Man In The Woods
I went on a camping trip with my Dad and a couple uncles. My half-sister was along too. We were going to meet up with a bunch of guys and their families from my uncles military unit. My Dad went on ahead us while we chilled and went at a more sedate pace.
My uncles are pretty cool but they are hardcore campers/survivalists. So they suggested we take a more 'scenic' route through some woods. It was kind off the planned route and my sister and i had a lot of fun as my uncles were messing around with walkies and pretending to 'scout' places. Campfires were fun and more relaxed with drinks than when my Dad was around and my uncles told some pretty good stories.
Things started getting weird though. My uncles one day stopped joking around and actually started taking proper looks around. They wouldnt tell us why. But i guessed that something had spooked them. My sister is better at the tracking stuff and she started noticing things werent right. That someone was following us. Then we started seeing things carved in the trees ahead. Meaningless symbols.
I confronted my uncles. They told me they had a feeling that they were watched when they first entered the woods, but kept quiet as there wasnt any evidence. They told me that the evidence they found was off, too obvious. The man that was watching us could have concealed himself much easier than he did, but he didnt want to. He was trying to make us take a different route as my uncles would alter course depending on the signs of him being there. I originally thought this might be an elaborate joke, but i saw something in their eyes that changed my mind.
Thats when we started seeing him. At a distance. Through the trees. My uncles didnt chase him, as they didnt want to leave us alone. They shouted at him, pointed a gun at him. He didnt care. He just stared at us. He looked like a wildman, ragged clothes and a lot of hair. He would watch us from a distance for a bit, then just walk out of sight. My uncles were convinced he was letting himself be seen on purpose. It seemed as though he was either trying to warn us away from something, or herd us towards something.
My uncles took turns taking a watch at night. No more jokes. On edge. Gun out. Told us to use our whistles if he got to close and gave us knives if he got really close.
It was a really dark night all of us around the fire but looking into the trees, and we heard him speak. His voice haunts me. Why? because it was strangely normal. Completely civil, almost smooth. Not the kind you would expect from as my uncles called him 'the wildman'.
He said 'Good evening'. Nearly pissed myself. The voice was really close. My uncles went quiet as they started looking for where they thought he was. My sister was the first to speak she said:
'Who are you? What do you want?' It was quiet for awhile. Then even closer from a different direction:
'Interesting questions. I'm afraid i don't really want to answer them.' I caught glimpse of him, he was smiling. I shouted and pointed and my uncle took a shot. He moved away. One of my uncles chased after him with a torch and gun whilst the other stayed with us. He didnt catch him.
None of us slept that night. We took a different route coming into a clearing with a largish body of water. He was on the other side, he waved. Then disappeared back into the woods.
Then we saw what he wanted us to see. A campsite. But it was a wreck. It looked trashed. My uncles reckoned it wasnt more than a few days old. One of the sleeping bags was soaked in blood, the other was ripped like someone had been dragged out of it. There was human hair as well, torn out. With clumps of skin on. It was too much for me and my sister.
We found the others a day later. The police and rangers were called. The two missing were thought to be a young newly wed couple. There was a search, my uncles and their military buddies actually went and searched the woods before the police and rangers. Nobody found anything. Just weird things carved into the trees. But the symbols were just gibberish. They literally had no known meaning.
My sister never went camping again and i still have nightmares about it.
#Area/Woods #Person/Stranger #Event/Murder