I’m sure that everyone as a kid told scary stories to their friends, whether it be around a campfire or even under a pillow fort in their living room, we’ve all done it.
I lived with my grandparents for the first few years of my life. My mother had severe postpartum depression and my father was always on the road due to his truck driving job. My grandparents lived in a fairly wealthy neighborhood. It was full of brick houses and fairly large front yards. The occasional two story house on each corner. I was friends with a few kids in the neighborhood. We’d walk up and down the road and play in the woods behind the neighborhood. It was an safe neighborhood, I can’t remember the last time I heard about any crime being committed in or around the place. Well, during my time living there.
There was a creek that ran through the middle of the woods. It was mucky green and harbored one or two water moccasins. We never went into it but sat around it or walked beside. Hawks eye view on each of our steps. We’d play freeze tag or hide and seek in the woods. Classic childhood games.
During the summer we’d take flashlights to the creek and sit around telling scary stories. There was one story that stood out to me. My friend, I’ll say her name was K, mentioned her dad investigating a crime that occurred down the road from us. I didn’t believe her and thought she was just trying to spook us. She stated that her dad didn’t sleep for a week after closing the investigation. It involved a man and a little girl. The man killing the little girl. Stuff about that. She ended as it was time for us to go home.
On my way back from the creek I heard my friend K getting yelled at by her father. Almost like the story she told wasn’t supposed to be told. I heard the line of “How did you even know that?! Stop looking through my things!” My friend K was profusely apologizing to her father. We didn’t see her for two weeks after that. She wasn’t allowed outside. We continued going to the creek and playing. During one night of our scary story telling we heard a splash coming from up the creek. We ran towards it hoping no one fell into it. But I didn’t think that was the case. It was a small splash. Non of us found anything.
The next few days consisted of odd things happening. We ran up on a little girls bike, tangled up in weeds and foliage. More splashes in the creek and people calling out from parts we never even went into it. By the end of the week non of us wanted into the creek. But by dumb thinking me and my other friend E, wanted to look around. Nothing was out of the ordinary. We started joking as we walked back up the path towards the opening of the woods. E stopped and asked me “Who is that?” I was confused. I looked up to see a young girl about our age looking at us from the opening. She was white, long brown curly hair black top and light pink top. She was barefoot. E called out and asked if she lived in the neighborhood that was on the other side of the creek. No response. She took of sprinting into apart of the woods we were unfamiliar with. It was overrun with vines and weeds, poison ivy and snakes. We didn’t follow. We looked at each other, Creeped, insisting on finding another way out.