“I’m going on a hike” I said in the most rebellious voice possible while dragging my trekking bag downstairs. Even through the phone line I could here her breathing intensifying.
“No you are not! It’s the middle of a school week!”
“I’m afraid so”
“Wa.. wait Hazel! Have you talked with dad about this?”
“Nope!”
“Nope what?”
“I m going solo. And what’s the point of asking him when I already know the answer he is gonna give?”
“Hazel stop! This has gone too far. I’m gonna talk with your dad right now. Until we talk this through you are not setting a foot out of this house! You got me?”
“No!”
“What?”
“No mom you can’t stop me now. Even if you are going to say no, what are you going to do to stop me? Fly back from New York right now and grab me by my collar?”
“Hazel please! I know this divorce thing is really hard for you too. But you know how much we both love you and care about you… please don’t try to do anything stupid when both of us are away!”
“Really? If you really cared that much you should have rescheduled this so called business trip and stayed here with me, but see, neither of you did! And that shows how much you really cared!”
“Ok babe listen, LISTEN! If you feel like we abandoned you and if you need us to be home with you right now, we will schedule the next flight home and come back right away, but please, I beg you… Don’t go anywhere until we get there.. you promise?”
“No!”
“Baby?”
“Don’t book your flight now mom. Even if you do so I wouldn’t still be here when you get home. I have arranged Janet to come here today evening to take care of granny. Oh my Uber is here, gotta go mom. See you on saturday” I said while placing a goodbye kiss on my grandma’s cheek, who was fast asleep on her wheelchair.
“No no no babe just wait!” I heard mom yelling at the other end of the phone line.
“You have zero experience in solo hiking, let alone hiking at all! Tell me, tell me baby, where are you heading?”
“Bye mom, enjoy your business trip”
“Hazel! Ba..” I switched my phone off and put it in my pocket as I closed the door and stepped outside. By the way my mom’s voice broke while speaking at the end of the call I knew that she was almost crying at that moment. Good for her! Now she will understand the value of me, and pay the price for breaking the heart of a perfect little angel like me. Yeah! A kid should act rebelliously some days to let their parents know the value of them…
By the time I reached the trail it was almost 3 in the evening. I would have arrived here a lot early if I had listened to Nathan’s words. Well… lot earlier and not alone….
“Remember Haz, this is not a trail frequently taken on by many people. Even in the holidays it does not get as busy as other places.” Nathan said looking both ways of the classroom, as if to see whether anyone was eavesdropping on us.
“Since this is a lesser known trail there are both pros and cons. Well, on the good side, it is still not spoilt by human activities, you can enjoy the nature to the fullest and sort of connect with it, you know… But, speaking of the bad side…” Nathan raised his eyebrows dramatically “…and I stress this Haze, don’t try to be a hero and hike there alone. It is not a prominent tail and not many people travel by it so often, and once you lose the track of the trail, you will be gone forever.. literally like you are stuck in a maze; trees everywhere, and god knows how many dangerous animals be out there in its deep parts, and most importantly….”
“Most importantly what?”
“There have been multiple reports of people getting terrified at night” I remember that I laughed loudly at this.
“Terrified by what, Nathan?”
“Is this a joke to you? I’m being serious. My brother had a friend who’s cousin has gone hiking there with one of his friends and got terrified to their death after seeing a random man staring at them sleeping.”
“Eww… that’s gross”
“Yeah, but that’s true! Anyway, since they have camped close to the trail, they have quickly found their way out and informed police.”
“So, did they catch the man?”
“No..but”
“See.. this could be some random story they have come up to gain some attention. Even if it was true, that could even be a passerby as they have said they have camped so close to the trail”
“Yeah, but listen to the rest of the story and you will lose your sleep forever afterwards.”
“What?”
“After returning home and going trough their phone they had found the pictures taken of them while sleeping…and both of them had swear that neither of them took those photos…”
“Wow…what a handful of lies”
“No Hazel, after until three months these boys had received mysterious messages from a random number. The police had tried to trace the number back, but it had been issued for an old lady with Alzheimer’s living in an elderly care home. Getting any information about the number has then lead to a dead end.
“So?” I asked, trying to contain my laughter.
“They have received the messages once every two weeks, for three months!”
”..and?”
“At the end of the third month one of them went missing and after two weeks from there, the other one went missing too”
“Wow, was the police able to find them?”
“Nope, they just vanished into the this air!”
That was the exact moment that triggered me to explore this trail and show Nathan what a coward he was. I, on the other hand was this brave, energetic girl who, despite all the family issues she went through, managed to still come out as a badass. I could still remember Nathan’s face as I clapped sarcastically at his terrifying, made-up story and challenged him that I would go there alone and prove him it was a lie. That way I thought that I could tease my parents also a little bit for breaking my heart at this tiny little age.
The sun had started setting down, painting the whole sky in different shades of pink and orange. As I was walking deep into the forest I could see its beautiful golden ball shape clearly, descending onto the trees in the horizon, to mark the end of the day. Anyway, I could realize that Nathan was correct about one thing; the trail was not easily recognizable at all at some points. If I was not being vigilant, I could have easily missed track of the trail at several points. In another few meters into the woods, as the intensity of light started to decrease rapidly, I began to realize that the sunset in woods is vastly different from my usual sunsets at home. It was fast and thicker. I guess it was the closely grown layer of trees around me that intensified the darkness, but this sudden change in the surrounding made me a bit uneasy.
Just along with the increasing darkness, intensified the irritating noise of crickets and along I could hear the random unknown noises of some other animals too.. “I want go home” my inner voice screamed. A sudden urge to go home immediately popped out of my brain and I couldn’t not think about it. I desperately needed to get home and hug my parents so tightly. Sitting there I tried to imagine how cozy and protected I would have been if I had just stayed at home.
“That’s it, I’m returning” I thought and turned back to find the trail. But, the darkness had been quicker than me and had swallowed the trail and all the hints that would help me find my way back. I just stood there frozen, desperate and tired, alone in the woods and not knowing what to do next.
“Mom, I need you here” I muttered. That’s when I remembered that I should call her immediately. I quickly opened my bag and grabbed my phone.. but still, luck was not on my side. My phone had zero signal reception at this point. I felt defeated, and this was the loneliest I had ever felt in my entire life.
“Ok, phew… ok” I tried to calm my mind.
“We are not going any deeper, ok? We are not going anywhere. We will just stay here till morning, and as soon as light hits the ground, we are leaving!”
I lit up my torch and started to set up my tent. This was not at all how I had seen camping scenes in the television or YouTube. They were more fun, lit up and not creepy at all. In the tv shows it’s just like, just a minute after going into the woods you are at this perfect open space with beautiful ambience, you set up a tent in five minutes, then enjoy a delicious meal with friends, and then sleep peacefully under the starry night. In my case, it was the total opposite. I was completely alone to begin with, possibly without any human presence in the perimeter of few kilometers at the moment. I had to struggle nearly an hour to set up my tent. Had forgotten a match box so not able to make a fire, also there were barely any stars in the sky, that made my surrounding even more darker.
What a self-absorbed, unprepared idiot am I to get myself into this moment? I cursed all my life decisions that led me to this lonely and creepy place. I was terrified, lonely and hungry. As tears started rolling down my cheeks I took out the instant noodles packet I had brought and started eating it raw.
So far, this seemed to be the worst night in my life. An entire army of mosquitoes started swirling around my ears while some of them pricked their needle-like probiscises onto my skin, even through my blanket. The sound of the crickets also seemed to never stop. After a long time that seemed like eternity, I pushed the lock screen button on my phone to check time, praying to god that may it be the dawn.
“8:35?”
I was devastated. This was going to be a long night. Then, like a lunatic, I started checking the time frequently.
“8:52”
“9:10”
“9:18”
“9:26”
“9:52”
“10:02”
“10:10”
“10:22”
“10:28”
In the meantime I got some inconsistent sleep that was frequently interrupted by the noisy mosquitoes. I lit my phone’s flashlight and there were nearly fifty mosquitoes trapped inside with me. I couldn’t resist to stay the rest of the night with them inside, so I opened the small window-like part of the tent to allow them to find their way outside of my tent.
“10:55”
“11:02”
“11:14”
“11:20”
That’s when I could hear the something that sounded like the footsteps of someone. Careful but heavy footsteps. I was mortified. Laying inside the tent I just froze. I tried my best to not think about the story Nathan has told me. Although it sounded funny in that sunny morning, when I was surrounded by nearly 50 students in my class, it seemed like the most horrifying story ever when I was recalling it in this lonely and dark forest in the night.
“Tap… tap…”
Now the footsteps were closer. I closed my eyes even tighter. Whoever he was, whatever it was, I didn’t want to look at it. My only concern was whether this creature could hear my thudding heartbeat or shaking legs.
“The window! God! I just let it open for the mosquitoes to go out!”
I was helpless. All in this sudden I didn’t have access to any weapon to defend myself. I could remember that I had a small knife inside my side pocket, but if I open it now the stranger could hear it so clearly for sure. So I just left all my hopes, and got ready to embrace what was coming next. The footsteps approached even closer, that now the only thing separating me and him (or it) was the wall of my tent.I could hear my heartbeat intensifying. And I guess in the next moment, I just passed out with fear.
I could hear the birds chirp when I regained my consciousness the next day. I tried to open my eyes, but they were so tired that it seemed as if my eyelids were glued together. After rubbing my eyes for a few seconds I could remember what happened during the last night. I suddenly sat up, looked around and found my phone that was lying near my bag. But then, I noticed it… the window of my tent… it had been closed. That window could only be closed from inside, and I was pretty sure that I didn’t close it, as I just passed out of fear. And next I noticed the second change. The zipper of the entrance was not fully closed. It looked like when someone goes outside and tries to close the zipper to the maximum extent possible from outside. I was pretty sure that when I went to sleep I fully closed this one too. So then, what could be the explanation to all these?
I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t. I just opened my bag, grabbed my knife and went outside, in the hope of fighting whoever is waiting outside to get me.
There was nobody. The surrounding was absolutely calm and quiet.. The morning sunshine had fallen over everything around me, the greeny trees were swinging along with the morning breeze, and the birds were chirping happily. However, my gut feeling was that I should get out of here immediately. I quickly grabbed whatever I could and started heading back from the trail which I could now locate with a bit of effort. But my adrenaline had not yet been finished with its job. I was still in panic mode. I ran herr and there to find my way back as soon as I could.
Suddenly, I could hear the chiming sound of my message tone in my mobile. My phone had received signal. I just quickly dialled 911 and explained them my emergency, which led to police and a local searching team to step up and locate me within two hours.
The story is not over yet. The most disturbing part is yet to come. As soon as I got into the safe hands of the officers I opened my phone and checked my gallery. As I have imagined, the worst had happened and I could find four images of me sleeping in two different angles, timestamped at 11:55, 12:23, 12:56 and 01:16. By looking at them I could clearly say that someone had definitely entered my tent that night. Although I tried my best to explain the officers what might have happened, they consoled me and directed me to a psychiatrist to treat me with my hallucinations thinking that I might have set up my camera and taken the photos by myself at that night.
It has been twelve days since my rescue, and I still cannot sleep properly at night. Every night while sleeping I keep looking at my phone, and during the day and night when I hear my message tone, a chill runs down my spine thinking it is a message from a person unknown.