38 TRUE Mountain Horror Stories

it's time yet again for a compilation episode this time i've put together over five hours of allegedly true scary stories set in the mountains enjoy if you want your story narrated share it with us at darkstories.org i'm looking for stories from small towns the deep woods or yosemite national park this show is available as a podcast as well as my other show hosted by carmen carrion called freaky folklore which just released an episode about the disturbing black-eyed children this show and freaky folklore are available on spotify itunes or your favorite podcasting platform now on to those stories devil cat by reaper i recently turned 33 and what i'm about to tell you about is something i hope i never have the misfortune to encounter again the first time i was told about this creature was by my father who was 69 years old and he still swears that this was the most horrifying experience of his life when my father was eight years old growing up in the mountains of southwest virginia one source of income was to hunt animals for their furs of course the remainder of the animals did not go to waste seeing as how various wild animals were always on the menu one summer night around the middle of june my father and my grandfather along with a couple of my family members got together and set out on a hunt this would prove to be a night none of them would forget my grandfather had just gotten a pair of hunting dogs a few months prior and they were some of the best he had ever owned according to my father they weren't even scared to face off against a bear the logging road they were hunting on went for miles back through the woods and had an uphill grade on one side and the other side just continued down the mountain their only source of light was the full moon that night and an old carbide lantern their only instruments for the hunt were single round 22 calibers but the ejectors were messed up so after every round they would have to pick up the casing out of the barrel themselves after a few hours of hunting and having scored a couple of possums they decided to leash the dogs and start walking back home about halfway back they were coming up on some bushes on the hillside of the logging road when the dogs began to sniff the air and start lunging toward the bushes let them go my grandfather told my father we'll get whatever's in those bushes before we get home my father did as he was told and the dogs began to run straight for the bushes and out of sight a few moments later and there was the most terrible sound any of them had ever heard coming from the direction the dogs had gone it was a sound of growling and roars mixed with the dog's yelps of pain suddenly the dogs both ran limping from the bushes and cowered around my grandfather's feet then they saw what had scared the dogs a creature leapt out from the bushes onto the logging road crouching down as if ready to pounce it glared at them with yellow eyes eyes flickering with the reflection of the lantern by the light of the full moon and the light of the lantern they were able to see this thing quite well the creature was eight feet long with a tail that was swaying back and forth around the ground behind it the same way an angry cat would it was covered in pitch black fur that was much darker than the night around it its ears were pointed and stuck straight up from its head and in the near darkness the ears looked more like horns than ears it had an elongated head similar to that of a horse but the mouth was full of razor-sharp teeth complete with two very long things then they heard a sound that made their veins run gold the thing screamed like a woman from a horror film only a hundred times louder it hurt their ears so much that they had to cover them they then couldn't help but fall to the ground on their knees my father picked himself up and began to run but my grandfather caught him by the shoulder and pulled him back i'm sure if he hadn't i wouldn't be around to tell you this story now my father was too scared to use the 22 on the creature the rounds wouldn't do enough and he was afraid that it would simply anger it they were only a single shot as well and he would not have time in that scenario to dig out the casing and place another one in the chamber that's when he noticed that the all-black creature seemed to be hesitant and staring at the fire flickering in the lantern and kept just out of the edge of its glow that was their only saving grace they stood close together and began to make their way as fast as possible toward home which i would imagine wasn't very fast as they all huddled to stay within the glow of the lantern as they slowly escaped the creature circled them as they made their way down the logging road first it would be in front then behind them completely silently then on either side and from time to time it would let out that horrifying ear piercing scream when they reached the edge of the woods they all started running toward the house as fast as they could and ran through the front door slamming it behind them my father the last one in locked the door and went to the living room window to look outside and there in the front yard was the black cat-like creature it was pacing back and forth glaring at the house with those yellow eyes screaming that terrible scream again none of them slept that night and none of them were brave enough to leave my grandfather's house until sunrise it was the only time my grandfather ever let the dogs stay inside overnight they would never hunt at night again and no one in the family would hunt in that part of the woods either over the years several members of my family have seen heard or have been chased by a similar looking creature in those mountains cousins uncles even my own brother have seen it and have been extremely shaken by the experience i'm in no hurry to come across the thing but if i ever do i hope i'm carrying something far more powerful than a single round half broken 22 evil entity by may helen t i was 10 years old when i was that young every summer me and my family used to visit my grandpa for a couple of months he lived way up in the mountains it was a great and beautiful place except for the house itself specifically the second floor and the top of the stairs i seem to be the only one in my family who had noticed the strange happenings one rainy day when i was all alone in the house i was in the kitchen making a snack when i suddenly heard a noise like someone was walking around upstairs it scared me something fierce because i knew i was alone at the time but still i yelled out hello to see if someone had come home without me noticing but there was no reply i went up to look and i saw that the upstairs was empty i went back down again and continued to make my snack then i heard the noise once more somehow scaring me more than before i slowly checked again still there was no one upstairs i told myself it was just the house settling or creaking in the wind i went down and enjoyed my snack and i was reading a comic after a while of course i heard it again and this time something had fallen to the floor now i was shaking and it seemed to take me ages to bring myself up the stairs to check again this time the lights that had been on upstairs were out and the top of the stairs were especially dark i was scared of the dark at that age aren't most kids i remember looking up the stairs and what i saw what i remember seeing still scares the living daylights out of me there was a dark figure with eyes glowing red it was looking down at me and smiling i couldn't bring myself to move even an inch and all i heard was growling when i could move again after what felt like hours i ran outside and i stayed there until my grandpa came back home i told him what happened and he didn't believe me nor did anyone else in the family i didn't mention it again afraid they would grow irritated with me or even mock me but after seeing it once i continued to see the figure at the top of those stairs especially if i was alone in the house or if the lights were out years later i found out that the house was built using logs that had been used to hang people and all of those logs specifically were used to make the entirety of the upstairs floor needless to say i've never been alone there again nowadays my aunt owns the house on the top of the mountain and even now i can still see still remember the evil shadow upstairs and i don't like it going up there when i do have to visit i use one of the nearby cabins to sleep in keeping me far and away from the demons squatting upstairs demon encounter in new caledonia by paul revateato i'm a 22 year old french canadian woman from quebec city and last year i experienced something out of the ordinary i was studying in tahiti french polynesia for about three months when i decided to take part in a two-week field trip to new caledonia organized by my host university before joining the trip i had little knowledge of new caledonia and the culture of the people who lived there many of my tahitian friends were somehow a little uncomfortable with staying on kennek's lands due to former tribal rivalries and magic practices but i personally didn't think too much of it as i said i knew little about the kennick native culture at the time and i thought they were only anxious or superstitious about leaving the island for the first time the first week of the trip was amazing we had so much fun discovering nomea during the day and partying at night then for the second week we left the capital to travel the center of the island where we would stay a couple of days in the mountains in a nice camp i shared a room with my colleague kat from quebec who was part of the exchange program in tahiti like me one night as our group was heading back to the camp from the restaurant we had enjoyed a nice meal at i was blown away by the stars in the sky i had never seen so many in my life they were shining and sparkling i stopped walking to gaze up at them and that's when i felt something weird on my left bare foot it was a sensation i'd never felt before as if something was caressing my foot with a million tiny needles then i felt a powerful sting followed by an intense rising pain on the top of my foot i immediately let out a scream of pain and tears were rushing down my cheeks it was so bad my tahitian friend howl ran to me and carried me back to the camp my teachers ran over to me wondering what had happened when they saw my foot it looked like it had gotten a centipede bite one of them began to suck the venom out of the wound i couldn't stop crying i was in so much pain and angry that i didn't get a chance to see the thing that had bitten me south sea centipedes are venomous but they can't really end you they just hurt a lot another tahitian friend of mine vi came running and poured a chinese remedy over my foot and i felt the pain dim down a little bit there was nothing more we could do that night about the incident so i went to sleep hoping that the next day i'd feel better cat was already sleeping when i went to bed i managed to get myself into my buck and i fell asleep immediately it wasn't long before i woke up with an uneasy feeling i opened my eyes and saw an imposing dark figure in the right corner of the room it was standing in the dark just before the door when i saw it fear invaded my body i tried to scream to wake up cat but all i could do was squeak a near silent noise i was totally aware of my surroundings and i could see her sleeping in her bed completely unaware of the situation i couldn't move at all i was completely paralyzed my attention was turned towards those two red eyes coming from the figure i couldn't see its face but this thing this creature definitely was no man i remember its arms being so long that it could touch me without even moving closer to my bed and that's what it was doing it was caressing me with long clawed hands i could feel tears running down my cheeks as i felt it happen panic was rising in my mind it caressed me like that from head to toe for several moments then as it began to claw harder and more violent my tahitian friend vi entered the room unexpectedly and as soon as he did the thing disappeared in a quick puff and was gone i immediately set up screaming and panicking vi had been on her way to check my foot and give me tylenol when she asked what was wrong with me i told her what i had seen she didn't believe me and laughed it off claiming that i was just delirious from the bite but it felt so real no need to say that i didn't sleep well that night i've never suffered night terrors before or sleep paralysis and that's why i keep thinking that i encountered something else that night something more than a fever dream maybe it is linked to the centipede bite i've been doing research on the significance of centipedes in the canic culture as well as the tahitian culture but nothing matches the description of the event that night ever since then i refer to centipedes as demon creatures and to this day i refuse to walk barefoot outside the mysterious children of the mountain by homer oh i was in high school when my dad planned a trip to visit our grandparents in the catanduanes a province here in the philippines when he asked us to come with him we were pretty excited since it would be our first time there we could have rode a plane there but we didn't want to miss the chance of witnessing different breathtaking views so we rode a bus for 11 hours a boat ride for four hours and another bus ride for five hours from the port to our grandparents house oh it was a day's worth of travel exhausting but well worth it they were so surprised and delighted when we arrived my dad knows how fascinated i was with tales of the supernatural back then he mentioned that my grandparents had a lot of stories to tell so i kept bugging them during dinner that night until finally they started talking i eagerly listened to their story my grandpa came from a family of fishermen and farmers here in the mountains he remembered one night when he was just a small child his dad woke him up around two in the morning to prepare things needed for fishing still confused and half asleep he slowly got up to help his dad he carried the fishing rods on their way to the beach there they got on a small boat and paddled their way into the open water they decided to anchor near the foot of one of the mountains and cast the bait into the water they were on that boat for nearly two hours but they hadn't caught anything so far not a single fish was taking the bait my grandfather was being a kid was getting cranky and insisting on going back when all of a sudden near the top of that nearby mountain there were torches followed by the sound of distant children's laughter and playing my grandpa seemed scared he was asking himself who might those kids be what were they doing on the mountain by themselves this late or early his dad uttered that they may be one of the neighbor's kids the next thing they heard was a rumbling noise and the water under them began to ripple the sound they heard next was like a big boulder rolling down the mountain but they could not figure out where it was coming from my grandfather was growing more scared by the second and demanded that they leave or else they may be crushed his father told him to stay still and to be quiet all of a sudden something started pulling on the line it was a fish they put it in a basket and not long after casting bait again there was another catch it happened over and over in some sort of marathon something was spooking the fish that way and some of them were so frightened that they were jumping inside the boat and all they had to do was grab them when the basket was full the rumbling sound disappeared and the water grew calm again those children's laughs and torches in the distance vanished one by one as if they had been going inside a cave or had been blocked off by something they went home puzzled but happy nonetheless the next day his dad asked the neighbors to find out if any of their kids were on the mountain that morning they told him that no one had been there and nobody goes there especially at night nevertheless whoever or whatever they were my grandfather appreciated the help the beast of mount o'fear by horrible experiences i live and grew up in malaysia and this story is about a mountain in malaysia called lelong or mount there are myths and legends revolving around this mountain such as the legend of where the sultan had heard of a celestial princess's beauty and desired to marry her but she gave him seven impossible conditions that's a common legend that you can search up on the internet and just one story from the region this story though was told by my father when he was a child his parents always brought him and his siblings to the mountain not for hiking but to go to the waterfall and bathe my grandparents were poor and could not afford video games for my father and his siblings so every holiday they would bring my father to gunung lilong's waterfall to bathe and enjoy but they never went hiking and my grandparents would never let them because legend has it there was a beast living on mount of eer they say it's a woman who can transform into a lion it is said that she is immortal because it was a punishment from god to her god didn't want her to be reborn as she was evil so she haunts the mountains for eternity the woman targets men many expert hikers who have gone on the mountain ended up getting lost many of which were never found those that did find their ways back came to tell this tale my father's best friend was one of them he was in the scouts he had gone camping in the mountains a few times each and every time he reported seeing a strange animal but as they were in a big group the strange creatures seem to keep its distance and only watch one day my dad was driving and had his friend sitting at the passenger side his friend is wiccan and believes in things normal people can't sense and my father happened to be driving past the mountain all of a sudden my dad's friend had a panic attack he said he had seen something dark roaming across the mountain and that he did not want to go any closer the thing was at the time no one had told him the legend it was only then after he said that that my dad told him about the beast of mount of fear after everything i've heard you better believe i'll be avoiding the mountain no hiking for me we called it jeffy by mr drake it was around may of 2008 it was me and some of my friends we were all hanging out at sam's house we were 14ish at the time at some point it started getting dark so we started to tell each other scary stories i think it was doug who said hey sam what about that thing you and kyle saw a few years back now at this time i'd known sam for just about two years i knew him very well but he had never spoken about anything paranormal before usually he changed the subject very quickly at this point kyle excused himself and walked away visibly pale then the other kyle said yeah that's right you guys didn't even go home that night you came to my house sam was nervous as he looked around and tried to change the subject however we were teenage boys who wanted dirt so he caved according to him he and kyle were on their way home from our friend taylor's house when they reached the bottom of the hill on that particular street they saw something i don't recall what time of year he said it was but he said it was foggy that day and it got dark very early they continued the story there it was crawling right across the street no noise no dramatic music of course the creature had long stringy black hair pale white skin and it walked like its bones had been broken it was unnatural and unnerving at one point it stood up and looked right at us and with one of its long bladed fingers it seemed to wave at us just with that single finger like getting onto a child who was in the cookie jar then it shushed us and continued crawling across the road after that he said they ran to kyle's house and spent the night there the only way back to their houses was through dense woods or miles to the main road well when they woke up other kyle's stepdad overheard them retelling the events from the previous night and to their shock and dismay he had said to them so you guys saw jeffy huh he went on to tell them every morning when he got up for work he would see the pale figure of that thing in the woods behind the house while making his coffee so from then on whenever he told the story he would refer to it as jeff or jeffy it wasn't until 2013 that i personally found out that people all over had seen the thing i started to piece it all together multiple people in my own neighborhood as well as a couple of people in town said that they had seen something weird without mentioning the whole jeffy tale one random person told me his story and described the same creature word for word in the summer of that year i was exploring and decided i wanted to see if the drain under our street connected to the other side if so i thought it'd be a cool place to hide things i was 14 and lived in the north georgian mountains i was too chicken to do it alone so i talked sam into doing it with me we grabbed a flashlight and two walkie-talkies and we walked to the bottom of the mountain we both climbed down and i somehow convinced sam to go first now i honestly expected us to shine the flashlight and just see the end of the tunnel or a log blocking it or something after all this was a small one lane road he headed in and i stood at the entrance after getting our fill over breaker breaker one nines and copy that over it started to get weird he started crawling a while ago and i could no longer see him and i could barely hear him except through the walkie-talkie but i could tell that he was getting scared so i headed in behind him i reached him after a few seconds but at that point i could no longer make out the exit we both couldn't see the other side but we kept crawling pushing ourselves further but we were starting to feel concerned by now we would have reached the other side of the road because it wasn't that wide so where were we headed it was at that time we began to see bones not a lot mind you just a few scattered here and there small ones actually but then my skin tightened with goose pimples as i saw these large gashes cut into the sides of the steel drain pipes four slashes on each marking at first i told myself they must be from when the pipe was installed and it just got banged up but the cuts were from the inside out so maybe a bear got in here and got angry it still didn't make sense to me i told sam what i saw and he looked over at the gashes and we both screamed like little girls running out of the pipes as fast as possible to this day i still wonder what the slashes are from and why that tunnel is so long if you ever see jeffy up in the georgian mountains i would stay far away his name may be inviting but those claws say otherwise the headless man by james i'm 15 years old and i've been hunting for years now a few years ago i was staying over at my brother's place my brother is about 10 years older than me i stayed at his house and it was just me and him in the mountains of tennessee i've always had some problem with how his house was laid out especially since there was about 150 yards of trees in every direction i remember after school one day it was the weekend and being as i was fairly young my father had dropped me off there to spend the weekend with him when i made it to his place i crashed on the couch i was watching tv and had fallen asleep when i woke up i just sat there i was staying up too late on my phone suddenly i heard tapping at the window it was pitch black out say for a full moon outside and i was wondering right away who in the world would that be around these parts at this time it was immediately strange i raised myself up to peer out the window that it had come from but there was no one there i slowly set back down but the feeling of never being watched never left me a few minutes later i heard movement coming from the same window i went over and looked outside again and there i saw a man-like figure 50 yards away from the house moving through the trees i could only barely make out the silhouette of shoulders and legs but i could not see his head i was thinking it was some crazy neighbor or something i went back to lay down but about two hours later i was looking at the door unable to fall asleep it was one of those doors with windows at the top of it as i sit there gazing at it but not really looking at it i saw movement in front of my eyes and realized someone was standing just in front of the front door i raised up with a gasp as i continued to see the silhouette from there my curiosity got the better of me i figured if i looked out the window and saw who or what it was that my fears would be calmed down surely it was nothing more than a passersby a stranger taking a really late walk a little too close to the house but when i looked out the window to the front door area i saw that it was a man but he had no head if he had one he would be staring right through the window given his posture i screamed my brother ran into the living room i told him to look outside that i saw someone there he looked at the door window but there was nothing but still being cautious he checked all the windows then went outside for a bit to look around but there was no one there he messed up my hair a little bit with his hand before going back to bed telling me not to worry the thing is a few months after that incident my brother sold his house and he would never tell my family why he sold it but something tells me he may have seen the headless man that i saw that night creepy lights in the sky by noah i'm 16 years old and live in chula vista california it's a beautiful and decent sized city located near the mexican border the west side is by the bay which has the salty aquatic water while the east side where i live smells like plants which is by the mountains me and a few close friends were having a get-together at a boy's house on the same mountain who will call jaden for privacy reasons it was getting dark and it was winter so it got dark earlier the sky was a light baby blue and orangish color by then and you could see the small crescent moon beginning to show more and more we headed to the local park to go for a small walk which was less than a half a mile away we had to cross a small canyon to get there now this canyon was not very wide but was approximately the size of a football field there were always coyotes and possums prowling about there or mentally unstable men smoking out in public or doing other worse things after walking there with some friends for a bit we returned further up to the top of the mountain which was near a street where cars would always speed by on three of our friends were down in the cul-de-sac in our neighborhood down a trail from the canyon me and my friends max cece and wendell were walking up to the top that's around the time we saw a white light filming up the sky towards the south it wasn't the car first of all we didn't hear anyone pass by for about five minutes and secondly the type of light wouldn't be able to fill up the sky like that we assumed it was a spotlight but there were no structures in that direction that would project such a light and it was still far too bright to be any sort of spotlight at the same time cc's phone kept turning on and off over and over again that was creepy since it was a newer model iphone which is a generation six it wasn't anything older and would run horribly because of its quality then we saw a red light fill up the sky and move as a streak and vanish directly overhead as i struggled to find an explanation to this i was getting freaked out there were no cars passing by no spotlights or anything like it plus how would a red light light up the sky like that leaving behind a trail or streak the red light was even more bright than the previous white one not to mention cc's mobile phone the moment the lights had disappeared the phone stopped turning itself off and on and was quiet again a minute later we met up with some of the friends who were down in the cul-de-sac waiting for jaden to return as he took care of some things at his place they had seen the white flash as well and also mentioned that they hadn't seen any cars all night wendell revealed he saw the red flash of light as well he said it was fear-shaped and he even said it left a trail so we had seen the same things after that we charged up cece's phone and went on with the night as if nothing happened though it was at the back of my mind the entire time rock thrower of colorado by jordan p several years ago my dad was in town on a break from work my brothers my dad and myself decided to go on a fishing trip up to one of our favorite mountains the grand mesa national forest on the way up my brothers had made a joke about bigfoot you can obviously see where this tail is going it wasn't uncommon for us to bring up the subject as we always talked about bigfoot when we were younger we were all very fascinated by the idea upon the subject being brought up my brother had said something along the lines of it's like your encounter dad i was confused and instantly asked what they were talking about and so the story begins the town we live in is the very same town my dad grew up in back then my dad wayne was in his late 20s he and his friends decided to go late one night catfishing right off the colorado river they were fishing right off the bank and had a nice fire going drinking beers talking about girls and who knows what else about an hour into their late night fishing trip they heard a very loud splash in the water right away one of the first things they had thought was it must be a beaver slapping its tail in the water but not long after that another splash occurred closer now that sounded like a rock one of them stated my dad and his friends walked to the edge of the water they scanned parts of the bank that were not hidden in foliage my dad looked into the river itself and on the bank on the opposite side in the middle of the night the moonlight cast some light enough that my dad could see movement directly across from them on the other side of the river even though it was in a dark shadow at that instant a large rock landed just short of my dad's feet splashing him and his friend chuck instantly my dad knew it had come from the other side of the river this spot on the colorado river is well over 400 feet wide i don't know how many of you have tried to throw a golf ball sized rock that distance but it's not easy river rocks vary anywhere from 2 inches in diameter to 10 inches the rocks that were being thrown were at least 10 inches in diameter as my dad and his friends were staring across the river unable to detect the source of the rock thrower another stone was hurled directly at them the group scattered to avoid it as it hit the soil in between them one of them grabbed the cobblestone using both hands to do so slowly they all went back to the fire there was a moment of silence as none of them knew how to react finally lopez spoke saying who in the world can throw a rock like that across a river that big an obvious question but one they were all thinking a few moments passed and it seemed to stop they began to loosen up a little bit enjoying their beer and almost getting to the point of laughing the incident off when out of nowhere john screamed wayne watch out my dad docked as he had another large stone came all the way across and hit their fire pet that was enough my dad and his friends withdrew their fishing poles jumped into the truck and left they had talked a few times trying to figure out what it was the verdict was maybe some kids had come up with a big catapult or something and they were just too well hidden for them to see well you all guessed it there's a part two to this story at the end of the summer a friend of my dad's named tim called my dad to see if he wanted a catfish in the boat that night tim had bought himself a new aluminum boat that he kept wanting to fish out of reluctantly my dad accepted since he had turned him down all summer to hang out it wasn't because of the previous events that took place those were pretty much in the past by then tim even though he was a friend got on my dad's nerves it was a full moon that night and they decided to hit the river with the boat most of the night had been pretty uneventful catching a few fish having a few laughs and obviously downing a few beers it was the last leg of their journey when out of nowhere something hit the boat it was a very loud ping that shook them both awake and a half dazed state what the heck was all tim could say before there was a loud splash in front of the boat they both looked around and it was there that my dad spotted it on the south side of the river was a large silhouette the river's pace had them just drifting along but the moon and sky were clear enough that my dad could see the figure he said it was big whatever it was the large silhouette bent over and grabbed another rock my dad fired a shot into the air the figure rose suddenly and in the same awkward throwing motion hurled another rock which flew over the boat splashing behind it my dad fed up fired again but this time in front of the shadowy figure not trying to hit it but definitely trying to scare it it didn't work and the figure stayed side by side in pace with them tim being the cowardly type was freaking out my dad was scared but very curious as to what it was why they were so big and why they had been messing with them he would not get his answer though as the river began to pick up pace and in doing so the silhouette sped up its walk in an effort to keep up with them finally the figure just stopped and stared at them my dad never stopped looking at the figure until it was out of sight so you might be thinking okay your dad told you a bigfoot story but there's a problem with that if you know my dad he's very down to earth if my brothers and i tell him a story about how big a fish was that we caught my dad underestimates the size even if he's wrong the point being he under-embellishes it even when he told me this story he made it sound like it was no big deal and he's never once said that it was actually a bigfoot though he still can't explain who or what it was that creature in the woods by carlos this happened when i was backpacking with friends through rural arkansas high in the mountains we were backpacking with fellow church youth on the very first day i noticed how quiet it was out in the woods it was sort of an empty kind of quiet as if all the animals and bugs had gone on vacation growing up in the country you never hear anything like that so it was strange after a long and tiring five hours of walking we finally decided to stop and rest for the night the guys in the group being young and stupid decided to explore before it was dark and we ended up finding a cave around 30 feet away from the camp the cave was empty but entertained us for a while after that we went to eat dinner and for some reason we didn't make a fire after dinner our counselor told us that we needed to use the buddy system when going out into the woods especially when using the bathroom and after that we all went to bed that night i woke up with a very bad urge to pee thinking that i'd be fine and not wanting to wake anyone up i decided to go alone i climbed up the nearby hill to pee behind a tree near the top now i know it was a bad idea but i was half asleep as i was going up i heard a branch break nearby it startled me pretty bad but i assumed after hearing no sounds afterward that it was just an old or decayed branch but a few moments later there is a low and guttural growling nearby it was very close and as soon as i was done i raced down the hill in a panic as i sped by a figure that was nearly six feet tall i realized that i had run in the direction that the sound had come from i didn't turn to look back at the figure already terrified that i'd run towards it i ran into my tent and stayed covered in my sleeping bag for the rest of the night luckily i didn't see or hear anything after that my friends didn't believe me but that doesn't change what i saw i don't know what it was by koikoi to begin i live in the heart of the great smoky mountains of east tennessee i was raised there my best friend while called b was born and raised here as well and we've been close since we were barely 13. we're like sisters and spent most of our time together until we both got married and had families of our own now that you have a little background i'll share a short but creepy two-part story about what we saw one night by the river on highway 129 b and i were working together at a local grocery store and had recently lost a co-worker and good friend in a tragic accident for the past couple of years we had been going to a special boat docking ramp where he could walk in and out of the river safely this had been our favorite spot to let loose in the summer and go swimming it was close with easy access and it was free perfect for a bunch of broke girls we had decided to honor our friend's memory there instead of trying to remember where her family had scattered her ashes we figured one special place was as good as any to celebrate our memories so we made a habit of going swimming there one year about eight years ago b and i had parked on the gravel pull-off climbed out of the car as the sun was getting low and walked to the chilly water this is a welcoming feeling in the early june heat even at night so we plopped down as close as we could on the concrete wrap without sitting in the water just quietly gazing out over the river and the thick foliage that lined the banks a few minutes of soaking our feet had passed when bee sat out of nowhere in her casual way you know this would be a great place to hide a body now she didn't mean this in a creepy way we said off-the-wall things like this all the time but never meant anything by it so knowing her the way i do i laughed and agreed but jokingly shared my ideal place to hide one should i ever have to once my rear was numb i rolled up my pad legs and waded into the shallow parts of the water while we began chatting about other things like work and video games everything had been pretty calm and quiet except for the occasional passing car just above us the sun had finally sat and the water was too dark to safely tread so we sat on the ramp and began to stargaze with more idle conversation we were just admiring the brilliant night sky when suddenly a nearby bush began to rustle we looked at each other and i said it was just a critter to ease our minds of course it was a critter we lived in the country where small rodents were always being cleared off the roads we continued looking at the sky but it didn't last long when that same bush and the flimsy surrounding trees started to shake again as dark as it was all we could see were the outlines of the leaves and branches bouncing as something shook them now we had our eyes fixed on the plants about 10 feet away mildly curious as to what might scurry out from the brush all of a sudden bee's eyes widened with horror as she shouted cursing under her breath we booked it up the ramp i was behind her sprinting up the hill and across the gravel in my bare feet faster than i'd ever run before before i even opened the door bee had the car in reverse and she peeled out it onto the road i suddenly felt silly and wanted to laugh at myself for getting worked up over what was probably nothing but before i could my breath hitched in my throat i was peering into the passenger rear-view mirror when i saw the most terrifying sight a tall dark and slender creature with gangly limbs stepping out onto the road from where we had just been seconds ago the dull orange street lamp barely illuminated the shadow for me to even see an outline much less what it actually was i immediately darted my eyes back to the road ahead hoping it was my imagination hoping i had only been spooked by some animal that's when bee finally spoke up you saw it too didn't you you saw that thing i didn't want to overreact so i asked in turn what are you talking about that huge thing she replied across the road in the woods behind us i could hear the nervousness in her voice as she spoke knowing she would know if i was lying even with a simple answer i finally said yeah i did what was that i don't know be answered but i do know that was no person and it wasn't a bear either that was the last time we went to that spot together but it was not the last time i went fast forward a year later i told this story to my new boyfriend now husband and it really piqued his interest you see he's a skeptic in every sense of the word and was interested in potential proof of something supernatural so we went as the sun was going down and we sat there on the boat ramp once more i bowed my head in a moment of silence for my lost friend then started talking quietly with my boyfriend about how much she loved that spot when she was still around we hadn't been there ten minutes when all of a sudden that same bush and tree surrounding it started shaking i laughed nervously and told him that's what happened last time i shrugged it off as coincidence and we carried on but again the foliage began to shake violently but there was no wind not even a breeze not moving his eyes my boyfriend said sternly that we should leave just to be safe i thought he was more worried about it being someone rather than something but when he said to back up slowly and walk to the car i began getting nervous once inside locked doors i asked him why he didn't want us moving fast and he replied i can't explain it but i felt like we were being stalked i didn't want for whatever it may have been to chase us i don't even know if i was overreacting but better safe than sorry i guess [Music] i wish i could say we saw something that night but we didn't i haven't been back either because i don't want to be caught off guard by whatever lives out there by the river if you're ever driving down 129 on your way to cherokee north carolina be wary of the dangerous back road curves and the creature that might still live in those woods no one knows what it is but i do know it wasn't anything natural appalachian mountain windigo by dark stories anonymous it was an early monday morning cold and crisp i had just begun to pack up for a week-long hunting trip i had the tent and the bear traps packed into the back of the truck and tied down with a couple of bungee cords i began the long drive at around 7 00 am and ordered to get to our usual spot my friend clyde decided to tag along this time it wasn't unusual for him to be interested in hunting but this time he said something that i will always remember can i go with you this time he said be a shame if you went alone and never came back he did sound confident in those words but he was my best friend and i couldn't say no we stopped for a little snack at the base of the mountains at a small gas station there there was an old man sitting outside in a rocking chair he must have overheard me talking about the trip then again me and my camo and hunter's orange was probably a giveaway he said something to me that shook me to my core you'd better be careful up in those mountains it's about time for the windigo to come now i was far from a believer in mountain folklore and urban legends so i brushed off his warning little did i know the trip would indeed be cut short due to an encounter that i will never forget it was almost 6 pm and clyde had turned on the radio there was a rapid decline in grizzly bear population about this time of year every year i had asked clyde if we should be worried and he said not to worry about the grizzlies as we were about to go set up traps anyway i nodded in agreement and signed a shaky sigh it was 8 pm now and the sun was going down i grabbed a flashlight and headed down the trail with my friend clyde we had walkie-talkies to stay in touch over long distances in case we got separated they were for emergencies only but we would occasionally use them to joke around i had come to a small opening in between two bushes and decided to set a trap there i covered it up with branches and leaves and marked it with a stick standing up out of the ground for extra precaution on my trek to meet up with clyde i heard something almost like a scratching noise coming from my left side i shone my light over to the side to see what it was oddly the noise seemed to stop the moment my light flashed over the area i walked closer to investigate and found four long scratches in one of the trees each one of them were about an inch deep and a foot and a half long i brushed off any ideas and just went with the old bear story about 30 minutes into the walk i heard a distant screech not much of a screech as it was a roar really it sounded like the squealing of brakes of a freight train mixed with the growl of a dinosaur my radio suddenly came to life with clyde's voice tell me you heard that his voice sounded scared i decided to tell him to meet me back at camp later that night i told him that i was going to go check the traps as a routine hunter would do it was about midnight now and visibility was low due to the snowfall and darkness i had come up to the trap that i had said earlier nothing seemed wrong but the trap wasn't there it was everywhere it had been ripped in half the bolts and springs were lying all over the place and the leaves and branches were scattered about to the right of the trap was a game trail about 30 feet from the field i had shown my light over there as i heard rustling leaves and what i saw will forever give me nightmares it was a tall eight-foot humanoid creature with long claws the size of my forearm each breath it took was heard from my position thirty feet away it growled at me and slowly began to get down on all fours its limbs began to pop and crack into place as it leaned its body against the tree it slowly made its way back into the brush line leaving me alone and horrified or so i thought i was alone my light began to flicker and as it did the creature must have become agitated it began to speed walk towards me each stride covering five feet in length angry it no longer wanted to leave as it stretched out its arms towards me the high-pitched screech i heard before i heard again and the creature stopped only six feet from me now it opened its wide jaws then i heard clyde's voice from about 40 feet behind me calling my name i had never felt so relieved in my life his approaching flashlight beam had caused the creature to return to the woods with an evil sounding hiss etching itself into my mind forever we ran back to camp and i had tried to convince clyde about how i saw the windigo but all he did was laugh he didn't believe in any supernatural entities or creatures and he said he wouldn't start now i finally convinced him to pack up our things and leave and when i got back home i just stood on my porch and waved by to clyde i suddenly felt like i was being watched as well i stared out into the woods across the road and i swear i saw it once more standing there staring at me moments later it went back into the woods and i never saw it again after that though i do hear that same screech from time to time to this day i don't tell anyone else about it afraid they wouldn't believe me i never went back up in those mountains after that night and you couldn't drag me there against my will elm duende by leviar bladkie my name is zamori and i live in mexico i'm 21 years old and to be honest with you i've had a lot of weird experiences back when i was 16 i was very athletic and used to go running every day after school to a big baseball field that's close to my house there are a lot of hills and mountains all over the place there too one day i was jogging around the baseball field because i had gotten tired from running on the hills and it was starting to get dark i was going near the biggest tree as i was jogging and i had a really bad feeling the kind you get when you think you're in danger or you're about to be and you need to get the heck away as fast as possible but i turned to c in all directions yet there was nothing out of the ordinary even so the feeling did not stop i just wanted to keep jogging and do as many laps as i could before it got all the way dark on the very next lap i was getting near that tree again and the feeling came back worse than before i stopped jogging and instead began to walk i was looking all over the place searching for the source of this feeling at this point it was getting irritating my paranoia was keeping me from finishing the run when i passed by the tree that's when i heard a voice i quickly turned around and saw that i was still alone but i kept staring toward the tree until i heard the voice again this time due to its brief and subtle movement i was able to see where the sound was coming from there was a small ugly thing with long and sharp nails with the nose very long and covered in warts it was laughing a horrible laugh when i saw it and i was so surprised that i was paralyzed i wasn't able to move as it began to laugh more and more pointing one of its nasty nails at me as if randomly all of the sensation came back into my body and i was able to tear up the soil once again running for my life away from this thing i ran and didn't stop until i got home where i nearly collapsed but i didn't tell anyone else about the experience until just a few months back i was talking with a cousin that is christian but he also believes in fringe things like aliens he was telling me that when he used to go to that baseball field himself he would also get this strange feeling and before i ever said anything about that tree in particular he explained how there was a weird tree by the field and that every time he passed it all he felt was pure hate and at one point he began to avoid it entirely i'm not sure what it was that i saw that day but from the folklore mythology i've read and heard of it matches a duende a small and mischievous fairy-like creature one that you don't want to get on the wrong side of northeast ohio skinwalkers by skinwalker blackout i'm 22 now and i'm an avid hunter and outdoorsman i've always had a creepy uneasy feeling about the woods near my house and all around the area like something evil was always watching me or listening to me i don't feel that way everywhere my first encounter with what i believe was a skinwalker was about seven years ago i was out fishing with my best friend we stayed up late fishing at a camp out church thing that was being put on locally i looked at my digital watch that had a built-in light it was around 2 30 a.m we were determined to win the little fishing competition the rest of the camp had going there was also a fire about 120 yards away from us we were sitting in lawn chairs by the nearby pond my dad was set up in a tent about 300 yards up the trail beyond the tree line and when i say pond i mean a large banana shaped pond that was stretched about 150 yards long by about 35 yards wide a land bridge cuts across the middle that is wide enough for a truck or jeep to drive across now we had been talking the whole night and had already been joking about sasquatch and the like we had a time where we weren't catching anything and we were quietly talking when all of a sudden we both began to hear whispering coming from the opposite side of the pond it sounded like it was coming from the trail in the woods on the other side of the pond there is a runoff creek and a hill that jets up into the thick woods i was perplexed by the sound and asked him what it could be nobody else was up at the time or if they were no one in their right mind would be walking in there at almost 3 am that's when we saw my dad coming down the drive across the land bridge i walked over and stopped him he was genuinely worried about us and asked what we were doing i told him we were just fishing he asked us if we had been in the woods to which i said no and he looked at me funny now this was seven years ago so i don't remember every bit of dialogue but i remember what happened next so vividly it's ingrained in my mind my dad told me he had heard a whispering sound but wasn't worried about it but he also said that if anything weird happened we should go straight to the tent so that we could get leaving i nodded my head and said okay then i went back to my seat next to my friend some time later we heard a loud splash in that creek on the other side of the pond i froze as a chill shot down my back we didn't dare make a sound as we scanned the side of the pond it was sufficiently light because of the full moon and it was friday the 13th yeah i know right what are the odds i thought to myself as i clinched my airsoft that i had laying next to me my friend told me it was probably a deer and we shouldn't worry about it i looked at him and said but dear don't go in the water at night they can't see how deep it is i don't remember his response but he didn't agree with my statement then he quietly began acting a little more freaked out apparently he had noticed something that i didn't then something happened that made us almost fall backward in our chairs the most bone-chilling animalistic scream i'd ever heard in my life echoed across the campsite it sounded like the high pitch of a mountain lion or cougar but had a deep guttural growl like a bear he got up and grabbed me and we ran back to the fire i quickly said to him we're definitely looking for tracks or signs of that as soon as the sun comes up before all the other kids get up sure enough the next day when we did go out there there were huge footprints with seven toes on them from the depth of the claw marks on them i would say what made them was at least 400 pounds my most recent encounters include having two or more skinwalkers messing with me running circles around the house and making ungodly noises deep in the woods always following always watching they only seem to show themselves when me or my friend does something to anger them i've been chased by something in my truck that was all black like a living breathing shadow but there's another figure that's all white i've even had full apparitions of medicine men staring at me on hunting trips and other activities in the same area this is an ongoing nightmare i'm not telling you what to believe or what to think if you do believe me great but if you don't that's fine too but i feel like i've kept this story to myself long enough a skinwalker is most definitely a shaman or native american who performs rituals and essentially sells their soul for immortality they gain the ability to shape-shift into animals or even other people and that's what i think i'm dealing with i know if these things wanted to take my life they would have done it a long time ago nowadays i sleep with a loaded and chambered 1911 45 acp under my pillow every night i never know when that shadowy black one might be on my porch or the white figure one might be climbing the side of my house so now i'll always be ready early morning sighting by anonymous on a night not too long ago i decided i should sleep on our trampoline outside it was hot inside our house and we didn't have an ac unit so i wanted to sleep outside as there was a nice breeze blowing in with a wondrous moonlight above i fell asleep quickly around 10 pm having thought it would stay quiet until around 3 a.m when i was awakened by sounds of something roaring or yelling i had heard similar sounds before i live on a reservation in san carlos arizona and there can be a lot of drunks at times but this was different i mean at first i naturally assumed it was drunks but then i really heard this ungodly cry it made my eyes widen my heart felt as if it had stopped beating for a moment i arose with excitement and immediately ran inside to get my shoes and grab a flashlight i wanted to investigate i ran back outside and still continued to hear the sounds they were a good three miles from my house so i hopped on my bike and set out to investigate i had to follow the back roads that lined up with the train tracks as i got closer and closer to the noise i also began hearing dogs barking my two dogs were following me as well as we continued heading toward the sound the bike ride took maybe 20 minutes to get within closer range of about 500 yards of the sound it was then in there that i had to ditch the bike because of the soft terrain i started walking with my flashlight ready to spot this thing i could then hear footsteps that were so loud and heavy that they shook my chest every time they hit it sounded as if something was running through soft sands i continued trying to catch up with the thing but whatever it was it was way too fast i didn't know if i was going to be able to catch up with it eventually i decided to yell out to it it was nearly 4am and i was 5 miles out in the middle of nowhere at that point i began walking back and came onto the train tracks when that ungodly cry echoed again i looked up to see this creature walking onto the train tracks as well crossing it it was maybe a good 200 yards for me with the moonlight as bright as it was i was able to see this thing somewhat clearly i estimated it was about eight feet tall had dark brown fur and those eyes i swear to god they glowed like an almost yellowish red and it stink it wreaked like rot my dogs that were beside me began crying then they bolted away from me going back home this creature which i was guessing was a bigfoot had looked at me for a couple of seconds and then left completely disinterested for me i was frozen with fear and yet also filled with excitement i should have run home afterward but i pressed on after it i had to see more of it but little did i know i'd get what i wanted in a terrifying way now the time was 4 16 am and the sun's light began to slowly show over the mountains i kept going and going until soon i had lost sight of my target i continued to look but it was like it had vanished into thin air i was puzzled thinking where could he have possibly gone and then i heard movement behind me rapidly approaching in my direction i turned quickly to see this thing running up to me i just barely dodged it jumping out of the way when i looked back up i saw that it wasn't just one of the things there were three of them i thought to myself then that this was how it ended that i went too far with my curiosity they slowly began to close in around me i backed myself up against a tree knowing even if i tried to fight my way out of it these creatures were just too strong for me i prepared myself grabbing a large branch ready to defend myself with all my might one of the creatures screamed it was around that time that a group of angry and ravenous wild dogs appeared and began to nip bark and attack the creatures there i saw my escape and did not hesitate i threw the big branch down on the ground and i ran like a bat right out of the underworld i soon made it to my bike and just as i was about to pedal off i saw a massive stone coming right for me i jumped out of the way and saw it hit my bike busting off one of the wheels so now i was running running until i made it back to the train tracks there i saw the bridge and i began to run over it i eventually made it home terrified and exhausted it was easily the most terrifying and exciting experience of my life later on i did go back for my bike and when i did i found one terrible reminder of the events of the previous night one of the wild dogs that had attacked the creatures lay there lifeless its body bent and broken almost beyond recognition i couldn't help but wonder that could have been me [Music] stalked in the mountains submitted by umbreon night it happened last year may 11 2016 to be more specific i don't know what it was to this day i still only have a few ideas of what it could have been however whatever it could have been it really gave us quite a scare now if you don't believe my story that's just fine it's not going to change my mind because i know what i saw was real and it's an experience that will never leave me i enjoy hiking and i love animals i consider myself somewhat of an outdoorsman or outdoors woman on that day it was very nice and sunny not too hot and not too cold and there wasn't a cloud in the sky i was at my aunt's house during that day and we didn't have anything to do but clean up around the place while listening to music and such once we were done with that we decided to take a small break at one point my aunt looked at me and asked do you want to go for a hike with me i replied definitely but where my aunt shrugged replying that she would quickly think of a place as we got ready so we packed some small hiking bags i was messing around with my camera once we got into the car i'm really into photography too as i climbed inside her vehicle i saw that she was bringing along a handgun it looked like a nine millimeter and i was honestly a bit surprised to see it my aunt must have saw my expression because she said to me you're not worried about me bringing this are you i shook my head it was reasonable to take it with us after all we lived in bare and mountain lion country attacks don't happen often but it still doesn't hurt to be ready we leave the house and stop at a store to fill up the gas tank we also buy some snacks for the afternoon soon we were on the road to the mountains once we arrived at our destination a hiking spot in the mountains we parked the car and headed out i took a few photos of us at the beginning of the trail before we started our hike my aunt led the way it went really well we were enjoying ourselves admiring the beauty of the nature all around us it was a great experience until sometime later we came upon the first lookout on the trail from that spot you could see the mountain looming over a glacial lake as well as a boulder jutting out of the mountainside i being brave and a bit foolish shoveled carefully and as closely to the edge of that boulder as i could with my aunt warning me to be careful from behind at this point we were very high up in the mountain i laid on my stomach and took some photos from there they turned out breathtaking really my aunt couldn't help from taking some photos on her phone as well the view was amazing after all the lake was crystal clear and blue it was absolutely beautiful with all the other mountains and trees around we began to speak to one another about something that i can't remember but we both turned around after taking pictures to see a dog silently standing in the middle of the trail it startled us neither one of us had heard it coming i thought it was alone until i saw the small bag strapped around its back and was a cute dog hello there suddenly came a voice we both looked in the direction where it came from and we saw an elderly man approaching us oh hi my aunt replied as i waved is this your dog she added the man nodded and so the two adults began talking as i listened and i gave this puppy a massage the man had told us they had come from the other side of the mountain but then he gave us a warning that seemed out of place you two be careful out here earlier we heard some rustling around in the bush so my pup here went to investigate the man gestured to his dog she ended up chasing a black bear out from where it was hiding i don't know where it went but i can imagine it took off somewhere over this side we were surprised by this of course we knew there were bears but it still was alarming to know they were close by my aunt then proudly showed him that we had some protection on us and he nodded in approval they talked for a bit longer until we decided to keep going his dog looked up at him until he gave her the okay to go so she led the opposite way as we said our goodbyes my aunt and i talked about the man and his cute dog but due to how nice the day was we weren't about to get scared away that easily however we obviously became more aware of our surroundings the two of us took some snack breaks as we ascended further up the trail and when we did i'd fall around on some boulders that set aside the trail i like to pretend that i was a professional at parkour as we kept going sometimes we would hear this rustling sound ahead of us making my aunt pause and tense at one point we heard this noise and she froze in her tracks with her hand on the gun i bumped into her by accident and i began to listen intently once i understood that something was happening i looked toward the tree ahead of us where the rustling was coming from and that's when i saw a red squirrel hopping out from behind the tree my aunt noticeably got more relaxed her hand was taken off the gun as we watched the cute little animal i placed my hand on my aunt's shoulder and said careful it can smell fear she sighed and gave me this look and i began to snicker at her the squirrel then ran off as we kept going but i had a feeling like something was about to happen and it wasn't a good thing the mountain was full of dips and boulders high ground levels and ditches all around the trails perfect for anything to hide where we couldn't see it but it could definitely see us i couldn't get this thought off my mind we eventually took another break eating some more snacks and drinking some water i was looking through my photos of the hike so far all while my aunt began to relax however the silence was soon interrupted when we both heard the wrestling again at the same time we both stood up turning in the direction it was coming from as we hid behind a tree the rustling was louder than before and much closer but because of the uneven ground and thick undergrowth we couldn't see what it was maybe it's just more squirrels chasing each other or something i said a bit nervous probably or it could be a deer my aunt replied she gestured for us to keep going as the rustling began to die down some time later the woods began to get much more dense on the trail my aunt then said that we were almost at the top i couldn't wait to see the view from all the way up there and the photos that i would take would be absolutely amazing even here on this part of the trail it looked like we were in a fantasy forest anyway as we moved on we heard the rustling again we both paused and looked around before glancing at one another in slight worry i began to wonder were we being followed by something my aunt pulled out her phone and began to play some avenged sevenfold while telling me to make some more noise somehow so i did while taking even more photos and following behind her until she had finally pulled out the gun while we walked along the trail the woods were so dense at this point we could hardly see much further in front of us and this part of the trail was very beautiful to see the way the sun filtered through the tree branches and lighting parts of the rocks on the trail it made it look like it was straight from a fairy tale my aunt went from clapping her hands and blurring the music to turning the songs off and hushing me the top was maybe another hundred feet away but my aunt froze in her tracks we listened intensely and we could hear something something slowly creeping up towards us trying its best to be absolutely quiet but we could hear it sounded like something heavy slowly applying its weight on branches and twigs beneath it causing it to make slow and audible cracking sounds we both immediately began to throw rocks in its direction while yelling trying to scare it off but that didn't work ahead of us there was a corner we had to climb up i walked over to it and peered up fully expecting to see something staring back at me but luckily there was nothing there i didn't notice for the first time there were no birds chirping no insects making any sort of noise it was strange throughout the entire trail that's all we could hear but now it was gone my aunt ordered me to get back to her side and so i did i tucked myself behind her next to a tree but we could still hear whatever it was getting closer my aunt shouts to it hey attempting to scare it away it was still coming my aunt shots again but it still creeps closer feeling she has no other choice she carefully raises the gun in the air and fires a warning shot then there was complete silence once the ringing in my ears went away i noticed that the rustling had completely stopped but apparently not for long because the creeping noises began again hearing it once more realizing that not even a loud gunshot would scared away i began to feel fear absolute horror we were going to have to fight or run for our lives if it came down to it i felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up and that's when my aunt announced we were leaving she led the way telling me to keep up when i say we took off i mean we freaking booked it i felt as if we were floating back down the mountain we soon made it back to the more open parts of the trail the areas where you could see all around you much better my aunt turned and looked behind us in fear when we heard that the thing was still after us the rustling was far more aggressive and fast at one point before it tried to mask its approach but now it was blatant we tore out of there like bats out of hell while we could still hear the thing once we were on more level ground my aunt noticed something in the middle of the trail wait look at this she exclaims i slow down to look at what she was staring at i see a wet mark in the middle of the trail with claw marks that's when we noticed that the rustling sound had stopped you'd think that'd be a good thing but it horrified us more than anything else so far we looked in unison back in the direction where the noises had been coming from and there we saw it a massive black figure standing seven feet tall easily i could make out black fur all over it behind the leaves and branches that nearly covered it i could hear it breathing slow heavy breaths i know it was watching us but i couldn't find its eyes i know it was the animal that had been chasing us i could see it breathing we didn't stare at it for long we turned and bolted down the mountain we ran for what felt like forever the mountains seemed to go on for ages i never remember the hike up taking this long but soon the rustling and chasing noises began to disappear and fade away behind us it had finally slowed down but suddenly i panicked when i saw something in the distance ahead of us but my aunt calmed me down telling me that it's just another group of hikers we stopped by them and said hello completely out of breath the way we looked panicked and exhausted we must have been a sight to see one of the hikers was wearing black and that's what had scared me they had brought their dog with them and as my aunt spoke to the group she warned them that there might be something in the woods but she didn't say what she thought it might be she simply said that there may be a bear they thanked us for the warning and we moved on once we're completely alone again we stopped to catch our breaths and i asked my aunt do you really think that was a bear well it could be i mean i hope it was my aunt answered maybe a mountain lion my voice trailed off as i looked off to the side there was a cabin in the distance it didn't look old but not exactly new either and this alarmed me maybe it was some freak that decided to stalk us i added my aunt glanced at the cabin and suddenly we hear the weirdest and creepiest sound it's hard to explain it but the best way i can is it was almost like a wailing screaming howling sound it was the stuff of nightmares i know that for sure we scanned around us not seeing anything that could be making the sound then we looked at each other in shock the sound lasted for a good minute which made it even more strange then we kept going as the noise finally died down my aunt called out hello however the noise never started up again finally we could see the beginning of the trail from there and another couple coming up to hike we gave them our warnings of course and the woman reacted like she's never heard of a bear before she sounded confused as ever at the word and i couldn't help but think yes bears exist if that's how she reacted to that whatever that really was up there i doubt she would be able to handle they gave us their thanks and we headed to our car we threw everything inside and left very quickly on our way home we just kind of looked at each other like well that was the creepiest thing and yeah we've told some family and friends of the incident and they've all also said that it was a creepy story this hasn't happened to either one of us again or before i'm not scared of hiking because of this and i'm pretty eager to go again but this it's something i'll never forget i don't know what it was maybe a bear but i've never seen one that big then again it could have been some weirdo stalking us i've heard enough weird stories from the woods to know that some really freaky things happen out there i just never thought i'd have an experience so close to home [Music] lost in the mountains submitted by dominus the night i'm speaking about today is the night that i tried to leave it all behind not knowing the terror that i would experience so i'm a 19 year old guy from thornton colorado i'm six foot two at a husky 240 pounds i grew up in north commerce city and i never go anywhere without my axe it's two feet long with a double-sided blade and pick and despite that my axe would be taken away as a felonious murder weapon if ever found by the police but even having it with me on this occasion i've never felt more vulnerable not because of the threat itself entirely but the horrifying nature of the experience altogether this took place only four months ago i'd been dealing with an extended depression episode my grandma had just passed away i lost my job and my wife and i were evicted from our apartment in denver we lost everything we were homeless for two weeks before my parents finally took us in but they only felt bad because it was the winter you see while living with my parents my father and i fought constantly screaming matches were a daily thing just like old times hump pops one day it got so bad that he and i ended up in a physical altercation my wife saw a part of me that day that made her leave me for a short time she was my reason and i didn't know what to do with myself so i panicked and i decided i wanted to disappear i took to the bus the westbound 120 which goes into broomfield from which i would transfer to the 112. the 112 dropped me off in west boulder from there i began walking towards the rocky mountains it was still daylight out when i entered the threshold of those mountains i used my compass and began northwest eventually i looked at my phone there was no reception and it read two am it had been eight hours now walking through these mountains i kept going a little further but i froze when i happened upon a mutilated moose i approached it to find that it was still warm desperate and hungry and not really caring about myself any longer i decided to cut away some slivers of it with the bowie knife that i had i could set up a fire and have a small dinner at that moment as i cut away at the moose i heard something big walking towards me from the right immediately i assumed it was a bear or a mountain lion i grabbed my axe from its holster that was strapped across my chest wielding the knife in the other hand i waited for the sound of heavy predatory breathing and snarling but instead i heard something else something i never would have imagined hearing all the way out there a deep raspy laugh i stared in confusion as i looked around me for a moment only to find a big black pair of shiny eyes staring back at me i could tell they were eyes the way they glimmered in the moonlight i thought to myself that's not a person just from what i'm seeing so far it couldn't have been another person if that's true then who had just laughed and what was i looking at well i didn't know what to do at the time plus i was not in a good state of mind so i remember thinking to myself i'm a man that's had everything taken from me i've got nothing to lose i don't care what this thing is or whatever layer of hell you respond from but you best have brought the devil if you're going to stalk me when i'm trying to eat it was just a quick thought something to force a smile on my face and my lonely and desperate attitude what i never expected though was for the creature to reply i've got nothing to lose it's said exactly how i had just thought it in my own head my mouth opened wide and i kept staring at this thing that just spoke i've got nothing to lose it's said again a bit slower now it sounded like it wanted me to hear i stood there frozen holding my axe tightly in my hand then the creature the thing straight from my nightmares stepped from under the nearly pitch-black cover of the trees in the moonlight i could see it tall lanky and partially decomposed it looked like a long dead deer standing on its hind legs most of it seemed to have already rotted away but its front legs didn't have hooves like a normal deer they were human-like large and thin like some sort of human mutation i stood my ground but i knew i wasn't ready for this because it ran at me out of nowhere it bolted towards me on those two lanky legs i closed my eyes and swung my axe blindly part of me wanted to defend myself the other part didn't want to see this thing up close i was afraid i was horrified by the sight of it the next thing i know i feel a burning sensation on my stomach and i hear those hoofed steps run past me and into the forest i turn and open my eyes to see the creature bounding into the woods away but not before leaving a cut on my stomach i threw myself down on my knees in an irrational anxiety attack that felt like it lasted a millennium after i pulled myself together i traveled and survived for another two nights never seeing that strange beast again until i found myself in leadville it was a rural mountain town from which i was transported by helicopter to saint anthony's hospital in denver i never told anybody not the nurses the doctors or the police the truth of what happened that night when they asked how i got cut like that i promptly responded hunting thankfully my wife and i reunited in a plethora of emotion she said she'd never leave me again there are not many things in this world that can terrify or elude me but that creature in the rocky mountains would definitely be a rare exception something is in the woods submitted by mike s197 i'm from a small college town in georgia i'm 25 and this happened last summer my girlfriend and i traveled all over north georgia to see the amazing waterfalls and hiking trails let's call my girlfriend aaron we were heading through the chattahoochee national forest near helen and we were heading to de soto falls my gps was acting up it led us down this off-road path that's meant for trucks and jeeps my girlfriend was not happy because her suspension kept bottoming out and hitting rocks under the car i was glad i didn't bring my car because it's much lower than hers the road was miles long into the chattahoochee forest and she was sure that we went the wrong way but we kept following the gps her daughter mia who was nine was crying silently in the back seat afraid that we were lost i assured her that we'd be okay we had plenty of water and food so i wasn't worried about that but if she got a flat tire we didn't have a spare so that i did kind of worry about not to mention i couldn't find the trail ahead and i didn't want to say it out loud we found a gravel parking lot and decided to hike the random path we came across we were the only car there but i think we were all just relieved that we had found something we grabbed our backpacks and water bottles and then we went off aaron usually walks in front with mia behind her and i walk last so mia is always inside they both stopped suddenly and i say what's wrong she says they need to use the bathroom they quickly sprinted ahead and i was trying to keep up but all the added weight from the backpacks was a challenge they went behind a huge boulder to do their business while i sat there out of breath soon we proceeded and noticed quickly that this trail hadn't been maintained very well there were several trees that had fallen onto the path and there was trash like food wrappers and canned food emptied along the path but still we proceeded i noticed that the two of them kept looking around us as if they were worried or saw something both of them were just acting weird the whole walk but i thought hey it's their first secluded hike maybe they're just paranoid when we reached three miles in it began to get cloudy and dark so we turned around and began to rush back once we made it back to the car it was almost pitch black out i had to pee so i went back to the trail to find a tree to go to but while walking back i saw something a broken trail sign saying trail closed i came back to the car and they were discussing something among themselves so i asked about it deciding that i'd tell them that we went on a closed trail after i got the information they said that they heard something growling coming from the trail after i'd gone back to pee but i hadn't heard anything or seen anything when i was out there they were freaking out and wanted to leave and i just didn't understand why i assumed it was probably just some raccoon or something maybe a wild dog while driving back on that crazy path down the mountain it was pouring rain and the car almost got stuck on certain parts of the path as i drove aaron was explaining to me why they were acting funny on the trail earlier apparently they had been seeing something along the path they felt like they were being watched and every time they'd scan around they would see something out of the corner of their eyes they said they knew something was out there mia said she heard more growling and then aaron agreed saying she thought she was the only one hearing it i was confused and upset because they didn't tell me none of this earlier aaron is the super protective type and is always cautious she explained that she felt like she was drawn to go deeper and deeper down the trail but she didn't listen to her gut feeling to head back as she explained this to me i found myself looking into each of the side mirrors i soon felt overwhelmed by the same feeling something was watching us something was following us i knew this because i saw something moving beside the car outside we were driving down a muddy off-road trail and a tiny sedan that couldn't handle it unless we drove extremely slow as such we probably could have walked faster down the mountain than we were driving but it was just safer in the car especially considering what i was looking at whatever it was it was black as the night it walked like a dog and was shaped like a dog but it was about 1.5 times bigger than a full grown bear it was as big as the car itself but it easily hunkered itself down below the windows trying not to be seen i wanted to drive faster but i didn't want to wreck the car and be stranded there with that thing prowling i told the girls to be quiet to not look outside but that's just a long-winded way to get someone to panic and to do the opposite of what you just said immediately mia looks out her window right at the thing she screams when it looks back at her i watch in horror barely paying attention to the path as the creature opens its mouth to reveal plain yellow teeth that are a stark contrast to its dark body then for some reason or another to my relief it takes off to the side of the trail and disappears in the trees was it curious was it offended by us invading its territory why was the trail really closed i thought to myself it was over that we all needed to just go home and rest and get this event off of our minds later that night it didn't take long for aaron to pass out as soon as she hit the bed but she wouldn't close her eyes at all until we promised to stay with her until she fell asleep in my own bed i tossed and turned and it took me ages to fall asleep i couldn't get the image of that animal out of my head eventually i did though i don't know how but i did only to be awakened in the middle of the night by aaron having a nightmare she was kicking me in her sleep repeating i gotta find her i gotta find her i have to find her tossing and screaming i'm looking at her i hug her to calm her down i guess that triggered her to wake up she got up quick and sprinted to mia's room and was relieved to see she was fast asleep she walked back to bed and i asked her what she dreamt about she said a blurry black figure took her daughter she was running looking for her in the dark woods and then heard something growling chasing her trying to get her ever since then after every hike we go on she has a nightmare like clockwork the same night nowadays i carry a firearm when we go on trails and i make sure to only go on hikes when there's plenty of other people around i don't know what we encountered that day but what it made us feel i think it was something supernatural something we don't need to be dealing with [Music] devil beast submitted by christina [Music] where we live isn't a town really just a hauler in a valley there are maybe 25 or 30 other people that live here the closest actual town to us is nearly an hour away and there are mountains all around us it's a truly beautiful place but this hauler has a violent history there was once a coal company camp here it was a booming one back in those days they used a massive furnace as power to pull the carts from the mines and if someone died and nobody claimed the body they just put it in the massive furnace and went back to work when the coal company left this area a land company bought almost all the land and my parents rented the land where that massive furnace growing up i would hear stories about how you could hear screaming coming from that area late at night but i never paid much attention to it the summer i turned 13 i saw something that made me truly believe in god and the devil it was my 13th birthday i had a sleepover with all the neighborhood kids there there was about 10 of us and we were all really close we'd planned on sleeping on my trampoline that night well we only had two light poles out there they would light up about a 50 foot square perimeter we had one at the end of the house and one a little further away from the house at about midnight we were all still awake laughing and joking when we heard a noise coming from the woods now this is completely normal because we have woods and mountains all around us there's bound to be wandering wildlife here and there seeing or hearing a wild animal isn't strange so we didn't really pay much attention to it some time passed and we heard a scream like a woman in trouble now in these parts they teach you at an early age never ever go toward the sound because panthers sound like that we looked at each other and one of the boys said that's what it must be that there is a panther nearby that maybe we should go inside so we were about to get off the trampoline when something stepped into the light that was farther out from the house it was unlike anything any of us had ever seen it had the body of a bear with huge black claws but when it turned its face towards us we could tell that it wasn't a bear at all the face on this thing was badly deformed its teeth hung well out of its mouth and its eyes were these glowing yellow embers it looked right at us and screamed i think we were all too shocked to move until the creature turned completely around and i swear to god it smiled at us we all bolted off that trampoline and were fighting each other for our lives to get into the house i'd never been so scared in my entire life at the panic in chaos my mom asked us what was going on my dad rushed out of his room we explained to them what had just happened my mom and dad looked at each other and my mom spoke first she said that her grandma had told of a devil beast that wandered these mountains but nobody had ever seen it it was supposed to be half demon and half animal and preyed on the weak and evil we all looked at each other it took us a long time to calm down and we spent the rest of the night inside never sleeping the next day when everyone went home i showed my dad where i'd seen the thing and on the pole where the light was we found massive claw marks seven feet off the ground i'll never forget that monster after that experience i never went outside alone since then i've grown up and i've moved away from there but i will never forget those mountains nobody can tell me that demons don't exist in this world my brother is my hero from paul before my brother saved me he wasn't such an active person but i enjoyed nothing more than him chatting and giving me life advice just a little bit about him he was a marine a big shot finance guy drank a lot of whiskey and a general tough guy i wouldn't want to fight him even though he had to use a cane towards the end i can always tell if i should date a boy based on how much fear is in their eyes while i gleefully introduce them to my brother only one has made the cut so far the others usually end up making some excuse as to why they don't want to come to my family outings with me but based on that look i always knew some girls would have been offended by that that a family member would make boys run away but not me i always knew he could just tell my brother could just tell when people had the best interests in mine or not he loved me unconditionally and from what i could tell about other people with siblings this isn't a very common thing nothing and no one has ever had a chance to hurt me and i owe that to him he has recently passed on but i know i should tell this story in his honor he and i used to love to go camping and hiking together i would do anything with him considering he was 10 years my elder and i felt that he had a lot to show me one time we decided to do a semi-large part of the appalachian trail nearest our new york home at the time most of the trail at the time was off limits due to the weather but we planned to do 12 miles in a single day it was great for 12 year old me that he allowed me to go with him even though he knew it would take a much longer time i was overjoyed we talked we laughed i laid out all my problems in the open and he without hesitation or really trying to think about it sorted them out and put everything into a different and more convenient perspective everything was going great on this trip until i felt his hand on my back tugging on my pack he didn't say anything but i could tell that something was wrong he usually wouldn't do something like that without saying anything when i looked at him i saw him looking off into the distance i followed his gaze over to what he was looking at i then whispered is that what i think it is he whispered back no the dark figure heard us and turned my brother then said don't run just get behind me i only got a glance of it it wasn't until i approached it that i knew what i saw wasn't what i thought it was my brother was six foot four and i knew something bad was about to go down when he unstrapped his large hunting knife from behind him then stood in what i can only describe as a boxing style stance the creature approached us my first thought of it being a bear was entirely wrong it wasn't even something i'd ever seen on tv it wasn't something i'd ever heard of wasn't something i would even think could exist it stood over my brother and i got a good look of its face it had massive teeth soulless dead eyes its shoulders were far too broad and it seemed to be intent on hurting us my brother never broke eye contact and his head began tilting higher and higher as this thing came closer he was screaming at it trying to scare it away to no effect he knew he had to play aggressive and it took me a second to realize that he was actually yelling at me instructions he was telling me that when he swings his knife i had better run the other way and get in the truck he said that his keys were in his pocket and that i needed to reach for them when i get there i was to hold the horn down until he came finally he said to not look back i didn't question it for a second but it did hit me quite hard he was cursing at me and i'd never heard him say words like that before but i obeyed him i reached into his pocket and got the keys then i was ready to run he didn't swing the knife until the thing was within a few feet from him and that's when i got the best look at it it was a hulking creature more than twice the size of my brother in every way width height weight its muscles were rippling across its body i almost began to cry but i swallowed it down suddenly i saw my brother pull back the knife and begin to launch himself at it i turned and ran behind me i heard angry screams and cursing and growling but the only thing i can really remember was my brother screaming with more ferocity than i knew he was capable of i did just as he told me i ran to the truck i screamed for help all the way there i honked the horn the moment i got inside it caught the attention of a few different families and they in turn got the rangers to come check out the situation later on i was at the hospital crying my eyes out they told me my brother and i needed to give a statement and they brought me to his room he was an absolute mess iv tubes everywhere red fluid on the floor scrapes and deep gashes all over his body and one eye i couldn't tell if it was gone or just really badly bruised they asked us what happened i haven't said a word to anyone at that moment not even to my parents i see my brother smile at me and he kind of just winks and he mutters the word bear from what i've been told there was a mess at the scene when they found him he was hobbling toward the rangers when he saw them at a slow pace there was no sign of that creature but i can tell you now with all truth and honesty i have it wasn't a bear whatever it was it's still in the appalachian mountains and if it wasn't for my brother i would be dead my brother is my hero the thing from psychotic wisdom it was a cold october morning in the appalachian mountains in north carolina the leaves were crisp and dew and had already formed from last night they crystallized upon everything as if it all had been frozen i had my way too expensive tent set up and was aggravated as i already found a tear in it now a lot of people may be confused as to why someone would be camping in such freezing weather but i was there for a good reason something had been eating and scaring my animals for god knows how long and i've grown extremely tired of it i was here to see if i could find it to at least see what was terrorizing my farm i have a little farm with sheep and cows they're my pride and joy and i love taking care of them and when something began to eat and hurt and scare them it infuriated me it all started about two years ago when some of the animals began to disappear and i needed to find out why people think i'm crazy for not just brushing it off my shoulders and thinking it's a bear or something else more common well if you would have seen the weird tracks it left then you wouldn't think i'm so crazy the tracks were like human tracks but then again at the same time they were different they were longer and wider than a person's with a different number of digits it gave me chills imagining what kind of monster could be putting my animals in danger so there i was out in the appalachians camping and following these tracks maybe it was an insane idea to camp alone when something dangerous was out there but i didn't really have the time to wait for anyone else to join me night was falling so i fixed my bed and hoped that it wouldn't rain [Music] as i slowly drifted to sleep that night i awoke to an eerie sound it was like something being dragged in the dirt right across from where my tent was without hesitation i grabbed whatever i had beside me as a weapon i clutched it hard into my hands until my knuckles turned white with the fading light from the embers in my campfire i could see the shadow being cast across my tent which meant it was much closer than i thought it was a very tall bony shadow it was quite slender my adrenaline was kicking in big time i could feel my heart pounding in my chest slowly trying my best not to give myself away i began to peek through the small rip in the tent immediately a terrible stench hit me it was like rot the smell you're ambushed with if you left the meat in your fridge to rot for weeks and then finally open the door it was so horrid i could barely hold back a gag i may be crazy but i was not crazy enough to get out of my tent and check out whatever that thing was [Music] quietly i laid back down and i waited for the creature to pass once it did and once the smell finally left i went to sleep maybe that's what happens when the adrenaline wears off the following day i woke up hoping that whatever that thing was was gone still as i unzipped the tent i looked around a bit before finally stepping out that thing had definitely been dragging something dirt was drug up from the weight of the object and there was red fluid in the dirt a reminder of what i heard last night and then i saw a piece of wool and realized that thing had probably taken another of my sheep as the anger built up inside i reminded myself that i would find this thing and put a stop to it i began to follow the dragging trail the red fluid stopped at a large cave dug into the ground it was lined with old brown pine straw i wanted to go in but i knew that would be a bad idea especially if that's what the creature called its home i turned around and began to walk back to my tent i realized i should come back with something i can protect myself better with as i'd stupidly left everything at the tent as i'm walking back everything's more quiet than it was before the birds have stopped singing and the wind had even died down it reminded me to be cautious as they say when it all goes quiet there is a predator around i slowed my walking down because whatever it was i did not wanted to hear me as i continue to walk i hear a twig crack nearby and i know for sure that that wasn't me i slowed down and slouch hoping whatever it was doesn't see me my heart is practically beating out of my chest at this point i begin to stand up again but as soon as i'm all the way up the creature from last night is standing right in front of me i've never felt such fear or surprise i'm frozen there i'm completely defenseless looking at something otherworldly let me describe it to you as best i can it's almost human but not quite its skin is a deep grey like it's lifeless it's a few feet taller than i am and i'm nearly six feet tall and its teeth were sharp like daggers its hands hang low down to what appear to be knees it's something straight from a nightmare and it was only a few feet away from me i stand completely still trying not to even breathe the smell is too awful though i'm having trouble keeping my breakfast down i grab a stick nearby me and i stare back at the creature but then everything becomes blurry then black when i wake up i feel like i've been drugged maybe it's my mind playing tricks on me but then i look around i realize i'm nowhere near my campsite and if i had to guess to my horror i was in that thing's little hole the one that i was trying to avoid there were bones everywhere as far as i could see they were scattered across the floor and lined the walls i didn't see the creature itself anywhere and i prayed that it was either gone or much deeper in the cave as i began to stand up i suddenly fall i feel weak and i have no idea how long i've been out i began to hit my legs pinch them trying to get the feeling and blood going so i could leave this godforsaken whole i was never prepared for something like this i was panicking big time fear of the dark fear of claustrophobia fear of that thing being anywhere at any point in time it had obviously dragged me in here so it would certainly be back for me that's when i began to hear the gurgling sound coming from deeper in the cave my legs are still asleep but they're getting closer i'm desperate to stand up now but i continue to fall every time i try closer and closer the sounds come and i have no way to escape no way to get further away from them then the gurgling sounds stop right behind me i know it's there i know it's looking at me watching me try to escape in futility i turn and face it and i'm horrified to see it smiling like it's a person then something happened that i still have trouble believing was real it pointed at me and spoke like me i remember thinking what does that mean it could tell that i was obviously afraid of it and that's something you never want from a predator it reaches out and grabs me by my ankle before i could yank away my reaction times are terrible probably because my legs are asleep i can't even kick or struggle away from it then it stops turns lunges at my arm and sinks its teeth into me it hurts like hell somehow i'm able to pick myself up i yank myself away from it and i begin to run out of that cave when i turn to look it's running deeper into the cave instead of coming after me is it done with me i run straight out of there i check my arm but it apparently didn't break skin but how in the world had it hurt so much i continue on back to my tent to grab my phone i knew no one would believe me but i didn't expect them to what matters now is that i needed help i find my phone and dial 9-1-1 i speak to the operator and tell them where i'm at i try to keep myself awake but i'm still feeling wrong and woozy i pass out again only to wake up in the hospital now to a nurse asking me if i'm okay for a second there i forgot everything that happened but as waking up usually does it all came rushing back into my mind my eyes widened and my arm began to hurt i was told that they brought me in with apparent hydration problems that i passed out from dehydration maybe i was in that cave longer than i thought as i lay there waiting for when i could be released i couldn't get that thing's words out of my head like me it had said what did it mean was it simply intelligent enough to know that it looked human or was it a warning of something else to come i'm horrified by it and to this day i have trouble sleeping thinking about it i keep an eye out on my animals still but for some reason the attacks have stopped and i haven't seen the creature since still i wish i had never stepped out into those woods [Music] our last story today comes from an episode on january 20th about 10 humanoid sightings it is the only other appalachian mountain story i could find and it was the last story in that video so i figured it'd be a good fit here i hope you enjoy it the lightning figure from ferum broody i was 13 years old and i took a ride with my grandmother down to the cove off the backside of wyatt county outside of scrooge's where the walmart and theater are at now we were riding in her blue ford taurus to pick up my great aunt alice from her place it was cold it was the evening and it was raining as well the lightning was illuminating the clouds overhead i was never frightened by weather or thunder and lightning it's a common thing you find in southwest virginia we had pulled into the family farmland after pulling off the back road the path to the farm was dirt and gravel and muddy as well it sat back on the hollow of two peaks behind it as we pulled up my grandmother turned off the car and waited with me inside for aunt alice to come out i was bored and like any curious teenager i looked out the back passenger window i was just trying to pass the time and let my mind wander i had just been getting over my other grandmother's passing so i felt a good way to get over that was to spend time with my only remaining grandmother as i was looking across the road i noticed the thunder and lightning become both more illuminating and intense as well my grandmother leaned close to comfort me don't worry tim she should be out soon and we'll be on our way then for a brief moment i felt comforted but as i looked closer to the hilltop across the road i noticed something strange what appeared at first as a midnight blue soon changed to a slight royal navy blue color i panicked and screamed for my grandma quickly she snapped to attention and looked out the window she looked and saw nothing to worry about and reassured me she said she was right there and nothing bad was going to happen i took this to heart soon enough aunt alice showed up with an umbrella and cane she was hunched over in her fragile state she walked her way out with that fiery spirit of hers and she climbed into the car aunt alice greeted me and patted me on the head the two decided we would wait in the car for the rain to pass if possible before departing to go to her home back in town 20 minutes had passed since my aunt got in the car and again my mind began to wander i was now just looking up at the hilltop nearby once again the sky lit up like it did that last time freaking me out and my grandmother said it was nothing to worry about once more but suddenly after my grandma looked out of her window she shouted alice look all of us turned toward the ridge top at first i thought it was lightning but it was in a ball sort of shape it had a greenish blue haze about it but once the haze faded around it it began to swell and pulse until at that point the outline took a shape i began to choke with fright not sure what i was looking at but at the same time i was in awe all my great aunt and my grandmother could do was pause and glance at each other then look back up to the ridge the figure walked in a pace almost tense anxious yet determined it startled me lightning is energy it doesn't take form like a person and it doesn't have intelligence i saw my aunt alice grab her bible and the two prayed and i joined them from that point the figure vanished my aunt and grandma both decided with this tense moment gone it was time we left as she started the car and pulled out we went down the hill and toward the gate i quickly got out to open it then close it after the car pulled through then i rushed back in and hopped inside we would drive further down the old road talking about what we saw little did we know that it wasn't over my aunt alice alerted us again with the gasp she said there it is at the top of the ridge where it paralleled with the back road it seemed to be rushing side by side with my grandma's car it was that figure that figure with no face no expression just an outline of energy it kept pace with us my grandmother basically floored it and the engine roared to life normally sweet and well-mannered my grandma was now done with this the car picked up speed and we screeched to a halt seeing a tree fall over in front of us the figure was behind us on the ridge now but it was catching up fast i saw my grandmother grab tightly on the wheel and close her eyes before screaming just leave us alone after that there was nothing the thunder the rain the tree in front of us in the road and us in the blue ford taurus everything went calm again and the figure was gone [Music] a driver happened along the scene and helped us move the tree afterwards we got back in and went home that night i don't think any of us were getting any rest my parents would later make it back after spending some time at my mom's high school reunion my grandmother and dad would explain the story to them but they were too tired to care it had been a long night i guess i haven't been back up that cove in a long time not even after both my grandma and my great aunt passed away yet at the same time i make sure when going down a back road i know what the weather's going to be and i'm always mindful of my surroundings some things in life are meant to be left alone and not pursued this was one of those things what is taking people in the northern california wilderness from wicked windigo this story was passed down to me by my grandfather i'll be relaying this story from his point of view he said this happened to him when he was 17 years old he was born and raised in the lush wooded landscape of northern california our family has roots all over northern california and oregon so naturally most of us are avid hunters and outdoorsmen my father grandfather and i are very experienced with the wildlife that inhabit these woods so what my grandfather encountered in the woods of norcal back in 1968 is something still debated amongst our family it was late spring in 1968 my senior year of high school was coming to a close and i couldn't help but reflect on the last four years of my life so much had happened my childhood best friend greg had gone missing on a hunting trip two years prior no evidence had been found that could help determine what had happened to him local law enforcement eventually gave up searching all that was left of greg were my memories and his face with the word missing plastered all over our small town from the day he vanished i spent every weekend scouring those darned woods hoping i could do what all the trained professionals couldn't i just i needed some kind of closure i needed to know what happened listen son i don't expect you to believe me no one ever does but you know pop-pop would never lie to you just don't put me in one of those crazy person homes after this i'm not crazy my grandfather told me as he chuckled and cleared his throat okay here's what happened a long week of school had wrapped up with college applications and testing coming up it was hectic to say the least i didn't worry too much honestly i was focused on finding greg even after all the time that had passed i still had hope that he was out there looking back i know it wasn't hope i was feeling it was guilt i was supposed to go with greg on that trip i got the flu and i had been bedridden so i couldn't make it i was hard on myself after he went missing maybe if i'd gone with him he'd still be here anyway it had become routine i'd done this so many times before that it became normal almost like brushing my teeth every morning just another part of life i got home around 3 p.m i told your grade pop-pop where i was going and when i'd be back before taking off in my old 57 chevy pickup i was heading to the popular local trailhead this is where most of the locals started hunting and camping traps the same place i went every weekend it was the same place greg entered and never returned i arrived threw my pack over my shoulder and started the long hike up the mountain the hike up to the camping spot was roughly two miles i arrived at around 6 pm i made camp i unfolded my worn map filled with red circles and x's taunting me with all my past failures to locate greg i sighed and circled the new location i would be searching it was a 12 mile hike around the east side of the mountain the landscape was dense and thick there but nothing too crazy i'd hiked the worst areas before i started a fire and warmed up a can of beans i had in my pack i let the fire die down over the next couple of hours before i climbed into my sleeping bag and i fell asleep the familiar sounds of crickets and bullfrogs acted as a soothing lullaby that night i had a dream of greg even though finding him was a main part of my life not once had i had a dream of him i remember i could see nothing but pitch black i could hear the sound of trees rustling during a rough windstorm then suddenly a small light appeared in front of me it was flickering yellow and red as i walked towards it i reached the light and i could see greg's face illuminated by the flickering light he held an old oil lantern above his head i stopped roughly five feet in front of him i tried to talk but no words came out he slowly started to shake his head back and forth and then he began to decay in front of my eyes flesh falling from his skull like ice melting on a hot june day greg began to violently shake his head faster and faster in the same back and forth motion until he suddenly stopped with nothing left but small patches of flesh and skin dangling from his skull he said in a hushed tone no not safe i jerked awake with my body drenched in sweat i felt sick in that moment i had no desire to continue my search i wanted to go home i wanted to hide under my bed and curl into a ball i was terrified i quickly crawled a few feet from my sleeping bag and i began to vomit i then set up against a nearby oak tree and i began to quietly sob into my knees after a few minutes i opened my eyes and i was met with my necklace dangling from my neck it was a 1943 silver penny on a dog tag chain greg and i found a pair of these matching pennies one day at the local supermarket we drilled holes into the top of them and wore them as a type of memento to our friendship this reinstated my overwhelming desire to find him i knew i owed it to my friend to find out what happened so i stood up with the morning sun peeking through the tree canopy and i got ready to start my hike it was around 11 am when i started the hike up to the east side of the mountain i had never been on this trail before this side of the mountain was very dense prior to this i'd searched all of the southern and western sides of the mountain i just knew i was getting close to finding answers those woods held the secrets of what happened to my friend i just had to search every inch of that cursed place to find them i stopped to rest and rehydrate around halfway up the trail i sat on a large boulder facing the direction i'd come from i took a sip from my canteen when i heard a loud guttural scream from behind me it was far away but i felt uneasy seeing as it came from the direction i was heading to i told myself it was a mountain lion and that i needed to stay vigilant all i had on me was a large buck knife for protection i stood up and began hiking again when i heard the scream once more it was a bit closer this time but still fairly far away i stopped walking to listen my anxiety grew and greg's words just kept echoing in my mind no not safe i took a deep breath and continued on i couldn't stop i reached the eight mile mark around four pm i'd been hiking for five hours and i needed to start heading back to make camp before dark i walked around the area to scout a camping spot for next weekend as i still had four miles of this trail left to search finding an adequate spot i stopped and leaned against the nearby tree and began to unfold my map when i heard something unbelievable now listen this is the part where stuff gets crazy so listen closely and save your snarky remarks and die rules for the end my grandfather said to me i chuckled and leaned in now fully invested my grandfather's face went serious and he began again something called my name tommy it was greg's voice i jolted around quickly to the direction i'd heard it my eyes frantically scanning from tree to tree trying to locate the source my eyes filled up with tears as my brain was attempting to rationalize what i heard then i heard it again but this time from behind me tommy i turned around and was instantly met with a sharp pain on the right side of my head i fell to the forest floor my vision started to fade in and out until all i saw was black as he told this story tears started to well up in my grandfather's eyes i knew he was serious i'd honestly never seen him so worked up okay i just need a moment to calm down before i continue he took a minute to regain himself and began again talking with a shaky voice i don't know how long i was unconscious but when i awoke i was met with pitch black dark the wound on my head throbbed with pain it was tender to the touch i touched my face and realized dried blood was running down the side of it and along my neck i set up and attempted to adjust my eyes to the dark i was hit with an overwhelming smell of blood with an underlying hint of sulfur i scanned my surroundings looking for anything that wasn't darkness i spotted something to my right it was dull blue light accompanied by a faint flicker of yellow and red deja vu hit me hard i remembered my dream from the night before surely i wasn't dreaming the pain i felt was very i struggled to stand once on my feet i fell to my right and hit a rocky surface it was apparent now that i was in a cave my anxiety heightened as no maps of the area showed caves i put all these thoughts in the back of my mind i had one goal at this point getting out of the cave i made my way towards the light using the cave wall to help balance myself i could not put much pressure on my right ankle blood was slowly dripping from my right pad leg but i pressed on i could see the light more clearly now it was coming from the mouth of the cave i could even see the dull blue moon light shining brightly with the occasional yellow and red flicker peeking from the bottom of the cave mouth as i reached the cave mouth i slowly stumbled out onto a cliffside edge overlooking a small valley i could make out the mountain i'd been hiking in the distance in front of me i was shocked how in the world did i get here i looked down into the valley and noticed a large bonfire with a tint near it that explained the flicker from before i could see two men lying on the ground i assumed they had gotten pretty intoxicated and fell asleep outside i turned to find a way down the ledge and into the valley i needed to get down there and get some help i found a small trail that led down the cliffside but something caught my eye as i scanned the ledge personal belongings were scattered across the ground leading into the cave torn shirts old shoes tint pulls even a child's teddy bear i felt uneasy seeing all these intimate items just lying around then my eye caught something reflecting the moonlight i walked over and picked up a dog tag chain from the dirt my heart was pounding i could hear it in my ears with my hand shaking i ran my fingers across the chain until i found something round at the end then i reached for my necklace it was still around my neck a mix of dread and joy filled my body i wanted to jump and cry at the same time greg was here or he was at one point i called into the cave in a hushed tone greg are you in there i started to wobble back into the cave when i heard a loud crashing from the valley below [Music] i placed my back to the ledge and crouched down as to not be seen i scanned the treeline surrounding the camp when i saw movement i watched in horror as a long glinky gray arm sporting four bony fingers slowly emerged from the tree line it grabbed the right leg of one of the men and slowly dragged him into the surrounding brush i couldn't believe what i was witnessing suddenly everything made sense my dream greg's warning how i was knocked unconscious and ended up in a cave i had no idea what that thing was but i knew it would be back i shoved greg's necklace into my pocket and made my way down the cliffside trail as quickly and quietly as possible with adrenaline pumping i made my way to the tree line towards the mountain as i reached the tree line i turned back to the bonfire still burning brightly it was roughly a football field to my left i noticed the second man was gone i could only assume the creature had already come back for him i then looked back up the cliff to the cave mouth and in the moonlight i saw it a tall grey mass moving up the cliffside trail the one i had just come down i saw its two arms longer than the creature itself dragging behind it clutching two dark masses i could only assume it was the two men from the camp i quickly ducked into a bush and watched as it disappeared into the cave i wasted no time as soon as it was out of sight i made my way towards the mountain i stopped every few minutes to make sure i wasn't followed eventually i found a familiar trail i was so tired i went off the trail and laid under a fallen oak i fell asleep rather quickly i awoke to the sounds of birds chirping and the sunshine blinding me i set up still attempting to process what i saw my ankle was in a lot of pain i pulled up my pant leg to reveal four purple bruises with dime-width holes at the end of each bruise the bruise is wrapped around my calf and ankle they matched the long fingers i saw grab them in that night before i reached into my pocket and pulled out greg's necklace i now knew what happened to my best friend whatever that thing was it took him and it almost took me judging by the items i saw at the entrance to its home it had taken many others as well i made my way up the trail and eventually back to my truck when i arrived back home i told your great pop-up that i had a run-in with a small black bear we went to the hospital to get my head and leg checked out i knew that lie was the only way i would stay out of a mental institution you couldn't just go around claiming to see those types of things back then regardless i finally had closure and a newfound respect for the unknown i don't know what it was that took my friend but i know i never returned to those woods graduated high school and eventually i moved here and met your grandma as my grandfather wiped tears from his eyes he reached into the collar of his polo shirt he pulled out an old slightly rusted dog tag chain necklace with two silver 1943 pennies dangling from the end he smiled tucking them back into his shirt he looked me dead in the eyes and said son some things are better left alone it was born with me from jake w i'd like to preface this by saying i'm still quite a young guy being sub 20 i'm definitely not a writer or creative enough to come up with some scary story but i do ask that you believe me when i tell you that everything in this story is true now it all started when i was born 16 years ago i live in a very small town in southern utah so small that unless you really go looking you won't find it on any map ever since i was young i've had a very strange connection with the paranormal when i was an infant i would lie on my back and look in the sky tracing figures with my fingers my grandfather was a pastor and he thought i was communicating with angels he was wrong fast forward to when i was just figuring out how to talk still a very limited vocabulary but enough to get my point across my family and i were riding in the mountains specifically a small mountain range known as the bald ridges because a plane crashed there and burned all the trees on the mountain when we were driving on the dirt road back i was sitting on my mom's lap when all of a sudden i started screaming mommy mommy make him stop laughing my brother pulls over to the side of the road then speeds off claiming that when he stopped he heard footsteps outside his driver's side door obviously i do not remember this first hand due to my age but everyone in my family tells it the same way they even went back to the road the next day we took pictures of what appeared to be utterly unnatural footprints that some creature left behind they're still in my father's closet but that was only the beginning strange occurrences continued to surround me one evening while my family was sitting in the living room watching tv i started mumbling where's dorothy my mother figured i had an imaginary friend or something of the sort but my dad's face flushed pale dorothy was the name of my father's stillborn sister he never talked about it as he was young when it happened no one in our family even knew about it so how had i another strange occurrence happened when we were driving home from the city grocery shopping and such we were maybe 5 or 10 miles out of town all of a sudden a wolf walked out in the middle of the road my father slammed on the brakes and this wolf just stood there now we don't have wolves here in southern utah so we figured maybe it was domesticated and that's why it was so calm to our vehicle but something was off then i swear to god it smiled it looked right at me and smiled then it casually walked off the side of the road into the darkness there are too many encounters to name and talk about but the final and the most important happened one night before my brother died we were in the bald ridges once again my brothers and i were cruising around the mountains i was in the back seat my two brothers in the front now cattle ranchers on the better half of the mountain allowing their cows to roam and feed on the grass so it's not uncommon to see cows on the road at night but out of nowhere we started hearing hoves hitting the grass like a stampede all the cows were running running from something and then we heard it a blood curdling screech shouting from the bushes the sound of it kicked my brother into overdrive he slammed on the gas driving as fast as he could trying to avoid the cattle stampede then a bull walked right out in front of the truck my brother slammed on the brakes and as soon as he did there was a crash into the back of the truck shattering the rear windshield we made it out of there in one piece but we went back in broad daylight the next day to find the same type of footprints we found 16 years ago the messed up part both of my brothers are now dead one killed himself and the other died from sepsis is all of it connected i don't know but i'm scared these events only seem to happen when i'm around and they all started around the time i was born i think i'm connected to this thing like it's some byproduct of my existence if you have any idea what's going on let me know because i need answers a voice in the fog from anonymous my family and i love hiking in the mountains we used to do it every summer that summer we went to the mountains of slovenia i can remember the green slopes of the mountains while the plane was approaching the lublana airport we were going hiking for a couple of days as we usually did during the trip things went nicely there was nothing out of the ordinary everything happened after a couple of days we were walking towards our refuge the sun was up until we made it to the valley where our refuge was this valley was perpendicular to the sunlight giving us a lot of shade rendering the valley more grayish with the rocks before that refuge there was another one that had closed recently as we approached the door of the locked building a paper stating the reason of the closure was pinned on the door to redirect tourists on it it read that the previous owner had apparently committed suicide and that the refuge would stay closed for the summer a bit shaken up about that information we decided to continue our hike as it was the end of the afternoon i do reckon that information probably set us up in a bad mood but it didn't stay too much on our minds the next refuge we arrived at was a bit special basically there were no owners in charge and residents were in charge of keeping the place clear when we arrived there was a group of about six to eight people who were already eating at the table after greeting them we settled ourselves in and took off our shoes we joked around and discovered how the toilet worked the air seemed peaceful nothing weird about the place and there was a stream further away giving a nice backdrop sound while the gray shade of the rocks made the place naturally cool too the refuge itself was just a dormitory with bunk beds for at least 20 people there wasn't a bathroom and the toilets were in a separate building the refuge only had windows on the side that faced the direction of the stream which was also the entryway we could see the trail that kept going up the valley toward the passage at the top every evening we'd go in as it was starting to get cold by then and clouds would gather around the sky the last thing we wanted was to get rained on i was fast asleep one night and i sleep like a rock i can fall asleep listening to music and even sometimes the alarms i put on are not enough my dad often has to shake me awake but that night i woke up really early of course at first i wasn't stressed about it it happens and i can fall asleep again pretty fast but that night something kept me awake something even to this day i can't explain and i'm not the type of guy to believe too much into ghosts when i woke up the refuge was silent apart from the storm outside i love storms my girlfriend and i would often keep track of them so i relaxed listening to the water falling on the roof and the thunder rolling in a nearby valley now i don't exactly know how long it took me to hear it but something was calling in the storm something was repeating a word which made my brain light up i think it's at that moment i noticed i wasn't the only one awake because my sister then asked what it was by that point i was looking outside trying to see if i could find something but it was so foggy i couldn't see past 10 or 15 meters as my parents were also awake and trying to listen we all agreed there was something out there calling now what gives me shivers is that the voice sounded like a little boy maybe eight or ten years old repeating two syllables papa papa always the same way always the same tone and voice now that's where i diverge from the memories of my mom and sister but i believe he was saying something else on top of that i can't remember it's been so long and i tried to let the memory sink away now i wanted to stay in the refuge in our safe spot i didn't want to go into the storm but i watched my dad afraid that he would jump up and try to go outside to the boy but i didn't want him to move either i was tensed up the fog getting more dense and dense i was controlling my panic but i was definitely in fight-or-flight mode ready to bounce out of the bed to lock the door the voice kept calling and calling but never getting closer or louder nor did it change it was the same dreadful voice it reminded me of an episode of doctor who where the boy is looking for his mama i felt as if something was out there trying to lure us out of the refuge after a while we decided to get back to bed and try to ignore the kid's voice the next morning the storm was gone as well as the fog the other group of people had not heard the event last night as they'd apparently been sleeping with earplugs our family got ready for the day preparing to hike up the valley when we set out i was in front with my sister when we noticed someone on a rock we weren't close enough to see what he was doing exactly but he was pointed towards a little pond formed by the stream in front of the rock he was on he had his car parked a couple of meters on the left my sister who was older than me turned around and shouted to my parents about the guy there but when we tried to look back neither him nor his car were there anymore the rest of our hiking trip was normal with no further incident as i'm writing this both my sister and my mom have clear memories of that night i've tried checking wildlife noise to see if it could have been an animal now a lynx can kind of sound similar but it's too fast compared to what we heard the syllables were separated by one or two seconds plus why would he make that sound in the middle of the storm to this day we don't know what it was we don't know why it happened we don't know what it wanted or if it was even spiritual at all i saw something on the new river from spirit this happened a few years back it was the middle of summer in virginia in the new river valley i was coming home from a party i had just dropped my sister off at her car and was heading home i decided to take the river road back to my father's my town is located in the middle of the appalachian mountains i've lived here for 25 years now and i know the area and i'm used to the animals around here one time there was even a black mountain lion years back but this story it honestly makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up i feel so uncomfortable just talking about it anyway i crossed the eggleston bridge to go down to the river then i crossed the railroad tracks to get onto the gravel road the night was clear the sky covered in stars as the moon was new that night the lights from the trailers on the other side of the river lit up the water i was listening to 94 9 on the radio relaxing as i had my hand out the window traveling halfway down the river i began to grow slightly uneasy i looked around as i drove and saw nothing out of the ordinary thinking it was my nerves from a few beers i'd had a few hours before i pulled my hand in and rolled up the window in doing so a strange fog began to cover the road ahead it was honestly too thick at times to see the road so i had to go slower than i normally would making me feel even more uncomfortable as i cut through the first section of fog a large mass in the road caught my eye i hit the brakes as i came to a slow stop i turned on my high beams to illuminate the road ahead and i saw a large black dog it looked to be the height of a full-grown german shepherd its fur was as black as the night sky at first i didn't think anything weird about it until i noticed it would not look my direction it wouldn't even acknowledge my car slightly annoyed i honked my horn at it as i did it moved into the brush closest to the water i kept on driving feeling a bit freaked out but not necessarily scared i was thinking it was someone's dog that got loose or was free roaming in the middle of the mountains a lot of people don't chain up their dogs as i passed where the dog had disappeared to i couldn't help but feel like it was there watching me drive by i paid this feeling no mind i believed i was just trying to scare myself over nothing that was until i made it to the end of the road now at the end of the river road there's a small tunnel you have to blow your horn at so people know you're coming and with that fog i thought it would be best to flick my lights too just in case someone was racing down the road jamming out that is quite common as the river road is a hot spot for late night cruising as i pulled up to the tunnel i flicked on my high beams and there i saw the same dog in front of my car again i slammed on my brakes making my tires skid slightly in the gravel i looked at the dog as i turned off my music feeling a strong tense feeling in the air i turned off the radio as i watched it it did nothing but stand there getting annoyed i went to blow my horn at it again until it turned to face me this would be the first time i'd actually see the dog's face and it did not look like a dog its eyes were a bright red its top canine stuck out from its muzzle i froze with a heavy feeling of dread washing over me i was petrified as if i knew i should not move i don't know how long i was sitting there but a call from my sister snapped me out of my trance quickly i picked up the phone and continued to watch the dog hello hey girl i was calling to check on you and also to have you tell my girlfriend that i was with you my sister said over the line as i could hear her girlfriend commenting in the background it took me a moment to respond as i couldn't take my attention off the creature in front of me uh yeah yeah you were with me but um before i could say anything else her girlfriend screamed at her to get off the phone after hearing my answer i tried to get her to stay on the line but sadly she hung up before i could tell her what was happening i stared at the dog still and yet it was closer now i hadn't even noticed it had moved quickly i put my car into reverse ready to speed off if i had to but it didn't come any closer it just stood there between me and the tunnel it tilted its head slightly as if it was curious about what i was doing it felt like i was sitting there for hours when it had only been 20 minutes and as quickly as the dog appeared it vanished into the thicket closest to the river once it disappeared i sped away not caring about the potholes or the fog blocking my vision i just knew i had to get away from the river i had to get away from that dog speeding down the road i looked around trying to make sure whatever that was wasn't chasing me once i got home i took a breather to try to calm myself it was now 2 am i kept quiet as to not wake my father i read up on a few things and i think what i saw was a hellhound it is sad that if you see a hellhound three times it may just lead you to your death reading that made my hair stand up on end when you really think about it i saw that dog two times so who's to say when the third time is gonna come for me it's been six years since that night and i haven't seen another dog like that so i honestly don't know what to think but sharing this story helps relieve some of the strain and maybe someone can help me understand why i saw this thing specifically why i saw it two times in such a short amount of time tales from a forest ranger from mayor bear i used to work as a forest ranger outside the small town of blacksburg virginia it's one of many tight-knit communities that dot the line drawn by the appalachian mountain range in the four years i had that position i received my fair share of odd calls but what i'm about to tell you is pale in comparison to anything else i've experienced my story contains moderate depictions of animal violence so if you don't like that subject matter i'd advise you to skip ahead it first began on tuesday that was the first day of the week i was on duty i remember i was sat down at my desk of the ranger post a quarter of a mile or so in the woods drinking coffee i was usually tasked with the maintenance of the trails surrounding the nearby camp area and enforcing bland regulations regarding firearm discharge and the likes that's why it was surprising when a young couple stumbled into the building the man dirty covered in ash with clothes torn and the woman in similar condition they asked me for some help they request that me and the other ranger on duty trevor granted we were confused as to why they came to the station rather than calling either of us or emergency services to request first aid i remember the woman distinctly she had a stark english accent she told us that they were both so caught up in running they didn't even think about making a call that made me and my partner raise an eyebrow but we let them continue as we disinfected their wounds and applied rather amateur bandaging as she alleged they were on a hike away from camp when they were attacked by what they described as a walking tree i was as confused as you probably are now i think i laughed a little as i heard what she said trevor was the first to try to place a realistic lens over their story you ran into a tree no no it attacked us it was moving the woman was very passionate as she argued but her boyfriend calmed her down a little after he saw the subtle looks of disbelief we wore only supposition at the time was that they maybe ran into a thicket of brambles without realizing it their wounds were very real though it appeared to have been inflicted by an animal of some kind but there were no distinct bite or claw marks i couldn't line it up with the typical predatory wildlife we saw around our area regardless we let them file a report if you could call it that about an hour later i escorted the couple back to their campsite and ensured they retrieved all their belongings safely something to note these parks have communal camping areas generally you pitch a tent in a circle all around a central clearing where six or seven other groups are situated oddly enough though we did see other people out and about but not one came to ask what the issue was if anything they were quiet and tried to keep out of my way the best they could juxtaposed to the usual happy and friendly campers i meet out there under normal circumstances we would have investigated the area for the predatory animal that the couple was attacked by to ensure there weren't any wildlife getting all too friendly with humans however they were so turned around the best localization they could give us was a direction given that and the ridiculous description of the assailant we never followed up the rest of tuesday passed uneventfully aside from me having to talk to an intoxicated fella who was urinating all too publicly [Music] fast forward to wednesday it's 11 or so in the morning a decent chunk of time into my shift our outpost gets a call an older male with a raspy voice informs us that this campsite is filled with daddies he clarifies that there's a whole bunch of dead animals in and around his fire pit before telling us you'd better hurry yeah i know a weird call fearing the worst i headed down to the camp area which happened to be the same one that the couple from yesterday was situated at i arrived unsure of what to expect i met the guy outside his rv lo and behold all around us were dead animals there were at least 15 of varying species rabbits squirrels birds too as i recall the biggest thing there was a coyote which was taking his final sleep just outside the clearing none of them had any visible injuries what was odd though was the slight layer of soot that seemed to cover the coat of each animal staining them an even shade of grey i remember touching the coyote only to find the ashy residue on my fingertips i had to call in to administration obviously something was very wrong here i believe they told me they were dispatching a team to conduct a water test to check for contamination in the meantime we had to clear out all the other campers including the guy who reported it i remember one hippie type dude really well as i was telling him why he had to go i offered that there was another campsite just a mile or so north he told me something along the lines of nah dude i'm just gonna go back home there's something real wrong with this place's mojo despite that campsite being closed we still serviced the local trails so i was back on duty the next day it was almost entirely uneventful we spent much of the early morning resorting our documents before it came time for my rounds the walk from our station to the campground was boring with no fresh litter to collect given there were no people when i finally got to the camp area it struck me as lonely almost like a ghost town since it was the first time in my career we had to close during a normally busy season it felt very strange i lapped the center of the camp area not bothering to check out each individual site before i headed back up another path one that ran almost parallel to the one i came down that's when i started to pick up a strange smell it was like charcoal burning but hotter if that makes any sense it almost stung to inhale since there weren't supposed to be any campers nearby i decided to follow it i seemed to be getting closer as i walked down the path judging by smell alone and the further i went the more acidic the smell became at that point i had no clue what could have been producing it i had to cover my face with a cloth in typical banded fashion though it helped very little maybe 600 yards down the path from the campground i finally made it it was this ball of what looked like wood about a foot in diameter it sat in front of me squarely in the middle of the path off of it came this silver smog sifting eight feet into the air before it dissipated getting closer it began irritating my eyes noticing the thing was under direct sunlight i gave it a hefty kick with my boot causing it to roll a few feet down the path what was very odd was as soon as it hit the shade it instantly stopped smoking it just sat there a charred ball of wooden facsimile but it wasn't wood wood doesn't burn in the sun after all i left it there on the path and walked back to the station the smell faded pretty quick anyway as soon as i got in i grabbed trevor he set the station phone to forward to his cell phone we both then grabbed shovels going to find the object in hopes of burying it bad practice for both of us to leave the post i know but he was real curious to see what it was only as we arrived where i left it the thing was gone the only trace that remained was the slightest acidic tinge in the air but no smoldering ball it was pretty big so whatever took it had to have been large itself thursday wrapped up with no further events then came friday still waiting on the administration to clear the campsite fit for use again it ran as slow as the day before nothing at all happened during the day right as i was clocking out though as the afternoon blended into the evening a family came into our station there was the mother the father and a little boy maybe nine years old to be honest i don't remember my conversation with them nearly as well as with the couple from before but to sum it up they told me that they had been walking their dog on a nearby trail maybe an hour earlier before it took off barking at something in the woods they kept stressing how it never behaved like that and they were eager to find it considering how low the sun was getting so i agreed to help trevor said he'd follow up with me after the late shift arrived at the post they told me they lost him about a quarter mile or so from the station yet again i found myself walking back to the same campsite after asking if he responded to a name they told me he did i think it was rufus or roger or some other generic canine title i think the mother and the kid split off in one direction towards the station while me and the dad went the other way toward the campsite we called the dog's name every 15 seconds or so and as a pet owner my heart sank a little every time there was no response the father got serious with me and asked how likely it was he'd run into a predatory animal out here he told me the dog was a big alaskan malamute and i told him that a mountain lion probably wouldn't mess with a dog like that unless it was protecting its young i remember mentioning that a bear could take it on but he doubted the dog would be stupid enough to challenge a bear regardless bears really weren't too frequent at the base of the mountains i was going to mention the suspected tainted water but i decided against it as it was on the far side of the campsite so it could worry him unnecessarily maybe half an hour into our search the mom called the dad she told him they hadn't found anything and the dad told her that we were still looking and said if they didn't find him within the next half hour they'd meet back up at the station and call it a night i felt real bad after that then i called the dog's name as loud as i could all of a sudden way to our right in the direction of the campsite we heard this crashing suddenly that gorgeous dog burst through the undergrowth running up to his owner and ignoring me he was moving quick but with a limp further the white parts of his coat seemed to be stained gray just like the animals from the clearing the owner hugged the dog wiping what seemed to be ash off on his pants he asked me if i knew what the residue was but i told him i had no clue from the direction the dog came from there was a second wave of crashing it came closer to us and seemed to stop altogether a few feet into the thicket of trees the sun was close to setting but there was still enough light to see decently behind the trees we made out a very strange shape it seemed tall and thin as we watched it move there was this thick crackling sound almost like a fireplace it took one step towards us and the guy now holding his dog shouted hey that caused whatever the figure was to immediately bolt the other direction as we heard more of that crackling and underbrush being pushed aside we picked it up pretty quick speed walking back to the outpost the dog's leg was injured but it was in good spirits and limped along with us strangely enough i picked up a little of that burning smell from before i asked the guy if he smelled it and he said yes telling me it was like someone was having a bonfire [Music] the night wrapped up with the couple meeting back up the smile on the kid's face as he hugged the furry beast that was bigger than him really made my night trevor met me outside the outpost and after filing a quick report we did the 20 or so minute walk back to the parking lot together luckily the night shift guys were real nice and did most of the overhead paperwork for us on the walk i told him about the figure we saw and the weird crackling sounds he told me he never saw anything like it before he asked if i think that's what the dog ran after and i said something along the lines of maybe that was one huge dog and that thing out there was not a bear so what kind of animal was it trevor was as confused as i was [Music] saturday finally came my last day on duty until next tuesday i wasn't feeling great when i got there only on five hours of sleep luckily for me the nearby campsite still wasn't open and the day droned on quick i was snapped from my tired robotic work as our phone rang trevor picked it up listening for no more than two minutes he told me he had to go he didn't say anything beyond a family issue and left hurriedly to be frank this ticked me off considering i was tired as heck but the shift was almost over and i thought about skipping my rounds at the campsite that afternoon but decided against it after all the fresh air of the walks was the only thing keeping me awake i remember using a sharpie to craft a very poor be back soon sign that i taped onto the station door as i went for my walk it was really just a formality as i didn't expect anyone to come by within the 30 minutes i was gone so down i went back to the camping area it was the middle of the afternoon the sun still bright in the sky it didn't stop me from feeling uneasy as i began to smell that all too familiar charcoal acid mix though it was modest as i worked my way down the path until i finally stepped foot into the clearing that's when i saw it surrounding the communal fire pit there were seven large wooden tar balls like the one i'd seen on the path before only much larger they were all smoldering in the sun at that point i was convinced some person was behind it to what end i had no idea i called out into the clearing slightly muffled by the bandana i had to put back on my face naturally no response from anyone but dear god did the air stink so i decided to do what i did before i made my way into the clearing and nudged the fuming mounds of wood and black material it took me a good five minutes i didn't want to touch them and they were all heavier than the one before i finally got them all out of the sun and into the shade i stepped back a few paces to inhale fresher air they gradually stopped smoking having no clue what to do i opted to do another write-up back at the station making sure to mention the geometric formation as i turned around to leave though i noticed something was wrong it's that feeling you get when something isn't quite right but you're unsure what i looked at the forest in front of me nothing seemed to miss at first i scanned the tree line and then i saw it blended in with the wood of the trees much like a stick bug there stood a man at least what looked like a man it was spindly and thin maybe nine or ten feet tall its body seemed to be a black wooden texture with its limbs and torso outlined a deep brown i just stared at it mouth a gabe i think it was attempting to camouflage itself and when it realized i noticed it it began to move its head was much like a bulb crafted out of similar material to its body yet it had no discernible features it slowly climbed off the tree and out of the undergrowth moving towards me i was paralyzed with fear as it moved this ear splitting crackling noise played much like the one from the incident with the dog after an excruciating few seconds it was standing about 15 feet away from me in the middle of both paths back to the station it was swaying back and forth as if doing some kind of dance the smell of smoke and that unnatural burn weighed heavy in the air it took a step towards me and my heart was beating out of my chest and took another and another and i still couldn't move and then with a great stride covering almost ten feet it stepped right past me as if i wasn't there i turned instinctually and watched it as it began picking up the strange smoldering balls i had just moved and effortlessly as if they weighed nothing it placed them back into formation around the campfire as i saw its focus shift from me i regained control of my body and ran i sprinted the whole way back to the outpost entering it and slamming the door shut i had no clue if the thing followed it showed no interest in me but still i couldn't take a chance so i gathered all my belongings locking the place up and then took off again this time to the parking lot leaving the be back soon sign still hanging loosely on the door as obvious as it seems i never returned to that post i was contacted numerous times by my superiors and trevor but never did respond eventually a notice of termination arrived at my home i don't believe i ever received my last paycheck either not that i care under no circumstance will i ever go back there call me a deserter or a coward whatever you like but know if you saw what i saw that day and you saw the sheer inhumanity of that creature you wouldn't go anywhere near that place as far as i'm concerned forests are strictly off limits to me now you simply can't be sure what resides within and the creature well i really have no clue what it was up to what it was doing with the weird spheres of whatever i don't know i have no doubt now that all the odd incidents i experienced that week were its doing though i'm just thankful it didn't kill me because it very well could have that about wraps up my week i'll leave you with this though i did a modicum of research based on the creature's appearance the only thing i found related to it was an old dutch folktale that described a character known as de tachman or the tree man according to the tale it was a thin being with appendages much like tree branches that would chase naughty children until they told their parents of their wrongdoing whether it was based off of the creature i saw or an innocently crafted bedtime story i'm not sure to be honest i don't think i want to find out good luck to all the people working in forests out there especially those along the appalachians be careful and stay safe appalachian trail lights from anonymous hiker i'm a petite woman in my early twenties i grew up and live in rural south central virginia surrounded by dense woods for miles in every direction i know what animals birds planes satellites planets stars etc look like act like and sound like being no stranger to the outdoors my whole life it was only a matter of time until i got into solo long distance hiking and even during the pandemic i still hike albeit responsibly whenever i can on the appalachian trail in the western part of the state being a petite young woman and always hiking alone i do take necessary precautions my family can see my location on trail via a navigation app popular in the through hiker and section hiker community i carry pepper spray and a knife and i always tell someone where i will be and update them on where i am and how the conditions are anyway this took place in mid-june of this year 2020. i had planned to summit the priest mountain hiking southbound on the appalachian trail starting my hike around 1pm from the parking lot at the base of the mountain and reaching the shelter by 5 30 to 6 pm taking my time as the sharp elevation increase paired with a busted knee would add to the challenge of summoning the notorious beast of a mountain after a good strenuous uneventful hike past beautiful waterfalls gorgeous viewpoints and the occasional snake or squirrel i summoned it the flat mile long hike to the shelter was a welcomed gift after the 4 000 foot plus elevation increase i had tackled for over five grueling miles once i arrived at the shelter i set up my hammock keeping the tarp rolled up in its snakeskin strung up above my hammock as the forecast was predicting a beautiful warm night i do my thing eat some energy bars refill my water bottle typical boring camp chores before turning in at around 8 pm despite the challenges of the day i couldn't sleep so i stayed up on my phone talking to a buddy whom i had planned to thru-hike the at with earlier this year but we had to cancel due to verona we're texting away sending funny videos and whatnot until 10 pm when i notice a headlamp coming down the side path from the trail to the shelter cautious i hunkered down in my hammock and shined my headlamp in the stranger's direction so that whoever was there knew that i was well awake and that i saw them in the morning i found out it was a dude who got separated from his group if i remember correctly he was a retired cop going by the trail named 5-0 i watch 5-0 hang his bear bag in a tree by the shelter and watch him set up his hammock on the opposite side of the campsite cool he's harmless i think to myself and this was the case but the story doesn't involve a person or people this is about what happens next in the skies above as mentioned before i didn't have my tarp set up because it was a beautiful night so i could see the stars and enjoy the nice weather what i noticed first was that my cell service signal was beginning to act funny around 10 45 pm one moment i'd have lte then 4g then 3g roaming no signal and back to lte this cycle continued throughout the night until 4am a moment later was when i noticed it a few of the stars in the sky appeared to be swiveling and shining very dim soft spotlights which didn't reach very far but it was obvious that these weren't stars they also weren't airplanes or helicopters i couldn't hear any audible noise and i'm 4500 feet above sea level on top of a mountain closer to any plane than someone on sea level assuming i was tired and therefore seeing things which weren't there i kept watching fixating my vision between two branches of a tree watching one of these weird stars do its thing swiveling back and forth shining its light then all of a sudden the sky turned bright red then pitch black everything in the sky vanished the woods went quiet i attempted to text my mother out of fear that something was about to go down mom i love you there's something weird going on with the sky the feeling that i shouldn't have seen what i just saw and that i was unwelcome quickly set in being familiar with the woods i can tell when i've overstayed my welcome but this was unlike anything i'd experienced in the outdoors before the vibe i was sensing was mean hateful spiteful even the messages i sent to my mother and to my buddy didn't go through until hours later as my cell signal was still going through its weird cycle of no service about five minutes later the sky turned red again and then went back to normal with one huge difference half of the stars in the sky were missing not as if they changed positions in the sky i know how the earth rotates and changes the locations of stars and planets i mean half of the original stars i'd seen earlier were missing i could still see notable planets such as venus exactly as they were in the sky before this happened everywhere in the sky which had one of those weird swiveling balls of light was blank the rest of the night i felt uncomfortable so uncomfortable in fact that i pitched my tarp and slept with my pepper spray clipped to my sports bra i could not get my mind off of what i just saw it was very similar to a phenomenon i'd witnessed weeks before while driving home from the grocery store back home i happened to look up at the sky just as a stationary ball of light warps bed away at a pinpoint that's the best way i can describe it like in star trek whenever the uss enterprise goes into warp speed it was exactly like that no crazy colors no weird shapes nothing like that in both of these instances they were unassuming white star-like balls of light getting back on track the next morning was uneventful i ran into five o's group and we all hiked down the mountain together to our cars in the parking lot below i refused to mention what i saw the night before until i got home and logged into facebook to share photos of my hike well the peaceful parts of it one facebook group i was in was called all women all trails and someone had made a post a few days prior asking us about our weird experiences on the trail this just happened to appear right at the top of my news feed so i shared the story which i have now shared with you not thinking i would get a response 30 minutes later i received an alert that someone had replied to my comment the woman that replied claimed to live not too far from the priest mountain and shared a similar experience she had one night as she her husband and their neighbors were having a bonfire granted they were admittedly under the influence but the parallels between my story and the experience she shared with me were described by her as weird apparently that night when she her husband and their neighbors were having a bonfire they all saw a bright red light shoot straight up into the sky from the direction of the mountain and felt the same discomfort i experienced interpret this how you will i have nothing to gain from lying to strangers on the internet i feel it's my duty to the hiker community to share my weird experiences in the appalachian mountains i'm not the first nor will i be the last person to experience something weird and this isn't even as insane as what other hikers have admitted to seeing or experiencing if anyone else has experienced something weird on the appalachian trail specifically in the alto wintergreen resort area please share your story there's something weird going on in the skies above popular hiking trails and it needs to be openly discussed bad encounter in the rockies from marcus my two friends joanne jordy and i were hiking outside of bonfi national park we were going up some mountain that belonged to the rockies i don't really remember which we're all experienced outdoors there was a little bit of snow underfoot at the time but it was sunny and bright out the mountain was real short yeah and we were aiming to set up a sleeping area on top there it was plateaued and flat enough to chill out for a night but still high with a pretty view we were probably a hundred feet up the mountain when stuff started to seem out of the ordinary i noticed that the trail had these deep gouges in it going like a foot or two down into the earth they were pretty wide too there were four or five of them consecutively and then they stopped i asked my friends what they were they just shook their heads my best guess at the time was some sort of animal dug it out but they were really big seemed dumb a bear would waste that much energy for something so pointless and i couldn't think of anything else that had the size or power to do it plus these markings must have been new too because there was no snow at the bottom of them despite the path being blanketed in it whatever we kept on going as we went up the mountain we saw more and more of these gouges like every 10 meters up the trail given their frequency we thought they may have been natural or part of some development process but erosion didn't work like that and what would park workers be doing all the way up here the markings seemed to be too random to be man-made then we began to pick up on this smell i don't know how to describe it other than mold it smelled like mildew yeah back when i lived with my parents our house got flooded the basement anyway the odor was sort of like that really damp and musky jordy could really smell it and boy was he complaining but he was right the smell didn't belong up on a mountain it made no sense we were hiking for 20 more minutes when the smell faded so did the weird dugouts in the dirt stuff was back to normal pretty much the sun was starting to hit the horizon so we picked up the pace a little keep in mind we had big packs filled with food water and our sleeping bags so we were going kind of slow still after a while close to 700 feet up the small mountain we made it to the area we were going to set up cap at once again though the mildewy smell seemed to return like it was waiting for us and again we found one of those weird holes this time it was a lot bigger circular it sat right in the middle of the plateau the only reason we thought it was related to the ones from before was because there was no snow inside telling us it had to have been made recently it wasn't too cold up on the top the mountain ranged up connecting to others just next to the plateau there was a forest that climbed the ever taller range of the rockies because of the trees there really wasn't much wind or anything but jordi and joanne still went into the stretch of woods to grab material for a fire it was late autumn after all you should note that the two were a couple so when they took a little bit to return i wasn't concerned i was still just focused on setting up the campsite normally we'd construct a pit with a few stones to line the fire and reflect the heat but this time i didn't bother i thought the strange dugout in the middle of the plateau would serve as a perfect fire pit my friends finally came back both with their hands full of kindling and logs something i noticed was that joanne was real quiet ordinarily she'd be telling jokes or something but she wasn't speaking at all when we piled the wood into the pit i realized the mildew smell had gotten stronger i asked them if they could smell it too and jordy said yes he mentioned it was darn strong in the forest i then supposed it was the pieces of wood they brought back maybe it was rotted or something but no the fire burned great the strange hole was honestly perfect for it we heeded our food and it was fine we could still smell the mold even over the fire but it wasn't a huge issue the sun set but we were still cozy in our insulated sleeping bags i think we went to bed around nine joanne was obviously upset about something she barely said a word that night some time later i woke up to shuffling i set up in my sleeping bag the fire was out so i grabbed my phone and turned on the light to my surprise both my friends were gone i got up slipping on my boots i was still fully dressed because of where we were i called out their names and i kept shining the phone around the campsite their sleeping bags were still there but they were empty but their shoes were gone their backpacks weren't though after a minute or two of calling jordy suddenly ran out of the woods back into the campsite he was out of breath and panicked he shouted joanne's gone i was confused a pit started to form in my stomach what do you mean where jordy told me that he had awakened to find joanne staring at him standing directly over him breathing heavily he asked her if something was wrong she smiled and that's when she spoke but it was like she was using a different language because he couldn't understand it she then took off into the woods bordering the campsite he did his best to keep up with her but he couldn't manage when he heard me calling he came back to camp i relit the fire because stuff didn't feel right and i wanted as much light as possible then we took the larger flashlights we had in our bags and headed into the woods in hopes of finding her something really wasn't making sense though jordy was too caught up in adrenaline worried about his girl and i was too to an extent still i couldn't help thinking about how the whole situation was botched why the heck would she run into the woods pitch black like that and the stuff about the words he couldn't understand it was freaking me out above that though as we entered the forest the smell of mildew was incredibly strong it added to my queasiness it clung to the air like it was a perfume sprayed just a few seconds ago we were about 20 feet in still walking quickly we were calling her name shining our lights around like mad and then she responds over here here it sounded like she was close by off to our left i shined the light over there but didn't see anything jordy follows up with his light but we still don't see smack keep in mind the moldy smell is still strong overpowering almost then joanne called to us again only this time she was on the other side of us the complete other direction we both glanced at each other wondering how the heck she was able to do that we shined our lights again and who would have guessed nothing was there it felt as if we were being played with this went on for maybe three minutes joanne would keep taunting us from different areas of the woods and we'd look but no one would be there jordy got real fed up cursing at her to stop playing at one point he ran to where he heard the voice and still we didn't see a glimpse of her after that everything changed there was this big whoosh sound like a giant gust of air just blew through the entire forest and then this laughing started it sounded like joanne at first only we couldn't tell what direction it was coming from it was as if it was coming from all around us to this day i've never experienced anything like it a few seconds in it changed from joanne's voice it was like the second voice picked up deep and throaty it was really strained you could almost call it masculine but it was more animal than human they were both laughing in unison before it picked up into a scream it was ear splitting like a horse and a girl screaming together from every single direction [Music] so me and jordy booked it the only reason we knew which way to go was because of the fire we sprinted right back into the camp and as soon as we got out of the tree line it stopped it was there one minute and gone the next we were freaking out joanne was still in the woods some real bad stuff was going on we were up on a mountain in the middle of nowhere and it was pitch black outside we just sat behind the fire trying to think of something we didn't even bother trying to rationalize it we were both terrified after a few minutes jordy manned up he grabbed the little hunting knife he had in his backpack it wasn't big enough to ward off a coyote let alone whatever the heck that thing screaming at us was but he wanted to get joanne so i followed him i don't even know what we were thinking we strutted back up to the forest him with his knife me with my flashlight preparing for some duel of legend with whatever the heck had been messing with us the moldy odor stuck so bad as we walked back up to the woods the air got tenser and tenser and finally just as we were going to enter the tree line jordy it was joanne's voice again i shined the light to where i heard it not expecting to see anything but to our relief there she was she was dirty and freezing all she had on was her inner layers her jacket and cargo pants and boots were missing she walked out of the woods to us hugging her boyfriend and he was all what the heck happened why were you messing around in the woods where are your clothes she couldn't answer at all like she had no memory of it so we brought her back to camp and i gave her the other jacket i had in my bag all things considered she seemed okay we talked it out and she didn't remember anything the last thing she recalled was her and jordy going into the woods to grab some firewood she said she thought she heard his voice from up a little way and walked over but that's it the next thing she knew she woke up in the woods in the middle of the night and she saw us with the flashlight and called out to us she didn't remember the cat and mouse game or the laughing screaming stuff and she was totally sure she never went back to camp never had dinner with us she proved it too she was starving and ate almost all the rest of the food we had packed the rest of the night we took turns standing guard i worked most of the night as my friend slept i kept the fire burning brighter than the sun let me tell ya nothing weird happened the only thing was i kept hearing branches snap out in the trees no screaming though no weird figures nothing too bad i went to bed around three when jordy got back up to keep watch i slept a few hours as soon as it was dawn and we had the tiniest amount of daylight to work with we booked it back down the mountain we were all so tired and the hike was really awkward for joanne because she had to make do with a pair of running shoes but we made it down i can't say for sure what happened that night maybe joanne was possessed or maybe it wasn't even her at all all i can think of is how quiet and alien she seemed to us that night as she ate and hung around the fire with us there's one last note i'll end it on when everything was settled and we were back at the hotel we were staying at before the hike jordy told me that during his watch he was about to nod off when movement caught his eye he focused and just at the edge of the trees right beyond the light of the fire he saw joanne she was waving at him it was what looked like joanne anyway but the joanne we had found was in her sleeping bag right by his feet as he turned to confirm she was still sleeping he looked back up and into the woods but whoever whatever it was had vanished gone without a trace by the way he put it it almost felt as if he was messing with me but i can't be sure warrickin around glacier lake from bilbo 1776 as a younger man i enjoyed hiking through many of the surrounding mountains of montana that i grew up close to the beartooth mountains are just one of the many segments to the rocky mountains known for the massive peak in the middle of the range that looks like a giant bear's tooth i was 16 when i and a few friends of mine decided to take a week and go for a bit of backpacking excursion to glacier lake and hike all the way back to sheep and goat lakes there were four of us i will call the brothers little g and big g as both names of course start with g's and my other friend m we all had our army surplus backpacking setups a one-man canvas army tent our big backpacks that carried everything from mres to our clean socks and underwear all amounting to about 25 pounds of food and clothing for each of us save for me who had the cooking equipment the first day went very well it was the perfect time of year to take our time picking some sweet current and huckleberries while we hiked the trail going up the mountain is rather steep a few hours later we made it the four and a half miles to the first lake we decided to set up camp off the beaten path to the north side of the lake we looked around for a bit finding a good space that was relatively flat we pitched our tints as the sun dipped behind the mountain and the whole valley behind us grew dark in its shadow that night we broke out our favorite mres mine being chilly with beans we decided to finally turn in after stoking the fire high and making sure to store our food packs in a tree little g said he would stay up for a bit he wanted to make himself a walking staff out of a straight branch he had found that night i believe around 3 am i woke up to a branch breaking i listened for a moment but i didn't hear anything i then realized i had to pee really bad promptly i extracted myself from the small tent and forgetting about the sound that woke me i stepped just past the tree line around the cap now that i was possibly in the most compromising position a guy can be in and after the relief rushed over me i immediately felt like i was being watched i quickly finished up and backtracked real fast to the cap getting back into camp i threw a new log on the fire all while looking around me i still just felt as if something was off little g had fallen asleep next to the fire and woke up when i put the log in he looked at me a little bit funny then promptly fell back to sleep using his pack as a pillow i thought about fully waking him but i felt too darn silly thinking i was just spooking myself the fire began to blaze back to life and lit up the surrounding area well at this point i sat down my back to my tent and added another log i reached into my pack checking for my pistol berating myself for not just strapping the thing on at the start of the hike feeling more safe and confident with the fire now alive and well and my pistol at my side i slowly fell back into slumber i awoke with the light of the sun just starting to blanket the landscape sitting up and looking around adding a log to the fire pit hoping some coals were left to restart it i froze i had caught something in the dim light just outside the cap moving in the underbrush i slowly looked up searching and straining my eyes seemingly materializing out of the shadows i see a mostly featureless large animal creeping through the trees i grab my truck keys which have a small light on the chain and click it on searching for my headlamp with my hand and my pack the small keychain led light did not do much to reveal the features of the creature other than to reveal that it was a dark furred animal and all i saw was what i believed to be the back legs of it before it suddenly disappeared behind some brush i found my headlamp and put it on and with it lit up i looked and now saw nothing i walked to the edge of camp looking in the trees and underbrush and seeing nothing i woke up little g telling him what just happened in a few minutes with more sunlight reaching the area and everyone waking up we discussed what it might be and just reaffirmed that no one was to go away from the group most animals never would attack a group of people especially if the animal was on their own the next two days went by without a problem we hiked we fished set up camp slept well only now we had a watchman the third night came about and it was my turn to take the first three hours of the night watch we had gathered far more wood since the first night so we could keep the fire going without needing to search for more i settled in and began stripping the bark from a stick i'd found to keep myself busy throwing the kindling into a pile as the night slowly went on about two hours into my watch around 10 o'clock i hear once again the snapping of a twig i turn towards the sound flipping on my headlamp there was nothing there again i scanned the rest of the surrounding forest in the trees and towards the underbrush and then sat back down the rest of the watch went smoothly not hearing or seeing anything else i traded out with big g and told him what i'd heard i fell asleep quickly and woke up to the sunlight bathing the land another day of exploring around goat and sheep lake and beginning a longer trek back to glacier lake all of which was uneventful outside of seeing some other wildlife like a group of mountain sheep far off on the side of a taller mountain and some rock chucks that night however would change that that night i had second watch from 11 to 2 am em had the first watch and had not seen anything and by the time he was already asleep it must have been about 12. i was sharpening my knife as it had dulled for my nights of turning sticks into kindling the scrape of my wet stone was loud in the relatively quiet forest crickets chirped some cicadas were making their noise then some of that noise went silent not all of it as i could still hear the cicadas throwing away i didn't think much of it just looked around for a minute and went back to my sharpening a few minutes later i look up to find eyes on me eyes that were hungry eyes i had never looked into the likes of before quickly i went for my pistol dropping my sharpening stone and gripping my knife in a ready-to-stab stance this creature was weird it was like some kind of dog wolf large yet shaped a bit like a buffalo with the front legs and shoulder bigger and longer and the back leg shorter the head was like an elongated egg shape almost like that of an english bull terrier only slimmer to the tip but the whole animal had long pitch black hair at its back that faded to gray and then a deep red orange under its head to its chest and larger than any wolf i'd ever seen in pictures we sat there for what seemed like an age staring each other down me with the intent to only shoot if it moved closer and its amber eyes looking into me letting me know it saw me like a juicy steak as the fire light slowly dimmed away to calls i finally dared to move and kicked another log over to the fire a few sparks flying keeping my eyes on the beast it also decided to begin to move then pacing shortly around the left side of the fire but not getting closer it growled then and what a sound it both put fear into the air and sounded like a purr even with the deep gurgle one would expect from such a big creature for a moment i wondered if i had made a mistake in not shooting first and asking questions later and that's when it lurched towards me i instinctively leapt over the fire to the opposite side as it came closer and i pulled the trigger and somewhat disjointedly i heard myself yelling like a madman a very weird sound reverberated through the air then and a bit of a sick feeling rolled over me it had been a good shot at least to the point that it had hit the animal and it made the sound of a surprised twisted scream of a child mixed with the dog in pain it then bolted away and was gone about this time i turned to look and found that two of the three others had pretty much ripped themselves out of their tents and big g was struggling with extracting themselves in a panic from a sleeping bag like their lives depended on it all of them cursing and looking at me like i was a crazed lunatic questioning away about what the heck that was i turned ignoring them looking with my head lamp around the forest frantically but it was gone i finally got them all to be quiet by yelling shut up i took one more look through the brush and forest around us looking to where i'd aim to shoot i found no blood there was however a great amount of pine needles and dirt scattered everywhere as though something had torn at the ground to leap away with all the force it had claw marks dug in deeply the others joined me in looking at the spot returning to their questioning but more subdued after telling them what i saw we were all up the rest of the night we packed up cap as soon as the dawn began to light up the area and we left that mountain we reported the account to a forest ranger i knew and we never heard more about it he said he didn't know what it could have been other than some wild dog but through my own research i have a feeling we had been followed for days by a very well fed shunka wariken a wild wolfhound species that many natives spoke of in their folklore the translation being carrying off dogs as this creature apparently specialized in the old days and coming into native camps and taking their dogs for a meal i wouldn't say this creature that is still classified as a cryptid even though evidence has been clearly found of its existence is any more dangerous than a wolf though in my opinion it looks far more frightening i hope this is a reminder for everyone keep your friends close and a gun closer stay in groups when adventuring in the wilderness we after all aren't always at the top of the food chain without our numbers and technology chaste in the rockies from a piece of pie the story i'm about to tell you takes place from 1995 to 1998. when i was a teen it was a traumatic time for me i don't talk about it much me my mom and her new husband had just moved to a nice cabin in the rockies so it was secluded and big we had two neighbors down the dirt road but other than that it was private it was the only good thing about this time in my life i could take a walk and forget about leaving my home in denver with all my friends just to live with my stepdad who at the time i hated even though he tried to connect with me as a father figure i didn't care though i was angry and mad that i didn't have a say in any of this after a few months i got used to things i did start to like the place and every morning before school i would take walks around the place admiring its beauty however one night i was heading back from an after-school walk when i heard someone say my name johnny come here it was like my mom's voice but distorted i wasn't far from the cabins so i assumed maybe she was calling out for me and it just sounded weird so i rushed home but once the house was in view i stopped i noticed the sound was still going and it was angry now johnny come here now i knew then that the voice was not my mom's it was too loud and strange just then i could have sworn i heard crunching leaves behind me but by the time i turned around nothing was there i ran off quickly when i made it home just in case i asked my mom if she was yelling my name but she said no after that i was shaken up enough and decided to not go too far on my walks for a while a few weeks later i began to explain away the incident i soon felt brave enough to start walking my usual path again of course this time i brought a large stick with me and i would walk with my friend brock who lived down the road as often as i could one day we were walking on the weekend we were talking about school and hunting when we began to hear whispers this frightened us so we ran the rest of the way we spent the rest of the evening playing my new playstation brock would be sleeping over at dinner time we started to eat dinner in the dining room my dad was running late from work so we ate without him at one point brock whispered to me so are we going to talk about those whispers my mom overheard so we had to explain to her about these whispers we heard when we were done she seemed concerned but we didn't talk about it soon we saw my dad's truck pull in when he got out i heard him say hello to me the funny thing is i wasn't even out there i was confused when he came inside and saw me his heart dropped he looked at me and looked at the door and opened it and screamed he explained that he saw a figure at the basketball hoop in our front yard and he thought it was me he was very much shaken up about it when i looked out there again i saw it running away he explained he ended up keeping watch of the woods for a while with his rival and he even called the neighbors and brock's parents to watch out we went to bed except for my stepdad who stayed up with his rival later in life he told me what he saw these were his exact words around 12 i saw the thing it was tall and skinny with hollow black eyes i aimed my gun at it i thought about firing but by the time i lined up the shot it was gone a few times i would hear it calling for me saying my name my mom later admitted she would hear the same thing hers and my dad's names being called it stopped after a few months then went back again after a while i realized it would do it for the first two weeks in a month so for those four months every week i didn't go for walks in 1998 i was heading for college soon my stepdad who i'd finally liked now was working in the garage it was getting late it was the last week of february so i assumed that thing was away at the moment hunting or whatever it does my dad said to me hey can you hand me the bolts i handed them to him he was working on my mom's car swearing and cursing at it i helped him until we heard a knock on the garage door then something on the other side called our names loudly my dad in a hurry yelled at it and told me get the guns now i quickly went to retrieve the guns we made sure they were loaded and ready we ran out the front door to surprise it in the dark i saw it there was no fur on it it was skinny and bony and it looked at us we fired but i missed probably from shaking so much it ran away though and we pursued it into the forest we chased it firing at it but never hitting it we kept going until we couldn't see it anymore and by then it was very dark then suddenly i heard johnny johnny [Music] we ran home it tried to trap us by making us follow its voice but i saw it running after us and my dad fired at it again i think we hit it this time the things slowed down enough for us to get away when home we explained what happened to my mother who nearly had a heart attack when she had heard the gunshots and screaming later on when we were cleaning our guns my dad made a joke about it trying to calm the tension i miss him he made things better i wish i was grateful for him sooner he was the first father figure i had when he passed away in 2012 my mom sold the place and moved back to denver i visit her still we don't talk about that thing anymore but we do talk about my dad i miss him so much but one thing i don't miss was that place i'll always remember the horror of living there the howler from sneeves0426 hi my name is sam and i live in the ozark mountains of arkansas i've lived here all my life and i've been hunting in these mountains since i was a boy with my father i'm also a heavy believer in the supernatural and in cryptids dogman bigfoot skinwalkers and windigo these have gotten me intrigued in the superstitious but here in arkansas we have a legend and i'm sure you've heard of a legend here and let me tell you this legend is very very real this is the story of my encounter with the infamous ozark howler it was a cold misty night in the mountains of the ozark landscape my father and i were gathering some firewood for the family we lived in a cabin that we built ourselves with my dad being brought up in these mountains by my grandfather and his by my great grandfather our family consisted of my stepmother and my two younger siblings i was the oldest of my two siblings i'm currently 21 and own a couple of firearms but back then we hunted with an 1870 antique winchester repeater and a crag jorgensen rifle or better known as the bolt action rifle that was passed down by my grandfather and was used to hunt game back when trapping was a big thing in the states now we use these weapons as a token of our appreciation to our ancestors i also use a standard hunting knife and a crossbow whenever i go hunting we go out hunting often and we haven't seen much this past winter we'd see the occasional bear or the occasional mountain lion but not many deer this season which was odd as they are abundant in these mountains while we were gathering some firewood outside we heard a howl in the distance i've heard these howls before and mostly i assume it to be some coyotes a fox or maybe a lone cougar it was also much colder than normal this night and as we were chopping the firewood my father looked at me with sweat dripping down his face he said how's it going over there chap i responded just fine dad it's a lot colder than normal tonight what do you say we go hunting for games soon the kids are probably hungry yeah i think we should we don't want to keep the family waiting so we went on inside the cabin to gather our weapons i took my winchester repeater and my crossbow and my father took his crag jorgensen rifle and his pump action shotgun we let my stepmom know we were going to go hunting then we set off into the cold wintery night we decided to take a trail that was all too familiar to us to see if we could catch ourselves a big buck or a doe which would be lucky for us i was walking through the snow listening closely to anything that could be lurking in these woods luckily it was a clear night and the moon was full so i could see ahead of me in these mountains we had all sorts of encounters ranging from bison to cougars but this time it felt different the woods were eerily quiet i felt like something was watching me from the tree line all i could hear was the beating of my heartbeat and the sounds of our footsteps in the snow and then we heard it a loud very eerie howl that made my blood go cold i tried to focus on where the sound came from i looked over at my father and even he seemed to be on edge i asked him what do you think that was i don't know son but i think we should keep it quiet and see if we can down a deer for dinner i noticed his hands were trembling but it was a good sight to see that he wanted to keep going so i went along with him you see my dad is fearless and he's quite a strong man from what i know no one would want to mess with him and to see him want to continue our hunt was a good sign i kept on listening closely to the sounds that surrounded us as the forest became alive again soon i heard something to our left and up ahead i saw deer come into the clearing it was a buck with a very nice set of antlers he seemed to have not noticed us yet i quickly but quietly got my crossbow out because i didn't want to frighten the deer i loaded the crossbow took aim at the heart of the big buck and fired i saw it pierce through the skin of the buck as he tried to run away with the arrow stuck to his heart we followed the blood trail to the now injured deer as it was letting out cries of pain i took out my hunting knife and with an act of mercy i put it down after that we heard something to the right of us i looked down into the tree line to see if anything was there and i heard a low deep guttural growl i froze in fear whatever it was sounded intimidating but it was odd as in arkansas the largest animals around here were bison or bears whatever this thing was did not sound like any predator that hunts in the region my dad picked up the carcass of the dead deer and put it on his shoulders he signaled me to follow as we were making our way back to the cabin i kept hearing heavy footsteps follow us every few meters i kept looking around to see if i could catch a glimpse of what it was and then i saw it to the left of me i saw a huge shape moving slowly next to us it was gigantic it looked like a grizzly bear to me but it's odd to see anything this big in these woods i signaled my dad to luck he turned around and saw it as well and said quietly to me stay close to me as long as we stay quiet and move quietly we'll be okay i nodded my head we began to sneak our way back to the cabin we managed to make it back in about 15 minutes both my dad and i were on edge as we moved back to the cabin along the way we heard the occasional growl and howl as it seemed to be taunting us as we moved into the clearing near the cabin i heard a booming set of footsteps behind me i turned around to see the same creature except this time i could see it clearly it did look like a grizzly bear but with horns and eyes glowing a bright crimson blood red my dad and i screamed as we ran back to the cabin we made it just in time to close the door as whatever the creature was hit the door with brute force my dad began to panic placing the deer down and rushing the kids and my stepmother upstairs i kept on hearing this creature scratching at the door and every so often it tried to break the door down it roared so loud my ears began to ring i decided i was going to try to scare it away i went upstairs to my bedroom window opened it up and got my winchester ready i had the massive beast in my sights as i fired at it after i hit it it let out a roar and ran back into the woods with the earth shaking behind its every step everything went quiet again after that i ran downstairs and looked outside to see nothing but large footprints in the snow i opened the door and looked at the damage the creature caused and all i saw were huge scratch marks i then went to the footprints left by the creature and to my surprise there was no blood even though i'm sure i shot it it was only after this event that i discovered the legend of the ozark howler occasionally we do hear its howl at night but my dad and i have learned to respect it i haven't seen the beast to this day but ozark owler let's never meet again the forest from john j i live in a house in oklahoma out in the ozarks in my time here since i moved here in 2005 so me and my wife could live close to her parents i've encountered many things whether it be supernatural or not i've seen flashing lights zip through the sky and heard strange howls during morning hikes just last week when my wife drove to the store in town with our two kids they saw a huge muddy prince on the porch when they got back and when she got inside the dogs were shaken but the scariest encounter i had was when my brother was visiting us from utah he his wife and their three kids stayed for the week it was supposed to be a fun week of hiking hunting and fishing on our vast property our fairly big house was packed with five kids and four adults so it's safe to say outside time was much less stressful for me nothing happened the first three nights but on the fourth things started to feel off when me my brother my son and his eldest son went hunting something felt weird i walked faster and faster until i realized i was jogging slowly and i was ahead of our group everyone asked why i was rushing like that i just responded by saying i uh i don't want to get to the spot too late that's all deep down i knew i was scared of something watching us i swear i could hear breathing outside our own we got to our spot that was perfect for hunting it was on the far side of the property so there were more deer here three hours later and we had nothing it was getting dark and my son and nephew were bored so they began to skip rocks in the creek it was then when we realized the whole time it was very quiet it was so silent it was weird and scary to us my brother made an excuse that we should go home to eat so we began to walk back defeated in front of us as we walked back home we began to hear a crunch in the woods and a yell so loud it couldn't be human it sounded like a screaming girl and a bear mixed into one i tried to tell myself it was just a mountain lion but just then i saw it a large creature ran across the path i fell back in shock the thing had long fur and it was big like a bear with glowing eyes i would have said it was a bear but the horns on it told me otherwise i tried to think of what it was but i mainly saw its face and some of the body we ran home but i kept telling myself it was a ram or something but deep down i knew what i saw was a monster we were almost home when we heard something running behind us along the trail it was so fast we nearly had no time to react we jumped out of the way and my brother tried to take a shot at it i fired at it as well but the creature ran away into the forest we recovered quickly and ran inside the house unaware that everyone else was watching from the back porch after hearing the gunshots we ran inside locking the doors and closing the windows all while trying to explain the situation to everyone in there my youngest niece who was only eight at the time freaked out she ran to her older brothers and my kids together they all huddled up scared my eldest son held his rifle tightly while shaking after a while we all sat at the couch trying to forget by watching some tv and playing board games after dinner but we couldn't think clear we were all just listening for any sudden moves outside our three dogs were also scared out of their minds even the two big ones who stay outside were in here after my daughter protested the idea of them sleeping out there with that monster near us as the evening progressed one by one everyone went to sleep until the adults were the only ones awake played poker and drank coffee until about 11 30 when our dogs went ballistic barking and jumping and running around waking everyone then we heard a crashing sound from the shop outside we all were terrified we grabbed our guns which were at the ready and ran out there my son and nephew were in pursuit behind us we fired towards the shop and then crash it came running out we all fired at it a rain of bullets hitting it yet the creature didn't fall my brother shot at it too he knows he hit the side of it it ran off making noises that sounded like it was running out of air we all froze soon after my wife and sister-in-law called in my son and nephew my brother and i decided to see where the thing had went with our blood pumping we tracked it but the tracks quickly ended at one of the creeks on our property we went back to clean up the shop mess i was beginning to calm down until i saw the mess of my tools all across the floor and the old truck i'd been trying to restore had been dented we cleaned up what we could then we went inside to sleep all the while hearing the howls again that really scared me but the howls were different it sounded hurt and sad soon the howls were more distant i almost felt bad for it but then i remembered that it tried to kill me and my family and it ruined months of work on that old truck the next morning was normal and we didn't mention it that morning i went down the dirt road leading to my neighbors i asked him if he'd heard anything last night he said yeah in a shaky voice he then pointed to a hole in the ground that thing killed my dog we talked for a little while he explained the creature came around nine o'clock and attacked his dog he scared it away with a shotgun but it was too late i went back home once we were done talking to fix up my shop some more and break the news to my daughter that the neighbor's dog who she was fond of had died the next few days were normal i thought of the events of that night less and less and when my brother's family left things went back to normal before i knew it my week off from work was over as the years went by i forgot about the thing more and more until now five years later because my brother is coming to visit again in a few weeks with the family i was happy for a little bit thinking about being with my brother and my son who's coming back from college for winter break and then i was reminded about that night it was years ago but thinking about it gives me chills i guess the upside is that it's going to make a good conversation near the fire when they do get here a haunted high school in the ozarks from j.d a co-worker told me this unforgettable story about his time in high school i'm going to write this from his perspective central high school in springfield missouri is haunted i know what you're thinking every kid says their school is haunted but my story is different i saw it central was actually the first high school in springfield the original brick building with its tower still stands but has now expanded with many new wings we'd all heard the stories about the steam tunnels that connected the buildings and the supposed hangings but far more compelling was the story of the deadly principal who would whip troublesome students to death that would have happened long ago when springfield was a small town and not the queen city of the ozarks we had heard the rumors the stories that were likely exaggerated but being high schoolers we knew we had to do one thing be at the school late at night i was the one who came up with the idea that we needed to join the drama class they were preparing a performance of south pacific and as i explained to my group of friends the way to get in would be to join the class as stagehands stay to clean up after the performance and then just stay and that was what we did well only a couple of us actually got onto the crew but after everyone else had left letting the others in was simple we split up into three pairs myself and sarah rich and paul and michelle and dan we didn't have flashlights and this was before we had cell phones but the moonlight from the windows and the familiarity of the halls allowed us to get around the school very easily after about an hour we began to think perhaps the stories were just stories we began to make our way to the gymnasium we started to compare experiences but everyone said the same thing they hadn't seen anything nor heard anything strange and that's when a chair flew across the gym and slammed into the wall what the heck i gasped before i saw something else swarms of glittering little things crawling across the floor they were cockroaches see cockroaches in the gym on occasion but usually one or two not not hundreds let's get out of here yelled michelle and we hurried to the nearest exit a stairway leading up to the second floor it wasn't until we got upstairs that we realized that going upstairs probably wasn't the best course of action but the cockroaches didn't seem to follow us there as we stood next to a classroom catching our breath we heard loud footsteps down the hall all of us backed up against the wall trying to let whatever this was just pass by as the loud plodding footsteps came nearer our tension grew higher oh screw this rich said and he ran into a classroom sarah following quickly after him the door slammed shut behind them guys i called i almost didn't notice that the footsteps had stopped suddenly we heard them scream and something slammed against the wall and then something else hit it they kept on screaming paul pulled at the door but the handle was stuck finally after a few minutes of them screaming and something hitting the wall it opened we entered the classroom all the desks and chairs were knocked over and some had clearly been hitting the walls how they'd gone that far was a mystery as they were pretty heavy we found sarah crouched in a corner crying and babbling incoherently a puddle of moisture underneath her rich on the other hand was stumbling toward the window get him i called and dan ran towards rich grabbing him let me go just let me jump let me die rich cried guys this is enough i said we need to get out of here michelle and paul helped sarah up and helping dan with rich we made our way back into the hall as we stepped into the hallway all at once all the doors slammed shut then they all opened again and slammed again screw this michelle yelled and she and paul began hurrying down the stairs supporting sarah between them dan ran after them and i pulled rich after me the cockroaches downstairs had seemingly dispersed as we made our way to the nearest exit pushing at the door nothing seemed to happen come on push it michelle yelled and paul dan and i struck the door together forcing it open we pulled sarah and rich outside and as we made our way to the cars we heard the door behind us slammed shut dan helped rich to his car while michelle and paul brought sarah to the car they'd arrived in as for me i ran to my own car as i was about to climb inside i happened to look back at the school looking at the tower there in the top room was a window and very clearly i could see the outline of someone looking out the window directly at us as we made our escape it was then i realized the most horrifying thing of all that we knew there was something in the high school it knew we knew and we had to go back to class on monday encounter with a bear from ladonna steel this happened in 2015 in november we had bought a piece of land in highland arkansas for those of you who don't know arkansas highland is between ash flat and hardy near the missouri border just under there it is extremely rugged and woody with jagged cliffs and hills that would make a billy goat stay ouch well our land hadn't been cleared of trees vines or rocks ever it was as wild as you can get plenty of copperhead snakes too we set up our tent to stay the night and got a good size fire going it was a little chilly as soon as we settled down for the night it got really nice and quiet the partial moon was beautiful just what you camped for i couldn't sleep but my husband was out like a light so i got up and went outside the tent i tinted the fire a bit and whatnot trying to get sleepy enough now i'm a trucker so wild things never scare me unless they're bigger than me i'm five foot two and about 160 pounds strong like stocky strong you have to be strong if you drive a truck and willing to go the extra mile if you have to about 1 30 in the morning i hear something coming through the knee high leaves something big humans sound different when they walk through leaves so do deer but this was large and bulky and it didn't care if you heard it or not now me and hubby had only brought a 22 long rifle with us we hadn't taken into account that we might run into a predator able to kill us way too much city living this thing is completely black and moving like it has no cares in the world it could see me but i couldn't see it fully fire is a great thing sometimes what i mean by that is you can't see anything past the glow of the fire it's like a wall of light and you're blind it moves past me to my right at exactly 25 feet out just out of reach of my small crappy flashlight dang it i think to myself as i'm wanting that spotlight we left at the house i didn't think we would need something you could flag a 747 down with i have an iron rod i was stirring the fire with in one hand the crappy flashlight in the other turning to face the invisible stalker as it circles to the rear of our tent i walk to the sound of its feet going through the leaves i'm trying to stay away enough to be able to fight it if i had to i still don't have a clue what it is my flashlight beam lands on its eye shine great blue eyes i know from hunting deer they have red eye shine and most animals have a red or yellow eye shine one hundred percent of the time blue means cows or horses or bears now this eye shine was a brilliant beautiful blue so i run at it saying ha ha and as deep a voice as i can muster just a step or two stomping it then stands up on its back two legs and i kid you not it sniffs me now real fear is kicking in like a mother i now know exactly what it is and we only have a 22. shaking i stand my ground letting it know i will not back down it walks off into the fallen trees and brush where i have no hope of seeing it for the rest of the night that's right it stayed out of sight but it stayed there making sounds like sniffing and grunting all night until it was almost done i guess that's the best i've been scared of any animal on earth i think all he wanted was the hamburgers we bought as fast food is a weakness of most bears i thank god he didn't want those stupid things enough to maul me to death do not bring food on overnights in the ozarks people it ain't worth your life the following story is from an episode from last year titled 5 scary stories to fall asleep to it matches this theme so i've decided to add it they told me they'd leave you alone from pity k they told me they'd leave you alone i remembered this story when i was driving home late the other night and just thinking about it really creeped me out this didn't happen to me but i did hear it from my ex-girlfriend's grandma years ago about a friend of hers we'll call her grandma grandma zee zee worked as a therapeutic masseuse at a spa and a nice little town in northwest arkansas to give you a bit of an idea of what kind of person z was she lived in a little stone cottage with a shrine to a hindu holy man as its centerpiece and she carried pipe tobacco in her volvo to sprinkle on roadkill now she claimed it was a native american ritual to help vary the animal spirit into the next life or something along those lines she was a nice enough woman but obviously a bit eccentric that being said she seemed sincere and a little more than creeped out when she told us her story another masseuse that zee was close to at the spa i'll call her m arrived at work one day in the middle of the week in a haggard state em was a young woman in her early thirties she was friendly and most of the time she had a bubbly personality but on that day she was aloof downcast and had bags under her eyes zee noticed this the moment she walked in the door but with work to do she waited for a better time to ask him if everything was okay when lunch came around zee approached her friend and asked what was wrong m brushed it off initially saying that nothing was wrong that she was simply tired but zee persisted em began to tear up then and started to sob zee embraced her and told her it was going to be all right that she could share what was on her mind if she needed to em's sob subsided a little and she began to speak but then stopped what she had to say she told z was too crazy and z would never believe her zee told him that she'd be surprised at what she may or may not find believable so em composed herself a bit and then began her story em her husband and young son lived in a house about 20 miles outside of town the house and the property were beautiful essentially the couple's dream home it included plenty of acreage nestled in a valley in the ozark mountains and the house had a huge picture window in the living room overlooking the valley and the forested mountains beyond the night before she'd awakened around three o'clock am nothing had startled her awake no nightmares no having to pee but but something had definitely awakened her something that she wasn't aware of just yet she lay in bed in the dark for a while listening in the silence trying to go back to sleep but she couldn't she then carefully rolled out of the bed trying not to wake her husband and then she made her way through the dark house to the kitchen for a snack as she walked through the lightless living room she looked out of the picture window and froze there was something standing on the deck just outside a small silhouette outlined in starlight she studied the shape in wide-eyed fear as it stood motionless on the deck overlooking the valley it seemed to be looking up her shock turned to concern and confusion when she realized what the figure was it was her eight-year-old son she quickly flung the sliding door to the deck open and wrapped the boy in her arms asking are you okay honey what's wrong what are you doing out here i'm i'm looking at the lights he said then he pointed out into the clear night sky she followed the direction of his finger and saw several orbs of soft red blue and orange lights hovering over the valley they were like bright stars at first but then they moved slowly deliberately into a formation first a line and then a cross and then a diamond and finally something that resembled the big dipper there was nothing natural about their movement they could not be shooting stars or aircraft they weren't moving like that it was like they were some sort of signal almost as if they were communicating with something or someone im released her son from her arms and stood up hypnotized staring at the lights too as they changed formations and pulsated from dim to bright and back to dim again her son tugged on the hem of her night shirt and said that he was cold she broke her trance and took her son quickly by the shoulder leading him inside impatiently she slid the door closed behind her and locked it doing her best not to look back out over the valley she closed the blinds in the big window in the living room and ushered her son into her bedroom to sleep with her and her husband with the lights on em stopped talking and looked up at sea who looked back at her with eyes widened in amazement she began to sob again do you want to hear the really crazy part the reason why this is so so scary zee's mouth hung open as she thought about how to respond before she could reply m continued her father was a physicist who'd worked at a government lab in new mexico he was never able to tell her what exactly he did for reasons of national security so to say while working in the southwest he'd fallen in love with the region's harsh but beautiful mountains and desert landscapes after divorcing em's mother and retiring early with a handsome government pension he bought a small ranch in arizona in the summertime em then a young girl would stay with her father at his ranch it was a very remote property part of its allure for him it was in the foothills of some mountains in the desert but it had access to a water source and there was a small pond back behind the ranch house overgrown with tall cattails early in the afternoon one summer day em's father left the ranch to run some errands in the nearest town it was a brutally hot day and em did not want to ride in the stifling hot truck so she begged her father to let her stay so she could swim in the pond reluctantly he agreed once her father had left em put on her bathing suit and made her way down a small path of hot rocks and sand to the pond behind the house the sky was almost impossibly blue in the clear torturous arizona summer heat a slight breeze rustled the reeds and scrub brush but it was otherwise silent as if all the animal life had perished or gone underground to escape the relentless desert heat as im rounded the bank of cattails that obscured the pond from the house she froze at an unexpected encounter three tall beings were standing on the opposite side of the pond they were all identical and stood facing her as she came into view as if as if they'd been waiting for her em couldn't move whether that was from pure fear or something else she couldn't tell all she could do was stare in horror and disbelief at these things they stood about seven feet tall each one completely indistinguishable from the other as if they were clones or triplets or mirrored images of each other they were vaguely humanoid two unusually long and skinny arms that ended in spindly hands with long fingers two long and thin legs slender elongated torsos and skinnier necks their heads were long but proportional to the height and build of these things whatever they were they had ruddy tan and completely hairless skin and wore what seemed to be blue skin-tight jumpsuits but the strangest and most awful aspect of these things were their faces they were completely featureless save for the eyes no mouth no ears no nose just two somehow human looking but somehow not human looking eyes sat into the blank tanned plane of their faces staring dispassionately and emotionlessly at him she blinked once and soon found herself lying on the floor of her father's living room right on her back she was wrapped in the towel she'd taken with her to the pond as if she'd been swaddled in it the sun had gotten significantly lower in the sky she could tell by the way it slanted in through the yellow blinds of the windows at a long angle she set up confused and beginning to panic she heard the ticking of the old grandfather clock and looked over at it the time read 5 pm she'd somehow lost to nearly 3 hours of time how how's that possible how had she even gotten back to the house just as strangely she was completely dry not a bead of sweat had gathered on her even though her father's house lacked air conditioning and was sickly hot her father arrived not long afterward pulling his truck down the long driveway of the ranch when he entered the house with his sack of groceries he found him in a state of distress she told him in a panicked frenzy what she'd seen what had happened to her at the pond how she'd somehow lost three hours of her life the old physicist stared coldly into the distance waiting for his daughter to finish the story then told her but they told me they'd leave you alone em was shaking and began to cry again zee held her and she buried her face in zee's arms that's why i'm afraid she said i'm afraid that they came back for my son no matter how much i wish it wasn't this story is completely true i wasn't drunk and i wasn't high on any drugs neither was my friend but i fear his state of mind might have been permanently altered due to his experience with these beings secondly i like to consider myself a rational thinking type of person with years of experience hunting and hiking around my hometown in wyoming i've seen all kinds of fauna and flora so i didn't confuse what i saw for something entirely different it all started when i went to a friend's house to celebrate his birthday he was turning 18 and i was already 18 myself his uncle a man more native to the land than myself was 27. let's call this friend james i finally got to his house at about 4 pm that night it was january 25th since he effectively lived in the middle of nowhere and at the foothills of the rockies i was keen on bringing something with me in case i ran into some trouble like a bear or something of the like so i brought along with me a 357 magnum and some binoculars in case my friend wanted to try and hunt some coyotes with this 223 rival we started doing our normal routine for most of the day playing games on his computer watching some tv and just chilling out and talking about school his parents were away on a business trip to a nearby town so they left james and his uncle the house to themselves the thing that james loved the most in the world was easily his dogs he had two chocolate labs and a golden retriever the retriever was actually fairly old this being wyoming and people not really giving a hoot the dogs were left out all day they came and went as they pleased back to his house sometime around 8 or 9 p.m we heard his dogs begin barking at something off in the distance at this point the sun was long gone but the full moon gave an amazing amount of light i looked through the nearby window in the direction of the dogs barking even with the moon shining against the snow i could not see anything up to the tree line that was nearly a mile away there's nothing there i said are you sure they don't even bark at deer anymore james whispered to me the whole situation was weird fast forward an hour and his dogs have not been heard or seen since the barking started his uncle was buzzed and watching something on their huge tv james was beginning to worry that something happened to his dogs now wolves can still be dangerous in the rockies and they have no problem taking down a random dog that wanders into the woods this is the moment where i started to get anxious partly because he wanted to get his dog back and partly because wolves sometimes kill sheep or even cows so if they were desperate i'm sure they would have no problem with us even still those dogs were his family so we grabbed our guns and we headed outside we were armed with heavy clothing as well as my 357 the binoculars and his 223 rifle we braced ourselves and we headed out into the wyoming winter with temperatures 20 below freezing going the direction of where we last saw his dogs the whole time we walked toward the tree line my veins were being flooded with adrenaline the same feeling i got every time i hunted but tonight we definitely weren't hunters we were about 300 yards away from the tree line when james suddenly stopped with my eyes trained on the ground and looking for signs of an animal i almost ran into him he just stared at the tree line he kept whispering for me to look at the trees slowly he raised his left index finger towards the foothills of the mountains as soon as he knew i was looking towards the trees he readied his rifle and pointed it towards them i noticed at this point that his breathing was extremely rapid and raspy like he just witnessed a fatal car crash right in front of him at that point i honestly didn't know what he was talking about i scanned the tree line over and over i crouched down to sit on the snow i used the binoculars towards where he pointed it took me about 30 seconds but eventually i saw what scared the hell out of him there was something out there and it wasn't human and it wasn't his dogs something on four legs came out from behind a tree at the edge of the forest it must have been about three feet tall at the shoulder of course at first i assumed it was a wolf or maybe even a small bear a few seconds later several more of these things came out of the woods i didn't pause to try and count them but there was at least six or seven and who knows how many more were hiding in the trees still we watched them slowly walk out of the trees for several minutes these animals seemed strangely cautious or slow for whatever reason maybe they were scared of people then they eventually stopped as a howl from a dog or wolf came out from behind us it was far enough away for us to not worry about it but close enough were the unknown animals out there to hear the howl as well i looked back through the binoculars and could almost make out the general texture of these creatures they were now about 275 yards away they looked pale and thin they still appeared to be something like wolves or even large dogs but my heart began to race when i saw what they did next these things whatever they were picked up their pace fast reaching speeds of what looked like 15 to 20 miles per hour judging from how fast they closed their distance to the direction of the howl and coincidentally this was almost right at us after a minute or so james lost it and tried to get up to run away i grabbed him and threw him on the ground as he started to run but this caught the attention of the beasts and they stopped james and i frozen with fear sat down in the snow weapons ready i almost lost it as well when i noticed that the eyes of these things reflected the moonlight they were orange in color they didn't really glow like in some stories of cryptids they were more piercing we stared at them and they stared back at us for what seemed like hours until one of these creatures stood up on its back legs at this moment all of my knowledge on hunting and animals was meaningless i knew that some animals could stand up on their back legs but they could never do it very long i audibly counted to see how long it stayed like that 5 seconds 10 15. then james screamed and pointed as 223 to the right i looked in his direction and i saw a creature on the left side of the group begin to get up and it ran away from the pack dumbfounded i turned my attention to the rest of them and i told james to keep watching the one that ran away i do a quick count of the ones that remained the ones that were staring us down there were only four my heart pounded out of my chest there was no way we could have lost something so large on these planes they're completely flat and covered in snow i looked to our left and then i saw it it was crouched down and trying not to be seen i realized how smart these things were much smarter than i would have ever expected these things they were flanking us i whispered to james my suspicions of what's going on and he had the same thought i made up a quick plan in my head and i relay it to james our best course of action i told him to start backing away slowly but to always maintain eye contact as soon as i finished telling him my idea i do another quick count now only three pairs of orange eyes another one went somewhere the one that first stood was starting to walk towards us i helped james up and i told him to keep an eye on our right side while i looked to the left we backed away but these beasts walked with us maintaining their distance the whole time eventually we were only about 100 yards from his house before we turned and ran to his front door we booked it towards his porch lights no longer caring to be coy about the situation foolishly i stopped 50 feet short of the porch and i turned around maybe it was curiosity i don't know but i regretted it the moment i did it my body seized up the moment i saw it those creatures stopped as soon as i made eye contact with the creatures ever so slightly illuminated by the porch lights i realized that these things seemed otherworldly they were tall probably six or seven feet and they were insanely thin and lanky almost like a basketball player they were so pale and they stared right back with these intense orange eyes from before i just looked back less afraid but more curious and a few seconds later james screamed what are you doing i pulled myself out of the weird trance i found myself in and i sprinted towards his house i jumped inside and bolted the door all while his drunk uncle swore at us for making too much noise i looked out of the windows with my gun in hand but i didn't see a thing nothing but fresh tracks i pulled the curtains back where they were and we heard the strangest noise anything other than a person i've ever heard it sounded like a dog's howl but it repeated almost like it was coming from asian mom gibbon in repeated pulses in different pitches and tones the uncle looked like he instantly sobered up after hearing it and he started locking all the doors and windows in the house to our surprise all of james's dogs were back but they were very frightened and confused cowering in a corner we watched through the windows for almost the entire night until i eventually needed to fall asleep but we never had any other problems since whatever these things were they were fast they were smart and they were nothing i've ever seen before it looked like some strange dog man straight from tribal legend i'm not a superstitious type of guy but i hope it was somehow just a really elaborate dream even if my friend and his uncle can recall the night too this story was submitted by ghost train 87 enjoy [Music] in the blue ridge mountains of western north carolina the bostian bridge train wreck occurred on august 27 1891 just west of statesville the accident took the lives of 24 people making it one of the worst railroad disasters in north carolina history richmond and danville r d engine number nine left statesville at approximately 2 30 a.m bound for the resort mountain town of asheville pulling six passenger cars a baggage car a second class car two first class coaches a pullman sleeper and the private passenger car of the richmond and danville superintendent according to the station agents engineer william west was 34 minutes late and left statesville in a hurry obviously intending to make up lost time less than five minutes after leaving statesville the train plunged off bostian bridge a 70 feet high five-span brick tower bridge crossing third creek because of its speed which would later be estimated at 40 to 45 miles per hour by the coroner's jury the train was literally airborne when it derailed the sleeping car hit the ground 157 feet from where it left the bridge several battered survivors walked back to statesville to announce the disaster and all normal activity ceased that day as the town immersed itself in the rescue effort the injured were transported to statesville which had no hospital and placed in private homes as for the dead they were taken to a tobacco warehouse to be later identified once the rescue effort ended the wreck site became a magnet for the curious thousands of people arrived to stare off the bridge at the rack or to prowl among the debris looking for valuables of the passengers photographers william stimson of statesville and a mr van ness of charlotte took pictures and according to the statesville paper the landmark they sold hundreds of photos in the coming weeks a new story of the wreck soon featured a van ness photograph specifically frank leslie's weekly illustrated newspaper the police gazette of boston carried a story illustrated with what the landmark called one of its loud imaginary pictures four days after the incident a coroner's inquest concluded that it was caused by unknown persons removing spikes from the rails though some blamed the track's neglected condition and as much as the richmond and danville was experiencing financial troubles officials fearing huge damage suits worked feverishly to find the alleged train wreckers for months railroad detectives swarmed over the area several people were detained and questioned but eventually released later that year two men already in the state penitentiary in raleigh were convicted of causing the tragedy on the strength of their supposed confessions to other inmates fifty years later very early in the morning of august 27 1941 a woman was waiting along the road that ran beside the railroad tracks near statesville her husband had gone to get help after their car had a flat tire the woman heard a train whistle in the distance a headlight appeared down the track sweeping through the trees as the engine approached the woman noticed the huge bridge in front of the train as the engine began to cross it she heard a horrible crash she saw the train plunge off the bridge its old fashioned wooden passenger cars splintering into pieces they piled into a jagged mound below the woman could hear the screams and groans of the wounded people she ran across the road through a field to the side of the creek up close the site was even more horrendous the steam locomotive it's tender the car attached to the engine carrying its water and coal and passenger cars formed a mangled mess of wreckage being flooded by the waters of third creek hearing a car pull up on the road behind her the woman ran back across the field screaming that a terrible train wreck had happened her husband was in the car with a stranger the man who owned the country store just down the road the three of them headed back across the field and looked down into the quiet waters of third creek the wreck was no longer there of course the men thought that the woman had fallen asleep and dreamt the whole thing up but when they continued their trip she made her husband stop by the statesville train station to find out if there had been a wreck there when the couple asked at the ticket window the stationed agent looked up from his work bunny you should ask he said there was no wreck on the railroad last night but 50 years ago today there was a horrible wreck out there at bostian's bridge as he said this the woman screamed and fainted she knew she had seen a ghost train on august 27 2010 a group of 12 individuals who considered themselves amateur ghost hunters gathered at bostian's bridge hoping to catch a glimpse of the ghost train unfortunately for them a real train came down the tracks at about 2 45 am the same time they anticipated a sighting of the ghost train the group did not immediately run from it initially believing it was in fact a phantom train christopher kaiser 29 who had ventured onto the bridge itself died at the scene after he was struck by the locomotive and two others were injured and airlifted to a local trauma center the train engineer tried to stop the train and warn the people on the bridge before they were forced to jump from it a sad ending to an ongoing legend [Music] you

Channel: Darkness Prevails

Views: 82,564

Rating: 4.8901715 out of 5

Keywords: mountain monsters, mountain stories, mountain horror stories, scary mountain stories, mountain range, appalachian trail, appalachian mountains, rocky mountains, appalachian trail stories, appalachian mountain stories, rocky mountain stories, national park stories, national forest stories, national forest, national park, scary stories, horror stories, true stories, ghost stories, cryptid stories, creepy stories, true scary stories, true horror stories, missing 411, creepy

Id: XCLUKwoJnyo

Length: 301min 9sec (18069 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021