r/nosleep | Reddit Horror Stories • Collection

I stumbled upon what I thought was a body farm, but it turned to be much worse

I was walking back from work, at lunchtime, one of those coveted half days. It was the same route I’d taken hundreds of times before. I’d leave my office, take the main road out of the industrial estate, then take a shortcut through a hedge, which led to a small housing estate. Then I’d duck under the metal bars put up to stop cyclists riding past, and then out into the countryside. I’d always enjoyed it as soon as I hit the wilderness. It was so quiet, and in the summer, there was something majestic about walking past miles and miles of corn fields.

When I got to the T-Junction, my normal way was blocked by a car crash. Two cars were upended and lay peacefully in the ruts along the side of the road, like upturned ladybugs. A police cordon had blocked off entry, and an officer helped cars turn around in the road and head back.

As it was still light out, I hopped a turn style and followed the public footpath along the side of one of the fields. From behind me I heard the screams of a woman, I can only assume she was part of the crash, or knew people involved. I remember wincing, and a pang of anxiety curdled in my stomach.

I’d never walked through the fields before, but I roughly knew the way, using the landmarks, like the church steeple I could see in the distance, that was only a few blocks from my house. I saw the forest that abutted hedgerow in front of me. I approached and saw there was no way through, so followed the footpath that led in the opposite direction to where I was headed. I continued to hear sounds of commotion from behind me, the screams now replaced with the sounds of sirens. I hoped that meant an ambulance was taking away survivors, they don’t use their sirens otherwise.

Halfway along, I noticed a break in the hedgerow, so pushed myself through and into the forest. A desire line from many years of use showed me the way through, a damp track trampled into the dirt where no undergrowth grew.

The spaced-out trees got more and more dense and less light broke through the evergreen canopy above. The track branched in front of me, leaving me with two less noticeable paths. I took out my phone and checked Google Maps, slightly disoriented from the dense forest, I chose the right path. It was hard going, any speed I had was now replaced by careful footsteps, as I lifted my legs over buried roots and rocks, trying my best not to get my trousers dirty.

My progress was stopped as a chain-link fence came into view. Checking the maps again, there didn’t appear to be anything on the other side, so I assumed it was a land owner’s border. Forty yards or so along, I saw an opening. The thin metal wire had been cut and pulled back, like an incision held open by surgical clamps. I saw signs pinned to the fence at regular intervals, no text, just a logo, that of a black square with a white solid circle in the middle. I took a moment to decide if I was going to risk it, having heard rumours from when I was at school of farmers shooting intruders on sight. It was then my phone rang. It was my wife.

“Hey,” I said, as I answered.

“Where are you?”

“I’m on my way home, there was a car crash, so I’ve needed to take a detour.”

“It’s 2 o’clock already.”

“Shit,” I said, remembering the promise I’d made to her.

“I won’t be long, I promise. Don’t leave without me.”

“You know what my mother’s like, I can’t guarantee that.”

A part of me was okay being late, I didn’t get on with the in-laws that well, though the other part of me didn’t want to disappoint my wife.