I am a very logical person, doesn’t believe in ghost, demon, magic etc. I do believe that there is other alien life forms out there besides earth though. I never feared darkness, as a kid I would dwell into dark basement or abandoned building without any hesitation and kids around my age were impressed how brave I was. Even I thought I was brave. But never brave enough to pick a fight with person. I guess my only fear was people with malicious intent.
About 1 year ago I came back to my home country after studying abroad. My grandparents picked me up from airport to show me their new house and help me pick up my photo album I left. They got their new house in very secluded area on the mountain. I fell asleep in the backseat and they woke me up when they reached right outside their house. It was 11pm, outside was pitch black, no city light, no neighbors, no street lights, no moon light, the only light source was from their house and their car.
My grandparents were excited to show me their new house, we went inside and they showed me around. I asked for wifi password to text my friend to pick me up. I sent location to my friend he said it will take about 2 hours to reach there. So I chatted with my grandparents a little while until 12:30 and they said they’re going to sleep now and told me there is some beer inside fridge so they went to bed. Everything was normal. While I was waiting for my friend I drank 2 cans of beer, and went outside for a smoke. He would arrive in 1 hour.
I went outside and damn, it was pitch black. Like staring into empty void. No stars, no moon. I guess it was cloudy that day. I went further into darkness. I thought to myself “Damn if Nikola Tesla was never born, this is how world would look like huh?”. There was a forest, I went little further around the edge of the forest just so I won’t see the lights from the house. I was engulfed in total darkness. To be honest it was kind of relaxing. I felt so peaceful… Too peaceful… I realized something. It was too quiet. I remembered that when I first got out of car there were bugs buzzing, full of nature sound… now it’s nothing, only soft wind blowing through my ear, but strangely no tree leaves were making sound from the wind the only noise I could hear was dry leafs crunching beneath my shoes and the wind. At that moment I thought about the comment I saw on YouTube a while ago. That forest would go quiet when there is Apex predator nearby. “I guess I am the apex predator around here” I thought.
I grabbed my lighter and tried to lit my smoke. In a split second from the spark I saw a figure standing in front of me. Chills ran through my spine, “it was human. I just saw a naked human! Was it my imagination? No way, I have never experienced hallucinations before but that looked very real” I thought. My smoke wasn’t lit. I was hesitant to light my cigarette. But I wanted to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. I lit my smoke. That thing is very real, no hallucinations. For a brief moment I saw a man or woman, not sure, but slim and tall figure around 6ft, looked slightly taller than me. I couldn’t make out the facial feature.
Thanks to my lit cigarette whenever I inhale, the tip of my cigarette would brighten little bit. It would illuminate barely enough to reveal orange humanoid figure standing in front of me. I could barely see the figure. I tried my best to look at it’s face. But it was too dim to see any facial feature all I could make out was it was bald and naked. It was motionless. Standing approximately 2-3 meters in front of me.
“Should I talk to him? No it’s too dangerous I should turn back now and get my phone and call police. Alone, naked in a forest? He definitely has mental issues. Who knows what he would do if I try to interact with him. Let’s play it safe” I thought
I slowly backed away “he can’t see me right? He can’t follow me… Shit…” sudden realization sets in. He’s been looking at me whole time. Because of my lit smoke. “Of course he can see me!” I quickly put out my cigarette and turned 180 degrees straight to the house. I tried to walk as quietly as possible but the dry crunching leafs were making it impossible to be sneaky. “Fuck it I’m running”
I barely took 2 steps and faceplanted right into a tree. I felt warmth running on my lips and chin. Tasted hint of iron. I was bleeding from my nose. “Yep bad idea running in dark forest like a moron, let’s take it easy” I thought. I went around the tree slowly walked towards the house with my 2 arms stretched forward. “Huh? wierd I didn’t walk that far, I should be able to see the house light… Don’t tell me they turned off the light.” I started to panic.
I tried to calm myself down “as long as he is not following me everything is good. He is not following, I don’t hear any leafs crunch except from my own steps” but the feeling… the strong feeling of being watched kept me on edge. No matter how far I walked there was this feeling that this thing is looking at me. I felt like this thing’s presence was still behind me exactly 3 meters apart from me same as before.
I kept walking towards the direction of the house for 5 minutes straight “Did I lose my Sense of direction? I turned exactly 180 degrees! I should’ve been at house minutes ago. Maybe it’s because of this damn trees that I’m going around made me lose direction.” I thought. I still felt like being watched after 5 minutes of walking. I grabbed my lighter to make sure he is still not the-
“Oh god he is still there” When I sparked my lighter for a split second I saw that thing standing exactly in same distance. It startled me so much that I dropped my lighter. Felt like my heart skipped couple beats. My chest felt cold and sharp stinging pain “How is he following me? He can’t see me! Maybe because of these damn leafs, but he should be making sound too if he is walking right behind me! Is he floating around? A ghost? Demon? What a joke” I thought. I wanted to make him go away scream at him. But I was just too afraid. I crouched down and carefully felt around the ground to get my lighter. I couldn’t find it Too many leafs. After a while I gave up and just wanted to get away from this thing. While I was feeling around the ground I got a rock. I was hesitant to throw it at him. But I did it.
I Threw the rock at his direction as hard as I can. But I just heard the rock hitting the leafy ground far away. I took another rock and threw it. Missed. Third time. Missed. I gave up. Suddenly the wind that was blowing at my face stopped. Only my hands felt the wind from the front. Something… That thing is standing right in front of me… Inches away… Blocking the wind… I felt warmth on my face. That thing was not breathing. I was frozen in fear stood there for so long not moving a muscle. And that thing too, didn’t move a muscle. After a while a morbid curiosity took over me.
“What if I touch this thing? What if I punch it real hard? Will it go away? This is really dumb idea. Not even horror movie character would try this dumb idea” I thought. But eventually I took a swing at it. But I couldn’t throw a hard swing. My fear was holding me back. When I swung, that thing wasn’t there anymore and wind started blowing at my face again. I was relieved but I still felt the strong sense of being watched. I turned around started walking slowly then the wind behind me stopped blowing. I felt like he was right behind me. Im not religious but I started praying to every god’s name I know of, wishing this whole thing is just crazy imagination.
Suddenly that thing tugged my hair, I let out a loudest scream I have never imagined I could make. Took a full swing in every direction just punching empty air, I darted to random direction face planted into a tree. I tried to climb that tree but the branches kept snapping off. I held the branch as hard as I can and started flailing wildly in every direction. Not sure how much time passed but it felt like forever, my adrenaline ran out, I grew tired. I realized that whole stick was broken off and I was just holding piece of it. My fist started hurting real bad it seemed like I punched some trees while flailing like crazy. I burst into tears crying, hoping sun would come soon. I started crawling on all four eventually I stopped crawling and just lied in fetal position.
I woke up to sharp stinging pain. I was back in the house, my grandparents were looking at me worried sick. And there was a doctor and police surrounding me. I said “Thank god you found me!” They asked me if someone attacked me and what happened last night? etc I told them everything. They were very dumbfounded by my story. They asked me if I used any medications or perhaps alcohol. I was mad I told them I drank 2 small cans of beer last night and I wouldn’t get drunk from that no one would! I was sober whole time. Then they said something that shook me to my core. They said.
“sir… there is no forest around here not a single tree”
I asked “where did you find me then?”
They replied “your grand parents found you outside couple feets away from the house”
I rushed outside and to my surprise there really was no trees in sight and there was huge fence surrounding the house.
My grandparents followed me outside and told me. “You were here whole time, we went outside last night and locked the gate, we thought you had already left!”
I was dumbfounded, I couldn’t have climbed the fence without tearing apart my clothes because it was barb wired.
“You’ve been clutching something, we tried open your arm but you wouldn’t let it go, what is it?” My grandma asked
It was the piece of tree branch. I didn’t realize I’ve been holding it this whole time, it was stuck to my skin. I held it too hard that my hand bled and blood hardened. it was glued to my skin.
“Wait a minute! This is the tree branch I snapped off! There is gotta be tree around here!” I ran around the house frantically. Lapped around 3 times. Nothing.
“If I was here the whole time my half smoked cigarette or my lighter should be dropped around here somewhere!” I tried to look around but my grandpa stopped me.
“Look, you’re bloody mess right. Now get inside and get treated first. Then look around as long as you want”
I went inside and they asked me bunch of questions like do I remember if someone attacked me or was I hallucinating. And the doctor said that my fist was busted from punching hard object. He said that maybe it was just bad hallucinations. But that my face seems like I got punched in the nose. I told him that I ran into a tree 2 times. He laughed it off and said maybe I ran into a wall. After everyone went on their way I told my grandparents my story one more time and they were kinda skeptical. but one thing that made them believe little bit was the small piece of wood I was holding. And that I couldn’t have gone past the locked gate. When they went out last night to lock the gate they didn’t see me.
I called my friend afternoon. He was super mad for not picking up his calls. Because he was waiting for me for so long in the middle of night waiting for me to give directions. I apologized and told him the last night’s event. He said it was the lamest excuse he have ever heard.
I went home that day and it was about to get dark. I became super paranoid. I went home quickly and turned on all lights. I couldn’t sleep without lights anymore. It feels like if it’s slightly dark, that thing would come out at any moment. When it’s slightly dark it feels like that thing is watching me from somewhere. I have crippling fear of darkness now. One day I was in my friends home. It was about time to sleep. I was in the kitchen drinking water. He came to kitchen grabbed some snacks and was about to flip the light switch, I told him “leave the lights on, you know the story I told you right?” He replied “whatever” and turned off the lights.
I just froze. He went on to his room. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t call him. I just slowly crouched down and lied sideways. Tears running down. It was terrifying. It went on forever. After like forever I could see dark sky getting little bit brighter out the window. My friend came out of his room to the kitchen then he accidentally stepped on me he was startled and yelled out “OH SHIT”
“What the fuck are you doing on the ground sleep on the couch”
I couldn’t reply, it was still dark.
“Shit man you okay? Should I call doctor?”
He finally turned on light
I said “yeah man maybe tomorrow I’m so tired right now, please don’t turn off lights next time”
He then understood how serious I was
I held onto the piece of the wood for few more weeks. Hoping I could figure out some answers to that incident. But it felt like this piece of wood was bad omen like cursed object. Eventually I threw it away. It’s not like I’m superstitious but it just felt wrong. Like that piece of wood doesn’t belong here.
I still question what was that all about. What was that thing? Human? Alien? Ghost? Where was I? How did I end up in front of the house? Teleportation? Different dimension? Was it all hallucinations? But if it is then how did I get the piece of wood? Where did I drop my lighter? Is it still in the woods?
It must be still in the woods.