5 DISTURBING Things Seen in National Forests

[Music] forest reserves national parks public forests and land protected by the government all these places are the setting for today's episode lovely places all places that people believe are worth protecting but within their unkempt vastness and rolling emerald waves dark things lurk things that a weary mind constructs at the far reaches of sleep ancient things that urge humans to psychosis or stalk under moonlit paths for fresh meat what you are about to hear are allegedly true and terrifying national forest stories if you have a scary story of your own share it with us at darkstories.org i'm looking for stories about creepy things that happened at sleepovers and rest stops now let's begin warning the following story contains depictions of animal harm michigan mothman from syriza do you ever feel like you're being watched it can happen when you're alone or with others you feel this indescribable primal emotion sort of like a mental itch it just tells you you're being stalked by something this is how i felt on the drive to huron manistee national forest for those unfamiliar it's a beautiful and massive park that's bordered almost entirely by lake michigan i've many fond memories of my experiences here but the story i'm about to share falls into a different category i was with my girlfriend of about six months at the time we'll call her diane she was driving as we pulled off the interstate and neared the smaller roads that led into the designated camping area of the park originally we planned to set up our campsite in the aforementioned spot but upon arrival we noticed how crowded it was after a bit of deliberating we opted to grab our camping gear which was only a minimalist tent a few days worth of food and some bottled water then we hiked a mile or so inland away from where the other campers were situated after all we came out here to have some intimacy and being surrounded by strangers cracking beers and partying did not fit the bill it was around six o'clock when we finally arrived at a suitable campground it was a clearing just up a small hill about 15 meters in diameter surrounded by thick woods on every side including where we entered from we first heard it as we were setting up the tent a thick deliberate scream [Music] [Applause] reminiscent of an animal and a great deal of pain it'd rang out across the clearing what the heck diane muttered the sound ended as abruptly as it started and almost as if in a cartoon a flock of birds in the trees overhead took off all flying back the direction we had come from what was that i asked a barely noticeable quiver in my voice i don't know maybe a deer or something after giving her theory diane continued to pitch the tent and i did too though i found the sound hard to shake off after the tent was set up diane suggested we'd better hurry and get some firewood as we weren't at the designated camping ground there was no existing fire pit i remember saying that i thought i saw good material just outside the clearing on our way in when a strange noise came from overhead it was gone in an instant it sounded like a very large bird swooping just over where our tent was we both heard it and immediately looked up and around the area though we couldn't see the thing that made the sound whatever kind of bird it was we didn't know all we could tell was that it was fast and big fast forward a few hours and the sun was setting after a rather grueling wood hall we were able to get a proper fire going and we were stereotypically toasting marshmallows over the flame while casually flirting and telling ghost stories as i bit into my charred sweet we heard the scream again [Applause] [Music] this time it was a lot closer the noise rang out in a way that made my ears throb and i had to cover them with my hands it lasted longer this time too going about four or five seconds diane stood up what is that she yelled as of trying to ask whatever made the scream though the sound was unnerving i was more annoyed than scared at that point a real a-hole of a deer i said and we both laughed i swear if it does that while i'm sleeping i'm just gonna scream back our jokes dissolved the tension pretty quickly and we went back to toasting marshmallows watching the sky dissolve from purple into a deep ocean blue the rest of that night was uneventful until we went to sleep sometime around 12 or 1 in the morning i woke up to a loud thud outside as if something heavy had been dropped what was that diane was still groggy so i jostled her with my arm diane wake up i think something's outside what what do you mean an animal or something she just continued to lie there so i said something to get her attention diane i'm scared she sat up in the tent and i could see with my phone flashlight that she was very tired okay you want me to go look i guess without complaining she got up out of the sleeping bag taking with her my phone and exited the tent hello anything out there she called jokingly as she shined her flashlight around the clearing i watched her from the tent as she walked into the center of it illuminating the area with the phone then near the edge of the clearing she spotted something whoa hey see come here i squinted realizing i could barely see and reached back to grab my glasses before getting out of the tent and walking over to her this might sound strange but the air felt heavy like it does before a thunderstorm there was also this faint smell of copper it grew stronger as i went over to her looking where she was shining the light i saw what appeared to be a young fawn at first i thought it was sleeping completely unaware of us until i saw the markings on its back deep into its fur and flesh there were these gouges about two feet apart that were darkened obviously soaked with blood it looked as if the deer had been picked up by some sort of predatory bird i found this confusing as i couldn't think of a bird of prey able to lift an animal that easily weighed fifty pounds into the air even stranger though was the fact that the only markings on the animal were on its back there were no other wounds so whatever had done this to the deer did not feed off of it at all it just killed it and left babe i really don't like this diane wrapped her arm around me pulling me towards her i know i know let's get back to the tent we'll get out of here as soon as the sun comes up i nodded slowly and we both began walking back to our tent a few footfalls later we heard the sound of a twig snapping diane shined the flashlight behind us revealing nothing at first she scanned the tree line into my horror we saw something directly in front of us maybe twenty feet away was a large humanoid figure it glared at us and whether that was due to the flashlight or it was simply this thing's natural disposition i don't know its eyes appeared to be bright red glowing orbs i was horrified if i had to guess i'd say that thing was between eight and ten feet tall it was feathered in a deep grey coat it stood staring at us it didn't seem to have a separate head but rather its eyes were just plastered to the top of its body like an owl with its head pulled inward both me and my partner were stunned as we looked onto the thing it was then that it extended its arms or wings revealing a very wide span that seemed to flow from the entirety of its body much like a moth without warning it screamed at us the sound unbearable thick heavy and blood curdling like a fire alarm amplified by a hundred i collapsed to the forest floor clutching my ears as diane held me the last thing i remember was her saying my name as my vision faded to black when i awoke i was in the back of our car i was surprised and i sat straight up diane spotted me in the rear-view mirror i'm glad you're awake she spoke i noticed my ears were ringing a great deal i clutched my head in pain what the heck happened i grew pale in the face now remembering the creature she kept her eyes on the road as she spoke that thing it took off almost as soon as you blacked out i felt like a jet it was crazy i took you back to the tent and waited until dawn before i booked it you mean you carried me all that way well i tried to wake you up a few times but you are out cold it wasn't too bad anyway but i had to leave the tent i sighed before nodding slowly money will never get back i paused and thank you for protecting me i saw her smile in the rearview mirror without another word to this day we're still together as strange as it is that events seem to bring us closer we talk about it often using it as an anecdote when friends come over it's a healthy way to process an ordeal like that we've been living together for some time now and i see marriage as a very realistic future for us as for the creature itself i'm still unsure what it was based on its behavior and its striking physical form i'd wager a guess that we encountered the mothman a humanoid cryptid that's said to have the body of a moth with glowing red eyes according to folklore it's commonly seen as an omen before a major disaster i still think about that night often honestly i don't know if i'd be alive right now to write this story if it wasn't for diane but please stay safe when you're out in the woods you can never be sure what you'll see out there black-eyed kid of kennesaw mountain from hiram this encounter took place in the fall of 2016. the youngest child of a close family friend was turning 16 and had requested that my brother and i take him camping for the weekend to celebrate we were delighted to do so so our family packed our things and we drove from florida to georgia to visit and celebrate with our dearly missed friends the trip started as any other it was the birthday boy jay his two brothers cal and ken my own brother and myself we spent the day exploring a nearby civil war battlefield during the day with our families then set about making camp nearby when evening came we had a fire cooked hot dogs and s'mores cut up and shot the breeze with the young boys everyone went to bed close to midnight bellies full and snuggled up in sleeping bags against the late autumn chill i awoke at 3am in a full panic my chest was tight and i was gasping there was a fading echo in the night air around me as though i caught the tail end of some sort of commotion that had awakened me i settled myself down and regulated my breathing confused as to why i had come to like that i wasn't having a nightmare or anything beforehand i heard a stirring from the big tent that my brother and the three boys were staying in their tent was a 12-person three-room monstrosity it had a box fan rope lights and a card table set up inside my tiny a-frame looked quite comical next to it i listened closely and heard soft whimpering from one of the boys i exited my tent into the frigid night air to find my brother already up tending to cal who was in the midst of a mild asthma attack my brother took cal and jay to the truck they loaded in to make the 20-minute drive back to the house to pick up cal's inhaler that left myself and ken who was still fast asleep in the big tent i decided i was too wired to go back to sleep so i stoked the fire until the flames were licking the air once more my mind wandered back to the intensity of when i woke up and i pondered the echoing cry i had heard then it happened a caterwaul pierced the night air terrifying and inhuman the sound of it petrifying i sat next to the fire wide-eyed as i stared into the darkness before me as the whale faded into the same echo i'd awoken to earlier i forced myself to take shuddering breaths then i stood up retrieving my maglite led from the tent i shined it towards where i thought the cry had come from there was a steep drop off onto a deep ravine about 50 yards away from us the call had not come from down there the echo was not right i had heard creaking of branches and the rustle of leaves from somewhere above in the canopy of pine trees that stood as silent centuries around us it was at this moment that i noticed how quiet it was winter nights here were usually pretty quiet but now a sense of dread and foreboding weighed heavily in the air i raised the beam of my light towards the top of the trees the mini sun of white light pushing back the shadows that bathed the night nothing was up there i let my breath out in a large puff and turned back towards the camp when a soft voice came from the darkness behind me please can you help me the soft voice of a terrified child floated from the shadows my skin immediately began to crawl as a sense of danger prickled down my spine i quickly swept the light around me searching for the source of the voice please please can you help me the child whimpered again the voice urgent but barely audible i glanced around the campground it was sparsely populated but we certainly were not the only ones here my mind raced with possibilities most of them bad as i wondered why no one else had been awakened by the wailing the cry of this child's voice their call for help help me it's so cold ken wake up i hissed at the older boy i was met with snoring i shook the tint harder lightly kicking the lump that was his body which was pushed against the side of the tent no luck help me why won't you help me i stood in a mixture of indecision and panic the heavy air pressed down on me as i struggled to control my fear i had to help i was in my early twenties and if there really was a hurt child out there they might succumb to hypothermia if i did not act apparently i was the only person on the whole darned mountain that was awake for this the horrible scream resounded again this time from the same direction of the child's voice i heard the violent rustling of branches echoing in the deathly quiet of the night ahead of me as the child sobbing grew more wild i'm coming i yelled out i dove into my tent and grabbed my pistol clipping the holster onto my belt before sprinting headlong into the treeline behind our camp the beam of my flashlight bounced wildly as i ran legs and heart pumping towards the sound of a crying child and the wailing of a monster i broke through the trees and emerged onto the opposite side of the trail loop that all the campsites ran along i stopped on the trail and caught my breath the woods silent again kid i shouted as i swept my light around me i caught a glimpse of something red in front of me a few hundred feet into the woods and obscured by brush i pushed my way into the thicket until i could see him a small boy he stood alone before me he had brown hair and was barefoot wearing red long-sleeve pajamas his head faced down eyes squeezed shut i could see that his lips were already turning blue i slowly made my way towards him keeping the beam of my light on him as my eyes darted above and around me i half expected some eldritch horror to pop out at any moment and tear us to shreds hey kid are you okay i called over the boy raised his hand to block the beam of my light from shining in his eyes he asked can you help me i made it to the boy and i shrugged off my jacket draping it over his shoulders what happened i asked him i wanted to use the bathroom but i got lost on the way back then i heard that noise and it scared me and then i saw your flashlight he trailed off turning his head away from me so you called out for help he nodded i beckoned him to follow me and we made it back to the trail okay do you know which way you came from i asked then the boy did something odd he stepped out in front of me and began to sniff in deeply turning his head to the left then to the right this way he sat flatly and turned right to follow the trail he walked briskly i trailed him by a few paces my confusion growing as we passed the campsites his stride would slow and i could hear him sniffing faintly anything looking familiar yet i asked nervously but he ignored me continuing to walk we made it completely around the loop before he finally stopped at a site that was only two down from ours the sight between us was unoccupied there was a large tent like the one my brother brought and a large white passenger van he breathed in deeply through his nose his head tilting back slightly as he released it this is it he strode to the tent without another word leaving me dumbfounded on the trail hey wait my jacket i called after him he paused halfway through unzipping his tent fixing me with a gaze that i will never forget and still haunts me the boy's face was partially illuminated by the beam of my light his eyes completely black his face was milky white with deep blue coloring around his lips the boy he looked like a corpse i stared at him slack-jawed as he slipped into the tent and zipped it closed his eyes never leaving mine until he was out of sight silence i stood a moment longer my brain trying to reason what i had just seen it had whip in a shadow or some optical anomaly i shivered and i turned to walk the short walk back to my sight planning to go check in the morning and get my jacket back then and maybe a thank you my brother and the two boys got back about 15 minutes later they found me next to the fire again having re-stoked it they asked why i was still awake so i told them all that had come to pass during the 40 minutes they were gone after i was done i got a few mutterings of wow that's crazy before everyone dismissed it and went to bed i returned to my tent and spent the rest of the night restlessly tossing and turning dawn broke i was out of my tent once more getting the skillet and breakfast foods out of the cooler in the back of the truck i started the fire and began to cook as i worked i kept an eye on the campsite i'd left the boy at the night before but no one stirred i finished the meal and turned to set the picnic table up for breakfast when i froze my jacket rested at the top of the table neatly folded i kept my eye on the side the rest of the morning up until we packed up and left i never saw anyone emerge from the tent or walk around the site to this day that night haunts me i kept up with the news for a while after that night often asking my friends if anyone had gone missing or had died that night but nothing ever came up i guess i may never know [Music] the silence of paradise from shiv age when we were seven mama took my cousin elle and i over to hounslow heath for our usual adventures that were common in the summer holidays instead of the regular route we used to love collecting feathers and other natural things that we found to make collages with or picking fat juicy blackberries off of bushes for our gran to make pies with mom took us to one of her old haunts as a child called paradise paradise was thought to have been the location of either an old coaching inn or a powder mill and was just a very stark bare massive open field with skeletal remains of ancient looking stones and wood buildings and very old tree stumps scattered throughout the field over the years paradise had fallen victim to random attacks of arson and the local council burning the field to keep it from becoming overgrown and unmanageable so the appearance of paradise was more desolate and bleak due to the burnt stubbles of grass and charred tree stumps along with the still strong and slightly sickly smell of smoke in the air especially when the wind picked up the obvious differences between the otherwise lush and green area around paradise and paradise itself was clear to elle and i immediately we settle out at the same time the burnt place i felt uneasy straight away and looking at l i could tell she did too when you grow up with someone you know how they feel about certain things i was in my wheelchair investigating the ground around me and dell was a little distance away from mama who was looking at something else suddenly elle looked up at me and said shiv can you hear anything i was suddenly struck with the deathly silence of the immediate area normally the heath was alive with the comforting sound of birds insects and small animals it should have been like a constant soundtrack to our play but there was not a sound nor come to mention of it was there any evidence of any living thing around us in fact i can't remember seeing any animals or birds since we got to paradise i brought this up to elle and we both looked up at the sky before continuing to investigate the burnt ground looking carefully i came to the awful realization that the ground was scattered with small animal skeletons and skulls and bones all charred littering the dirt left over from years of fires al and i looked at each other and said once again at the same time can we please go mama looked at us both and laughed what's wrong with you two we told her about the unearthly silence and the small animal skeletons mom just explained that it was only to be expected from a dead area but she didn't say much about the silence she just listened and said okay let's go back [Music] when we got home we told our gran about it and we talked all night now that we're adults elle has got her own children sometimes they ask about our childhood and sometimes we tell them spooky or funny stories but anytime we both mention paradise it's always with unease the old water house from shiv h over the heath there was an ancient crumbling water house where the entire estate's water system was managed believe me we thought it was a miracle how anything that old and minky could keep and pump out any water but it did it was made with bricks with a black slate roof and iron doors although at the time of this incident it was just a shadow of its former south it didn't have any doors the windows were all smashed by generations of kids throwing rocks and stones it was there when my mama and her siblings were kids and played over the heath they said it spooked them and their mates just as it did us it was a really hot day one summer in the school holidays the older boys were at home for some reason and all the younger cousins me included were being little brats so the boys said they would take us all blackberry picking to keep us quiet mama agreed gratefully the boys were really responsible and mature at 16 17 and 18. they babysat for us younger kids all the time so we all knew the rules of staying close to the boys and doing what they told us and so half an hour later everyone had their fruit buckets and we were off there were five younger kids we were all really excited as blackberry picking was a great family favorite activity and our gran's blackberry pies were the best gran's house led directly onto the back of the heath there was a fence with the gap at the end one of my older cousins passed me through to the other end then lifted my tiny wheelchair over the fence the other kids were through in seconds and we were on our way again on the way to our destination the older boys would tell us spooky stories half because they liked scaring us and half because we all used to beg them to there was nothing more terrifying than a story from my cousins h or b they were the masters at it and they made it so believable we loved it but we all stopped talking when we came to the waterhouse no one ever dared to speak around or near the waterhouse not even the older boys for something so mundane it always looked and still does look so eerie there was a second fence to get through before we made it to our beloved blackberry field but this time as we squeezed through the gap of the fence we were all the more somber as we remembered an old wives tale or urban legend that we all knew about the waterhouse the legend goes once in the early 1960s there was a gang of bank robbers they were local to the area and were really nasty pieces of work their expertise was terrorizing bank customers and staff alike before grabbing and shooting anything that moved they did several jobs without getting caught but they really messed up a particular job and a sweet 19 year old trainee bank clerk was shot dead and five more people were seriously injured one of the gang was also shot dead along with the nastiest member of the gang being seriously wounded in the crossfire it's said that the remaining gang members escaped with just a few hundred and made their way over to the heath they hid out in the waterhouse the waterhouse at the time was more newish and was a perfect hideaway for the murderers there was a lot of contention and stress among the remaining gang the bodies of all three of the remaining gang members were discovered rotting away in the waterhouse six months later it was never proven how they died a few years after that the weird stuff and creepy noises started to occur near and around the waterhouse mysterious hairy figures were glimpsed moving stealthily amongst the pipes and wires a dank moldy rotten smell like aging river weeds was always smelled around the area of the waterhouse and eerie whales and menacing murmurs could be heard day and night in the late 70s there was a spur of mysterious deaths of homeless people who would shelter over the heath not too far from the waterhouse there was nothing to ever link the deaths to the waterhouse but the locals soon started to give the waterhouse and surrounding area a wide berth because of its creepy history and dark reputation that left the waterhouse abandoned and in disrepair that's what we knew of the waterhouse's dark history that's why we were so wary and anxious to get away from it as quickly as possible when we were all through the gap in the fence further away from the waterhouse us younger cousins built up enough courage to glance over at the building of ill repute before being rounded up by the older boys one of them a put me in the wheelchair again and we set off toward the blackberry field we soon arrived where some other local kids we knew were already there we spent a nice afternoon picking and eating juicy sweet blackberries and splashing in the river soon the sun was getting low and it was time to return home our journey home was much like the one there we were still bantering and laughing and the older boys were still winding us up slightly but being as it was getting later we were feeling warier and slightly subdued when we reached the fence before the waterhouse the air felt slightly too close like before a thunderstorm the youngest of the three older boys got me out of my wheelchair so that bee could lift it over the fence the other kids were already on the other side of the vince with h and b a suddenly said to his brother and a low guarded voice something moved at the back there broth bee just looked at him sideways out of the boys a was the most likely one to pull a stunt or wind anyone up for a laugh but this time a was straight faced a said i'm gonna go have a look he passed me through to be and squeezed past us all wait up eh we've got to having put me in my wheelchair b moved forward towards his brother when we suddenly heard a shriek out in horror and disgust and the two boys moved back quickly h having already taken me out of the wheelchair again had told everyone to run and we did b picked up my tiny wheelchair folding it up while running a grabbed the other two kids hands and followed b and h ran with me on his shoulders holding my other cousin's hand we ran and ran and a kept saying don't look back don't look back i did but i saw nothing we didn't stop until we got to the fence which led back to the road on the estate we could actually see civilization again we were all completely exhausted especially the older boys before we slipped through the fence to the road bee held himself up by the railings and asked what did you see a yellow eyes hairy face all those younger kids began to panic and scream and h had to calm us all down he said that we were safe and it would be all right but we all wanted to get as far away from the water house as possible when we got home we all looked bedraggled and slightly nervy mama and auntie noticed this and asked the boys what was wrong h just said that we got spooked by an old drunk man in the bushes looking for golf balls to sell and as that was quite commonplace over the heath mama and my auntie just gave us kids a pep talk and hugged us we never did tell mama or my auntie the truth about the yellow eyes and hairy face we never found out what it actually was but us kids didn't go near the waterhouse for a long time after

Channel: Darkness Prevails

Views: 91,323

Rating: 4.8686476 out of 5

Keywords: national forest, national forest stories, scary national forest stories, national forest horror stories, national park, national park stories, national park horror stories, scary national park stories, disturbing things, missing 411, missing 411 stories, scary stories, true stories, horror stories, ghost stories, true scary stories, creepy stories, creepy true stories, true horror stories, mothman, goatman, goatman sighting, scary videos, creepy videos, spooky scary sunday

Id: j8Ky7VZ5MPo

Length: 41min 16sec (2476 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 28 2020