There was always a myth in the town I lived in, were if you went out hiking, or mountain climbing etc, an old man and two other kids would follow you home. I thought it was bull crap obviously. I mean how could you believe the same old man and the same two kids could follow people home each day? That’s what I wanted to believe.
I moved into my new house a week ago with my dog, Sparky, so I can visit my girlfriend more often, Chelsea. From where I moved in, she’s now only a block away. We said that now I’ve moved closer, we can do more fun activities, but one of the activities we mentioned stuck out to me more than the others, mountain climbing. I told her the mountain climbing idea wouldn’t be so bad since there was a mountain only 3 miles away, so we agreed to do it the next day.
I mentioned the idea to my friend an hour after me and Chelsea had that conversation, he told me to cancel. I asked him why, and he texted back saying, “Look, you can go if you like, but be careful of the old man and his two kids,” I had heard the myth before, I thought it was stupid, so I said how I felt, “That’s a stupid myth.” He left me on read for a couple hours after that, but then replied, “If you go missing, don’t say I didn’t warn you”.
The next morning, me and Chelsea drove to the mountain, I mentioned the thing my friend said to me to Chelsea, she agreed with me of how its stupid. We got to the mountain, got our gear ready, and headed out.
30 minutes in, The walk was tiresome, we thought it’d be a short walk since the mountain looked small, but we can’t walk back down now.
1 hour in, The phone service was terrible by this point, it was 1pm now, so we had to finish this walk soon otherwise it would get dark.
2 hours in, The sun was setting, I was growing worried by the minute.
3 hours in,
It was dark, and our phones were dead. We couldn’t go back, and we couldn’t keep going up, we were just forced to stay in the forest area of the mountain.
We were aimlessly wandering for a bit, until Chelsea stopped walking. I asked her what was up, and she said, “They’re looking,” I looked around for a bit, but saw nothing apart from nearby trees and darkness. I looked back at her and said, “Chelsea, stop this isn’t funny,” and then with the most horrified look on her face, she turned to me and said, “I’m not trying to be funny.”
I then heard a howling, maybe about 8ft away from me and Chelsea, I grabbed her hand tight and ran in a random direction, away from the howling. I didn’t look behind me and I didn’t want to, I just wanted to get off this mountain. But then, I heard 2 kids crying, blood curdling screams of terror. I let go of Chelsea’s hand, looked her dead in the eyes and said, “Be careful when going down, ok? I’m just going to see if those kids are fine,” and I ran in the direction of the cries.
Leaves rustling beneath my feet, chest pounding, eyes adjusting to the darkness, I went through it all just to find these kids. But when I found them, they weren’t crying, or alone, or scared, or any type of emotion. They were just staring at me, while a taller figure, with his hands on each of the children’s shoulders, looked about 70 to 80, was smiling at me. I froze and held my breath. I couldn’t move, I didn’t want to move, I just stood there, vulnerable to anything these people wanted to do to me. But then, only adrenaline took over, I bolted the other way, the fasted I’ve ever ran in my life was now, I didn’t look back.
Eventually, I tripped and started to tumble down the mountain, for what felt like hours. And eventually, I blacked out. I opened my eyes, bruises all over my body, scratches and cuts everywhere and damp leaves stuck to my body. I looked around, I was in the car park and the sun was coming up. I got up, and ran to the nearest park, were I found a park ranger, I asked him what time it was, and he said 1pm.
1pm…? I was passed out at the bottom of this random mountain, for 16 hours…? No, this can’t be, what about Chelsea? Where was she? I had many questions I wanted the answer to but would probably never get the answer to. I looked up at the mountain and swore that I’d never climb any mountains ever again.
It’s been a couple days since that incident, missing person’s posters have gone up for Chelsea, and I can’t get the image of that old man and the two kids out of my head. I have tried to sleep it off multiple times, but to no avail for two reasons. One, it’s to haunting to forget, and two, I can’t sleep. Mostly because of the howling outside, and the three pairs of eyes staring at me through my window.