This is something that happened to me when I was a kid, and I just wanted to share the story since it stuck with me for so long.
I was about 7-8 years old (can’t recall exactly but it was around that age), one weekend I was visiting my grandparents who at the time lived on the countryside (I’m from Bosnia, Europe). They were only about an hour’s drive away, and we went there early in the morning.
Their house is in a wooded area, with a long winding road leading up to each individual house, of which there weren’t many (perhaps maybe 3 or 4 more). I knew the area well since I went to visit almost every weekend. Besides going up to the houses there is one section of the road that leads directly into the woods, sort of a natural trail.
Our car broke down exactly around that spot, flat tire. Since we were very close to where my grandparents live, and my folks knew I was familiar with the area they let me go for a walk while my dad fixed the tire. This was about 9-10 AM in the morning so they weren’t really afraid to let me run around a bit.
Being the curious kid that I was (still am), I went for the forest trail since the main dirt road wasn’t very exciting. The trees were very tall and dense, so even during daytime it was kind of dark. I went up the forest trail for a few hundred meters in until I came to a crossroads.
Now this was more than twenty years ago, but it left a lasting impression on me. So here is what I recall:
In the middle of the crossroads, at the very point that the roads fork, there was a small cave/opening of some sort. I went a bit closer and I noticed what seemed like fireflies sparkling in the pitch black hole (not sure if fireflies even light up during the day but that’s how I remember it). Besides that I just felt this… presence. As if I wasn’t alone there, as if the cavern was beckoning me to enter. And then I noticed what seemed like several pairs of smaller red eyes peering from the darkness. At this point I was quite spooked, thinking it was an animal of some kind, and I decided not to go any further and just slowly back away (this is in southeast Europe so there aren’t many dangerous animals around, very rarely a wolf or a bear would be sighted but usually not near human settlements).
Nothing followed me, and I had no trouble getting back. I decided not to tell my parents about this since I figured they would be mad and wouldn’t let me play unsupervised for the remainder of our visit.
They decided to leave me with my grandparents and pick me up on Monday while they went back during the afternoon.
I’m very close with my grandmother, she and I are very alike (especially now as a grownup). So I told her about the encounter I had. She kind of laughed it off saying ‘‘honey there’s nothing there, I walk there every day’’ But I was adamant about what I saw, and she agreed we’d go for a walk together and visit that spot.
It wasn’t far from her house and we arrived there that same afternoon, we got to the crossroads and… like she said there was nothing there. No burrow/cave, just a flat spot where the crossroads meet. No traces of it being dug up or buried. Grandma even asked me ‘‘Are you sure it was here?’’ and I replied yes. She didn’t think much of it, chalking it off to childish imagination, but she told me not to venture out here on my own again. We continued our walk and I just stopped mentioning the event from then on.
But to this day, even after all these years, I still remember this quite vividly. I even find it strange I’m able to recall the details (and of course I know memories can become distorted over time, and that what we think we remember may not always be the full picture since our minds love to fill in the blanks but, I just don’t feel as if this is the case).
I often contemplate what would have happened had I stepped closer, or worse, tried to enter the dark cave? I’ve read about ‘‘evil’’ places in forests around the world, or places where time and space can become warped. People walking into what they describe as different timelines or alternate dimensions. Perhaps this was one of these places.
My grandparents don’t live there anymore, grandpa had passed away when I was 16 years old and my grandma moved to the city in the same building as me and my folks. We still own the house/land there but I haven’t been there since. My dad goes out there a few times a year just to check up on things and clean up a bit (according to him the house and land have almost been consumed by vegetation). They cut the electricity/water so they wouldn’t pay the bills, so it’s not very convenient staying over. But, I do plan on going there sometime, perhaps during my next time off/vacation from work. I really want to go back to that road, assuming it still exists, and just see if I feel anything. Now that I’m an adult with an interest in the paranormal, I’m just so drawn to this memory.
Has anyone else experienced something similar? Would love to hear some thoughts.