I once had a longstanding friend, who decided to surprise me on a beautiful spring day. They drove up to my place fully equipped for two people with the intent of a week-long camping trip, on the conditions that on the way there I’d be blindfolded with headphones in. Of course, I agreed. Not long after departing my house, we reached the main road and I fell victim to a melancholy song paired with the soothing vibrations of a car on the highway. I don’t know how long I slept but when I awoke the music had timed out, the car was parked and my friend along with their keys were gone. To further my surprise the car was parked in the center of what looked like an abandoned settlement in the middle of the woods.
I decided it would be a good idea to look for my friend. I advanced into the settlement, cautious of the unknown and preparing myself for a jump scare. It all seemed expectedly normal for the type of location it was, until I stepped inside one of the cottages that were. The withered leather shoes of two adults and three children lay by the door, a simple kitchen, and a dining room table set with dinnerware. But the truly strange part was that in each abandoned cottage there was no dust, there were no cobwebs, and the dinnerware was fully made of bone. In each bowl there was a black stain as if food were left to rot and dry for a very long time. But besides the food, the inside of each cottage showed significantly less decay than what would be expected based on the outward appearance of the very same cottages and the settlement itself.
As dusk crept from the shadows, I caught a whiff of cooking bacon and spotted a small trail of smoke to the north, into the forest. Figuring that was where my friend was, I stalked towards the smoke, circling to the west, keeping aware of my surroundings. I was not going to let them scare me. To my delight I saw my friend hiding behind a tree, completely oblivious to my presence. I creeped up behind them then made a sound straight out of a Lovecraftian story, they jumped, cursed, and then smiled leading the way to camp. I must have been passed out a while for when we reached the camp it was fully set up with even bacon & eggs on the stove; breakfast for dinner will always be a camping delicacy. After filling our plates my friend beckoned me up a hill, and to my amazement I saw one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen even to this day. The falling sun set the lake, now below us, ablaze with the brilliance of celestial fire. I was in awe, but such a thing is always short lived. After it had passed, we bounded back down to camp before the light of day fully left us.
After we stoked the fire under the light of an electric torch, we decided to take turns telling horror stories. 15 minutes to midnight my friend brought up the real reason why they took us here, they found a story of this place in one of the dark corners of the internet. They told of a settlement created in the early stages of the United States of America, like the settlement on Roanoke Island, except less well known and much bloodier. For in this tale there was no "Croatoan" carved into a gatepost or "Cro" etched into a tree, when supplies arrived there were only bones, broken and in piles stripped of all flesh by animals, weather, and time. One rumor quietly traveled the internet, that the settlers made a deal with a creature beyond our understanding along with a phrase, a phrase that should never be said during the stroke of midnight les they awaken and take you with them to wherever they now reside. An alarm started to buzz, and my friend got a devilish look in their eyes, they took a deep breath, before I could stop them, they said something incomprehensible.
I̸͐̇ ̷̑̿ŕ̴̯e̴͛̾l̵͊̀e̷͊͠ǎ̶͝š̶̌e̷̓̿ ̷̓̆ṁ̵̋y̶̌̚s̴͒̏e̶̒̑l̴̅̇f̶̛̿ ̶̺͝f̷͛̕r̸͆̕o̸̾̂m̵̐͊ ̴͌͝t̷͊͘h̶̋͌í̵̂s̶̃̈́ ̴̆͝c̴̈̽o̴̓̈r̴͒͂p̶̔͋o̷̒̔r̴͗̅ē̸͒á̵͛l̴̾̿ ̶͒̓f̶̅͛o̵͌̿r̶͂͘m̴͆̕ ̸̬̑a̴͒̇n̵̂̑d̴̆̑ ̸̅͝i̵͓̓n̷̿̈́t̴͐́o̷͂ your hands!
Almost immediately after my friend collapsed in terror. Then, all living things, including us started to emit a dark red glow that slowly climbed up and over the hill; trepidatiously we followed. Peeking over the mound, what we saw made me feel heavy and a deep sinking feeling spread through my body from my gut. The sight was of a bloodied sun, and the glow being pulled from all living things up into that dark star. With 5% left on my phone I took a quick picture of the scene then it died right as the chanting started.
It was of many voices; they all said the same unintelligible thing that my friend had and it was getting louder. We ran towards the car but as we got closer the chanting became thunderous in volume, the glow got brighter, and in the center of the settlement was a group of settlers made up of nothing but that unnatural glow. They looked directly towards us. We ran away but could never lose them, no matter how far, or how fast, they were always right behind us, chanting, chasing, hunting. I don't know how, since we ran in the opposite direction of the car, but we made it. The settlers were right behind us as I got in the passenger seat. My friend got in the driver’s seat and tried to start the car, but it just wouldn't; it was at the cusp when the settlers surrounded the vehicle. We desperately locked all the doors but it didn't matter. They shattered the driver's window and dragged my friend out screaming. They started cutting them, eating them. I was frozen, unable to do anything to help my friend, only able to watch in terror. And then there was nothing.
I awoke the next day in the car, but I was in the backseat where I had been when my friend picked me up, blindfolded, with headphones. The driver side window was unbroken as if nothing had happened and the key, this time, was in the ignition. It must have been a nightmare. I reluctantly trekked back into the settlement and every detail was the same as I recalled, even the smell of bacon and the small trail of smoke. When I arrived at camp, I still couldn't find my friend. I packed up everything and continued to look for my friend but as it started to get darker, I decided to head back and go straight to the police. My phone was dead. I turned on the vehicle and waited for my phone to charge so I could mark my location, but the first thing I saw as soon as my phone turned on was that blasted picture I took during what I had wished to be a nightmare. Before I could think further, I turned my phone off, turned the car around, and jetted into the woods with absolutely no idea where I was going. After eventually arriving in civilization again, I searched the vehicle to find a map which had markings on what roads to take. I arrived at the police station in a fervor, telling them my friend had gone missing in the woods when we went camping. I showed them the map and they looked at me with this baffled look I couldn't understand. They couldn't see the marks or roads and proceeded to treat me like someone out of their mind. I left, I called my family, my friend's family and our friends asking if they had heard from them but all of them had the same response, "We thought you two were camping". I then saw the date on my phone, it was 7 days from the day that my friend and I had left. I couldn't wrap my mind around it. Over the years, I've tried to make it back to the place where my friend had gone missing but to no avail. Like the police had said, there were none of those roads, and nobody else could see those markings. Eventually I gave up on finding my friend and telling the story of that night until today. Believe me or don't, it doesn't change the fact my friend is gone. But hopefully, getting this story out there will bring me some sense of closure, and maybe, just maybe someone who reads this will know of this place and I'll be able to make it back and save my friend from whatever creatures had taken them. So, thank you for reading my truth and wish me luck, because I'll need it.