(ONM)
So, before I say anything, this is not a "creepy pasta," or a fake story, or anything like that. It's a real experience I had, but, that's up for you to decide if you believe me, think I"m crazy, or whatever, but this is not an attempt to make a creepy pasta or scary story. I'm no writer, I'm a geography major in college. Perhaps a hallucination, or creation of my mind at the time, but it felt real to me. Very real. I have never had any mental illness other than depression/anxiety that are now medicated, but never anything more serious. At the time this happened, I hadn't done any drugs other than a few beers after the incident to relax and get to sleep.
This was in 2017, I was turning 18 at the time, I'm 23 nearly 24 now.
I haven't told anyone in my personal life because of two reasons, one, they'd think I'm either A) Crazy, or more likely, B) making it up, and I've a reputation for not being a liar, making things up, I hate being called a liar and have went out of my way in life to be as honest as I can, if not sometimes too honest, because I just hate being called a liar, even if I am actually lying in this case by neglecting to tell it, or when someone asks me if I've ever had any "supernatural" experiences, I just say "no," but. . . I have. I just don't want people to think I'm crazy or lying, but it's been years since this happened and I just had to tell someone, so here I am.
Also, for what it's worth, I'm not religious, I'd say I'm agnostic. I don't really believe in the supernatural, but I also don't say it's impossible, as I don't know everything. Far from it. This story doesn't help. But I don't believe in "ghost stories" for the most part, UFO's, etc. I'm very skeptical of that stuff and believe there are explanations that are far less exciting than people would like to believe. But this is something I've experienced that I can't explain, and still bothers me to this day when I think of it, and when I have nightmares.
So, some backstory. My mother and little sister were going to visit my grandparents, they lived near this little town called "eminence Missouri," about 30 mins south (I think south?) of the town deep in the mountains. It wasn't super super remote, there were neighbors a few miles away and such, and they were the hillbilly types as you could imagine. It's deep in the Ozarks in Missouri, so yeah. Lots of missing teeth and meth and crazy ole' mountain folk haha, if you've been in the Missouri hills you know what I mean.
So, we were staying in a camper about 200 or so foot from the grandparents house, my mom sister and I. One day a few hours before dark, I decided to get on the 4 wheeler and go into the woods. I had toyed around in the woods/hills a bit, but I wanted to get deep in there on teh 4 wheeler and haveh some fun.
So I filled the 4 wheeler up, asked my grandparents where the trail was (there was a trail that you could take to ride horses down, 4 wheelers, etc, and it was a one way road with no turn offs to get lost, so that's where they told me to go) and I drove off. I rode for about 40 mins in one direction until I was nearly half out of gas, and about this time, I was searing fo ra place to turn around and head back. It was a small and narrow trail so I had to wait until there was a small clearing to do a U turn.
Here is where things get weird. I remember as I was riding, the tress blowing in the wind, the bird songs, the animal noises, the wood peckers, all the wonderful noises of nature I love so much from teh woods. Suddenly, they all stopped. It went dead silent. I mean DEAD silent. I remember goosebumps going all over my body just from the lack of noise alone, knowing there were animals all around, but everything just went silent. It felt like I was in a noise vacuum or something. Everything felt different. Sounded different, or more accurately, sounded like nothing at all. The only noise was the brrrrrrrr of the 4 wheeler.
As I was riding down the mountain, I saw a huge deer, or antlered deer like animal, and I mean it was fucking massive, standing in the pathway I was driving on, about idk, 50 foot in front of me or something. Not exactly sure, but close, but not too close. It wasn't there, then one second, it was.
It wasn't moving. Just staring at me. It had dark, dark black eyes, like I was staring into nothingness. Intense darkness that stood out from the color of the forest very clearly. I still see this animal in my dreams, staring at me. I have nightmares every now and then about this animal, just staring at me. The antlers were nearly the size of it's body itself. The antlers also looked. . . . like tree roots or something? I'm not too familiar with deer, I've never hunted or anything, but the antlers just. . . didn't look like anything I've ever seen on a deer or any animal that has antlers. Too large, and too "spindly/windy" .Something about it just looked terribly off and I could feel my heart jump into my throat, and I stopped the 4wheeler instantly and just. . . stared at it. I was terrified, but also couldn't help but. . . stare back. While it stared at me. I remember the wind started blowing and rustling the trees, and it sounded like the trees were. . . speaking to me in some language unknown. Or maybe I was just hearing things and scared out of my mind. I remember getting the feeling I was being told to "leave and never return". That's all I could make out, but again, I never heard those words spoken. It was just a "feeling" I can't explain it very well. I may not have "understood the language," but it was clear. Like if you were in a country where you ddidn't speak their language, came up to their house door, and started hearing them yell at you to leave, you may not understand the language, but you know what they're telling you. That's how this felt. But in a language of wind, trees, nature. Jesus christ, I sound fucking insane.
So, I did. I fucking left. I hightailed it. I bolted. I beat it. I got movin' n groovin'. I turned the 4 wheeler around, nearly toppling it off the trail and falling down some 15 foot drop near the trail, since I hadn't found a good u turn clearing yet and wasn't about to keep driving towards the "deer", or whatever it was. It was a tight u turn but I made it and floored it as fast as the 4 wheeler would go.
It was still dead fucking silent. I've never heard silence like that. My father is a sound engineer, he has a home studio and a studio that have "dead boxes" or whatever that you can sing in that have no noise from the sound proofing, and that's the closest I can explain the silence being. It was that fucking quiet. In the god damned woods, where it was alive with noise not too long ago.
I floored the 4 wheeler to go as fast as I could back up the mountain, around the bends, and get out of there as fast as I could not worrying about the danger I was putting myself in driving so fast near some of the sketchy parts of the trail I was on.
I got on a flat, straight path and around this time I was about halfway back to the entrance of the trail I would estimate, and I started to see animals, deer, birds, I saw a black bear too, the only one I've ever seen in my life, all sitting or standing near the trail, not like right next to it, but about 15-20 feet back in the woods amongst the trees just. . . fucking staring at me. . . . all these wild animals, including the birds in the trees, all silent, not moving, and just staring at me, only their heads moving following me with their eyes while I left as fast as I could. Not making a sound, these animals. Not even the wind. The birds that were up in the trees looking at me. All watching me, silently. I'll never forget the feeling of their fucking eyes burning in my back once I passed them all. It's the scariest feeling I've ever felt to this day. The eeriest feeling of my life.
I kept going as fast as I could, the sun was getting close to setting, but it was still plenty light out thankfully. About an hour from setting I'd say, but I just kept going. I remember going past areas I hadn't recognized at all, it felt like I was on a new trail or had taken a wrong turn, but I knew that was impossible because. . . this trail had no turn offs, it was just a single road trail. A one way or whatever. But the surroundings were 100% not the same as on my way back in. I started to freak out, reminded myself it wasn't possible since it was a 1 way trail, and just kept going.
I remember passing a huge tree that had moss all over it, this massive fucking tree, like something out of a fantasy movie, a tree I would have 100% noticed on the way in when I was originally coming into the trail, and now here it was. Terrain and trees with moss I had never seen or noticed before. I also didn't see my 4 wheeler tracks that would have been there, but, for some reason, were blown over and no longer there. I can remember the fear that i was on the wrong trail now somehow, but I knew being a one way, that was impossible. So I kept going, and I surely wasn't about to turn around to see if I missed a turn off somehow.
Eventually, I came to an area that suddenly looked normal and I could see my tracks again from when I came in. Somehow there was a part of the trail I had passed through that had changed scenery, and removed my 4 wheeler tracks. I have no idea how this is / was possible. I don't like to think about it.
I kept seeing animals on occasion, just sitting back from he trail staring at me from time to time.
Shortly after getting back on the "normal trail" or whatever, I remember hearing the wind pick up and start to "speak" to me in that foreign language I mentioned earlier. I've never heard wind like this before, and I've been in the woods when it's windy a fair amount of times. It was "otherworldly", if you will. Idk. Thinking about it now terrifies me still. This time it sounded less. . . ominous and more, friendly? As if it was encouraging me to keep going, and I was doing the right thing by leaving, as if it was no longer angry at me for my intrusion.
I eventually got to the entrance to the trail, which was a 2 way, it was a Y shaped trail, the right side was the side I took, the left side was another trail that was also a one way but in a different direction, and the tail of the Y was the way back home onto the highway.
I remember as I pulled off onto the shoulder of the highway from the trail, everything went silent once again. That dead silence I was talking about was suddenly back. I turned back and saw the exact same motherfucking deer, or whatever it was, standing there, but this time it was moving, stomping its foot and raising / lowering its head like a horse shaking off flies. The wind blew once again and I felt like it said, again, it never made any understandable words, "never return", or something like that.
Then, It walked into the trees and then out of sight. Then, once out of sight, a few seconds later the birds began to sing, the normal noises of the forest returned, and everything returned to the expected "normal" of the woods. I just sat there staring back from where I had come into the woods, feeling relieved to be out, but also feeling like I had no idea what had just happened or how to even parse it out in my mind. I was shaking and barely able to keep my thumb on the gas trigger on the 4 wheeler as I peeled out onto the shoulder of the highway to get back home.
I just got back onto he highway and started to gun it about a mile or two up the road to my grandparents driveway. On the way there I passed a local on his gator (a type of 4 wheeler with a trunk thing in the back, more for farm work than fun) and he waved at me, and maybe it was just me already being creeped out, but he had this. . . look. . . like he knew what I had just seen. Like he was "in on it", and kept going. I don't know. Probably just my imagination making a friendly stranger more than he was. I waved back and just kept going.
All I know is I'll never be going back into the Ozarks, or any mountains for that matter, for as long as I live. People may think I'm lying, trying to make a story, went crazy temporarily, or whatever, but I know what I saw, I have no idea what it meant or was about, but whatever it was, didn't want me there or wasn't where I should be. So I'll never return to the mountains again. Fuck that. I don't know what I saw. I don't know what happened. I'm open to the idea I had a hallucination, as that makes far more sense than what I saw being real. But. . . I just don't feel that was what happened, but then again, how would I really know? It drives me insane trying to figure this out. I guess I never will. Chalk this up to another "weird story of being out in the woods" people hear. But I'll tell you one thing, I definitely take weird stories people say they've heard/seen in the woods a little more seriously.
All I can say is while this all sounds insane, looking back on it, I never felt in danger. I never felt as if the animals wanted to hurt me. Simply scare me off. As if I was somewhere I shouldn't be, and they were doing me a favor by leading me back home to civilization. As if I was just, somewhere I shouldn't be and they knew it and were doing me a favor. Even though the "deer" had dark, black eyes, they didn't feel. . . menacing? Just. . . black.
Even in my nightmares I have about this creature, it never is aggressive towards me. It almost feels protective of me. But it still scares the fucking wits of out of me. Like a guardian angel shepherding me out of a place I have no place being. I have had several nightmares that have had nothing to do with the woods, or this animal, and then I see the "deer" in my dream to lead me out. It's very bizarre and I just don't know what the fuck is going on with all of this.
I am curious if anyone reading this has had similar experiences in the Ozarks or mountains in general. I just had to get this out somewhere, at least where nobody knows who I am so if I am called a liar or schizophrenic or a shitty creepy pasta maker, it's anonymous. So there's my story, whatever you think of it. I live a normal life, in college, doing well, have an apartment with a buddy, I have a girlfriend and a job, I'm very happy and enjoy life and most of the time I'm just an average guy like everyone else. But sometimes, this pops up in my mind and I remember. . . or I have a dream and it all comes back. An experience I will never forget, but wish I could.
That's all. Thanks for reading. If anyone has been in this area and had anything similar happen, please, do tell. It would make me feel better to know I'm not the only one. I've googled some and haven't found anything similar to this experience that I considered credible. Idk.