I’m a 24 year old man. I live in a rather remote and rural town in Michigan. I especially enjoyed going out in the forest near my small town. On one particular camping trip that I will never forget, I encountered something that made me question the true nature of reality.
On one particular day around 6 years ago, I decided to go out in the nearby woods. It was the summer after I graduated from high school. The hardware store that I was working at went out of business a week prior to this story. Since I lost my job and I was bored, I decided to go on a 4 day shooting and camping trip. I packed up my shotgun that my grandfather gave to me for my 16th birthday. For food, I got some ramen noodles, a carton of eggs, graham crackers, and hot dogs. I also packed up a sleeping bag and a tent.
So I got into my old pickup truck, and drove to the forest. I parked in a nearby grassland, and I walked into the woods with my gear. It took me around 3 hours to find a perfect place to set up camp. I rested for another 2 hours, before I decided to go find somewhere to fire off some rounds.
I had this uneasy feeling that I was being watched. No matter how hard I tried, I could never shake it off. Sometimes I heard twigs snapping or footsteps behind me. But when I went to investigate, nothing was there. So I just went back to my business, putting up some used milk jugs as targets for me to shoot. I spent maybe an hour or two shooting my shotgun. Afterwards, I cooked up the ramen noodles for dinner.
It got dark pretty quick and I decided it was time for me to fall asleep. So I unfolded my sleeping bag, and closed my eyes. As soon as I was fading off into sleep, I heard a deep demonic growl. I quickly grabbed my shotgun and loaded it, in preparation to defend myself. Suddenly, something slashed at my tent. The slash tore a very large hole in the tent’s fabric.
I respond by firing 3 shots at the intruder. The intruder let out a very high pitch and ear piercing scream. The assailant screamed so loud that it drowned out the gunshots. Whatever attacked my tent scurried away in the other direction. I was too frightened and shaken up to give chase. My ears felt like they were bleeding, both from the thing’s screams and gunshots of my shotgun. I spent the rest of the night sitting next to a tree with my shotgun in my hand.
I did not get a good look at my would be attacker, due to how dark it was out. However from the brief glimpse of the silhouette that I got, the figure seemed quite humanoid, but it definitely was not a human. That thing was also most certainly not a bear, as it was far too skinny and gaunt to be one. Whatever it was, it was very thin to the point that it looked like someone who was severely malnourished. I don’t know if my eyes were playing tricks on me or not, but I swore that the assailant had a coyote-like head.
The morning came, and I investigated the area for any signs of my late night “visitor”. For some strange reason, there wasn’t any blood near my camp. I know for a certain fact that I actually hit that thing at nearly point blank range. After walking around the area for a few minutes, I discovered some footprints. They were definitely bipedal, but not human. The footprints had 4 toes with very large dagger-like claw marks on each end. My guess is that they came from my little “friend”.
I panicked and I decided it was time to leave. So I started to pack up all of my gear. The tent, due to it being too badly damaged to be useful from last night’s attack, was simply left behind. I carefully scanned my environment for the creature. After I packed up all of my stuff, I started the long walk back to my truck. A camping trip just wasn’t worth facing whatever that was.
As I was walking, I carefully watched the environment around me. I scanned every body of water and every tree I could see for signs of that monster. There was always that unsettling feeling in my gut that I was being watched. What put me on edge the most, was the forest was completely silent. Not a single bird was singing or even an insect chirping. All the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. After nearly 3 hours of walking in the forest, I suddenly heard loud crunching noises coming from behind me. When I turned around to look, it was the same creature from the night before.
The creature looked like a decomposing corpse, with its rib cage and internal organs visible. It had a rotting coyote-like head, but with ratty human-like head hair that touched its shoulders. The creature’s claws were around 4 inches long. It was so skinny that it looked like it hadn’t eaten anything for an entire month. It was mostly hunched over, but I think it would have been around 6’2 feet tall fully erect. Most chilling of all, were its piercing eyes that seemed to stare deep into my soul. I fired another round at the creature with my shotgun, but this time it was unfazed.
Realizing that my gun was now useless against the creature, my flight instincts took in and I ran for my life. Within no time, the creature ran right behind me. I felt the creature’s heavy breathing on my neck. Just when all of my hope was lost, I saw my truck just across the grass. I was within yards of the forest’s end. However, even with all of my adrenaline pumping, I was deeply fatigued and exhausted from all that running. Despite nearly fainting, I summoned enough energy to sprint to my truck.
Just as I reached my truck, I felt a heavy blow hit the left side of my body. I was sent flying a few feet. When I landed on the ground, I ended up spraining my leg pretty badly. The creature walked over to me. It then grabbed my shirt’s collar with one hand, and hoisted me up in the air. I pulled out my knife and stabbed it in the face. The creature dropped me on the ground. I grabbed the shotgun, and started beating the creature with the butt of my gun. After seeing me fighting back, the creature scampered back into the trees as if it had its tail between its legs.
After the creature fled, I limped back to my truck. I put all of my gear in the truck’s bed, climbed inside, and sped off as fast as I could. I never returned to that part of the forest again. Knowing that they wouldn’t believe me, I also never told my family what happened.