Ghost, Cryptids and the Fey.

Group Info

Founder

This is the place to tell your personal stories of experiencing what was once thought of as the impossible. Have you seen something you can't explain? Did you walk into a... More

Verification

Please login to verify this Groups

Wall Comment

Laurie

January 29, 2021 3:17 pm

THIS IS AN AMAZING STORY. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING IT. Missing time "the forest was holding its breath"1 I'm new to Missing411, David Paulides and all of this stuff. My sister introduced me to it al... View MoreTHIS IS AN AMAZING STORY. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING IT. Missing time "the forest was holding its breath"1 I'm new to Missing411, David Paulides and all of this stuff. My sister introduced me to it all about 4 days ago and after a few days of mulling it over, I'm going to post what is easily the weirdest shit to have ever happened to me. FWIW, I'm not an outdoorsy person at all. I jut happened to grow up near a national forest on the edge of NC/TN. I generally didn't, and still don't, hang outside much but I married a man who loves it so I've been roped into braving the wilderness a few times. Anyway, this happened about 2 years ago in the summer, shortly after the 4th of July at Clingman's dome. You guys can google it, but it is the highest peak in the Great Smokies NP. My husband had been hounding for everyone to go there, myself and two sons age 6 and 8 at the time. We were not going to stay overnight, just go to check out the summit viewing deck. Again, google it if needed. Now for those who have never been there, the viewing deck has two, maybe more ways you can get to it. The most common way and the way we took was to drive in, park, then take the about a mile hike to the deck. It is super easy, and also super busy depending on the time of year and it is also paved. We go, get up there and take some really amazing photos and hang out for a little bit. Now here is where, in hindsight, things started to get weird. My youngest child has epilepsy and a migraine disorder, has been seizure free for 2.5 years and headaches controlled by medication. As we are going back, he started to complain that he feels really hot and his head hurts. On the dome it is cold because of the high altitude. We were all needing long sleeves and it felt more like November instead of summer. I tell my husband and other child I'm going to carry him the rest of the way and me being the out of shape person I am, would meet them at the car if I got behind or had to take it slow, which I was sure I would from carrying 50 pounds of child. I didn't want to ruin their fun day and figured I would sit in the car with the AC blowing on little one and give him some migraine rescue meds, and that while we rested my husband and son could finish exploring. I made a halfass joke about sending the rangers in to find us if I didn't make it back to the car shortly after they did because I'm in shit shape and may need to be golf-carted out. They went ahead but were still in sight, maybe a few hundred feet, I'm not too sure. At this point, maybe it was a lull in the visitor levels, but there was no other people I could see in front of us or coming down behind us. My little one starts to cry, and say his both his ears and head hurt now too, and was covering his ears. At this point the weight of him was breaking my arms off so I put him down and told him we were going to sit down and rest for a few minutes. We walked off the paved trail and sat down at the edge of the treeline/grassline and I told him to close his eyes and just relax and lay down on the cool grass beside me, we were almost to the car, etc. I get my phone out to text my husband that we are resting, and I noticed it was silent because my text clicks sounded so loud. No wind, not a fucking thing. It was like someone pressed pause on the area, or that the forest was holding its breath would be another way to describe it. My mother is a paranoid wackjob about tornadoes (she grew up in Illinois so rightly so) and spent years pounding it into my head as a child that there is a 'calm before the storm' thing that happens and to take cover because it WILL be a tornado touching down despite that never happening here. So that was my first thought, holy shit, a tornado is about to happen because everything just went dead. My kid is now curled up beside me whimpering that he is scared, his ears hurt, make it stop, and wants to go home. I swear to you it felt like his little voice was the voice of a God, that is how silent the place was. By now the hair on my neck is standing up and it is just a general sick feeling I'm getting thinking a tornado is about to begin and suck us up. I actually started to feel afraid to look around me and focused on my kid and calming him down. At this point the area had this ominous, heavy feeling. I can't explain that one either, almost like I was afraid to look because I wouldn't like what I would see, like when you're a kid and you are afraid to look under your bed at night or something. I know it sounds insane. So we had been there for about 10 minutes or so when I got myself semi together and had a really strong, almost primal urge to get the hell out and down the trail. I picked up my still crying kid and literally ran the rest of the way. When we got there my husband and other child were nowhere to be found. He had the keys so we had to wait, at this point it was only our car and two others still there. I assumed those two were on another, less easy trail so I let little one sit on the hood and prepared for the wait. At this point I was still feeling leftover heebie jeebies from the creepy quiet where we rested off the trail but my kid was no longer complaining about his ears or his head. A few seconds later my oldest son comes racing down from the SAME FUCKING TRAIL we just came from with a look of sheer panic on his face before he turns his head and starts screaming that he found mom and brother. He was followed by my husband not even a minute later. My other son had been visibly crying and my husband immediately started screaming at us about where the hell we have been and if we are OK. I asked him what his issue was, and told him that I sent him a text saying we were resting for a little while off the edge of the trail. Now here is what made my blood run cold. He told me they had been looking for us for over 3 hours. I called him a liar, and that it probably just felt like hours. I said we were resting for about 10 minutes, but after checking my phone, his phone and even the clock in the car, it turned out that we really had be gone for about three and a half hours. Besides this, my husband and other child said they had went up and down the paved trail to the viewing deck three or four times while calling mine and my little son's name. This would have been impossible to miss because sound carries to an extreme level in that area, you could yell and it be heard a mile away. I promptly turned and asked my little son if he still needed his migraine medicine and he said the noise making his head hurt was gone and he was fine now. My husband asked him what noise and he said it sounded like a big bumble bee inside his head. We hauled out of there as fast as we could, all the while with my explaining every detail to my husband, who basically told me to shut up til we get home and could talk away from the kids. Needless to say, we haven't been back to that area again and my husband is no longer a fan of the woods like he used to be either. EDIT: I forgot to add this last part. It might be related, it might not. I feel it is, husband thinks it is just a random thing. My son's migraines and seizure activity on his EEGs stopped after this. It was like his brain had been re-set. I should have mentioned that but it was an after the fact thing, he had a follow up about 1.5-2mo after that incident. Before this, he had a history of seizures under control, adult level migraines as well as constant abnormal EEGs since just before his 2nd birthday. He hasn't had even a mild headache since. He has been deemed 'in remission' from his neurologist because his brain waves have remained pristine. My husband thinks I'm just drawing from coincidence on that one but I don't feel it is.

View Less