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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/MrKringle111 on 2024-09-17 21:24:03+00:00.
There once came a time in my life when I had sincerely thought why do we do this? Why do we work? Why do we get up in the morning? Why do we do it at all? This thought was brief but was something I had genuinely considered. I have been trying not to think about this for quite some time but I think I’m ready to talk about the time I was indoctrinated into a cult and how I lost my former self. My name is Aron and this is my story.
I think it was around the late fall of 2017. I had just turned 18 and I lived with my parents in the middle of the desert. We were nestled between big mountains just off of a 40-mile dirt road. Or more easily the base of the famous Crown King mountain in AZ. I lived a pretty secluded life and didn’t get to meet many people other than those who lived in the old mining town at the top of Crown King and one friend from Phoenix. I was of course homeschooled and was never a fan of the the desert.
It was so quiet and to be honest very boring. For newcomers, the endless trails and roads that lead to large canyons and old dams were fun and exciting. For me, however, I had seen almost everything within a hundred-mile radius of our 18-acre property. To me, nothing was new or exciting. Speaking of our property it was ancient and if you hadn’t lived there your whole life you’d assume it was an abandoned building only seen by people who go off-roading and exploring. But in fact, we lived there.
The house is at least a hundred years old and has been passed down from buyer to buyer. The most recent owner being a rich snob who trashed the property for years before he went missing in the late 90s before his family sold the property to us. My dad was always a hermit who never liked the city and its people. I for one longed for interactions with others and because I never really did I was always seen as pretty introverted. But I can happily say that most of my days were made better by my sister Trinity who lived in Phoenix and would stop by from time to time to say hi. She was always fun to hang around and made boring uneventful days much more interesting.
She would always bring a gaming console of some kind for us to play for hours, something I’d never get to do otherwise, and she would bring her and her friends to play airsoft battles and occasionally go shoot real guns. It was always a blast. However, my story really begins on December 23, 2017.
On that day I had planned to take Trin to the top of Crown King Mountain seeing as she had never been before. After she had heard of the ghost town that was up there she agreed to go with me on the journey. She had mentioned how she wanted to go through the main road that everyone takes to the mining town but I being the annoying brother that I was said we should take the back roads which would take significantly longer. She finally with enough convincing agreed once more and not long after we were off.
The journey there and back would take at least 8 to 9 hours depending on the weather and the roads themselves. This road up the mountain was very much considered dangerous and hard to move through. In other words, if you didn’t have the right vehicle you would most certainly get stuck. But I was not worried. I had been up that mountain at least five or six times. And three of which I went by myself or just with friends. And the weather was perfect, well, as perfect as Arizona weather can be. What I’m saying is that Trin and I had nothing to worry about... or so we thought. It was around two hours into our journey when something made me do something very stupid. And my following actions would lead us through a path of misery from here on out. There are many spots that you have to go through that are known as a wash. It is basically just a large river bed made by rain. This particular wash we were moving through was smooth and was nothing compared to what was ahead. However, it was smushed between two cliff sides effectively making it a small canyon in a way.
Then we were stopped. The wash was blocked. Large boulders blocked our path. I had never come across anything like it before and seeing it was a little strange for me. From here I had two options. Turn around and go back or... go around and make my own path. I think you know what I did. I got out and hiked up the steep cliff and saw that if I just bush-waked it for about half a mile I could get on another wash that would connect back to the main wash. Now everyone who takes this road to the top of Crown King knows that getting stuck is a pretty good possibility. And I knew this as well. I had packed two universal walkie-talkies. And these were no cheap things either. They could reach up to 100-plus miles away. Trin had also been talking to our parents throughout the trip so I was pretty sure we’d be fine.
I told Trinity the plan and she immediately hated the idea. In the end, I said I was the driver and that we would be fine. She was not convinced. To make her feel a little better I said if I felt like I was gonna get stuck even a little I would turn around. Thinking back it seems my words to her were also not very convincing seeing as I had just ignored her distress already. We started making our way through. At first, it was not too bad. We or rather I would have to get out occasionally to move some large rocks but overall it was nothing I couldn’t handle. That was until close to the middle of this half-mile trek the sound of rocks crumbling and falling from the left cliffside, the one we were closest to, could be heard. I stop and look up just in time to see a rock the size of a small car tumble down the mountain before hitting our Can-Am and sending us rolling. We rolled for several seconds before our vehicle stopped on its side.
I sat there in silence and shock for what seemed like 5 whole minutes before looking to my side and seeing an unconscious Trinity. She was bleeding from her forehead but more concerningly she had a 3-foot Mesquite tree branch sticking out of her stomach. I instantly unbuckled myself before the pain made me notice my own injuries. I looked down to see my foot was in the floor. I carefully pulled it out of the floorboard to see that my shoe was gone and my big toe was also gone. And it was bleeding profusely. I can only assume that my foot being exposed to the outside of the Can-Am while it was rolling ripped my toe clean off. Of course, I wasn’t thinking this at that moment.
I leaned over and unbuckled Trin but before I did I heard a quick whistle. I stopped, staying quiet for just a moment, and started listening. When I didn’t hear anything I continued to unbuckle Trin and then open her door. Of course, I wasn’t thinking and forgot that the vehicle was on its side so not long after unbuckling trin did her body slink onto me. I still managed to open her door though I was pretty much pinned by her body now.
As I struggled to get her body off I heard another whistle This one more distinct. It was a person. In a desperate state of panic, I started yelling for help. Asking for anyone to help me. Not long after I yelled I heard the crunching footsteps on gravel approaching ever closer. And expecting to see a fellow rider I saw much worse. Someone climbed the vehicle until I saw two hands on the passenger door. But when they pulled themselves up I saw not a person. But the face of a donkey. And as their head blocked the sun I could see fully the half-naked man wearing the head of a donkey.
I should mention that donkeys are pretty invasive from where I lived. They were everywhere. And You could always hear them braying into the night and even throughout the day. My mind at that moment was in such disbelief that I just stared with a little bit of fear but mostly confusion in my eyes. This... person finally spoke.
“Do you want my help?” The voice was muffled by the head of the donkey and was a little raspy but sounded so casual my eyes narrowed and my brows lowered as to show even more confusion than before. But before I could even think of anything to say he speaks again. “We can help. You just got to commit. Do you commit?” I was so thrown back that I couldn’t help but say aloud “What?” He then simply shrugs his shoulders and begins to turn to hop down off the Can-Am. In the worry that he was simply about to leave I quickly blurt out “Yes, Yes I need help!” He stops and turns back around slowly. He looks down and says once again “Do you commit?” I respond, “Commit to what?” He stares at me for a moment as he does the jaw of the donkey falls open revealing that it is missing almost all of its teeth. Looking through I could also see the bottom half of the man’s face.
And I could see he was grinning. I look at him now with a bit of fear visibly showing on my face. “Can you take us back to the bottom of the mountain? He responds “Sure can. Can you commit?” I looked around at my situation for a moment thinking carefully about what I was going to say. In hindsight, I wasn’t thinking at all and was actually acting out of fear and desperation. But I thought I had no other option... so I nodded. I can still remember looking through the dark mouth of the dead-eyed donkey and seeing his grin grow into a toothy smile. I knew almost immediately that I had made the wrong choice.
But I didn’t have much time to think at all before four other people, all women, hopped up onto the vehicle. These women were wearing much more clothes covering their whole body. Though clothes might not h...
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