No.8
>Go outside one night to take the dog out to go piss in the yard. It was a chilling night, the cold air was sharp but crisp. Staring aimlessly into the moonless night as the stars seem quite bright. While waiting for the dog to finish up doing his thing so we could go back inside.
>Something seemed a miss that night. It felt as if time had stopped as the eerie silence settled. A cold chill running down my back one that was much colder than the air around having been wearing jacket. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as the goosebumps was real. Something was not right but I could not figure out what it could have been. Breaking the Silence the dog was barking out into the darkness of the woods behind the house.
>With phone in hand, I left the porch to go towards where the dog was turning on the flash light on the phone to investigate. From where we stood there was nothing. But that did not stop my fight or flight response to kick in. Getting pumped with adrenaline to make my decision. Patting the dog I would say, "ITs alright Lucky, whatever is there can't get us."
>That was the lie I told myself, gulping as Lucky continued to growl into the darkness. He appeared afraid from what was in the woods but kept barking and growling none the less. It was that point where something seemed to have moved causing Lucky to run off deeper into the woods. I called out to him "Lucky come back here!" the fear almost cemented me in place. My legs felt heavy as I tried to make a move forward. The way my heart raced I felt as if I was going to be sick wanting to beat out of my chest.
>Mustering the courage I followed after him, using my phone's flash light to follow the tracks. I had a general idea of where he had gone just from the loud barks that echoed and bounced off the trees. Reaching down for a sturdy stick, to have in hand, it was not much but I couldn't turn back and leave the dog to whatever was out here. My mind raced the mistakes I was about to make this night and how I should have not gone into those woods.
>A bright light illuminated the woods ahead. It lit up the darkness of the woods and the shadows casted one of which was Lucky's picking up the pace. Then appeared two humanoid figures their shadows elongated from the shadows, this was when I knew I had messed up. Lucky Stopped Barking and seemed to be in fear now whimpering as the humanoids appeared, as I approached more the light was only getting brighter, that even with my eyes closed all I could see is the white of the light from the object. I shielded my eyes enough to see the small figures what looked like children, bald, and seemed to have found me. A sudden blast of heat I felt before my memory went blank. With my phone saying it was 12 am in the morning when the encounter happened.
>I woke up laying on the ground my eyes feeling extremely dry and felt burnt. Trying to gauge what happened, I felt the morning's rays hit me warming my face. Groaning I felt cold, I realized my jacket was missing. My phone was on its last 5% charge as the flashlight was on the entire time. Looking at the clock it was 7 am in the morning yet it was still the middle of the night when I took Lucky outside. Then the horrific feeling settled as I called for Lucky, but no response.
>Investigating area in which I had passed out from, there appeared to be a massive scorched circle from where the object was, with the broken limbs of the surrounding trees, and what appeared to be small foot prints. Not wanting to waste time, I quickly took the pictures of the burn circle and the foot prints before my phone died. Mostly to see if I wasn't hallucinating the entire evening that I could remember. Rubbing my head I had a massive headache despite having been asleep? I would make my way back towards my house to try and look for Lucky once the splitting headache would go away.
No.9
>in city, visiting friend
>not into urban exploration in any serious capacity, but who doesn't like a little adventure now and then?
>one area in the urban center is a bit of an UE hotspot: bedrock perforated with tunnels and spaces both natural and artificial
>evidently has a couple of cool but noob-friendly underground places that are rather easily accessed and well documented on the internet, even on open forums and sites. also has more arcane nooks and entryways for the real UE people. supposedly you can reach large parts of the city from here if you know your way around the tunnels; subway, sewers, ducts for telecom cables and heating, possibly even pathways to the military installations, you name it
>said hotspot is also quite scenic on the outside: steep rocky hillside with city buildings, stairs and a lone elevator climbing from its base to the top
>walk around for a little bit, locate this entry point that an online acquaintance told me about. ready check the flashlight I brought
>feel like an outlaw mastermind already
>try to convince friend to climb down with me but he doesn't dare
>your loss lol
>squeeze into entrance, after a short passage enter space with plenty of graffiti on the walls including a playfully naivistic rendition of king kong playing fucking ping pong
>thisisnice.jpg
>look around, snap some photos, feel excited and amused
>considering whether I should call it and backtrack up to my friend, or take the opportunity to explore a little further
>literally only been away five minutes so far so he can probably stand some more waiting lol
>exit through a passage in the bedrock, enter a cramped natural cave
>on the cave floor I see a pair of small pink rubber boots, maybe for a two to four year old child or so
>they're so neatly placed while also so out of place, my brain doesn't really properly register the scene at first
>climb deeper down, the natural granite ends and concrete takes it place; pass through a couple of easily traversed man-made rooms and passageways
>have a bit of an active imagination, so naturally my mind starts to come up with realistic scenarios explaining those boots
>none of them very pleasant
>also how long ago were they left there? 20 years? 20 minutes?
>enter into long corridor-type tunnel which I start walking through. a passing rumble and vibration tells me I'm close to the subway tracks
>can't. get. boots. out. of. brain, brain now rushing
>I suppose it COULD have been some compulsory shoplifter who was also an urban explorer, suddenly realizing she had no use at all for those kiddie shoes she stole, therefore ditching them here, placing them on the floor very neatly because she had OCD
>or it COULD have been a service worker on a tight schedule, packing up his lunch and finding out his daughter had played him a childlike joke by putting her boots in his bag, laughingly putting them aside and then forgetting to pick them up again after finishing his lunch, perhaps even buying her an identical pair on his way home from work
>not very believable scenarios though. start to figure I should probably contact the authorities
>suddenly hear a load metallic creak behind me, instinctively turn around and sure enough, 30 or so meters behind me I see a door opening from the side of the corridor, with a flashlight peeking through
>NO FUCK NO FUCK NOPE NOPE NOPE
>my exit is cut off by that fucker and I have absolutely no right to be down here, only choice is to start running forward even though I have fuck all idea where I'm going
>run rabbit run, run rabbit run
>corridor opens up into bigger tunnels, I can see subway tracks as well as a walking space going parallel to them
>sprint along said walking space, starting to run out of breath now, no idea if I'm being followed and I don't dare looking over my shoulder for fear of tripping or being identified or whatever
>exit rocky hillside, try to get my bearings, no natural route to continue along here, see comfy lamppost above me, climb a few meters up, get up to a small bike/pedestrian lane, a hipster couple look at me like I'm some devil having climbed up from the netherworld
>start walking briskly, try texting friend but hands shake too badly, call instead, tell him to meet me at X in ten minutes
>I walk there really fast, taking some unexpected turns through alleys and stuff, checking my six constantly
>we meet up, I tell him all about the places and the chase but omit the boots because, like, he's a bigger softie than me, he has an anxiety diagnosis and everything
So. Probably it was nothing, but nevertheless I just couldn't forget the sight of those tiny little boots, standing there so lost and vulnerable in all that darkness and rock and concrete, nor could I shake the possible implications. I never contacted any authorities, and I actually never told anyone about those boots. It's like, once I had told my friend (as I described above) a certain narrative then that narrative just was established, you know? Of course I rationalized my silence in all sorts of ways: that what I had seen was probably completely innocuous and I was silly to blow it out of proportion, or maybe if I left even an anonymous tip to the police they might track me down and I'd be subjected to some witch hunt etc. etc. But the truth is, it was just pure lazy egoism. What I DID do was trying to look into missing children cases, see if I could maybe discern some connection to some such case or something. Well that didn't do me any good, it just made everything worse when I learned how frighteningly common it is for children to just vanish from the face of the earth.
If this was written for the benefit of you, my dear audience, to give you some of those cheap thrills you're no doubt here for, I suppose at this point I would tell you about a pair of pink boots inexplicably showing up on my doorstep just recently or something to that effect. A stinger, as they call it. This isn't written for cheap thrills though, it's just a cheap confession from an anonymous coward.
No matter what the real story was back there, I just hope the universe didn't go too hard on whatever little girl once owned those pink little rubber boots.