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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Neil4123 on 2024-09-10 16:48:21+00:00.
Growing up in rural Missouri, I lived in a small house at the edge of civilization. A series of gravel roads winded through the area my house was in, but mine was the only house on our road, and was thus very secluded. My parents and our mailman were the only ones to use our road at all, it was such a rare event for anyone else to drive by that my parents would always walk to the window and speculate on what the car was doing driving past our house, that’s the level of isolation my childhood home had.
To the north, east, and west of our house were calm pastures with rolling hills. Sparse areas of trees littered the pastures, but nothing very dense or large. Just calm, peaceful hills as far as the eye could see.
To the south however, was a short area of pasture, maybe 100 feet or so, then miles of dense, thick forest. An area completely untouched by civilization, unchanged since the arrival of the pilgrims and settlers of centuries past. It was from these woods that the source of my childhood fear lay dormant, a memory that I had repressed that has recently come out through a series of therapy sessions designed to awaken repressed memories. Here is the recounting of those events, the best I can remember.
This was a summer in the mid 90’s, the time just before the advent of the internet would come and take away the desire for kids to play outside a lot. That wasn’t the case for me, my go to activity was playing basketball outside, especially after dark. Not only did the darkness provide comfortable temperatures for me to play out the imaginary games and buzzer beating 3’s in my head, but I also appreciated the ambience. Our large light pole providing a wide, gentle glow, which was all the illumination I would need to play. I never got much time out in this situation, maybe an hour per night if I was lucky, but these moments are the fondest memories I have of my childhood.
One such night, as I was imagining myself as an NBA star pulling a sick crossover on Michael Jordan, I noticed a dim light moving through the trees in the south, as if someone was walking through the forest carrying the light source. From the flickering of the light, it appeared to be some sort of flame on the end of a stick. I was immediately shaken, my vivid, childhood imagination running wild with what possibilities could be lurking in the darkness.
Eventually, the torch reached the edge of the woods. An old woman stood holding the light source at the edge of the trees, the slightly dark tinge of her skin led me to immediately identify her as a Native American. She wore a very tattered, dirty dress, and wore a crown adorned with deer antlers. Her eyes held a piercing quality, the type of stare that would make even the most stoic of adults squirm under its gaze, and it was laser focused right on me. Her mouth opened very slightly, as if to speak.
“Come...” was all she said, a dark scratchy whisper that reached my ears despite the woman being a good 100 feet from my location.
For a brief moment, I was frozen. My heart thudding against my chest harder than I thought was possible. I SHOULD run into my house, my brain knew that was the smartest course of action, but I felt as if I was not in complete control of my body. Her whispered “come” constantly scratched an itch in my brain, akin to the most powerful drug you’ve ever taken. I was unable to resist. Dropping my basketball, I began to slowly walk towards her, the dull bounce of my basketball hitting the ground and slowly bouncing to a stop the only sound accompanying the dull drone of insects in the night.
As I approached through the pasture, she turned back into the woods. She stayed just far enough ahead to keep her torchlight from ever reaching me. As I strayed away from the light of our driveway, and into the woods, I was completely enveloped in total darkness. The type of darkness that is only known by those living in God forsaken lands far away from all civilization, where even the light of the stars was not visible due to the canopy above. The only thing I was able to see was the faint torchlight off in the woods, a beacon that told my feet where to step and kept me marching forward in my entranced state.
As we marched on, I was overcome by the feeling of being watched. Surrounded by darkness, and the eyes of a thousand beasts and souls invisible to me. Soon, the crackle of my feet against stones and sticks was accompanied by indistinct whispers coming through the darkness all around me, so faint that I couldn’t even be sure if they were really there at all, or just conjurations of my possessed imagination.
I walked through the forest following the faint light through the trees for an indeterminate amount of time. When thinking about it logically it was probably only 10-15 minutes of walking, but in my altered mental state, it felt like hours.
Eventually, a clearing came into view. However, as I was about to leave woods and enter the clearing, the woman turned sharply towards me. During this brief moment I was jarred by the realization that her eyes now had no pupils visible, just the whites of her eyes glared at me, as if they were rolled back into her head. In the same cold, scratchy voice, she whispered “stop...” I then halted at the edge of the tree line, staring at the faint torchlight and the other creatures it illuminated at the edge of the clearing.
In addition to the woman, there were two others. Try as I may, when I’m trying to recall the images of the others, my brain feels like it experiences some sort of glitch, and I’m unable to firmly grasp what I was seeing. They are merely distorted, vaguely humanoid figures in my field of vision. Maybe these 2 creatures were men, just like the one I would grow up to become, or maybe their terror and strangeness is beyond what our human minds are able to comprehend.
The woman turned back and spoke to the others in a strange language involving a series of clicks and whines. Despite not having ever heard or studied this language, I was able to comprehend its meaning as if I was a fluent speaker.
“The witness has arrived, begin.”
A series of guttural, distorted sounds began to emanate from the others. Almost like the static sound you here coming from a television when the signal is lost, but with a deep, terrifying tinge. A horrifying darkness descended on the clearing, all stars were blocked, erased by the overwhelming blackness. Even the torch the woman was holding seemed to dim, where it was only a faint glimmer in the oppressive darkness. The sounds I had heard surrounding me earlier increased in pitch, leaving no doubt that they were not just objects of my vivid imagination.
The sounds of the others continued to escalate, increasing in volume and frequency. As I listened, I felt that my mind was going to pop, that all sanity was leaving my human form and melting into a puddle on the ground beneath me. I shivered and seized in my standing position, but my eyes remained focused on the small, faint sliver of light given off by the torch.
Eventually, when I felt that my body and mind could handle no more of this onslaught, a loud “pop” ripped through the air. The oppressive darkness was not immediately gone, but was slowly fading back to normal levels of reality. The glow of the torchlight increasing in brightness through the darkness, returning to the point where I was just barely out of its reach at the edge of the clearing.
The 2 others were gone. In their place stood a tall figure, easily twice the height of the woman. A naked humanoid covered in thick hair, composed of oily blackness. It’s face gaunt and intimidating, with a long beard, and thick deer antlers protruding from its skull. Its eyes glowed with a dark green, and it turned and met me with those eyes, staring into my very soul.
Without saying a word, it spoke into my mind, with the deepest, most haunting voice I’d ever heard. “You will return, when it is time.”
After the words of the abomination, he and the woman simply vanished from sight. I regained control over my body, and took a seat on the ground, shivering in stunned fear. The sounds of the woods were back to normal, with birds and insects making their normal sounds. I even noticed a raccoon or other small critter walking by in the cool night.
It was there that I waited until a number of flashlights spilled through the trees. It had been several hours, but I was rescued. Of course, when my parents noticed I was no longer outside playing basketball, they had briefly yelled for me and then quickly called the police. A search was organized, and I was eventually found and returned home.
I suppose it’s not surprising that the level of fear and strangeness I experienced was repressed. Even when uncovering this memory I feel the same wave of fear. I question whether it was even real at all, or if I simply had some sort of psychotic break and wandered into the woods on my own accord.
In spite of this, as I sit here writing this from my childhood memory, I feel drawn again to the woods south of my childhood home. My parents still live there, I could easily go visit them and take a walk to the clearing again. In fact, the draw seems almost irresistible, I think, no, I know I will be returning there again this coming weekend...or maybe tonight. Yes, tonight I’ll return to my parent’s house and walk deep i...
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