Since 1912 584 people have gone missing hiking up the mountains of the western continental United States. The only evidence that they were ever there is blood splatters and ripped apart camping equipment left behind at there last known location, the locals in the town close by has dubbed these series of disappearances as “The Dancing Light Incidents” on account of the bright lights that have been spotted in the areas around where the people have gone missing. The Dancing Lights are a phenomenon in which multiple orbs of bright white light moving around at differing heights and locations in the mountains. Some believe it to be ghosts or monsters luring in people to their deaths, but the more sceptical in town believe it only to be the headlights of cars. I personally don’t know what I believe to be honest, all I know is that I have no intentions on venturing in to the mountains. That was until a couple of weeks ago that is, when I had gotten word that my best friend had gone missing on his camping trip which I had adviced him not to take by the way. Altough this disappearing was different, this time there was no blood or ripped apart equipment, it seemed as if he had just walked off and gotten lost, but after 15 search parties consisting of 50 people each searched a 700 mile area without finding any trace of him they decided to call of the search due to bad weather conditions, whilst officially he hasn’t been declared dead everyone in town presumed he was and held a funeral for him. But I refused to believe he had died… So I went out to purchase proper camping equipment with the intention of going out there and finding out what had happened to him, or at the very least get some answers about his disappearance, god do I wish that I had never found what I did.
I stuffed the equipment in my truck then hopped in and started to drive up the trail. I had left sometime around 6 pm, it felt like it took hours just to get up the area I had decided was to be my first campsite, but when I checked the time it was only 8 pm, while I was still perplexed at how long it really had been to get up the trail I didn’t even realize that night had started to creep up on me. I quickly set up camp and started a fire to cook some supper, I brought two 6-packs of beer, a .44 magnum revolver and a box of ammunition. After having eaten I proceeded to drink a couple of beers, around 1 am I heard something that I wont ever forget, it sounded like an animal whimpering combined with a child crying. I quickly sat up straight on alert mode, then I saw the glow of something floating about 30 feet in front of me. It was getting closer, and closer, and closer. Now only 5 feet away it stopped, and I could see it perfectly clear now. It was a tall spindly thing, it’s eyes were hollowed out like two endless pits. Where it’s mouth should’ve been were it a human was only pale smooth skin, the arms was grotesquely unproportional, the creature had 4 long spindly fingers on each hand. The things torso was stretched too long as if someone had tried to pull a piece of dough too thin. It’s legs were bent the wrong way, the knees were crooked and bent, it’s feet were backwards. But most importantly, the light I had seen earlier was floating above it’s head, I froze up in terror, the thing stared right at me as it began to speak, it spoke, it fucking spoke. The voice that came from the thing sounded like a baby crying mixed with a animal whimpering. Here is what it said…
“H-h-help m-m-me, p-p-please. I-I think it’s c-c-coming”
I broke my trance and started to rummage around in my backpack for the .44 I had brought with me, the gun was heavy in my hands and I aimed at the being and pulled the trigger. Bang, the bullet hit the thing square in the chest and it let out a horrible cry, instead of trying to attack me it ran away from me. I hastily gathered my things and threw everything in to the truck and sped down the trail again, the entire way down I could hear something running after me, the only moment I spared to look in the rear view mirror I saw something running after the car, but it wasn’t the thing from earlier. It was something else, the being was well over 14 feet tall, it looked so much like a corpse, the skin was tight on the bones, pieces of flesh hanging off the bones, eyes sunken and lips retracted. It had what looked like horns and it’s scream, oh god that scream… it sounded like a person whose flesh was ripped off the bone, the thing kept following me all the way down. It only stopped following me once I started to come closer to the town. I sped down the streets of the down until I could see my house again, I pulled in to the driveway and just sat in my truck until the sun started to rise. I finally mustered up the courage to get of the truck and start packing in everything. That night I had bought some more beer and just sat on my porch and drank while staring at the lights that were moving across the mountains, and I think something was staring back at me…