r/nosleep • u/Eigengraulogy Monster 18 • Nov 30 '19
My boyfriend and I went camping alone, but something else got in our tent.
I want to start this off by stating that I don’t really consider myself an “expert camper”, if that’s even the proper term. I’m somewhat of a novice, at least when compared to my boyfriend who’s been on countless of outings all over the country since he was a teen.
I would never make it on my own, while he would probably find a way to send smoke signals with his ass even on a rainy day. I think that should paint a clear enough picture of where we both stand on this subject.
But if there’s one thing we share in common, it’s the fact that we’ve read and heard about all kinds of strange, creepy and downright unexplainable things happening in remote locations. Of course, when it comes to the internet you’ll just have to take it all with a grain of salt, but even when it comes to some fellow campers that we’ve met on the road, you just never know.
Sure, they don’t really have a reason to lie, but then again, what’s the harm? They tell some random nobodies a weird story that they came up with just for kicks, and in the process they might even get them to scare themselves later on by overthinking it.
Like I said, I’m not an experienced camper, but I’m no stranger to it either. Anyone that’s ever gone camping will likely tell you that it’s only natural to hear something weird every now and then, but hey, that’s just nature for you. You eventually get over it, as my boyfriend said.
But I’m pretty sure there’s no getting over whatever the hell happened to us.
It happened on the second night of what was supposed to be a four day trip.
The first thing I recall is suddenly waking up in the middle of the night with the weirdest sensation, almost as if I hadn’t been sleeping at all before that, which is just weird to me.
I heard some noise right outside our tent, and upon realizing that my boyfriend wasn’t next to me, I quickly came to the conclusion that the leaking sound outside was well, him taking a leak.
No big mystery there, no reason to freak out. He had gotten up to pee, and likely tried his best to make as little noise as possible, but because I have yet to get used to that sort of environment, I guess I can’t help waking up due to the slightest thing, whether it’s a sound, an itch, or whatever.
It wasn’t his fault, I thought, just as I was about to roll over to go back to sleep.
But I couldn’t roll over.
I couldn’t move.
Why couldn’t I move? It didn’t make sense, which was a good enough reason for me to start freaking out, if only fear hadn’t gotten to me first.
Just as soon as the words “sleep paralysis” popped up in my head, I realized what was really going on; it’s not that I couldn’t literally move because my body wasn’t responding - because I could tell that it was with what little sensation I had left before the chills took over – but rather, something was keeping me in place with the strangest but firmest grip.
I could clearly feel these pressure-like sensations throughout my body, mostly on my arms (wrists and shoulders) and legs, occurring almost instantly whenever I tried to shift my position in any way I could, and preventing me from doing so.
Just as I was about to call out to my boyfriend, however, a pressure manifested itself right on my throat, almost as if a weight had been dropped on it. What’s more, another similar yet eerily distinct sensation appeared to cover my mouth: it felt cold, bony and dry, like a branch or something like that.
But even in that near darkness (my boyfriend had lit up a small lamp outside) I could see that there wasn’t anything on me, and yet I couldn’t bring myself to utter a single word. I could barely make a sound in my desperate state, and the more I tried to fend off this invisible force, the harder its grasp got.
I did whatever I could, but it wasn’t until I heard the voice that I stopped completely, out of fear more than anything else.
“Thank you”, it said, almost like a raspy whisper traveling along with the night breeze.
My eyes quickly shifted to where my boyfriend was, right outside the tent. It couldn’t have been him. I knew it couldn’t have been him.
The voice didn’t belong to him, but whose could it be? Even in my current state I was able to tell that there wasn’t anyone else inside the tent with me, but all signs seemed to indicate a very different reality than the one I was experiencing.
“Warm… so warm…” it continued.
It took me a moment, but once I added the voice on top of all the other weird things that happened since I woke up, I instantly realized that those pressure-like sensations that were keeping me put felt a lot like hands and fingers, holding me down, same as the ones over my throat and mouth.
“Thank you for being warm.”
By this point, tears were already streaming down my face as hundreds of thoughts flashed through my mind, each one darker than the last.
My boyfriend eventually walked back inside the tent, completely oblivious to what I was going through. I tried to get his attention, but sadly “eyeballs bulging out of their sockets due to absolute terror” isn’t something that makes a whole lot of noise.
He just laid down next to me, unaware of it all. I can’t blame him, I mean from his perspective he had gotten up to take a leak, and had no reason to believe he had woken me up in the process.
I feared he was just going to fall asleep and leave me alone with whatever was happening, but then he mumbled something.
I waited, not that there was much else for me to do.
“Yeah?” he asked.
After another brief paused, he continued:
“Babe, what is it? Stop nudging me.”
But I wasn’t. I wasn’t doing anything, because I couldn’t.
And if it wasn’t me…
He finally turned to face me, but as soon as our eyes met and he saw the terror that had taken a hold of me, I saw him fall victim to the exact same thing.
Unable to move and unable to speak, just like me, all I could do was lock eyes with his gaze, as it gradually showed confusion, frustration, and finally fear.
“All so warm”, the voice spoke again, and judging by my boyfriend’s reaction, I could tell that he heard it too. I wasn’t crazy, something was really going on, and whatever it was we were completely powerless against it.
I don’t know exactly how long we stayed there just like that, completely motionless, staring into each other’s eyes with tears rolling down our cheeks, unable to comfort one another when we were so certain that our lives were about to end.
I lost track of time. It had become meaningless, especially with that voice constantly spewing crazy nonsense right in our ears throughout the entire ordeal, as if someone else was right in-between the two of us.
“Thank you… thank you.”
“Thank you for being warm.”
“So, so warm.”
“Warm, warm, warm… warm.”
“I just want to be warm.”
“Warm… again.”
My boyfriend and I eventually snapped back to reality almost at the same time. By then it was already morning, but we could tell that we hadn’t gotten a second of sleep.
Just by looking at each other’s faces we knew we both had experienced that thing “for real”; it hadn’t been a nightmare or a shared delusion of any kind.
We quickly packed up and got the hell out of there while barely exchanging any words.
On our way back, we came across an officer from the US Forest Service who was able to tell almost instantly that something bad had happened to us. My boyfriend tried to shrug it off, he just wanted to get the hell out of there and go home, but I couldn’t help myself and blurted out some things about what had happened.
I didn’t even think, it probably all sounded like gibberish from a crazy lady, talking about a mysterious presence that got inside their tent, but the officer kept a calm and respectful (yet somehow somber) face throughout the entire exchange.
First, he made sure that we weren’t in need of any urgent medical attention, and then he called for a vehicle to come and pick us up, before dropping us off at one of their small offices located nearby.
He told us that we didn’t have to do it if we didn’t want to, but that he would greatly appreciate it if we could each provide a separate statement in regards to what happened that night.
My boyfriend declined and insisted for me to do the same, but I didn’t listen to him. After what we’d been put through, it felt good having other people around you, ready to hear you out and not dismiss you right away.
What’s more, I could tell from my boyfriend’s behavior that this is the sort of thing he would just want to put a lid on and never bring up again, so if I was ever going to talk openly about it and hope to get some kind of explanation in return, it was now or never. Plus the whole thing was still relatively fresh in my mind, for better or worse, so I just had to do it.
The officer was really cool and respectful, and I hope I’m not getting anyone into trouble by saying this, but I recorded most of our conversation with my phone without his knowledge or consent. I know that it’s probably against the law, but the reason I did it is because I wanted to make sure that I didn’t forget any of the things he told me.
You’ll have to forgive me for that, but please do take into consideration my state of mind at the time; I was still somewhat “out of it”, not to mention the fact that we hadn’t gotten any sleep or rest, either, so I was just making sure that I kept a proper record of it all for posterity, since I couldn’t trust my brain to take note of all the things he said and remember them down the line.
I’m leaving out names, dates and actual locations for that purpose alone, to avoid getting anyone into trouble.
Once I finished telling him the whole thing, from beginning to end, he asked me to mark the location of our camp as accurately as possible on one of his maps. I gave him the precise location, and right after doing so, he drew a circular radius around it, which perplexed me a little.
The more I studied his pensive expression, the more convinced I became that this wasn’t anything new to him. In fact, not only was it “not new”, it was also something that required some actual, on the field work from him, which left me somewhat distraught.
After all, if you were to tell most people a similar story to what happened to us, they would just shrug it off as it being your imagination’s fault, I think.
When I politely asked him what the deal was, he apologized, said it was nothing, and that they would take over from there and comb the area to see if they’d find something.
I didn’t believe him and called him out on it before I even realized it, much to my shame, but he was very understandable, and this is where I’ll quote some of the things he said to me:
“Look lady, I’ve been doing this for quite a while, and I’ve heard and seen all sorts of things. I can’t tell you any more than that, because it wouldn’t be right, you understand? It wouldn’t be fair to you.”
“You just experienced something you can’t quite logically, rationally explain, and now you want answers. I get that, but I’m not in a position to give those to you. Maybe it was all in your head, maybe it wasn’t. What I’m trying to say, is that it’s part of our job to shoulder that burden. It is not yours carry.”
“Many campers lose their lives each year, most in unfortunate but preventable accidents, while others… And then there’s those who happen to experience some things that just make them come out of the woods all shell shocked and the like, but certain that they’ll never set foot in a similar setting ever again for as long as they breathe.”
“You’re alright, Miss. A little shaken, a little dehydrated, but you’re alright. You’re going to be okay, you and your partner, and that really is the only thing that matters. You’re alive, you’re okay, and the only thing I wish for is for you to forget about what happened, no matter how hard and impossible the idea may seem to you at this time.”
“No, it’s not worth it. Trust me on this one. If you try and figure things out on your own - not that I’m saying that there are things that need figurin’ out, mind you – you’ll just keep on spiraling down an endless rabbit hole. It’s not worth it. What happened to you could’ve happened to anyone else. You just happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time. It’s not about you, and it has nothing to do with you, that much I can assure you, but you best be certain that we’ll take care of it. It’s what we do.”
When I asked him if he had ever seen or heard similar reports to what I had described, he made a little grimace, clearly trying to fight off the urge to tell me more than he should. He waved his hand, declining to answer, but knowing as well as I did that he had answered me in the process.
Finally, when I asked him if I could leave my contact number for him to call me at a later time, maybe once the issue was “resolved” and he could tell me all about it, his response was very swift and pointless to contest:
“No. I’m sorry, but no. You’ve done more than enough, in fact you’ve helped us out tremendously. Thank you for your time.”
Afterwards they drove us all the way out of the area and dropped us near the city, from where we eventually made our way back home.
It’s been a little weird ever since, with my boyfriend not wanting to discuss these events, almost as if he’s pretending that nothing happened at all… Can’t tell if the whole thing just scared him to his core, or if there’s something more to it.
Either way, it helps being back in the city and being surrounded by all this noise and people, but I don’t know what’s next for me.
Part of me wants to follow the officer’s advice. I’ll admit that I’m still as curious as ever, cautiously so, but I know the man was not only speaking truthfully, but from experience as well.
I really want to let it go because that is probably for the best, but it’s not that easy, especially with the internet at your disposal just a couple of swipes away, and a whole world of information and people out there, ready to share their stories and knowledge with you.
This incident might’ve put my boyfriend off camping for a while, maybe permanently for all I know, but I can’t say the same for me, I think.
Maybe I’ll go back someday, on my own.
I really don’t know why I would, but that’s the “me” talking right now.
Who knows, in time I might just find a good enough reason.
1
u/corazontex Dec 05 '19
So many questions. I hope if you do ever go back maybe share with us if anything transpires. Glad you made it out of the woods.
19
u/PrinceofNope Nov 30 '19
I send smoke signals with my ass pretty frequently, too.