Hello all, I’m a new time poster that just wanted to share a true experience I had years ago. To start off I will say that this is not a paranormal story, but something well grounded in human nature. About X years ago I was dating a girl that we will refer to as “L” we were still in our honeymoon phase and I had planned a pretty affordable yet romantic day to celebrate the first day of fall together. There was a hot spot in our town known simply as the waterfall. Everybody from all ages would go to this location for fishing, swimming, ect. Though for more context I will say that this was not a very romantic spot in hindsight, as the water was always a mysterious blue color, and not the fresh blue water color you’re likely thinking of, but more of a powder eggshell blue, something very unnatural but prevalent in this area. On top of this, the “waterfall” was simply a broken concrete mess from a drainage system that prevented floods from the upper neighborhoods.. OH and one last thing that’s pretty important to the story (which I’ll get to soon) there was a train bridge overhead, that would often become so unbearably loud you could barely focus once trains would pass through. Anyways, for this date we planned to meet by the local church which had a pathway through some very thick foliage that would lead up to the train tracks. Once on these tracks the following walk is about half an hour until you get to the waterfall.
As we approach the waterfall we notice that it appears someone was recently here, not uncommon to be honest, but there were signs that a fire had been put out not too long ago. We decide to set up camp anyhow and decided that if anyone came back we would just afterwards. So we’re setting up our blankets, towels, speakers and candles ect (we planned to be here until sundown) but we notice a weird crunching sound in the surrounding woods. Again not uncommon as deer were super comfortable in this area, so much so that we would catch them trying to open or bird feed bucket in the back yard. So again thinking little of it we lay back and relax until until the sun begins set and the cool fall breeze blows through telling us its time to head back. By the time we finish packing and start to head up to the tracks its already beginning to get dark, luckily we had brought flashlights along with us (but since walking on railroad tracks are considered trespassing in my country you have to be careful not to bring too much attention to yourself) which we would use sparingly. As we begin our 30 minute or so trek back to the church we begin to feel a bit uneasy, like somethings watching us, or like something is listening in on our conversation. We would use our flashlights to scan the surrounding woods for any signs of deer or dogs that might be roaming around, only catching the glowing eyes of a few deer here and there which ultimately put our guards down. We decide to play some music on the speaker at a low volume to hush out the anxiety given by the rustling bushes, and continue on our way now nearing close to the church.
As we approach the trail that would lead us back down to the church we suddenly hear something slide on the gravel behind us.. We both quickly turned around, flashlights blazing and I scream out “WHAT THE FUCK!?” as we’re met face to face with a man dressed in blue jeans, a gray hoodie, and dark green backpack on. As we spot the man he fails to nonchalantly shove something shiny in his hoodie pocket before apologizing and saying that he didn’t see/hear us. The man rushed in front of us and into the tall foliage trail that leads to the church. Adrenaline still pumping we decided to nope the fuck out of there and begin to beeline to an alternative exit that connected to one of the nearby roads (about another 10-15 mins from us but we make it in like 6-8 mins) as we approach the exit we decide to look back to make sure that the man didn’t try to follow us.. though as we peered across the tracks we could see the faintest outline of man standing in the middle of the tracks. We remain frozen for what feels like minutes but was likely only a few seconds, before the figure ducks back down into the foliage of the original trail..
Later that night after my girl friend had already went home and I begin to process what actually happened I started to piece everything together, the fire pit, the noises in the woods, the uneasy feelings of being watched.. We were stalked for who knows how long, and whatever that mother fucker had put in his pocket certainly wasn’t a pocket watch, I know in my gut (not literally thank god) that what he had was a knife.
A few last notes before closing this story:
The train tracks had very limited access points, the furthest (opposite from the direction came) being about an hour away on foot, and the closest being the trail we entered on.
I know for a fact that the man lied about not seeing or hearing us, as we talked the entire time and music playing in the background, not to mention our flashlights scanning the woods.
The man was also uncomfortably close to us.. about 6 feet at most before started to move back from the flashlights blinding him..
Any thoughts on this? I wont share the location details, but I have periodically searched online for possible disappearances in this area about once a year or so since. Oh, and I should mention one last thing, speaking of disappearances, not long after this encounter police had shut down multiple “Chinese massage parlors” in this same area due to evidence of human trafficking.