In the woods of Chatham County sits the Devil’s Tramping Ground
Tucked outside the little community of Bear Creek, there’s a patch of woods that refuses to act right.
Everything grows tall and thick like you’d expect in central North Carolina… except for one stubborn, perfectly round circle where nothing grows at all. No grass. No weeds. No scraggly little pine trying to be brave. Just bare dirt, like the earth itself said, “Nope. Not here.”
Even snow won't settle in that circle of soil.
Legend says the Devil himself paces there at night, walking in circles while plotting mischief, which is why nothing will grow. Folks claim dogs won’t cross it. Horses used to spook near it. And anything left in the circle overnight ends up nudged aside by morning, like something took a midnight stroll and didn’t appreciate the clutter.
Scientists, of course, have theories. Soil composition. Salt deposits. Maybe some kind of natural fungus situation. Logical stuff.
But also… none of that explains why it’s such a clean circle. Nature usually does messy. This is tidy. Suspiciously tidy.
So people kept visiting. They stand at the edge, toss a stick in, dare each other to step inside, then laugh a little too loud on the walk back to the car.
Because whether you believe in red horns and pitchforks or just weird dirt with attitude, there’s something about a silent, empty circle in the middle of deep woods that makes your neck prickle just a bit.
And that’s exactly why we love it.
⚠️ NOTE: This location is privately owned, ⚠️
🚨you CAN visit during the day, you can also camp for a fee, more information at The Devils Tramping Ground. 🚨
WARNING!: Blood, gore, deaths, spooky, dark, Creepypasta, Laughing Jack’s uprising, the headless horseman and a forest is talked about !! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED !!!
Two words… Halloween stories…
Yup. The Avengers decided to camp inside a forest and tell each other spooky stories at camping fire.
“Who wants to start ?”, Tony asked smugly.
Y/n lifted her hand.
“Start Y/n.”, Tony said smugly, thinking she has no scary stories.
“Ever heard of ‘The Headless Horseman’ ?”, she asked.
They all shook their heads.
“Rumors say that the headless horseman was once a German mercenary. He filed his teeth down to appear more frightening, which worked. He rode a giant black horse, called Daredevil, and chopped off heads. You could have always found him were war and fights raged on. Then he chopped off as many heads as he could.”
Loki gulped.
“That butcher didn’t get ended until years later. In a forest, near a little village. Soldiers sighted him and shot his horse, then made him flee into the woods, where they got him and he fought them all, until he wasn’t watching out and got beheaded with his very own sword. They buried him in those woods and since then, it is a seed of evil. He got buried by a tree and that tree is a Gateway to hell.”
Everyone, besides Tony gulped in horror.
“But he never rose up from the dead…”, Tony said bored.
“Wrong, Tony.”, Y/n chuckled darkly.
“In the late 19th century he came back from his grave. A woman knew where his grave was and took his head, hoping he will rise up again. And he did. The woman, that had his head, controlled him and told him to kill certain people, even parents and kids. She wanted everyone out of her way that would have been witness of something, she wanted. She wanted revenge and she pretty much got it. She even killed a Mother, to get into her man’s bed, then she murdered the man and she tried to kill her stepdaughter, but someone saved her before the horseman could kill her too.”
They listened intently.
“The horseman only chopped off their heads and took them with himself to the portal. Ichabod Crane found the tree and opened it a bit, only to find blood and the missing heads. Then the horseman left the portal as he found out that the skull of his skeleton was gone. Surprisingly he never killed Ichabod. The only thing he did was injure him lightly. He even gave others warnings to not get into his way, those who didn’t listen after the 3rd warning, got killed.”
“Wow…stupid people…”, Loki mumbled.
Everyone hummed in agreement.
“In the end Ichabod got his head back and gave it the Horseman in last second. He let the girl go and took his skull. After he put it back onto his neck, his flesh, muscles and blood came back, making him look human again. The woman behind all of this was knocked out on the floor as his dead horse came to him. The Horseman was grateful for what Ichabod did for him and others, so he left them alone and took the pest that took his skull, with him, to hell. She screamed and it is said that you can still see her skeleton arm inside the tree trunk, looking out.”
They all gulped.
“That is scary.”, Clint admitted.
“Oh ! I want to try !”, Thor yelled.
“Go on then.”
“I once had that weird dream that Loki was a Demon. End !”
Everyone stared at Thor.
“That wasn’t a horror story…”
“Have you heard about the ‘Devil’s tramping ground’ ?”, Natasha asked.
“I did.”, Y/n said.
“Nope never heard of it..”, the rest said.
“It is said that it is in a forest, a big circle where nothing ever grows. And at night you can hear evil, demonic laughter from there and heavy footsteps. A lot of people even said that they saw the Devil there. Since then they all say that the Devil has a portal made there and goes there to think of making humanity suffer and die out.”
Everyone, besides Y/n, gulped.
“I heard about a place where a lot of soldiers died in war and every night you can hear them screaming, crying, howling and shooting. No one ever went back there since then.”, Steve told.
“The screaming woods…”, Y/n said smugly.
Steve stared at Y/n.
“You creep me out, Y/n. From where do you know that ?”
“I was always drawn to the paranormal… I legit read and listened to everything the internet had for me.”
“Not creepy at all…”, Bruce said.
“The most interesting are the Creepypastas.”, Y/n said darkly.
“Tell us about it.”, Tony said.
“Oi ! I didn’t even get my turn !”, Bruce yelled.
“Do you even have a story ?”, Tony asked.
“No…”
“Welp, Loki won’t have something to spook us with and I have no spooks to tell too, so let us give Y/n the lead.”
They all agreed and listened to her.
“Well, there once was a boy in the 19th century. His Father was an alcoholic and beated his Mother on a daily routine, Issac always hid in his room and his Mother taught him strictly. He was 7 or so years old and had no friends. An angel created Issac something, out of sympathy. It was a colorful Clown. His name was Laughing Jack in the box. He was a being and he learned, what Issac learned. LJ got so created that what Issac feels and knows, LJ will too. They were the best of friends, until they played a game one day… A cat came onto the property and their playground. Issac told LJ to capture the cat, but he squeezed her too hard and killed it.”
Everyone gasped.
“That poor cat !”, Thor yelled.
“Issac’s Mother never saw Laughing Jack. Parents weren’t allowed to see him, so Issac was being blamed. He got sent to boarding school. The day before he left, he told Laughing Jack to go back into his box. But once he was in there, he had to wait for Issac to let him back out. With time Issac forgot about him and Laughing Jack lost his colors. He went insane all alone and became monochrome. No colors left.”
Loki stared at Y/n in horror, while the rest listened even closer.
“Issac went insane, thanks to his abusive Father and the school. They beated him up and made him go crazy, just because everyone said that Issac’s friend was imaginary, but he never was. LJ always had to hear Issac’s parents fight, until the Father went too far and beated his wife to death. As she was reported dead and he sent to jail, Issac was already having a job. He got the house and threw a lot away. Laughing Jack could still see everything through his box, so he knew his friend was back, but he knew that Issac forgot about him.”
They all had sympathy on their faces.
“One night he was drunk and came home with a drunk woman. He tried to fuck her, but she was sober enough to push him away. He didn’t get the hint and she slapped him, the next thing that happened was that he killed her and in his panic created acids to make everything of her disappear, besides her bones, skin and blonde hair. He made a throne out of her skeleton, her hair was the filling of the cushions and he made her skin to leather. With that he created a whole throne out of her corpse.”
They all looked at her with disturbed faces. Loki even grew a bit sick.
“The worst was, Laughing Jack saw it all happening and it made him want to ‘Play’ that ‘game’ with Issac.”
“Oh no…”, Tony mumbled.
“Issac didn’t stop. He killed more. Elderly people and then even kids. He tortured a boy to death. Tore out his nails and broke his bones. He did a lot more brutal things to him, just because he was a little boy and a bit immature. That was the day when karma came for Issac. The shelf broke and LJ in his box fell down. As Issac cleaned up he found the box and accidently freed Laughing Jack.”
“Oh shit…”, Bruce wheezed.
Loki looked really sick to his stomach.
“What happened then ?”, Natasha asked.
“Laughing Jack chained Issac on his little torture table and then started his own game. He did a lot to him. Pulled nails out, cut out his tongue and then shoved a pipe into the side of Issac’s neck, so he stays alive, then cut him open and pulled out organs and even blew them up like balloons and made things out of them, splashed adrenaline rush syringes into him, by his eye ball and even pulled it out of his socket and lastly filled his body with a lot of bugs that ate him alive. Many said that, as they found his dead body, he was happy. LJ is killing kids since then.”
Loki stood up, like a few others too, and they ran to bushes and puked.
“Holy shit…”, was all that Steve got out.
Y/n chuckled darkly.
“I love the creepy things, never challenge me.”
“This will haunt me in my dreams now !”, Tony announced from the bushes.
Y/n only stood up, laughing and went to her tent. The rest soon did too and Loki had night terrors of the story Y/n told them, but he was too scared to get out of his tent and to hers. He was silently crying.
Suddenly his tent opened and Loki wanted to scream, but he saw that it was only Y/n. She came inside and smiled at him softly.
“Hey…”
Loki was quiet.
“Come here, let’s cuddle. You are shaken up, Loki…”
She sat next to him and he crawled over to her, hugging her tightly. She shushed him gently and rubbed his back.
“A-are they real ?”, Loki asked her.
“No one knows… But because I never met one, I would say they don’t exist, Love.”
“Can you stay over ?”
“Sure.”
After a few hours Loki fell asleep again and Y/n smiled. She also fell asleep soon after. What no one knew was that a monochrome Clown listened to her story and smiled.
Devil’s Tramping Ground is located in a wooded area of Chatham County in North Carolina. It is a forty foot in diameter circle. It is said that any object that is placed in the circle will mysteriously disappear or move outside of the circle. No vegetation will grow inside the circle. This bizarre phenomenon was first discovered in the 1800′s and it is believed by many that Satan paces around this circle.
Boy Scout troops have tried camping on it and wake up in their tents a few miles away. Some guys tried to stay up all night in a tent on the spot and later reported that a soft, soothing melodic voice lulled them to sleep and they too woke up a few miles away. Along with countless other reports, this spot was what intrigued Benny the most. It was the place Benny wanted to visit the greatest.
Being so close to Halloween, it gave Benny the urge to do it. He had some days off work and thought it was the perfect opportunity to do something to cross it off his bucket list. Located in Bear Creek, NC, it wasn't too far from Hartsville. A simple weekend trip would be enough to gather information on the area and see if the rumors were true. He packed up his camping gear and headed off, he debated on asking someone to tag along--but who would say yes?
Getting there, the sun was beginning to set. He got a late start and by the time he set up his tent and started a fire, the sun was nearly gone. Now he would wait. Watch the fire, eat some snacks, and just enjoy nature. The nice chill in the air-kissing his cheek in delight, the crackling fire placing a warm blanket over him. It was a perfect, clear night with the full moon shining down to give it a beautiful ambiance.
Time passed, he didn't know how quickly, but before he knew it he could hear footsteps approach. A sharp inhale, crystal blue optics scanned the area, toward the origin of the noise. His pulse quickened as his heartbeat pounded hard against his chest. "Hello?" He dared to call out to the unknown, unsure if it were an animal, a person, or something else.
Devil’s Tramping Ground is located in a wooded area of Chatham County in North Carolina. It is a forty foot in diameter circle. It is said that any object that is placed in the circle will mysteriously disappear or move outside of the circle. No vegetation will grow inside the circle. This bizarre phenomenon was first discovered in the 1800′s and it is believed by many that Satan paces around this circle.
At 0000 hours on October 31, [redacted], SCP-T1 came through in full physical form. Upon emerging from the rift,it immediately engaged Foundation personnel.
Physical Appearance (updated):
SCP-T1 stands upright on 2 legs at approximately 3 meters tall, head to toe. As mentioned before, it has digitigrade legs with anisodactyl toes and utilizes this bone structure to transition from two legs to four for covering a short amount of ground rapidly. The arms are of normal humanoid bone structure, only they are elongated and thin. The hands have 5 elongated digits with opposable thumbs, just like a human, that end in long black talons. It has two fluted horns coming out of its forehead, growing outward a few inches before turning sharply and curving up for approximately 0.2 meters. The skin texture of SCP-T1 is vaguely reptilian; it’s rough and dark mottled grey, broken up by the cracks that radiate a dim red light and additional heat. There are fewer cracks in its skin as there were upon initial observation. It is possible that it attempted to form an uninterrupted hide but may not have had the time or energy. However, this is only speculative.
Encounter:
Foundation personnel received four (4) casualties during SCP-T1’s aggression. When it came through the rift, Dyatlov, Adison, and Ladson were standing by the Tramping Ground, 20 meters distant from the perimeter and spread apart 10 meters from each other. I was in the Overwatch position 30 meters south of the Ground. Dr. Roberts and Dr. Stephens were standing back behind the Spearhunters under the Overwatch position.
SCP-T1 immediately fell to all fours and rushed at Adison, the middle of our formation. Spearhunters and Sequere Nos personnel engaged SCP-T1 with small arms fire having no obvious effect. At this time, David O. Adison was killed in action when he attempted hand to hand defensive measures against SCP-T1. After killing Adison (fatal wound was a bite to the back of the neck), the creature maintained a straight path and cleared the remaining 10 meters to the Observation stand, taking small arms fire as it went.* SCP-T1 was hindered by its wounds, but still managed to climb rapidly to the platform. I jumped. Upon landing, I rolled improperly and injured my right ankle. Dyatlov moved in to drag me away from the tree under cover fire from the rest of the party. SCP-T1 continued to ignore all of its wounds but the gunfire was having obvious detrimental physical effects. No healing factor was observed. By this time, Ladson had moved directly underneath the overwatch platform and SCP-T1 fell out of the stand and landed by him. Ladson rapidly switched to defensive tactics, attempting to put ground between himself and the threat. He sustained multiple incisions to his forearms and the left leg below the knee. At this time, Dyatlov moved in to assist a teammate yet again. He flanked to SCP-T1s left side and delivered a significant blow to the shoulder with his kukri. The target turned rapidly, returning to a bipedal stance and using its remaining good arm to grab Dyatlov under his left arm, inflicting multiple puncture wounds to the intercostal area. At this time, Ladson and myself approached SCP-T1 from the back and simultaneously delivered incisive wounds to the rear-facing joint of the legs. SCP-T1 fell and was then terminated by a single, massive blow to the base of the neck, given by Ladson.
***The body of SCP-T1 was recovered and is currently being transferred to [redacted] via standard escort procedures. Arrival time estimated for [date redacted]***
End Log
[Personal Thoughts: I rolled my ankle. Dyatlov has holes in his ribs, Ladson is covered in raking cuts, Adison is fucking dead, and I twisted my stupid ankle. Ugh. Now that I’ve gotten all of this typed up and submitted, I have to go to Psych evaluation. Last visit, the therapist told me I had a lot of undirected anger turned in on myself as a result of basic insecurities and shortcomings. I think I get what they mean now. I’m not good enough and I’m not sacrificing as much for the job. Fuck. At least the devil wasn’t bullet proof. That would have given me serious nightmares about being ineffective. Assuming any of us would have survived that. Whatever, I’m out. Long day ahead with Psych-Eval and Adison’s funeral.]
*[Note: all Foundation personnel engaging SCP-T1 displayed excellent trigger discipline while discharging their firearms. No friendly fire incidents occurred despite an unforeseen and ill prepared for crossfire scenario. Commendations are being written for bravery and decisive action during a high stress encounter]
First contact was made on [Date Redacted], day 9 of the excursion. I provided overwatch for this and the following interactions with SCP-T1 from a 6 meter tree stand set up ~30 meters from the point of interest (armament used: M4A1; FLIR 2x zoom optics; suppressed; firing 5.56x45, 55 grain soft tip rounds).
First Contact:
First contact was accomplished via one CUTLASS U.G.V. (unmanned ground vehicle) equipped with standard AV optics plus an additional FLIR video feed. The U.G.V. was piloted by Dr. Roberts.
TRDs began picking up the same minor vibrations as before at exactly 0000. Stationary cams and I didn't pick up visual on SCP-T1 until 0030. It appeared through a crack in the ground, of which there had been no prior marking or indication of it's presence, that was significantly hotter than the body of SCP-T1 (Spatial tear approximated to be 352^C. Upon its opening, all remote operated cameras suffered severe video failure, hence our ignorance of it). The heat from the spatial tear seemed to be contained and did not have any affect on the landscape, unlike SCP-T1. Upon its emergence from the tear, SCP-T1 started crawling in the same pattern as observed beforehand. Green light given and U.G.V. sent in.
The video feed from U.G.V. CUTLASS-1 became less reliable the closer it drove towards SCP-T1 but it was still functional enough to maneuver effectively.
Test 1:
CUTLASS-1 rolled next to SCP-T1 for 3 revolutions. SCP-T1 seemed not to notice it had company.
Test 2:
CUTLASS-1 continued moving with SCP-T1. While alongside it, Dr. Roberts used the robotic arm to attempt physical contact. The arm did not contact a corporeal form, yet it came away with minor scorch marks and damaged motor function.
Test 3:
CUTLASS-1 increased speed and stopped in the path of SCP-T1 in an attempt to either stop or alter the course of its motion. SCP-T1 seemed not to notice, once again, and moved directly through CUTLASS-1. The U.G.V. did not survive this. Significant heat damage caused a catastrophic failure of all systems and CUTLASS-1 subsequently caught fire.
Testing Ceased.
Notes:
SCP-T1 vanished via the same spatial tear at 0600, one hour before dawn.
While active, it was noted that SCP-T1s lower body tendrils had divided into two groups and began bunching together, forming what appears to be legs.
SCP-T1 moved more quickly than before
End Log
[Personal Thoughts: I am still extremely unsettled by SCP-T1. It's pretty clear to me at this point that it's an extra-planar entity and may be unaware of its crossing over, though Dr. Stephens doesn't want to make a statement about that just yet. Oh well, In any case, I'm a little surprised at what happened with the U.G.V. We couldn't move in to recover it while SCP-T1 was still active so I got to watch the thing gradually melt each time SCP-T1 went through it. I'll admit, it was kind of cool. Those things aren't cheap though. Adison and I were talking this morning while we got the poor U.G.V. and, being all superstitious, he pointed out the correlation between SCP-T1 growing and speeding up and the fact that Halloween, or Samhain as he calls it, is approaching in a few days. He needs to stow that kind of shit. He's got Ladson freaked out and Dyatlov laughing at him.]
