Scary Stories to Throw Rocks at children to (sticks and stones WILL break ur bones)

[Music] hi everyone this is my first time posting in this community on Reddit and I'm hoping to get as many ideas and theories as possible this happened to me about 6 years ago I'm a very stable late 40s married mom of three I'm an American but I've lived in Northern Germany with my family in a small relatively rural community for 20 plus years I know this environment very well and I'm bilingual as I often used to do I would load my female Labrador Retriever into my car and drive about a mile outside of our village

into the countryside a little so my dog could get out and run free she was a wonderful dog attentive and very devoted to me she stayed in my area when we were out in the country and we both stayed relative ly close to my car I would smoke a cigarette out there and she would run around we were always there in daylight and sometimes there was a jogger or a farmer on a tract during the distance but we were normally alone and again this is a very safe area because I'm an American though I am

nevertheless semi hyperten to my surroundings and just in case I always carry pepper spray plus I have a big dog the landscape is low and sparse kind of Brushy a few big scattered trees but mostly flat Marshland and you can see all around you you can see through and between the foliage to see a rabbit run for example and the land is vast so we always drove down to the end of a dirt road not into a clearing just into a flat low brush high visibility country field landscape okay anyway so two things happened in

the same location with just me and my dog present on two separate occasions they might seem like no big deal but I don't understand and although I was never frightened I have always been bothered the first thing that happened was that I with my dog she actively watched this event observed a small brown leaf just a regular dead dry tree leaf hanging suspended moving only about an inch in any direction in front of us for at least a full minute let me explain there was no wind no no invisible spiderweb or filament holding it no

tree or bush suspending it it hung moving slightly independently in the air in front of us directly in front of me at my eye level and my dog looked up to it I plucked it out of the air and we left driving home I wasn't frightened but it was memorable and odd my dog fixated on the leaf as well when it was in my hand I showed it to her directly and as I said we packed up and left but it was like watching magic I just stood there and watched it for some time within

the same period but on another trip to the same local location in broad daylight I heard someone call to me please and I thank you for your patience but let me explain I won't use my real name anyway in this sparse German rural Countryside with again only my dog present I heard this sentence Julie I can see you I heard it from a specific Direction and it was crystal clear to me and I would say it sounded like from a distance quote unquote almost as if low shouted but not from too far away like 1

to 200 yard away at the most no one was there it was just flat fields and low brush weeds surrounding me nowhere to hide or stalk no point in the brush to approach even worse although I didn't recognize the voice I would say it was male it was absolutely a non- accented native English so this was not a German person and anyway there was no person present if there had been I would have of course been terrified but my dog and I were completely alone as far as my eyes could see I still can't explain

this more than clearly hearing the voice and even more than hearing my name it was the perfect sounding neutral American English of the voice in that environment apparently for me that freaks me out do you guys get me I'm in the middle of nowhere in Germany I have a regional American accent this was a moderate tone like a newscaster I know exactly what I heard my dog did not react to this call this voice said exactly what I wrote above my dog didn't seem to register it at all so we packed up and went home

I can't explain this I'm a spiritual person open-minded and a religious believer this hasn't changed me or even traumatized me but it happened just like I've written and while both experiences did not feel frightening or threatening they felt strange and I guess otherworldly if you will I can't reconcile these moments anything involving drugs or side effects of mental health audio disturbances hidden stalkers stress and Trauma can fortunately be excluded from theories believe me I've thought about it all I'd love to hear what anyone thinks here's a theory maybe you're lying I'm from the UK and

I recently moved to Southern California not too far from the Nevada border I was part of this subr in the UK and felt a lot more comfortable reading your stories when I had a giant body of water separating me from the USA where most of these happen now I'm here and I'm super curious if anyone has any stories or experiences around California or Nevada that they would be willing to share the Mojave Desert seems super interesting to me yeah I'll go in 2018 I was a Trail Guide or horseback in the Santa Monica Mountains of

Southern California just north of Malibu near the northern entry point for the stunt road trails we would take the public out on horses up the fire roads and out into the park toena is peaceful but strange off beaten path C territory all toega Canyon Road is nothing but hair pin turns winding and weaving through the landscape with steep walls old landslides and very limited visibility around the turns the road is super dangerous there are no sidewalks and no shorer on the mountain roads one night around 10: p.m. I closed up the barn alone and headed

home later after a Last Sunset ride it's dark and the mountains limit much of the Moonlight there are no traffic lights or lamps I'm very careful driving down this road not listening to any music until I reach the bottom and get on the highway for the rest of my commute despite being careful because of this driving conditions I drive this route every day and I never see anything out of the ordinary except this day as I squint through the dark to find my way home this particular night carefully navigating the winding Mountain Road I see

something strange in my headlights around one of the turns it's lying in a dirt pool pull off at the foot of huge rock face just a few feet away from the two-lane road in the corner of a hairpin turn I'm blur eyed I been in the Sun and on my feet all day long working with horses lifting heavy things and dealing with difficult people I'm dehydrated I'm hungry very dirty and sweaty I'm half asleep and I have to be back early in the morning my body is screaming at me to go home and put my

feet up I can barely see anything through the exhaustion and the remote Darkness I blink the sand out of my eyes to get a better look and I break hard it's black not moving and roughly the size of a man it is unsettlingly still the most still I've ever seen anything human- shaped I stop dead in the middle of the road then slowly roll forward as my tires leave the asphalt and crunch onto the rocky pool off I see that it's a human body wrapped in a comforter I roll down my window and I call

out hello I wait for a response for a very long time nothing my heart sinks I turn off my car's engine so I can hear better but I leave the lights on I open my door and cautiously step out to investigate closer I call over my car door and wait even longer in the silence still no response only the Stillness of the comforter and the Silence of the windless night in the canyons answer me I squint and lean forward to get a better look and I see a pair of motionless black tennis shoes sticking out

of the comforter my face Falls and my blood runs cold hope and concern leave me and fear takes over I'm now confident into a human and not my tired mind playing tricks on me over a pile of trash that's blown out of a truck bed I quickly recoil I'm all alone in the middle of nowhere in the vast Southern California Wilderness with a human body that I have been unlucky enough to discover and so I wait I watch closely in my headlights for any signs of Life a breath even for the wind to catch a

corner of the fabric and lift it nothing still as anything I've ever seen I ask myself if I'm prepared for the trauma of actually looking at the person to confirm that they're dead and the consequences of stopping to investigate and discovering that it is in fact a human body having to call the police make a statement be kept away from the house in this state for hours all I can see at this moment are more obstacles between me and a much needed Epsom salt bath electrolytes dinner and velvety black sleep as my brain catches up

to what's happening I find enough Clarity to acknowledge that of course it's my responsibility to report but I'm not going to get any closer I am convinced enough of what I found to call the police without inspecting closer I duck back into my car lock the door several times and I start the engine with limited spotty service I dial 911 put my phone on speaker and I wait for the call to connect as I put on my seat belt I am just ready to get away from this body as quickly as possible I flick on

my brights turn on my turn signal and look both ways around the dangerous blind Curves in both directions the motionless pile just in front of my car learing toward me and my peripherals between the body of that's just a few yards away and the blind turns in both directions keeping me trapped there I feel my body switch over to autopilot and survival mode within seconds of my mind beginning to race towards whatever most likely worst scenario presented itself something caught my eye in my headlights I see a human hand pull the comforter back enough to

sit halfway up and blink at me through the glare of my brights and the rumble of my car's engine this dead person's face just staring at me out of the dark it was a transient fast asleep 2 feet from the edge of the road no supplies no tent no bags or belongings of any kind the nearest homeless person I'd seen had been miles away it's near a nice neighborhood where the homeless are quickly chased away but remote enough that someone who was in a hurry to get a body out of the car could have dropped

it and easily dipped out with no one seeing them I had worked it all over in my head it made sense it made a lot more sense than sleeping rolled up black comforter inches away from the white shoulder line on a dangerous Canyon Road any driver who hung their turn a little wide or a car that pulled off to the side of the road to use the pull off would have run them over and probably killed them the car still running I step one foot out and stand up to yell over my door are you

okay they squint at me through the headlights again then make a quick move to get up I reacted ducking back into my car mashing the lock button hanging up on 911 which still hadn't connected and I took off down the mountain they weren't dead I did my duty and that's all I needed to know about them to be able to sleep that night I was 100% confident given the amount of noise I made and how long I waited for a response that this person was dead but the sound of my engine turning on combined with

the bright high beams woke them up from whatever drug induced coma they must have been in for them to decide that that was a good place to can La is built differently men are the only frightening entities here the ghosts and Cryptids are too busy trying to make rent to bother anyone I had an actual encounter I've encountered some incredible Wildlife though made friends with a bobcat and got trapped in my office by a family of raccoons once saw gray fox and lots of Dearing coyotes but the only thing I ever encountered in those mountains

that scared me other than the wildfires was this human sleeping inches from Death on the side of a mountain road so soundly I thought for certain I was about to be swept up as a witness and a murder conspiracy that was sure to make headlines the following morning oh I have one of these so I got married in Vegas in November 2022 my wife and I left after the wedding to drive to Palm Springs about 4 and 1 half hours away for a honeymoon we left at about 3:00 p.m. but it was already starting to

head toward Sunset as it was Winter our Drive was essentially a remote desert with no gas stations between the Vegas outskirts and 29 palms no major highways most of the roads were just one lane on either side we were essentially driving across salt flats in the pitch black with very few other people and no civilization anywhere if something were to happen oh yeah and also very patchy cell service it gets very very dark on the Salt Flats my wife and I were enjoying the drive at first I drove out of Vegas but we switched when

it started to get dark because I have quite serious night blindness I can't drive after a certain hour so then my job became a navigator and chief of entertainment I had a paper map out because the GPS wasn't flying nice and we were talking about how fun the wedding was and how good it was to spend time with friends and family reminiscing about our 12-year relationship and talking about our plans for the honey Moon newly weed wedding night stuff but at some point we started to get quieter and quieter I kept trying to explain it

away to myself as being tired and was trying to keep a conversation going so that it would be easier for both of us to stay awake but any discussion I tried to start died out quickly we've never had any problems finding things to talk about but it almost felt like speaking out loud was going to alert something out in the darkness to our presence like we were being hunted so at a certain point maybe halfway through the drive we started to see dead animals by the side of the road this isn't exactly unusual On Any

Given drive but there were more of them than I usually see especially in such a remote place with so few cars there are also fewer animals in that part of the desert because the salt flats are a particularly a hostile environment with lower plant life I thought it was all a bit weird but I didn't pay any real attention to it I couldn't even really see what they were for the most part you know how roadkill gets especially the little stuff and then on my side of the road there was a much larger dead animal

to me its head looked like a bit of a a lamb which I thought was a little odd because I'd never seen sheep this far out in the middle of nowhere usually if any domesticated animals are wandering the desert it's cows and also it just looked a little funny its tongue was sticking out and its eyes were rolled back in its head which isn't exactly unusual for dead animals but there was something that felt a little off about it did you see that my wife asked her voice was higher than usual a little tense yeah

I said did it have a lamb's head yeah it did after that the drive was dead silent my wife would not resp respond with more than a couple of words to my attempts at talking to her I tried to turn on a playlist to keep us awake and the only thing she said was it's not loud enough we lapsed into absolute silence and aside from me almost Whispering instructions for where to turn we didn't speak another word until we turned out onto Route 62 in 29 Palms then suddenly it was like we couldn't shut up

everything we hadn't talked about that entire Drive came out in a ride and we chattered on at warp speed about anything and everything except for that dead animal we didn't talk about it again until we were driving through the New Mexico desert at night in 2023 I know what a cursed place to have that conversation I asked her what she saw that day and she told me that it's not something we can talk about if you know anything about the southwestern desert and what lives out here you will get my meaning I don't know if

you can hit one of them with a car the thought is honestly pretty funny to me or if it was some kind of bait laid out for us for someone or something else whatever it was neither one of us ever wanted to see it again my wife says that the creature's body didn't look like a lamb even though the head did she says that until the headlights landed on its face she thought that what she was seeing was a person that every part of its body was wrong for what it was quote unquote supposed to

be as I'm currently sitting next to my wife I consulted her about how I was telling the story she says and I quote Meanwhile your wife was white knuckling the steering wheel trying to keep us awake my ass I don't think there was anything anyone could have done to make me sleepy on that goddamn Drive I think you could have turned on my sleep playlist and I'll still be awake love her honestly best woman alive I've never told that story anywhere before I'm glad you posted this I hope this story freaks you out as much

as the real life experience did for us I live in soow but I'm closer to La these are the creepiest things I've experienced outdoors I looked up some haunted hikes in LA and years ago my husband and I checked out one I didn't tell him my search criteria and I just said I found a cool hike it was near some very expensive homes in Malibu apparently back in the day Nazi sympathizers were trying to set up an area for themselves it's a path with two long stairways down into the canyon we went twice the first

time it was an overcast day but we had a sitter so we went anyway we skipped the first set of stairs because we saw a water tower further down the path the water tower has a ton of graffiti and is very old and rusted there were some holes in it so we stayed and explored there and picked up trash we tried to leave an area better than what we find it and as we were walking into the stairs to descend I was filled with Dread something was screaming in my mind that we had kids and

that we shouldn't be there our kids weren't there but something was gnawing at me to leave I didn't want to end the day so we kept going and we hit part of the stairs that the foliage was very overgrown so overgrown it was like walking down a path with walls most areas are thick and it almost grew into a tunnel he stopped before we went further and instruct him to e what to do if we saw an animal or encountered anything it fed my fear even more and put ideas I hadn't even been afraid of

into my head but we kept going about a minute longer we kept ascending the stairs when he stopped suddenly and he raised his hand my heart was pounding out of my chest and I had no idea why he stopped he whipped around silently and started pointing behind me rapidly as if to tell me to run in a hurry we raced to the water tower before I stopped running and I asked what happened and he also had this overwhelming dread that we shouldn't be there he heard a noise that convinced him that something was there but

trying to be silent and accidentally dropping something we booked it out of there but we wanted to return and we did on a day that it was more occupied and had a very pleasant time so I'm not sure what happened that day as we're adventurous hikers and we enjoy checking out new areas but I haven't experienced that feeling while hiking anywhere else also there's a highway that connects a lake town to San Juan capestrano it's probably about an hour North of San Diego and 90 minutes from La there was a watering hole under a bridge

that high school kids would swim at during summer bored one night two other friends and I decided to try to go night swimming we grabbed a dying flashlight and we head it out once we parked at the little pool out we realized there was no lighting up there we walked down to the water and my female friend and I started to get creeped down but our male friend insisted was safe and was getting ready to take a swim then we heard a weird sound it sounded animal almost like a weird grunt it sounded distant after

the first one we heard more of these noises it sounded like the sounds were two animals communicating after this happened enough to seem like communication my female friend and I told our male friend that swimming wasn't happening and we booked it to the car not sure what animals we heard but we never went back because they blocked up the pull out so it was impossible to park and walk there Santo is an Indonesian man who gained notoriety among the Indonesian public for his Infamous acts of cannibalism born in March of 1972 samanta would become the

eldest of five children and lived a comfortable childhood due to the inheritance money that his father received from his grandparents nicknamed San by his friends he attended school for his Elementary education however due to inadequate National exam scores Santo was forced to repeat sixth grade and was hindered from attending his chosen middle school once he graduated he was finally accepted into his preferred middle school but in his third year there he dropped out as an adult Santo had been married twice his first marriage was to Satria whom he met while working at lampong while his

second marriage was to toyam in 1993 A co-worker at the sugar kinge company that they were both employed in he had a daughter with toyam however both of his marriages ended in divorce primarily due to recurring incidences of domestic violence fast forward to January 11th 2003 the corpse of an 81-year-old woman named Umba remma disappeared just 16 hours after her burial alarmed by her exclamation locals reported the incident to the authorities a police investigation led to Santo who was found with her remains scattered throughout his house arrested 2 days later he was charged with aggravated

theft under article 363 of the criminal code during Santo's court case prosecutors demanded a 6-year prison sentence but his defense team objected setting his diagnosed mental disorder by the Central Java psychological Department the team also argued that the corpse was not considered an object or property but rather simply human waste discarded through burial the judges were unconvinced and the cannibal was sentenced to 5 years in prison on June 27th 2003 authorities later revealed that MMA was not Santo's first victim a masur had also gone missing after giving Santo a massage with his CL is later

found at samanta's house samanta told police he ate the bodies for Supernatural purposes and had aimed to eat at least seven humans in a quest for special powers to ensure that he has a quote unquote peaceful Soul he told police in Central Java province that he had previously killed and eaten two men who had attempted to Rob them as well as consuming their flesh the cannibal suspect said he cut off the member of one of the men proceeded to dry it and used it as an amulet police fear at least three other people who had

gone missing may have fallen victim to Santo's taste for human flesh I Found the courage to post this after reading the numerous sightings of North American Indian mythical creatures specifically the quote unquote short people that seem to go by many names across the tribal region of America this exact type of creature has been cited and discussed among Aboriginal people in Australia for thousands of years in the southwest region they're known as the hary bush man standing a few feet tall they possessed insane strength and speed before colonization there were stories of a friendship or alliance

with Aboriginal people but also there were stories of conflict and people or even children being taken by them there were specific rules Aboriginal adults told their children such as avoiding water bodies at night and the evening and no matter what never ever whistle in the dark it invites them and it only spells trouble although even some Aboriginal people say that these stories are just to warn kids about water safety well in 1998 I knew none of this because I'm not Aboriginal and at the age of 10 when this all happened I had never even met

an Aboriginal person or been taught anything about Aboriginal culture in school it was the 9s and Australia had an uncomfortable relationship with the truth and colonization every school holiday I used to leave the city and visit my aunt in the picturesque Southwest Countryside I needed no encouragement in going because I love the outdoors and I had free reign to run a Muk on the dirt bike I'd also go fishing alongside the Magnificent Blackwood River whenever I felt like it and I went a lot it was the '90s in Australia and Incredibly safe for a 10-year-old

to roam the landscape for miles and hours on end all alone with nothing but a trusty pocket knife I was able to walk through my aunt's massive property to the edge of the forest and then Into the Depths Where the River flowed through fishing for trout and red fin on the last evening before I was due to go back home to the city I was down there fishing alone as the sun was setting I knew I'd get into trouble being out that late but having already snared a few trout I figured I'd be quickly forgiven

plus I was still getting bites I remember having caught the fish and I kept them in an old metal bucket I was on my last few pieces of bait when I recall hearing a tiny pinging noise on the side of the bucket at first I thought nothing of it because large gum nuts often fell from the trees but then it happened again this time much louder and more forceful I remember checking the bucket and realizing they were small rocks and not gumnuts at all I looked around assuming it was some kids from a neighboring property

which was very unlikely as it was maybe a 30-minute walk to the next property the other side of the river backed into the national park where there were no other farms for miles plus I hadn't come across any kids throughout my entire stay at the farm this is where it got pretty scary because the Rocks got bigger and they started flying in from different directions cutting my cheek and hitting me in the head at this stage I started crying I was only 10 after all and I dropped the fishing rod I had three large trout

in my bucket and my intention was to pick them up and run back to the farm as quickly as I could as I bent to pick it up I was hit by another rock in the side of the head and I fell over I pulled myself up and stared over to the other side of the river the main source of the rocks and what I saw paralyzed my whole body filling me with fear it it was nearly dark at the stage but I saw the outline of three short looking bodies covered in hair I would

have put them at maybe a meter tall or 3 to 4 feet the size of small children but with the bodies of men their faces looked like they were part ape or part human but it was their eyes though even though it was getting dark their eyes had this piercing yellow glow but were completely black in the middle they wore no clothes but were covered in extremely thick clumpy hair all over their bodies except from the knees down and they had arms that hung almost like cavemen but here's the strangest thing they stared at me

almost without moving like literal statues with a curious expression fixed on their faces making absolutely no noise whatsoever it made no sense as only a few moments before rocks were pelting in from all directions and yet now they appeared Frozen except for their eyes which followed me I managed to pull myself up and run faster than all hell my aunt was standing on the balcony and watched me tear through the long grass as quick as I could with blood and cuts on my face I told her everything and she called the police one officer came

by to get a statement and he said he would visit some of the other farms around town but there weren't any other families in the area my aunt just assumed I couldn't see the figures properly due to the lack of light and maybe even suffering concussion from the rocks that hit my head she just assumed they were kids or teens but I know what I saw though and I'll never forget those murderous looking yellow eyes the next morning I went with my aunt to collect my fishing rod and bucket my aunt was shocked to see

the fishing rod and the bucket still there she thought it was an opportunity she thought it was an opportunistic crime we checked the bucket and what we saw made her skin crawl three three perfect trout skeletons were floating in the bucket now one more Soul left we don't have bears and wolves in Australia and even the odd dingo or Fox wouldn't devour an entire fish and then leave its skeleton there without even at least tipping the bucket over the whole ordeal was terrifying but as things tend to happen when you're a kid you just forget

about it or it lives somewhere in the back of your mind rentree for a while the police officer found nothing of note and as nothing was stolen there was no need for further investigation it was a talk of the Country Pub for a few weeks though my aunt was a local the town had experienced odd things throughout the years such as the sighting of tiger-like animals in the deep forest and other strange noises and happenings reported by Lumberjacks in the deep forest it wasn't until I got into my 20s and became a social worker that

I started working with Aboriginal communities in town during celebratory events I came to learn of the different dream time creation stories and eventually I had the confidence to tell an elder about what I went through he recognized it as the Harry Bushman straight away and said I was lucky to leave that Forest alive he seemed to think that they must have believed I was an Aboriginal boy I do have a mixed racial background and the protocol would have been for me to leave a couple of fish outside the bucket skuer on sticks for them to

come and collect as payment for fishing in the river but as I didn't they reminded me with the first few pelts and when I still didn't they eventually attacked there aren't any Aboriginal families in that part of the Southwest to this day which may explain why it only happened to me the otter believe they could have taken me though for disobeying their sacred Customs that part wakes me up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night because well I believe they could have this isn't a story I told to my friends and family

but I will confide in the h Aboriginal colleague or client at work and they always tell me similar things don't even get me started on the Australian desert I'm 36 now and as time goes on I find this event something I think about more often as the years roll on despite becoming more logical and cynical in age I do Ponder at significance and proof of other worldly beings living alongside us on this planet there is a strange order energy throughout the Georgia pedmont and the foothills of the Appalachians the geography of that area that which

has not yet been consumed by Atlanta's Limitless growth can be characterized by dense forests Rolling Hills and shallow red clay valleys punctuated by small Grassy Meadows silty rivers and small streams crisscross the landscape often filling up The Valleys to form lakes and marshes you're never alone in these forests which are densely populated ated with wildlife of all kinds the region also hosts a large human presence with booming Sun Belt suburbs sprawling endlessly into the ancient Hills as there are so many people in the relatively small region it can feel difficult to escape the hustle and

bustle of it all well-known trails close to population centers are often crowded especially on Fall weekends when the plentiful trees bloom with Autumn color I've been around long enough to know what hikes to avoid at certain times of the year as Solitude is one of the most enticing benefits of wilderness to me plenty of state and natural forests as well as expansive County nature preserves go relatively unnoticed if they're not among the top search results on all Trails my Labrador puppy loves to accompany me on any hike after work one day I loaded him into

the cab of my tired old pickup and drove us out to a nearby natural Preserve that we frequent the small gravel parking lot was empty when we arrived the trail that we took LED straight from the parking lot and was one of the most popular it was Midsummer and I knew that there would be at least 90 minutes before Sunset but under the tree cover the landscape was already beginning to darken as we got on our way the Roar of cicas immediately drowned out the soft percussion of our footsteps after crossing a Whitewater Creek and

proceeding through a Thicket of Tall Pines for not more than 2 miles The View suddenly opens up to an expensive Untamed Meadow markings on trees along the right hand side indicate where the trail resumes on the opposite corner several hundred yards away the majority of the meadow slopes down gradually to the left dotted with occasional dog woods and is sliced off sharply by another wall of old growth Pines before the bottom of the hill although I was familiar with the trail I suddenly found us cutting swiftly leftward through the tall grass and down the hill

toward the Grove at the bottom of the meadow both my pup and I were drawn with urgency to this off tra area of The Preserve and soon enough we were at the trees and taking our first steps into the dim Woods through the branches ahead I could see a crumbling red brick chimney standing alone in the brush it didn't appear to be far away but as we continue it I'm so done with recording through the branches ahead I could see a crumbling red brick chimney standing alone in the brush it didn't appear to be far

away but as we continued to advance toward it for several minutes it seemed that we weren't getting any closer suddenly a large black snake stopped us in our tracks positioning itself as if to block us and staring with a raised head This is highly unusual behavior for black snakes which are normally furtive and keep away from people this slight shock sna me out of my almost trans-like State and suddenly every everything felt very wrong I took it as a sign that we were not welcome in that part of the forest and no longer wanted to

investigate the chimney it took much longer than I expected to get back into the meadow at this point I was drenched in sweat and my pup was panting hard whereas not long ago we were enjoying the relatively cool summer evening the meadow 2 was now dark and when I checked my watch I saw that we had been off Trail for nearly an hour and everything was silent no more cicada chirping I've had similar encounters throughout the region where the laws of space and time seem to somehow suspend in certain areas of the Backwoods I've considered

looking for the chimney again when I'm sure to have more Daylight but then I think about the snake's warning and that feeling of existential dread that I felt that evening perhaps some things are not meant to be investigated for for