443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKbPY2vY0Xn
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJPuNuWdLIs
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVJgxjABFRS
Hello.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5gxE0mSJLj
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ851CG6jCK6
I needed a job.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaHK4UnEV8T
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpBHElgUa6A
I almost spat out my morning coffee. “How many dollars a week?”
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZkzV1YzW6q
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9K0xOhGmLs
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeiTfBgfSnG
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6WBpQbyMvX
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmm6p4AbkVD
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhipoxsFeSg
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbDuv3AYtXg
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzXQNrrbwMj
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZFcyDpbzib
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLz4ELwW509
I didn’t know if I should just walk in or not.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBY5uS7wYSF
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgkmygafvFm
“Oh, sorry, I’m here for the park ranger job. You put an ad on the-” He didn’t let me finish his sentence.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA5JtlhbQ7e
“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!”
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoTMVDcp9S0
I should’ve had some suspicions with how fast he offered me a job. “Wait, is there anything I need to know?” I asked.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj2G7cLQCTW
“You read the paper, didn’t you?”
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Y8V2UFG9h
“Yes.”
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa3NQXdKJI1
“Then you have everything you need to know, sir. Good day! You end by sunrise. I will take my leave.”
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqQGRnOpLxO
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdt3BBSLvjN
And the man left. I thought to myself, how hard can it be?
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdmCZpzFzhv
Writing his now I’m laughing at myself.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZT0T86ZqJo
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPO4KiimdxU
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEDXG4hhnup
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrAwZ4ZykOj
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNBUA3kWv0R
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLN7LNTd2mZ
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYfLqCeQOfV
It wasn’t empty.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡedMD8jabK7
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlCQlCmOQoG
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡie6VQBTJBB
“You are not alone. We are still here.”
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCXhYR29umV
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?
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5c1z0DxE52
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjYR69HPSkD
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPfe7KUrp33
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCKM7ZpbX68
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyuJaOpnhYw
“Aaaaaargghhhhhh.”
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUYPPUxe0bE
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSrid4LB1w5
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5sorCYM6sE
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjxI8GwSThV
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6cc7VSRBqC
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx2WN8Elayb
I saw their face. Below them was a deep hole filled of 5 large bags.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWZGxrvOzqn
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa6DXw4kCJ6
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPlsHR9uIr6
Laughing began.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCRLqgv0se3
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH6durcuZWN
I passed the decrepit building again. The number 6. 5 large bags including a man. The ghost.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIV2mmIGlIn
I threw the bloody knife on the floor as I reached the park building. I immediately got in my car and stepped on it.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8yUDs7bDDV
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM8PehcKbsA
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUtXRTah0bv
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg9IiCnqdZQ
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.
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL38eDMRvm0
443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI8gkeBmbZI
Goodbye.
ns216.73.216.94da2
