46. Are You Afraid of the Dark?
In the late 80s I was in my early 20s, and two friends and I went camping in central Florida. Two of us were working for the Park Service at that time, so we were able to camp for free in other parks in the state. Both of us had done a lot of camping before. Me, I grew up camping with my family on every single vacation, all over the state.
For the other friend with us, this was her first camping trip ever. We were camping in the youth area, which was empty that weekend and was quieter and more isolated than the regular campsites. Later in the afternoon on the second day of our trip, we were all sort of spread out in the area of the campsite, being within shouting distance but enjoying a little solitude.
I was collecting firewood. Every now and then, I’d kind of feel like someone was watching me. I’d look around, see and hear nothing, and then shrug it off and go back to what I was doing. Later on around sunset, we had the bonfire started. One of the rangers who lived on-site about a quarter-mile away came over with a truckload of firewood and a six-pack of beer.
We all sat around talking for awhile. Well after dark, we could suddenly hear what was probably a bunch of teenagers fooling around on one of the trails a couple miles away. Since the trails were closed at sunset, the ranger and my coworker drove off to shoo them back to their campsites. My other friend and I were just relaxing around the fire, talking a little, mostly enjoying the night and the peace and quiet.
All of a sudden, I had a cold chill go over me. The hair stood up on the back of my neck, and out of nowhere I was terrified. I tried to ignore it, but it kept building. I didn’t say anything to my friend since I didn’t want to scare her. Then I glanced over at her just as she glanced at me, and she said, “Do you feel that?!” I said, “Yeah…I think maybe we’d better go to the car.”
We both felt like we were in deadly danger, but no idea from what. We started walking at a casual pace, not wanting to appear scared, then halfway to the car we looked at each other again and simultaneously broke into a dead run. We reached the car, jumped in and locked the doors, and turned on the headlights.
I sat there with my pistol, feeling like it was totally inadequate for whatever was out there. We both just sat looking straight ahead—we were afraid to look around. I had the feeling at one point that if I turned my head and looked out the window, I’d see something that would drive me insane. I don’t know how long we sat there.
It was probably just a few minutes, but it felt like forever. Then it just…left. We could actually feel it going away. A few minutes after that, the other two came back in the truck. We kind of laughed it off afterward, but I’ll tell you, I’ve never been that scared before or since. I’ve faced a lot in my life and NOTHING has so completely terrified me like that. I don’t know what it was, but I’m still convinced we were in terrible danger.