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My Weird Life Experiences
I've come to realize that a lot of my life has been pretty weird, so why not tell some of the more fun stories for the world to see?
Woman At The Beach

I used to be able to hike down to the beach regularly. It was a 40 minute hike sure, but it was still pretty fun to do. A relaxing walk through nature to relax at the beach while ignoring the penthouses who cover an entire section of it like its their birthright to steal an entire half of a beach. The forest had quite a few things odd about it. Shrines littering the area, strange rusting and rotting machinery, an odd symbol or two carved into trees and stumps with meanings I could never understand. Try as I might, I've only been able to identify and translate one set of symbols as I know someone who is an expert in Nordic runes.

I headed off to the beach that day. With a launchable, a bottle of water, some trail mix, and a desire to smell the salty sea, I hiked through the forest. Nothing was out of place or visibly wrong aside from a multitude of new trails which seemed to have appeared overnight. I'm quite familiar with the trails due to my time spent walking through them, so seeing not just a few but dozens of new paths was definitely strange. That aside, my hike only took slightly longer than normal as I made sure to not head down the wrong path.

The trail is mostly downhill as well, so coming back is always the hard part. As I finally reached the beach, I saw an old woman to my right who was walking in circles. Letting her do whatever it was that she was doing, I set out to begin walking along the other direction, a part of the beach I was unfortunately familiar with only due to a bad prior experience. I walked along the beach for well over an hour, stopping briefly to eat and drink plenty. I wasn't hot per-say, but it certainly wasn't freezing out.

Having decided that I've cleared my head for the day and was ready to tackle work, I began to head back. I walked past collapsed cliffs, trees wider than the cabin of a truck that had all collapsed along with it. The gentle breeze at my back, almost pushing me along as if the world itself was supporting me. It wasn't long until my relief and tranquility was interrupted.

The old woman was still there. Mind you, it had been around 2 hours by this point and there the woman stood, walking in the same circle I had seen her in before. Unnerved, I simply tried to ignore her since it was clear that this old woman was deeply enjoying herself. Of course, there are many bad assumptions I could have made as well. Perhaps she was delirious? Perhaps she was suffering through heat stroke or dehydration or something else severe that would lead to such strange behavior? Unfortunately, my thoughts didn't have time to get that far.

Only 20 feet from the entrance to the trail and only 40, perhaps 50, from her. I saw her stop out of the corner of my eye. Glancing over, she's turned and is staring at me. I can see her expression and it's broken. Her eyes hold no emotion while her lips are crooked and holding a sadistic grin. Her body doesn't move as if she isn't even breathing. She stares at me intently and I speed up. Mind you, there is a CLIFF to my right and I cannot enter that trail from anywhere behind me. The only other entrances are behind her. I HAVE to keep walking towards her.

As if sensing my panic, her eyes slowly widen alongside her grin. Her expression is disgusting, toothy, and vile. Her face held so many emotions, it was as if she was trying to show apathy, joy, and a deep unyielding hatred at the same time. Her expression screamed danger and as if that wasn't enough, she started walking towards me. I ran to the trail, using trees as leverage and sprinting up the near vertical trail. Looking behind me, she's broken into a sprint as well. Damn woman could run for her age.

Now I'm not going to make the claim that I'm some kind of athlete. This entire 40 minute hike from here is steep and uphill, but there's something dangerous behind me and I didn't look back a second time. I sprinted the entire way home, listening desperately for her behind me or for others hiking the trail. I can feel my lungs burning, my legs aching, my heart pounding like it's going to explode. This trail is a popular one and not a single other soul was on it. I'd passed by a dozen or so hikers and others walking their dog on the way down there, but it was as if I was the only human there. I grabbed trees, cut through trails, I used every bit of leverage I could get to get the hell out of there as fast as possible.

My senses screamed at me the entire time that I shouldn't look back. That I can't look back. That if I took even a second to slow down, whatever that thing was would catch up. Sweaty, terrified, and freshly out of the trail, I don't stop even as I leave the forest. I don't stop even as I reach my home. I don't stop until I've reached my room where I locked my door, dropped my hiking gear, and dropped to the ground. An exhausted, soaking wet, anxious mess.

She never reappeared at the beach. I never saw her or any lookalikes for that matter. I've gone back quite a few times since, but never with the same zeal. She was, however, the final nail in the coffin when it came to hiking at night. Never again.





 
 
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