brace yourself for the literal Terror I'm about to share with you I don't even know if this is the place for a story like this but I can't think of anywhere else to talk about it and I just need to put it out there I've told everyone Under the Sun about this my family my neighbors my friends random news outlets It's never enough I can't really explain it but I feel some weird oblig to inform as many people as possible about what's been happening to me so here goes it's November of 2019 as I'm writing
this the story goes way back I'm talking like 7 years plus I can't tell you the exact year off the top of my head but let's just say 2012 it might have been 2013 but that's my best guess I was in my mid-20s with a stable job and girlfriend who's now my fiance I never went to college so I had been in the workforce for a while and it was unlikely that my life would ever experience any drastic change because of that there was no reason for me to move far away from home so I
didn't at that age my girlfriend and I had just moved into my childhood home that my parents so graciously passed on to me as my first house it's an extremely Old Brick House that my dad had actually inherited from his parents when he was around 40 so I'd be keeping it in the family the house itself has seen a few rounds of Renovations but you can still tell it's old it's the brick that giv gives it away there are very few brick houses in our area so it sticks out like a sore thumb I kind
of like that though it feels special speaking of our area we live in a very woodsy neighborhood so the houses are spaced pretty far apart our house is also the last lot on our street so instead of bordering the woods on just one side we border it on two the Woods back there is massive and I mean massive as a kid my brothers and I would often go exploring in there but no amount of aimless wandering ever got us even close to charting the whole thing I'm sure some people would find that intimidating but I've
always enjoyed the Wilderness so it wasn't a big deal to me plus I'm a guy who likes keeping myself always have so being isolated in my own little corner of the Earth was appealing anyway my girlfriend and I had been living there for a few months when all this started happening it was sometime in the winter I can't remember the exact month all I know is that there was snow on the ground it was sometime after 8: in the morning on a Sunday the one day a week I got to sleep in as I was
getting in my pickup truck to treat myself to a coffee like I do every Sunday morning I noticed something odd in the driveway right next to my car there was what looked like a trail of footprints in the snow my first thought was that my girlfriend had somehow woken up before me without me hearing her and she came out to the driveway for whatever reason but the more I looked around the more I realized that was impossible the path LED across my front yard and through the hole in our sidey yard fence meaning the footprints
had originated from somewhere in the woods on top of that the trail didn't lead anywhere near our house meaning they couldn't have been created by my girlfriend I remember standing there confused as hell the trail didn't lead around our house or up to any of the windows just the driver side door of my car that meant someone had walked directly from the woods to my car only to immediately turn around and walk straight back into the woods it was bizarre I ended up asking my girlfriend about it later that day but she obviously wasn't responsible
for it I wish I could give you more details about that first instance but it was so long ago that that's about as much as I remember it must have been at least two Winters after that when the next thing happened I specifically remember it being 2015 because that was the year my Seahawks lost the Super Bowl the Tom Brady I woke up that morning and walked to my car I think think it was a week day but I'm not positive as soon as I stepped outside I instantly knew something was very very wrong there
were Footprints everywhere I'm talking in the driveway near all the windows around the perimeter of the house the yard was completely covered in them I'm a pretty levelheaded guy so I'm not going to say I started panicking but I'd be lying if I said I was completely calm in that moment I was already late for work so I didn't have time to inspect the prince very very closely but I didn't want to leave my girlfriends in a potentially dangerous situation I quickly ran around the house and yard to make sure no one was lurking on
the property but that was about all I could do in the limited time I had as I was pulling out of the driveway I texted my girlfriend about the situation so she wouldn't freak out I ended up leaving work early that day mostly because the situation was stuck on My Mind by the time I got home my girlfriend had made some shocking discoveries as soon as as I pulled up she beckoned me into the yard and pointed at one of the trails saying it had been bothering her all day at first I was confused but
then I realized what she was talking about none of the footprints had left any shoe marks I felt like an idiot for not picking up on it sooner whoever had left the footprints had been walking around in their bare feet I was at a loss for words who the hell would walk around barefoot in freezing cold temperatures my girlfriend suggested that maybe was some kind of animal but the prince genuinely looked like two human feet we went inside and called my dad but he said he never experienced anything like that in all his Years of
Living in that house he told me to grab my rifle and try tracking down whoever had left the footprints I really didn't want to but I knew this kind of thing was my responsibility my girlfriend wanted to call the police but I knew that would be a waste of time we had no evidence that a crime was committed and I didn't think trespassing would warrant a search I told her I'd call the police if I found something in the woods and she agreed like I said before that Woods is its own world so I told
myself I'd turn back as soon as the sun started going down I slung my rifle over my shoulder and headed out I must have been following the trail for like 30 minutes when I noticed something really strange seemingly out of nowhere the trail split into two diverging paths I didn't know which one to follow hell I didn't even know that was possible I thought maybe whoever had left the trail had doubled back to confuse me but then a scarier thought hit me was there more than one person out there I was under the impression that
I had been tracking one person this whole time the possibility of multiple people had never even occurred to me that was enough to shake me up though I wasn't fully comfortable knowing I could be outnumbered out there I stood there a little while longer before deciding to turn around it was getting dark anyway as I was walking back I couldn't help but think about those Footprints I felt like I would have noticed if two people were trying to walk in the same Footprints there's no way the person in the back could have done it without
messing up at least once and then I thought that maybe someone had walked backwards from deeper in the woods to make it look like there had been two people there the whole time and then obviously there was the possibility that it was just one person who doubled back on himself maybe someone had been carrying another person on his back and just got tired I really didn't know what explanation was the most disturbing we did end up calling the police that night but as I predicted they told us there wasn't much they could do without definitive
evidence of a crime I told my girlfriend I was going into the woods again the next morning but it snowed pretty heavily that night so there were no prints to follow anymore my girlfriend was obviously terrified but there was literally nothing we could do luckily that was the last thing that happened that winter in fact nothing happened for a few years after that I would go as as far as to say we had forgotten about the whole thing a lot had happened since then my girlfriend and I got engaged in that time frame and we
were focusing on other things I wouldn't be writing this if the story ended there though what I'm about to tell you happened less than a year ago it was just after the new year so January of this year one random morning I woke up to Footprints all over my property just like that all the memories came flooding back my fiance actually broke down in our bedroom asking me if we'd ever escape this nightmare I didn't know what to tell her it was actually worse this time there were Footprints leading to my shed and a bunch
of tools were missing God knows what else those people had done I was Furious I called up my friend Theo explained the situation and asked him if he'd help me he's a big Wilderness guy and a much more experienced Hunter than I am which is part of the reason I asked him for help he agreed and drove over to my place a few hours later my fiance was worried sick but I promised her that Theo and I would be able to handle ourselves we dressed for the cold and geared up knowing we might be out
there for hours the reason I wasn't worried about the darkness this time around was because Theo had this really expensive thermal scope for his AR10 which would allow us to see in low visibility I never spent that much money on hunting equipment so I'd still be blind but it was definitely comforting knowing at least one of us would be able to see I won't sugarcoat it I was pretty scared by the time we had it out at first Theo and I talked as we walked but after 45 minutes we were mostly silent it's like the
seriousness of the situation hit us both at the same time I remember praying to God that I hadn't dragged Theo into some horrible situation I'm not sure how long we walked after that but eventually the tracks once again split into two sets of footprints we followed the one on the left for a few minutes but at one point the trail just stopped abruptly we retraced our steps back to the split and Theo made a comment about whoever left the tracks really didn't want to be followed I didn't want to think about it so we just
kept following the footprints in silence I'm not kidding you there were at least three other dead ends that forced us to retrace our steps wasting valuable daylight I remember thinking how remarkable it was that someone could walk backwards so perfectly that a trail of footprints didn't look like it had been stepped on multiple times I'm telling you it wasn't normal the one upside which Theo pointed out to me was the dead ends likely meant we were tracking just one person eventually it started getting dark we were really deep in the woods at that point I
didn't recognize my surroundings at all the trail Footprints didn't diverge for a long time after that Theo said whoever we were tracking had probably given up trying to make dead ends another 5 minutes or so pasted and the footprints started getting noticeably deep we were getting closer at one point another set of footprints appeared right alongside the original Theo cursed and whispered that he had been wrong and that we were probably tracking two people the sun was basically all the way down now so Theo was checking his scope every so often the snow gave me
some visibility but I'll be honest I probably would have turned around had it not been for Theo's scope we were walking in complete silence out of no where I felt Theo's arm reach against my chest motioning me to stop I looked at him and he was looking straight ahead through a scope I couldn't see what he was looking at so I just kept looking at him it looked like he was holding his breath I had never seen him so still after a good 20 seconds he slowly made his way over to the nearest tree and
crouched down I followed suit not even questioning why he looked through his scope again and I could see his hand begin to to tremble slightly another 20 seconds of complete silence I was dying of suspense so I lightly tapped his shoulder he lowered his rifle and silently handed it to me I looked through the scope and had to fight back a scream there were four figures huddled in the snow at first I thought they were bears but I quickly realized they weren't they were human beings two of them were large and hunched over and the
other two were small ER the smaller ones were clinging to a nearby tree wildly jerking their heads around they were eating something I couldn't make out faces or details thermal scopes don't give you that but I could see enough to know they were naked it was the most terrifying thing I have ever seen with my own two eyes eventually the larger ones picked up the smaller ones from off the tree and placed them on their shoulders they then began walking deeper into the woods the and I sat under that tree for what felt like an
hour we didn't dare move until we were positive that there was no way those things could hear us by the time we got back to the house hours later I was surprised to find my fiance was still awake she told me she couldn't sleep knowing I was out there and asked what we found I told her in as minimal detail as possible but she was still horrified we called the police that night who told us they'd search the woods the first thing the next morning Theo agre agreed to stay the night so the two of
us could assist the police in their search the next morning the police searched the woods with our help but called it off after a few hours due to the partly covered up Footprints my fiance demanded that they keep searching but they said they couldn't sanction a huge search over some missing tools I don't blame them but it didn't feel like closure Theo and I knew what we saw Winter's fast approaching and both my fiance and I are worried those people are going to come back again we're seriously considering moving but haven't been able to get
the ball rolling on that I don't really know what to think like I said earlier I've told everyone I can about what's been happening to us it's literally been going on for years none of my neighbors have ever experienced anything like this which doesn't make sense to me I don't know why my house is getting targeted or what those people even want some of my friends think they're harmless but other people tell me I'm in grave danger I think I'm going to try and seal off my yard from the woods but I don't know what
else to do besides that hopefully we can move out soon last summer I decided to tackle a major section of the Pacific Crest Trail I've always loved hiking especially solo trips my plan was simple park my car at the end of the section hit a ride to the trail head and Hike back over the course of a little more more than a week and a half it sounded straightforward enough at the time the first few days went smoothly about how I expected the trail was everything I'd hoped it would be endless stretches of towering trees
and winding paths cutting through Serene Landscapes I'm in pretty good shape so I don't have to stop very frequently when I'm hiking I'm obviously not going to hike in the dark though so every night I had to pitch a tent to get some shuty I've always preferred to keep a low profile especially since solo hikers can attract attention because of that I'd Venture a little off the trail to set up my Camp each night I figured it was better that way minimized the chance of a stranger stumbling across my campsite up until the third night
everything was perfectly fine but what I'm about to tell you is the reason why I'm taking an extended break from hiking or any kind of wilderness exploration for that matter I woke up in the middle of the night with this odd sense that something was wrong it was the kind of gut feeling you can't explain but you know better than to ignore I looked around my tent everything seemed normal inside so I decided to have a look around the campsite I drew my rifle grabbed a flashlight and unzipped the tent there was no one out
there no one that I could see at least I returned to my tent and started checking my pack that's when I realized my wallet was gone at first I thought i' just misplaced it maybe left it outside the tent or buried it somewh somewhere in my gear but after tearing through everything it was clear someone had taken it my personal information cash credit cards all of it how is that even possible though had someone broken into my tent just to steal that one thing and leave it was unlikely but randomly misplacing it was very uncharacteristic
of me I came to terms with the unfortunate conclusion that I had probably lost it myself things only got worse from there though over the course of the next few days I started to notice more things missing small items seemingly random things one of my lighters my Swiss army knife a few energy bars I knew I wasn't just misplacing everything someone was stealing my belongings part of me didn't want to believe it but by the fourth day it was undeniable I was being stalked there wasn't any cell coverage on that part of the trail so
it wasn't like I could alert someone about my situation I remember contemplating turning back but I'd only be saving myself a couple of days at best there was no way I'd be able to hike either direction without sleeping but I didn't feel comfortable pitching a tent in those woods with someone literally stalking me it was a l lose situation I remained calm and told myself there was a reason I had brought my rifle out there and then it dawned on me why hadn't that person stolen my gun it's almost as if they were deliberately messing
with me that night I tied my tent shut from the inside hoping that would keep them out should they return I tried to stay up for as long as possible but I eventually fell asleep from Pure exhaustion my plan worked though because when I woke up the next morning there was no sign that anyone had been in my tent by then the paranoia had set in fully though the Solitude was getting to my brain and every second of hiking was agonizing I don't have anxiety nor have I ever had it but let me tell you
I have never felt worse in my life than I did over the next few days just imagine being in my position no options but to continue hiking despite knowing someone's lurking not far behind the anxiety was perpetual and I was unraveling I can't explain why or how but my mind started playing tricks on me a rustling in the bushes turned out to be nothing a shadow flickering at the edge of my vision vanished the moment I turned my head the hallucinations got worse I can remember most of them specifically but the one that sticks out
the most is this as I was walking I felt myself step into an ankle deep puddle of water that almost caused me to trip I literally heard the Splash and felt the cold water soaking my sock but when I looked down the ground was completely dry I stood there in complete shock it felt so real I had no choice but to continue down the trail as bad as the days were the nights were always worse I tied my tent shut and slept next to my rifle but nothing made the anxiety go away at one point
I had to Splash cold water on my face to calm myself down the hallucinations mostly subsided after that I'm not sure what I would have done if they had continued the next night I woke up to the sound of footsteps walking around my campsite I quietly grabbed my rifle preparing to confront whoever was there but my body was frozen in fear eventually the footsteps faded into the woods but there was no way in hell I was going to sleep after that as soon as the sun came up I packed up camp in a frenzy my
hand shaking so badly I could barely tie my gear I couldn't stay out there another night I was so close probably a day and a quarter's hike away from my car maybe less if I moved quickly I decided that I wouldn't be stopping to sleep that night that I'd push through the night to get off the god forsaken Trail as quickly as possible I hiked for hours as quickly as my body would let me go when the sun started to set I gritted my teeth and continued instead of pulling off to pitch my tent by
the time it was pitched blackout I was so close probably 2 hours away at most I kept walking flashlight in one hand rifle in the other I started second guessing my decision I had never hiked in the darkness before and I was not prepared for how difficult it was that in end of itself was scary enough I kept going trying to keep my breathing steady about an hour passed I was getting closer and then I heard it somewhere behind me I was sure I heard footsteps I spun around and flashed my light and to my
horror I saw something slink behind a tree the adrenaline took over and I aimed my rifle at the tree I demanded that they come out in a loud voice the figure stepped forward it was definitely a human but when I tell you it was the most barbaric looking thing I'd ever seen I'm not exaggerating words cannot describe what I was looking at he was wearing nothing but a pair of my shorts which I hadn't even realized were missing his skin was scratched up in several different places and his face was covered in hair he started
walking towards me even though I had my rifle aimed at him before I could think I tapped off a warning round next to him he jumped at the sound and instantly retreated sprinting back into into the woods I was in shock without wasting another second I turned around and went as fast as I could by the time I made it out of the woods I locked my car doors and called the police when they finally showed up they told me that I shouldn't stick around I didn't need to be told twice I was out of
there that night the craziest part of the whole thing in my opinion was the hallucinations I didn't think such vivid hallucinations were even possible it's going to be a long time before I go hiking again and I can confidently say that when I do I won't be alone I would advise anyone planning on hiking the Pacific Crest Trail to be extremely cautious and carry a firearm this experience is something I still think about [Music] often I apologize in advance if I mess up any details about the story I'm about to tell this is something that
my best friend told me multiple times several years ago now it's one of those stories so unsettling you can't shake it even after hearing it more than once my friend's dad was a logger specifically a tree saw operator for those who don't know a tree saw is a massive machine capable of cutting down giant trees and slicing them to specific lengths his job met long grueling hours often alone in the Deep secluded Forest of the Pacific Northwest the way his login crew Works he was paid based on the number of trees he cut down rather
than the hours he worked so he would often push himself to work 16 to 20 hour days to finish jobs as quickly as possible after he and his cooworker finished their part the rest of the crew would come in to clear the Fel trees and transport them to the mill while he spent about half of his time working alone the other half was spent with his friend Griffin another treea operator they used radios to communicate especially when they worked on opposite ends of the same job site number of years ago my friend's dad and Griffin
were assigned to a remote job site high up on a mountain it took the company over 3 weeks just to clear a road wide enough for their trucks and equipment to make it to the site by the time they began work they were positioned in an extremely desolate part of the mountain they were already 10 days in making good progress when they started hearing strange chatter over their radios at first the voices were muffled just faint static Laden murmurs that didn't make sense they tried switching channels but no matter what they did the chatter followed
them anyone who's used a standard radio knows how strange that is it should be impossible for anyone to follow you when you're switching channels as they progressed farther up the mountain the voices became more distinct they couldn't hear full conversations but based on what they could hear they both agreed that the tone of the conversation fragments felt off my friend's dad said it sounded almost casual at times but the content was unintelligible they also started finding strange signs that people had been there before them random containers footprints in the dirt and small makeshift campsites like
I said before they were in a place so remote it was practically inaccessible so these discoveries were deeply unsettling no one should have been up there one day Griffin came across a tent hidden just off a trail and called my friend's dad over they decided to investigate inside they found a s single sleeping bag and a duffel bag filled with the most disturbing things imaginable multiple pairs of children's underwear duct tape rope and crude sketches of children being molested there were even photos of a fresh Apple indicating whoever owned it had been there recently Griffin
wanted to pack up and leave immediately my friend's dad ever the workaholic insisted they finish the job they agreed to limit radio communication to emergencies only and decided to keep working that night they sat in the camper unable to Shake The Dread that hung over them the radial crackled to life again and this time they could make out Snippets of a conversation between two men they were talking about mundane things collecting water and firewood but the realization that these men were likely connected to the tent freaked my friend's dad out Griffin wasn't as phased but
my friend's dad was losing it the next night my friend's dad decided to confront them when he heard the men talking about Gathering Bush for a fire he grabbed the radio and demanded to know who they were and what they were doing there the radio went silent immediately and the men didn't respond that silence was almost more unnerving than the chatter Griffin was upset that my friend's dad had announced their presence and the two of them got into a brief argument before deciding they'd escalate the situation the next day around midnight Griffin shook my friend's
dad awake Whispering that someone was outside the camper the first thing he noticed was the soft sound of footsteps crunching on the gravel outside hard pounding he fumbled for his gun only to realize it wasn't loaded he had no idea where his ammunition was Griffin was unarmed and the idea of calling the police was laughable given their location they both sat Frozen as they heard the camper door handle jiggle the door creaked open but didn't fully swing inward their camper was high off the ground and there was no ladder or stool to climb up then
came scratching long deliberate scratches along the outside of the door four agonizing minutes passed finally my friend's dad nodded at Griffin signaling he was going to check it out he moved quietly toward the door gripping a flashlight in his shaking hand just as he reached the door it burst open and he was struck across the face with a knife his pain was blinding he fell out of the camper hitting the ground hard before he could recover a man was on top of him pressing the knife against his neck another man appeared kicking him repeatedly in
the head Griffin without hesitation leapt out of the camper and tackled the man with a knife the second man bolted into the darkness and the one Griffin had tackled scrambled to his feet and followed they disappeared into the forest Griffin helped my Dad's friend back into the truck and they drove 2 hours to the nearest hospital it was bad his face was a bloody mess and there was a cut across his eyes so severe it permanently damaged his vision they reported the attack to the police but nothing came of it 2 weeks later as the
rest of the logging crew finished the job one of their co-workers was found bound gagged raped and murdered in a ditch no arrests were ever made to this day my friend's dad struggles with PTSD his right eye with its def figured pupil constantly reminds him of that night I'm sure he hasn't had a full night of restful sleep since I've been terrified fight of Deep Woods for a long time now mostly because of my friend's dad's experience I haven't heard from my friend or his dad in years now so I can only hope he's doing
all right
