Not Your Usual Scary Stories

Down In Georgia

If you want a more immersive experience feel free to play the video linked here while you read. You may have to open in a new tab on mobile. I'm not sure how it works here. 

Enjoy this tasty little treat...

You find yourself walking through a small grotto you discovered off the side of a trail.

As you enter this area, you first notice the smell. That musty, damp odor that always seems to fill a forest after a short rain.

The trees are different here, larger. Spanish moss grows thick and heavy over their branches, hanging down in layers of fungal curtains.

You're surprised to find this, right off the path you normally take, and you decide to explore.

You walk forward, parting the sheets of moss with your hands as you pass under the first trees. Loose strands run along your body as you pass by, easily shaken free.

You wind your way ever deeper. The night is falling. Already, your vision of the sun has been blocked by the surrounding foliage. It will be dark soon. Very dark, this far in.

You should go back. You can still make it back before nightfall.

But before you turn around, the scenery in front of you morphs. There seems to be a small pond nestled snuggly in the forest, only a few yards in front of you. Upon seeing it, you suddenly notice the moisture in the air-- a scent of stagnant water.

Once again surprised by this discovery, you approach the pond, thoughts of turning back completely forgotten.

You push through the final curtains of moss between you and the water. It's even smaller than you thought, shallow enough that trees continue to grow just a few feet past the water's edge. They surround the entire pool, long sheets blocking it from sight on all sides.

Over the water's surface, small blobs of light bounce and play in the air. This pool must be a breeding ground for these fireflies.

You stay there for a while enveloped in the beautiful lights and their flawless reflections on the still surface of the water. With dusk falling fast, your view looks almost like the night sky. At least, if the stars danced and played with each other all night.

But then, the reflection is suddenly no longer perfect and you're broken from your impromptu trance. The water is moving and it's shattered your immersion of the moment.

You look for the source of the disturbance, but you can't see anything. Even as more ripples lap against your feet, you see nothing moving in the water.

It could be fish, but that seems unlikely in a forest pond this small. The insects aren't big enough to make ripples this big, and you'd hear it if anything fell in the water. What's causing this?

You wait for a moment, hoping to find the source. You still can't see anything, but the ripples are increasing in size and frequency. They seem to be originating from the middle of the pond.

But wait, whatever is under there is moving closer to you. You can tell by the way the water is moving. A frog, perhaps? Then again, it's only shallow here at the edge. It's too murky to see the depth of the center.

Then something breaks through to the surface. It's a small brown blob, and you stare at it intently as it moves closer to you.

The closer it gets, the higher it moves out of the water. Soon another thing pops out of the water too. They seem to be connected, and a few moments later you can tell what they are.