If you are ever traveling in or around a forested area, and see lights outside of your vehicle, or in the distance, I’d suggest you find the fastest route out of there, for you don’t want to know what these lights are. If it makes you feel better, you aren’t alone in these sightings. Thousands have reported seeing a “bright flash”, or “flickering light”, somewhere deep in the woods. It’s all over the United States, specifically in the Pacific Northwest, or the Appalachian Mountains. For the rest of the world, I do not know.
I have seen the lights only once before, and I almost didn’t live to tell the tale. My encounter was in Tennessee, I believe in the summer of 1997. I was traversing a barren highway at the dead of night, with no other cars in sight. I was on the highway at that time because I was going to visit family down south. I was beginning to regret not stopping for the night, for my eyes were getting heavy, and I was growing ever so tired as the time passed on. It got so bad, that I pulled off into a little gravel shoulder on the side of the highway. Before I dozed off, I noted the time on the dashboard of my car. It read 11:58 P.M. I promptly fell asleep.
I awoke to something, though I couldn’t figure it out then. I looked again at the time on the dashboard. 4:03 in the morning. I had been asleep for about 4 hours. I focused by dreary gaze on the highway infront of me, and then I saw it. A flash. Just up on the horizon, in the woods. I thought I was dreaming at first. Then, it happened again. This time, a little closer to the road. I didn’t know what to think, other than that whatever that was, it was supernatural. Another flash happened, this time at the foot of the tree line, about 150 or so yards away from my idle car. It was getting closer. I began to hear cracking in the trees, as if a not present wind was swaying them.
I was scared. Scared to the point where I wanted to hide in my car, and pray to the Lord that whatever it was would leave me be. Another flash, this time engulfing the road ahead of me, and with that, I lost it. I jammed my keys into the ignition, and my car roared to life. I put the gear in the reverse, and floored it. I whipped around in my car, and put the gear back into drive. I looked in the rear view mirror, just as the next flash occurred. I swear, there was some ungodly thing running toward my car, illuminated by the paranormal light. I screamed, and gunned it down the highway.
The engine under the hood squealed, as I stomped the gas pedal into the floor. That thing was gaining on my car, at speeds too great to be possible for any humanoid. I was still a good 300 feet ahead of it, and I was by now topping 90 miles an hour. In hindsight, the thing was probably running at around 105 MPH. I focused on the rear view mirror, and I got a better look at the beast. It was tall, maybe around 14 feet tall. It’s skin was a mesh of bone, rotting flesh, and who knows what else. It’s hands, or rather claws, had daggers hanging off it’s fingers, sharp enough to cut metal in half no problem. It’s face was the most terrifying aspect of it. It’s jaw was unhinged, almost like a snake. It’s teeth were bent, and crooked, stained with mud, and bits of various material. And it’s eyes. They were massive. They glowed a crimson red, and seemed to penetrate your very soul.
I about threw up at the sight of the beast. At just how impossible this thing was. I was beginning to realize I will die in these hills. I glanced at the speedometer, and seeing the needle to be hovering over the 110 MPH mark. Another flash, and I saw the thing too close for comfort behind me. I was about 50 feet ahead of it, but that gap was closing fast. I flew over a hill, and I saw a light in the distance. I suddenly knew where I was. I was nearing the end of the woods, and approaching the nearby town next to it. I thanked God I had a shot at survival, and began blaring my horn, trying to alert anyone who would be up at this hour. I heard a roar, and my car lurched forwards. The thing was right behind my car, and was trying to topple it. My car was reaching 120 MpH, which was the most it could offer. The lights were growing bigger in the distance, and I guessed it was about 100 yards more before I would be out of those woods. The creature again lifted the rear end of my car, and I was lifted into the air. It had caught me, and I was so close to freedom.
I dove over the center console, and opened the glove compartment. I pulled out the pistol that was inside, and loaded a magazine into the gun. I bought it for safety reasons, and this was the perfect time to utilize it. I chambered a round, and stuck my arm out the window of my car. I realized I was face to face with the thing, and I aimed the gun at its eyes. I squeezed the trigger, and the thing roared in obvious pain. I shot it atleast five times, and even after it dropped me onto the pavement below, I fired at it until the gun was empty of bullets. It darted back into the woods. I turned and sprinted the remainder of the way into town. The police had heated the gunshots, and found me wandering the streets, covered in the thing’s blood. I was taken into the police department, and told them my story. Nobody believed me. Until the next day. I led them back to the site of my car- or what was left of it.
Nobody could explain the wreckage. They couldn’t explain the blood trailing off into the woods. And they couldn’t explain the claw marks and handprints too large for a humans’s on the back of my car. I believe the thing came from the flashes in the woods. And if you ever see one, turn around, and floor it back out of the woods, before you end up like me.