I have come to tell you the tale of when I think I was almost snatched up by the fae or something. It was a gorgeous spring day, almost dead on 70 degrees, sunny, a nice breeze, the perfect day for an adventure. I went out to my favorite place to hike, going off the trails as I always do, when I found this strange little creek I’d never seen before. I was really familiar with this park and I’d never seen this area. The park was big, but it was still odd.
It was shockingly beautiful. The water was maybe a few inches deep but perfectly clear with lots of little wildflowers growing along the sides and beautiful rocks scattered through the little creek bed. There were significantly less trees this way making the sun seem extra warm and inviting over the area.
I decided to start following the little creek, looking at rocks, admiring the flowers. I remember feeling overwhelmed with happiness and euphoria while walking along the creek. The farther I walked the more plant life seemed to be around me. On either side of the creek were tall reeds mixed with various wildflowers and vines. The farther forward I walked the closer to the water they seemed to get. I was running out of space on the banks of the little creek, so I started walking forward in the little creek itself. I was still feeling so dazed with joy walking forward, I didn’t even care that I would now have to walk at least 2 miles in wet shoes to get back to my car. I was absolutely mesmerized by the beauty and the hypnotic trickling of the water running through.
The water started getting a little deeper as I went around a bend in the creek where I was met with the view of this huge lake full of sparkling blue, heavenly water reflecting the cloudless sky. The whole lake had the same hypnotically beautiful aura as the creek bed. It was like stepping into a painting- a bright blue clear sky, the water sparkling, flowers swaying in the breeze… I look down at the water in front of me and I realize I’m already standing up to my thighs in the water. I felt this bizarre, desperate urge to just completely submerge myself in the lake. Just as I started bending down a little bit more and dipped my hands in the water I just kind of… came back to reality.
Something was wrong here… very wrong. I realize I hadn’t seen a bird, bug, or anything since I started walking along this creek. I looked around and I didn’t see the sun in the sky despite the fact that it was bright and cloudless. There was no sound except the water gently hitting the shore. Suddenly all of the magical joy I felt just left my body and was replaced with a horrifying feeling of “I NEED TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW”. Whatever trance I had been in until now was over and I was in serious danger.
I scrambled back towards the creek slipping and splashing in the water as I desperately tried to get out. It felt like the water itself was pulling me back. I finally manage to get back to the creek and I just start running as fast as I could. Every hair on my body was raised and I felt like I was running for my life… even though there was nothing visible to run from. Some part of me knew this was life or death now.
As I was running I noticed there were a lot more plants with thorns than I remember seeing on my way in and everything that lured me in seemed to just be gone. The water looked slightly murky, trees that weren’t there before loomed over top of the path menacingly. There was hostility penetrating the air like I had just started a fight with someone much bigger and more powerful than me. It felt like it was taking me 50x as long to sprint out of this place as it did for me to casually walk in, although truthfully I had lost all concept of time. The sky seemed dark and I could feel predatory eyes on me as I ran.
I stopped running for a moment despite that I still felt like something was chasing behind me and looked around. The creek seemed to run on forever in both directions and the plants on either side were over my head now so I couldn’t really see where I was in the woods. I finally decided I needed to get out NOW and to just run into the reeds and thorns to get the fuck away from this creek even if I was going to be shredded up after I got out. There was no choice, it was get the fuck out of here or accept this as my grave. I knew it.
I stumbled through thorns that lashed around my body, getting scratched and cut up, just furiously pushing my way through the plants to get out. At one point a thorn took a small chunk out of my shoulder and was gushing blood but I didn’t care. As I pushed past an especially nasty tangle of thorns, I fell about 2-3 feet off a little cliff that I couldn’t even see through the dense brush. I smacked the ground pretty hard but I was too full of adrenaline to really feel it.
I looked up and there was just a mass of tangled harsh looking thorns I couldn’t even see through that seemed to go on forever. I didn’t see the creek, I couldn’t see the reeds and plants, just thorns. I looked at my body and I was covered in my own blood from all the gashes and cuts from the thorns, some still hanging out of my skin. I tried my best to wipe some of the blood off and get the thorns out before going back towards the path where people might see me. I had to have looked like a monstrosity by that point. Soaking wet from running through the creek and sweating, covered in blood, dirt, scratches, bruises, my clothing torn in quite a few places, and my hair was full of sticks and leaves.
Once I finally made my way back to where the trails are I realized that I was now clear across this park from where I started following that God damn creek. The creek looked to me like it ran north of the trail I started on, and now somehow I ended up in the southwest end of the park. Probably a good couple miles between the areas. The ordeal felt to me like it was only maybe half an hour, but three and half hours had passed somehow. Maybe I just got really lost and confused, I really don’t know… but the way the water lured me in makes my whole body run cold recounting it.
I’ve gone back there quite a few times since then and I’ve never found the creek or the thorns again despite my searching. Almost makes me wonder if I stumbled into a different plane of existence. Something unseen tried to take me that day. I really don’t know how I got out other than maybe sheer willpower to not be taken by whatever wanted to drown me in that lake… or at least that’s my best guess of what was happening there. I have no rational explanation to offer. But… I still have the scar on my shoulder where the thorn took a chunk out of me as a reminder of that day.