The events I am about to describe occurred well over 10 years ago, and are fairly simple, yet they still remain burned into my memory as if they were branded with iron. Growing up, I lived in a ranch house with a relatively large yard. Most of the yard was situated to the side of the house, but we had a pretty sizable backyard, length-wise. It ran across the back of the home and was bordered on one long side by a small wooded area in our neighbor’s yard, and bordered on the farthest short side by a thick set of Forsythia bushes. The bushes were situated behind our above-the-ground pool, so you could only really see one section of greenery from the house. The thing was, this visible section of the brush seemed to have an opening, as if something had crawled in and made the Forsythias into a home.
My best friend growing up always seemed very fixated on that hole in the brush. Whenever we were on the trampoline or back deck, he would often tell me he thought a mountain goat or a mountain lion lived there. When I asked him why, he would swear to me that he had seen and heard things. Sometimes it would be movement within the bushes. Other times, it would be just a shadow and a low growling. He even once said he could make out horns. The point is, my friend thought something was in the bushes, hence the opening. At first, I never took his claims seriously, and just thought he was messing with me, until I started seeing things too. That’s when the repeated claims began filling me with fear.
This all might seem ludicrous, but keep in mind these bushes were expansive, and though they simply bordered our yard, they extended far back beyond into a public field. It was not out of the question to fit a large mammal (or other creature) within. There were probably 3 or so times over my early years when I was eating dinner outside on the back deck, and my eyes would be drawn behind the pool towards the bushes, as if I had inadvertently sensed something there. I did of course bring all of this up to my parents after a while, who unsurprisingly dismissed it as nonsense. I will admit this did make me feel better at first. But my friend never stopped making claims, and I couldn’t deny sensing abnormalities myself.
One day in particular, probably around 13 years ago, we were jumping around on the trampoline with a bunch of inflatable rubber balls. It was a fun game we used to play, where we had to avoid touching the balls as they ping-ponged off the net of the trampoline. As usual, one of the balls launched out of the trampoline after my friend slipped on it. Normally this was no big deal and we would take time to gather balls when too many had left the trampoline. Well this time was different. The ball had rolled right in front of the opening in the Forsythias. Of course, my friend wanted nothing to do with it, so he told me to get the ball.
Now, I distinctly remember protesting heavily at first, since I had avoided those bushes like the plague ever since I started seeing things. Eventually though, I did relent and get off the trampoline. I walked around the pool and slowly approached the ball. It was off to the side of the opening, so I didn’t have to do anything but grab the ball and walk away. But of course, being the pre-teen I was, I decided to push my luck and my fears. I threw the ball back towards my friend and told him I was going to check out the Forsythias once and for all.
I remember crawling in on my hands and knees and being baffled by how wide of an area could fit inside a group of plants. Visibility was very low, since the bushes were in full bloom at the time. I crawled in far enough to be completely covered in brush. Probably took around 15 seconds. Ahead of me was too thick to continue without getting scratched or poked. Within moments of reaching this stopping point, I heard a low growl and felt a violent shifting in the bushes, ahead of me. Obviously, this made me quickly recoil and propel back out of the bushes. I told my friend to get the heck off the trampoline and book it. We both tore it across the street to his house and spent the rest of the day there. We were so paranoid that whatever I had disturbed was coming for us.
I honestly wish I could say more but that’s it. I don’t know what exactly I encountered in the bushes that day. I just know for certain I wasn’t hearing things. There was something big in those bushes. The volume of that growl and the amount of rustling was proof of that. We never dared go anywhere near the Forsythias again after my first escape. Let’s just say I consider myself very lucky in getting out unscathed.