376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfOMQGawElx
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi83LyTDoS9
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ78CSuUEUPH
Hello.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMki57PwA1K
To begin with, I am a healthy, twenty-three-year-old male with army experience. I don't write a lot. I barely even wrote in English class, so please forgive me for any errors I make. I enlisted at 17 broke and came out still broke.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGGd7TPFPCu
I needed a job.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGb16IoZrXd
So when I read the job ads in the paper on a sunny June morning, I needed something that would pay well. Hell, I didn’t care if I would end up as the local gravedigger, but something caught my eye.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwh4v5qHji3
I almost spat out my morning coffee. “How many dollars a week?”
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5lvIAAVq3w
The ad was for a park ranger at Whitewater Forest. To keep it clean, protect old buildings, and be ready to enforce the law on anyone with ill-intentions. How bad could it be? It couldn’t be as bad as serving in the army for five years.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVLYZnhR32D
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSOEvr9ykJQ
Nothing, and I mean nothing, will ever freak me out as much as Whitewater Forest. I still don’t know the full story to do this day. Maybe it’s best if I never figure it out. But the images, the bodies, the screaming. It will stay in my head forever.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuDJ2qa5kwT
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL8VMVKHnU9
Whitewater Forest. It was quite a drive from my beaten down home to the rural countryside of the state. Mind you, this job wasn’t in the daytime, of course. But I wasn’t scared of being alone in the forest. I actually found it calming, to be honest with you.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF5CnYn12OA
The road just kept getting worse and worse the deeper I got into the back country. I kept wondering if I was going to the right place. There was no road signs or anything. The only lights that lit the street was mine.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZwWCSTIvNj
I felt completely and utterly alone as I drove through the straight street. No car was behind me or in front of me. If my car happened to break down I would be alone for god knows how long.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKW43X7CpSP
Until I found the park building. You couldn’t imagine how much joy I felt when I found that I was in the right place.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwoGxTHiEQq
I parked in one of many parking spots, which was funny, figuring they got little to no visitors. There was only one other car parked. Only one light in that big building was on. I got out of my car and walked on the gravely road.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEEkqRlpAe9
I didn’t know if I should just walk in or not.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz65LGoKMhH
Sitting for me, inside, was an old man. It looked like he had been waiting for me that entire time. There was nothing on that long wooden desk except a few papers. He was staring at me, with a smile, waiting for me to say something.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiPcNn8bIa4
“Oh, sorry, I’m here for the park ranger job. You put an ad on the-” He didn’t let me finish his sentence.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhmvtGYmCzS
“Wonderful,” he said. He got up, got a uniform from the shelves, and handed it to me. “You can change in that room over there. You start today and get paid at the end of the week. Good day!”
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyWhniccgBX
I should’ve had some suspicions with how fast he offered me a job. “Wait, is there anything I need to know?” I asked.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJjTdbBRcu3
“You read the paper, didn’t you?”
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWHOQusrqM8
“Yes.”
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6fJ8cWcg13
“Then you have everything you need to know, sir. Good day! You end by sunrise. I will take my leave.”
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOjcqXiydsy
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwKR49xHQc1
And the man left. I thought to myself, how hard can it be?
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPPhO1IEMmP
Writing his now I’m laughing at myself.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJi6aFLRwq9
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV2TXYeRHZG
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS25pVyq0PY
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrg0yNSZjbj
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeX4xE1jQpE
I started the night with patrols. Nothing except the trees rustling and the sound of my boots crunching the leaves could be heard for miles. I wasn’t given a firearm. Only a knife and a taser.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkUQwyMuwkq
Something seemed off about the job. Something did. The fact that he was so eager to give someone a job and then leave as fast as he could. To be honest with you, I didn’t care what I did. I needed the money. Walking around an empty forest seemed pretty easy for a pay like that.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ240VnixZQo
It wasn’t empty.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTsqu4z80Wg
A long time ago, it wasn’t empty. I approached an old building. It looked absolutely demolished. Maybe the weather had done it, I couldn’t tell. But it had been a whole 30 minutes of that stinking job and I was bored, so I decided to investigate it.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJLgwowkkLn
To my surprise, it was a concrete building. Someone had definitely lived there. I clicked on my flashlight. Turning around the sides, was a bunch of repeating symbols and a note engraved on the back of it.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡomE8QxB9bH
“You are not alone. We are still here.”
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡThdWgVHaka
I wondered who that could possibly pertain to. The owners of the house? At first I had innocently thought that. Then I started to wonder what could’ve happened to the house and the people living in it. Were they even talking about the house in the first place, or was the house just somewhere to write the note in?
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLKZKfdOYnV
Turning my head to the side, I realized that there wasn’t symbols. It was numbers. All the same repeating number, actually. The number: 6.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjWHZdZ5l6w
The message on the back of that wall bubbled in my mind as I continued patrolling. My job was to protect old buildings, and that was graffiti. I had to find whatever scum was doing that, so I didn’t lose my job.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyKn9SKGEoK
I decided to move down the hill and find the lake. Supposedly it was pretty nice, in the daytime. Remembering the map, the lake seemed to be right smack in the middle. I knew where I was, so I moved towards it.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXw8Mdly6kF
I got to the lake but I couldn’t see much. The moon and my flashlight was my only source of light. I didn’t see anything. But I heard something. Something far away. Someone male.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdkOOd7YHN7
“Aaaaaargghhhhhh.”
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm5c5hRzJVj
The closer I got to the lake, the better I heard it. The piercing sound of male screaming. He seemed like he was in pain. The screaming did. Not. Stop.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡspApd4c32S
Constant, grueling pain. I needed to see what the hell could make someone scream like that. It felt like my ear drums were going to break. I pulled my binoculars and searched the perimeter of the lake.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiazFld4QSz
I dropped my binoculars and my face went white. Beyond the lake was a man. Or a ghost. He was staring at me. And screaming. Pointing at me. He was completely still but his jaw hung down a little too low.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLUmlnj0REM
I wanted to leave. I turned around but I was too close to the lake. Something pulled me by the ankles. It felt like a bony hand. My heart was beating so fast I thought it was a nightmare. I tried to dig my hands in the dirt to stop myself from getting dragged. If I tried to pull out my knife I would be under for sure.
My hands gave loose above the dirt. I immediately lurched for my knife as I took in one last deep breath.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3RjuvFi1Uw
I couldn’t see anything in the dead of night. The light of my watch only gave me a little bit of help, but I had no interest to see what exactly pulled me under. I wanted to get to the shore. I tried to swim up, and I did, but I only got a tiny gasp of air before I got pulled under again.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtQ1RQysZJC
I saw their face. Below them was a deep hole filled of 5 large bags.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhgN1pesp3b
The best word I could describe it as rotted. Smiling. I didn’t try to look at him for too long before I slashed his arm with my knife and swam as fast as I could back to the shore.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrkJNYIgIZG
I got out, drenched in the lake water, panting, and spitting out water. The screaming stopped when I got as far from the shore as possible.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJRghbYKTiv
Laughing began.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBjlTzlRIlx
I’m getting out of here, I thought. The screaming man stopped screaming and was laughing at me instead. I felt like everything in that forest was trying to kill me. I just kept running.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTsIIXyDXSB
I passed the decrepit building again. The number 6. 5 large bags including a man. The ghost.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKFNUeXRs4r
I threw the bloody knife on the floor as I reached the park building. I immediately got in my car and stepped on it.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmUkaH9zTWC
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM8QfbgJ4LP
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZZyXNpgAkg
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2353O20oTL
Looking back and even having done my research I don’t even know the full story. I’m just glad to have made it out alive. As a further update, I am now a gravedigger at your local graveyard.
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwzaa8wXZLN
376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlrrSUMJ9Xj
Goodbye.
ns3.139.76.246da2
