To start this off, I should say I'm not the best storyteller. I've heard a lot of stories on here,

and most people write these way better than I probably will. So just bear with me. I'm also going to change the names of everyone involved for privacy reasons.

I thought about sending this story in for a while, but every time I start to type it out,

I end up deleting it because part of me still thinks that maybe there's a normal explanation

for what happened, and we just didn't figure it out.

The thing that keeps bothering me though is that four of us were there, and we all

remember the same parts. This happened during the summer of 2025. I live near the Appalachian Mountains

in the northwest corner of North Carolina, and if you've ever been out there, you know how huge

the forest are.

There are miles upon miles of woods with old logging roads, dirt trails, and random

clearings where people sometimes camp.

You can go a long time without seeing another person.

I've always liked exploring places like that, even though it's probably not the smartest idea. A few friends asked if I wanted to go on a camping trip for about six days, somewhere deep in the mountains,

a lot deeper than we normally would go.

I didn't really have anything planned that week, so I said yes pretty quickly.

Looking back, I kind of wished I had thought about it more before agreeing.

The day we left, I packed clothes, my tent, sleeping bag, and basic camping stuff. The plan was to

meet at a clearing one of my friends had found online. It was about a 45-minute drive from

where I lived. The other three had already left earlier that afternoon,

so I was the last one heading out. While I was driving, we were on a FaceTime, and they asked if I

could stop somewhere and grabbed food for the trip. So I stopped at a small grocery store and picked up

some hot dogs, some potatoes, chips, marshmallows, and some other stuff we could cook over the fire.

...