I don’t believe in ghosts. I never have and indeed thought that I never would. But something has happened that has made me question my opinion on the matter, as well as my eyes and my sanity.
I am writing this here to see what others might think, be they skeptic like I thought I was, or true believers. You can consider and judge for yourself if you think me crazy or you think such a thing could truly happen. Here is the story of what happened to me, the story of the wraith I saw in the woods.
It was a nice weekend in summer and my son Oliver and I were going on a camping trip. We were headed to a new campsite that was a bit further away than we had gone before but looked like a very nice campground, if a bit remote. The site also had a nearby lake which promised some good fishing. We had taken up the hobby as a father-son thing to pass the time and perhaps even catch some dinner; though we had brought a cooler with full provisions in the likely event we did not catch anything substantial.
We started on the way in the early morning, prepared for our almost four-hour drive, to hopefully arrive sometime late morning or afternoon. The drive was long and we even got turned around once, but found our way back on track. I began to hear the consistent grumbling and eventual “Are we there yet?” from Oliver who was losing his patience, and considering he was only ten there was not much of it in the first place.
I told him “Almost” for the umpteenth time and rolled my eyes when he sighed exaggeratedly. Fortunately, we were actually very close, and in ten more minutes of driving we were there at Crescent Lake Park.
The pictures on the website didn’t do it justice, the place was beautiful, and despite being so out of the way it seemed like it would be worth it. We spotted a lot of hiking trails as we drove along the road up to the campground and a boat launch near the stunning vista of the lake off in the distance.
The best part was despite being in prime summertime camping days; the place did not seem like it was too busy or overpopulated. We may actually be able to camp and fish in peace this weekend I thought happily. I didn’t notice the park ranger anywhere around and figured they must be attending duties elsewhere.
We drove into the campground and found our reserved spot and at least at the moment, it didn’t look like we had any neighbors in the adjacent lots. We parked got out and started unpacking our Tent and supplies.
I started setting up the tent while Oliver was playing around after unloading the car. While trying to put to put the tent together I heard him jumping around and battling bad guys in the camp with a stick he found, but he had stopped for a while. I got up to make sure he was ok and I saw him standing near a corner of the campsite with a piece of paper in his hand.
“Hey bud, what that you got there?” I asked him. He looked up and handed me the paper “That’s sad I hope they find her” I understood what he meant when I saw the paper had a missing person’s picture on it. It had indicated that Miss Sadie Marie Johnston had gone missing and was asking for any information as to her whereabouts.
I agreed with Oliver that I hoped they would find her, but I saw the date on the flyer and had an uncomfortable feeling they might not. Missing person cases that don’t find the person in question within seventy-two hours often have very bad outcomes.
I suppressed my pessimistic thoughts and told him “I am sure she will be ok, they will find her” I put the paper back down near the bench and got back to the tent.
Once it was setup we had lunch and decided to go for a hike. We finally found a few other campers passing by the other sites. We waved to a few of them but no one seemed to greet us and they all looked slightly annoyed by our presence so Oliver and I hurried on. I just assumed it was some people being grumpy or anti-social.
On the trail, we were walking parallel to a man coming back the other way on an adjacent trail leading to the lake. I don’t know why but I didn’t like the look of this guy, he had a general unpleasantness in his face and what looked like barely restrained anger in his eyes. He wore a heavy coat over some camo and had what appeared to be a bloody skinning knife and what looked like a cattle hammer on his belt.
I didn’t know if hunting was even legal in this park but I grabbed Oliver’s shoulder as we steered clear out of site since I felt that I did not wish to be noticed by this particular figure. Though looking back if I had known what I knew now I would have left and called the police then and there.
After a long hike, it was starting to get dark so we went back to camp and had dinner. Oliver wanted me to tell him some spooky stories but I haven’t had any good ones so I told him maybe tomorrow. After eating some s’mores for dessert we sat enjoying the peaceful evening.
There was little sound besides the crackling of our own campfire. I thought that the silence would be nice and the lack of neighbors would be even better, but strangely I found myself wishing there was more noise. There was eeriness in the silence that made me concerned about how deep it would get when the last of the fires embers puttered out.
There was a faint unpleasant smell on the night breeze as well, which was detectable even despite the normally pleasant smell of campfire and forest. The air took on a considerable chill too despite the summer evening promising mild temperatures at night.
As I considered all these unpleasant omens, Oliver told me he was tired. Since he had been up so early Oliver was more tired than normal at this hour and went to sleep early. I told him I would stay up a bit longer and clean up after dinner and then I would head to sleep too. I fed the fire another log despite not really needing the fire for too much longer, I still felt like I didn’t want it to go out just yet.
Maybe it’s just my nerves I thought, it was a long drive and a busy day I just need some sleep and I will be good for tomorrow, there’s nothing to worry about. I got up to take a quick pee behind a tree when I heard a loud branch snapping. I looked around for the source and saw nothing. Once again only the crackling of the campfire and Oliver’s light snoring mixed in now as well.
I paused for a moment and then thought of that disturbing man we saw on the trail and started wishing we had brought some sort of self-defense weapon on this trip.
I also thought it was strange how the park ranger had not been seen anywhere either since we arrived.
I tried to push the thoughts from my head. Now I was jumping at noises and shadows. I did need some sleep. I pushed the paranoia from my mind and went to the tent and tried to get to sleep. After what felt like forever I had almost managed to get to sleep when my semi-conscious mind heard what I thought was the unzipping of our tent door, slowly and subtly.
I sat bolt upright looking at the closed door to the tent aiming my flashlight at it accusingly. I let out a breath and realized it hadn’t been opened. Oliver had raised his head and let out a mumble “What is it Dad?” “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it, I thought I heard something,” I said, not believing my own words as I said them.
“Hey did you get out of the tent to go to the bathroom since you fell asleep at all” I had to ask not being able to let go of the sound I thought I had heard. “No I am still really tired I haven’t gotten up” He said.
It must just be my imagination I thought. I lay my head down trying to go back to sleep, pulling my sleeping bag up along with an extra blanket, it felt freezing all of the sudden in the tent. Just as I lay my head back down on my pillow. I look at the wall of the tent right in the corner near the door was the missing person flyer Oliver found earlier, the eyes of Sadie Johnston staring into mine.
I almost cried out but checked myself. “Oliver” I asked, “Why did you bring that into the tent?” I said pointing to the flyer. Oliver got up and rubbed his eyes “Dad what are you talking about I didn’t bring anything in here, I left that flyer on the bench I didn’t take it in” he responded, annoyed that I had woken him up.
I sat there confused and wondering what exactly happened, Oliver wouldn’t lie like that for no reason, but how else could it have gotten in here, I certainly hadn’t brought it in. I got up and took the paper back to the bench and set a plate on it so it wouldn’t blow into our tent by some trick of the wind and went back in and tried to get back to sleep.
I managed to get a couple hours of fitful sleep but I woke up hoping today would be more fun and less morbid. When I woke up and started a fire to cook breakfast my eyes caught the missing poster again and I felt an odd chill and suppressed a shudder.
I felt bad about what I did next but I was getting a bit creeped out so I took the flyer and put it into the garbage. I justified this by assuming if someone had known anything about this missing person they would have already come forward.
Nevertheless I still felt guilty doing it, but I didn’t like the way it kept cropping up and how it somehow felt like she was looking at me every time I stared at the picture. I hurried on and made breakfast, finishing up right as Oliver woke up. We were planning on doing some fishing today and nice and early in the morning we might have good luck.
The waters of Lake Crescent were clear and beautiful for what we could see through the thick morning fog. Several times I had to remind Oliver not to wander off since besides the main trail there was a lot of overgrowth and tree around the lake that he could easily get lost in. Or worse fall in the water and bump his head without me knowing about it.
We set up our fishing poles and were at it for a couple of hours when we saw the first boat out on the water. It was fairly far away but we saw it veer off to a corner of the lake and stop for a moment. Maybe they were picking a fishing spot too. Then the boat promptly sped off in a hurry going so fast the wake reached us all the way on this portion of the lake shore.
“Hey Dad what are those guys doing?” Oliver asked. “Maybe they were just fishing and forgot something so they had to hurry off. I had almost convinced myself of this benign story when we heard a gunshot ring out across the water.
“Was that a gun?!” Oliver exclaimed. I hadn’t thought that any hunting was permitted around here so close to the campground.
“Let’s get back to the camp” I said. It didn’t feel safe sitting here if people were shooting things nearby.
We started back to camp when Oliver pulled at my shirt as we were leaving. “Dad look! Across the lake, look someone is waving at us, they are trying to get our attention, maybe they need help!”
I saw it too; I strained my eyes and saw what looked like a slim silhouette of a person slowly waving their hand over their head in our direction. I looked around and didn’t see any other people on this side of the water and knew it had to be directed at us. It was too far away to shout a question, and for a moment I wished Oliver hadn’t noticed, something seemed strange about that figure in the distance.
“We have to go check!” He said. I tried to think of a counterargument, but if someone was hurt or needed help we were the only ones out at this hour besides the people on that boat and they seemed to be in a hurry to leave, which honestly was part of what worried me about this investigation.
I agreed on the condition that he stay behind me and if there was some imminent threat he would run back to camp and try to get help. He agreed and we were off to the other side of the lake, cutting through a shortcut and bypassing the trail to get there as quickly as we could.
We arrived near where we had thought we had seen the figure and no one was there. The air in the area seemed heavy and oddly the fog had intensified in this area. Starting to get concerned I summoned the nerve to yell out “Hello? Is anyone here? We saw you in the distance and thought you might need help”
“Oliver joined in and said “We want to help, are you ok? You can come out if you need help we can help you” We stood in silence for what felt like hours, though it had only been about two minutes. We kept looking around the small clearing we stood in as the air got heavier and the silence became more oppressive.
Just when I was going to suggest we turn back and leave, we heard what sounded like a low muffled sobbing sound like someone crying. We kept looking frantically for the source, becoming more disturbed as the sound of the sobbing increased but we were unable to find who was giving voice to it.
Oliver was getting upset and scared now, and I felt right there with him. “Dad, where is it coming from? What’s wrong with them?” I didn’t have an answer for him; I wanted to know as well.
I called out one more time “Hello! Where are you, we can help” A moment later the crying stopped. Then we felt a chill wind blow past us and what smelled like a foul fetid odor clung to the wind as we looked around and saw in the clearing were wet footprints and tracks that looked fresh.
The prints were coming seemingly from the center of the clearing with no definitive starting point but when I saw a small hole where they emerged from I fell back stunned. In the small furrow near where the prints were coming from was the familiar sight of the missing poster for Sadie Marie Johnston.
The paper appeared wet with the top half of the head damp and a dark red substance on the woman’s forehead like her likeness had somehow obtained a wound.
“Dad” Oliver started nervously “Isn’t that the same flyer as the one in our camp, about that missing girl.”
“It is” I said matter-of-factly, trying to suppress my own rising fear by maintaining a calm composure for him. Oliver was fixated on the poster he didn’t notice the trail of footprints and I noticed they were leading out of the center of the clearing and appeared to be heading in the direction of the lake.
“Let’s get out of here bud, I don’t like this. Something feels wrong, let’s get back to camp, someone might be up to something out here. It doesn’t look like anyone’s really here nor needs our help, or maybe it’s some sort of prank by those boaters out there”
I continued “Whatever the case we should head back and have some lunch and put this weirdness behind us.” I tried to show a modicum of conviction in the statement both for his sake and for mine like I could will myself to believe that this was normal and nothing was wrong.
We made it back to camp, though the entire time I kept looking behind us to see if someone was watching us go, or perhaps waving in the distance. I didn’t know what was going on but I didn’t like it, who was that voice crying? What were the people on that boat doing? And who did we see across the lake?
If I had any sense I would have pulled the plug then and there and left back for home. The whole thing felt wrong, but some unseen force I couldn’t explain, compelled me to stay, so I played it off and assured Oliver everything was Ok and that we would still have fun out here.
That night, however, the real unexplainable things happened.
We ate dinner and didn’t speak of the weird things we experienced earlier in the day. We went to bed early since our sleep had been troubled the previous night. Sometime later at night, a chill breeze woke me up and when I sat up I saw that Oliver’s sleeping bag was empty and the tent door was open.
I had told him not to get up and leave the tent without waking me up and letting me know so I could go with him but he had left anyway. He was probably just going to the bathroom, I thought. But after all the strangeness earlier I wouldn’t sit here and wait for him to come back if he did. I got up and grabbed for a flashlight when I noticed that his was still there.
I was starting to feel very concerned now, why would he walk out into the forest in the middle of the night without a flashlight? I jumped out of the tent, both flashlights in hand, and hoped that he was maybe close and was just going behind a tree and not out to the outhouse.
I called out, first somewhat quietly “Oliver, where are you, you forgot your flashlight” then more strongly when he didn’t respond “Oliver! Where are you bud, it’s too dark you need to come back”
I started to panic when silence was all that responded to my pleas. I didn’t know where he could have gone off to. I tried to calm down and focus and look around, maybe for tracks when I saw a boot print that looked like his size under the beam of my flashlight.
It looked like he was heading in the direction of the lake. As I tried to follow the trail of boot prints I heard an odd sound like crackling or burning of wood in a campfire, then a loud snap.
I wheeled around and saw that our campfire had somehow sprung back to life on its own. It was fully out for hours, not an ember left glowing. But now it was now a blazing fire again and when I looked down near the fire I couldn’t understand what I was seeing.
It was the missing poster right by the campfire, face up looking directly at me. Except that the eyes of the picture appeared to have been burned out leaving nothing but hollow holes where the eyes should be and the feint red stain on the pictures hair.
I was confused and terrified, I needed to find Oliver. I rushed in the direction of the lake heedless of the branches whipping at me as I rushed past, shouting Oliver’s name as I went. If anyone was camping here I didn’t care I needed to find my son and get the hell out of here.
I followed the trail until I got to the edge of the lake near where we had been fishing earlier and then I saw it. Across the water in the faint moonlight was a figure, a familiar silhouette that now in the dark appeared oddly luminous. The entity’s hand was held up and appeared to be waving one hand towards me. When I strained my eyes I saw what also appeared to be a smaller form slowly walking towards the glowing figure on the trail.
“Oliver!” I shouted. I rushed toward him nearly tripping over roots and debris as I ran. He was not responding, just shuffling forward as if in a trance. By the time I reached him, we were both almost upon the disturbingly radiant figure. It had not moved but it had not vanished this time either. When looking closer I saw it appeared to be a woman.
She had an almost translucent cloak of white that appeared to be as thin as gossamer but shrouded her features so it was hard to see any greater details. She never spoke but only looked at us. I was so dumbstruck by the spectral sight that I almost didn’t notice Oliver brushing past me, I grabbed his shoulder and snapped my finger in front of him and he appeared to wake from his trance with a start, as if just jostled out of sleep.
“What the, what’s going on? He mumbled” rubbing his eyes. Then he saw her too and just gulped the air unable to vocalize his surprise as the eerie sight we were witnessing. Before he could say anything or worse scream, I put a hand over his mouth, grabbed his shoulder, and started backing away from the thing, not taking my eyes off of it.
As we started to leave I felt an intense pressure in my head and a howling blast of wind that came out of nowhere and almost knocked us both of our feet. I managed to overcome my mounting terror and asked the woman “What do you want? Who are you?”
Without responding to the question the woman help out a pallid hand and merely pointed to the edge of the lake. I continued to back away from her when I felt a terrible pressure and what felt like the worst headache I had ever felt in my life. Oliver had said he thought I lost consciousness for a moment. I am sure I did as well, but during the brief agony, I felt something else.
I felt something pulling at me, some furtive grasping at my mind from some other being. It was imploring me to listen. I resisted at first but then I gave in to the sensation and was taken aback by the rush of feeling and emotions I felt all at once.
Not just emotions but scattered memories, I couldn’t remember who I was for a moment I couldn’t remember where I was, I didn’t know what had happened to me, why my head hurt so badly, why he had done it.
Wait, who was he? I thought. Then my vision was seized upon and I saw an evil-looking man looking down at me, his face was so familiar and what was he doing? A voice in my head that was not mine spoke. “No not that he wouldn’t it was an accident. He will take me to the hospital, everything will be fine.”
It started to taper off but they came back more insistently as I felt a strange tightening around my body. “No why is he wrapping me up in this tarp, where are we goin?. No not to the water, no he wouldn’t do that he loves me.” It gave way to screaming
“No don’t do it please no! The voice fell silent and I felt so cold, the pain, my lungs fill with water. I try to scream but my voice is gone, there is only the water, the blackness, the void.
I regain my own mind now and I am screaming, my lungs work again they are not full of water. Oliver says I was screaming without pause for almost two minutes. I touch my face and it is me again, then I look to the spectral form of the woman and I know who this wraith is, I can see her face now through the spectral veil and I know why she speaks to me.
Without explaining to Oliver I walk over to the form and past it, heading towards the water’s edge. I grab my flashlight and Oliver can barely shout out a confused “Wait Dad!” Before I dive into the water.
I don’t know how I know what I am doing, I dive deeper into the chill waters, deeper in the freezing murky depths and then I find it, I find her. My breath almost fails me, swimming down into the water deeper near the bottom I found a small alcove, almost like a small cave or oubliette.
Inside I see her. Still bound and wrapped in a tarp partly unfurled. Her sunken and lifeless eyes somehow regarding me as I reach out to grab the binding like a handle and hoist her out.
I almost drown in the effort as I struggle under the water, but some unknown force gives me a feeling of vigor and I am able to hoist the body out of the alcove and swim back to the surface with it.
As we break the surface of the water I hear Oliver shouting for me, and I see the ghostly form of the woman on the water’s edge has vanished. Oliver is freaked out but glad to see I am ok, then he is terrified again of the corpse I have exhumed from the lake.
I explain to him, though I have no idea how I knew this to this day, that I had found Sadie Marie Johnston.
In my haze I had also seen the body of a park ranger in that terrible sunken tomb, a gunshot wound to the head had been inflicted upon it, and seeing the body along with Sadie’s made me think of the face I saw looking down in the vision. It made me think of the gunshot by the lake and of the boat speeding off and off the evil-faced man walking down the trail just yesterday a man whose face looked in almost every essential way, just like the face I saw looking down at Sadie’s body.
When we got back to camp and drove out immediately until we had cell service and called the police.
The cause of death was indeed homicide; she had been struck on the head and put into that lake alcove to drown. For what reason the police did not know, though she had been declared missing after running off with her boyfriend, a particularly unpleasant fellow with a rap sheet a mile long.
The thought was more distressing when I thought of the strange boat the other day and how it had stopped in that same area and of the gunshot we heard. We told the police about the strange boat and the man we saw and how the killer might still be in that area.
When providing the information, the police showed me a mugshot of the victim’s boyfriend and I reeled when I saw it. It had confirmed what I suspected and feared it was the very same man we saw hiking the first day in the woods. It was also, though I did not tell the police this part, the same man I saw looking down at poor Sadie’s body in that nightmare vision.
I felt sick when I considered the imminent danger we had been in and I was utterly ignorant of it. I hoped the police would catch that deranged madman and avenge Sadie.
I had no idea of how I knew what I knew about her, but that bizarre event in the forest has me asking so many questions about spirits, life after death, and the influence that the departed can have on the living.
This whole ordeal is months past but as I write about it I put it to you the reader, do you believe in ghosts? Can we truly catch a glimpse of the beyond at the right place and at the right time? And can the will of those lost, the desire for justice allow a soul to influence the living?
For my part, I know this recently departed soul had touched me somehow and this wraith in the woods had forever changed me and my view on the supernatural.