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Some shortcuts don't save time. They aim to take it. A figure stands up where a deer should be, wearing a smile that never moves,

and now you wish you went the long way around.

Welcome back to Alone in the Woods.

I'm Darkness Prevails, and tonight we open with a late October walk

through a neighborhood woodlot,

where a 12-year-old meets a silent stranger in a rubber grin.

It mirrors his steps, follows him to the fence, and stares through the glass as he fumbles the lock.

Then vanishes when help arrives.

From there, a black wolf with coal-lit eyes keeps pace with a car at 40 and never seems to tire. A father and son at a Chilicothe cabin hear a wrong whistle, claws cross the roof,

and a voice tries on their words, and a loop through the pines turns into a gauntlet of scarecrowes that move without hands

and talk without faces. Have a story of your own? Send it to darkstories.org or go to

eeriecast.com slash outdoor. And if you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review. It helps more than you know.

Now throw another log on the fire, because the night is still young.

Was it a prank? From. Anonymous. I was 12 the fall this happened our neighborhood backed up to a thin strip of county woods

maybe a quarter mile wide with a creek running through it and a couple of dirt trails the dog walkers kept

open you could cut from our cul-de-sac to the next subdivision in ten minutes

if you took the trail and didn't mind hopping a few routes. I'd done it since I was little.

...