Horror Stories

The Tent in the Woods

Hey, I know this is an odd greeting but I thought I might want to introduce myself first. I'm Peter Callung. I'm a biology professor at the University of Washington. I love animals and surprisingly all things creepy. I called up my fellow professor, Vincent Carlow, and decided to go on a nice stroll in the woods. He said he would be over in about 10 minutes. I started packing my things and getting ready for the trip. I heard his car pull up and I headed out the door.

"Hey Peter! Lets get going, we've got a nice big hike to complete today!" I nodded, realizing he said the words 'big hike.' I just wanted to go have a nice stroll in the forest today. We drove off and soon arrived at the forest. I only lived about 3 minutes away by car from this forest. Might I mention that this is a supposedly haunted forest. According to legend, about 4 people had died in this forest 15 years ago. 

I, myself, never believed the legend, but now that I am actually going to take a hike in the forest,my paranoia started creeping up on me. We walked into the forest and started walking along the path that had been carved by hundreds of hikers. About an hour into the forest, I started noticing that the forest was getting denser and the path was getting thinner. 

I saw something bright orange out of the corner of my eye. I turned and saw that it was a bright orange salamander. I stopped, crouched down, and started examining it. It was a Red Salamander, and judging from it being so neon in color, I assumed it was poisonous. I let it go and stood back up, just to see that Vincent was gone. 

I started walking and assumed that he had just thought that I would catch up to him. I started walking down the path, and within a few minutes, it completely disappeared. I was starting to feel worried because I was now an hour deep into these woods I knew nothing about and were supposedly haunted by 4 hikers that died there. Sounds like a pretty bad situation to me.

"Vincent? Vincent?! Vincent, where are you?!" I started calling out to him. Only silence followed. I started hearing the rustling of branches behind me. I whirled around and saw something jump out and run away. It ran faster than any human or animal known to man. I started to feel really creeped out.

I decided to start walking again, and soon came upon a  tent. I walked towards it and something caught my eye. There was a dark stain on the inside of the tent. The tent was yellow so it was easily noticeable. I walked towards it and I started to hear growling. I looked around and saw a dog carcass, but no sign of life. I ignored it, thinking it was just another animal out in the forest somewhere, and walked up to the tent. I took a peek inside and saw a corpse. It was almost unidentifiable, but I realized immediately that it was Vincent's corpse. It had been beaten, mangled and just downright shredded. 

I gagged and threw up right there on his mangled corpse. I didn't get my phone so I couldn't call the police or take a picture for proof. I quickly started heading back, but I couldn't find the path. I then remembered there was a small opening where the path ended. I found it within a minute and started running back to my car. Right as I was about to get to my car, I tripped on a tree root that was poking through the ground.

I quickly got up and made it to my car.  Just as I got into it, I saw the thing had crashed into my window, still trying to get to me. It face was wrinkled and it had sharp teeth. It had long, thin hair and it looked very frail like it was going to break like a twig at any moment. After a second of looking at it, I quickly regained my wits and floored the pedal and fled. After about 4 minutes of driving, I looked in the rear view mirror and saw that the thing was chasing me, but it was far behind. 

Luckily there were no cars on the road, so no-one saw that I was speeding  heavily. I quickly pulled a U turn to catch the thing off guard, and catch it off guard it did. I stopped for about 5 seconds which gave me enough time to speed over it. I turned around again and sped down the road. I reached my house in half time time it usually takes me. I hopped out, locked my car and ran inside the house. I locked that door, and went downstairs to my safe room just in case it didn't die and was still on the lookout for me. 

I waited a few minutes and heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I went and put my body against the door just to have some extra blockage. Then, a force unknown to man hit the door and knocked me away. Luckily the crowbar I blocked it with had not failed and still held the door in place. To say I was relieved is a far understatement. It kept pounding for about an hour before I thought it gave up. I peeked under the door and saw a shadow, indicating it was still there. I was waiting for a couple days before it finally went away, probably thinking I died in there.

I heard it get up and walk away. After I couldn't hear the footsteps anymore, thinking it was outside, I left my safe room and went upstairs, barely wielding the crowbar because I hadn't eaten anything for what I thought was 3 days.

I immediately went to the fridge and started preparing a feast. I ate and ate and couldn't stop eating. After an hour of just eating, I finally went back to bed. I was asleep for about an hour when I woke up to something. There was scratching. Scratching coming from my window. I looked outside and I saw the pale face staring back at me.