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The Dark Figure in the Pine Forest

Anonymous, Ireland
January 2013

I and my friends we’re really into scary stuffs like horror movies and ghost stories. And of course we love to visit reportedly haunted places just to challenge ourselves for fun.

So there are this vast pine forests areas up on a hill situated about 3 hour drive from where I live. Rumour has it that the forest is haunted. Many years ago some poor people decided to end their lives there by jumping off the deadly steep cliff known as ‘The Bow’ as it resembles a ship’s bow.

People who live nearby have often reported sightings of ghostly body parts scattered around on the forest floor and frightening sounds of screaming and human-like tortured cries for help. We’d heard and known about the pine forest since we were little kids. But somehow we had never had the guts to visit it.

Until one day when we got pretty bored of visiting the other haunted places in our town (we had never seen any ghost) and the pine forest came across our minds and we decided to give it a shot.

At first, we seemed a bit reluctant but then we all agreed that we needed something a little bit scarier to do as we’re all in our early 20’s. It was a foggy and wet night when we drove our way up to the forest. From the moment I got in the car, I felt like something’s not right I just couldn’t tell what it was. But I didn’t want my friends to think that I was afraid so I showed off a little bit talking about scary possibilities that might happen there in the pine forest.

When we finally arrived. The road that divided the forest was so dark and cold. We parked in front of an abandoned bulding and then made our way through the pine trees. Everybody walked so fast and nobody even said a word. The forest was so dark and frightening. We kept walking for minutes until we finally saw The Bow. We sat down and gathered around and started telling ghost stories and scary legends related to the pine forest, about those people who had died here.

When my friend Bobby was telling his story, suddenly I saw a quick movement in the corner of my eye. I turned around and whatever it was, it was already gone. At first I thought it could be some animal wandering around in the forest. But then we heard scratching voices coming from the top of the bow as if there was something up there dragging its body up to it. I looked up and I could make out a vague dark silhouette of a man standing there looking down to us. I started shaking all over me and my friends were now all looking at me. Bobby had seen it too. He grabbed my shoulder tight and whispered. "Who’s that?"

But we were so scared we got petrified. Bobby was the first to get on his knees.

‘We better get back to the car now’ he whispered and then started walking.

We all followed him silently. As soon as the bow was out of sight we started running as fast as we could. For a moment there I thought the dark figure was coming after us. I was really afraid I kept praying to God while running.

When we finally saw our car my friend Dicky told us that he had left the key in the forest. We all started cursing him but then we decided to break into the abandoned house and stayed inside until morning though it was dark in there.

That night none of us could sleep. We spent the night feeling frightened in a tiny room in the house. It was a squeeze but we didn’t care. At around 2AM, we heard light footsteps somewhere in the left wing of the house. We squeezed closer and tighter holding our breaths. As the sound of the footsteps became louder and louder I closed my eyes tight and plugged both my ears with my index fingers. And then I felt a presence in the room with us. But I kept my eyes and ears shut. I was too afraid. I got the tingling sensation as if somebody’s standing pretty close to me. It lasted for about thirty minutes. I could feel my friends squeezing my body from all sides.

When I finally got tired I got my hands off my ears and embraced myself. But I kept my eyes shut still. We sat on the floor there in the dark tiny room for about 4 hours but it felt as if we had been there for ages. At around 6AM we finally got out of the house the sky had looked a little brighter.

When the sun finally rose, we went back to the forest to get the key and then we drove back to town as soon as we could. Nobody talked. We still couldn’t believe our luck. We finally made it back home safe and sound.

Until today, I still get the goosebumps whenever I think about that terrifying night in the pine forest. I sure hell will never go back in there even if it was the last safe place on earth.

Anonymous, Ireland
00:00 / 01:04
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