Part 1
People always have pondered what another intelligent being would be like. They’ve always theorized that these beings would be light years away and that us, humans, would be dead a very long time before we ever made contact with them. Other people say that they have already met them after being abducted and experimented on. Then some will say that we are the only intelligent being there are or ever will be. Well, I can say say one thing for sure and that’s no one was right. We were all so very wrong…
Back when I was a teenager, I’ll admit I was a smoker and an avid drug user. I’d done most drugs that were deemed “safe” from my friends such as LSD, MDMA, DMT, many prescription drugs, and I even had a phase where I did some over-the-counter drugs. As a teen, I like to think I played it smart by only doing those every so often and stick with my main fix. Weed.
I used weed almost as a social tool to some extent. What I mean by that is it got me to meet people who all were similar to me in at least the one aspect; we just wanted to get high. Around the end of my Sophomore year I met this kid named Ralph at a party and we quickly found out that we had a lot in common so we became friends.
When summer came, I’d hang out at his house, which was out in the middle of a forest, at least 4 or 5 times a week. While I was at his house, we’d barely ever go inside because his parents never liked anyone in there. Instead, we’d go to his barn which was filled with cats that were most likely illegally being held. You’re probably thinking why the fuck someone would hold cats in a barn. His mom actually bread some very expensive cats ranging from around $500-$3,000. She never had a permit for it either, and most of them were very maltreated by barely being fed or given water. Anyways we would hang out in that barn for hours every time I came over and all we would really do is smoke weed and cigarettes. We grew bored of that after a couple weeks since there wasn’t much to do so he started to show me some cool spots throughout his neighborhood.
Some of the places were just a great view like this place we called the ledge which was on a small mountain. From the ledge, we could see the entire forest stretch out so far that we couldn’t even come close to seeing the end of it. Then there were spots that were just cool like the cliffs which is pretty self explanatory from its name. My favorite place was what we called the old house.
The old house was an abandon house down a long driveway with many “No Trespassing” signs, but we had thought whatever the owner didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. The house was a three story building that looked as if no one had lived there for probably around 50+ years. As you could imagine, the house was obviously decently decayed, and very neglected by wildlife and everyone that had been there. All the windows were busted out, parts of trees grew inside the house, the floor was broken in, parts of walls were missing showing the inside of the wall which most likely was filled with asbestos. The walls that weren’t broken in had graffiti covering almost every inch possible. The house’s obvious property was pretty big probably being a couple acres. Decently thick brush surrounded the yard and a side building that was presumably an out house. The house and it’s property also had an eerie feel to it, but what abandon house doesn’t?
Most of the time we would visit there during the day, but I personally thought the best time to go was at night. The rush I would get from this place past dark was unreal. Only people who have been in an abandon house in the middle of the forest over night would know what I mean. I had only done this a few times as I would go alone because Ralph would refuse to go there during the night.
One night, we were at the barn around 20:00 and I was trying really hard to convince him to come with me to the old house. Like always, he constantly said no. This ended up making me mad so I demanded him to tell why he wouldn’t come with me. He sighed and said “Well, this going to seem a little ridiculous, but I saw… something… in the forest by there.”
“Well what the hell does that have to do with anything?” I replied.
“I’m just worried that it would come to the house during the night.”
“That what would?”
He sighed and began to tell me what he saw.
Back when he was 9 or 10, him and his friend Carl wanted to find a spot where they could go to get away from both of their families. After a few weeks of exploring through the woods, they came across the old house, but in a slightly different state. Apparently, there were around 9 or 10 paths all around the house where the brush grew now.
Him and Carl would try to always explore one path every time they would go to the house until they ran out. This would allow them to have something new to do every time they visited. Some paths took a couple days as they would walk pretty slow at first absorbing the scenery of the forest and its inhabitants. When they would turn back, they would leave a marking in the ground or put a pile of sticks together and leave it at the furthest point they reached. The next time they would visit the old house they would quickly walk past everything they have already seen until they go to their “checkpoint”.
They never found anything interesting enough on these paths to actually keep, but a few weird things began happening. Oddly enough, it was only on the final three paths. Mostly the mysterious happenings effected the checkpoints.
The checkpoint at the first of the three was just a stack of sticks tied together by some long pieces of grass. Ralph and him came back the next day excited as they always were when they explored one of the paths. Eventually the checkpoint came to view, but it wasn’t how they left. The sticks were ripped in to pieces in a pile. This didn’t bother either of them though since they thought it was maybe a fox or another animal in the woods. Ralph said looking back now, it wasn’t possible for any animal to make those sticks look like that.
The second of the three checkpoints was four sticks jabbed into the ground in a square pattern. Carl was going to be out of the town for the next couple days so it was there for a few days. The day he came back, they both were happily went down the path. When they finally arrived to the checkpoint, there were 3 more squares of sticks in the ground next time the first one making a giants square of sticks. This made both of them a little uneasy, but they kept going down the path a little more hesitant. Nothing else out of the ordinary happened on the path.
They ended up exploring the last path all the way on the same day. Half of it was explored during the day in which they made a star in the ground with a stick. Both of them were very eager to finish this one therefore they made a plan. At exactly midnight, they would both sneak out of their houses and meet up at the old house. Carl was suppose to bring two flashlights while Ralph was going to bring two of his father’s pocket knives. Everything went exactly as planned. They met up and started going down the path.
Ralph and Carl quickly realized that the paths at night weren’t as appealing to the eye. In fact, most of it was straight up terrifying. Neither of them would end up saying anything about it because they both wanted to to be brave. When they finally reached the checkpoint, they shone their flashlights on it and what they saw would leave them breathless. Right next to the original star was another star that sloppily drawn. Ralph told that it resembled what you would think a two year old would draw for a star. The worst part was it was at least an inch deep and a half an inch in diameter.
At first, Carl wanted to turn around and go home, but Ralph convinced him not to. Ralph said that someone probably saw them leave the property of the old house after the sixth trail. That person then began to mess with their checkpoints in order to scare them off so they would stay off the property. Carl thought about Ralph’s theory and came to the conclusion he was probably right so they continued down to finish the path. Apparently this path was very long compared to the rest. The further and further they went down the path, the weirder things got. On some of the trees there were deep gashes almost splitting some of the trees in half and some of them were even knocked over. These sites became more and more common the deeper they went.
Then they reached a clearing in the shape of circle probably being about 100 yards across. There was no grass and no trees except one. It was in the middle of the glade and had a tower built into it. Eventually, they would name it the watch tower due to the structure of the building. The watch tower was very crudely built out of wood and being around 4 stories tall. On the bottom floor, there was a doorway which looked abnormally big. The second had a balcony above the door with no railing and it’s supports sticking in the ground. Next was the third floor which was pretty plain only having what appeared to be a window. Finally was the fourth floor. It was almost like a roof, but not quite. Presumably, there was either a ladder or stairs leading up there. It had almost a railing around the perimeter.
They didn’t notice the fourth floor at first because when they looked at it from an upward angle, it would appear as a flat roof. But that’s when they noticed it. There was a very tall humanoid creature standing on the top. This thing was looking in the opposite direction of Ralph and Carl and most of it features were impossible to see in the darkness. Both of them stood absolutely still staring at the creature for what felt like hours. Neither of them noticed how quiet the forest was until this point. In fact, it was so quiet that they both heard the ringing noise your brain makes up when there is no noise to hear.
After a few minutes, it began to move about the top of the watch tower. The creature reached it’s hand up into the air making a motion that looked as if it was stretching. What they saw would scar them forever. This thing had claws for fingers, but probably not the way you’re thinking of. The sharp part of the claws were where the back of your finger would be leaving the other side dull. They were also opposable and probably around 10 inches long. Ralph managed to hold back his scream, but Carl wasn’t so lucky.
The second Ralph heard a noise come from Carl’s mouth, he dived on him tackling him to the ground covering his mouth as they fell. Ralph looked Carl straight in the eyes and brought one finger up to his lips letting him know to not make a noise. When they finally looked back over at the creature he was looking directly at them. Both of their hearts stopped and they held their breath trying not to move a muscle. Fortunately for them, the darkness was the perfect camouflage leaving them invisible to the creature. It began looking around them frantically almost as if it was scanning the area to find where the noise had come from. That’s when they noticed a silhouette of the same thing standing in the third story window looking in their direction also.
Suddenly, the creature jumped from the roof making a loud bang and a cloud of dust rising from the ground. Ralph and Carl both looked at each other and knew exactly what they had to do, run. They both ran as fast as they ever have the way they came from hoping the creature didn’t see or hear them. After about 10 minutes, they finally came to a stop. Ralph almost collapsed, but thankfully Carl managed to catch him and softly lower him to the ground.
Both of them sat there in utter silence listening while trying to catch their breath. Neither of them heard a sound except for forest wildlife which had seem to return to the forest. After a few minutes, both of them just walked home not saying a word to each other.
I was speechless. Like who really would know what to say after hearing all that? Honestly, I thought it was all bullshit at first and responded with a really sarcastic comment about it being a nice story. But the look in his eyes after I said that convinced me other wise.
I asked him what happened to Carl and unfortunately, he moved across the country soon afterwards. Apparently they managed to stay friends for a couple years, but as time went on they lost contact.
We went to sleep after that, but I don’t really think either of us got much sleep. Neither of us talked to each other for a couple days, but then it went back to how it used to be. After a couple weeks I brought up the idea of going to the watchtower just so we can clear things up. Initially, he said no, but with a bit of convincing I got him up to a maybe. I said we would do it smart this time and bring a gun or two and maybe some knives. This made him feel better and agreed, but we have to bring a few more people. We both called some friends and planned it for the next weekend.
—
Credits to: Doctor Slim
Comments