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Creepy Forest Encounters and More Horror Stories · True Horror Stories

0:17
Speaker 1: In late October of twenty seventeen, I decided to take
0:20
Speaker 1: a trip to Japan just for the sake of escaping
0:23
Speaker 1: the rat race and having an adventure and experiencing something new.
0:28
Speaker 1: I flew out of Heathrow and landed in Tokyo. I
0:31
Speaker 1: had two weeks to spend by myself, just traveling Japan
0:34
Speaker 1: and seeing the sights. After the first three days of
0:37
Speaker 1: exploring the cities, I decided to hit a few local
0:40
Speaker 1: tourist hotspots, one being a particularly well known forest where
0:45
Speaker 1: people are known to enter and never return. Upon entering
0:49
Speaker 1: this forest, the first thing I noticed was the sensation
0:52
Speaker 1: of how heavy the air was and how it felt
0:55
Speaker 1: very oppressive and cold. I was immediately uneasy, and the
0:59
Speaker 1: only thing that kept me walking forward was acknowledged that
1:02
Speaker 1: if I turned back, it would have been a waste
1:04
Speaker 1: of an entire day of my vacation. There were moments
1:08
Speaker 1: when I forgot how uncomfortable I was, and occasionally I
1:11
Speaker 1: was able to admire the place for its beauty and
1:14
Speaker 1: peaceful nature. The forest was much too large to explore
1:18
Speaker 1: in its entirety. I decided to hike for about an
1:21
Speaker 1: hour on the main path, then return on a different path.
1:25
Speaker 1: I was very apprehensive about getting lost. After a while,
1:29
Speaker 1: I sat down in a sunny spot, unpacked my bag,
1:32
Speaker 1: and began to eat the food that I had brought
1:34
Speaker 1: with me. I was nearly finished when a Japanese man
1:38
Speaker 1: appeared from the woods right next to me, as though
1:40
Speaker 1: he had been hiding there. He was wearing a business
1:43
Speaker 1: attire with a shirt and tie, but he looked very
1:46
Speaker 1: disheveled and confused. We looked at each other for a
1:49
Speaker 1: moment before I stood up and extended my hand and
1:52
Speaker 1: said kinichuwa. The man clearly didn't expect to run into anybody,
1:57
Speaker 1: but it gave me a nervous smile in return, and
2:00
Speaker 1: shook my hand. He knew some English, and I knew
2:04
Speaker 1: a passable amount of Japanese, so he sat down and
2:07
Speaker 1: had a short conversation. I didn't pry into what he
2:11
Speaker 1: was doing there, but he asked me where I was
2:13
Speaker 1: visiting from, and we spoke about my home country of
2:16
Speaker 1: England for a while. After the conversation ended, I asked
2:20
Speaker 1: him in Japanese if he was okay and if he
2:22
Speaker 1: needed help. He stood straight up and smiled at me
2:26
Speaker 1: and nodded, saying and broken English niece's beautiful place. Enjoy
2:32
Speaker 1: it for me, please. Then he walked off. The tone
2:37
Speaker 1: of his voice gave me the chills. Now part of
2:40
Speaker 1: me wanted to run after him and stop him, grab
2:43
Speaker 1: him and keep talking to him and perhaps persuade him
2:46
Speaker 1: to leave this forest with me, but another part of
2:49
Speaker 1: me was reluctant to get involved. I sat there, wondering
2:53
Speaker 1: who I was to interfere with this man's life. I
2:56
Speaker 1: sat for an hour, hoping the man would return, but
3:00
Speaker 1: he never did. I packed up my belongings, returned to
3:04
Speaker 1: the path and headed back the way I came, deciding
3:07
Speaker 1: I just wanted to leave. As the sky began to
3:10
Speaker 1: grow dark, the way to the forest's grim reputation started
3:14
Speaker 1: to weigh heavily on my shoulders. I began to move quicker.
3:18
Speaker 1: When I was nearly out, I stopped as though I
3:21
Speaker 1: hit a brick wall. At this point, it was almost
3:23
Speaker 1: completely dark, and there was still no sign of the
3:26
Speaker 1: men that I had spoken to before. Part of me
3:29
Speaker 1: tried to assure myself that he had taken another path,
3:32
Speaker 1: but the more rational side of me knew that wasn't
3:35
Speaker 1: the case. I pulled out my flashlight and made my
3:39
Speaker 1: way back into the woods. I continued back up the
3:43
Speaker 1: path at a brisk walk, occasionally calling out Knichua and
3:49
Speaker 1: shining my light around to signal him. When I got
3:52
Speaker 1: to the tree that I had been sitting at for lunch,
3:55
Speaker 1: my heart sank. A single string had been tied to
3:58
Speaker 1: one of the branches and let off into the trees.
4:02
Speaker 1: That string hadn't been there earlier. I swallowed the lump
4:06
Speaker 1: in my throat, and I carefully placed my index finger
4:09
Speaker 1: and thumb on the string and followed it into the woods.
4:12
Speaker 1: I had a sense that I knew what I was
4:14
Speaker 1: going to find, but I continued on anyway, not out
4:18
Speaker 1: of any sick sense of morbid curiosity, but because I
4:22
Speaker 1: wanted to know for sure. I wanted to be able
4:25
Speaker 1: to tell someone with certainty what happened. I followed the
4:28
Speaker 1: string for a couple of minutes. When I paused in
4:32
Speaker 1: the darkness ahead of me, I heard a faint crying.
4:35
Speaker 1: It was honestly so quiet that I couldn't tell if
4:37
Speaker 1: it was an animal or a human. I waved my
4:40
Speaker 1: flashlight around and called out cautiously, quonichioa. That's when the
4:46
Speaker 1: strings started to violently shake an enormous roar made my
4:50
Speaker 1: ear drum's ring. I then heard a shuffle, as if
4:57
Speaker 1: something huge was finding its feet. Against the glare of
5:01
Speaker 1: the flashlight, I saw two pale eyes reflecting back at me.
5:05
Speaker 1: I then ran. I ran for my life. When I
5:09
Speaker 1: hit the path again, I didn't slow down. I tore
5:13
Speaker 1: out of that forest like every demon in hell was
5:15
Speaker 1: after me. When I escaped the trees, I ran to
5:18
Speaker 1: my car and slammed the door shut behind me. I
5:21
Speaker 1: sat there in the driver's seat, breathing heavily. I then
5:24
Speaker 1: started to cry for I don't even know how long.
5:27
Speaker 1: Time was irrelevant to me. I felt an obligation to
5:31
Speaker 1: report the incident to some one, so I drove to
5:34
Speaker 1: the nearest police station and I told them everything about
5:37
Speaker 1: my encounter and the conversation I had with the man,
5:41
Speaker 1: and how I tried to go back for him. I
5:44
Speaker 1: never heard back from the cops. Since returning home, I
5:47
Speaker 1: have checked the website for the latest victims found in
5:50
Speaker 1: those woods, but since I never got his name, I
5:53
Speaker 1: don't know whether or not he was found. I liked
5:56
Speaker 1: to think that he exited the forest another way and
5:59
Speaker 1: returned home and was now doing perfectly fine. I don't
6:02
Speaker 1: know what kind of creature I encountered in those woods,
6:06
Speaker 1: but it was the scariest moment of my life and
6:08
Speaker 1: I wouldn't wish it on anyone else. When my mom
6:18
Speaker 1: was seventeen, she and my grandparents went for a hike
6:21
Speaker 1: in the Bilanglo State Forest in Australia. They had a
6:25
Speaker 1: holiday house in Birima which they would visit quite often
6:28
Speaker 1: on weekends, so going on hikes was common. While hiking
6:32
Speaker 1: along the trail that they had been down numerous times before,
6:36
Speaker 1: they came across a couple of abandoned hiking packs, like
6:40
Speaker 1: those massive ones backpackers have. The packs were stuff full
6:44
Speaker 1: of clothes and food, but no one else was in
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Speaker 1: sight anywhere, and there wasn't any obvious sign as to
6:50
Speaker 1: why they had been left behind. This was in the
6:53
Speaker 1: early nineties before cell phones were common, so they couldn't
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Speaker 1: contact a ranger to come and have a look at them.
7:00
Speaker 1: My grandmother immediately became concerned by the strangeness of the situation,
7:05
Speaker 1: and she convinced my grandpa that they should immediately go
7:08
Speaker 1: back to the car, which they did. A few nights later.
7:12
Speaker 1: After they returned home to Sydney, my uncle called my
7:15
Speaker 1: grandmother into the living room and pointed at the t V.
7:19
Speaker 1: Some hikers from Germany have been reported missing. They were
7:23
Speaker 1: last seen in the Bilanglo Forest. My grandmother immediately cried
7:27
Speaker 1: out that her gut feeling had been right, even though
7:30
Speaker 1: technically there was no evidence that those bags they found
7:34
Speaker 1: belonged to those exact hikers. Other news reports that came
7:38
Speaker 1: a few years later in nineteen ninety four had the
7:40
Speaker 1: entire family in hysterics. The remains of the bodies have
7:44
Speaker 1: been found in the home of Ivan Malat. Malat had
7:48
Speaker 1: massacred numerous victims in the forest and is now known
7:51
Speaker 1: as the backpack Killer and is one of Australia's most
7:55
Speaker 1: notorious serial killers. It is believed that there are still
7:59
Speaker 1: bodies that have yet to be found. The worst part
8:02
Speaker 1: about it was that the two hiking packs my family
8:04
Speaker 1: found were never linked to any of the bodies. This
8:08
Speaker 1: means that whoever owned them could still be buried in
8:11
Speaker 1: that forest somewhere. When I was twelve, my family lived
8:21
Speaker 1: in an isolated house deep in the woods. I remember
8:25
Speaker 1: that it was December, just before Christmas, and we were
8:28
Speaker 1: gathered around the Christmas tree in the living room watching TV.
8:32
Speaker 1: At maybe around ten o'clock I decided to go to bed.
8:35
Speaker 1: My bedroom was on the ground floor, while everyone else's
8:38
Speaker 1: was upstairs. I remember I fell asleep without much trouble,
8:42
Speaker 1: but later on that night I awoke seemingly for no
8:46
Speaker 1: reason at all. I rolled over to face the window
8:48
Speaker 1: that sat next to my bed. The side of the
8:51
Speaker 1: house where my window faced was pressed right up against
8:54
Speaker 1: the trees. For anyone to look inside, they would have
8:57
Speaker 1: to walk through the undergrowth and duck under some branches
8:59
Speaker 1: just to come close. That was the reason that I
9:02
Speaker 1: didn't have curtains. I figured that there was no point.
9:07
Speaker 1: When I woke up, A terrible, vulnerable feeling washed over
9:11
Speaker 1: me right then, a feeling that I had never experienced before.
9:15
Speaker 1: Next to that window, it felt as if I was
9:18
Speaker 1: being watched. There was no light on in my room,
9:21
Speaker 1: but likewise, there was nothing illuminating outside my window either.
9:26
Speaker 1: I stared at the window for a few moments, and
9:28
Speaker 1: then I sat up. I thought, and it was just
9:32
Speaker 1: a thought that I saw a shuffle of movement outside
9:35
Speaker 1: when I sat up, but I didn't hear anything. After
9:39
Speaker 1: another moment, I laid back down, and even though I
9:42
Speaker 1: felt uneasy, I drifted off to sleep. A short time later.
9:47
Speaker 1: I don't know exactly how long I woke up again,
9:51
Speaker 1: this time because I was freezing cold, I shivered, rolled over,
9:54
Speaker 1: and climbed out of bed. I suppose I had already
9:58
Speaker 1: forgotten about the feeling I had early. I left my room,
10:02
Speaker 1: walked down the hallway without turning on any lights, and
10:05
Speaker 1: entered the kitchen. As I made the turn into the
10:08
Speaker 1: breakfast area, I felt a freezing cold breeze on my face.
10:13
Speaker 1: That's when I literally froze in my tracks. The back
10:16
Speaker 1: door was wide open and snow was collecting just inside
10:20
Speaker 1: on the floor. I saw the faint outline of tracks
10:24
Speaker 1: leading in, but none walking away. There was a ringing
10:28
Speaker 1: sensation in my ears, and for a few moments I
10:31
Speaker 1: found myself completely unable to move, even just to turn around.
10:36
Speaker 1: That's when I heard the slow, quiet turning of the
10:39
Speaker 1: door handle to my right, which led into the laundry room.
10:43
Speaker 1: I don't know exactly why I ran to the gun
10:45
Speaker 1: in the closet instead of upstairs into my parents room,
10:49
Speaker 1: but that was the first thought in my head, get
10:52
Speaker 1: a gun, defend myself. I took my hunting rifle from
10:56
Speaker 1: my closet and raised it, just as my parents had
10:59
Speaker 1: taught me. The gun was not loaded, but I figured
11:03
Speaker 1: the rifle alone would be enough to scare off the intruder.
11:06
Speaker 1: I saw a dark figure peek around the entrance to
11:09
Speaker 1: the kitchen. I couldn't make out any details, only that
11:13
Speaker 1: it was an adult. I'm not sure how well the
11:16
Speaker 1: figure could see me, but I stammered out, I have
11:20
Speaker 1: a gun. What the figure said next I can remember
11:24
Speaker 1: clearly to this day, in a happy, sing song voice.
11:29
Speaker 1: The person clearly spoke my first name, and then added,
11:33
Speaker 1: I'm not going to hurt you. I'd never hurt you.
11:37
Speaker 1: I didn't recognize the voice. I had no idea who
11:41
Speaker 1: it was, but he knew me. I screamed like I
11:45
Speaker 1: was on fire. I dropped my gun and sprinted back
11:48
Speaker 1: to my room. I locked the door and hurled myself
11:51
Speaker 1: under the bed. I heard the man calling my name
11:54
Speaker 1: as he followed me down the hallway and made his
11:56
Speaker 1: way outside of my bedroom door. That's when I heard
12:00
Speaker 1: my father scream from the top of the stairs. I
12:03
Speaker 1: heard the intruder bolt back down the hall and out
12:05
Speaker 1: the door into the snowy night. It took a while
12:08
Speaker 1: for me to calm down enough to go and unlock
12:10
Speaker 1: the door for my parents. For a while, my parents
12:13
Speaker 1: pretended not to know who he was. But a few
12:16
Speaker 1: years later, when I was older, my dad admitted to
12:20
Speaker 1: me that the man was a former friend of his
12:22
Speaker 1: and had taken a special interest in me. He had
12:26
Speaker 1: repeatedly asked my father if he could take me out
12:28
Speaker 1: to go shopping or for ice cream. When my father refused,
12:33
Speaker 1: he started stalking me around our own property. I never
12:37
Speaker 1: had a clue about any of this. My parents called
12:40
Speaker 1: the police and pressed charges, but if the man was
12:43
Speaker 1: ever caught, I never heard. I asked my parents about
12:47
Speaker 1: him every once in a while, and they always say
12:51
Speaker 1: it's over. Don't worry. This story is not my own.
13:01
Speaker 1: It was told to me by a close friend back
13:04
Speaker 1: in twenty twelve, when my friend was thirteen. He and
13:06
Speaker 1: his family owned a small farm in the middle of
13:08
Speaker 1: a Native American reservation, nestled among the small community of
13:12
Speaker 1: other natives. One night in July, they were having a
13:16
Speaker 1: family gathering. They gathered around a bonfire in one of
13:19
Speaker 1: the backfields and told stories of their heritage and legends
13:23
Speaker 1: that had been passed down through the family for generations.
13:27
Speaker 1: My friend, who all referred to as John eventually turned
13:31
Speaker 1: in for the night with a handful of his cousins.
13:34
Speaker 1: John hadn't been asleep for very long when he heard
13:37
Speaker 1: a man at commotion from one of the barns. He
13:39
Speaker 1: heard the horses screaming, panicking, and kicking against the walls
13:43
Speaker 1: of their pens. He opened the RV door and looked
13:47
Speaker 1: out towards the barn and saw that his father and
13:49
Speaker 1: uncles had sprinted that way already, weapons ready. They called
13:54
Speaker 1: out to the boys to remain in the RV with
13:56
Speaker 1: the doors closed. Before his family could even arrive at
13:59
Speaker 1: the barn, the noise stopped, and once they got to
14:03
Speaker 1: the doors and entered, there was no sound of gunfire.
14:08
Speaker 1: John and his cousins waited by the window for a
14:10
Speaker 1: few minutes, and when the adults left the barn, they
14:13
Speaker 1: were all speaking softly in gray voices to each other.
14:16
Speaker 1: They slammed the barn door shut and bolted them and
14:19
Speaker 1: patrolled the grounds until daybreak. John remembers watching them circle
14:24
Speaker 1: the property for a while before finally falling asleep. His
14:28
Speaker 1: father was very distant over the next few days and
14:31
Speaker 1: refused to let John enter the barn or tell him
14:34
Speaker 1: what exactly happened, being thirteen. As the days went on,
14:39
Speaker 1: John forgot all about the incident, even though most of
14:42
Speaker 1: his family lingered at the farm until long after they
14:44
Speaker 1: intended to. The following week, after the family had left
14:49
Speaker 1: and the barn had been reopened, conspicuously absent of any horses,
14:54
Speaker 1: John began to notice a dark figure that would be
14:57
Speaker 1: seen lingering at the edge of their property, right where
15:00
Speaker 1: the fences ended, staring silently at the farm. Once he
15:05
Speaker 1: got close enough to the figure with binoculars to make
15:07
Speaker 1: out that it was wearing traditional native garbs, much like
15:11
Speaker 1: a shaman or a healer would wear, he never had
15:14
Speaker 1: any desire to move closer to get a better look.
15:17
Speaker 1: He would tell his parents about it, but they would
15:20
Speaker 1: always silence him immediately, then tell him not to speak
15:23
Speaker 1: of it, to ignore it completely. After a while, it
15:28
Speaker 1: became difficult to ignore, however, because it would start appearing
15:31
Speaker 1: closer and closer to the house, showing up on the
15:35
Speaker 1: property within the fence, always staring at the house. John
15:40
Speaker 1: never saw it coming or going, always just standing dead still.
15:44
Speaker 1: The family didn't discuss it, but John could tell that
15:47
Speaker 1: they all had it on their minds. Everyone was on
15:50
Speaker 1: edge irritable and seemed on the verge of panic. His
15:55
Speaker 1: father cut himself off from the family after a short
15:57
Speaker 1: while and almost never left his bedroom. A short time later,
16:02
Speaker 1: John started having horrific nightmares. Each time he was slaughtered,
16:08
Speaker 1: torn to pieces while still alive, unable to defend himself. Once,
16:13
Speaker 1: he awoke from one of those nightmares, convinced the dark
16:16
Speaker 1: figure was standing just outside his window peering in at him.
16:21
Speaker 1: His siblings admitted to having nightmares as well, so they
16:24
Speaker 1: went into their father's room to speak to him. John
16:28
Speaker 1: recalled the look of hopelessness in his father's eyes. For
16:31
Speaker 1: the very first time, he acknowledged the figure. He told
16:35
Speaker 1: them the thing wanted them to fear it, but if
16:38
Speaker 1: they collectively ignored it, it would leave. That night, John
16:44
Speaker 1: awoke to find his brothers already awake and sitting up
16:47
Speaker 1: in bed. Staring at the bedroom door. John could hear
16:51
Speaker 1: a low growling coming from behind it, and then so
16:55
Speaker 1: slowly he could barely see it happening, the door swung
16:59
Speaker 1: over open. Through the door, from the darkness came the
17:04
Speaker 1: tip of a snout, then a mouth with rows of fangs.
17:09
Speaker 1: It wasn't low to the ground like a normal animal,
17:11
Speaker 1: would be. It was much higher up, maybe shoulder height
17:15
Speaker 1: for an average man. John ducked under the covers, attempting
17:19
Speaker 1: to ignore it, but his brothers continued to stare. They
17:23
Speaker 1: later told him a beast similar to a wolf or
17:26
Speaker 1: a coyote entered the room on its hind legs, staring
17:30
Speaker 1: at each of the beds. John's youngest brother screamed, and
17:35
Speaker 1: when he did, the thing seemed to fall over backwards,
17:38
Speaker 1: like it was being folded in half, but regardless, it
17:42
Speaker 1: landed on its legs and sprinted out the door. John
17:46
Speaker 1: heard his father's shock and go off so close by
17:49
Speaker 1: his teeth rattled. There was the sound of the front
17:52
Speaker 1: door being wrenched open and something tearing across the lawn,
17:56
Speaker 1: and then there was only silence. John and his brothers
18:00
Speaker 1: were crying when his father came back in. He then
18:03
Speaker 1: gathered them up and told him that they were all
18:06
Speaker 1: leaving and going to stay at their uncle's house for
18:08
Speaker 1: a while. They were never able to get any kind
18:11
Speaker 1: of explanation out of him as to what he saw
18:13
Speaker 1: that night. They stayed with their uncle for a few weeks,
18:18
Speaker 1: and during that time John's father invited Navajo men to
18:22
Speaker 1: come to the farm and cast banishing spells and prevent
18:25
Speaker 1: the creature from returning. John and his family eventually returned
18:29
Speaker 1: to the farm, but it took him quite a while
18:31
Speaker 1: to grow comfortable being there again. The demon creature never returned.
18:37
Speaker 1: His father eventually sat him down and told him that
18:41
Speaker 1: what he and his uncles had seen in the barn
18:43
Speaker 1: and what had entered their home that night, was a
18:46
Speaker 1: creature known as the skin walker. He told him that
18:50
Speaker 1: skin walkers were a part of their culture, and even
18:53
Speaker 1: though they were pure evil, there was no need to
18:55
Speaker 1: live in fear of them. If they chose to live
18:58
Speaker 1: as good people and did not fear the creature, it
19:01
Speaker 1: would never return. It's very important to keep in mind
19:05
Speaker 1: that John was never supposed to tell me this story.
19:08
Speaker 1: The Native Americans take skinwalker legends very serious, and speaking
19:12
Speaker 1: of them in any way is practically attracting them to you.
19:16
Speaker 1: Many of you will not believe this story, and that's fine.
19:19
Speaker 1: I'd definitely rather live in a world where these things
19:22
Speaker 1: don't exist. But I do have to emphasize the respect
19:25
Speaker 1: I have for my friend. I know him very well
19:28
Speaker 1: and I trust him, and for him to speak openly
19:31
Speaker 1: of this experience took quite a lot of guts. I
19:34
Speaker 1: guess if I had a parting message, it would be
19:37
Speaker 1: to really respect the Native American culture. They have this
19:40
Speaker 1: almost magical grandeur about them. They have faced genocide and
19:45
Speaker 1: had their lands ripped from them, and they're still around
19:48
Speaker 1: and still hold their culture and religion very close to
19:51
Speaker 1: them and lead incredibly spiritual lives. I personally think that's
19:56
Speaker 1: worth a lot of respect. There's always a reason to
20:12
Speaker 1: be afraid.