Ganama

Intro

People that live in a city will tell you all about how convenient everything is, from the stores that are walking distance to the abundance of services ready and waiting. What cities lack though is a feeling of acceptance and tranquility that small rural towns provide. Small towns give the sense of lasting peace, and the idea that you can be contempt with whatever life you have. My town is two hours from the next town, and three from any city, surrounded by a tall pine forest in a valley. Although my town is far from any shore, it has the soft damp air of a coastal location. All the shops on the busy roads have been passed down through lineage giving them a personal look, the houses are small and tacky with old faded paint and lawn ornaments, and our few roads are decorated and cherished. Unlike other small towns though, our town has been plagued with constant unwelcomed activity that began to happen shortly after a mass murder six years ago. Since then the town has began to shrink in size, though those of us stubborn enough to stay are truly some of the best people there are.

About six years ago people started going missing in the woods a few minutes from the town. Eventually they would usually be found mutilated, with large portions of their bodies missing and deep clean cuts in them. Being a slightly larger, but still small town at the time the police went to investigate immediately. They found a distillery around the same area and the inspection turned into a firefight that ended up killing the only suspect. When people continued to go missing in the area, the whole forest got marked as unsafe due to "wildlife". About a week later some high school students went there for the thrill, and expectedly went missing. Police went back to look for them and even they went missing.

Our budget didn't include equipping our officers with anything besides a flashlight and a baton with the occasional firearm that was shared amongst officers. This problem of people though ending up dead raised our funding from almost nothing, to getting enough for a brand new building and a helicopter. A few officers flew over the area in search for the kids. Aerial footage showed naked pale bodies in trees and severed body parts and organs arranged into shapes on the ground.

That was enough for our local police, and before we knew it a higher up agency got involved and they all went missing. The forest was on every news station, and every TV globally. People started to move out, and police moved in. As a spectator it looked like a war against trees. Eventually after countless more deaths a decision to burn the whole place down was made.

In order to keep the fire controlled, large cement walls were built around the entire area. After a few weeks of day and day the forest had been completely incinerated. Later investigation found a large cave system emerging from a hidden grove. This repeated the same problem of officers going missing until the cave system was also destroyed.

While people didn't go missing any more, the opposite began to happen. The missing people were being spotted everywhere, with mutilated bodies, and being propped like dolls. Police got involved, and searched for about a year until dropping the case due to the fact the bodies were never there when the police showed up. There was a rhythm that developed of people finding the bodies, running away in fear, calling the police, and then the body would be gone when the police had arrived. About the same time the police dropped the case, new reports of large holes being found near the town started to appear. This time there was evidence the police could work with, and a new case opened. While they are still searching for the exact cause of these holes, they deemed the cause to be wildlife until proven otherwise. Three years after the forest burnt down, the town had come to accept the strange occurrences and had moved on.

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I was finishing a hike about an hour from the town, making my way back to my truck when I had my first encounter. The path I took back was an unkempt trail. Along the path there was a small clearing just to the side. The plants had been flattened like there was a large rock that was recently moved, and in the center was a large hole. I had come across one of the holes I've heard so much about. I was lucky to spot it from a distance and felt the excitement of the unknown, I had to see it up close.

There were marks in the ground leading to it and others leaving on the other side. It was one long line in the dirt that went directly over the the center of the hole and continued unwavered. I didn't know what came first, the line or the hole. The inside walls of the hole were smooth and perfectly circular, and on top of that there was no fresh dirt around the hole. Moving closer the smooth clean walls continued to keep their detail, or lack of it. Standing at the edge I leaned over to startlingly lock eyes with my first encounter.

There was naked young teenage girl in the hole. Her skin was unnaturally white, besides crimson blood that stuck to her. She sat with her back against the side of the wall and with her legs sticking outward, slightly bent at the knees. Her arms hung down until her wrists that stuck outwards with the palms on the ground. The girl's head was resting on her shoulder, and her mouth hung open as she looked forwards. She had perfectly white teeth with a small narrow chin, and white hair that was just long enough to partly cover one of her blue eyes. Sitting in the dip made by her lifted knees and her stomach was a bright colourful display of organs that had been ripped out of her chest. I could make out her heart, with other organs in a knotted net made by her intestine. The wound moved up her chest with cleanly cut edges. Her ribs stuck out like teeth on a sideways mouth, and a few had been broken off. The once organ filled cavity was empty showing her spine running up the red wall of her back. Her esophagus and trachea looked torn in half as they sloppily hung in the open space inside her neck, moving upward until the wound stopped halfway up her throat. What scared me most though was that she was still bleeding. She laid there still, staring at me, lifeless; and I ran.

For the next few days I had hid in my house, unable to shake the image of the young girl. I saw on the news two days later that the hole was found, but no one ever mentioned the girl. Without any proof I knew I wouldn't be taken seriously, the police already had me marked as questionable from other incidences.

Over the past years I proudly overcame the event, and felt completely recovered. Well I did, until something new happened. Walking again, last night, I heard the sound of a dog whimpering from a children's playground I was passing. Feeling curious I strolled in towards the dog, only to see a naked pale man tearing up a dog like a pinata. Even in the dark night it was clear the man's skin was an unhealthy white. He sat on one knee, with the other leg just behind him completely detached. A trail of blood and torn ribbon-like skin led from the leg to the shredded stub of the man's right leg. He was leaning over, grabbing at the small dying terrier's body. Switching between hands to support himself, and tearing with the other. His arms looked black with blood, but his face was perfectly untouched. He smiled without lips on a muscular face with short black hair. It continued until the dog was nothing but a few piles of pulp, and then turned its head towards me. It stared at me, face manic. As scared as I was, I couldn't bring myself to run this time.

I stood there staring at the being, slowly reaching for the phone in my pocket to get the photo. I watched it down like a wild wolf making sure it wouldn't attack, or so I was ready if it did. Pulling my phone out I faced it towards the man preparing to take the photo. He sat there motionless and silent as I woke the phone. The screen light briefly blinded me and I instinctively turned the screen back off, and as I turned the screen off the white person was gone. It disappeared in under a second in a large empty park without making a sound or a trace. The pile of dog was also gone, even all the blood.

Although other people have seen these things, nothing has ever been reported that remotely resembles what I saw last night. No one will believe me, sighting these things has become as obscure as a yeti. The only way is if I get proof. That leads to now/today. I am going to find out what is going on.