When Spencer stopped the car in Triberg, we were both greeted by something that we should’ve seen coming, but didn’t want to see– tons of tourists.
We had gone on vacation to Germany to explore the various attractions within the Black Forest. Triberg was our third stop, we still had two more to go. I was grateful it was Spencer who invited me out, German was his mother tongue and it was good to have a translator handy.
“Bathroom break?” I suggested.
“If we can find one,” he grumbled.
We stepped out of the rental car and explored the streets until we found ourselves a bathroom to use. Triberg, quite frankly, is one of the most beautiful towns I’ve ever visited. Encased in the Black Forest, you could’ve sworn this town was pulled from a medieval video game. Even with the streets being crowded by people from all over the world, it was still pleasant to walk down.
Our vacation should’ve ended in that town. We shouldn’t have gone out further.
The plan for this day, or night, was simple. We were to visit the Triberg Waterfalls, and slip into the depths of the forest away from the people, and camp overnight. Not a whole lot of planning went into it, but we were determined. That determination led us to the hike to the waterfalls, and I plan on framing some of the photos I took.
Spencer and I stood over a railing overlooking some of the falls. We both eyed out the less crowded places because we wanted to make our escape soon.
“You see that?” Spencer barked.
“You find a spot?” i asked him.
“No no,” he continued, pointing subtly at something in the distance west of us. “Don’t tell me you can’t see that thing!”
I followed his finger and didn’t notice it right away. It was getting into the evening, so the trail was slowly emptying, I could see a select few people making their way down towards town from where we were.
I spotted what Spencer was pointing at, eventually. It looked like something pale just subtly poking out from behind a tree. It wasn’t moving or anything.
“Bro, that might just be a fungus or something on the tree,” I dismissed. “I’m beat from the long day on the road, I don’t want to scare myself while I’m exhausted.”
“Then how come it moved?” he spat back.
I snapped my head back to where he was pointing. I got lost on what tree had the thing poking out of it. I peered for a short while, the damn trees looking the same had me lost for a moment, but not a single one that I could see had a pale figure behind it.
“We should at least camp out maybe…closer to town,” he declared. “Closer to the car anyways, right?”
I could tell he was nervous, and him being nervous made me nervous. Spencer was usually pretty collected and grounded. Him even talking about the unknown was out of character. I didn’t object, and eventually we hopped off the trail and began trekking for a camping spot.
With the thought of something being behind a tree at any given moment still lingering in my head, it took a bit of the beauty of the area away. I didn’t forget to snap photos along the way, however. We headed east of the falls, and saw nearly nobody during our bushwhack.
The setting sun shone a ray of light to a clearing that was perfect to camp in.
“Hallelujah!” Spencer cheered.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about, baby!” I cheered alongside him.
“Think you can set your tent up faster than me?” He jokingly challenged me.
“Uhh…no?” I replied with a grin.
We wasted no time racing to get our tents set up, laughing lots during the process. This vacation was what I thought I needed to get over the stresses back in the western hemisphere. We both worked trade jobs, he was a mechanic and I was a Roofer.
While Spencer quickly unzipped his tent to jump into it, a canister of pepper spray fell out of his pocket.
“How’d you get your hands on that?” I asked him.
“Locals,” he sneered.
“Well I guess we could use it if those tree-hugging beings come for us,” I chuckled.
“Don’t say that!” he snapped. “I just forgot about those things…”
I sure felt stupid. I brushed it off as a joke and we quickly got to making a fire. I was surprised at how we could barely hear the bustling noises of the town nearby. I didn’t wager we were that far. It was dark enough now that our campfire smoke wouldn’t be noticeable by much of anything.
We cooked some food over the fire and drank a surprisingly small amount of beer. That’s when we heard it at first. It almost sounded like the ticking of a clock. I turned to Spencer, who was very alert. He had already begun gripping the pepper spray.
“The hell is that?” he asked under his breath.
I was zoned out by the noise, and didn’t answer him. The ticking sound paced just behind one half of the clearing. It was followed by a chittering sound, then the rustle of a few shrubs in the distance. We were back to silence after that. Dead silence.
“I don’t think we’re safe here,” he said. “Let’s get this fire out.”
I didn’t object and we quickly doused the fire. Spencer gestured for us to pack up our things and go.
“And risk running out to where those things are?” I objected. “Fuck that, man.”
“Well what do you propose?”
“Hunkering down in the tents for now, at least we’re not making a lot of noise here.”
Spencer grumbled something inaudible then agreed. He only had one can of pepper spray, so all I had to defend myself was a knife I’d bought in a previous town. I checked my phone, we could text each other since we still managed to be in service range. I debated calling for help, but how would they find us? Our tents didn’t have an address.
We managed to hunker down without any issue, and eventually I fell asleep.
A light shined in my face, waking me up. It was my phone. It was 2:55AM and Spencer had texted me:
DO YOU HEAR THAT?
I sat up, and at first heard nothing. About ten seconds later I heard the ticking sound again.
Tick tick tick….tick tick tick….
I replied to Spencer:
Unfortunately, yes. Is it getting closer?
I turned down the brightness on my phone. I didn’t have to get another text to know that thing was getting closer.
TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK
I saw a shadow graze my tent and almost screamed. Its hand had long, bony fingers that nearly ripped my tent’s wall open. The ticking sound was loud, and I heard it go over Spencer’s tent. I heard Spencer yell as his tent began getting ripped into. I froze up for a second, then I heard the sound of something hissing. I heard Spencer yell as he was flung into the air and out in front of my tent.
Instinctually, I got my knife and charged out of the tent. Spencer was rocking around on the ground in pain. He raised a finger and pointed behind me, as the ticking got so loud it gave me a headache. I turned around to face the figure.
It looked about eight feet tall. It had black splotches on its pale body. Its head looked like that of a human’s, but with the top of its head being far too long for a normal person. No eyes, instead a large, gaping mouth with a tongue that would rock back and forth- which made the ticking sound.
It lunged at us, but we managed to barely avoid it. The creature cocked its head towards Spencer and its tongue lashed out several feet, cutting Spencer’s arm in the process. Spencer hissed in pain, but did something that ensured we’re still alive today.
Spencer had wrapped the pepper spray canister in this creature’s tongue. When it retracted, the creature chomped down and broke the pepper spray open. It shrieked as the gas began spewing from its mouth. It pounded on the ground and began writhing around in what I can assume was pain.
“We can’t stick around!” Spencer yelled getting together his belongings minus the tent.
“I agree!” I yelled back, hastily doing the same.
“I still got this,” I huffed, swinging the knife around. “Hope it’s enough if that thing comes back for us.”
We heard the shrieking wane for a bit as we bolted through the trees. Navigating a forest in the dark is a lot harder than it looks. I had no time to even put on a jacket, so I was freezing in my pajamas, Spencer was the same.
“Not much longer, I don’t think,” I said between heavy breaths.
Tick…tick…tick…
We both looked behind us, but it was far too dark to see anything clearly.
All I knew was that it was still coming for us.
“Oh god!” I groaned.
“Keep going!” Spencer insisted.
The ticking was slower, but persistent. We heard trees knock, branches break, and rocks getting kicked around behind us. It was like a drunkard was chasing us. This thing was clumsy now, but still determined to seek us out.
We reached the trail, and from a good distance we could see the light from Triberg. We took two seconds to catch our breath and made another break for it. I was cramped up severely. I wasn’t the type for cardio, but this event made me think of practicing it more often.
The ticking sounds nearly dissipated as we got within 100 meters from the nearest building and I took one last glance behind me. I swore I saw the faintest glimmer of it poking behind a tree.
Both visibly shaken, we went to rent a hotel room. The attendant took pity on us and let us in at a discounted price. It felt good to be so safe again.
I took a look through the pictures on my phone as I was lounging in the hotel bed. Spencer was on the other bed, sitting there nearly catatonic. I desperately tried to make the most of this event and began scrolling through the photos I had taken on the hike towards our camping spot. Something was wrong, and once I figured out why, I damn near threw my phone across the room.
In at least half of the photos I took, I could see something pale and spotted lurking behind a tree.