The Walker

This experience is about my encounter with a ghost. I have had 2 encounters/supernatural scenarios in my life and this one put me in the worst kind of fright I have ever felt. I do not know whether this ghost or supernatural being was intending to harm me, but here is my story.

PART 1: I was 14 and was at my summer camp where I used to go (from about 12 until I was 16). The camp has an after dinner cabin based activity. Each cabin's counselor takes the kids and does something fun for about an hour. Usually we would play games like capture the flag or combine with other cabins to play manhunt. For our Cabinal activity we combined with another cabin and played manhunt in the woods. There are many woods surrounding the camp, and in the woods we played extended many miles. Of course there were boundries keeping us from wandering too far.

It started getting dark so our counselor called out for everybody to come back into the main path entrance. All of our cabin members returned. We all met up on the last stretch of the path going back to the cabins. Our counselor had a flashlight. We were the last cabin group to leave the woods and there was only one other cabin that was using the woods at that time. We were all talking and laughing and all of a sudden our counselor pointed his flashlight towards the side of the path into some bushes and said "Hello?" We all looked over to see what he was looking at. Once again he said "hello?" It wasn't until I looked really close and saw what he was looking at........It was a gray figure that looked as if it was sitting with its head buried in its legs, just as if it was a person hiding. Our counselor said "are you in cabin seven?" knowing that there was only one other cabin in the woods at the time. The figure didn't move or speak.

Suddenly the figure got up and took off darting at a low level along the bushes down the trail heading further into the woods. Our counselor tried to follow the figure with his light but it got too far away. We looked down the path and in a flash a grayish white figure went from one side of the bushes on the path to the other. It looked like there was the start of a new small trail where it went to. Not really being scared at this point my friend and I ran down the path to see if we could find out where it went, but as we reached the spot that looked like the beginning of a trail it was simply an indent in the bushes and the thing was gone. My counselor was creeped out, and so were all of the kids, but it wasn't anything particularly frightening.

NOW, THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING OF THE STORY. THE NEXT PART WAS THE SCARIEST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE.

PART 2: We all walked back to camp talking about what we saw. Some kids didn't actually get a glimpse of it, mainly it was 4 of us that saw it unfold: my counselor, my good friend, some random kid whose name I don't remember, and myself. We got back to the cabin where we usually played cards, ate junk food, and talked until it was time to go to bed. In no time we had completely forgot about what we saw and were laughing playing cards and exchanging funny stories. My counselor left to go to the division fire because he was on duty.

Our cabins at the camp were pretty bad. Here is a description so you can try and get an image in your head of what they are like. They are made completely of wooden beams and have a wooden roof, but in order to prevent wind, bugs, and too much rain from getting in we have flaps that we would roll down to cover the large window-like openings. Inside are about 5 wooden framed bunk beds with crappy mattresses that are crammed together. I slept on the bottom bunk in the back right hand corner of the cabin. Anyways, like i was saying, my counselor just left. I was playing cards with my friends and in order to see, I had hung a flashlight on a nail on the bunk above me so it shined down onto my bed. I was playing with my friend who was in the adjacent bunk who's head was next to mine. After a while I fell asleep...

I awoke suddenly on my back very scared...I didn't have a bad dream or anything like that, I just awoke with a strange feeling. I can't describe the feeling because it doesn't resemble any feeling I have ever had before. I realized I was in a cold sweat. It was a weird sort of sweat because I kept getting really hot and then immedietely becoming cold again. I was wide awake. I had a really strange feeling that there was a presence; that something was there that shouldn't be there. I started hearing footsteps in the cabin. I glanced down toward the entrance of the cabin to see if something was there. It seemed like there was a dark figure standing by my counselors bed, I thought it might be him, but I noticed my counselor had already returned from duty and was fast asleep in his bed. I stopped looking solely because I was scared and began to sweat even more. I tried to tell myself my eyes were just playing tricks on me because I was scared, but I started hearing the footsteps again. I glanced really quick by only moving my eyes and noticed that the figure I had seen was not there now. Even more scared now, I tried to get a hold of myself. I remember that all I wanted to do was fall back asleep and pretend nothing was happening.

My counselor's bed lies adjacent to mine but there is about a 6 foot gap from the end of my bed where my feet lie to the head of his bed where it meets the right wall. Then there is about 4 feet from there to the front cabin wall where the latched door is in the center. I tried another glance to see if I could notice if anything was there. Nothing, except the door swaying slightly in the wind...it was unhatched. I stopped looking and my eyes were starting to adjust better than they were. I heard the footsteps again and I became more scared. Remembering that I had my flashlight hanging above my head, I decided to turn it on. At this point I was very frightened and was beginning to lose a little motor function. I didn't want to move. I quickly put my hand up, found the button, and turned the light on. This actually made it worse. Now I was lying there with the light shining in my eyes forcing me to look into the complete darkness of the cabin by my feet. The only problem was that I couldnt see anything in the cabin now with the light shining on me. After lying for about 3 minutes I finally worked up the courage to grab the light and shine it into the darkness towards my counselor's bed. I began counting in my head.

One...Two...Three!

I grabbed the light and shined it towards my counselors bed. It was at this split moment when I shined the light that a figure crouched down with both hands on the far side of my counselor's bed and its head sticking up looking at me ducked out of view as the light hit it.

This is the moment when you're so scared that you whisper "OHHH S@#T!" to yourself. I immedietely stopped looking and shining the light and stayed in my bed laying there. Tears began to roll down my face. I wanted soooo badly to yell, but I couldn't. I was so scared I couldn't move or speak. I tried to yell my counselor's name but the words simply would not come out. Sweat and tears dominated my entire face. I finally was able to move my elbow and nudge my friends head who was in the bed next to me. He wasn't waking up so I nudged a little harder. Finally he woke up from his deep sleep and was a little out of it, I immeditely started telling him that something was in the cabin but everything I wanted to say kept taking forever to come out. He couldn't really understand and was half sleep so he just kept saying "it's fine man...tomorrow" he passes out in about 30 seconds after he woke up and was back into his heavy sleep. I remained lying there very very frightened. I started hearing footsteps again, except this time they sounded like they were moving towards the center of the cabin which is in fact closer to my bed and everyone elses. I looked once again by moving my eyes only and couldn't see anything. There was nothing there...I could hear the footsteps crossing the cabin floor from the front corner to the back corner, I watched and listened, but there was no figure accompanying the footsteps. I kept watching until the footsteps sounded like they had reached the bunk bed in the opposite corner. I heard the wood of the bunk bed squeaking as if something was climbing it; I could see the wood moving slightly but couldn't see anything moving it. Whatever this thing was it was now on the upper level of the bunks. I kept watching until I saw the back left hand corner flap lift up. Not as if the wind lifts it up when there is a slight storm, but as if someone lifted it open. It remained open and suspended in the air like something was holding it. I couldn't see any figure though, all I saw was the moonlit sky in the background where the flap was open. It was suspended for about five seconds I'd say, and then it just dropped and flapped back against the cabin wall. I kept watching to see if it was just the wind and my mind was playing tricks on me, but I didn't get such a relief. There was no wind. It was dead silent. Whatever it was was now gone.

I couldn't sleep of course, I remained awake, scared, trying to go over all the possible things it could have been. A person? An animal?.... A Ghost?

I remained awake until the sky was starting to turn blue and the birds were chirping...and then finally I was able to sleep.

To this day I just refer to the thing I saw as the "The Walker" (after a former scary story character that counselors from my camp had told kids in order to scare them and keep them from sneaking out at night).