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free cat toy. Terms and conditions apply. See

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site for details. When

0:51

I was growing up, one of my best friends was a guy

0:53

we called Ricky. His real name was

0:55

David. He won

0:57

our respect pretty quickly too, and

0:59

not just because he could handle a little

1:01

playful abuse. He was

1:03

obsessed with the counterculture of the 1960s. He

1:07

loved the music, the rebellious attitudes,

1:09

and he was fascinated by the

1:11

whole concept of psychedelia. So

1:14

it should be no surprise to anyone that Ricky

1:16

was the first of us to seek out something

1:18

a little stronger than the cans of Molson that

1:20

we used to steal from our dads. We

1:23

were big into partying, so we wanted

1:25

to try stuff like weed or LSD,

1:27

but only Ricky had enough balls, or

1:30

street smarts really, to go off

1:32

looking for it, and things stayed like that

1:34

for years. We'd be

1:36

happy to just sit in someone's bedroom,

1:39

passing around a one-hitter and watching Conan

1:41

O'Brien, but Ricky wanted to keep raising

1:43

the stakes and pushing the envelope. He

1:47

wanted to learn how to brew up

1:49

his own super powerful LSD, and then go

1:51

out into the woods and trip for days. And

1:54

like most things with Ricky, if he

1:56

said he was going to do something, you

1:58

could bet your butt that he was going to go... ahead and do

2:00

it. He was wild, he loved

2:02

to party, but he never let his lifestyle

2:04

get the better of him. He

2:07

did okay in high school, graduated from

2:09

college, and then landed himself a

2:11

well-paying job at some financial company near

2:13

the waterfront, all while making

2:15

home-brewed batches of high-potency LSD in

2:18

his apartment's spare bedroom. He

2:20

was like Jim Pattison on Monday and then

2:23

Jim Morrison on a Friday, which

2:25

is an awesome joke if you're Canadian, I swear.

2:28

Anyway, so Ricky carries on

2:31

like that for years and years, slowly

2:33

ramping up his psychedelic adventures until he

2:35

was doing things like going to Mexico

2:37

to do peyote with indigenous tribal people,

2:40

or to Peru to take part in

2:42

some ayahuasca ceremony hosted by his very

2:44

own personal shaman. And

2:47

we never worried about him. Ricky

2:50

always seemed to be in control, and

2:52

I guess that remained true right up until the day he

2:54

seemed to just lose it. It

2:57

started when his sisters started calling around his

2:59

social circles, which obviously included me and a

3:01

bunch of mutual friends who all went to

3:03

the same high school. Ricky's

3:06

sisters said neither she nor their family had

3:08

heard from him all week, and we tried

3:10

calling Ricky on his cell phone, and he

3:12

wouldn't pick up any of our calls either.

3:15

By the end of the next day, his

3:17

family had called the cops to file a

3:19

missing persons report, and as you can imagine,

3:22

we were all pretty worried about him. But

3:24

then, a few weeks later,

3:26

Ricky reappeared, only to not check

3:28

in with his folks, or let us know that he

3:30

was okay. All he did was

3:33

clear out his apartment and leave a letter in

3:35

his parents' mailbox, one that basically

3:37

said, Sell or burn anything

3:39

I left behind, I'm not coming back.

3:42

Everyone was as freaked out as you can imagine. We

3:45

went from mildly concerned to extremely worried

3:47

about him, and the not knowing

3:49

was the worst part. Like, I

3:51

personally had this irrational fear that he'd

3:53

been kidnapped or murdered or something, and

3:55

that someone else had written the letter

3:57

to confuse people or throw the cops

3:59

off. off their trail. But

4:01

when the cops spoke to Ricky's landlady, she

4:04

confirmed that he'd been in town that day,

4:06

and that, although he seemed rushed,

4:09

she didn't think that he was in fear for his

4:11

life or anything like that. He

4:13

hadn't given her any kind of forwarding address,

4:16

he just packed up what he could and then

4:18

left. On paper,

4:20

that was contact right there, and

4:23

knowing Ricky was alive might have been enough for

4:25

some other folks to call off the search. But

4:27

then, because his folks still didn't

4:29

know what was happening, they told

4:31

the cops that they still wanted him found,

4:33

so they could confirm that he was safe.

4:36

And by that time, we'd given up trying to

4:38

call his cell phone, and it

4:40

was a weight off our shoulders knowing that

4:43

he was still alive, and that he hadn't

4:45

fallen victim to a murder or kidnapper or

4:47

really anything. But we knew that

4:49

there must have been something that made him run off like

4:51

that, and I worried over that almost

4:53

as much as I wondered where he'd gotten to.

4:57

About two or three months went by with

4:59

me and Ricky's other friends keeping in constant

5:01

touch with his family, and then

5:03

one day, we heard that the cops had gotten

5:05

a tip from someone up way over near Ottawa,

5:08

and that's how they traced him to some

5:10

cabin out in Algonquin Provincial Park. A

5:13

few cops went out to talk to him, and

5:15

he only told them who he was after they

5:17

promised to leave him alone. The

5:19

cops left but immediately told Ricky's family

5:21

where he was. Ricky's

5:24

brother then went up to try and talk to him,

5:26

but he was gone, moved on again

5:28

to who knows where. Ricky's

5:30

family tried to get the cops to carry on

5:33

looking for him, but that's not

5:35

how those missing person things work. If

5:37

the person doesn't want to be found, the

5:40

cops can't very well go stalking them from

5:42

place to place, even at

5:44

the behest of the person's family. If

5:46

they wanted to track Ricky down, they'd have

5:48

to do it themselves. And

5:50

looking back on it, it seems like the obvious

5:53

thing to do would be for everyone to keep

5:55

looking and not give up. We've

5:57

been handing out flyers, putting up post

6:00

sisters, and this was in the

6:02

early days of MySpace too so I remember Ricky's

6:04

sister making a little page for him and adding

6:06

a bunch of people to try to raise awareness.

6:09

But that was before the cops went to

6:11

talk to him out at that cabin, before

6:13

word got around that he basically decided that

6:15

he hated everyone, and that

6:17

he didn't want to see or talk to us anymore. People

6:21

didn't take that well, they took it

6:23

personally, they didn't see it for

6:25

what it was, and I say all that from

6:28

experience. We basically grew

6:30

up together, we were best friends,

6:32

and I was ready to drive out there myself

6:34

to go see him, because just hearing

6:36

that he didn't want to see us wasn't

6:39

nearly enough to make us want to quit. It

6:42

was the leaving the cabin that did it. Leaving

6:44

the cabin said, this isn't some

6:47

cry for help, stop looking for me. Leaving

6:49

the cabin said, I don't owe you

6:52

an explanation, which was honestly

6:54

all we really needed. We

6:56

didn't want to control him, we just wanted

6:58

closure, and I feel like we

7:00

were entitled to it at the very minimum. That

7:03

was in early 2004, and there

7:05

was a time when I thought that we'd still be looking by

7:07

the time it was 2005, but

7:10

in reality, we'd all stopped looking by

7:12

then, even his family. We

7:15

figured that if he wanted to reach out he'd

7:17

do so, and it was all just a matter of

7:19

time until that day came. Now

7:21

cut to 2011, a full seven

7:24

years later, when I got a

7:26

call from a mutual friend of ours named Obdy. He

7:29

got a missed call while he was at work, and

7:31

when he listened to his voicemail, he heard a familiar

7:33

voice on the other end telling him to call a

7:35

number they left in the message at the exact time.

7:39

The caller never said who it was, but

7:41

when my buddy Obdy called me, he said that he

7:43

was 99% certain that it was

7:45

Ricky, and then asked if I wanted to come over so

7:47

I could be there, when he called the

7:50

number he'd given me. I

7:52

drove over to his place almost immediately, And

7:54

we talked about the call and how sudden it seemed right

7:56

up until the time to call the number, at which point

7:59

I was at the same. We sat down at his

8:01

table with a pen and paper and hand and then

8:03

gave it a call. We. Didn't

8:05

actually talk for all that long. But.

8:07

The long and short of it was this: It

8:10

was Ricky that had left a message on

8:12

Abs voicemail. And although he didn't say

8:14

where he was, he told us that he needed

8:17

our help. He

8:19

thought it was a big ask considering

8:21

that we hadn't talked in seven years.

8:23

But. That he didn't know who else to call,

8:25

even though he'd spent the last few days trying

8:27

to track down a working cell phone number for

8:30

one of us. He'd. Understand if we

8:32

told him to go as himself. Needless to

8:34

say, we didn't tell him to do that.

8:37

And although he had a ton of questions, Ricky.

8:39

Said that he to answer them all if

8:41

we agreed to meet him at this place

8:43

called Whitney which turned out to be a

8:45

small town about halfway between Toronto and Ottawa.

8:49

We. Were nervous on the drive up there and

8:51

miss timed our arrival by around fifteen minutes

8:53

so we had to sit there biting are

8:55

nails and wondering if Ricky was actually going

8:57

to show up or not. But.

8:59

Lo and behold, right on the stroke of

9:02

six, we spotted someone walking into the parking

9:04

lot of the little burger place that served

9:06

as are meeting spot. Someone.

9:08

Who looked a lot like Ricky if he'd spent

9:10

seven years living on the streets. Or.

9:12

More accurately, living out in the middle of nowhere

9:15

in the woods. It

9:17

was an emotional reunion. No

9:19

tears were shed. But. It felt

9:21

very positive though. intense. Mainly.

9:24

Because Ricky started out by telling us

9:26

how sorry he was. He.

9:28

Said cutting off contact was a

9:30

mistake and one he'd never forgive

9:32

himself for. And that it hurt

9:34

to think about all the time that we had lost.

9:37

Hearing. All that pretty much knocked us off our

9:40

feet. I. Mean, he covered a lot

9:42

of stuff that we wanted to talk about

9:44

in his opening little speech, and after that,

9:46

there really wasn't much else to ask him.

9:49

We. Wanted to know where and how he'd been

9:51

living, but he wanted to know all that same

9:53

stuff from us. to. And. Since we

9:55

had him right where we wanted him. We. Figured

9:57

that we could get him up to speed while we went

9:59

inside. and got a burger. We

10:02

got to talking about all kinds of things, but

10:04

eventually, me and Abdi were able to ask Ricky

10:06

two things. Number one,

10:08

where had he been living? And number two,

10:10

what did he need our help with? Both

10:14

questions could be answered by finishing our burgers,

10:16

getting back into our car, and letting him

10:18

direct us towards the place that he was

10:20

living, which was way out near

10:22

this place called Little Hay Lake. As

10:25

it turns out, Ricky had been living almost

10:27

completely off the grid for almost six years,

10:30

in a trailer that he'd managed to haul down a

10:32

dirt road, and then far enough into

10:34

the trees so that you couldn't see it anymore from

10:36

the track. He walked into

10:38

Whitney every so often to pick up whatever he

10:41

couldn't shoot or forage for, and

10:43

then hitched a ride further afield whenever he needed

10:45

to make a few bucks. And

10:47

the way he was earning those few

10:49

buckaroos was by making LSD, ultra

10:52

potent medical strength LSD, and

10:54

then because he was making it, he was having

10:57

to test it out too very frequently. But

10:59

as far as we could tell, that suited

11:01

him just fine. I

11:04

guess Ricky just sort of found his calling, and

11:06

the way he talked about it, he was happy,

11:09

at least for a while. He

11:12

had everything he needed out in that trailer. The

11:14

place was relatively clean. He

11:16

had a little generator that he'd used to power

11:19

a laptop, and he had no internet. But

11:21

Ricky didn't mind. He had

11:23

his DVDs, and that was all he needed. But

11:26

then came the problem that he needed our

11:28

help with, and at first, I was actually

11:31

kind of scared that he'd killed somebody or

11:33

something, and that he wanted our help

11:35

disposing of a body. As

11:37

it turned out, that wasn't the case, and

11:40

there was nothing Ricky needed help disposing of,

11:43

but by the end of the next morning, there would

11:45

be a body, and it wouldn't be

11:47

one we needed any help disposing of at all.

11:50

We did a little more catching up back at

11:52

the trailer, but then after a little looking around,

11:55

I asked Ricky, half jokingly, if he was

11:57

about to enlist our help in digging a

11:59

shallow shallow grave. Ricky

12:02

actually seemed kind of offended at first, but

12:04

then Obdy started to laugh. It

12:07

was a release of tension, I guess. Pure

12:10

relief that whatever Ricky needed didn't involve

12:12

covering up some horrible crime. I

12:15

remember Obdy joking around, saying, well, whatever the

12:17

hell it is, it can't be worse than

12:19

that. As in, helping

12:21

Ricky hide the body, that is. Ricky

12:25

had been kind of laughing along with this, at

12:27

least after shaking off the offense that he took

12:29

at the suggestion that he was a murderer. But

12:32

when Obdy joked about how things could have been worse,

12:35

Ricky didn't laugh. He

12:37

didn't even smile because, to him, things

12:39

were about as bad as it was possible to get.

12:43

I think maybe an hour passed between

12:45

us arriving at the trailer and Ricky

12:47

actually sitting down and telling us what

12:49

he needed help with, and when he

12:51

did, that nervous tension returned again. I

12:54

mean, if it was more serious than hiding a

12:56

dead body, then it must have been

12:59

really serious, right? Serious

13:01

enough to be scared of the consequences, serious

13:03

enough to consider just getting the hell out of there

13:05

if he dropped a bomb on us. But

13:08

when he actually told us, it was this

13:10

weird mix of depressing and relief. Basically,

13:13

Ricky wanted us to call up just about

13:15

everyone we knew, or everyone who

13:17

we wanted to save, as he put it, and

13:20

invite them out to the woods to set up

13:22

an encampment. If we didn't,

13:24

they were all going to suffer a fate worse

13:26

than death. In

13:29

so many words, Ricky said that there was

13:31

going to be a major change in Canadian

13:33

society, that folks were going to

13:35

be rounded up by mass soldiers, and

13:38

taken away to camps to be fitted

13:40

with microchips and all sorts of crazy

13:42

stuff. It

13:44

was basically this giant conspiracy involving

13:46

international governments looking to wield absolute

13:48

power over the people. And

13:51

the only way to really enforce that

13:53

was to eliminate huge sections of the

13:55

population, basically, anyone who might

13:58

put up some sort of resistance. Ricky

14:01

was convinced the whole thing was going to start

14:03

within a month, and although

14:05

he wouldn't go into too much detail about how he

14:07

knew all that stuff, he seemed to

14:09

think giving away sources would put them on some

14:11

kind of government hit list. He

14:14

seemed completely and utterly convinced that his

14:16

predictions were correct. What

14:19

followed was around six hours of convincing Ricky

14:21

that he was wrong. It

14:23

wasn't easy, which is why I mentioned the

14:25

six hours thing, but by the

14:27

time night had fallen and Ricky was riding

14:30

a low dose of LSD, we'd

14:32

gone from making a little headway to actually

14:34

getting through to him that his theories might

14:36

just be wildly wrong. We

14:39

didn't fully convince him, not all the way,

14:41

but we did talk him down to the point where he

14:43

agreed to come home, mainly by

14:46

convincing him that he'd be in the best

14:48

possible position to rescue people if the government

14:50

did decide to start putting people into camps.

14:54

He could be like an early warning system. He

14:56

could recognize the signs, and that way, he

14:58

could be the hero we needed when we

15:01

needed him most, and it was

15:03

a win-win either way. We proved

15:05

things weren't as bad as he thought, and he

15:07

could save our butts, and we'd follow him

15:09

to hell and back, and that

15:11

seemed like the idea that really got its hooks in

15:13

him. Ricky agreed to come

15:15

home with us, but not before he sobered up a

15:17

little. We could sleep in

15:20

our car, he'd sleep in the trailer, and

15:22

then come sunrise, we'd get ourselves some breakfast,

15:24

and then drive back down to Toronto and

15:26

drop him off at his parents' place. After

15:30

we agreed on that course of action, we finished

15:32

off our beers, walked back to our car, and

15:34

agreed to head back over to the trailer come

15:37

sun up. It felt

15:39

like a huge victory, and the

15:41

second we got back to the car, we were

15:43

texting people, mainly Ricky's family,

15:45

and telling them how he was finally ready to come

15:48

home. We were so excited we

15:50

could barely sleep. I kept thinking

15:52

about how happy everyone was going to be, how

15:55

driving back into Toronto was going to feel

15:57

like a victory parade. nodded

16:00

off for maybe an hour or so before

16:02

I could see the sky changing color, and

16:04

after that, Obdy and I just talked, and

16:07

tried not to get too nervous as we waited

16:09

for Don to arrive. Finally,

16:12

around 6.30, Obdy

16:14

and I got out of his car, and then

16:16

started walking back through the trees in the direction

16:18

of Ricky's trailer. I

16:20

remember feeling pretty exhausted but very excited to

16:22

get back on the road. I

16:25

wasn't even thinking about food by that point. I'd

16:28

have happily rolled all the way back into Toronto

16:30

and gotten a bite there when the nerves had

16:32

died down. The only

16:34

thing that mattered was getting Ricky back home,

16:36

home where he belonged. But

16:38

then, after getting within maybe 20

16:40

feet of the trailer, we started

16:43

to smell something on the breeze. Something

16:45

strong, something artificial, something

16:48

that smelled very very much like

16:50

gasoline. I remember Obdy

16:52

saying something like, can you

16:54

smell that? And I told him that

16:56

I did, and then after a few

16:58

more steps towards the trailer, the door opened up,

17:01

and Ricky appeared in the doorway with this gas

17:03

can in his hand. He told

17:05

us not to come any closer, and by then,

17:08

the stink of gas was so thick in the

17:10

air that it kind of stung my nostrils. He

17:13

didn't say it in an, I don't want you to get

17:15

hurt kind of way. He seemed

17:17

mad at us, and as we kept

17:19

asking him what he was doing, he kept telling

17:21

us to leave while we still had the chance. And

17:25

that's about the time we noticed that it wasn't

17:27

just Ricky's trailer that was soaked in gas. It

17:30

was his clothes too, and it

17:32

was complete chaos. Me

17:34

and Abdi were shouting different things, but all along

17:36

the lines of don't do it, you don't have

17:38

to do this. Think of your family,

17:41

and all sorts of stuff like that. Whereas

17:43

the previous night, when Ricky treated

17:45

us like friends and we could actually get

17:47

through to him, that morning was like a

17:49

complete shift, like it was the first time

17:52

seeing him, and that last night

17:54

didn't count for anything. It

17:56

was like he hated us, like he might have actually shot

17:58

at us if he had a gun. none, which

18:01

is why that leave while you still can

18:03

line has just had such a chilling effect

18:05

on me and almost worked in making

18:07

us back off before he closed the door to

18:09

his trailer. Ricky told

18:11

us one last time to stay back. I

18:14

didn't have any trouble staying away from a trailer

18:16

that I was pretty sure was about to explode

18:18

into flames, but Obdy clearly wasn't

18:20

in his right mind at the time because

18:22

I had actually to drag him down to

18:24

the ground to keep him from trying to

18:26

rush up to the trailer and stop Ricky

18:28

in his tracks. What

18:30

happened next seems kind of like a blur. I

18:33

remember hearing the sound of the fire starting

18:35

and Ricky wasn't kidding when he said to

18:37

stay back because there was an actual bang

18:40

and I felt the heat on my face. I didn't

18:43

see much of the flames after that though. I

18:45

was facing back towards where Ob's car

18:48

was parked, basically trying to tackle him

18:50

away from the burning trailer. When

18:52

he finally gave up trying, I was

18:54

focused, focused on getting him

18:56

back to his car, getting his

18:58

keys for him. He was definitely in

19:01

no condition to drive and

19:03

then telling him to call 911 while I

19:05

drove us to the nearest highway, figuring that was

19:07

the best place for the fire department to see

19:09

us so we could guide them into

19:12

the spot by the lake where Ricky's trailer was.

19:15

Obdy could barely speak while he was on the

19:17

phone and it got to the point

19:19

where I thought that I'd need to take over and

19:21

talk to the dispatcher myself while struggling to

19:23

keep the car on the track. Like

19:26

I said the whole thing was total chaos, but

19:28

in the moment I didn't really have time to process

19:31

any of it. Not until the

19:33

whole fire department was hosing down the trailer

19:36

and we had a moment to ourselves before

19:38

the cops showed up and that's when all

19:40

the emotion hit for me, seeing them put

19:42

the trailer out and thinking there's no way

19:44

in hell Ricky survived that and

19:46

then it was Oby's turn to try and console

19:48

me when it was my turn to break down

19:50

right up until the cops showed up and we

19:52

had to talk to them about what had happened.

19:56

We thought we'd be going back to Toronto as

19:58

heroes and I'm not trying to say that

20:00

we would have been saving him as much

20:02

because obviously, Ricky had agency in all of

20:04

that, and it would have been him

20:07

making the decision for himself, but

20:09

getting to be the ones who actually brought him home, that

20:12

would have been a hell of a thing, you know? And

20:15

I was so excited for that, so to go

20:17

from there to having to drive back and tell

20:19

Ricky's parents that he was dead all in the

20:21

space of about an hour, it was my own

20:23

personal hell, and I truly mean that.

20:26

I lived hell on earth for a day, and

20:29

I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. There

20:31

was a reunion in the end. It was

20:34

just never one that I thought it would be. All

20:37

the old crew showed up to pay their respects at

20:39

Ricky's, some that I hadn't seen in

20:41

years. I felt it

20:44

devastating that it took his death to finally

20:46

bring us together, but it

20:48

was also very uplifting that people dropped what

20:50

they were doing to come comfort Ricky's family

20:52

as well as each other, and

20:54

I just wished that it could have happened when Ricky

20:56

was alive. I wished that

20:58

there were enough of us up at that trailer

21:00

to drag him into the car and drag him

21:03

back to reality before he had a chance to

21:05

do something so insane, and it

21:07

was insane. Ricky didn't

21:09

seem like he was in control of himself when he

21:11

did that, and I refused to believe

21:13

that he was. I just

21:15

hoped that he can forgive us all for not acting

21:18

sooner, for not trying to

21:20

rationalize something that now that I look back

21:22

on it, just isn't healthy, no matter how

21:24

happy someone claims it makes them. I

21:27

get that some people call themselves introverts

21:29

and prefer to be alone or away

21:31

from large groups, but we're

21:34

still social animals. We

21:36

need that connection, even if it

21:38

is one that we can keep at arm's length. So

21:41

please, people, check in with

21:43

your friends, check in with your family,

21:45

and especially around the holidays. You

21:48

can leave people be, just don't ever

21:50

leave them alone. To

22:00

start off, I'd like to state that I'm a

22:02

20-year-old male who lives in the UK in a

22:04

house with my family. My

22:07

family consists of my dad,

22:09

mom, sister, two stepsisters, one

22:11

quite young and the other almost as old as

22:13

me, and a young stepbrother, so

22:16

there are a lot of people living in this house. We

22:19

also have a German shepherd who is

22:21

quite large and protective of the property.

22:25

As well as that, this story needs some

22:27

background to make sense. I

22:29

currently live in a town in the UK that

22:31

could be considered safe, but it

22:33

has its fair share of dangerous people lurking

22:35

around. I previously worked

22:37

at a gas station where I've had

22:40

numerous encounters with people trying to shoplift,

22:42

many of them carrying knives and such. I

22:45

hope this gives you a brief idea of what

22:47

my neighborhood is like. Now that

22:49

that's been said, this story happened only a

22:52

few days ago. My

22:54

cat had been missing for a few weeks,

22:56

which wasn't normal for him, so I was

22:58

evidently quite worried. I have been

23:00

keeping my window open every night in case he

23:02

came into our garden and started meowing like he

23:04

usually does when he wants to come back into

23:07

the house. I had spent

23:09

the past few nights going out and looking for

23:11

him but finding and hearing nothing. This

23:14

night was like any other. I

23:16

was spending the night playing games and listening

23:18

closely for anything coming from my window. At

23:21

around 3 in the morning, I thought that I

23:23

had heard something, so I bolted downstairs

23:25

because I believed that what I was hearing was

23:28

my cat. I

23:30

thought of taking my dog with me in case I

23:32

needed protection, but I realized that

23:34

would be a terrible idea since the cat is

23:36

scared of the dog. So

23:38

if the cat really was out there, he would

23:40

just run away the second he saw the dog.

23:43

I went outside with a flashlight in hand

23:45

and started to hear weird noises. I

23:48

couldn't put my finger on the noises at

23:50

first, but when I listened closer, I

23:52

realized that they were the sounds of scuffling around

23:54

the back of the garden, where we

23:57

have a garage, a greenhouse, and

23:59

a child. chicken coop. My

24:01

first thought was there was some sort of animal trying

24:04

to get at the chickens. This

24:06

didn't worry me, because we have a

24:08

very aggressive rooster that can and will

24:10

attack anyone that gets too close to

24:12

the chickens. He has

24:14

done so multiple times in the past. I

24:18

started walking closer to the back of the

24:20

garden and the noises started to sound more

24:22

human-like. It sounded like multiple

24:24

people were running around. I

24:27

was confused and stopped for a

24:29

moment, standing there and listening. A

24:31

gut feeling started brewing in my stomach, telling

24:34

me to just go back inside, but I

24:36

couldn't move. I didn't know if

24:39

it was because of fear or me trying

24:41

to come up with a reasonable explanation for the

24:43

sounds. The more I

24:45

listened, the more frequent the sounds got, as if

24:47

something or someone was trying to lure me to

24:50

them. I went back

24:52

inside to grab the biggest knife I could

24:54

and started scanning the garage with my dog,

24:56

finding nothing. When I

24:58

got back outside, I heard the chickens

25:00

going crazy, which made me

25:02

think that there was an animal attacking them. I

25:05

walked to the chicken coop to check on them and

25:08

make sure that they were okay, and

25:10

they calmed down. As

25:12

I exited the chicken coop, I soon

25:14

realized the sounds had all stopped. I

25:17

stood still, searching for the sounds,

25:19

trying to strain my ears. After

25:22

what felt like hours standing there in the pitch

25:24

dark with my flashlight not daring to point it

25:26

in the direction of where I heard the sounds

25:28

previously, I snapped out of my days

25:30

and bolted back into the house. I

25:33

made sure to lock the front door, and when

25:35

I got to my room, I left my window

25:37

open. To my surprise,

25:39

I heard whispering coming from the garden

25:41

and then a sudden metallic bang. I

25:44

thought I was imagining things, and

25:46

this is all some sort of dream or hallucination.

25:49

The next night, I went out again,

25:51

calling my cat's name multiple times, but

25:53

I got no response. Then

25:56

I heard the snapping of branches coming from the

25:58

direction where the greenhouse was locked. located.

26:01

I stood there, and I heard

26:03

a person scraping or hitting something with a stick,

26:06

followed by footsteps coming towards me. I hurried

26:09

back into the house, and I heard my gate

26:11

opening, so I locked the door just in

26:13

case. Right after I

26:15

closed the door, the handle slammed down, which

26:17

scared the life out of me. I

26:20

immediately thought that it was someone from my garden

26:22

coming for me. I opened

26:25

the door, ready to fight the person on the

26:27

other side, and it turned out to be my

26:29

sister coming back from walking the dog. I'd

26:32

like to say thank you to her for

26:34

scaring the soul out of me and putting

26:36

me in full fight mode. She asked me

26:38

why I was going around locking all the doors,

26:41

and I explained to her everything that had happened

26:43

over the past few nights, specifically

26:45

what had happened the night before and

26:47

that night. After

26:49

I told her the story, she obviously didn't

26:51

believe me and told me that it was

26:53

all in my head. I

26:55

told her that the sounds were there right now and asked

26:58

her to come with me if she didn't believe me. We

27:01

stood in the garden, listening, and

27:03

on cue, the sounds started back up

27:05

again. My sister stopped dead

27:07

in her tracks. I looked at

27:09

her and said, I told you so. She

27:12

shushed me. The sound of someone

27:14

jogging or sprinting towards us came from the

27:16

darkness. We both ran back into

27:18

the house, and my sister reasonably

27:20

demanded that we lock all the doors in the

27:23

home. On the third

27:25

night of looking for my cat, I

27:27

was sitting in my room and decided not to go

27:29

outside because of all that had

27:31

previously happened. At 2

27:33

a.m., I decided to go outside and look

27:36

for my cat once again. I

27:38

put on my coat because that night

27:40

I was determined to finally find my

27:43

cat and put this all behind

27:45

me, not caring how long

27:47

it would take. I

27:49

stood there in the open pitch black outside

27:52

again, calling my cat's name, but

27:54

I didn't get a response. I

27:56

went to the front of the garden with my flashlight,

27:58

looking and calling for him as well. well. After

28:01

not getting any response, I sat

28:03

myself down on the front steps of my house, flashing

28:06

my light and still calling for my cat. An

28:09

hour went by and I got thoroughly bored

28:12

just sitting there doing nothing. I

28:14

started walking around the garden again, headed

28:16

towards the greenhouse. I

28:18

stopped myself, remembering what had happened

28:21

the previous night. Thinking

28:23

about it, I went and got the dog, both

28:26

for protection and because, as

28:28

stated before, the dog would bark if

28:30

the cat was there. This would

28:33

tell me if the cat was there or not. I

28:35

know, genius thinking on my part. The

28:38

dog and I went towards the greenhouse area

28:40

knowing that either my cat was there or

28:43

there was some random person. I

28:45

let the dog go and she

28:47

did nothing, no barking, just silence.

28:50

This gave me a feeling of relief that

28:52

allowed me to walk after her, still scanning

28:55

the area. And then I saw

28:57

it, the discovery that chilled me

28:59

to my bones. Someone

29:01

had sunk a stick into the ground through

29:03

a plastic bag. Now

29:05

you might be thinking to yourself, why

29:07

did a stick in the ground scare

29:09

you? The reason being that it was sunk

29:11

so deep into the ground, not even I,

29:13

being pretty fit, could take it out of

29:15

the ground. Someone had stabbed that

29:17

stick into the ground with a scary amount of

29:20

force. Making the situation

29:22

worse, there was a pumpkin sitting right next

29:24

to the stick, knife as I called it.

29:27

But here's the thing, we don't grow

29:29

pumpkins, we never have. But there

29:32

was a pumpkin sitting in our garden. It

29:34

clicked in my head. There had either

29:36

been one person or multiple people in the garden

29:38

that night. The sounds that my

29:40

sister and I had heard were people sharpening the

29:43

sticks and messing about with them. They

29:45

had been making noises around the property to

29:47

lure someone out to investigate and do God

29:49

knows what to them. In

29:52

that moment, I was thankful to have had the

29:54

common sense to run away when I did, because

29:56

thinking about what these people could have done to

29:58

me in the dark gives me chills. even

30:00

as I write this. After

30:02

this revelation, I checked behind the trees and

30:05

such, making sure no one was there, content

30:08

with not finding anyone and making a note to

30:10

myself to come back in the morning to get

30:12

a clearer picture. I returned

30:14

to my steps. I sat

30:16

there waiting for around an hour longer,

30:18

starting to get tired, bored, and hungry.

30:20

I went back into

30:23

the house, the acceptance of my cat being dead

30:25

lurking in the back of my mind, while

30:27

I continued to mess about on my PC with

30:29

my window open. And then, once

30:32

again, I heard meowing. I

30:34

rushed outside so quickly that I forgot to put

30:36

on shoes, but I also had

30:39

the presence of mind to grab a knife on

30:41

my way out, deciding that if anyone was out

30:43

there, I'd confront them on the spot.

30:46

I reached my gate and saw my cat standing

30:48

on the fence. I dropped my

30:50

knife and my heart was filled with joy. I

30:53

can't explain to you how happy I was to see him.

30:56

There had been no noises since that night, but

30:59

I'm still wary when I go out at night. I

31:02

thought about this experience and realized how lucky

31:04

I was to not have gone further into

31:06

the greenhouse that night. I could

31:09

have been killed right there, or

31:11

one of my younger siblings could have heard the

31:14

noises and gone out themselves and they'd have been

31:16

killed. I try not to

31:18

dwell on it too much because the thoughts truly

31:20

disturb me. This

31:30

story comes from my experience in

31:32

the military, specifically from a certain

31:34

training area in Arizona. I

31:37

won't be too specific about where exactly I

31:39

was for obvious reasons, but

31:41

the location isn't really important. It's

31:44

what happened while we were there and what I saw

31:46

that I still think about to this day. For

31:49

context, I was raised in a rural

31:51

part of north Idaho, so the outdoors

31:53

are very familiar to me. At

31:56

first, training in the deserts of Arizona didn't

31:59

sound too bad. I'd

32:01

been in for a few years at that point,

32:03

knew my way around, and was a

32:05

good soldier, in my opinion, always

32:08

doing my best to keep a level head. Our

32:11

training started sometime around mid-October when the

32:13

air starts to get colder, and wind

32:15

plus rain affects you more than it

32:17

usually does. If you

32:19

know anything about the desert and temperatures, it

32:22

can get very, very cold and fast at night.

32:25

Even if it's 90 degrees Fahrenheit out at

32:27

lunchtime, it could hit well below 20 at

32:29

night, and the wind and rain

32:31

that usually accompanied it didn't help. The

32:34

reason I specify the nighttime conditions is

32:36

that's the only time we were allowed

32:38

to run our training and operations. We

32:41

were testing equipment for the Army but could

32:43

not go out during the day because it

32:45

had the potential to screw up communication between

32:47

airplanes and such. So at

32:50

night when little to no aircraft were out,

32:52

we would head out and begin our training.

32:55

We started at 9 PM and ended

32:57

missions at 6 AM, that

32:59

way we could sleep during the day and

33:02

train again at night, sometimes multiple times in

33:04

a row. Now personally

33:06

I believe that there are creatures and entities

33:08

on this planet that we can't really explain.

33:12

Little did I know I was about to have

33:14

two encounters in a single night, one of them

33:16

face to face. The first happened

33:18

at about 11 PM. Three

33:20

other men and I were scanning a road and

33:23

field to watch for opposing forces. They

33:25

were played by other soldiers in different uniforms

33:27

for training purposes, so we were on our

33:30

guard. It was my job

33:32

to watch the field and the road while the

33:34

other two made radio calls, waiting for the signal

33:36

to move in further. I

33:38

moved maybe 30 feet away from them to get

33:40

a better spot for pulling security. I

33:43

backed myself into a bush with some leaves

33:45

still hanging to somewhat cover my position. On

33:48

my left was a wide open field with a single tree

33:51

in the middle, about 300 feet away from me.

33:54

It only had two branches, both in very

33:56

awkward positions for a tree. One

33:59

was angled. upwards while the other one seemed to

34:01

point straight out at the road. On

34:04

my right, on the other side of the road I

34:06

was watching, was a tree line which

34:08

turned into a hill that we would be walking up

34:10

later after we got the green light. As

34:13

I scanned the field and the road for

34:15

opposing forces or vehicles, I spotted

34:17

some headlights cresting over a hill not too

34:19

far away from us. They

34:21

were easy to see with our night vision, you

34:24

could see someone using any kind of light for

34:26

miles. As if it

34:28

wasn't already easy enough to see light at night,

34:30

I raised my voice to tell the other two

34:32

men that there was a vehicle coming and to

34:34

tell everyone else to stay hidden. I

34:37

pushed myself even further into the bush

34:39

so that I would be completely concealed.

34:42

The truck drove right past us,

34:44

we had remained undetected. My

34:47

heart was racing, excited to have stayed hidden

34:49

and been so close. But

34:51

what happened next made my heart think. I

34:54

looked back out at the road and field to see if

34:57

there was anything else coming, and when

34:59

my eyes crossed over to the field, the tree

35:01

had moved. I rubbed my

35:03

eyes and refocused my night vision to see if

35:05

that would help, but the tree

35:07

had in fact moved closer to me

35:09

and the branches had also moved. Both

35:12

of its dead limbs now seemed to point at me.

35:15

It was about 200 feet away from me. I

35:18

convinced myself I was just seeing things. About

35:22

five minutes later, I felt a tap

35:24

on my shoulder, causing me to jump a bit.

35:27

It was just my teammate, he said it's time

35:29

to move up. You good? I

35:32

turned to face him when I said I was ready to go,

35:35

but when I turned back to take one more

35:37

look at the field, that tree was gone. I

35:40

sat there on one knee in disbelief. To

35:43

have hallucinated the tree's distance and shape

35:45

was believable to me, but

35:48

to have made up the tree entirely to myself.

35:51

No way. A

35:53

chill ran down my spine as I searched

35:55

for the tree before cautiously emerging from my

35:57

bush and walking back to my team. As

36:00

I did, I constantly looked over my shoulder at

36:02

that wide open field that was all of a

36:04

sudden empty. This put me

36:07

on edge for the rest of the night, and

36:09

we still had not completed our objective. After

36:12

another hour of walking through the woods

36:14

and a couple of open fields, we

36:16

finally arrived at the objective. The

36:18

mission was a little tricky. We

36:20

had to infiltrate a small mock village

36:23

and secure an HVT, high value target.

36:26

Only after all that could we call the mission

36:28

complete. For context, all the

36:30

opposing forces we were fighting were just

36:32

other soldiers in uniform, all

36:35

using blank rounds with lasers. This

36:37

let us train for a real world fight without

36:39

getting hurt. When you get

36:41

hit by a laser, a beeping sound will

36:44

come from equipment on our body armor, which

36:46

means we were considered injured and had to

36:48

play dead. Anyway, our

36:50

front element was spotted by the opposing

36:52

forces, so we had to fight to take

36:54

the village. It was both

36:56

fun and intense. After

36:59

walking for hours not doing much, we

37:01

finally got to train and work on other

37:03

skills. My team

37:05

was in charge of securing the HVT, so

37:08

after we had eliminated the OPF or, my team and

37:10

I moved to the building he was supposed to be

37:12

in. The HVT was simply

37:15

a soldier in a white robe that we had

37:17

to capture in order to call the mission complete.

37:21

When we finally got to the building, which

37:23

was simply a one-room building with two large

37:25

doors, I had one of my soldiers

37:27

open the door so that I could peek inside. When

37:30

he did, I saw a silhouette in the back

37:32

of the room. I was about

37:34

to yell and tell him to put his hands

37:36

up, but something was wrong. This

37:39

person was far too short. They

37:41

had long black hair and what looked to be

37:43

a black robe under our night vision. I

37:45

hesitated and this shadow person in the room

37:47

broke into a sprint right at me. My

37:50

heart nearly jumped out of my chest. I

37:53

panicked, firing off three blank shots.

37:56

When the smoke cleared, a yell came from inside

37:58

the room. My adrenaline was pumping

38:00

now more than ever, and I moved in,

38:02

yelling as if I was trying to scare

38:04

someone. I expected to see

38:06

it again when I swung into the room,

38:08

but when I looked, it was just the

38:11

HVT covering his ears because my shots had

38:13

echoed, becoming very loud in that small space.

38:16

I had trouble relaxing as my soldier

38:18

came in after me, and without question,

38:20

began to search the man, pretending to

38:23

detain him. The

38:25

HVT had not seen the black figure that charged

38:27

me. He had no idea what

38:29

I was shooting at. We

38:32

wrapped up the mission, leaving the field

38:34

around 5.30 in the morning. As

38:37

we drove away with the rising sun

38:40

chasing away the desert's mirages and the

38:42

mountain shadows, I still could

38:44

not shake the thought that what I had seen

38:46

felt so real. Thankfully,

38:48

that was the last mission we did out

38:50

there, and I had trouble sleeping for days

38:52

afterward. Needless to say, this

38:55

confirmed my belief in the fact that there

38:57

are things on this earth that are beyond

38:59

our understanding right now, and I'm

39:01

just thankful it didn't go down any worse. Although

39:12

this might not be your conventional scary

39:14

story, it sure as hell was

39:16

the most unsettling otherworldly thing that's ever happened

39:19

to me, and I think some of

39:21

your viewers and listeners will get a kick out of it.

39:24

So I used to do a lot of trail

39:26

running near the Isabo River in northern Michigan. Some

39:29

of my favorite routes were right in the middle

39:32

of the Huron National Forest, and passed near some

39:34

pretty good fishing and swimming spots too. I

39:37

used to load up my pickup truck, drive

39:39

a few miles upriver, and then

39:41

run in a big old loop until I got back

39:43

to my truck, feeling like I'd lost

39:45

a few pounds in sweat alone. Both

39:48

sides of the trail are shrouded by tall

39:50

white and red pines, occasionally birches

39:52

and the like. It's

39:55

very scenic, very lovely, but

39:57

it gets hot as hell in the early July

39:59

afternoon. and some days

40:01

I'd much rather have been tubing down the river

40:04

than sweating my butt off on the trails. Some

40:07

sections of the trail are pretty close to nearby

40:09

highways, so typically you

40:11

could either hear a distant radio or music

40:14

playing from a passing car or truck. But

40:17

then, on one day in early

40:19

July, like I said, I heard

40:21

something which sounded like classic rock music

40:23

coming through the trees. I

40:26

used to run without headphones if I was trail

40:28

running because it's not the kind of place where

40:30

you want to lose your situational awareness. As

40:32

I was running, I could hear the sound getting

40:35

closer and closer, like I was

40:37

about to see some ATV or bike-off rotors

40:39

coming along the trail at any moment. Within

40:42

the span of 30 seconds, it felt like

40:44

the sound had gone from being very distant

40:46

to sounding like it was almost on top

40:48

of me. But bizarrely,

40:50

even though the sound was so loud, I

40:52

couldn't see its source. It

40:55

must have been easily within 30 feet of me,

40:58

just off to the left in the forest, and

41:01

it should have been obvious, but it wasn't. The

41:04

sound got a little louder one second,

41:06

and it went from sounding like a

41:08

cross between heavy metal music or a

41:10

high-pitched engine to sounding like a great

41:12

buzzing of tiny wings. Then

41:15

I saw it. It was perhaps

41:17

five feet from me, and the second

41:19

I laid eyes on it, it appeared as a

41:21

big, shapeless shadow floating through the trees. There

41:24

were little flies, thousands of them, all

41:26

buzzing in unison in this big cloud

41:28

that moved like it was one ethereal

41:30

body. Their buzzing sounded like it

41:32

was in differing octaves of the same note, definitely

41:35

not classic rock music, but

41:38

still eerily mesmerizing. But

41:40

then, the cloud of tiny

41:42

buzzing insects suddenly and unexpectedly veered

41:44

towards me. I tried

41:46

to back up, but the cloud moved surprisingly

41:49

fast, and before I could turn and really

41:51

sprint to get away, I felt and heard

41:53

the cloud of flies envelop me. I was

41:56

expecting to feel them biting or stinging me,

41:59

and I started to scream. and wave my arms

42:01

in a pointless flailing attempt to keep them off

42:03

of me. I could hear them,

42:05

and feel them buzzing in my ears. And

42:08

even though their wings were probably no

42:10

bigger than an eyelash, their combined buzzing

42:12

sounded almost deafening. As

42:14

the cloud took me over, I could feel my

42:17

skin crawling, not from sheer fright or

42:19

disgust, but because there were literally

42:21

things buzzing and crawling all over me for

42:23

a moment. And it made

42:25

that moment feel like an eternity. But

42:28

just a second later, the buzzing subsided,

42:30

and the cloud moved on. When

42:33

I opened my eyes, I caught one last

42:35

glimpse of it before it disappeared among the trees

42:37

again. Then, as it

42:40

left the area for good, the audible

42:42

buzzing diminished, and its noise warped back

42:44

into what sounded like ACDC being played

42:47

from a small, tiny speaker. It

42:50

was easily the most frightening, unsettling,

42:52

and downright skin crawling thing I'd

42:55

ever experienced. The kind of

42:57

thing that if I didn't know any better, I

42:59

might think was a demonic manifestation. I

43:02

mean go back a few hundred years, and

43:04

a more religious ancestor of mine might have

43:07

died of fright when this dark, shadowy presence

43:09

veered towards them out of nowhere. I

43:12

mean, it's the closest thing to a ghost or

43:14

spirit I think I'll ever see. Just

43:17

this inexplicable, mystifying presence that

43:19

heralded itself before it became

43:21

visible. After

43:24

I got home, I did as much

43:26

online research as I could to try and figure

43:28

out just what the hell I'd experienced. This

43:31

was back in the fall of the year 2000, a

43:34

time when the internet wasn't nearly as padded out

43:36

with information as it is now, but

43:38

I still managed to find a few relevant websites

43:40

which gave me a clue as to what had

43:42

happened. Apparently, during the

43:45

summer of just a few months prior,

43:47

Grand Traverse County discovered it had

43:50

a major tent caterpillar infestation. They're

43:52

called that because they make little webs that

43:54

look almost like tents, and they completely strip

43:57

the leaves of trees that they make their

43:59

homes in. Obviously this wasn't

44:01

all that good for the environment, so

44:03

officials in Traverse City consulted with some

44:05

nature expert who told them that flooding

44:07

the area with blackflies who liked to

44:10

lay their eggs on the tent caterpillar's

44:12

cocoons would thin out the infestation and

44:14

return the balance of nature. Believe

44:17

it or not, there are actually companies

44:19

out there who specialize in breeding things

44:21

like blackflies or any other insect species

44:24

that might prove valuable in

44:26

managing ecological problems such as a

44:28

tent caterpillar infestation. They

44:30

probably made tens of thousands of dollars

44:33

selling the city of Traverse a whole

44:35

bunch of these little blackflies, and

44:37

because they'd been living in swarms and

44:39

close spaces for their short lives, some

44:41

stayed in formation longer than others, I

44:43

guess, and resulted in

44:45

the thoroughly spine-tingling sight that I had witnessed

44:48

in the woods that day. It

44:50

was nice to have some kind of explanation for

44:52

what happened. I didn't think

44:54

anything supernatural was at work or anything,

44:57

but I was still creeped out by the experience.

45:00

Having something to explain what happened that actually

45:02

made sense to me on an environmental level

45:04

gave me an awful lot of peace of

45:06

mind. I guess there's

45:08

a lot of things in the world that are like that. Things

45:11

that are really creepy, even when there's

45:13

a perfectly rational explanation for them. But

45:17

I'm certainly in no hurry to experience

45:19

them, because feeling that huge cloud of

45:21

swarming buzzing blackflies swallow me up and

45:23

the raw terror it produced in me,

45:26

it's not something I ever want to feel again. So,

45:37

this is going to be a really wild ride, and

45:40

there are some pretty personal family details in

45:42

here too. I'm not naming

45:44

any names or places to try and keep

45:46

my anonymity, so basically a few

45:48

years back, I found some old photographs of

45:50

an uncle on my dad's side. There

45:53

were photos that I was not supposed to

45:55

find, and the reason behind that was pretty

45:57

obvious. The only photos I'd ever seen were from

45:59

the of this uncle, who had moved away

46:01

when I was much younger, were from when

46:04

he and my dad were kids or in

46:06

their early teens. I'd

46:08

never seen him as an older kid or a

46:10

grown-up because by that stage, he was

46:12

very distant from the family and then moved

46:14

across the country before I was out of

46:16

kindergarten. Apparently, he came to

46:18

see me one time when I was a

46:21

baby, but aside from that, I had

46:23

no real memories of him, just the old

46:25

photos my dad let me see. But

46:28

by that day, I saw the photos that he didn't

46:30

want me to see, and everything kind

46:32

of just fell into place. I

46:35

remember opening up the little envelope, taking

46:37

out the pictures, and feeling this

46:39

intense feeling of confusion for a few minutes

46:41

as I flicked through those pictures. The

46:44

photos seemed to be taken at a music show of

46:46

some kind, as I remember thinking,

46:48

did my dad used to be a punk? Because

46:51

there was a lot of that kind of style among the

46:53

people attending the show. But

46:55

then, the more I looked, the more I

46:57

noticed that two or three people appeared over

46:59

and over again. They

47:02

had closely shaven heads, wore big

47:04

black boots and denim, and

47:06

each had a swastika either on

47:08

their jacket somewhere or tattooed somewhere

47:10

prominent, like their neck, shoulder, or

47:12

arm. That grabbed

47:14

my attention all on its own, but

47:16

the thing that really had me pulling back was

47:19

the fact that one of these skinheads with that

47:21

tattoo looked a hell of a lot like my

47:23

uncle Alan, the one I hadn't seen since

47:25

I was a baby. There

47:27

was actually a moment where I thought one of the other

47:30

guys might have been my dad, so when

47:32

I was half freaking out by the time I climbed

47:34

down from the attic and took the pictures to show

47:36

mom, who just kept saying, I

47:38

think you need to talk to your father about this,

47:41

in a way that told me that she knew the whole

47:44

story but didn't want to be the one to have to

47:46

tell me. Now anyway,

47:48

about half an hour later, my father and

47:51

I are having a massive yelling match, mostly

47:53

surrounding the fact that he and mom had

47:55

chosen to hide something huge from me, but

47:58

the thing that really made me explode. load was

48:00

how he started telling me, Alan's

48:02

not a bad guy, you don't understand.

48:05

Now imagine being me in that moment and having

48:07

your dad tell you that your Nazi uncle isn't

48:09

a bad guy. I mean, that's

48:12

the dictionary definition of a bad guy, right?

48:15

I couldn't understand why dad would say something

48:17

so insane when the evidence that his brother

48:19

was some evil bastard was right there, right

48:21

in front of him. And

48:24

the argument got really intense, things

48:26

got very emotional, but as much

48:28

as I tried to get my dad to talk to

48:31

me about it, to explain why he'd kept things hidden,

48:33

he just didn't want to talk to me about it at all.

48:36

And then, after, I don't

48:38

know how long, he burst into tears,

48:41

and it's the only time I'd ever seen my

48:43

dad cry. My mom then basically

48:45

chased me out of the room, telling me to

48:47

give your father and me a minute to talk,

48:50

and much like my dad crying, I

48:52

rarely saw my mom get that mad. Seeing

48:55

dad cry had already shut me up, but

48:58

then seeing my mom so furious had

49:00

me running upstairs. When

49:02

she started to snap at me, like I know

49:04

it was already a tense situation, but seeing dad

49:07

cry and seeing mom get so mad, that's what

49:09

made me realize that there might have been more

49:11

to the story than just my uncle being a

49:13

jerk. I was still

49:15

angry, but I also felt kind of

49:18

dumb for not realizing that there was

49:20

a whole backstory behind my uncle and

49:22

his especially bad life decisions. And

49:24

it was one that was very painful for my father

49:27

to have to remember. I

49:29

knew it'd be a crazy story, there's no way

49:31

that it couldn't have been, but when

49:33

I sat down with dad and he told me the whole

49:36

thing from start to finish, I had to

49:38

pick my jaw up off the floor afterwards. Uncle

49:41

Alan was just two years younger than my dad,

49:43

and they were best friends growing up, but

49:46

around the age of 13, my

49:48

uncle's behavior started to change, and

49:50

he became my dad's polar opposite in

49:52

just about every way. He

49:55

fell in with a bad crowd, a really

49:57

bad crowd, and the deeper he went

49:59

down that scale, head rabbit hole, the

50:01

more he became completely incompatible with

50:03

any kind of civilized society. Those

50:06

were basically my dad's words too. He

50:09

didn't want my uncle around me when I was a kid.

50:12

He still loved him, but he wasn't

50:14

about to let some meth head around his daughter. And

50:17

the same applied to almost everyone else too. He

50:20

became a pariah, and soon living

50:22

in the city got too much for him. You

50:25

can't exactly walk around with those kinds of tattoos

50:27

and not get yourself into trouble, I guess. So

50:30

Uncle Alan started looking for some other place to

50:33

live, and that's when he heard

50:35

about some white supremacist militia turned doomsday cult

50:37

living out in the middle of nowhere. He

50:40

and dad were talking around the time he moved away,

50:43

so dad doesn't know exactly how it all came

50:45

about. But Uncle Alan ended up

50:47

living with these people, and basically preparing for

50:49

the end of the world. Not

50:52

the end in any biblical sense, but like

50:54

a helter skelter style race war that it

50:56

ends society as we know it. There

50:58

were all kinds of people out there too,

51:00

from all walks of life, whole families too.

51:03

But they were all there because of that

51:06

one ugly thing that united them, hate. Yet

51:09

having families meant that there were kids there,

51:11

a bunch of them, but apparently not

51:13

everyone had their best interests in mind.

51:18

Somehow, Uncle Alan discovered that

51:20

a few of the guys that he'd stayed

51:22

with were in the process of trying to

51:24

groom one of the girls that was part of one

51:26

of the families. I

51:28

don't know how exactly, but

51:30

there was some kind of confrontation, and

51:33

Uncle Alan's worst fears were confirmed. He

51:36

went straight to the group's leader, but

51:38

instead of acting on the tip and investigating what

51:40

was going on, the leader tried

51:42

to downplay the whole thing and told my

51:45

uncle that he was just being paranoid. Personally,

51:48

I think the guy was in on it,

51:50

but excuse me if I'm kind of biased

51:52

towards literal Nazis. Anyway,

51:55

Uncle Alan figured that he was faced with two

51:57

choices at that point. Number

52:00

one, do nothing and just

52:02

allow these racist scumbags to groom a

52:04

little girl. Or number

52:06

two, find a way to get those kids as

52:09

far away as possible and do

52:11

so by any means necessary. I

52:14

guess he knew he couldn't prove that the guys were

52:16

trying to groom the girl, so

52:18

there was a chance that the cops wouldn't be able

52:20

to do anything about it. But

52:22

what they'd be very interested in was all

52:24

the illegal weapons and bomb making equipment that

52:27

they had stashed up there. And

52:29

so, my Uncle Alan became

52:32

a snitch. Apparently,

52:34

he helped the feds sneak up to the

52:36

place the group was staying to. If

52:39

he hadn't, there probably would have been another

52:41

Waco out there in the woods, and all

52:43

those kids might have been killed in the

52:45

crossfire. Heck, they might even have

52:47

done like a Jim Jones and killed everyone so

52:49

the feds couldn't get to them. So

52:52

I understand why he'd cooperate to the point of

52:54

actually guiding them in or telling them the secret

52:56

password or whatever it was. But

52:58

then after that, when everyone was up on

53:01

charges, Uncle Alan had to go on the

53:03

run. He could have turned

53:05

state's witness, got a whole new identity, but

53:07

he didn't want to work with the feds any more than he

53:09

had to. And he didn't want

53:12

to go running to Uncle Sam to protect him

53:14

from anyone or anything. And

53:16

so instead, he pays my dad

53:18

one last visit and then just

53:20

disappears. I asked dad

53:22

what was said during that last meeting, and

53:24

apparently, it was mostly Uncle Alan explaining what

53:27

had happened out there in the woods, and

53:29

then apologizing for being away for so long

53:31

without reaching out in any way. He

53:35

then apologized again because he had to move

53:37

far away and never come back, because there

53:39

were people who wanted dad, you see. I

53:42

guess it was already a risk meeting my dad,

53:45

and they met somewhere quiet after dark too,

53:47

so I guess Uncle Alan was really serious about

53:50

being in danger. After

53:52

that, dad never saw or heard from him

53:54

again, not even so much as a phone

53:56

call. I don't even know if

53:58

Uncle Alan came to regret his beliefs or

54:00

his actions. I hope

54:02

he did, and in my head, I like

54:05

to imagine that he found some dignity

54:07

in helping those kids or at

54:09

least trying to help them and that he was able

54:11

to build himself up from that. But

54:14

then again, maybe he's still the same guy and I'd

54:16

call him a piece of crap to his face if

54:18

I ever met him, and he

54:20

still has those disgusting tattoos. But

54:23

it's just kinda weird to think that a person like that

54:26

could at least do some small amount of good in the

54:28

world. Not enough to balance

54:30

out the hate that he has but still better than

54:32

nothing I guess. I've

54:42

been walking and running on forest trails for

54:44

most of my adult life, and here are

54:46

some of the weirdest, creepiest, and most frightening

54:49

things I've experienced on those trails. One

54:51

day, I went trail running on a rainy, foggy

54:54

day. There were no other cars,

54:56

and I didn't see any other people up there, but

54:59

I was around five miles up the trail, which

55:01

is about eight kilometers for you fine people

55:03

across the pond. There's

55:05

a part where the trail is really steep, and

55:08

you kind of slow down and stoop low

55:10

to avoid this really low hanging branch, so

55:13

you can't really see what's on the other side. But

55:16

then I pass under the branch, stand

55:18

up, and suddenly I'm face

55:20

to face with a raccoon head sitting on

55:22

top of a big rock, deliberately placed facing

55:24

the trail. It looked fresh

55:26

too. The blood hadn't finished

55:29

drying, and its eyes had been gouged out.

55:32

It still looked like a fresh wound. It

55:34

was very unnerving to randomly come face to

55:36

face with that on a foggy day alone

55:38

in the woods. I

55:40

stayed very well away from that head, kept

55:43

on going, and didn't see

55:45

anything else weird that day unless you

55:47

count two crows following me, circling

55:49

above me the whole time I was there. The

55:52

second thing happened when I was running a new trail

55:55

that I'd never been to before. I

55:57

was having a lovely time until I came to a

55:59

long straight section. of the trail, and

56:01

I could see up ahead two trees that

56:03

looked like they'd been propped together to create

56:05

an incomplete archway over the trail. On

56:08

the tip of each tree was a deer skull,

56:10

placed so that if you walked in the center

56:12

of the trail, they were both looking down

56:14

at you as you passed them. Seeing

56:17

this obviously set off some alarm bells,

56:19

but I just kept running. You

56:22

can bet that I stayed ready to pull out my

56:24

can of bear mace from my little fanny pack. Moments

56:27

after I passed that archway with the skulls,

56:30

I started getting chills all over, and

56:33

I felt like I was being watched. I

56:35

also remember it suddenly got very quiet

56:37

in the woods, where moments

56:39

before I could hear birds and

56:42

the chatter of small animals in the brush. Anyone

56:45

who is an experienced outdoorsman can tell

56:47

you that sudden silence in the woods

56:49

is not a good sign. Generally,

56:52

it means there's a predator of some

56:54

kind nearby. It almost

56:56

feels like the whole forest is holding its breath,

57:00

waiting for it to pass. I

57:02

only made it like 20 feet past the

57:04

archway before that bad feeling in my gut

57:06

convinced me to turn around and leave. I

57:10

felt like I was being stalked or watched the

57:12

whole time I was going down the trail until

57:14

I got closer to the parking lot. I

57:17

didn't see a thing, though. To this

57:19

day, I have no idea what that

57:21

was all about, but I'm glad I listened

57:23

to my gut and turned around. Any

57:26

supernatural explanations aside, it easily could have

57:28

been a cougar or a grizzly bear

57:30

that was living out there, or

57:33

maybe even a moose. I

57:35

didn't see or experience anything other than

57:37

the feeling of being followed or watched,

57:40

and when you're out in the mountains alone,

57:42

though, you trust that gut feeling. This

57:45

one took place in the same place as the

57:47

first story with that raccoon head. This

57:49

time, I was not alone, and

57:51

I had three friends with me. Something

57:53

to note is that there was only one way

57:55

to get into this canyon and to reach the

57:57

trailhead. You have to park on a resident's house.

58:00

street up in the hills and walk on the

58:02

trail past like three people's houses. When

58:05

we arrived, there were no other cars around,

58:07

so most likely no people up the trail

58:09

either. Early on

58:11

in the trail we encountered our first

58:13

oddity. There were some clothes on the trail

58:16

laid out on the ground as if though someone

58:18

had recently been wearing them. A

58:20

shirt, jacket, pants, boots, socks, all

58:22

arranged as if someone had been

58:24

laying there and then just melted

58:26

away, leaving only the clothes

58:28

behind. I thought it was weird

58:30

as heck, but I made a joke that

58:33

we might find some crazy naked person running around

58:35

here on the way up and we laughed it

58:37

off and kept going. Not

58:39

much further up the trail, we saw

58:41

the second oddity. Just a

58:43

whole bunch of camping equipment in a big old

58:45

pile. I'm talking

58:47

big hiking backpacks, tent bags,

58:50

sleeping bags. All

58:52

of this gear looked brand new, never

58:54

used. There was enough

58:56

gear for like 10 people and there was no

58:58

one around. I thought

59:01

that was weird, but we kept going. Well,

59:05

we saw a couple more similarly big piles

59:07

of gear stashed in clear view along the

59:09

trail, but again no

59:11

one at all around. Further

59:13

up the trail we had probably gone three ish

59:15

miles or 4.8 kilometers at

59:17

this point and we encountered

59:19

yet another large pile of gear, but

59:22

this time it was right in the center of the trail

59:24

for some reason. I remember

59:26

there were a few backpacks sitting next to each

59:28

other and they were just

59:30

full bursting with something. I

59:33

wanted to look, I really did, but

59:35

none of us wanted to touch the bags or open

59:37

them up. It gave us all kind

59:39

of a weird feeling. I

59:41

remember there were a handful of leather coats

59:44

strewn about that area too for some reason.

59:47

At this point my friends and I were getting a

59:49

little uneasy about all of this because none of this

59:51

made any sense and it'd be quite

59:54

an undertaking to bring all of this camping gear up

59:56

to this trail. It's not

59:58

an easy trail and it was enough gear that

1:00:00

it would take probably 20 to 30 plus people to

1:00:02

bring it all in one go. We

1:00:05

decided not to touch anything and just

1:00:07

kept going. I

1:00:09

remember a very distinct moment when

1:00:11

something changed. I led

1:00:13

the group and climbed up a boulder to continue on

1:00:15

the trail. And what do I

1:00:18

see up ahead? Yet

1:00:20

another big pile of equipment laid out in the middle

1:00:22

of the trail. Suddenly,

1:00:24

at that moment, it got quiet.

1:00:27

And as you know, that's never a good sign

1:00:29

out in nature. Nothing

1:00:31

changed other than that. But this

1:00:33

feeling of dread came over me suddenly, and

1:00:36

my intuition was telling me to get the hell out

1:00:38

of there. So I turned around

1:00:40

and said, executive decision, we're

1:00:42

leaving. No

1:00:44

one argued. My friends had picked up

1:00:47

the same vibe as I had. It

1:00:49

was kind of a tense hike, but we didn't

1:00:51

see anything other than the stuff that was still

1:00:53

there or anyone the whole way down. When

1:00:56

we arrived at the car, I called the

1:00:59

nearest ranger station and told them what we saw.

1:01:01

And I never heard back from them. I

1:01:04

have no explanation for any of this. But

1:01:06

ultimately, what was weird to me is that they

1:01:09

brought all this stuff up there and

1:01:11

just left it in plain view of the trail. And

1:01:13

then they were just gone. The

1:01:15

last couple of piles we saw in the middle

1:01:18

of the trail gave off a distinct, it's a

1:01:20

trap vibe for some reason. And we

1:01:22

didn't see or hear another person up there. Where

1:01:25

did they go? Why did they

1:01:27

bring all that stuff up there and vanish? Why

1:01:29

did they leave all their stuff behind? And

1:01:31

what the hell did they have in those backpacks? Thank

1:02:00

you.