Back a couple months ago, me and two of my cousins (for anonymity I’ll name Jeff and Kai) decided that we should all hang out together and visit some old hiking trails, ones which our grand father used to take us to before he passed. For clarification I am currently living in the north east but used to live with them in the south eastern United States, specifically in the Appalachian mountains.
After about 10 and a half hours of driving I finally made it near their town. A small little forested town about a hundred ish years old. Oddly I felt at home here, even though it had been easily 5 years since I last stepped foot into this town, but I didn’t let it get to me too much.
Once I got to their house they came outside and helped me with my bags, being surprised at how much I’ve grown(last time I saw them I was at most 17, so seeing me with a beard must have been a shock lol). We conversed about life, where we’ve working and if we’ve been seeing anybody romantically and joking about who had the best car or job.
That day went weirdly good quite actually. We made some food and watched old home videos our grandparents had of us when we were young children. The next day we put on some “tactical gear”, aka walmart bought shit, and hopped in Jeff’s truck. We drove about 45 minutes into the deep woods.
Now Appalachian woods are a bit different from regular forested areas. The Appalachian woods are nothing but dense n thick trees and brush. It’s quite literally impossible to just walk through the woods like you could anywhere else. Anyway we reached the trailhead and prepped for our adventure. We had me in the front, Kai behind me and Jeff in the very back, and for most of the hike we didn’t see another damn soul.
After a hour or so we decided that we needed a break from walking and decided to reach the this clearing area on top of a short cliff, which was about 30 ish feet off the ground. Then out of boredom I suppose Kai stood up and let out a loud whoop, like the ones you hear those Bigfoot hunters do.
We thought nothing of it and started to eat some sandwiches we packed, when out of fucking no where we heard this horrible fucking… sound. I wanted to say it was a scream but that can’t even fully describe it. Picture an elk screaming, and then picture it screaming while someone decided to stab it in the throat and let blood clog up its airways. My hair shot up like a bat out of hell and my blood ran cold. We all looked at each other in pure dread, basically with our jaws going down as far as they could, just in silence.
See now before we left Jeff was smart enough to bring some type of weaponry. He brought his 357 magnum, a revolver which he kept to fend off possible thief’s or animals. He whipped it out of its holster and kept it close to him, scanning the area to see anything or anyone, except there was no one at all. Nothing. That’s when it hit me, there really was nothing. No birds chirping, no animals in the brush, hell it was so quiet I could hear my heart beating. Then I noticed something else… a smell. It smelt like if you left a rotting corpse in a sewage tank, essentially it smelled horrible. We decided then and there to pack our shit and leave the area IMMEDIATELY.
We tried to forget it happened and began chatting about anything besides that noise. Football, women, lunch, hell even our damn bag weight came into the conversation. All of a sudden that smell creeped its way back into our path, and our eyes shifted behind us… god what a fucking mistake. Our eyes made their way to this abomination of a creature. It looked like some sort of Native American man, except his anatomy was wrong. Bones almost poking out of its skin, its eyes being nothing but blackness, its clothes tattered and torn. It started to mutter something… “ahnigi’a”. Jeff, the closest, spoke yelled to the man “hey are you okay? Do you need some help sir?”. Then I saw its true eyes. Nothing. No eyes. Just bloody and rotted sockets where eyes used to be. Then it shouted “WITSI WENA” and started to fucking run.
Me and Kai fell back as Jeff unholstered his 357 and shoot at the man… yet the bullets did nothing. It was as if an air soft rifle shot the thing. Then about 15 feet away from us it basically transformed into a huge dark wolf like creature. And shot off into the brush, leaving a horrid smelly blackish red liquid behind. And as soon as the smell came it left. We noped it out of there, hauling ass back to Jeff’s truck and went well over the speed limit down the highway.
Finally we made it back to the house, yet none of us left the truck. We were too far in shock. Finally Kai spoke up. “Guys what the actual hell was that thing”. I just opened the door and left, walking right back into the house.
Jeff and Kai probably sat in there another 20 minutes then just promptly walked back in. After hours of no one talking again, Jeff finally said he’d make dinner, and we casually went back to how it was before the hike, just less… excited. That was at least 4 months ago. I’m finally back up north and in a city (thank god) and I haven’t really spoke to either of my cousins since that day. If you ever feel like you’re alone in the world just know that you are far from right.
(Sorry if there is any typos or errors but I hope u enjoy)