This happened to me a couple of weeks ago, and despite what I want to believe, I think

it's still an ongoing issue.

I don't exactly live in the woods, but my house is on the outskirts of what I'd call a nature-filled

suburb, lots of trees, wildlife, and that sort of thing.

One side of our house borders, what I guess you could call a small woods, though it's more

accurate to describe it as a wooded patch, since it's only about a quarter mile from our

property to the neighboring road on the other side.

That road leads up and connects to another street, and on the other side of that road is this massive body of water that I've always been curious about.

Growing up, I assumed it was some kind of reservoirs, since there are tons of no trespassing signs and government property signs posted all along the fence surrounding it.

But here's the weird thing. The name of this supposed reservoir isn't listed on Google

Maps or Apple Maps, which it definitely would be if it were an actual reservoir.

I always found that kind of strange. I've looked it up multiple times over the years and

never found any official information on it, but its presence has definitely been an interesting

topic of conversation among my siblings and I.

I'm on varsity cross-country for my school, so I'm always looking for good places to run.

That wooded area has become my go-to route because it's exactly a two-mile loop, through that patch of woods, along that road by the water, then back around.

It's way quieter than running in my actual

neighborhood, which doesn't have sidewalks and has these twisty roads with terrible visibility

where people drive way too fast. The season was fast approaching, so I had recently ramped up my

runs. The day everything went down. I could have sworn I heard some rustling behind me as I was making

my way back through the woods after my run, but I figured it was probably just an animal.

Fast forward to that night.

...