After midnight in Saguaro National Park, footsteps stop outside a thin nylon tent.

They circle once, press the fabric, and breathe where the door should be.

Whatever it is, it waits.

Welcome back to Alone in the Woods. I'm Darkness Prevails, and tonight we open with a desert

overnight that turns serious, shapes gathering at the guy lines, pacing the sand, and moving

in ways people don't. When it's time to leave, the feeling you're being followed is hard to shake.

From there, three towering figures cross a Eureka schoolyard and clear a fence like it isn't

there.

A fall weekend in the woods becomes a standoff with voices speaking from the dark.

And on an Appalachian farm, a draft horse charges into the timber and comes back with something black in its teeth.

Have a story of your own. Send it to darkstories.org or 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. They followed us home. From Anonymous. I live in

Southern Arizona, and this happened in 2017 when I was 19, fresh out of high school, and honestly, careless in a way I didn't even realize yet. I'm telling it now because I don't think I can keep it sealed up inside me forever. It's one of those nights that comes back when you're trying to fall asleep, when you're

driving alone, when you hear something outside your window, and your brain does that

stupid thing where it goes, remember?

My best friend, I'll call him Ryan, because I'm not putting his real name out there, wanted

to camp in Saguaro National Park.

We were both working non-stop back then.

The kind of jobs where you're doing eight, nine, ten hours, and still counting your money

at the gas station, like, okay, can I eat and put fuel in the truck,

or do I have to pick one? That weekend, we were broke and burnt out and trying to pretend we

...