Ok so never done one of these before so bear with me. My thoughts are kind of scattered, this happened a few months ago though so I’ve had some time to figure out how to explain this. But let me give some background. Me and my friend group from high school go on a trip every summer to some place. One year we got a lake house for a week, the next a penthouse in the city, but this year we got a beach house in North Carolina. I changed the names but there’s me, Griffin, DJ, and then there’s Kylie, Maddy, and Claire. We all sort of went our own ways in college, grew up a bit and changed, this trip every summer always brought us back together.
So this was our third trip and we just finished our Junior year of college. We got to the house and it was sick. We practically had our own beach because the closest houses were like half a mile on either side. It was a super dope spot and we all were excited that we didn’t have to worry about noise complaints or anything. We promptly got changed and made our way to the beach. Griffin and Maddy hung back to make us frozen drinks(we’re pretty sure they’re hooking up, not important I just wanted to add it cause Griffin sometimes reads this kinda shit). But yeah they hung back and when they came down to the beach we got fucking plastered. Looking back putting the frat boy and party girl in charge of making us drinks wasn’t a good call but damn were those drinks strong.
So we all got super drunk and had a pretty solid day at the beach. About an hour or two into chilling, DJ goes “Yo wanna grab the spikeball and shit?”
“Why? You want me to give you the smoke?” Griffin said this then spilled his drink while laughing at his own shitty joke “Oh shit its on my pants.” Then he ran in the ocean.
DJ and I went back to the house to grab the lacrosse sticks he brought and the spikeball net. We got to the house and grabbed the sticks and stuff from the car. That’s when we heard the most blood curdling scream we’ve ever heard. I know it’s cliche but I genuinely felt the hairs on my arms stand up straight. DJ and I looked at each other and he started in a full on sprint to the beach. I guess he assumed it was one of the girls and wanted to see what happened in case something went down. I followed. Once we got over the dunes we saw Griffin running to us.
DJ asked “Bro what happened?”
“What do you mean? That wasn’t you guys?” Griffin asked, confused.
“No, we thought it was you guys”
We all just sort of stood there and scanned the area. After walking around the perimeter for a bit we went back to the beach and tried to play it off but we made sure to keep an eye out for whatever made that fucking noise. We ended up chalking it up to being a fox or something. DJ was a hunter and said it was plausible so that’s all the explanation we needed and we got right back to drinking and fucking around.
It did kind of kill the vibe though so we packed up after thirty or so minutes and went back to the house. We all went to our respective beds/couch for post beach and drinking naps.
We woke up an hour or two later and continued our day. Honestly the rest of the night was pretty normal. We just sort of hung out, played some drinking games and hung out. But when we woke up the next morning we realized we wouldn’t be able to have another beach day as it was torrential down pouring outside. All that really meant was the drinking and smoking would be taking place inside today. We were pretty much split half and half: Me, Griffin, and Maddy were drinking while DJ, Claire, and Kylie were getting high. As the day went on the rain got worse, and we got more fucked up. Which is why when Claire and Kylie said they heard something outside. We figured it was them just being paranoid and freaked out from the storm. But after they insisted on it not being the weed or rain, we sent our designated tough guys: Griffin and DJ to check it out.
After about ten or so minutes they come back soaking wet and out of breath. We asked them if they saw anything and then they explained that they were just doing a lap around the house and talking shit when they saw something moving by the dunes. They called out but whatever it was just went deeper into the dunes. So they head over but when they got there they couldn’t find whatever it was. So after looking for a bit they gave up and came back. This sort of creeped us out. But they assured us it was fine and it was probably just an animal or the wind or something. Everyone else relaxed a bit but I was more skeptical. After 8+ years of friendship you pick up on subtle speech patterns and stuff like that and I could tell when DJ said this he was trying to make us calm down.
I pulled DJ aside and asked him about it alone, but all he said was “listen man, I don’t know what it was but we’re all good. Odds are it was just a deer and Griffin just had one too many.”
I honestly agreed, Griffin, while I love him, is not the most reliable source, especially while drunk. As the day went on we just hung out and tried to wait out the rain, which didn’t work because it went on until it was dark out. We ended up playing a drinking game in the living room, it was some shit called spoons idk but that’s not important.
What is important is that after playing for a bit we heard what we thought were people outside. It sounded like they were playing music, and talking and all that. It was like they were having a party. We all looked at each other confused.
Kylie went “I thought there was like no one else around us.”
“There isn’t” I answered, “Who the hell is out there?”
Griffin and DJ stood up, DJ grabbed a lacrosse stick and Griffin grabbed a flashlight. I was going to let them handle it but after the girls looked at me as I just sat there I felt guilty so I got up too, all I had was a pocket knife I always kept on me.
I guess my role was moral support as if there were people outside and we had a confrontation, DJ and Griffin would be our main assets. I just sort of followed them as they walked around the house.
Like an idiot in a horror movie Griffin shouted “YO! WHO’S OUT THERE!?” and then shined his flashlight across the dunes. This time I saw it. We couldn’t make out what it was but it looked like something was moving. DJ and Griffin look at each other and take off towards it, I was hesitant but I followed as well. But when we got to the dunes there was nothing. No people, not footprints, nothing. Nothing on the beach, no sign of anything being there.
We looked around for a bit longer but couldn’t find anything. So we went back to the house and locked the doors and turned on all the outside lights. We slowed down on the drinking and all just sort of sat there. The girls kept asking what was out there but we just had to explain there was nothing. Which they found annoying.
What was weird is how this affected the vibe. We never had any problems, hardly had any fights in our group. But now, everyone was on edge. Kylie and Maddy who have been best friends since they were six weren’t talking, Claire who is our resident chill stoner was paranoid as fuck. So I figured the girls were just freaked out but when Griffin was acting off too I knew something was wrong. Griffin was one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met, always cracking jokes, always smiling. He was stone cold. Looking out the window, at nothing, fist balled like he was ready to fight. DJ on the other hand was drinking, way more than usual. I was also distant, just not involved in what was happening, like everything was in a fog and I couldn’t connect to the conversation.
I figured it was best for me to bring this up, I’m not usually one to speak up about stuff but I just had to say something “Guy’s we gotta stop tweaking. There’s nothing out there, let’s just relax. Ok? Have some fun.”.
They all just looked at me, and like that they snapped out of it. Like nothing had even happened, it’s like they came out of a trance or something and then bam we were having fun again. We quickly got back into the swing of things and kept drinking, but there was still some tension between everyone. I decided to throw on some music to hopefully alleviate the awkwardness, this actually did help a bit. The mood was a bit better, Griffin started cracking jokes again. The girls were talking again. It was going pretty well. Sadly because of how well things were going, we didn’t realize that DJ had left. He just up and walked out. We were lost in our bullshit conversations until we were all cut off by another blood curdling scream. We all went silent, we were frozen. Something was different about this scream, it was closer. That’s when Claire broke the silence “Wait, where’s DJ?”
We all looked around the room, nothing, we ran through the house, nothing. Then all of a sudden Griffin went into fucking superhero mode. He grabbed one of the lacrosse sticks left on the table and practically ran through the door. He didn’t seem to care about the potential danger. I on the other hand was more scared of what could be out there. But I couldn’t just let Griffin go out there by himself so I grabbed a flashlight and followed.
We ran for only thirty or so seconds, yelling out for DJ. We didn’t get a response. Only thing out there was the beach and the ocean, we made it to the beach but were stopped in our tracks by a low deafening sound. The closest thing I could relate it to would be like a tug boat horn. It felt like how it feels when you hear fireworks and get that hit to your chest. It lasted only ten or so seconds but jesus those ten seconds fucking blew.
I shined my flashlight out into the ocean but we didn’t see anything besides a buoy floating 50 or so yards out. I looked at Griffin, he was fucking pissed. “Stick close with me.” Then he breaks off in a jog down the beach. He’s scanning back and forth looking for any sign of DJ
We made it to another set of dunes then he stopped. I stopped too and looked at him. He went from pissed to terrified. “Turn off the light.”
I’m obviously pretty confused but then I follow his gaze and see it. I don’t really know how to describe it, it was like a giant moving mound of sand or some shit. It was shaped like someone made a shitty sculpture of a human out of sand. I honestly don’t know, it had two arms, two legs, had a head-like thing but it was more of a dome that sat on top, and it was covered with scattered rocks and seaweed. I fell back in fear. I genuinely couldn’t move. I wanted to scream but I couldn’t. The flashlight got buried in the sand and that just made it harder to make out what this thing was. I don’t think I really understood how big this thing was, I was just mesmerized by it. And more accurately, terrified. Then I realized it was getting closer to us.
Griffin stood there, motionless. He followed it with his eyes but he too was frozen. While it was getting closer, it wasn’t walking towards us. It was walking past us, with no purpose or urgency, like it was just going for a stroll on the beach. It walked sluggishly, like it was dragging its legs in the sand. It wasn’t until it was right next to us, I mean like 15 or so feet away from us that I realized how big it was. Griffin is just over 6 feet tall and is pretty built, he looked like a fucking child next to this thing. It had to be almost double his height and twice as wide. It dwarfed him. Then it looked at us, I could tell because it turned its head towards us where I saw two divots in the sand. I’m guessing those were its eyes-things.
That was when a mouth formed, it opened up like a puppet and out came a muffled and echoed “Why? You want me to give you the smoke? Oh shit it’s on my pants.” It was Griffins voice.
I looked up at Griffin and saw that tears began to roll down his face. But he still couldn’t move.
“What the fuck” these words were broken up by Griffin trying not to burst out in a sobbing crying fight.
The thing kept walking past us, then another voice came out of it. It was DJ, “Calm down man, you’re good, just relax. You’re fine, just breathe.”
This must have provoked Griffin enough that he could muster up the courage to speak. Quietly I heard him ask “Where- where is he?”
The sand thing turned around and looked at us, it then lifted one of its arms in the direction it came from as if it was pointing. Then it continued walking. We didn’t move. It just kept “playing” these sounds, there were seagulls, waves crashing, rain, fucking any thing you could think of that you might hear on the beach it had copied and was just repeating. I also noticed that despite it dragging its feet in the sand, it didn’t leave a trail. The only thing it left behind was the occasional piece of seaweed or rock that fell off its body. We watched it go to the dune, grab a handful of grass, and shove it in its mouth then keep walking.
Eventually, after it was over a hundred or so feet away I slowly got up and approached Griffin. He was still fucked up. But snapped out of it when I said “We’ve got to go find DJ.”
We wandered down the beach and eventually after looking for 10 minutes we found him unconscious in the sand. He didn’t seem to be hurt, no bruises or anything like that. So me and Griffin picked him up and carried him back to the house. We were pretty cautious not to run into the thing again. Despite it not actually doing anything to us, we didn’t want to risk it.
We made it back to the house and put DJ down on the couch. Then we had to explain what just happened to the girls. I honestly wasn’t sure where to start, and Griffin didn’t even really want to talk about it. But we really didn’t have to, because DJ woke up. And the first thing he said was “Was that real?”.
Me and Griffin instantly knew what he was talking about, Griffin spoke up but only said “Yeah”.
I had to ask, “Did it hurt you?”
DJ was shaken and trying to collect his thoughts, can’t blame him. He went “No, I went for a walk to try and calm down then that thing showed up and like waved at me.”
“What fucking thing?” Claire was getting annoyed. We didn’t care and kept listening to DJ.
“Then it offered me a bunch of seaweed, that’s pretty much all I remember.”
“What the fuck are you guys talking about?” Kylie was also getting annoyed.
Then we started to explain the whole situation. They didn’t believe us. To be fair it is a lot to hear and pretty hard to believe but we were getting pissed off they didn’t believe it. Then, almost on queue we heard us. Like from outside that thing started playing me and Griffin calling out “DJ! DJ! Dude where are you!”
The girls went over to the window, we locked the doors, as if locking the door would stop that thing if it wanted to get in here. They said they didn’t see anything but pulled the blinds down. We left the next morning. We honestly didn’t really talk about it much, the car ride home was pretty quiet. We only talked about this a handful of times, once was when we all got together over thanksgiving break. This was when DJ told us why he really went out for his walk that night. He said he “Needed to find out what the fuck was in the dunes” and that “it just didn’t make sense.” So he dipped when no one was looking because he didn’t want to sound weird. Then he said he started getting paranoid and had a panic attack. The other time was actually last night. I was on Xbox with Griffin and around 1 am just started spilling about how he hasn’t really stopped thinking about it, and how he wants to go back. I also want to go back, that thing wasn’t malicious, it almost seemed helpful from what we saw and what DJ said. If we go back I’ll update you guys but yeah, I just wanted to tell someone about it cause right now it’s pretty much just our group that knows. So yeah. Thanks I guess.
Oh and by the way, DJ had a good name for this thing. He called it the Sand Walker.