Entry #3

I'm still shaken up from what happened last night. I had to rinse the sleep out of my eye and get some morning coffee to get my mind off things for a while. I didn't exactly have a pleasant dream either after what happened. My imagination turned against me the other night and as a result, I ended up having the worst nightmare ever. One I pray to never see again. It was about Dylan. He was running for his life away from something in the middle of a forest. There was a blurry red and purple figure appearing from the darkness and coming right for him like a bloodthirsty animal about to catch its latest prey. I couldn't see if it had a face or a body.. but.. I'm not lying when I say this. I swear to this day that I saw that "thing" reach out to try and grab him. I heard the poor boy cry out my name and Katie's right before the dream ended. I woke up in a cold sweat after that. My heart was pounding madly while being on the break of tears. The fact that I didn't scream in the middle of the night and accidentally wake up anyone sleeping in nearby rooms is a miracle. I honest to god don't know what I would ever do or how I would be able to live with myself if something like that ever happened to my nephew. Or any poor child for that matter. It's tragic. Horrifying. Inhuman. It's a fate I wouldn't even wish on my worst enemy. I think... I'm gonna keep the sonic plushie in the other bag for now and use the current one I had for my "hunting trip" for carrying the paranormal hunting equipment. Looking at it last night did nothing but unnerve me. And I'm sure you all know why by now. This investigation just started and already I'm starting to think this may have been a bad idea. That I may be toying with forces beyond my control or understanding. And if I carried on with the investigation, I may put myself or even my family at risk. Was it a nightmare... or a warning? Was an outside force telling me to leave or misfortune will befall me and my sister? Or is paranoia getting the best of me? I'm... not sure. And I don't want to continue thinking about it.

To try and get my mind off things, I decided to light a cigar and sketch some shit while I ate my breakfast and drank my coffee. (Thankfully they allow smoking here and even provide ash trays) Most of the drawings were related to IPs I had a strong investment in for many years. I'll spare the details. I'll just say it's "a lot" and leave it at that. After a while of drawing my mind was cleared up a bit, thankfully. Feeling relieved, I sighed, tossed the cigar away, laid the lighter down on the table, and got up and returned to my room to lay the notebook next to the lamp. I went ahead and decided to put on some fresh clothes and throw the ones from yesterday in the basket to throw in the washer later. No use in going out there in the clothes you slept with. Gotta do things professionally and hygienically during this job. Not wanting to waste any more daylight, I went to grab my backpack and setted out to return to the palatinate forest. While on my way back to the entrance, the only crazed paranoid thought running through the back of my head was "If I see any blair witch project shit I'm burning that damn forest down". Kind of an overreaction, I know.

When I arrived back at the entrance, I hardly stopped to observe anything like the last time. The most I did was take at least 4-5 photos of the scenery around the beginning of trail. They were all taken in at least 30 seconds. After that, I just walked in without any care or hesitation, wanting to get this over with. Walking for a good hour through the woods once again, I thought it was a good time to use the ghost hunting equipment. You know, to try and track anything out of the ordinary. While I spent my time using the EVP detector, I noticed something strange about the woods that didn't stand out for me the first trip. There's a mysterious lack… of wildlife. No birds. No bears. Not even any bugs. It.. was just completely and utterly empty. Last I checked it was the middle of June here, not December. So the animals being absent really felt out of the blue. Were they hiding? Sleeping? ..Dead? The amount of questions I had were starting to pile up. And there wasn't a single clue either. Nothing out here for me try and get a read on and make any logical sense of. I was really starting to feel tense about this now. When I reached the nearest river, there was a wretched stench in the air that reeked of death. It came from a nearby bush. I gagged a bit and closed my nose, attempting to get a good look at what it is. My eyes widened in sheer horror at the sight of it. What I saw nearly made me lose my breakfast.

It wasn't a person, thankfully. But that didn't make what I saw any less rancid and unpleasant. It was a dead animal. Specifically, the rotting corpse of a deer. It wasn't shot or half eaten either. It was much more graphic than a usual hunt between predator and prey. Its.. its fucking eyes were gouged out. The teeth looked like they were forcefully pulled from the gums. Its rib cage was completely visible. Pieces of flesh and meat were missing from its torso, and it looked like its organs were removed from the body. Its antlers were ripped off its head, leaving two bloody holes in the sides of its head. It might have been missing some bones too. I'm not sure. I didn't look for too long. Nor did I want to.

"I don't.. I don't think this was the work of a hunter.. or a bear.." I said to myself , holding a hand to my mouth while feeling sick to my stomach and trying my best to hold back the urge to puke.

I've had some firsthand experience dealing with seeing dead bodies during my days in blue, but not once did I have to deal with a case regarding a possible reincarnation of Ed Gein. There is no logical way an animal could have done something this extreme. No normal hunter would do such a thing to an animal and then leave it out here for the flies. Whoever did this is anything but friendly. And I say "who" instead of "what" for a reason. Right on the neck area, next to the throat, was a bloody handprint. One that looked like it belonged to a human. This wasn't the doing of an animal or a hunter. It was the work of a monster. I took a step back away from the body to collect myself, take my phone out, and take a picture of the handprint as well as the deer corpse for further research.

"Jesus… that's definitely something I should report to the police, and the camp counselors nearby… I said, as I took a swig of water. After.. "that", I started to walk back to the trail that led to the exit and headed back to the hotel. If I didn't feel safe before, I sure as hell didn't now. Even if an animal did this, this area should still be off-limits. And to make matters worse, night time was coming. So I didn't waste a single minute before I started hauling ass as soon as I noticed the sun was going down. I even tripped a few times while running carelessly but trying to survive was a bigger priority at the moment than being careful. Which is… ironic to say the least. If anything it's a miracle I haven't accidentally gotten lost in these woods yet. Thank god for compasses I guess.

As soon as I got back to my room, I made some coffee and sat down to relax and analyze the photos I took. I took a closer look at the deer one. I didn't notice this before but the finger prints on the neck looked… elderly.. old.. like.. it would have belonged to someone in their 80s. There were no way an old man or woman could have the strength to do that with their bare hands. That old obscure German campfire story was slowly becoming more and more a reality in my eyes and I was running low on possible explanations for this. My belief in the story and the supernatural was solidified when I looked at the casual pictures I took at the entrance. I nearly screamed and jumped out of my seat when I saw it. I unfortunately might know who appeared in my dream now.

In the 3rd photo was a familiar dark red figure floating atop the trees, looking down on me. Watching me.

(To be continued)