I grew up in a small valley in the mountains. No matter where you looked you would be encased in mountains. Although, not in the middle of no where. The nearest town was about a 30 minute drive or a 50 minute bus journey, closest city being a 2 hour journey excluding the wait for transport.

The valley had its fair share of children my age too, about 30 children in my class growing up. Despite the amount of children my age, I never got along with any of them.

I never really had access to much technology either, I’m part of that one generation where we grew up both playing outside and on technology. I never got access to the internet until I was 12, excluding using family computers. I was lucky enough to have the forest to explore.

So, when I was old enough, I would be allowed to take my dog to the forest to explore at my own will. Since I had gone there so much as a child and was usually responsible, I was allowed to explore alone when I was 8. (The forest was close to my home and if I wasn’t back by dark family members who knew the forest as well as I did would know where to look).

Since then, I’ve always been fond of the forest. I graduated primary school and went to a comprehensive school about 20 minutes away. Then I made a few friends but they all lived too far away to hang out regularly. Id either play video games or explore the forest alone.

By the time I was 15 I had been to every part and knew it off by heart. I knew the terrain of each part too, and had different land marks. Through all of these years spending hours a day in the forest I never saw anything I could call weird or out of place.

Okay so I found a few animal carcasses, and that was a little disturbing first time I came across one, but foxes lived in the forest. As much as I wanted to take a few bones as a trinket from my disturbing find I knew to leave it be. I didn’t want a disease even if it let me skip school.

When I was 16, people began to cut down the forest. I’m not sure why, but since I was the only one enraged by this I assumed it was bound to happen. The forest lost its beauty aside from a few chunks of forestry still standing. So, I’d still spend time in those, but it was no where near as fun. I knew there was bound to be less wildlife but the forest felt a lot more dead than I expected.

I remember hearing that the company cutting down the trees quit for no reason. They refused to specify why they’d quit, but I’m grateful they stopped as my favourite tree remained standing. It would have been cut if they hadn’t stopped.

Now, I’ve caught you up with everything important to this story, here’s the whole reason I’m telling this to you.

I still kept doing my regular walks through the forest but this time I would always be followed by a sense of dread. One specific day during late august I had an argument with my family, this was a regular thing, so I went off to the mountain to just walk and calm down. Since my parents go to sleep relatively early, 9pm, and it would remain light until 10pm during summer, I decided I’d stay until about 9pm and get home by 9:30.

It was about 8:45 when I sat down by my favourite tree for a cigarette. Yes, I know smoking is bad for you, especially starting at such a young age, but at the time I couldn’t have cared less. I lit my cigarette and put the lighter down next to my feet. The sense of dread came but by this point I knew how to ignore it or just drown it out with music.

I sat there and puffed for a little bit, just enjoying the scenery I’ve seen hundreds of times. It was getting dark, but only a little. I looked down to part of the forest where a small stream run through and sheep usually roamed. If you’d go a bit onwards from there you can find this awesome rock, it’s huge!

As I stared and contemplated going to the rock after my break I saw something move. It was tall, I could tell that as it moved through the trees, but I couldn’t make out what it was. Before I could realise that whatever I was witnessing was probably supposed to scare me, it was gone.

Odd, but I ignored it. About 10 minutes later I decided to head to the rock. It would be an easier journey home if i did and I got to see the cool rock, so what’s the harm? … Well, a lot of harm.

I cut through some trees and down a slope, then I followed the stream down. I passed where I saw the shadow move and the sense of dread became overbearing. My mind ran back to the shadow I saw wandering and I tried to shake it off, not being a believer in the paranormal. I thought ‘even if the paranormal were real, if they roamed this forest I certainly would’ve noticed sooner- I spent my whole childhood up here!’

I came towards the rock and climbed on top of it like usual. There’s a stunning view of the mountains if you know what trees to look through, and the added height from the rock helps so much. Though, what I least expected to see was the shadow. It moved quite slowly as if being careful.

Now I had a good sense of its size due to it being a lot closer than before. It was tall, deer like but stood on its back legs and had human hands. A pair of antlers, long and winding, stood on tops of its head.

Once it noticed me, it stood still and stared. Standing on the rock usually made me feel tall, but I never felt smaller than during that moment. We stood there, both still, for a moment.

The creature began to move towards me, faster than when it had been exploring. I stumbled off of the rock and landed awkwardly on my ankle. I groaned in pain, knowing it was sprained at the very least. I’d sprained my ankle before and recognised the pain. The creature didn’t pity my state, it kept moving towards me. We were now face to face. Somehow, despite how it was still supposed to be somewhat light for a couple more hours, the forest became dark.

I stared the creature in the face, oh how I wish I hadn’t. If I hadn’t looked at its face I wouldn’t have seen those small red eyes or that mouth. The mouth was the worst, it was large and wide, with many sharp pointy teeth all out of place. They were stained yellow and had traces of blood on the canines. This creature was not friendly. I scrambled to my feet and as I did it swung its arm for me, barely missing.

I turned my phone torch on and sprinted away, not even daring to look back. I never wanted to see whatever the hell that was again. I got to an opening and it was light again, I was confused and turned back, the creature backing away into its dark patch of forest.

I don’t hesitate to run home and I go straight to my room. My ankle was still in a lot of pain, so I just stayed in bed whilst rummaging my bag for the painkillers I always carried around. When night came, I was too disturbed to sleep.
I heard a scraping noise outside my window and my mind ran to all of the worst possible ideas. Even so, I looked out, and there it was. Those horrible teeth and everything. I quickly turned on my bedroom light, limping to my light switch of course, and it ran away.

I’ve learnt something important, it hates light. Since then, it has followed me to dark places. I have to keep a flashlight on me and I keep a small lamp on by my window to scare it away. But I know that one day it will get me, and I am terrified of it.

So, learn from me. If you are exploring out in nature and you feel a sense of dread, leave. You don’t know what you may find.