I was still a university student in Hungary when it happened. It was December, and the winter break had just started, so I wanted to return to my family in Transylvania. I spent the first day packing up my things. I wasn’t planning on returning until January.
The following morning I started the car and left the city. The snow was heavy. It was hard to see anything except the road and the light of other cars. I followed the GPS until I crossed the border, but then it stopped working, so I had to use my map.
It started to get dark, the weather conditions were getting really bad, and I could barely see the road in front of my car. I looked at my map. A big city called Cluj should’ve been close, but I wasn’t sure exactly where I was, and the GPS was still dead.
My home was still 4 hours of driving away, or even more as the conditions weren’t improving. I called my mother. She told me to find a place to stay in any village or city I find, or in the worst case just find a parking lot and sleep in the car.
I drove a few more minutes, hoping that I could find Cluj or another city. After a while, I found an old-looking village. It wasn’t big, maybe it had around a few hundred houses. I stopped my car at the edge of the road, then took my keys, phone, and wallet with me. It was around 9 pm.
All of the houses were old and small. A lot of houses had their windows barricaded. There weren’t any street lights, so I had to use my phone to illuminate the empty streets. I was sure there wasn’t any hotel there, so I should’ve just gone back to my car and slept there, but then I noticed someone.
It was an old man. I wanted to ask him if he could help me, but as I pointed my phone at him and saw his face, I stepped back a little. His eyes were black and wide open. He had a disturbing, broad smile. His skin was pale like an albino. He was bald, with an unorganized beard.
He was looking straight at me, then started to approach. I noticed that my left leg was shaking, so I tried to calm down. C’mon, it’s just an old man, he can’t hurt me. Don’t be stupid.
As he got closer, I could feel my heart in my chest. His arms and fingers were abnormally long, like he could reach his ankles. He started giggling like he was crazy.
“Uhm, hi,” I greeted him, trying to be kind. “I would like to stay here for the night. Do you know any hotels nearby?”
He’s probably drunk, I thought. I noticed that my hands were shaking too. I took a deep breath.
“I can help, I can help,” he responded, still giggling. His wide smile still hasn’t disappeared from his face. His strange black eyes creeped me out. “You can sleep there!”
He pointed at another wooden house. Its windows were barricaded too, except the one. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to stay there.
“Is… is it yours?” I asked.
‘Nobody lives there. You can sleep in the attic. There is a bed up there.”
“Thank you.”
Before I could say anything else, he let out a loud laugh, then ran away, but the way he did it left me frightened. He stood on all fours, then ran like some kind of cat, using his hands as legs too.
I just stood there for a minute, frozen from fear, and also because of the cold weather. I considered going back to my car and leaving this village behind, but it was already dark, and the weather was getting worse every minute, so I walked towards the house the old man showed me. It looked ancient, like nobody had lived there for decades. I hoped this was the case because I didn’t want to meet any more people if I didn’t have to.
As I approached the building, I saw another one in its neighborhood, whose windows weren’t barricaded. I saw a little girl in the window, who was around 7. She had the same black eyes as the old man, along with the disturbing, huge smile on her face.
She waved at me. Chill ran through my spine, then I ran through the fence to go inside that house the man showed me.
I opened the door. It was so loud it scared me. I went inside and found exactly what I expected. An old, abandoned kitchen full of spiderwebs. There was a table and a few chairs, but all in terrible condition. I walked up the stairs to the attic. The old man was right, there was a bed, which was also at least a hundred years old.
I laid down on the bed. There was also a window on my left side, so I could see the streets. I looked up. There was a large spider web a few feets above me, and a big scary spider in it. I looked at the corner of the attic and saw an old wardrobe.
I just couldn’t fall asleep. I felt unsafe. I laid there for like an hour, then heard a loud scream coming from the streets. I jumped out of my bed, scared. I slowly looked out the window and saw a man with black hair. He screamed again, and again, and again.
He took a deep breath, then screamed again, like a madman. I checked my phone to see what time it was, and he probably saw the light through the window. The guy looked at me from the streets. He had the same damn eyes as the old man and the little girl, smiling madly. He then screamed again, straight at me. It was a loud smile, like someone was torturing him, but he didn’t have any visible injuries. He was just… crazy.
He then ran towards the door of the house I was in, and went inside. I remembered that the door wasn’t locked when I arrived, and I didn’t close it after I went in either. The blood froze in my body.
There was a crazy man in the same house as me. I quickly ran towards the attic’s trapdoor and locked it. He started hitting the trapdoor from below, trying to open it.
I quietly walked towards the closet in the corner, hiding in it. It wasn’t comfortable and was full of spiderwebs and spiders. I heard the man trying to get in, then finally heard a loud bang. I immediately knew that the man had opened the trapdoor, and he was now in the attic with me. I just hoped that he couldn’t find me in the closet.
I heard him walking through the attic. Then I felt a spider crawling on my neck. I always hated spiders and bugs in general. I could feel its tiny legs moving on my skin, and I couldn’t do anything because the man could’ve heard me.
A few minutes later, everything went silent. I couldn’t hear the man walking around anymore. I hoped that he just left the house. I felt more and more spiders on me as time passed, and it started to annoy me. I decided to wait a little bit more.
I waited there for at least an hour. I was still hesitant. The man could’ve been still there, waiting for me, but I couldn’t just stay in that wardrobe forever. My legs started to get tired, and I was sleepy.
I decided to come out. I opened the closet doors, and at that moment my worst fear came true. The man was standing in front of me with his damn black eyes and smile. He screamed in my face with the same terrifying voice. I almost fainted and felt like I was about to die.
The man jumped at me, pushing me back into the wardrobe. I hit my head there. My survival instincts kicked in, and I quickly stood up and ran towards the unlocked trapdoor, then jumped down to the kitchen as fast as I could.
I ran out of the house, shutting the door behind me. It was strange, I didn’t hear the man running after me. I decided to go back to my car and leave this village behind. The weather was better than a few hours before, even though it was still snowing.
I looked at the house’s window where I tried to sleep, and there was the man still smiling at me. I quickly turned away, running towards my car, but then I stopped and looked around.
I couldn’t remember where my car was. The village seemed like it had changed. It wasn’t the same as before. The houses seemed bigger, and I saw a temple at the end of the street, which I didn’t remember seeing when I arrived.
A few houses away I saw the little girl I saw earlier, singing some innocent kid song, but it was still terrifying. Then she turned towards me and screamed. I felt like I was in some kind of nightmare.
I turned back and saw the old man. The one who showed me the house. He ran towards me on all fours, like I saw him running away a few hours before. I didn’t know what to feel, it was just too surreal. I was and still am an atheist, but I hoped there was a god who could’ve saved me.
I ran, trying to reach the edge of the village, hoping I could find my car there. I ran, not looking back, but knowing that the old man was still chasing me. I could hear him running.
I had never run so fast in my entire life, but still couldn’t see the edge of the village. I was so tired that I just fell on my knees after about a minute. I looked back and saw the old man behind me. I knew that I was about to die, but then I looked around, and finally recognized where I was.
I saw the house where I was trying to sleep, then saw my car exactly where I left it. I couldn’t understand how did it happen. I was running in a straight line from the house and arrived at the same place, but it wasn’t actually the same place.
I had no time to think. I used my remaining energy to stand up and run back to my car. I quickly sat behind the wheel, then started the engine. I pressed the throttle pedal with as much force as I could.
I turned back to the main road, then looked back at the village. There was nothing there, just a forest. I was shocked. There wasn’t even a road there, even though I came from that direction. It was like the village had vanished with the old man. I felt like I was about to faint again. I looked back to the backseat and there was a water bottle. I drank all the water from it.
When I finally calmed down, I started driving. About twenty minutes later I found Cluj and a hotel to sleep at. The following day I arrived home and told everything to my parents. They had no idea what happened, at first they didn’t want to believe me, but then I showed them the scar on my head, which I got when the crazy man attacked me and I hit my head.
A few weeks later I drove back to Hungary on the same road. I’ve never found that village again. I still have nightmares from that night. I have no idea what happened that day. I wasn’t drunk and I wasn’t under the influence of drugs. My brain tries to tell me that I was just hallucinating. The memories seem distant. I know it happened, and everything was real. I know.