30 Hiking Through the Woods HORROR Stories (COMPILATION)

A dear pet passed yesterday so today i'm going to take it easy with some of my favorite kinds of stories this is a compilation of hiking horror stories i've read in the past enjoy everyone if you want your story narrated send it to us at darkstories.org i'm planning some episodes on encounters in the ozarks and stories from the appalachian or rocky mountains as soon as i get Enough stories thank you have a great day everyone the counts bird cage from the woodsman location poland i worked a small time park maintenance and upkeep job a few

years back for a local park it was no yellowstone but i grew up there hiking the hills and exploring the Forests when i got offered a job working there i took it without a second thought even though it didn't really pay well just my way of giving back to the park i have more than a few stories from my time there trekking about with a shovel and saw for whole days at a time but my favorite tale comes from a co-worker of mine who i knew as michael michael had a particular nickname among my fellow

crewmen The count this was as far as i could tell in reference to his angular european face in dark black hair the count was around 50 or so when i met him and yet he had such love for the forest that he stayed in his part-time volunteer job the count was a very kind and gentle man he would help out with anything you asked was always kind and compassionate of all the things i remember about the Count one thing that always stuck with me was his love of telling tales of adventures from his home country

of poland his passion for those stories are part of why i record them and spread them as much as i do today the count told no pun intended countless stories and many of them i can recall somewhat only one of them has really stuck with me all these years later And it was the last story he ever told me the count was soon to leave his job in this area of the country he began to tell me one last tale like i said the count was from poland and he moved to the u.s in 97

following the tragic passing of his girlfriend and his child in 94. such an event really shook him i could see the sadness in his eyes when he talked about it in detail Recollecting his story late one night in the maintenance garage to settle his nerves michael relocated to the rural areas of poland found himself a small job as a forester and settled down the town he had ended up in was very small with a population of less than 200 shrouded by a deep forest michael had worked with a lumber and forestry company that operated out

of the village and was granted a small Shared house along with his fellow workers and strict manager he was by far no stranger to the woods he had camped and hiked there his entire life as michael began to fall into the repetition of his logging job he found hiking and exploring his work area to be what really helped him ease his mind he spent countless dark nights alone roaming the forest in search of answers To his questions taking solace in the silent trees and bright stars it was where he felt the safest where he felt

the most relaxed the count had mentioned finding odd buildings and structures in the forests before but never anything like this he said he remembered the night clear as ever a crisp fall night full of the chirping of bugs and the sounds of trees wind Blowing through them he began to walk down the same dirt path that he took nearly every night prior and when he reached a point where he could break off to explore a new unseen region he entered into the brush and undergrowth most of the night was unremarkable he said until around 2

am that's when the trees began to clear away There within the open meadow he had never seen before was an ancient rusting structure it had a concrete base rather wide and flat that lay around the main structure of a silo-sized cage of welded bars the whole thing was clearly very odd and very old beginning to collapse even having several large holes in the frame michael was of course interested and as he began to advance on the cage The smell hit him the count described it as like a rotting animal and vegetables mixed strong enough to

be noticeable from forty feet away when he made it to the concrete base of the towering structure he climbed up and things did not seem right the floor was stained a dark reddish brown and splotches all over and large black feathers littered the inside of The cage crates and other miscellaneous objects lay strewn about the foundation all left sitting perfectly as if they hadn't been left there for years michael only took a few steps forward when he accidentally kicked over a small oil can making a loud and sudden crash but it soon resonated that the

object was not nearly large enough to make that Loud of a noise he began to scan the area with his small light and did not see anything around he had began to stifle his nerves when he looked up perched high above michael in the upper area of the cage was a massive creature it was covered with sleek black feathers and set between its shoulders was a human head it took the count more than a few tries To get this out as he told the story he was sort of stammering as if he were reliving the

very moment right in front of me he went on to describe how the thing opened its mouth wide wider than anything ought to be able to in order to release a loud bird call michael turned and fled crying out and running back into the trees he could hear the unmistakable sound of the huge bird leave its position on the Structure and flying over the treetops he fled through the forest back down his trail and towards the logging camp as he broke through the trees in a panic michael began to feel woozy and found himself struggling

to run he realized he was about to black out and right before his vision went dark he saw his manager exit the front door of the lodge in a hurry shouldering a weapon and aiming it towards michael before firing Michael woke up a day later in his bed he was alone in the lodge and didn't see any of his co-workers he examined the area and found a note left on his dresser addressed to him from his manager i know what you've seen it's come here before and i've kept it at bay until last night for

your safety you're no longer under our employment pack your things and vacate You must never speak of what you saw last night or i will find you you're best off forgetting that it ever happened the count described leaving the same day faced with stares from his co-workers he was so shaken from there he moved home and after a short while moved to america when the count finished the story i could tell just how upset he was he was nearly in tears and may have even Been shaking slightly i didn't want him to go on i

could see so much stress in him as he told the story but he kept speaking on that night i know what i saw that night he forced out to me in a quiet tone it's called a lot big it's a demon of sorts at this point tears rolled down his face but The demons are they're the spirits of oak posey he trailed off in polish i told him it was okay he didn't have to continue he thanked me for listening to his story grabbed his toolbox and coat then he left but that was the last

time i ever spoke to him what really terrifies me the most about this experience isn't what the cow told Me that chilly night in the garage but what happened soon after i remembered how michael could not bring himself to tell me what a latvia was when i researched it i knew why latvia is a polish demon of the harmful type believed to be the souls of lost children and the recently passed it horrifies me to the core to imagine that what the count saw that night was the demonic manifestation of his own child As i

said before i have not spoken to the count since i know it's a long shot but i know he always loved scary stories so michael if somehow this reaches you i'm so sorry and i will keep you and my thoughts goblin in l.u.k from rico s location Puerto rico this incident happened to my family in the mid-1960s while visiting el yunque a national forest in puerto rico this story is the reason why if i ever decide to visit el yunque or any forest for that matter i will act very very cautious i'll start with my

grandmother since my grandmother was a child she always wanted to visit el yuke it was Famous for its pristine waterfalls and for being the largest nature reserve in the island of puerto rico years later after she was married to my grandfather they took a trip with my dad who was then a teenager along with my aunts and my second cousins after a great day of hiking and bathing in the springs my second cousin myra who was about four at the time was playing near the hiking trails that left the spring el bano My grandmother happened

to look her way when she noticed a small humanoid thing staring at my cousin from behind a bush my grandmother said the hideous creature made eye contact with her my grandmother was startled and screamed at everyone to get my cousin myra my father jumped at my grandmother's sudden reaction then looked to where she was pointing and saw the humanoid creature as well it suddenly ran away disappearing into The forest but my father gave chase though smaller the creature ran much faster than him and soon parted through the brush and disappeared he mentioned that the thing

left a trail of pushed over plants and broken vegetation my grandmother then quickly told everyone to pack up they left al-junke and never went back i asked my grandmother what the creature looked like She said it was small humanoid and brown in color it had a garment-like thing of brown leather attached to it its face had a sinister look it was scheming and wicked the thing is el yunque is known for lots of disappearances and plenty of mysterious events these days i don't really have an interest in visiting the place as my friends who have

gone there have told me It's a very solitary and eerie place could dragons be real from sad hanzo maine location oregon [Music] about a month ago i went with a group of friends from college to go hiking in the cascade mountains in oregon right in the crater lake national park area the trip through the mountain ranges was fun and quite the workout Toward the end of our little vacation we decided to cross through the crater lake area to take in the view and see the blue waters for ourselves we arrived in the lake area late

in the day and decided to set up camp close to the lake shore that night the six of us had a great time talking sharing stories other than a scare from some two curious possums looking for food the night was relaxing And soon we all went to sleep exhausted from the long day's track around sunrise we began waking and preparing our meal for the coming day as we sat around our campfire eating in the early dawn light we began hearing a whooshing sound followed by the sound of trees rustling we all went quiet we were

looking around when a large shadow fell upon our group as a massive creature flew overhead As the creature flew bias i took in the features i could see it looked to be about the size of one of those mid-sized lair jets it had two massive wings four legs and a long tail that had what looked like fins about midway down its length its neck was long but not serpentine and its head was at least the size of a large car it flew off towards the lake more so towards wizard island but instead of landing on

the island it dove straight Into the water it took a good moment for our group to recover from the shock and fear of what we had just seen but soon we were packed and moving swiftly to get out of that park as we walked we were silent no one wanting to put words to what we saw not 15 minutes after setting out the sound of something breaking through the surface of the water and a loud screech resounded echoing from the direction of The lake and through the forest it was terrifying most of our group immediately

threw themselves into the tree line to hide logan the oldest of the group and i just stood there transfixed in awe and fear as that creature burst from the surface of the lake taking off once again into the air then flying off to the other side of the lake until it was out of sight after our group left and parted ways i Went home and looked up dragon sightings in the area but i didn't find a thing maybe it was a group hallucination maybe it just happened to be the world's biggest bird that we all

mistook for something different either way if you're planning on going out to the crater lake area of oregon keep your eyes on the sky my encounter with the jersey devil from silver wolf 69 location New jersey i've been interested in hiking for a long time after middle school i actually had more time to do that than less even with high school work during the break i visited one of my friends in new jersey for his 16th birthday his parents got him a new camera with night vision and video recording capabilities So i suggested that we

test it out more than any other place he wanted to go to the pine barrens it's so dark and tree covered he said i can really see how good this thing works there i agreed with him and i followed him in now i wish i hadn't that afternoon i kept hearing twigs snapping and branches moaning or creaking leaves rustling around us I brought each occurrence up to my friend who insisted that it was just the wind and the effects of the earth's settling or small animals like chipmunks considering he had lived in the state his

whole life i figured he knew what he was talking about as we continued to go deeper into the woods i kept getting the strange feeling like i was being watched i remember joking i hope it's not bigfoot But instead of a laugh my friend replied by stopping and turning to look at me i asked him what the problem was and he replied bigfoot isn't here this is jersey devil territory i realized then that this was probably why he suggested the pine barrens after all he wanted to catch a glimpse of the devil itself at the

time i was really into cryptozoology in the supernatural i Carried this little book full of different creatures and urban legends i pulled it out and remembered a page that had the jersey devil on it along with an illustration one that was too bizarre to be anything more than someone's imagination i showed it to him come on do you really believe that a creature like this exists he was about to answer but stopped when he began staring at something behind me He quickly whipped out his camera and tried to record it but he said he missed

it he told me to follow him so we could find out what it was as soon as the two of us took off i heard something overhead again i looked up but i did not see whatever made the noise my friend was really starting to freak out too at the time i was creeped out but i was sure that we had just spooked ourselves From the prior conversation but we then saw something unlike anything we'd ever seen before it was seven feet tall and skeletal hardly any flesh on its bones even the wings were like

thin bones it was perched atop one of the bare trees looking down at us like it was curious suddenly my friend screamed and took off faster than i'd ever seen him run before in the opposite direction Without a word i followed i heard a strange call from behind me but i dared not look back as soon as we reached the edge of the pine barrens we saw two people entering and immediately told them that's not a good idea they turned around and left taking our warning or just being creeped out by a couple of kids

being out of breath and coming running out of the forest i don't go to new jersey much anymore But if i ever pass the pine barrens again i'll know there's something in there something not natural and it's waiting and watching the thing on the river from here comes that boy location unknown you should always be careful when you go camping [Music] it was late april my grandfather and i were going camping on the river we took his boat which was an airboat with a six-cylinder lycoming engine and a 12-foot hull we got to the campsite

which was just an island on the river we called the place shell island because there were loads of snail shells we set up camp and got finished at around 11am We decided to go riding the river when we got back it must have been around 6 pm we stayed up in the tent until about 8 pm we got back in the boat and grabbed the frog gigs and put on our lights we gigged frogs until about 12 am then we headed back to camp at around 2 or 3 i was awakened by movement outside i

looked over to my grandfather who was Beside me he was sound asleep so it wasn't him now this was a very isolated island you either get here by boat or hike about 80 miles so we had to have been the only campers here i knew deep down that this was no person because i would have heard the boat come to shore but listening more closely whatever it was didn't even sound like a person it was walking on hoves instead of feet And no deer was as big as this thing was it sounded like it was

600 pounds we were in florida and the biggest deer i've ever seen personally was 200 pounds tops as for bears they don't have hooves i quietly tried to look through the tent i made out a shape that was something on two legs but compared to a person its joints were backwards like a cats or cow legs and it stood quite tall about nine or ten feet Suddenly it turned its head towards me looking at my face through the opening of the tent my heart sank when i saw its eyes they were sort of glowing white

i zipped back up the flap laid back down and pretended to sleep i prayed that that creature was not here for us when morning came i dragged my grandfather out of the tent to show him the prince on the ground He seemed perplexed and he didn't really say anything but we left early that day i think both of us were quite spooked something in the snow from tatiana location switzerland my family and i live in lochendal a relatively isolated side valley in the canton of villa switzerland as of recently we've had an abundant amount of

snow cutting off the entire Valley from any civilization this apparently happened quite often back in the day it was always a reason for some scary stories to originate my father had been trapped outside due to not being able to leave work as they announced that the road was going to close luckily i was allowed to leave my gymnasium during aladdin exam which is usually not the case so thanks to Whoever convinced our principal to let us go i would catch the last train that was going to be a loud passage so it was just my

mother 12 year old sister and me at home an all-female household for now at least a few days later the first supply helicopter arrived and i was to go down into the village to get our share of it i had to go because my sister was too young and my mother's knee was acting up Again it would probably be worth it to mention that we live a bit outside the village and the walk down would take about an hour all of that in knee deep or even hip deep snow at some point so i went

down into the cellar to get the snowshoes to make it at least a bit easier to walk i emptied my school backpack so i'd have something to carry our stuff back in Then put on my snow wear and snowshoes off i was the first three quarters of the hike were pretty uneventful i could already make out the smoke coming from the village and to my delight the street was cleaned from here on out i was glad to finally be able to walk without snowshoes again i looked back up the way i came down just moments

ago and saw something that resembled a jagata hip deep in snow A chakata is something that is kind of a tradition here around carnival single men would wear fur and a scary looking mask then go around smearing people's faces with coal i thought it was just some guy pulling a prank on me at first so i continued walking looking over every so often to see the chagata come closer and closer that's when i saw it eyes nose and mouth of what i presumed to be a mask But they were moving if it was a mask

they definitely should not be able to move as usually chicanta masks were wooden this freaked me out i began to walk faster casting side long glances to check if it was still following me and it was it was gaining on me getting closer steadily too close for comfort even though it was half submerged in Snow it was keeping pace and gaining i needed to get away from it i started running and as soon as i broke into a sprint i could hear snow crunching hard behind me i didn't dare look back i knew that it

was pursuing me it was a struggle just to keep from falling on my face on the slippery road i heard a terrifying sound from behind me A growl or yelp of some kind it didn't sound happy that i was getting away from it i sprinted all the way down to the village ignoring everything around me never even thinking about my stamina somehow i reached the place they were handing out the supplies and only then did i stop i guess i felt safe with other people around i fell to the ground gasping for air Before pulling

myself together again and retrieving our share of things though i did not for the life of me want to walk home alone luck was on my side now as i caught sight of my father's friend joseph who just so happened to be the one clearing the snow from the street i was able to hitch a ride from him the normal 60-minute hike was reduced to a three-minute drive and i was indefinitely grateful I still am not sure of what i saw was it just a tasteless prank or something more sinister some odiva siding too from

alexander location bulgaria i shared a story with you all in 2016 about the spirits called the samodeva that was back in october of 2016. but now i have a second experience about them this happened just a few days ago My friends and i usually do a nighttime mountain hike to two peaks of a mountain in bulgaria the peaks are a few kilometers apart there's nothing between them but natural plain with tall grass bushes and a few forested areas just after the first peak there's an old cottage where an old man acts as a rescuer for

hikers in distress he's a spry old dog who walks faster than us even in his seventies and we by the way Are in our mid-twenties me and the two of my friends reached the first peak at around 11 p.m it's 1800 meters above sea level and is completely covered by large boulders it overlooks a city and we reveled in the beauty of the city lights for about an hour then we ate and continued down the mountain top now towards the higher 2300 meter peak which was five kilometers ahead of us We walked for about 40

minutes when we reached the cottage but unlike before there was no one in it the lights were out and the door was shut strange we thought the old man is here all the time what's going on out of nowhere we heard the agonizing cry of an injured animal the heck was that one of my friends asked I don't know we should keep going the other replied i think we should just stay here for now whatever's causing that noise i don't want to be outside and meet it i insisted but my argument lost after a few

minutes of discussion we continued to our destination on foot if only they'd listened we came across the side of the noise we heard But it wasn't just one animal there were rabbits coyotes birds and rodents all over just piled up all with the same finger wide wounds in their rib cages guys i think we should go downhill to the resorts i said agreed the two of them said in unison all of a sudden i felt an arm on my face and i'd jerk it away from me turning around it was just the old man but

his face was White and his eyes were wide open he put a finger to his mouth to shush us and pointed to the direction of the forest we saw four of the creatures that i had talked about so long ago my heart sank i remember thinking not again my friends saw them too as i watched their jaws drop what in the world are those One of them asked we need to move now i screamed we were picking up speed when we noticed that the old man was hurt my friends picked him up and started walking

quickly to the cottage then we heard them they sounded like an old woman's laugh and a scream just after it and i could hear footsteps in the snow we ran faster than we ever had before but one of my friends fell over Stumbling upon a rock i turned around ready to rescue my friend and face them and immediately i heard an echoing voice i think it was in my head but i know what was coming from them the samodhiva i froze and didn't hear my friends yelling at me i don't know how but we were

already at the cottage i stared at them wide-eyed frozen in my position My hand was shaking they opened the door and when my friends pulled me by the shoulder inside we got in locked the place down and covered the two windows with pieces of furniture i sat down on the floor and realized that i had soiled myself the samodeva were outside the entire night pushing clawing hitting at the walls and the doors We didn't get a wink of sleep that night and we left midday the next day terrified we're never going to those mountains again

voices in the snow from bruce location idaho this story begins on my walk home from my best friend's house we live deep in the mountains of idaho where each home can be up to five miles Apart it was late december and even though i was walking on the road the snow was several inches deep and falling steadily in order to get to my house i had to hike through the dense forest for almost two miles it was around seven in the evening so the sky had fallen dark leaving the only light to be reflecting off

the snow my friends and i have hiked these trails for years and are extremely familiar With it even in the dark after cutting off the old logging road and into the dark forest i began to hear heavy footfalls coming from the hauler off to my right thinking it was just some woodland critter such as a deer or moose as they are heavily populated in this area i thought nothing of it and kept on my way although the footsteps still followed keeping pace with me as i headed up the mountain towards my home i began to

feel As if eyes were watching my every move from behind the tall pines lining the trail after living here so long i knew that no wild animal would take this much interest in a person so i began to quicken my pace that's when the deep muffled voice came from the dark hello with confusion i left the trail to try and see if there was someone who needed Help but just out of eyesight i called out to it is someone there however i was left with just silence hoping it was just the wind and a trick

of my mind i made my way back to the trail thumping footsteps continued to follow my every step forcing me to quicken my pace again suddenly the snap of a large tree branch forced me to stop i turned around and i Tried to find what had made the noise that's when i saw the furry black hands reaching around from behind a small tree the figure stood seven feet tall and easily overtook the mass of the tree i blinked repeatedly to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me i took two steps back and the

creature in response took a step in my direction its long arm came out away from its body with its palm up like a person does to Greet a dog i quickly screamed then turned to sprint up the rest of the trail to my house where i then quickly ran inside slamming and locking the door behind me i was too afraid to check the windows i was home alone at the time so i quickly ran to my parents empty bedroom to grab a flashlight i made my way to the balcony on the top floor of the

three-story home i made my way to the railing then i shone the Flashlight in the direction of the trail head easily seen from the north side of the house immediately dark yellow eyes reflected back through the darkness i screamed at it to go away but the creature only moved from behind the forest to the edge of the tree line where its full mass could be seen reflecting in the flashlight's beam my body froze with complete terror as my eyes adjusted to see the full grin and Rows of teeth of this monster with the grin on

its face it turned its large back on me and walked slowly and confidently into the forest disappearing into the dark i walked back inside locked the doors in my parents room and eventually passed out i never walked that trail alone at night again even to this day i still feel those yellow eyes peering at me from the Darkness whenever i have to walk even a few yards out to the barn to feed the horses return of the bubba jacks from jm location ohio it's found me again the creature that i encountered six years ago i'm

25 years old and live in ohio near the border of west virginia my house is a few blocks from the main Road secluded in the middle of a dense forest when i was 19 i encountered a creature that i call the bubba jacks and i lost a good friend of mine now six years later that monster has found me it started when i heard voices coming from the woods at night or rather jonah's voice the voice of the friend who i assume was taken by the bubba jacks But the voice was hollow and not like

the voice i remember at first i thought i was going crazy but then the sounds came from below my bedroom window after the first incident i checked my front door camera i couldn't see anything but darkness the only odd thing was a bit of glinting to the right of the video maybe one of two huge white eyes or maybe i'm being paranoid I called my friend seth who knew of my first encounter i told him that it was back and i told him we were going on a bit of a hike later that day seth

met me outside my house armed we sat outside all night hoping to see something but saw nothing even jonah's voice stayed quiet the following day i decided to check the porch camera again what i saw terrified Me i saw me and seth walking around outside basically patrolling but i saw a very tall and dark silhouette it stood in the corner and seemed to watch us i called seth and i told him we need to go again but he was flying out of the country that day so i would be alone that night i stayed close

to the house with the porch light on so i could see anything That tried to sneak up on me about an hour in i heard a rustle in the bushes followed by struggling noises and a pained cry i ran into the trees gripping my weapon tightly i ran fast for a few seconds then slowed as i realized that i could be taking the bait it was too late i had already come up on a small clearing and i saw the thin Frame of that creature it's back-faced me as it knelt before fresh prey it didn't

notice me as it tore away at its flesh i was too afraid to turn my back on it and run so i aimed at it i fired but it went clean through the shoulder the bubba jack stopped it made no movement no sound it was entirely still then it slowly turned its head to face Me still knelt on the ground its eyes glimmered and red flowed from its mouth it stared at me a low growl erupting from its throat it stood and continued to stare then it brought up its huge black hands and showed me

its palms carved into each of them was a symbol and then it faded from my sight like a transitioning photo in a Slideshow or something i was going mad wasn't i a week later during the day seth and i were out hunting the same forest he had just come back from his trip we hiked in very deep and noticed something was off about the trees we realized then that they were in rows like they had been planted but we were so deep in the forest that it didn't seem likely that they belonged to a company

but we had no idea who Would come out here and plant trees in rows like this i do not know if the planted trees had anything to do with the bubba jacks but it was definitely odd i'll be moving soon and hopefully i no longer have to deal with this for our final story it's another blast from the past a tale i shared with you in 2017 that more than likely you haven't heard yet Enjoy long walks from lola e i live in portland and as some of you may know there are loads of great

hiking trails in our city i enjoy walking them on lonely nights to get some peace of mind it can be a stress reliever i especially like the trails by small rivers i mean listening to the rushing of water Can intensify that feeling of serenity that feeling you get when you're alone in the woods about a year back i decided i wanted to hike one of those trails i had gotten into an argument with my boyfriend and i needed to do something to put my mind at ease i was 22 at the time before that night

i had walked the trail i was going to plenty of times and nothing ever happened nothing out of the Ordinary that is despite knowing this i always brought a pocket knife with me just in case i can be a very paranoid or cautious person let me try to describe the entrance of this trail it's been about a year since i've been there so my memory might be a little rough there's a lot of grass a huge open clearing surrounded by woods behind you are a bunch of houses and Above you is an old rusty green

bridge there's some kind of modern art inspired statue on the right of the pathway that leads to the trail at the time i believe it was nine or ten o'clock at night i was almost excited to get lost in the sounds and sights of the woods that night and i began to walk down the trail alone my destination was the old stone house-like structure located close to the top of the trail Some people call it the witch's hut i know that's what i called it when i was a kid it was covered in graffiti and

moss and the inside smells like pee after 10 or 20 minutes of walking at a fast pace i reached the building nothing strange had happened up until that point but i did have this overwhelming feeling of being watched i caught myself constantly looking back as i walked the trail But i never heard anything odd aside from the occasional hooting of an owl i hadn't seen anything particularly odd either i sat on a log outside the witch's hut and behind me was a drop-off covered in bushes and vines and at the bottom was a small river

i had been facing the hut before i whipped around startled by a sudden rustling noise that came from below i looked down squinting at the river Below me and i kid you not something came darting out of the bushes from one side and into a bush on the side closest to mine i didn't know what the heck that thing was but it somehow managed to scale the cliff in a split second and i watched it dart around the back of the hut this all happened so fast i didn't even have time to react My heart

felt like it was about to explode out of my chest i could barely make out any of the things features and i didn't think i really wanted to my flight instinct kicked into high gear as i sprinted away down the trail it sounded like there was a second pair of smaller lighter footsteps in rhythm with my own this boosted my adrenaline by 10 times or so my body couldn't keep up that running For much longer i hadn't heard the footsteps for a few minutes and i decided to stop and turn around and that was a

huge mistake whatever that thing was it was sitting on a decaying tree stump staring at me in complete silence it sat like a dog but it had the body of a human its elbows bent outwards and it had no hands its eyes were two tiny close together Yellow dots and its head was small and oval it had no hair and it was a deep purple color i felt like i was staring at it and it was staring at me for hours neither of us moved a muscle it was so crazy and terrifying i honestly thought

i had been imagining things until it freaking blinked i finally regained my common sense and i Turned the other way and bolted i don't think i'd ever run that fast in my whole life when i reached the bottom of the trail i didn't stop running heck no i leapt into my car and rolled up all the windows and i stared at that thing one last time before my windows were up i heard the thing hoot like an owl just like the owls i had heard on the way to the witch hut Then this creature turned

around and let back into the woods and then there was a flash of white light that came from the forest and then a low humming noise it was like nothing i'd ever heard of before needless to say i didn't stick around to find out what it was i haven't told this story to many in fear that they'll think i'm crazy or something i honestly don't know what that thing Was it was almost otherworldly owl creature or whatever you were let's not meet again i didn't really like my step-dad he wasn't a bad guy i just

didn't know him very well and he took my dad's place which didn't really sit well in my head or my heart you see my dad died while exercising one day He was an avid jogger he seemed so healthy to everyone but the next thing we knew an ambulance was driving down the street racing to my dad's lifeless body i believe it was an aneurysm not really sure what caused it though a couple of years later my mom being lonely found someone new someone i didn't want to accept craig was a nice guy he was in

his early 50s Loved playing video games with my brother and sister and he took every opportunity he had to try to bond with me but i wasn't ready to open up yet not even when my mom offered that the two of us take a weekend to go hiking in the mountains she'd been wanting craig to get more in shape he wasn't nearly as in shape as my dad then again neither was i But i did enjoy the outdoors craig obliged but i was hesitant imagining just how awkward it was going to be just me and

craig out in the woods it didn't sound too fun one night when my mom pulled me aside after dinner she begged me to go with him i was 17 years old and i would be graduating next year moving out of state for college She dreaded the idea of the two of us not knowing each other very well not getting along so to make her happy we began planning a trip to the mountains it was nearly fall right before school started back up we were carrying big bags equipped with a tent some flashlights batteries fire starters

because we weren't going to be able to do that castaway style craig had also gone shopping and bought Some mres and a bunch of astronaut treats those freeze-dried ice cream bars and candy bars and such he thought it'd be fun to pig out on them the first night after we got a camp set up of course to be quite honest seeing him so excited to go hiking with me it really helped me loosen up on the trip we soon pulled up at the start of the hiking trail on a friday evening It was a couple

of hours until sundown but there were plenty of places along the trail to camp at so we weren't worried about not being able to find a spot fast enough as we were unloading the gear from the truck another truck pulled up next to us a father and his two sons who appeared to be going fishing down by the nearby river as the two of us got started along the Trail i looked back one last time before the trees enveloped my view of the parking lot i saw the father and the kids unloading some fishing rods

when the father asked the kid who appeared to be his oldest or biggest son to grab the tackle box under the back seat by then the trees around us had overtaken our view it was now just us and nature and a slowly reddening sky After about 15 minutes of a walk we ended up setting camp in a small clearing which said several yards to the right of the trail if any other hikers happened to walk by and turn their head they'd be able to see us pretty clearly the two of us fumbled with getting the

tent set up eventually laughing each time we failed to do so when we managed to rig it in a way that It wouldn't fall we collapsed in the ground tired and getting pretty hungry craig whipped out two astronaut ice cream sandwiches from his backpack tossing one at me it was a neapolitan flavor you know strawberry vanilla than chocolate it was dry as heck as expected but really delicious i see some kindling back there not too Far behind you won't you grab it we'll get a fire going craig requested i nodded and did as he asked

i brought back a mess of twigs we made a slight hole in the ground and put the twigs inside he poured some lighter fluid on it and set it ablaze then slowly one by one he piled on some small logs until there was a full full-blown fire Before us he began to pull out two of those collapsing camping chairs we'd brought those along too though i think he was regretting it carrying just one of those heavy and awkwardly sized things was a bit much especially for a long hiking trip but at least we'd have something

to sit down on that wasn't dirty or wooden he passed me the light blue and he sat down in a lime green With a big sigh he asked me how you holding up so far i swatted at a gnat or mosquito or something on my neck then answered i love being out here but uh never really went camping much well you probably can't tell craig said smacking his beer belly been laughing but i'm no outdoorsman either so uh what you hungry for beef stew or chicken soup he pulled out a couple Of mre bags then

dangled them in front of me to let me choose your choice i answered not really knowing what to say i'd never really had an mre before and i wasn't too sure they'd be very good beef stew it is he placed the other bag back in the backpack then carefully began to read the immense instructions on the back of that bag after watching him for way too long Trying to figure it out he finally managed to get the bag to the point where the food was heating up inside we had to sit a couple more minutes

before it was done there was an awkward silence for a while i think craig was trying to figure out what to say to me and to be fair i didn't know what to say to him either suddenly he blurted out So uh how how school been get a particular girl in your life i smurfed i don't know why but him asking me that it made me feel irritated sure hiking along the way here and chatting it up and cooperating has been fine for me but i think it was because those activities weren't exclusive to a

father and son But when he asked me about school it reminded me of how my dad would ask how school was after i'd come home and i didn't like that this may sound immature and even mean but it made me feel like he was pretending to be my dad but he wasn't in my head he was not my dad he was just a strange man who met my mom and they happened to get along together i felt forced to know him And now i felt forced to bond with him looking back on this now i

feel so bad but back then my head was filled with anger rebellion and the only thing i could think to say was that's not your business craig oh no i i'm sorry i understand but craig apologized swiftly his sincerity stumbling out as words i couldn't piece together Eventually he caught up with himself and breathed in real deep what i meant to say was i know maybe that was a personal question i just well i want to be your friend first i know i'll never be your dad i know that but i do want to be

your friend is that okay i suddenly felt guilt for reacting the Way i did but that was soon replaced with feeling embarrassment for myself i felt stupid and i felt awkward i wasn't ready for the sudden heart to heart i'm just gonna i began to stand up when suddenly something landed right in front of us landing right on the fire and putting it out all at once i fell back into my chair And craig shouted the two of us looked down at the campfire together and there we saw the strangest thing there was no trace

of the dark object we saw briefly fall between us there was no trace of an impact on the fire either instead the fire was out while it wasn't out actually it was it was as if it had never been started the hole was there that we dug for the Fire and my kindling was waiting to be lit there was no trace of the twigs being burned as a matter of fact these small logs that craig had placed in the fire were now gone what in the world he said then turned around where he'd kept the

logs oh my god he muttered what craig what is it I was feeling a bit nervous then without turning around he instead beckoned me with his hand i came over and looked over his shoulder there on the ground was each and every log he had found and gathered including the ones he had placed in the fire they'd somehow returned to their spot behind them and were not charred or burnt at all ah how is that possible i asked You're asking me i've got no idea he admitted it's like a glitch in the matrix i guess

i think he was trying to make light of the situation it wasn't really scary it was just really confusing because neither of us had any idea what had just happened soon after that we prepared the tent and got ready to go To sleep as we got cozy in our sleeping bags just when things were supposed to get quiet we instead heard a noise in the distance sounding like it was coming from above us like it was coming from the sky the noise was like a metallic hum it was one note playing slowly for the next

hour we sat there listening to it wondering what it could be from I guessed it was a plane or something but there weren't any airports or bases near us if it was a plane flying overhead it would have been long gone in a couple of minutes craig made a joke about it being just a really weird bird i didn't know how to reply he eventually fell asleep and after several more minutes of confusion I was too tired to keep my eyes open in the morning we packed up heading further up the trail the plan was

to make it to the peak and then go back down camping another night before going home but plans be damned we never did make it to the peak three quarters of the way up the humming sound we'd heard in the sky the previous night came again This time it was ahead of us not above us at all but ahead of us like if we kept walking we'd run into it whatever it was with curiosity we kept going albeit more slowly than before at the next bend in the trail i stepped around the corner first and

stopped it took everything i had just to keep breathing oh my god i said And craig came rushing up to me asking what was going on but then he was breathless too the next second ahead of us where the canopy and the trees opened up just above the trail hovered three vortexes they're hard to describe there were these black voids sort of spiraling and swirling in on themselves Each of them hovered a few feet off the ground i was so awestruck and dying for an explanation for these things that it took me a minute or

two to notice the dead deer on the ground it was a buck it seemed to have been freshly killed by something its midsection was all torn up they began to descend these vortexes onto the carcass must have taken them a couple more Minutes to do so they descended so slowly all the while craig and i were dead silent when these black spinning things made contact with the deer's body a great wind began to well out from it pushing us back we struggled to keep our footing and we looked on trying to see what was going

to happen the three black objects suddenly formed Together and disappeared instantly there was no flash of light no sudden blackout nothing like that they were just gone maybe we just couldn't comprehend how they left but looking back on the trail the deer's carcass was gone there were no signs of a struggle in the dirt no markings at all that the things could Have left no sign of a great wind craig in utter disbelief ran over to where the deer had been laying before he was pawing at the ground muttering it doesn't make sense how is

that possible before looking back at me i don't think it's safe here he can fast suddenly there was a deep snort or huff to the left of us I ran over to craig a bit scared and stood next to him we both faced the woods and saw a buck standing there perfectly healthy the horns and that color refer they look the same the same as the deer that had just been lying on the ground its ears twitched at the sound of a twig snapping nearby before i could see what it was coming from Craig had

grabbed me by the arm and told me to run i kept looking back though as we did so the deer had begun to run as well but a large cat a mountain lion i think had fallen down onto it and was now tearing into its midsection tearing into it at the exact same spot we'd found its carcass before we were running down the trail now we need to go home i don't think it's right here I'm really really sorry i was having fun he looked at me out of breath and as if asking permission he

said maybe we can do something else sometime soon would that be okay i swallowed hard and i nodded we started to slow down we were exhausted now and it was almost dark again i'm not sure where we are craig said I've got no idea how close we are to the bottom i sighed i don't either and i really don't want to get lost maybe we should set up cap again we could keep going in the morning craig thought it over for several seconds i may have suggested it but i had no idea if it was

the right decision we didn't know what the black things Were or if they were even alive didn't know if they were dangerous we just felt weird about the whole thing yeah yeah you're right we'll stay we'll stay another night and in the morning we'll find our way back down we set up the tent again we were much more efficient this time we got some firewood and had a fire going pretty quick this time the fire was much bigger i Guess we both had a newfound fear of the dark out here we didn't say anything to

each other the rest of the night and when we went to bed in the tent we made sure not to put the fire out this time we just had to have a nightlight before we went to sleep though there was one thing said from his sleeping bag craig said to me Good night i'll make sure to get you home safe tomorrow i promise once again that feeling of being told something that my dad should be telling me came over me a bit of anger bubbled to the top and i couldn't help but reply i'm not

your responsibility you know you don't even have to be here craig didn't say anything after that But i could feel that he wanted to he just didn't know what to say and just as before i immediately felt guilt and embarrassment until i fell asleep i kept repeating in my head i shouldn't have said that i woke up in the middle of the night and as soon as i heard what had woke me up my eyes grew wide it was the humming sound again It was close but quiet i sat straight up and reached over to

wake up craig but his sleeping bag was empty when i turned to face the entrance to the tent the flap was open i slowly poked out my head and i looked around didn't take me long to see the craig was standing just beyond the campfire he seemed to be staring at something and when i felt a powerful gust of wind Around me i got out of the tent and i called out towards craig are you alright i asked he didn't reply or move i ran up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder but he

didn't budge and then i saw what was before him a large black vortex another one but bigger than any we'd seen yet and craig had reached out his hand to touch it Just before it made contact i tried to blurt out to tell him to stop i was even a second away from yanking on his shoulder to separate him from the thing but it was too late he touched it the vortex disappeared and craig was gone one moment i felt his warm shoulder under my palm and the next moment i was latching on to nothing

but the Night air tears welled in my eyes and then i remembered before when this happened at the campfire the logs had just appeared where they were and when it happened to the deer the deer had reappeared where it had been i ran around the campsite but craig was not there i ran up and down the trail for 20 yards or so but craig was nowhere to be seen I went back to the campsite and crawled into the tent just to check and there he was craig was in a sleeping bag but his eyes were

wide open and they were looking straight up craig are you okay craig didn't even blink from the movement of his sleeping bag his chest rising and falling underneath i knew he was alive but he wasn't responsive I waved my hand in front of his eyes trying to get him to flinch to blink to respond in some way but he wouldn't budge worried and morbidly curious i crawled up right next to him looked him in the eye and slowly lowered my finger i must have been only a millimeter away from touching his eyelid when i pulled

my finger back he wasn't going to respond to me It was like he was catatonic i was crying full on now tears dripping on to craig's sleeping bag i kept calling out to him even shook him but nothing would happen what had he done why did he touch that thing and the last thing i said to him ah i told him he didn't have to be here guilt had risen up in me more than ever before i packed up everything Then searched craig's bag for a cell phone he hadn't brought one because he didn't want

any distractions from spending time with me and i didn't have one because i'd simply forgotten to bring it great when all that was left to pack up was the tent and craig's sleeping bag which i obviously wasn't able to i tried to pick him up But he was bigger than me i tried to drag him but that wasn't going to work i hated the idea of it but i knew that if i was going to get help i'd have to leave him here i tossed more logs in the fire making sure that he would have

plenty of light and warmth i zipped up his tent real well so that nothing could get inside Before i walked down the trail leaving him in the small clearing i looked back then i whispered i'm sorry i took off running down that mountain but the trail seemed longer than it had before i ran and ran tumbling a few times at the weight of my backpack soon it was sunrise letting me know that i'd been running For literally hours even though the trip up to the highest point where we'd found the deer had taken no less

than three or four hours of hiking how could i have run several hours straight downhill and not be at the bottom there was something truly wrong with this place and i was soon struggling with the idea that i might not ever make it back Soon the sun was high in the sky and i was still running i had no idea where i was getting the energy i must have been crying the entire night my eyes and my cheeks were sore where tears had fallen and dried up my face felt like a swollen mess just when

i thought i was going to give up i landed on a straightened and familiar part of the trail i looked up straight ahead where i would Have expected the trail to end but what i saw was different there was darkness a wall of sheer black a black that seemed to swirl in on itself a black that gave off a strong wind i looked left and right this black wall seemed to extend for as far as i could see between the trees i walked close to it i followed it to the left for several meters still

all darkness I came back to the trail i was on then went right and again nothing but black wall like the blackness itself was shielding me from exiting the mountain i came back to the trail and i looked at it there was only one way we were going to get off this mountain i had to make it through i took in a deep breath and i swallowed down hard I grabbed onto my backpack straps as if they were lifelines i closed my eyes and i began to approach the black wall my breathing became frantic and

my footsteps became less sure but i kept going one step the already strong wind got even more rough as if it was trying to pry open my eyelids but i kept them closed Two steps the wind was so strong against my face it felt as if it was pushing me back and it was making it hard to breathe three steps the wind died down immediately the humming noise that had surrounded me had just stopped when i opened my eyes it was a couple of hours away from sunset and there in front of me was the

parking Lot craig's truck was there and to my left a father and two sons one of whom was excitedly racing to the back seat of the truck pulling out a tackle box from underneath the seat i was dumbfounded and i turned around expecting to see a black wall at the tree line but what i was actually met with brought more tears to my eyes I smiled whoa you okay if you don't want to go hiking we don't have to i mean it was greg happy and healthy and ready to begin our hike it was like

nothing ever happened not wasting another moment i went with what he said craig i'm feeling really sick i think we need to go home He hadn't realized i would take him up on his offer so he started to ask if i was sure he frowned obviously disappointed are you sure maybe we can wait it out and you'll feel better shoving my tongue in the back of my throat and forcing myself to think about everything that had happened i was able to make myself vomit okay let's get back in the truck we'll just go hiking another

time He helped me back to the truck i sat in the passenger seat then he got in the driver's seat his look of disappointment was worse now i wiped my mouth and caught my breath when i settled down i looked at him and touched his shoulder the same shoulder i'd latched on to when he disappeared i told him i'm not trying to get out of it i promise How's about we do something else this weekend i think it'd be a lot of fun just the two of us he looked at me and smiled he seemed

relieved yeah that sounds like a lot of fun [Music] encounter at laxy wheel from laser brand i'm a new yorker but from 1999 until 2001 i lived in the northern uk for school i attended manchester university at the time i was dating an irish girl and she and i decided to go on a trip to the isle of man since the ferry was cheap and we were students with little expendable income we ordered our tickets and packed our backpacks we got on the ferry and ended up sparking a conversation with the couple Who i won't

name but their family owned a castle that they opened to the public and they offered us room and board for next to nothing as it was off-season tourist-wise and we were poor students who were ecstatic and took the offer once on the isle we were warmly taken care of one night after dinner with said couple not sure why but we started talking about the rich history of the isle of Man and its unique government everything from the tt motorcycle race to world record landmarks they ended up mentioning the laxi will the world's largest water will

and how it's just a short hike from the town of laxy we set off the next day and got to laxi and got a room there the next morning we were up very early at about 4 00 am and we set off on our hike to laxy will It was still dark then our only light being street lights our little tourist map had the hiking trail to the wheel on it by the time we were up out of town going towards the wheel the sun was just starting to come up again and the air was

very cool and everything was getting dewy there was a paved trail going up to the hill with little unpaved trails going away from it with grass growing all Around we then found the wheel it was massive just huge we sat down by it and ate some bread and smoked cod i was sitting to the left of my then girlfriend i began to hear music faintly in the air not coming from the town i looked around wondering where it was coming from but then just sort of dismissed it But it grew louder and i asked my

girlfriend if she could hear it she nodded but could not pinpoint the direction thinking we weren't alone we stood up and began to look around thinking that some other hikers were coming but no one showed up i finally could tell where the music was coming from though and i began to walk towards it i walked up the trail about a hundred feet away from the wheel The music got louder and began sounding really good to me at this point i don't recall where my girlfriend was i continued back and forth on a particular spot on

the trail and realized the music was off the trail seemingly in the grassy hilly meadow ahead of me i walked off to go closer to it the music was so alluring amazing like every favorite song you'd ever Heard wrapped into one i can't for the life of me label it in any genre it was in the air and just intoxicating i pushed forward until i saw a small round clearing in the grass half expecting maybe a couple of youngsters doing the you know with the radio playing so i slowed down and peaked over into this

round clear area cautiously What i saw you won't believe there were no young lovers but tiny people dancing around and playing singing to music i literally rubbed my eyes was i hallucinating but no there they were real as day little blonde and brown haired people they had long hair some braided some not and i had trouble discerning the males from females They were dressed in what i could only call renaissance outfits some had hats on and there were about 30 of them all together they were dancing roughly in a circle with a blonde woman standing

in the middle not dancing just standing there being tended to by what appeared to be servants besides being very small about eight to ten inches tall she was very beautiful She had a teal blue dress on and long blonde hair down past her waist it was braided on her head like a french braid then it combined into one braid with tassels at the end i stood there watching at least 15 minutes when she looked up at me and linked her eyes with mine linked is the word completely locked i couldn't look away she began to

walk towards me and when She did all the other little people stopped and stared as she walked maybe 40 feet away from me she seemed to grow taller by the time she was at the edge of the small circle she was my height i'm six foot one i looked behind her and the little people were still little but just standing motionless She briefly turned to her what i call servants and they fell back she looked down at the edge of the circle with a sort of cautious look then stepped into the grass she walked right

up to me and began to speak she had wide set eyes that were large and light blue she had a wide flat forehead and a long pointed nose her lips were thin but still full in a way if that makes sense She's what i would call a handsome woman a classic beauty but more of a caricature she smelled like a mixture of fresh cool air and lilac blossoms not perfumed more like it was her natural scent it too was intoxicating she began to talk to me but i could not understand what she was saying it

sounded scandinavian that's the only man-made language i can think of that reminded me of this I could tell she was asking me questions but i could not understand what she gestured behind me as if to ask did i come from that direction i said i was sorry to intrude and that i came from the waterwheel she mimicked what i said but in a questioning tone my heart was in awe and started to flutter like when i was a teen talking to a pretty girl she held out her left hand and i reached Out to touch

it her fingers were beautiful and particularly long like a good third longer than they should have been i held out my right hand and held hers it was warm and soft and quite strongly gripping she didn't try to pull me but when i relaxed my hand she held mine more firmly she stepped closer so we were face to Face i could feel her breathing on me as she spoke she was one hundred percent a living thing even though i still had my doubts i lifted my left hand towards her face and she moved her head

back but kept holding my hand i closed my hand to withdraw it but she grabbed it and held it to her face she rested her face in it She opened her eyes and moved forward too kiss me that's when i heard my girlfriend absolutely screaming at me i snapped out of it and looked behind me my girlfriend was up on the path yelling at me full bore with her hands to her sides i turned back and the lady or whatever she was was gone But i could still feel the residual feeling on my hand from

her face the clearing was there but all the little people were missing the sky was dark like the sun was down again i ran back to my girlfriend she said she had looked for me all day and when she found me i was just standing there completely motionless like i was about to kiss someone who wasn't there She said she was afraid to leave the trail because of stories she had heard when she was growing up in ireland stories about the fae folk i'd been standing there so long that even people from town had begun

looking for me it was sundown but for me it had been early morning when i last spoke with my girlfriend to this day i have not lived a single minute without thinking of that woman My heart physically aches and yearns for her i honestly don't know what she was but she couldn't have been human something in the mountains from paywest i live with my family and our house is on the edge of the city near the mountains in my region there are lots of suitable places to hike some may be a bit dangerous but Nonetheless

worth the time to go hiking with friends and staying overnight my house is in a small neighborhood and just behind our backyard is a pathway that goes up the hills and into the mountains not too far away from the house you get the picture one day i was working on a project that i had to take to university it was due the next day my parents called me downstairs and told Me that they were taking my little brother and were going to a family gathering so i said goodbye and ran back upstairs to continue with

my project after a couple of hours the project was finally done i looked at the clock and it read 5 45 pm and the sun was still out so i decided to go for a quick hike to calm my mind i got ready took some gear and went on The path behind the house i headed into the mountains on my way i saw many wild animals like birds deer and squirrels i even cautiously stumbled upon a bear with some newborns the only unnatural thing there was was a three-story building which was abandoned long ago but

i'd seen it many times before it wasn't so unusual for me the nature was amazing as always with The wildlife and calming sounds around me my adventure couldn't have been better after some time i got to a cliff which was one of my favorite places to visit as it overlooked the neighborhood and the fields beyond it it also provided the perfect beautiful view for the sunset i sat there for a while listening to the music of nature around me enjoying the cold breeze that was coming down over The mountains i saw the sunset took a

few pictures and packed up to head back home while i was doing so i noticed something change the sounds around me went soft softer until they were gone i didn't give it too much thought as it was a steady change and i only barely noticed it i was soon on my way The day was slowly turning into night and i still could not hear any wildlife around me on my way i had to bring out my flashlight because now it was completely dark i looked at my watch and it was now 8 20 pm i

went down the mountain and passed the abandoned building as i was walking down the path i heard a loud and chilling shriek that Was like a woman's scream but the sound wasn't right it was deformed you could say i looked behind me to where the sound had come from no way i thought it sounded like it was coming from the building and instead of thinking of what dangers could await me i immediately thought that someone was in trouble After a bit of hesitation i took out my pocket knife and started to approach the building when

i was about 10 meters from the building the loud shriek came again but much louder than before i began doubting my decision of going inside but there was no way i was leaving that person in here i flashed my light into the building and saw the stairway at the end of the hall i slowly went inside making sure not to Make a single sound because i didn't want to give away my position i realized that the flashlight could blow my cover so i turned it off and i put it back in my pocket there was

some very dim moonlight illuminating the hallway so i can make out where i was going when i got to the second floor where there were four rooms and after checking all of them I found that they were empty the sound must have come from the third floor as i was making my way up to the stairs i heard a loud thud followed by another shriek when i was closer i was certain that whatever was making that sound wasn't a person it couldn't have been then for some reason curiosity maybe i made the decision that i

will regret For the rest of my life i decided to investigate the weird noise and went looking for it i went upstairs and began my search the first room was empty then i noticed that the door of the third was half open i went closer and slowly opened it the light of the moon came in from the broken window illuminating a small part of the room but it was mostly dark as my eyes were scanning the room trying To find whatever was the source of the noise i heard it again like someone laughing with their

mouth closed [Music] this sent chills down my spine and then i finally saw it there in the corner of the room two yellow eyes nearly seven feet off the ground and they were pointed right at me My mind stopped i couldn't think at all i couldn't even react then the creature spoke its voice was deep and it rumbled my stomach as it echoed throughout the building it said you shouldn't have come here the shock from hearing it talk forced me out of my paralysis with my mind returned to me i immediately began to run As

i got to the stairs i turned back to look at the room and my soul almost left my body because there in the door i saw the thing peering its head into the hallway looking at me that was it for me i ran like never before in my life i made it back downstairs in just a couple of seconds and ran out of the building into the moonlight as i was running down the path i heard The shriek one last time i stopped for a second and looked back at the building there in the broken

window on the third floor were those yellow eyes piercing into my soul i started running again never stopping until i got back home my parents were home and became concerned about my situation i didn't tell them what happened I told them instead that i was chased by a bear fortunately it's been four months since we moved from that house and i hope whoever moves into it stays far away from that abandoned building the dark entity from anonymous my friends and i went to sagada located in the mountain province of philippines we arrived at 10 in

the morning and checked in at the lodge which we had Booked prior to the trip we rested for a while and had some lunch then we decided to go spelunking at suma gwing and lumion caves in the evening while having dinner we got acquainted with someone who asked us to come with her and watch the sunrise at kiltupon peak it was a two-hour hike so we agreed to meet up with her around four in the morning after having a few drinks at a local pub We went back to the lodge i looked at my watch

and found that it was already 11 in the evening my friends are already asleep on a separate bed and all the lights are off except the one coming from the balcony for some unknown reason though i was exhausted at the time i felt restless as a habit i would grab my ipad and start checking facebook scrolling down until i got sleepy and dozed off it wasn't long when my sleep was Interrupted by movement in my room i thought it was one of my friends already awake and preparing for the hike i found it weird because

earlier that day he had set up his phone as an alarm but i hadn't heard the sound i would usually lie on my stomach when i sleep i guess i was too tired that time so i didn't bother to turn around and have a look suddenly i felt a hand touch my back and I thought it was him trying to wake me up odd i felt as though the hand seemed bigger than his and the fingers were strangely long i turned around and was extremely horrified this wasn't my friend but a very dark smoke-like figure

with pointed ears and red fiery eyes i let out a loud scream it woke my friends up and immediately all the Lights turned on as they panicked i looked around and noticed that it was already gone everyone was looking at me worried i told them what happened but they thought i had a nightmare i told them that i hadn't slept but they continued to claim that it was a dream but i know it was real after that we never went back to sleep we had our coffee and headed downstairs To meet up with our new

friend and to begin the hike up to the mountain there were only four of us yet i felt another presence among us during the hike we passed by a lamppost and that's when i noticed that everyone else had a single shadow but mine had another to it another figure being cast by a light source that just wasn't there it was then that i realized that the thing from the night before might be Following me i didn't want to worry everyone else so i kept my distance from the group and i stayed quiet even though we

were being guided by a map we got lost nearly the entire day taking several routes that only got us more lost we ran into a number of dead ends that didn't even appear on the map we even went beyond the trail We somehow managed to reach our destination though and when we did i finally felt better but on our way back our new friend asked why i looked so distressed the whole time but i said i was just tired when in town i asked around from the locals i was shocked to find out that they

had lore about this very occurrence stating that many folks who go into or Around those caves end up having something attached to them as the land around those caves is a burial ground that was something i was never told otherwise i wouldn't have gone in the first place after i got back home the attachment seemed to have left me and i couldn't have been more thankful i'll never trespass on burial grounds again and if i'm not sure about the land around me It's better to be safe than sorry stalked by something from luke i'm 17

years old and don't really believe in the paranormal now me and my friend dylan who's also 17 often go on hikes late at night every few days a week during this time we never experience anything out of the ordinary but that would change on one of these hikes one night i Suggested we do something a little bit more exciting and maybe a bit silly i thought it'd be fun to play with a ouija board in the middle of the night in the middle of the what he agreed with the broad grin telling me it was

a ridiculous idea but he was all in for it we had a tight budget so we had to print the ouija board ourselves and use a glass as a substitute for a planchette the following night approximately at 10 Pm we headed out i had a rucksack with the ouija quote-unquote board in it some newspaper to sit on and a bit of food we hiked to the nearest forest where i knew the location of a ruined monastery it was already pitch black and it took a while for our eyes to adjust to the darkness after 20

minutes of walking and telling each other how dumb this was we arrived At the monastery where i turned on the torch on my phone to find a suitable place to play the game i unpacked the board and the newspaper while dylan got the glass from his jacket pocket which was far too big so we had to resort to using a coin i began to ask the board standard questions to which there was no response as we expected after 10 minutes of messing around with it we heard some dogs barking in the Distance that alone was

a bit creepy let me remind you we were in the middle of the forest and it was pitch black some other kind of animal began to shriek we thought it was a bird but it was unlike anything we'd heard before suddenly a cat ran straight past us we stood up shocked and glanced around half expecting something else to show itself As quickly as the sound started they stopped and it went completely quiet at this point we were on edge dylan broke the silence by asking if we should try to use the board again i sat

back down while nodding slowly by then we weren't even really concentrating on the game but instead just scanning the treeline and glancing around i've heard stories like this before and Never understood how people could say they felt watched but that changed right then dylan stood up not wanting to play the game anymore as i looked at his face i saw an expression i never seen on it before one of fear pure fear i began packing the bag when we heard heavy footsteps from behind the trees we just stood there in terror trying to Be as

silent as possible whatever it was it was definitely no bear because we don't have those in switzerland not even wolves but being able to tell from the sound of these steps this was definitely nothing small and then out of nowhere the smell of rotting meat hit us like a freight train i've no idea where the smell originated But it was gut-wrenching and i could feel bile rising up from my stomach immediately without saying a word dylan and i bolted down the path that would lead us back while we ran down the hill there was something

behind us chasing after us something bigger and heavier than both of us we didn't dare look back as we crossed a river there was a splashing sound coming from right behind Us it probably tried taking a shortcut by bypassing the bridge i quickly took a glance back but i could see nothing but darkness as we passed the first few street lamps the footsteps stopped but that didn't keep us from running another three minutes i lit a cigarette shaking my head in disbelief as dylan was losing his mind asking me what the hell that was But

i had no clue to this day i still don't hiking strangeness from spooky panda boy i was born and raised in south carolina i've always lived in rural places so i've never been scared of the wilderness before but still i can see how they can be creepy which is something i actually like when i was eight years old we moved out of my childhood home to live with my Grandparents they had a house built in a nice neighborhood in the middle of the woods me and my sisters loved living there and we explored the woods

often one day my sister carly went somewhere with our mom and our dad was at work me and my other sister katie probably should have stayed inside then but that would have been boring we went into the woods and explored areas we hadn't yet discovered about an Hour into our hike we started up a steep hill when we found something it was a large spinal disk this didn't scare us at first there was a nearby farm with cattle there and it wasn't uncommon for them to get out so if one wandered out here it could

have gotten lost or even attacked by animals so the bone wasn't too strange But not too far nearby we found something else the strangest looking footprint i'd ever seen it was shaped like a chicken's foot but it was massive far bigger than both of my feet combined at this point we were unsettled but we kept walking anyway sure that nothing bad could happen after a few minutes we heard the loud and unsettling cry of A very large animal almost bird-like i was beginning to cry especially after everything we'd seen we immediately started running home but

the shrieking got louder we didn't tell our parents what happened or what we found because we went outside when we weren't supposed to and i thought we'd get in trouble if i told my mom i knew she wouldn't let Us hike anymore this was the type of thing that would deter most people from ever exploring again but not me as i got older i just got more obsessed and curious it's been several years since then and i'm hoping to have even more odd encounters i'd be happy to as long as i can remain alive What

we encountered in those woods submitted by chris b i lived in tennessee and i was a big fan of camping and hiking in 2006 me my girlfriend and my cousin with four other friends had gone out on a hiking trip my girlfriend's uncle had a rather large property he sometimes allowed people to stay at in one remote corner of this land he Even had an old cabin that he would rent out occasionally and this property was connected to a no-man's land as some people called it you could go out there as some of us had

before but you wouldn't see any other signs of people at all we intended to rough it along the back trails with the intention to camp overnight after a long hike it got dark so we Built a fire and set up our small tents then we had a couple of beers cooked a few hot dogs over the flames it was pleasantly uneventful until near midnight we had been telling stories when suddenly my cousin started looking off into the dark and began to try to hush us shh guys after a few moments of quiet i tried to

ask what was happening when He bluntly told me to hush up i heard something like voices out there i think we all stayed quiet for the next minute or two my cousin swearing he had heard voices voices calling out there past the tree line in the distance soon we began catching what sounded like the faintest yelling that we couldn't quite make out and the few of us began yelling back to whoever it was out there In the dark trying to get a response of any kind we thought that maybe someone was lost in these woods

it wouldn't be hard hello is someone out there are you okay my girlfriend yelled joined in by one of my friends shouting through his cupped hands hello all we heard in reply was what sounded like muffled voices two voices as if they were calling from a Great distance but it sounded like there was somebody moving around just on the far side of the nearby tree line and they couldn't have been greater than a hundred yards away more echoing shouts came from that area but they were still indiscernible it sounded like two people shouting at the

same time increasingly i became nervous wondering who was moving around out there Imagining backwoods creeps playing games with their victims here at midnight something was wrong i felt for a short while we heard nothing one of my friends went to his gear and retrieved the old ruger bearcat 22 that his father gave him as a gift if someone wants to rush our camp i'd like for us to be ready he said i nodded feeling on edge do you need help My cousin shouted again in response came two voices shouting vaguely once more still sounding distant

before they had sounded like someone shouting words even if we couldn't quite make it out but now the shouts were loud and garbled wordless shouts and being noises someone was moving around out there my girlfriend said what i was thinking quietly Who are these people why are they here and why are they messing around somebody's camp right now for the next half hour there was silence besides the fire and the nightlife we set on guard around the fire straining to listen during that stretch we heard no more shouting or footfalls we resolved to keep the

22 around just in case someone came barging into our camp Several minutes later we heard what sounded like people moving about only a short distance past the light cast by our fire footfalls and the crackle of branches and leaves it sounded like someone was staggering around at a brisk speed just out of our campsite a couple of us expected someone to step into the light at any moment but no one did Suddenly it stopped not another voice was heard no footfalls no crunching of grass or branches nothing to indicate that the people or things that

were by our camp were still there or had even gone away for that matter it was more like they had just started standing still all of us were extremely nervous especially with how the sounds of footsteps had just stopped instead of Moving away we were sure somebody was just watching us from a ways off and waiting for us to fall asleep we managed to organize ourselves to sleep in shifts at least two people to stay awake at all times while the others slept in our tents it wasn't easy especially with an odd numbered group but

the rest of the night passed without Incident thankfully in the morning we nervously gathered our gear and decided to leave the appeal of being out in the woods having vanished in the night what disturbed me was how far off the voices had sounded yet how closely the movements had come to us and how they had disappeared so suddenly i was certain that this was not just some people deciding to prank campers or any sneaking back woodsmen having a good Laugh this was something else entirely number two m submitted by mr snores it happened about two

years ago my friends pete and joe were spending the week at my house it was summer vacation after all we lived in a small town to the west of tennessee there were plenty of fields around where i lived so we usually went Out on hikes it was getting late one evening we had just finished watching some scary movies and were having trouble sleeping of course that's when joe had the bright idea of going to a nearby field for a bit of a midnight hike i told him we weren't allowed to go hiking at night but

he didn't care pete wasn't so sure at first but after he was convinced the two of them Convinced me and sure enough we started to sneak out luckily my parents were fast asleep so that part was easy now we had never been in this field at night we were aware of coyotes and such so i had brought my machete just in case as soon as we entered the field we immediately got the feeling that we were being watched we tried to ignore it because to me it was probably the fact that we were out Where

we shouldn't be when we shouldn't be around 20 minutes later we decided to stop for a break pete and joe decided to sit down for a little bit but i couldn't i got that same feeling again as if we were being watched or even worse hunted i decided to go over to a nearby hill so i could look out over the fields it wasn't too dark due to the fact that It was a full moon and we were in a large open field at the time this field was growing wheat and the wheat grew to

about my waste so anything i spotted it could easily slip away into the wheat grass or not be shown at all because it hid underneath it at first to my relief i didn't see anything but after a few moments i spotted movement and then i saw them These bright yellow eyes they were about 100 yards away i nearly jumped when i saw them remember what i said about the wheatgrass being to my waist well i was about five seven at the time and these eyes were easily four feet above the wheatgrass whatever it was it

was tall taller than me and i was so scared that i couldn't move shortly thereafter pete and joe came up To the hill to see what i was doing one look at my face and they knew something was wrong horribly wrong joe asked me dude what's up but i couldn't speak barely breathe all i could do was point at those awful yellow eyes after a few seconds of looking they both saw what i was staring at and we all just stood there motionless When all of a sudden the eyes disappeared into the wheatgrass as if

the creature was now crawling immediately we turned and ran we ran so fast it all seemed like a blur we didn't even know if this thing was coming towards us but we were not waiting around to find out when we finally got to the end of my road we all stopped to catch our breaths assuming we were safe but we were wrong That's when we heard the loudest deepest hair-raising howl i'd ever heard then we heard panting in loud footsteps as if something the size of a bear was running towards us again we turned and

ran down the street until we were next to my house then we did something stupid we looked back and what we saw still haunts me to this day it was terrifyingly close to us I could see it perfectly it had stopped under a street light about 50 yards away but it was standing on two legs it had a muscular torso like a person but the legs were bent and shaped like a dog's legs its arms were long as were its legs and it had the head of a wolf or a bear it was covered in

black fur and it stood there watching us We couldn't take it anymore we ran inside we locked all the doors the windows but before we could feel safe again there was one last window that we had to lock up stairs but because of the positioning of the window i was too scared to go up that window had a perfect view of the creature which meant it had a perfect view of me Eventually i built up the courage to go to the window while i was locking it i couldn't help but look down at the street

and there it was still and just like i had feared it was looking up at me i logged it as quickly as i could and ran back to tell joe and pete then we all ran upstairs to watch it but it was gone by the time i got back we didn't sleep that night The next day we felt it was best to tell my parents the story but the only part of the story they wanted to hear was the part where we snuck out at night pete and joe went home and i was grounded anyone

else we told wouldn't believe us but i think we know what we saw and i will never go to that field at night again like i said it's been two years And i finally convinced myself to go back to the field for hikes during the day but every now and then i get that same feeling like something is watching me [Music] number three the thing in debary swamp submitted by alpha64 [Music] i'm 15 years old and live in a remote Part of florida a couple of years ago i was really into hiking and going into

the woods with friends to start this off me and my friend liam were out together hiking in the woods we would always go in the weekends just to wind down and relax or to have some airsoft wars in the drier parts of the woods after one long day of fishing we were unpacking our gear as the sun was beginning to set When liam noticed something strange with the tackle box we had brought along with us hey blake he said dude come check this out i came over to him a little annoyed as i was still

setting up my tent and it was a pain in the butt to patch what is it i stopped as i now saw the long scratch marks that were engraved in the top and side of the now mangled tackle box What in the world did that i asked still examining the scratch marks i couldn't seem to figure out what kind of animal had tried to get into his box i don't know he replied but it was like this when we had come back to set up the tent i was now a little on edge thinking great

there's probably a bear in the area keep your knife close by you when you sleep tonight i said clutching my pocket Knife i had brought along we made our fire and began talking after a little while the thoughts of earlier had drifted to the back of our minds until we both heard what sounded like footsteps of some sort of animal coming from the underbrush we both looked over at the source of the noise thinking about what it could be those footsteps were too loud to be anything like a raccoon or a squirrel So we had

our knives out just in case it was a predator stalking us but what emerged from the underbrush has permanently scarred my mind it was a tall thin and pale looking creature almost pathetic looking in how scrawny it was but its hands were claws that were bigger than any i'd seen attached to an animal i don't think it even had eyes only dark pits over the eyes should have been But i knew it was still somehow staring at us it then made this ear piercing shriek lowered down on all fours and began to charge at us

by then i couldn't keep myself from shrieking this unmanly sound from my mouth and i did the only thing i could think to do and i kicked the tackle box at it and a quick attempt to distract or hurt it as soon as the box hit the creature liam And i made a mad dash toward the bathroom building that was inside the nearby camping area once we made it we locked ourselves inside we didn't get an ounce of sleep that night still hearing the wild patterning circling the building and occasionally hearing the creatures shrieking and

clawing at the outside walls of the little building we were in i was afraid that it was going to come Through the door at any moment we had stopped hearing the shrieking at one point and the pattern died down but we still waited to go outside until the sun rose just in case it was waiting for us when we finally did emerge from our temporary safe haven we saw claw marks all over the door and walls of the little building we quickly made our way back to the camp keeping out a close eye on our

Surroundings when we made it back everything was destroyed and thrown all over the place we turned around and got out of there as quickly as possible not picking up our stuff not wanting that thing to come back to us when we got back to liam's place we decided not to go back out there and did not tell anyone what we saw because despite what we just lived through the sound of the story made it seem Insane number four the creepy man submitted by clara when i was 16 years old i lived in michigan i am

a huge athletic nerd and i go hiking every day unless i feel lazy on a particular day i picked the wrong day to go because i met someone and experienced Something i will not want to experience ever again so one day i drove to my favorite hiking trail it's the one i go to just about every time i go hiking and right away i saw this weird guy he looked to be in his mid-30s but me being as stubborn and hard-headed as i was i ignored my gut instinct which was telling me to just go

home today so i parked got out and went on the jogging trail Before i disappeared on the trail though i got a short glance at the guy he was looking back at me too so i looked away and went off i got 200 to 300 yards away from the entrance and i took a short break and that's around the time i heard this scream it sounded like it was from a man i looked down the path to see if someone needed help but my heart sank in my chest It was the guy from the start

of the trail he was running straight toward me my adrenaline pumped and i began to run away from him as fast as possible but he was catching up to me quickly and i thought i was pretty fast the guy ran like he had taken two shots of steroids or something when i realized him catching up to me was inevitable i began to cry and panic i took a sharp turn straight into the Woods and i started to run back toward the parking lot area but i never stopped hearing those footsteps not too far behind me

soon though as i kept running the footsteps behind me were growing faint they were going slower than before and i was getting closer and closer to the parking lot to my escape at last i broke through the tree line and i ran for my car Once there i unlocked the doors i took out my cell phone and i called the cops not so long after they arrived they searched for the man and found him apparently he was a 37 year old homeless man and better yet he was carrying around a butcher knife in one of

his coat pockets something he had found behind a restaurant in a dumpster so what was he going to do with that i wonder to this day i am still glad i did rotc Throughout high school or else i'm sure he would have caught up to me or i would have run out of energy faster creepy maniac homeless man please stay away from me and number five my experience submitted by vincent [Music] i tell this story not as a call for attention But as a cautionary tale i was 14 and in a scout troop our scout

troop was relatively small we were camping in an area adjacent to a large hill it wasn't tall enough to be considered a mountain but if you fell you would probably break a few things and it was super steep this is necessary for the story after we had pitched our tents it was dark it was only about 10 pm so we had Some time to ourselves we all decided to climb the hill together we were scouts so hiking was our thing the hill was quite steep though so we had to bring a rope and tie it

to the fence after i made sure it wouldn't come undone we began to ascend we walked around and found a section of fence that appeared to have been trampled over Behind that fence there was an old circular concrete building we began to walk around the thing and we soon found an entrance there was a small box with a ladder that went up maybe about 20 feet or so we all climbed the ladder and found a small steel door that gained us roof access and the roof was huge across the roof there was a heavy steel

trap door we opened it and found at least a 25 Foot drop there was a ladder however so us being the brave scouts we thought we were we began to climb in the area inside was cavernous and massive with concrete braces holding the ceiling up and a light blue tarp along the walls it was incredibly dark down there so visibility was extremely limited now some people in my scout troop thought they were funny So the two people standing guard on the roof closed the trap door and i mean we were trapped then as if something

inside with us could tell that we were stuck we began to hear a certain click click clicking we all thought it was ambient noises or rocks falling from somewhere so we tried to ignore it and went on but moments later one of the scouts shouted Who is that he knew nobody was there mike what's going on someone else asked him i felt someone breathing on my neck mike was now shouting knives drawn we got close together somewhere else we heard a laugh not that of someone laughing at a joke but a distant echo of a

laughing insane person it echoed throughout the old building Someone turned on their flashlight and to our surprise we saw a man he appeared to be homeless his face was old and worn his hair untidy he was only wearing an old ripped and stained pair of jeans and he looked as if he had not seen the sun in decades he was an intimidating and deranged sight the man himself only scared us a little bit What really scared us was the knife he was holding keep in mind we saw this man suddenly and over the course of

a single second then he began screaming think the heavens that the screaming they heard concerned the two people that were on the roof who had trapped us they knew us so they knew that we were not capable of such an ungodly noise they opened the trap door and shouted What was that and with that the man ran towards us we all wildly ran toward the ladder and climbed up with the first guy literally jumping on i happened to be the one in the way back i was climbing up the fifth rung when something grabbed a

hold of my foot panicking i swung down at him what i didn't realize was that i was still holding my knife it was thankfully closed and i ended up merely bashing him Across the skull with the grip he screamed again and let go thankfully this allowed us to fully escape i climbed up the ladder and as i resurfaced on the roof i saw the man bleeding he was now climbing the rusty ladder just then the door closed trapping him in there not wanting to take any chances we ran back to the small door taking us

To the room with the ladder to the exit again i was the last one there and i blocked it off i ended up tying the bar to one of the ladder's rungs using an old bicycle tire that was nearby i got onto the ladder myself and i rushed down i met back up with my fellow scouts over by the exit we all silently decided to never speak of this moment we'd probably get in a Lot of trouble anyway we got over to the trampled fence and we made our way back down we didn't go back

up that hill again to make sure nobody else got any bright ideas i untied the rope and i slid down the hill the rest of the week was uneventful but on the last night i could have sworn i heard a distant screaming not that of a man in pain but that of a man who had been driven Into madness remember if you do go urban exploring bring something to defend yourself if i hadn't had my knife in hand i may not have been here to type this story [Music] never walk alone on a wooded road

because you'll find something or something will find you that will change your life forever my legs were exhausted I'd been walking along that dark wooded road for about three hours by then and my body was ready to call it quit i missed the luxury of my car but it had broken down several miles back and my phone it was dead and had been dead since i got in the car i was never very good about keeping my things charged but at that time i hated myself for it I wanted to be home warm in my

bed but i wouldn't even be close to my town for another three or four hours about halfway there i reminded myself trying to keep the spirits up i should have stayed in the car part of me thought honestly i only got out of the car thinking that if i began walking i could wave someone down and hitch a ride but for the past three hours not one person had stopped In fact not one person had passed by it was the most quiet i'd ever seen this road that was really saying something i was very familiar

with this place as well as attached to it not only was it the quickest route to my grandparents place but it was also a place that my dad and i spent a lot of time in there were miles upon miles of hiking trails in those woods Trails my dad and i were well acquainted with not only that but i remember one occasion when my dad and i were driving back home from my grandparents and on this very road my dad encountered an injured deer he stopped the car on the side of the road in hopes

of helping the poor creature i remember being so little wondering what the two of us could do For an injured deer i stayed in the car and watched through the windshield the next thing i knew my dad stood up and so did the deer which began to walk away but stopped only for a moment to look back at my dad as if to acknowledge the help then it turned and disappeared into the woods when my dad walked back into the car I asked him what he did it said he had found a piece of glass

in one of its hooves how that deer got glass in his hoof i don't know but that day was a memory of my father that i would hold on to and cherish for the rest of my life my father had been a good and kind man and a great dad sure he and my mother fought a lot when i was a kid but they loved each other dearly passionately Opposites attract they say and i do realize that my dad was never the same after my mom walked out on us when i was younger but in

spite of his fault and everything he's ever done for me i love and miss that man because when i turned 14 my dad passed away i miss him dearly ever since then i cherished my time driving on this road and walking in the Woods around it thinking about my father as i walked along the dark road i was suddenly reminded about a particular negative memory a specific part of this road that my dad was always wary of you see there was this portion of the road it wasn't much different from the other parts of it

save for one thing A near ancient stump that had been there for as long as i could remember the part of the stump that faced the road it was covered in fungus and moss i noticed that insects would land on that side with ease the other side facing the woods it was all dark and rotted a disgusting color between gray and brown that no natural living thing should be yet despite that half of it looking so Awful it never did cave in or fall away never did seem to rot away at all it always looked

like if you kicked it real good on that side it would just smush in on itself like some sort of old soggy log but i never dared try never dared get close to it i had no reason to be afraid of the stump it was only because of my dad's fear that drove me to inherit it As i said before my dad and i would walk in these woods even along the roads but every time we'd come close to this stunt he would lead me away from it taking a much larger detour so as to

not come close to it i even saw his wariness of it when we drove down this road he wouldn't look at it and he would stay completely quiet during that segment no matter how much i Tried to push him into a conversation or even ask why he was so weird about that stump he would stay quiet until he could no longer see it in his rear view and if he was driving towards it and saw it coming up in the distance he would quickly speed up a good 10 or 15 miles per hour just to

get past it more quickly and as i remembered that old stomp i also recalled that i hadn't passed it Yet and i would be coming up on it soon enough i continued to walk and walk and walk becoming more and more creeped out as i got closer to it then again walking alone on a dark road at night getting a little bit creeped out is sort of inevitable about 20 minutes later i saw its silhouette forming in the distance in Front of me of course i was walking on the same side of the road as

it i hadn't even thought about that i walked a little faster now mirroring my dad's actions when he used to see the stump i even instinctively tried to avoid looking at it directly but as i began to remember my dad and think of him more i began to feel more and more empowered silly Thinking that surely my dad wouldn't want me scared of the stump as well besides it could have just been me reading too much into things when i was younger i was at a full sprint ignoring my sore legs about two minutes later

i was standing right in front of the thing it hadn't changed a bit the left side where the road was was lush with color It was thick with moss and fungus alive with nighttime insects a moth rested on one of the mushrooms a snail searched for food under one of the mushroom caps and a firefly light strobed on one of the patches of moss i turned my head only slightly even now the dark side of the stump appeared ready to collapse at any moment i thought to myself i could probably just breathe on it and

the wood would Fall in would probably be doing people favors so they wouldn't have to look at that nasty side of the stump from now on with a sigh and a smirk i walked over to that side of the thing i felt way too confident here said this thing that my father was afraid of for so long maybe just maybe i might do him a favor I took a couple of steps back then got a decent running start placing all of my weight into my left foot i kicked at the side of the rotten end

of the stump for some reason i expected it to be rough hard expected my kick to have no effect as if there was some sort of magical property to the staying stump But when my foot made contact i could barely feel anything it was like kicking a big wet sponge a landslide of bark flew off of the thing the rotten side of the stump nearly separating itself perfectly from the lush side i smiled for a moment catching my breath after the sudden outburst i looked down at the mush of old bark and before i could

feel triumph at what I had done i covered my mouth and held back a scream there under the bark that i had just kicked there was a hand a withered hand nearly the same color as that rotten wood around it horrified i dropped to the ground i couldn't believe what i was looking at i found myself crawling closer Needing to know if it was really a human hand that was poking through the soil i crawled with utter reluctance toward the stump or what remained of it driven only by morbid curiosity when i was next to

it i began to dig and pull at the soil that was loose with my hands as i revealed more of what was underneath i stopped Now unable to breathe it was a face withered just as much as the hand if not more but a face that was recognizable nonetheless a face i recognized it was my mother i wanted to throw up i wanted to kill over right then and there to be lost to that wooded road like my Mother apparently and as my mind could not form a proper thought as if on cue by some

higher power who had been waiting for me to make this discovery an old pickup truck drove by saw me on the side of the road and stopped an old man asked me if i was okay i couldn't even look at him but sure enough he followed my gaze to the stump he cursed under his breath Running back to his truck to grab his phone and call the police later on forensics revealed that it was in fact my mother my mother who never ran away my mother who never abandoned us my mother who had been killed

by my father and buried under this old tree stomp i now know why my dad feared it and i can't help but wonder if that side of the stump rotted like That as a signal one last cry for help from my late mom [Music] [Music] number one creature on the edge submitted by alan i am a 16 year old male my name is alan i tend to think of myself as a pretty logical guy i've always been aware of my senses and i guess a little paranoid and i think that if i didn't have the

Following traits i might not be here to tell this tale when i was about 15 me and my friend who we'll call jack were biking through a very narrow desolate road in the more unknown areas of colorado i'd rather not reveal the exact location but the road was one of the more typical roads you would see in a more desolate area a small narrow one composed of mainly dirt and all along the sides of it a very thick tree line that gets thicker as you Move along while biking on these roads we always were a

little creeped out but that just added a little more kick to the ride but on this day we never thought that anything like this could happen to such simple people like us well i guess no one ever expects something to happen like this we had been biking for about two hours and would take quick pauses to drink some water or take a bite of our snacks We had packed the usual stuff while taking these small breaks nothing really ever happened but on this particular day we didn't take too many pauses because we could hear weird

noises coming from around us but after almost three hours of riding we had to take a break so we found a pretty big log to park our bikes at and we sat down to catch our breath after about five minutes or so we heard what sounded like a woman's scream as Far as i could tell it was at least 400 yards away from us to the left a couple of 15 year old boys like us wanted nothing more than to show our macho selves as we went to investigate we walked around for at least 20

minutes but we found nothing when we got back we found our bikes completely destroyed i mean the chain was in pieces the tires were slashed and the gear shift was ripped right off the handlebars my stomach dropped and i Almost felt like puking but then i thought maybe it was just some jerk passing by but no less than a minute of investigating we heard something that sounded like a big piece of wood being smashed across a tree trunk and was very loud and sudden but i slowly turned around and saw something that could only be

described as a creature it had a height of at least six feet its whole body was covered in hair and a large snap that went down to its mid-chest and Had strange wire-like appendages on its chin followed by two small black beady eyes and at the top of its head were weird large curled horns my friend and i took no time to think we both ran as fast as we could making sharp turns to try to disorient this creature from following us we are not sure if it chased us at all but all i know

is that as soon as we started running it produced two of the most strangest and creepiest sounds i've ever heard they Almost sounded like a pig and eagle combined i know it sounds weird but it was terrifying as we ran we got to a nearby road where we quickly called up my dad to come get us we never told him the full story we just told him that our bikes had been stolen when we went to use the bathroom to this day i never figured out what i saw and i don't go hiking or biking

anymore on desolate trails as much but instead stick to more populated areas But to this creepy creature from the woods let's not meet again number two cannibal in the forest submitted by cayden this happened around june or july this year my cousin and i were both 13 years old and we live in louisiana my cousin and i decided to go ride my golf cart around the neighborhood we do this every time she comes over so it quickly got boring just doing little circles around The neighborhood all the time so we stopped at a dry ditch

on the road my house was on i parked the golf cart at the end of my neighbor's driveway that we already felt uneasy about we once heard what sounded like screaming coming from their yard anyway we got out of the golf cart and took a peek down the ditch to see if there was anything interesting i saw some old planks of wood lining the side of the ditch about six feet in we Decided it was enough to spark our interest and we jumped in as we walked along the ditch we heard some rustling beside us

but we thought nothing of it as it could have just been a deer or raccoon or something like that we got about 30 feet into the ditch and i saw an open area so we decided to take a hike to get to the other side of it but we continued until we entered a wet part of the ditch it was full of mosquitoes so we decided to end our hike And head back home before it got dark both my cousin and i were amazed at how large this ditch really was and i told her sister

about it the next day we went back to what we now call the grotto we made sure to wear outdoor shoes for better grip once we entered the wrestling we heard yesterday was back but this time it was closer it was louder we hiked our way through the open area again looking out for anyone who might be in the woods With us since again it was very close to our weird neighbor's house when we made our way through the wet part we climbed our way out of the ditch and into the woods where the sound

was coming from like the idiots we were but everyone has a bit of curiosity right it seemed like every step we took spiders would crawl out from under the leaves almost like something out of a horror movie we even found a bag of marijuana in someone's hiding place along with some empty glass Bottles and old ripped up shoes when i saw those shoes though i wanted to leave as soon as possible but my cousin wanted to keep exploring we came upon a fallen tree with a pile of fresh trash covering it i then began to

make my way back to the ditch that is until my cousin yelled at me i found something i then ran back to where she was and she pointed to a pile of bones immediately we assumed they were that of a small kid but we did not find the skull so they Could have been animal bones too when you're creeped out like that you always assume the worst we walked closer to inspect the bones but we heard the sound of someone stomping around us and it made us both jump we turned toward the noise and what

we saw was truly horrifying it was a man with long dirty hair and bloody fingernails crouched down like an animal luckily he was running away from us we must have stumbled upon his spot for Something but strangely he stopped behind a tree and began to stare at us we ran back to the golf cart horrified as to what we might have happened upon to this day i haven't and never will look or drive down the road with the ditch we explored my cousin and i never discussed the event with each other and we never told

anyone about it number three troll on the mountain submitted by sander I live in and have a cabin in norway i've been wanting to tell my story for so long i swear i saw something one day i would call a troll me and four of my family members were going on a long peaceful walk to a mountaintop we are big nature lovers so we were enjoying the colors of nature all too much and being the one that enjoyed long walks and hiking i was really looking forward to this during our little hike along the way

we saw a Rabbit running away from this animal it was very big maybe three to five feet tall but we did not get a very good look at it from there we kept walking enjoying ourselves and having a good time eventually we made it to the top of the mountain it was absolutely beautiful but as we were looking around i saw in the distance something big it took me a moment but it seemed to be the same thing i saw before but this time it had something in its hands i can't say for Sure but

it was the same size and shape as a rabbit it sounded like it was muttering something maybe even chanting until it crushed the rabbit's head i gasped loud surprised and disgusted the thing had long greenish hair and a large nose it wore other animal skins around its body and i would guess it was trying to get warm in the cold weather sure enough the thing looked at us it saw us probably because it heard me gasping so loud it screamed in our Direction that freaking scream it was like a combination of a reindeer and a

dying sheep if that makes any sense it was awful its eyes were glowing yellow and its mouth had many disformed teeth and on the other side of its face it had the faces of crying children i wanted to throw up just looking at this weird thing we all rushed down the mountainside in a panic pushing past each other trying to Get through i can say that after that night i've been pretty spooked and i swear every so often i can hear that thing out in the woods screaming and chanting remember whenever you go walking whether

you're going on a mountain trip or hiking alone you really aren't ever alone number four the skin walker that followed us submitted by backwoodsman78 before i go and tell this story i want To make sure to all of you listening that these things are real including this story me and my friend had decided to go hunting out in a new spot this new spot was almost about four miles from my house we were dropped off by my dad just a mile in to sort of reduce the walk but it still turned out to be a

bit of a hike but luckily this far out we wouldn't scare the deer off it was around 5 20 in the morning when We got in and started walking but as i looked up and along the tree line i saw a tall figure standing there i assumed it was just a configuration of trees and branches you know how human eyes make out familiar shapes and things i didn't say anything to my friend i just simply assumed it was branches not even going 30 yards in front of me i heard the noise of the steep bank

that caught my attention and as i looked up i saw something i had only heard of it had to Be about six foot four or five because i'm six foot two i immediately got behind a tree as i thought to myself maybe it's just another hunter but the real dread came when i realized we were right now around five miles in from an actual road and we were nowhere near someone else's property line i had preloaded a 308 caliber full metal jacket round in my remington i told my friend that i did not care who

or what it was but if it Came down to it it was going to be dead we set for around three minutes and this thing began to walk down the side of the mountain towards us seemingly unafraid i ended up getting a closer look at the thing it was tall skinny and what really gave it away in my mind was that it had this hat on its head i knew what it was as soon as my eyes hit it it was the snout and fur of a coyote whoever this was was wearing the fur of

a coyote my blood ran cold and so did my trigger Finger i was just completely paralyzed in fear and amazement that this was what me and my friend were really seeing i didn't wait any longer i threw up my remington and shot at it and as the bullet hit you could hear this god-awful noise come out of it i really can't describe it but it was between a panther and an elk after that we hiked back to the nearest road and quickly made our way out of those woods to this day i have never returned

to That side of the property nor that road but me and my friends still do speak about what we saw that morning i'm not sure what it was or what it was wanting all i know for sure is that there is no way in hell that that thing was human number five the trail submitted by hammond it was sometime in august i decided to go for a hike that would last till about 11 at night i was a bit nervous for my upcoming exams and hiking takes off the Nerves there was a parking lot near

where i wanted to hike and as i entered there were only about three cars there and one was really shaggy looking with dents all over there was a man maybe in his 40s just sitting there staring at me as i went onto the trail about a half hour into the hike i see him taking a different trail but he stops and stares at me once again It was starting to get dark it must have been 9 pm and that's when i heard leaves crunching behind me i turned toward the noise with my flashlight on and

to my surprise there was no one there it was getting late i decided to head back the parking lot itself was 30 minutes away so i guess it was time to go i was getting close to the parking lot entrance when i hear running behind me i quickly begin running myself and take A peek behind me and there was that scraggy dirty man holding a cloth in his hand and some sort of spray bottle at this point i'm making a mad dash to my car reaching for my keys to get in as fast as possible

and i did it just in time this psychotic man reached for the door handle and i looked at it jammed the keys into the ignition and got the hell out of there in the rear view mirror i watched as this man this insane man ran after my car with no success I floored it out of there the last thing i saw in my mirror was him bolting into the woods i immediately reached for my phone to call 9-1-1 and from there on i have no idea what happened to the guy i hope that sicko got

arrested or they did something about it god knows where or who he is and who else he might have gotten his hands on and number six yukon creature Submitted by sailor man i am an avid hiker i had last year went to northern canada on a hiking expedition for a week i was retelling this story to one of my friends last week and they suggested that i needed to share it as it seemed to be unusual and maybe he was right as i assume there are people out there with a lot of experiences now my

friends significant other and i were up in the northern part of canada The location i will not disclose as i've always worried about internet stalkers and the such anyway we continued along riding in a big truck the five of us the rear of this truck had been decked out with a top cover and a passage into the front which you could crawl through it was really meant for skis but we didn't bring them it was a clear winter night as me and my friends played magic the gathering in the back or at least attempted to

We thought it'd be funny a bunch of people in the middle of nowhere doing the nerdiest thing possible a few beers went around and we continued it was a really great time one of my friends shouted to look at something at one point he was an avid naturalist and tried to get us to help him identify what we were seeing my spouse and i put down our card game and we turned to look at what he was shouting at looking through the windows We could see the silhouette of a moose or elk off in the

distance but the figure quickly disappeared as we continued to drive off and honestly it was pretty exciting to see this animal it was the first find of the trip we kept going on as this was the second day into the trip we'd stopped to camp on wednesday and head back over the next week to civilization a few hours later dave stopped the car to sleep as most of us were getting Really tired short of me as i still had work to do even though i was technically on vacation my job really required me to keep

working or well i couldn't really stop working i'm not sure if it was personal or some sense of pride to keep working but i kept on anyway dave mumbled something but i ignored him mostly because i could not hear him over the music in my headphones i kept working when maybe 20 minutes later i could hear his voice barely over the Music i pulled off my headphones as i looked away from the laptop he was sleeping in fact everyone in there was asleep i looked behind me out the window but there was no one and

nothing out there sparse trees gave off thin shadows that were barely visible through the moonlight i travel a lot and nothing is just a noise from a whisper in the airport to a bird's call in a rural city it's all valuable information as i've found I continue to work but this time without music after a good five minutes my spouse wakes up she looks up at me and asks me to keep it down i tell her i've been dead silent and decided to take a shift driving as it was something to do and i was

done taking notes for now starting up the car taking a quick head count to make sure i've not forgotten anyone everyone was there and i started Off i glanced in my rear view mirror and i saw that deer again but this time all i could make out was the antlers as its head was down and the body was hidden behind a tree i remember this exactly because it was dimly illuminated in the moonlight although i thought seeing the deer was cool i kept driving across the snowy ground over the next day we were almost to

our camping spot we spotted this horned animal a few times more as Well sure it could have been several different animals and we didn't mind i thought it was a little unusual but i brushed it off as i'm pretty skeptical that night we set up camp which meant assembling the rooftop tint a mechanical nightmare that somehow made a tent that attached to the roof of the truck my friend dave had built it as it was his truck and he was more serious about roughing it out there more than we were my friends stayed in the

tent while me And my spouse were given the truck bed partially out of respect and partially out of a desire to sleep in the luxurious truck tent that night being a little excited i decided to go for a walk my spouse though exhausted decided to sleep i took my machete with me although the blade was used to cutting down foliage an occasional pine branch was no issue after a while i started to hear my spouse calling my name i could still see the lights of the truck even Out from a distance so i began to

walk back to the truck but that's when i noticed that the call was coming away from the truck so i stopped and listened confused and i noticed that her voice was exactly the same every time like the looping of audio this freaked me out a lot i booked it back to the truck and i started it up which although you're not supposed to run the truck with a tint on top it was bolted down pretty heavily and the path ahead was clear so i didn't Worry about getting the tent knocked off scared and speeding away

i noticed this deer thing charging the truck managing to keep pace with it somehow it let out this horrific whale and i cannot describe how terrible it was i broke down crying as the guy started to bang on the roof of the truck to tell me to stop i crossed the stream the bumpy rocks probably banged up my friend's truck pretty good not to mention my friends themselves Suddenly i heard a gunshot then a second and a third and then it stopped after five more minutes of driving i stopped at the end of this clearing

the thing was no longer following us my friends climbed down packed up the tent and told me to freaking drive i looked back and my spouse's face was glued to the window she turned toward me for a moment and her face was covered in tears She was terrified she was not one for horror movies and she always cried and gets scared of them i drove off as my friend and i rode in deathly silence for the next four hours until the sun came up that morning we finally all stopped and talked about what happened i

told my bit none of us knew exactly what had happened but my friend sean gave the most reasonable explanation about a moose with rabies or something like that This kind of thing happened as we all agreed however we could not explain how it ran so fast as to keep up with the truck or as my friends described it its face looked mangled none of us knew what had happened and we agreed to end our trip early making a detour to hit a couple of villages on our way back instead of the now terrifying scenic route

we did have a great time on the rest of the trip and we met some very nice People we never bothered to ask anyone else about it as we assume they'd probably be as clueless as we were or at least i never asked and if the others did they never bothered to tell the rest of us the result to be honest i am not a believer of this rabies story because not one bit does it explain how i heard my spouse's exact voice coming from the woods away from where she was and looping the exact

sound over and over don't leave the campfire Went camping in a cold damp national park in the northwest united states i'm used to going camping alone hiking alone never been good around people i'd take my dogs tex a big german shepherd and gruff my old geriatric pug gruff could barely see four feet in front of him never wandered too far from me but tex was pretty darn independent But he was scared of the woods he was a big dog and the way he'd hug up against my legs as we walked the trails made it difficult

to hike tex did love the vistas though once the woods opened up into clearings or cliffs he'd always be excited he just didn't like those trees and shadows i guess but those two ain't around anymore and i don't go hiking anymore let me tell you why Might be best to click away now if you ain't a fan of animals getting hurt let me get back to how i was camping in a cold damp national park in the northwest united states specifically in the rockies it was close to winter and was as cold as you'd imagine

i'd bought tex and graf the coziest little vests i could find and i made sure we stayed real close to a big campfire by the tent I couldn't do as much hiking as i wanted a cold front had me thinking we'd probably call it quits early we kept the tent set up close to the fire tex was asleep in the tents under some blankets he'd snuggled into and gruff was sniffing around the site seeing what sort of smells he could find i kept an eye on him his sense of smell was as good as ever

far as i could tell But he was nearly blind and might wander off too far not because he wanted to but because he wasn't too sure where he was going i lay back on a wad of blankets starting to doze off myself gruff snorted i raised up and looked at him gruff had lost his bark years ago now all he could do was sort of grunt and snort couldn't hear it from a different room Had we been back at the house but out here in the dead of night it was clear as crystal looking over

he was just sitting there peering into the woods what you see boy i asked not actually expecting an answer the way dog owners do i'm not sure he heard me though he didn't react kept staring into the dark tex whimpered behind me Apparently awake now nearly jumped out of my skin when i heard it i looked toward him and he was scurrying backward into the tent wall what the heck i looked toward the darkness now too wondering what these dogs were seeing or sensing that i couldn't started thinking about dog's visual range they see through

the dark better than we Can imagining a possum that i couldn't see waddling through the dark nearly had me laugh gruff was curious and tex was a big baby just like always but then gruff got back up on his back legs seemed curious and he began to walk forward gruff no i called to him He knew better than to go too far a quick reminder should do the trick but he ignored me so i called again gruffy get back here i began to pick myself up to go and carry him back gruff went further forward

paw by paw until the light from the campfire couldn't reach him the next thing i knew there was a muffled yelp the sound of Something big swatting or slapping at the ground my eyes shot over toward that direction i'd only looked away for a moment to pick myself up and gruff was gone only thing left was a cloud of dirt that had been kicked up i swallowed hard felt as if my heart was rising up in my throat i felt mad too but also scared Where was my dog tex was going mad then clawing desperately

at the back of the inside of the tent trying to rip a hole through it tex no lay down i tried to command him to calm down he wasn't having it started using his teeth on the nylon i was panicking too had no idea what to do or where gruff had gone i tried to crawl over to tex slowly Thought i could pet him and ease him into letting me leash him up to one of the stakes then i could go look for graff and bring him back i placed my hand on his back but

then tex snaps yelping and digging his teeth into my hand before continuing to gnaw at the tent i fall back cursing i looked at my hand and he had drawn blood The heck was wrong with him he had never attacked me before matter of fact i'd never seen him bite another living thing like that he then tore through the fabric after a few more seconds i couldn't stop him he tried to jump through the hole then but as he did a similar smack or swatting sound echoed from just outside the tent texas body went limp

i couldn't see more than his lower half Because the rest of him was already outside the tent because he was trying to escape tex come here boy you okay i called over to him suddenly his body was yanked through the hole entirely unimaginably fast bile rose in my throat soon i realized i was choking rather than breathing i crawled instinctively closer to the campfire The forest around me was silent there were bugs chirping and wind blowing through the trees but nothing else no sign of movement around the campsite no sign of anything wrong except for

my two missing dogs i quickly crawled over to where gruff had gone fumbling my phone out of my pocket turning on the flashlight i followed gruff's little paw prints Until they stopped where he had disappeared was the set of thick indentations in the dirt it reminded me of something i placed my hand palm down in the dirt beside me squeezing some dirt in my hand and lifting it up the shapes i left in the derrick below looked the same but way smaller it was as if a far larger hand had done The same thing to

my dog to both dogs out of breath i circled the camp with the light pointing it in every direction but there was nothing but trees it didn't make sense i turned off the flashlight and dialed my wife she didn't answer two times three times a dozen times i called no answer then i dialed 9-1-1 The operator picked up i informed them that i was in the rockies someone attacked and possibly killed my dogs and might still be out there trying to hurt me but then a familiar tone sounded in my ear i looked at the

phone screen and a phone brand logo was animating my phone had died it was shutting down i cursed under my breath several times Crawling again not sure why i was too scared to stand up as i tried to find my backpack i soon find it but i can't find my mobile charger which was supposed to be in there no no no no i think i left it at home didn't i i stayed close to the fire then not blinking for minutes at a time my head like a sprinkler shifting back And forth back and forth

ready for anything to emerge from the dark and come right at me but it never did i stayed in the same spot trying not to doze off it blew my mind that my body was still trying to fall asleep after seeing something like this the fire behind me was dying down to embers and orange coals then i hear movement My heart rate spikes up again i look up something shoots right past me landing in front of me at the edge of the firelight it's an owl thank god i can see it more clearly my eyes

have adjusted pretty well and the moon shining through the canopy was a godsend the owl looks at me with those big eyes not sure what it was doing down here until i noticed a mouse struggling Between its talons i guess it wasn't in too much of a hurry to fly back up and have that snack i watched as the mouse broke free from the owl the owl's head turns and follows the mouse as it runs towards the darkness the owl's wings open up as it awkwardly pursued the rodent and then smack i see it this

time it's much closer than Gruff had been when it happened massive hand came down pointed at the tips like claws it swept up the bird and mouse both before pulling away this hand was attached to a long spindly arm with tiny sharp offshoots and attached to that was a thin and a rigid body this body pulls the hand inwards until there's a nearly inaudible crunching sound In the silhouette of the thing goes motionless i realized then that the outline of the creature looked perfectly like a tree in the dark i was panicking all over again

there were trees everywhere there could be many of those things everywhere around me or if there was one that i might lose track of it and it Could be anywhere i stopped and took a breather i had another realization that thing seemed to only reach for things away from the fire i couldn't leave i was trapped here i had to get the fire going again too before it died out completely but i could not venture into the forest for what i glanced over to my blankets and Backpack in the tent i did what i had

to do the pack and fabrics made a billow of smoke as they blazed but they stayed lit for far longer than i expected i managed to keep the fire blazing until sunrise when the sun was shining in full force i picked myself up didn't grab anything except for my dead phone and i scanned the tree line All the trees looked like trees that was enough for me to break into a full-on run and i didn't stop until i was forced to collapse on one of the trails and there i was found by some hikers people

like me or rather people who had no idea what sort of nightmares actually lurk in those what i managed to make it out Unsure of what i'd seen vowing never to go back when i made it home i cried letting my wife know that something out there had attacked and killed our dogs when she asked what it was i told her my honest truth i don't know but i'll let you know that if you're ever in the rockies you Find yourself out there after dark stay by the campfire and don't let it die out werewolf

sighting from the mad miller in spring of last year there have been reports from sheep farmers along the dutch german border especially in the eastern dutch provinces and way down in the southeast of the country These shepherds have reported several cases of their sheep and on some occasions even their sheepdogs being slaughtered but not eaten these cases have been on the news several times for if the killers would have been wolves like many suspected they were displaying some off behavior namely wolves don't just kill their prey and leave it behind nor would they consider fighting

one or several sheep dogs on a normal occasion And lastly they would never invade human territory especially not on their own not to mention the territory was being guarded by dogs and electric fences in the meadows still there have been reportings of sheep and sheepdogs being killed and sometimes being partially eaten in the southeast there were 11 sheep six of which were lambs slaughtered but left untouched beyond That there was no trace found of the killer save for the deep tooth marks in the torn throats of the dead sheep as well as one pawprint with

a length of about seven inches after those killings there was a period of silence until there came new reports of the killings in the east having been done by wolves this was said to have been confirmed by Dna tests coming from the bite marks on the dead sheep roughly a year later there is now a small pack of wolves living on the biggest dutch national park valuaa and there have been no more reports of sheep being killed not in the news anyway the killer of the eleven sheep in the southeast has also been confirmed to

have been a wolf but this was never supported by dna Results or further arguments other than young wolves that are looking for a territory to kill sheep on farms to show other wolves whose boss but this contradicts the statement that wolves wouldn't dare to approach human settlements guarded by dogs and an electric fence it was all quite suspicious i loved going into the woods at nightfall so much so that i've done it at least Three times this year though visiting a forest after sunset or before dawn is still illegal here i would often take a

short walk right before sunset and leave when it was almost completely dark wearing dark clothes so the foresters or creepy people would not spot me easily i don't know why i'm addicted to hikes especially nocturnal hikes in the woods i felt a really strong call of the wild If you'd call it that ever since the first time i went off trail in the summer of 2017 when i go out to visit the woods either going off trail or not not even the time of day matters i'm always energetic and excited about it i would even

dare to say that i wanted to go hunting out some occasions i would feel the urge to hunt when i'd see a deer or rabbit run by but i have neither a license nor weapons So i'm pretty sure i wouldn't be able to do any of that a few weeks ago as of riding this at the start of autumn i went for another night hike in the forest i had to bring my flashlight since it was cloudy and rainy outside as always i went there on my mountain bike chaining it to a pole before i'd

set off into the darkness between the trees i saw the last people walking back to Their cars and homes as i walked into the opposite direction had become completely dark when i made it to the middle of the forest i silently enjoyed the cold the scents and sounds of the woods and i had nearly forgotten about my encounter in these same woods almost two years ago after having set myself down on a wooden bench nearby i heard the faint bleeding of sheep from about 200 meters away from Me i stood up and began to walk

in the direction of the noise mostly because the bleeding sounded rather distressed as if the sheep were panicking and trying to flee from something i was already surprised that i could hear it from that far away anyway but what surprised me at least just as much was that i could smell the scent of the sheep as well The wind was blowing in my direction but still i didn't know i was capable of this i should mention it's quite normal to encounter a flock of sheep here in these woods as local shepherds have their sheep stay

in several places to control the weeds growing there one day you might find them on the moor and the other day you'd find them stationed near the bank of a lake a low fairly easily removable makeshift Electric fence would hold the sheep from wandering off and losing the flock tonight the flock had been placed on a small more about 200 meters from where i sat on a bench it took me some time walking toward the pin before i could see the sheep as the flock was hidden by bushes from my direction though what i saw

when i arrived at the pin kind of shocked me because not only were the animals Running around frantically trying to escape but there were two slaughtered sheep lying in a small puddle of blood i could see that their throats had been torn open by jaws that seemed bigger than those of a dog or even a wolf there were no signs of the fence having been touched though What i did notice were a scramble of enormous canine looking paw prints around the sheep's corpses and around the pen as if the killer had carefully been walking around

at first meticulously choosing its prey before stepping inside and making its move the sight was of course shocking and terrifying but weirdly enough not for me i wasn't as shocked and scared as i'd expected myself to be Instead i felt more frustrated frustrated about someone or something having been roaming around in my woods causing a disturbance i had begun to see these woods as my second home as much of a reckless idiot as i was i decided to follow the tracks i was curious to see who or what was roaming the forest at night if

i wouldn't have known better i would have realized that i might have just Been walking into the jaws of death soon enough i kept following the huge tracks until the trees surrounding me made the environment hard to see i changed my mind as i could no longer see much at this point the trees blocking out pretty much every possible light entering my eyes so i whipped out my flashlight and shone it around while i could still hear the sheep panicking in the distance Just maybe 55 meters behind me i was suddenly on edge again when

a new scent hit my nose a scent which seemed to be a mix of wet dog and fresh blood this would soon be accompanied by footsteps on the forest floor calm steps as if something was walking up to me to check me out i directed my flashlight toward where the scent and sound was coming from And what i saw first were eyes gold yellow eyes about four feet above the ground now this already meant that whatever it was was bigger than a dog bigger than a wolf even i froze as the beast stepped closer and

at this moment i could make out its face and front view of its body it was similar to a wolf though when proportions slightly bigger and sturdier Its fur was dark on its back and lighter on its belly it even seemed to have a short dark mane on its neck the animal appeared to be staring at me cautiously but it didn't seem to be aggressive yet from the blood on its snout i could tell that it must have been the beast that killed those sheep and now I was indeed scared any sudden moves or panic

that i could not control could mean the death of me it wasn't like i stood much of a chance against a beast this big still showing no aggression the creature came closer until it stood about five meters away from me then as i stood there watching in utter awe and silence the creature stood up on two legs Like a bear now towering over me at about seven feet in height i felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and i took a more sturdy defensive stance i had to constantly remind myself not

to show fear it leaned forward a little and sniffed the air to smell my scent it then perked its ears up seemingly more suspicious of me All i knew was that the bigger you appear to certain creatures the less likely you are to be attacked but no matter what i did this thing would be looking down on me still i tried to make the best of the situation trying not to look intrigued or scared this as if by some miracle seemed to work the wolf-like thing stepped backwards slightly Breaking eye contact with me i took

a tiny step forward and tried to look defensive or territorial as i appeared to have the upper hand now i did something ballsy i spoke to it trying to sound fearsome and demanding my woods get out again i was genuinely surprised that this happened to work The beast turned its head away from me and growled softly what seemed to sound like a protest it then went down on all fours and turned around to disappear into the darkness before it completely vanished from sight it gave me one last awfully human looking glance its eyes reflecting the

beam of my flashlight as soon as i could no longer see hear or smell the wolf i let out a sigh of Relief so loud that i was afraid the wolf would still hear me and that it would come back only then did i start shivering my mind and body at once realizing i had just survived a life or death encounter with an animal beyond the normal something that reminded me an awful lot of a werewolf cold shivers poured down my spine and i grew a little nauseous when i was suddenly startled by a Piercing

but distant towel coming from behind me it was both beautiful and haunting reminding me of the howl from a game i used to play called the hunter classic the sound chilled me to the bone and all i wanted then was to get the heck out of those woods back to my home after about 20 minutes of speed walking back to my bike and continuously looking around me and pausing cautiously peering Into the darkness at every sound i heard i made it back to my bike quickly i unlocked it and raced home back at home the

realization hit me again i might as well have been as dead and torn up as one of those sheep when i calmed down the question started coming into why didn't it attack me why did it react like that when it sniffed me What's also strange is i haven't heard anything in the news even the local news about the slaughtered sheep i discovered it's as if it never happened with perhaps even the shepherd completely denying that his flock lost two of its members to a supernatural predator all i know is that i won't be telling anybody

in my family or friend group about my experience if it comes up in the news i'm sure People will just think it's a wolf just like it happened with all the other sheep killings in the netherlands over the past two years and i'll be quitting my nocturnal walks in the woods for sure because next time i encounter something like that i may not be so lucky