Welcome to Scary Story Podcast. Today's story has been a much requested topic. So we're going out into the wilderness. Are you ready? My name is Edwin, and here's a scary story. There was a documentary film made not too long ago about the guilt that one feels when you win the lottery or to be the only one to survive a terrible accident. Why me? And That's what I've been asking myself ever since. It was winter time and my friends wanted to go out to snowboard some of the areas that they close off when the storms roll in and suddenly driving in those roads becomes impossible. My friends take advantage of that, so they wanted to go snowboard there. Nobody was allowed to, though my friend Mike used to say that it was because of some conspiracy that's trying to lure everyone into resorts and ski areas, the ones where you have to pay, But I know otherwise. The places we were on were private property. And if you know anything of the people that own such big spaces of land that doesn't have anything but trees without their leaves and strange dirt trails that lead to nowhere, well you know that they don't like visitors. Two other friends were with us that day, Isabelle and a friend from college named Pete, who had just gotten out for winter break. All they wanted to do was get out of town. It had been Pete's idea to stay out at his uncle's cabin about two hours away from the place where Mike wanted to snowboard, which we would be able to get there comfortably if we left before it got dark. But like with most of the plans we would come up with all the time, this one flopped. But it wasn't any of our faults. I didn't even like the snowboard, honestly, had brought one board along because of Mike, but I just looked dumb trying to go downhill and getting stuck somewhere near the top for no reason. Then I would get sweaty and then cold, and all I wanted to do was to get to the car and go home. This time it was no different. I hung out around the car while the rest climbed up the hill with their boards. Then they would reach the bottom and make their climb back up. Pete and Mike were trying to pressure me into bringing the car down to the base to pick them back up, but at no way of knowing where to go. Plus, there were no roads down there, only these thin animal trails that had long disappeared beneath the snow. They agreed that they would not go very far down, and without agreement to make the climb up to the car. While I waited for them, they climbed up the hill. The strange silence of the snow was enough to make their voices disappear within seconds of them walking away. Suddenly, the sounds of snow scraping against their boots blended with the sound of the light winds that were coming from over the mountain, and then there was nothing. I walked around the car and stepped into the passenger seat of it, quickly reaching for the glove box where I had kept the book I had been meaning to finish. I pulled the seat back, stretched out and open up the book the chapter fourteen. The story had been about a man who was on a mission to hide his family's fortune from criminals. Not the funnest thing in the world, but a great way to pass the time. Reading was not something I could do with my friends around, because of all their questions, laughter, and their urge to keep interrupting me. But there was something off about that late afternoon, I could tell. As soon as they left. The silence around me, with nothing but the trees that played dead along the side of the road, with out the leaves, creating this sea of wood and spikes as far as the eye could see, was enough to scare Isabel, the most logical and bravest of the group. Maybe it was the many books I had read, unlike this one about criminals, but about the ones with the murderers, or the tales of recorded exorcisms from just a few hundred years ago. The images they made in my head all involved these leafless trees, hundreds of them, creating their own dark world for me to visit with every page. To think that in just a little over an hour, the darkness within those trees would spread and surround the car where I sat comfortably, the sunlight becoming deeper orange with every passing minute, was unsettling in parts. Sure, I blamed the books, but it was through them that I learned of the cultures out in the northern and central parts of the United States, of the hidden lakes beneath the mountains, and of creatures I had only been documented one time, only to later lose their classification due to lack of records. Out in the wild, the world was a strange place, and I knew almost all about it through those books. Sometimes I thought it was the same reason why I stayed as close to civilization as possible. When there wasn't a parking lot around, I would sit at a bench or stand by a street lamp, anything that would remind me that humans live there too. The car was the closest thing to that, although there in the middle of the Snowdon Road, surrounded by dead trees, that's not what I would have picked. Swoosh. I heard Mike yelling as he crossed the road with the snowboard quickly from about twenty feet away from behind the car, I saw Isabelle speed past the road as well, a bit slower than Mike, and then Pete's was close behind. The sounds they made were there for only an instant, and once again I was alone, or so I thought. There was a scratching sound from the right side of the car by my window. As I think back on it, I cannot remember if I had imagined this thing or if it had been real. But this shape I don't know how else to describe. It had sped from the left side of the car to the right. It seemed to follow my friends as they disappeared between the trees snowboarding down the hill. But yes, it must have been something, otherwise they would be nothing else to blame. And if murder books have taught me anything, it's that blame serves a purpose that can ironically end a mystery and bring a strange sense of peace to our minds. I was holding the book in front of me completely still, although the lines of the words along the page were just to blur. My eyes tried to scan the mirrors around me, all without moving my head. Just wait, I told myself, Wait until they come back. Bears are not supposed to be around at this time of the year. They're hibernating, right. But wait, the person, the thing I had seen, walked by on two feet very quickly and took giant leaps. It was becoming clear in my mind, just as it fought with itself to tell me that I had just imagined the whole thing. But then out of nowhere, I heard my name, Jason, Jason, Jason, It was Isabelle. I set the book down and looked out over the back of the car. Jason Isabelle must have been standing very close in order for me to hear her that clearly. I looked around the car, but I could see nobody there. I put on my gloves and zipped up the jacket just a little bit more. As I reached for the door handle, the shadows were long at this hour. The shade of the mountain was covering everything, and only those golden beams in the distance. Patterns with the dark silhouettes of the trees were visible. Just as I was opening the door, Zippo's voice went from light and airy to deep and guttural. I heard the sounds of the tree scraping against something as it rushed toward me. Immediately I shut the door and locked it. I looked around toward the trees, and I could see a long shadow of a figure hiding behind one of the trees, peeking its head. It was around one of the tree trunks to look at me. I could do nothing. My body would just not move. I was frozen in that car and try to remain completely still. And as I stared at the trunk of that tree, as a whole area started going dark. Sometimes almost losing the tree among the many of them that were there. I could not look away. I needed to make sure that once that thing moved, I would confirm it for myself that what I had seen was real, that it was hiding. But it just kept getting darker until I could see nothing around the car anymore. All I could do was wait for everyone to come back inflicked on the reading light by the rear yew mirror in the car. It was getting cold inside, and still there were no signs of my friends. My mind started to wander away. I thought of the many dark and snowy forests I had read about through the hundreds of books that sat on my shelf, The one where a cursed father took his family out on a picnic and hung everybody, including their young daughter. It had been an episode of clarity for him. He said his family was the devil, split in three. When it came his turn to end his life, he suddenly realized what he had done. The stories of unknown creatures that live in the caves and holes in the ground, those that come out and search for food humans, those were the things that scared me the most, But also the old witches that live among the trees and do their collecting at night? Who Took My Friends? Part two of A Voice in the Woods continues right after this stay with me, I looked around at the back seat for an extra jacket. When I found a flashlight, I was able to reach it with my left arm and turn it on. I shined it away from the car and toward the dark trees just a few feet away from my window. What if my friends had gotten lost out there? With so many trees, it would be extremely easy to lose your bearings and head in a direction you should avoid private properties. I remember having this conversation with them many times. They always dismissed it. Those owners don't miss around. But as a beam of light jumped from tree to tree, something caught my eye. Someone I think it was Isabelle, was approaching from the trees, walking unnaturally towards me. Her legs twitched and her arms dragged much lower than I had remembered. Her dark hair was now covering half of her face as she looked right at me. I reached for the door and immediately heard something that I can only describe as a windy scream, something that came from the woods. Jason I heard Isabelle say, but the voice didn't seem to come from her direction. She was not wearing her yellow jacket this time, and it was freezing out there. She kept walking toward me, and it didn't take long for me to realize that it was not her. It was someone else, some trap, someone wearing a mask or a mannequin of some kind, would be a figment of my own imagination. I could only move the flashlight along with Isabelle as she stepped backward toward the trees and then collapsed completely to the ground, merging with it, disappearing in the darkness. I heard another scratching sound, this time from up the hill. The name that kept being mentioned, Jason. My name sounded cracked now, and it was a mix between Mikes and Pete's voices. Even a casual reader would know about the voices in the woods. These stories are something we've all heard, right, Jay, And there had been so many stories about these, starting with the case of Emily Fairfield, the same woman who had claimed to have survived one of the most bizarre situations while out in the woods of the northern part of the United States. I must have been in high school when I first read about it. It had been a part of Native American Studies and our final projects, although the teacher did not end up approving the topic because it was too quote supernatural in nature. I love the title of that supernatural in nature, and yes it was exactly what it was. Emily Fairfield was said to have survived a whend togo attack while out in the woods one evening, claiming to have been saved by her silver necklace. They say that these creatures have a strange power for lack of a better word, and that was that they could mimic voices of people that you know in order to lure you into the woods. It could be the voice of your mom, of a sister, or of a person in need of help, anything to get you out there in the dark. Emily had been out with her sisters on a camping trip when the other two decided to go and look for wood for the camp fire. Emily, sitting by the tent, suddenly heard one of her sisters calling for help, so she jumped up and looked around. Even the description of this entity. This large figure covered in fur with horns and standing on two feet, was staring at her from the side of one of the trees. At first, she thought it was a joke, but the thing rushed toward her and then rushed away to the other side. The stench of the thing's body lingered even after she lost sight of it. But as she sat alone, she began to worry and walked toward to where the sisters said they would be, and when she found them, they had been hiding at the base of one of the tree trunks, describing what they had seen and begging to leave the campground. Immediately. As they ran back over the camp site, they could hear from out in the woods their names being called in the voice of their father. He was asking for help, calling each one by name. They made a bag, packed up, and left. The entire account was documented in a pamphlet type of book, a fairly short read, although of course terrifying. I had also read the account from a deer hunter, a man that only went by the name Burns, who refused to go back out into the woods after his terrifying experience with another one of those creatures. His experience was one of curiosity and quite believable because of the many witnesses accounts he provided, although it was also the way that his whole identity was tied up to those dark forests, as a man who would rise up three hours before the sun rise to go out into the wilderness to hunt, someone who was known for his hunting rifle collections and the jerky he would make, and then him suddenly turning everything around and refusing to step foot back into any type of wooded area. The stories were there, had read them myself, and it was with the range sense of pride that I knew that I would stay alive because of them and their warnings. A bit extreme, I remember thinking, but by quickly remembering back at what I had just seen and heard, my paranoia started making sense. My cell phone read five point forty one pm, although the place was as dark as it could be, basically nighttime that early, and even though I didn't want to panic, I knew that my friends should have made it back up the hill by this time. When you're out in nature, the clocks don't mean as much as a sunrise and sunset. They knew that all three of them were into hiking and winter sports. They were the type of people that would spend all day out at the lake. The crazies that would take surfing lessons during the trips to the beach, and the ones that would look up prices for swimming with sharks. But I sat there in the deafening silence for an hour and then two. There were no signs of them. I knew that if I moved the car and they showed up, it would become more dangerous for them, especially since we had no way to communicate with the weak cell phone signal up there. I told myself that I would wait for just one hour, and then I would climb up to one of the clearings where I would have better signal, and then call for help. Then I would come back and wait in the car, and I would be ready to make my way out if I really had to. Everything was set in my mind. I looked toward the back seat. The jacket and boots I had refused to use were still there, neatly folded by my water bottle. I turned off the reading light in the car, and suddenly the outside became slightly more visible, so louettes all around the car growing from the snow on the ground. But that was it. I refused to move, and I slowed down my breathing to listen for anyone approaching, any sounds of boots against the snow, of branches breaking, or someone yelling my name. Despite the plan I had made inside my head, I still had that gut wrenching feeling that something was wrong, and I just sat there with that sinking feeling, combined with fleeting hopes that all three of them would come walking up from behind the car, that I would be startled for a bit and then be relieved that they had made it back. I thought of the jokes we would make there were knowing laughter as they would tell me everything I had missed and that I absolutely had to go with them next time. But another hour passed and they didn't come back. I put the boots and jacket on, and I checked my phone, and I made sure to have the keys before stepping out of the car. I was expecting to sink more into the snow, but I didn't. The light wind against my face would have felt much nicer under any other circumstance. The image of the clear night and stars came back only in the memories I had of that night. The scenario I have played in my head over and over, remembering certain things that I hadn't noticed that same night, and then trying to convince myself that it never happened. Of impossible reasons of why I lost my friends. I knew where to go. Mike had told me that there was only one clearing at the top of the hill, just about a ten minute hike up. I could see the signal bars on my phone going up to two and with that without making it to the top, just about half way, I dialed nine one one. The call was a bit spotty, but the despatcher understood everything and told me to stay on the line for as long as I could. They got my details and they got my friend's information, and then they asked me to describe my surroundings. Once they had everything and confirmed that I was not in any danger of myself, we ended the call and I was told to wait. I called Isabel and it went straight to voicemail. I called Mike and his phone didn't even ring, but when I called Pete it rang. I called him again and again, but there was no answer, my hands now shaking, unaware if it was because of the colder of pure fear. I dialed one last time and it started ringing. Then it stopped. I could hear wind Pete. I asked, Pete, where are you again? Just the howling wind, and then the call cut off. I called again, and it rang and rang, but no one answered. No. Standing there in the middle of these dark woods by myself, staring at something my mind could not differentiate between darkness and silhouettes, completely lost in thought, wondering what could have possibly happened to them. And it's the same feeling when I think about it today. I started to make my way back down to over the car, rushing to get back there before emergency services arrived. But just as I was about to get to the empty, snow covered road where the car was, I heard my name, Jason, Jason. But the voice wasn't one of my friend's voices. It was mine, Jason, can you help me? It was me, Jason. I refused to look in any other direction but that door handle, and I sprinted toward the car. I had left it unlocked. Fortunately, I hopped into the driver's side and locked the door. I started it, and through those headlights I saw it, the creature I had only made up in my mind through the words in the books I had read, an animal looking figure standing on two legs, a tall beast, burnt skin exposed, its head glowing against the headlights like a skull just about fifteen feet in front of my windshield, had opened its mouth and let out a deep scream. I had nowhere to go. Then suddenly it's sprinted down the hill with giant leaps between the trees and disappeared in the darkness, And then there were headlights behind me. What happened next becomes a blur every time police officers, search and rescue teams, and the long nights speaking with my friend's parents about everything. Mike's body was found with a broken neck at the base of the hill, not far from where I had been parked that night, and it was labeled as an accident. But p and Isabelle went missing, and for days the search continued. Hikers and skiers also helped with the searching, but eventually the search parties started giving up, and they haven't been found even to this day. I had been the only witness, the only one that came back, and with that comes a lot of questions about what I saw. You assume the figure I saw had been a bear, and my part of the investigation concluded. Since then, several groups have tried to get in touch as it built a database of sightings of these creatures creatures that are said to make others disappear out in the wilderness. But we still don't have any answers. Just be careful out there and if you hear a voice in the woods run. If you like the story, send it to a friend and drop some stars for me in the reviews. I would great. You appreciate that Scary Story Podcast has written and produced Edwinko Arubias. This story was inspired by the many requests for a wilderness and Wendego story, although skin walkers are a highly requested topic as well. But what do you think? Let me know. For more stories and ad free listening, check out Scary Plus. There should be a button on your app or in the description of the episode in order to get to it. You can try it out for free and afterward to totals five dollars a month or a deep discount if you get it for the year. It includes this show, true scary Story, horror Story, Scary Mystery, Surprise, and everything else that is being added to the channel like murders and Scary Story Kids. It's a lot of stuff, but of course it's optional. You'll still be getting the usual free ad supported content right here anyway. If you want to get in touch, I'm at Edwin Cove. That's ed Wi n co V on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Thank you very much for listening so soon.
