Latest / Crime and Horror / Top 3 SCARIEST stalker stories Halloween Scare-A-Thon (part 2)

Transcript

Top 3 SCARIEST stalker stories Halloween Scare-A-Thon (part 2) · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: Don't forget. We survived for two hundred thousand years without
0:04
Speaker 1: being anywhere near the top of the food chain, and
0:07
Speaker 1: our ancient ancestors were able to do that by developing
0:10
Speaker 1: survival instincts, and those survival instincts are still buried in
0:15
Speaker 1: our subconscious today. So when you have a bad feeling
0:18
Speaker 1: about something, like something's wrong here, I don't know what
0:21
Speaker 1: it is, you should listen to that because it might
0:23
Speaker 1: just save your life. Before I get into today's stories.
0:25
Speaker 1: If you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious
0:28
Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you come to the right place,
0:30
Speaker 1: because that's all we do, and we upload three, four,
0:33
Speaker 1: even five times every week. So if that's of interest
0:35
Speaker 1: to you, please sneak under the like button's chair and
0:38
Speaker 1: tie their shoelaces together. Also, please subscribe to this channel
0:41
Speaker 1: and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any
0:43
Speaker 1: of our weekly uploads. All right, let's get into today's stories.
1:00
Speaker 1: By the summer of two thousand and seven, Chris had
1:02
Speaker 1: been working as a park ranger in southeastern Pennsylvania for
1:06
Speaker 1: a number of years, and by and large he enjoyed
1:08
Speaker 1: his occupation. Some of the time he got to do
1:10
Speaker 1: what he loved, which was hiking in the forest, and
1:13
Speaker 1: some of the time it required doing something he hated,
1:16
Speaker 1: which was office work that usually required staying late at night.
1:19
Speaker 1: On one of those late nights in August of two
1:21
Speaker 1: thousand and seven, Chris's boss, Mike, said that he needed
1:25
Speaker 1: to leave the office and go down the access road
1:27
Speaker 1: to this tool shed they had. He needed to get
1:29
Speaker 1: some equipment and bring it back up to the office
1:31
Speaker 1: for some reason, and he said he'd be back in
1:33
Speaker 1: about fifteen minutes. As soon as Mike left, Chris decided,
1:36
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm going to take a break from
1:37
Speaker 1: my work and I'm going to step outside for a minute.
1:39
Speaker 1: Right in front of the office building was a little
1:41
Speaker 1: staff parking lot, and then about fifty meters beyond that
1:44
Speaker 1: was the edge of this really dense forest, where the
1:47
Speaker 1: access road that Mike had just gone down to get
1:49
Speaker 1: to the tool shed basically split right through the middle
1:52
Speaker 1: and went straight out past the office. When Chris stepped
1:55
Speaker 1: outside to take his break, he sat down on the
1:57
Speaker 1: front steps that overlooked that parking lot and the access
2:00
Speaker 1: and he was just kind of looking out towards the forest,
2:02
Speaker 1: not thinking about what he was looking at, just kind
2:05
Speaker 1: of mindlessly sitting there, when all of a sudden, he
2:07
Speaker 1: just started to feel like someone's watching me, and instinctively
2:11
Speaker 1: he turned around to look back into the office, as
2:15
Speaker 1: if maybe someone was behind him, but he remembered that
2:18
Speaker 1: he and Mike were the only ones there that night,
2:20
Speaker 1: so no one's going to be behind him, and so
2:22
Speaker 1: he turned back around and he looked out at the
2:24
Speaker 1: parking lot and he didn't see any movement. And he
2:27
Speaker 1: looked down to the edge of the forest, which he
2:29
Speaker 1: could see because the moon was fairly bright that night,
2:31
Speaker 1: so the illumination was pretty good, and there was no
2:34
Speaker 1: movement against the tree line. There was no animals, there
2:36
Speaker 1: was no people, and Mike had not come back yet,
2:38
Speaker 1: so there's nothing going on in front of him. There's
2:41
Speaker 1: nothing going on behind him. But he just could not
2:43
Speaker 1: shake this feeling that someone was watching him. And so Chris,
2:47
Speaker 1: you know, he's not easily spooked. He's used to being
2:49
Speaker 1: out in the forest in the daytime and at night,
2:51
Speaker 1: he's used to being at this office. A lot of
2:54
Speaker 1: times he worked at the office on his own at night,
2:56
Speaker 1: so he's used to this environment. And so he thought,
2:59
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna go around and so he
3:00
Speaker 1: walks down the steps and he walks into the parking
3:03
Speaker 1: lot and he begins looking behind some of the cars.
3:05
Speaker 1: There's only a handful in the lot. There's nothing in
3:07
Speaker 1: the lot. And he keeps walking till he's about ten
3:10
Speaker 1: meters away from the edge of the forest and he
3:12
Speaker 1: looks into the forest and it's too dark to see anything,
3:15
Speaker 1: and there's nothing out here. There's no movement, there's no animals.
3:18
Speaker 1: Mike is still not back yet. And so even though
3:21
Speaker 1: he could not shake this sense that someone is watching him,
3:24
Speaker 1: he felt like, you know what I did, my diligence,
3:26
Speaker 1: and there's no one out here, so it's just got
3:28
Speaker 1: to be in my head. And so he decides he's
3:30
Speaker 1: going to go back inside. And so he turns around
3:32
Speaker 1: and he starts walking back up towards the office, when
3:35
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, he hears this whooshing sound come
3:37
Speaker 1: past his head. And he didn't know what it was,
3:39
Speaker 1: but it sounded like someone took a stick and threw
3:42
Speaker 1: it overhand, so it's spitting like a tomahawk as it
3:44
Speaker 1: passed by his head. And because this sound was so
3:47
Speaker 1: loud and he was already on edge about someone potentially
3:50
Speaker 1: watching him that he actually dove as soon as he
3:53
Speaker 1: heard it and fell to the ground and scrambled around
3:56
Speaker 1: and looked at the tree line from where this thing
3:58
Speaker 1: came from, but there's no one there, and he scrambles
4:01
Speaker 1: to his feet, and he's still looking around, and he
4:03
Speaker 1: starts backpedaling towards the office with his eyes still on
4:06
Speaker 1: the forest, and his attention kind of shifts from the
4:09
Speaker 1: forest to what was just thrown at me. And he
4:11
Speaker 1: turns around and starts walking around looking for something on
4:14
Speaker 1: the ground like a stick, to see if something really
4:17
Speaker 1: was thrown at him, But he can't find anything. He
4:19
Speaker 1: didn't do an exhaustive search. He didn't look under every
4:22
Speaker 1: single car, but an initial scan turned up nothing. And
4:25
Speaker 1: then he turns back to the forest and he doesn't
4:27
Speaker 1: see anything out there. And even though again he feels
4:30
Speaker 1: totally stressed out, like something's out here and I can't
4:33
Speaker 1: see it, he's like, am I going crazy? Did that
4:37
Speaker 1: really happen? Because I can't find this big stick that
4:39
Speaker 1: apparently flew past my head? So is this all happening
4:43
Speaker 1: in my head? But regardless, he's totally freaked out, and
4:46
Speaker 1: he sprints back inside the office and locks every door
4:49
Speaker 1: twenty minutes later, Mike comes blazing up the access road.
4:52
Speaker 1: He stops in front of the office and runs up
4:54
Speaker 1: the stairs. Chris goes over, unlocks the door, and he
4:57
Speaker 1: lets him in, and Chris is about to tell him
4:59
Speaker 1: about this crazy stick throwing incident, but he can tell
5:03
Speaker 1: Mike is really upset about something, probably more upset about
5:07
Speaker 1: whatever happened to him than Chris is about the stick
5:10
Speaker 1: throwing thing, and so Chris tables his story. He locks
5:13
Speaker 1: the doors behind Mike, and he turns to him and
5:15
Speaker 1: he says, what's going on, what's wrong with you? At first,
5:17
Speaker 1: Mike doesn't say anything, He just paces back and forth
5:20
Speaker 1: inside the office, and then finally Chris calms him down
5:23
Speaker 1: and he gets him to explain what happened. Mike tells
5:25
Speaker 1: him that he was down at the tool shed, which
5:27
Speaker 1: is about half mile down the access road and about
5:30
Speaker 1: twenty meters off the road into the forest, and he's
5:33
Speaker 1: at the shed. It's open and he's pulling out the
5:35
Speaker 1: different pieces of equipment he's going to bring back to
5:37
Speaker 1: the office, and he says, all of a sudden, all
5:39
Speaker 1: the hairs on his body stand up. He's got goosebumps,
5:42
Speaker 1: and immediately he thinks someone's watching me, and he turns
5:45
Speaker 1: around and there's no one there. He looks to his
5:47
Speaker 1: right and his left. He kind of pokes his head
5:49
Speaker 1: in the shed, like is someone hiding in the shed?
5:51
Speaker 1: There's no one in there. He walks to the back
5:53
Speaker 1: of the shed. There's no one behind the shed, and
5:56
Speaker 1: he's just totally stumped why he's feeling this way. He
5:58
Speaker 1: goes back to the front of the ship and he's
6:00
Speaker 1: going over in his mind what made him feel his way,
6:03
Speaker 1: and he can't put his finger on it, but he
6:04
Speaker 1: cannot shake this feeling of someone watching him, and it's
6:08
Speaker 1: making him totally anxious. So he gets all the things
6:10
Speaker 1: he needs from the shed as quick as he can.
6:12
Speaker 1: He locks it up, he turns, and he starts speed
6:14
Speaker 1: walking back out to his truck. When he gets about
6:17
Speaker 1: five meters away, he hears footsteps running right to left
6:21
Speaker 1: behind him, back where the shed is, And because he
6:24
Speaker 1: was already completely on edge about someone watching him in
6:27
Speaker 1: the woods somewhere, he doesn't even turn around to see
6:29
Speaker 1: what that is. He knows he needs to run to
6:31
Speaker 1: his car and get inside and put steel between him
6:35
Speaker 1: and whatever is out there. Once he's inside, he locks
6:37
Speaker 1: the door, he turns on the ignition and looks one
6:40
Speaker 1: last time in the direction of where he came from,
6:43
Speaker 1: and to his horror, there is a man walking into
6:46
Speaker 1: the woods right next to the shed, turning the corner
6:48
Speaker 1: behind and disappearing into the woods. His instincts were spot on.
6:52
Speaker 1: He was being watched, and that's when Mike hit the
6:55
Speaker 1: gas and sped back to the office. Chris then tells
6:57
Speaker 1: Mike about his stick throwing incident, because all of a sudden,
7:00
Speaker 1: that seems a whole lot more real, and they both
7:03
Speaker 1: agree that whoever threw something at Chris, it's probably the
7:06
Speaker 1: same guy who was hiding near the shed. With Mike
7:08
Speaker 1: concerned this guy might come back and break into the office,
7:12
Speaker 1: they stay the night there and they watch the whole time.
7:14
Speaker 1: They don't see him again, and the next morning they
7:16
Speaker 1: file a report and they tell the incoming park rangers
7:19
Speaker 1: what happened. But after this there were no more reports
7:22
Speaker 1: of this strange, hooded figure roaming around the forest, and
7:25
Speaker 1: to this day Chris and Mike have no idea who
7:27
Speaker 1: he is or what he wanted, but they can both
7:29
Speaker 1: agree whoever he was, he was bad news. In the
7:36
Speaker 1: summer of twenty fifteen, a young man named Paul was
7:39
Speaker 1: on his last day of a seven day solo backpacking
7:42
Speaker 1: trip through a very remote area in Utah called the
7:45
Speaker 1: Dark Canyon Wilderness. Dark Canyon gets its name from its
7:49
Speaker 1: steep walls that block light in the morning and in
7:51
Speaker 1: the late afternoon. It's an area that's only accessible by foot,
7:55
Speaker 1: and it's not uncommon to go in there and not
7:57
Speaker 1: see another person the whole time you're there. That morning,
8:00
Speaker 1: got up and set off on a day hike that
8:02
Speaker 1: would take him through a very forested area up on
8:04
Speaker 1: Juy Plateau, where he planned to camp out for the night.
8:07
Speaker 1: About a mile into the hike, he found some amazing
8:09
Speaker 1: elk antlers, and he decided he wanted to keep them,
8:12
Speaker 1: so he threw them on his backpack and rested them
8:14
Speaker 1: at the top and continued on his hike. But the
8:16
Speaker 1: added fifteen pounds of weight proved to be far more
8:19
Speaker 1: exhausting than he was anticipating, and very quickly he blew
8:23
Speaker 1: through all of his water. Even though he was within
8:25
Speaker 1: one mile of his final destination this plateau, he decided
8:29
Speaker 1: to stop because he was so dehydrated he needed to
8:31
Speaker 1: find water, so he puts his pack down he puts
8:34
Speaker 1: the elk antlers down and he starts walking around, and amazingly,
8:37
Speaker 1: he does find some water. Granted it was kind of
8:40
Speaker 1: a gross puddle of standing water, but he figured I
8:42
Speaker 1: can boil this and it should be okay. And as
8:45
Speaker 1: he's preparing a fire to boil this standing water, he figures,
8:48
Speaker 1: you know what, if I'm making a fire here, I
8:50
Speaker 1: might as well just make my camp here. So he
8:52
Speaker 1: sets up his tent and then he makes a fire
8:54
Speaker 1: and he's about to start boiling this water when he
8:56
Speaker 1: realizes how dumb he's being. If there's a puddle of
8:59
Speaker 1: standing water right here, then probably just a little ways
9:03
Speaker 1: upstream there's going to be some running water. Why don't
9:06
Speaker 1: I not boil this crappy water that will only yield,
9:09
Speaker 1: you know, a couple SIPs of water and go look
9:12
Speaker 1: for the running water where I can drink as much
9:13
Speaker 1: as I want. So he puts the pot down and
9:15
Speaker 1: he leaves all of his gear at the campsite and
9:18
Speaker 1: he begins walking up this mountain to hopefully find a stream.
9:20
Speaker 1: And after about a half mile of walking up this mountain,
9:24
Speaker 1: he finds this little spring. Immediately he's down on hands
9:27
Speaker 1: and knees drinking as much water as he possibly can
9:29
Speaker 1: because he's super dehydrated. And after he's drank for quite
9:32
Speaker 1: a while, he reaches down to his belt where he
9:35
Speaker 1: kept his water bottles, and he realized he left all
9:37
Speaker 1: of his gear, including his water bottles, at camp, so
9:40
Speaker 1: he didn't have a way to collect this water. And
9:42
Speaker 1: so he's like, shoot, I gotta go back to camp
9:45
Speaker 1: and get the bottle and then come back. I'm gonna
9:47
Speaker 1: burn a bunch of energy. But he's like, you know what,
9:49
Speaker 1: what can you do? I need the water. And so
9:51
Speaker 1: he gets up and he turns around and he starts
9:53
Speaker 1: walking back towards his camp, and immediately he starts to
9:56
Speaker 1: feel really anxious. As he's walking back, he can't help
9:59
Speaker 1: but feel like some behind him watching him. And he
10:01
Speaker 1: kept turning his head, thinking he's going to see someone
10:04
Speaker 1: just over the mountain who's quietly stalking him. And he
10:07
Speaker 1: just could not shake this feeling. And so as he's
10:09
Speaker 1: walking back to camp, every little sound he hears is
10:12
Speaker 1: totally throwing him off. Every little rustling leaf, every little
10:15
Speaker 1: bird overhead. He's totally on edge because he's convinced someone
10:18
Speaker 1: is behind me, or someone's over there, someone's watching me.
10:21
Speaker 1: He finally gets back to camp, he gets his water bottles,
10:24
Speaker 1: and he considered not going back to the spring because
10:27
Speaker 1: he didn't want to cover that distance again because of
10:29
Speaker 1: how stressful it just was. But ultimately he knows he
10:32
Speaker 1: needs the water, so either he's going to sit here
10:34
Speaker 1: for a really long time and boil a bunch of
10:36
Speaker 1: stagnant water, or he can just suck it up, walk
10:39
Speaker 1: to the spring, get some water, come back, and be good.
10:42
Speaker 1: Before he walks up to the spring, he grabs a
10:44
Speaker 1: really big stick to use as a club, and then
10:46
Speaker 1: he walks up, so now he's got some protection. And
10:49
Speaker 1: immediately as he begins that half mile trek to the spring,
10:52
Speaker 1: the anxiety pours right back over him, and he can't
10:55
Speaker 1: help but feel like someone is watching him. But he
10:57
Speaker 1: gets up to the spring, he fills his water bottles,
11:00
Speaker 1: he turns around, and he starts walking back, and he
11:02
Speaker 1: walks down this little rock face and lands on the
11:05
Speaker 1: trail he had just been on a minute ago, and
11:07
Speaker 1: he stops because he sees something on the ground that
11:09
Speaker 1: wasn't there before. A fresh mountain lion print is placed
11:13
Speaker 1: right in between two of his footprints that he had
11:16
Speaker 1: just made on his way back to the spring, meaning
11:19
Speaker 1: there's a mountain lion somewhere right around here that's not
11:21
Speaker 1: just watching me, it's hunting me. Paul doesn't really know
11:25
Speaker 1: what to do, so he runs to his campsite and
11:27
Speaker 1: gets in his tent and huddles in his tent for
11:30
Speaker 1: the rest of the night, hoping a mountain lion doesn't
11:32
Speaker 1: attack him, and fortunately it does not. And what he
11:35
Speaker 1: thinks probably happened was when he picked up those elk
11:38
Speaker 1: antlers and put them on his backpack and was walking
11:40
Speaker 1: around with them, he probably attracted the mountain lion that
11:43
Speaker 1: thought he was an elk and therefore food. In April
11:50
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty, a seventeen year old named Sam, who
11:52
Speaker 1: was an abbot outdoorsman, decided to go on a one
11:55
Speaker 1: night hike in the Superstition Mountains in Arizona. The mountain's
11:58
Speaker 1: name has a bunch of suppose and origins, but the
12:01
Speaker 1: one that's generally accepted is people are afraid of the
12:03
Speaker 1: Superstition Mountains because of all the mysterious deaths that have
12:07
Speaker 1: occurred there, and so because people would avoid these mountains
12:10
Speaker 1: in fear of mysterious death, it became these superstitious mountains,
12:14
Speaker 1: but Sam was not superstitious and regularly came out here
12:17
Speaker 1: to go hiking, in particular on this eight mile loop
12:20
Speaker 1: that went through a canyon. And so this one night
12:22
Speaker 1: overnight he planned on doing was going to be on
12:25
Speaker 1: that eight mile loop where he'd do four miles in,
12:27
Speaker 1: camp out and then four miles back, and he planned
12:30
Speaker 1: to do it with a friend, but his friend at
12:32
Speaker 1: the last minute canceled, and so Sam teetered on not
12:35
Speaker 1: even doing it, but ultimately decided, Okay, I'll just do
12:37
Speaker 1: it by myself because I'm very familiar with this area.
12:40
Speaker 1: On the day he was supposed to go do this hike,
12:42
Speaker 1: he had planned on getting there early in the day
12:45
Speaker 1: to have maximum lighting, but due to some unforeseen circumstances
12:49
Speaker 1: and traffic and bad road conditions, he didn't get to
12:51
Speaker 1: the trailhead until five forty five pm that night. Sam
12:55
Speaker 1: knew it was a bad idea to start this hike
12:57
Speaker 1: so late because he was going to run out of daylight.
13:00
Speaker 1: He probably was not going to make it four miles
13:02
Speaker 1: to the point where he planned on camping out, but
13:04
Speaker 1: he figured with his good health and fitness, he could
13:07
Speaker 1: probably quickly make his way to the two or even
13:09
Speaker 1: three mile mark, and there were some suitable campsites there,
13:12
Speaker 1: and so he decided he would kind of risk it
13:14
Speaker 1: and just try to go as fast as he could
13:16
Speaker 1: and use the daylight he had to reach a suitable campsite,
13:20
Speaker 1: but he wasn't able to move as fast as he
13:22
Speaker 1: thought he could, and soon the sun was down and
13:24
Speaker 1: it's totally dark, and he's got his flashlight, but that
13:26
Speaker 1: only is able to shine like ten feet in front
13:29
Speaker 1: of him. And then at one point he nearly falls
13:31
Speaker 1: off of this rock, and he knows had he fallen,
13:34
Speaker 1: he would have gotten really badly hurt. And he's fifteen
13:37
Speaker 1: miles away from the nearest help, and he's in a
13:40
Speaker 1: bad cell phone service area, and the roads getting out
13:42
Speaker 1: here are treacherous. No one knows exactly where he is.
13:46
Speaker 1: And it dawns on him that you've made a pretty
13:48
Speaker 1: bad choice, and you should stop right now and make
13:51
Speaker 1: camp here and not try to risk it any further.
13:53
Speaker 1: And so as it happened, where he was, there was
13:55
Speaker 1: this forest right nearby, and he could see there was
13:57
Speaker 1: a clearing about thirty feet off the path when he
13:59
Speaker 1: shined his light, and so he walked into that clearing,
14:02
Speaker 1: and he found it was a great spot to make camp.
14:04
Speaker 1: And in fact, on the edge of this clearing was
14:06
Speaker 1: the remnants of a fire pit. It was very old,
14:09
Speaker 1: but it at least showed someone had camped out right here,
14:12
Speaker 1: and they seemed to have made it just fine. So
14:14
Speaker 1: suddenly he was feeling pretty smart, and he felt pretty
14:16
Speaker 1: good about where he was staying for the night. Now,
14:18
Speaker 1: Sam intentionally did not bring a tent. He liked to
14:21
Speaker 1: sleep on a sleeping pad with a sleeping bag over that,
14:24
Speaker 1: and then he would string up a tarp over the
14:26
Speaker 1: top of him in case it rained. And since this
14:28
Speaker 1: clearing was surrounded by a bunch of pine trees, he
14:31
Speaker 1: was able to string up his tarp over the top
14:33
Speaker 1: and it was perfect, and pretty soon he had a
14:35
Speaker 1: fire going. And then he cracked open a can of
14:37
Speaker 1: beans and he began eating his dinner. And as he
14:39
Speaker 1: was eating, he started to get a sense that something
14:41
Speaker 1: was off, something was not right. He began scanning the
14:44
Speaker 1: tree line as if he was going to find something
14:46
Speaker 1: out of the ordinary, but his visibility was incredibly limited
14:50
Speaker 1: because he was sitting right up against a fire. And
14:52
Speaker 1: if you've ever sat next to a fire in a
14:54
Speaker 1: dark forest. Your visibility is like five feet in a
14:57
Speaker 1: circle around the fire. You really cannot see beyond on that.
15:00
Speaker 1: And his vision was also limited by all the pine
15:02
Speaker 1: trees that encircled his clearing, so he really could only
15:06
Speaker 1: see what was immediately around him, nothing else. And he
15:09
Speaker 1: starts thinking, that's got to be it. Maybe I'm just
15:11
Speaker 1: nervous because I have no visibility. But as he's rationalizing
15:14
Speaker 1: this kind of bad gut feeling, a rock the size
15:17
Speaker 1: of a marble comes soaring into the campsite and lands
15:20
Speaker 1: at his feet, and he looks down at the rock,
15:22
Speaker 1: and immediately he connects that to that sense of dread
15:25
Speaker 1: he had, and he's looking around a little more aggressively now,
15:28
Speaker 1: but again his vision is very, very limited, and so
15:31
Speaker 1: for the next fifteen minutes, Sam is really aggressively scanning
15:35
Speaker 1: the tree line and listening really intently, and he doesn't
15:38
Speaker 1: hear anything. He doesn't see any more. Rocks get thrown,
15:40
Speaker 1: and so he begins to rationalize and convince himself that
15:44
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong here. That feeling I have, Oh, don't
15:46
Speaker 1: worry about that. He starts telling himself, you know, I
15:48
Speaker 1: must have kicked a rock, That's what it is. Or
15:51
Speaker 1: maybe a rock fell off a tree, but either way,
15:53
Speaker 1: it's something totally explainable and yet nothing to worry about.
15:56
Speaker 1: And after a little while he convinced himself and he
15:59
Speaker 1: got into his bag under his tarp and he went
16:02
Speaker 1: to sleep. A couple of hours later, Sam wakes up
16:04
Speaker 1: and he has that same sense of dread and now
16:06
Speaker 1: it's back with a vengeance, and he can't hear anything,
16:09
Speaker 1: he can't see anything, but he's definitely feeling like something
16:12
Speaker 1: is wrong. And at that moment, as he's listening really
16:15
Speaker 1: intently and looking really carefully, he hears the sound of
16:18
Speaker 1: rustling leaves. It sounds like someone walking through leaves, about
16:21
Speaker 1: thirty or forty meters away from his campsite, and initially
16:25
Speaker 1: he can't tell if this person or animal is walking
16:28
Speaker 1: towards his campsite or away, but over the next thirty
16:31
Speaker 1: seconds or so, the sounds start to fade and he
16:34
Speaker 1: convinces himself that okay, they've left and everything's fine, but
16:37
Speaker 1: just in case, he wanted to grab his flashlight and
16:39
Speaker 1: shine it in that direction, and so he reaches next
16:42
Speaker 1: to him where he had left it when he had
16:43
Speaker 1: gone to bed a couple hours earlier, and he can't
16:46
Speaker 1: find his flashlight. He's looking around for it and he
16:48
Speaker 1: can't find it, and he's like, man, that's weird. I
16:50
Speaker 1: had it right here, right next to my body, and
16:52
Speaker 1: it's not here anymore. And that's when the alarm bells
16:54
Speaker 1: start going off in his head, because the only way
16:56
Speaker 1: this flashlight moves is if he moved it, and if
16:59
Speaker 1: it's not here, how did it move? And so he
17:01
Speaker 1: jumps out of his sleeping bag, he ducks out from
17:03
Speaker 1: under the tarp, and he's looking around on the ground
17:05
Speaker 1: in the immediate vicinity of where he was sleeping to
17:07
Speaker 1: find this flashlight. And as he's looking out of the
17:09
Speaker 1: corner of his eye, he sees some light and he
17:12
Speaker 1: turns his head and in the same direction that he
17:14
Speaker 1: had heard those footsteps, those rustling leaves when he was
17:17
Speaker 1: still laying down, he sees his flashlight laying on the
17:21
Speaker 1: ground about ten meters away, which means someone or something
17:26
Speaker 1: had been less than a foot away from him to
17:28
Speaker 1: get this flashlight that was right next to him while
17:31
Speaker 1: he was fast asleep and totally helpless, then had moved
17:35
Speaker 1: it all the way over there. And immediately Sam thinks
17:38
Speaker 1: to himself, that's a trap. They are trying to lure
17:42
Speaker 1: me away from my campsite. Suddenly he felt so scared
17:45
Speaker 1: he wanted to vomit. But he knew in order to
17:48
Speaker 1: survive this situation he needed to keep his wits about him.
17:51
Speaker 1: So he puts his boots on and he grabs his knife,
17:53
Speaker 1: and he knows he's not leaving this campsite. In fact,
17:56
Speaker 1: he's gonna build the biggest fire he can. He's going
17:59
Speaker 1: to stoke that fire as big as he can get it,
18:01
Speaker 1: and he's not going to go anywhere near that flashlight.
18:03
Speaker 1: For the next several hours, Sam just stood in the
18:06
Speaker 1: middle of his campsite, holding his knife, preparing to confront
18:10
Speaker 1: whatever the heck is out in the woods. And over
18:13
Speaker 1: those several hours, he would hear footsteps approach his campsite,
18:16
Speaker 1: turn around and leave. Every time the fire got lower,
18:19
Speaker 1: he noticed they would come closer and closer and closer,
18:22
Speaker 1: and when he would stoke the fire, they wouldn't come
18:24
Speaker 1: as close. But at about three am, he ran out
18:27
Speaker 1: of firewood, so unless he went into the woods to
18:29
Speaker 1: get more, he'd be out. And he's certainly not going
18:32
Speaker 1: into the woods. That's the whole point is to avoid
18:34
Speaker 1: the woods where this thing is. And so as the
18:36
Speaker 1: fire died down, Sam prepared himself mentally for whatever happened next,
18:40
Speaker 1: because he knew that with that fire gone, this thing
18:43
Speaker 1: was comfortable coming all the way in, coming all the
18:45
Speaker 1: way up right next to him to get the flashlight.
18:48
Speaker 1: And so finally he hears the footsteps approaching. And before
18:51
Speaker 1: this the closest they had come was maybe about fifteen
18:54
Speaker 1: meters away. They were far enough away it didn't feel intimate.
18:57
Speaker 1: It was terrifying, but he had some distance. This time,
19:01
Speaker 1: they walk right up to about three meters away, but
19:04
Speaker 1: they intentionally come behind the thickest group of trees, so
19:08
Speaker 1: he can't see them, and it's still dark outside and
19:10
Speaker 1: he's in that bubble of light near the fire, so
19:12
Speaker 1: he's blind to whatever's on the other side of those trees,
19:15
Speaker 1: but he knows they're there, and they've stopped. And for
19:18
Speaker 1: two hours, this poor kid is standing in the middle
19:22
Speaker 1: of this campsite, facing in the direction of whatever is
19:26
Speaker 1: behind the trees. Probably his imagination is going crazy at
19:29
Speaker 1: this point with what could be behind those trees, just
19:32
Speaker 1: waiting for whatever happened next. But ultimately the only thing
19:36
Speaker 1: that would happen is the sun would eventually come up,
19:38
Speaker 1: and right before it actually popped over the horizon, this
19:42
Speaker 1: thing on the other side finally moved, it turned around
19:45
Speaker 1: and ran away, and it did not come back. And
19:48
Speaker 1: so when the sun finally did come up, Sam didn't
19:50
Speaker 1: just charge out of there because he's still thinking there
19:53
Speaker 1: could be a trap. He waited until it was totally
19:55
Speaker 1: full sunlight, and then he packed up everything he had
19:58
Speaker 1: and he practically sprinted back to the parking lot, back
20:01
Speaker 1: into his car, and he drove NonStop for twenty miles
20:04
Speaker 1: until he got to a gas station where he could
20:06
Speaker 1: park and collect himself. And when he got there, he
20:09
Speaker 1: got out of his car and he went in and
20:11
Speaker 1: he got a drink, and when he came out, he
20:13
Speaker 1: noticed someone had written something on the dust on the
20:15
Speaker 1: back window of his car. And he walks over and
20:18
Speaker 1: it just says sleep well question mark. Sam is confident
20:21
Speaker 1: whoever was stalking him at his campsite is the same
20:25
Speaker 1: person or group of people that wrote this message on
20:27
Speaker 1: his car. And now Sam just wonders what would have
20:30
Speaker 1: happened if I retrieved that flashlight. So that's going to
20:32
Speaker 1: do it. Guys, let me know in the comments what
20:34
Speaker 1: you thought of today's stories and I will pin the
20:36
Speaker 1: best comment at the top of the comments section. If
20:38
Speaker 1: you enjoy today's stories and you haven't done this already,
20:41
Speaker 1: please sneak under the like button's desk and tie their
20:43
Speaker 1: shoelaces together. Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn
20:47
Speaker 1: on all notifications so you don't miss any of our
20:49
Speaker 1: weekly uploads. If you want to get in touch with me,
20:51
Speaker 1: you can direct message me on Instagram or on Twitter.
20:53
Speaker 1: My username for both platforms is the same. It's just
20:56
Speaker 1: John Ballin four one six. I also have a ton
20:58
Speaker 1: of content over on TikTok, where my username is mister Balin.
21:01
Speaker 1: If you have a story suggestion, please submit it to
21:03
Speaker 1: our subreddit just called mister Ballin. It's linked in the
21:06
Speaker 1: description below. So whether I see you on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube,
21:11
Speaker 1: some combination, just know that I really appreciate your support
21:14
Speaker 1: and until next time, that's going to do it. See
21:16
Speaker 1: you