guys which saved me because they chased me for what felt like an eternity fortunately at the end of the field there is another entrance to the forest and this time it is a downhill path that leads to the road I heard the footsteps of the three guys fading away as I reached the end of the forest however I didn't stop running until

I got to my grandparents house and locked myself inside I took a big breath and gave a huge hug to my dog I could see in her eyes that she understood what had happened and I had never been so happy to have her in my life after that I told my grandparents everything we called the police but they didn't find anyone I don't know what those guys wanted but the animal masks made me think of something sinister I really don't want to know anyway I still take long walks with ch the hero dog but I

now go earlier in two places with more people I hope you enjoyed my story I apologize again if I made any mistakes and to the three guys in the forest let's not ever meet again