Welcome to Scary Story Podcast. Today we have a story about what you requested
over on Spotify's Q and a section of the last story, the one called
Maps. Thanks for all the ideas. By the way, this time though,
in the questions for this episode, we're going to reverse the roles.
So you can ask me any question you want over on the Q and A
or over on Instagram or TikTok, and I'll answer them. It'll give me
something to post. The info is in the description of this episode. Here
we go. My name is Edwin, and here it's a Scary Story.
I couldn't even look at Jacob's mom without bursting into tears. The desperation in
her voice became etched to my mind. No one should ever go through something
like this, the parent's worst nightmare. The money for the search and rescue
helicopters was used up in thirty six hours, and now we were relying on
the state and local municipalities to help with the search for Jacob. He was
an avid hiker and understood everything there was to know about those mountains, so
we were surprised to know that it was only his dog that returned back to
the car that day and was waiting for his owner. That's until the security
guard from the parking lot alerted everyone of a missing hiker. Due to the
heavy fog out in the forest, helicopters proved to be less useful in the
mornings, so the search was limited between ten in the morning until about an
hour before sunset. But we couldn't wait. The four of us had grown
up together practically, and we had taken many trips out to the forests up
in the northeast many times before. But if this proved anything, was that
if Jacob had a tough time in the area right at the end of summertime,
when there were no challenges due to the weather, then we probably wouldn't
stand a chance. He was the best hiker out of all of us.
He had done long, multi day tricks even internationally. Those were his vacations.
Still, we had to figure it out, so with my law enforcement
background, I went to work trying to find as much information as possible as
to where he might have gone. Carrie, his wife, flogged into his
computer for us, but we couldn't find any information except for the passes he
bought for the parking lots and registering himself at the trailhead, which I then
remembered sometimes required you to state your route and return window. The local police
department had already gotten hold of that information, and requesting it without jurisdiction was
a tough thing to do, although the guards and park arrangers gave us his
registration information when he found out what we wanted to do. Just go look
for him by ourselves. You guys outdoors people, he asked us during our
very first meeting. I don't know who we were trying to fool. This
guy obviously knew all about the mountains and forests in the area, along with
some of the legends. Andrique was a photographer and would do tricks every one
in a while. And Matt was more into video games and chess, a
champion on the regional level and the smartest person I knew. The park ranger
could tell I didn't have much outdoor experience aside from the hikes we all did
together, with some fishing at times. But there was a reason I joined
law enforcement as soon as I could, and that was for things like these,
being able to work in the office and figure things out. Jacob was
the outdoors guy. Marcus's peak was Jacob's destination a three day walk up toward
the lakes. It was a steep clime on some parts, but since his
dog Timber was with him, he would likely be going around the main section
and sticking to the dirt paths. His wife liked to joke that he took
better care of Timber than her. I remember Timber barking back at the woods
when we arrived at the trailhead the day Jacob went missing. He would run
out toward the path and then come back to us, trying to push us
to go. Everyone, the rescue team leaders, the rangers that got involved
in the search, asked us to find as much information as we could about
where he could have gone, but to not put ourselves in danger. When
we decided to go looking for our friend while the rest of the group of
search volunteers were starting to get organized, That's exactly where we would end up
danger in places we were never supposed to see. Timber would not leave our
sides, and I decided to bring him along. He had a dog vest
and a small water bowl and a sweater tied to it. We got our
gear together and set out very early one morning, after getting our updates from
the search team Matt figured out the route for us and the most efficient way
to begin crossing the areas. He brought along the GPS, a satellite phone,
and everything we could possibly need to find our way back. First aid,
kids, medicine, and bear spray and Drika reminded us when we were
in the car people in the area had been spotting more bears in there,
and with those thoughts all grew quiet. What if Jacob had been attacked?
I mean, it wasn't a thought we wanted to have, but it was
better to begin to face it now. Timber had been on alert since Jacob
went missing, standing by the door while waiting at Carrie's house since her parents
had been staying with her. They claimed to see the dog trying to run
away on several occasions, as though he knew where to find him. Timber
was uneasy the whole drive there until we got to the entrance to the trail
just before sunrise. We started whining and trying to climb out the window.
We got him ready in the car and as soon as he got on a
leash, he leaped out and tugged his way straight to the trail. We
would be out for three days in the worst of scenarios and in about eight
hours. In the best of cases, assuming we had found Jacob alive and
well, making our way back to the car or getting help to confind us
we had camping gear to be able to go deeper into the mountains. Trails
were not for ATVs or bicycles. The type of trail we were on would
only be accessible on foot or on helicopter, But we were determined to get
ahead of the volunteer groups, some of which had gotten Matt very angry because
of their lack of efficiency and irrational fears of nonexistent beings. His words,
not mine. He was a very logical guy, and it took him a
bit to truly express himself and explain what he was talking about. But from
what we gathered, some of the volunteers were there just to get out of
work, and others were hobby search and rescue people, believe it or not.
But what really pissed them off were those that said that they hoped they
would not be the ones to find Jacob. Those who have found victims before
have become traumatized. And even though I knew where Matt was coming from,
I understood whoever had said that finding someone first meant finding a dead body,
sometimes something they wouldn't be able to do deal with. It was tough either
way. I mean, you want them to be found, but hope that
you're not the one who does that if they're dead. And what's this thing
about non existing beings or whatever? Andrika asked from behind me about the things
they say that rome out here, And they weren't talking about the bears neither.
They actually believed in them, as if creatures were actively hunting for people
out here and they were afraid of encountering one of them. You could tell
Matt was still pretty angry. I knew of the myths quite well. In
fact, it was through my grandpa that I learned of all the legends and
monsters that were set to roam around the Great Lakes and Canada, of the
ghost ships and sightings of lake creatures. The area was full of stories like
that, including tales that came from Native American tribes like the Ojibwe, stories
of a tall, humanoid type creature that would prey on humans and eat them.
Ricky and I were more cautious when it came to dangers in the dark,
not just from bears, but from things that we couldn't explain, things
our families had told us about, and why we shouldn't step into the woods
in the dark. The campfire was at its peak when we finally had our
dinner ready imitation mac and cheese with white cheese powder mixed with water. Timber
had his own food and was staring out into the woods, anxious to keep
walking, his bowl untouched. Despite walking for hours, the dog kept his
attention straight ahead, tugging at the leash the whole way, and yet he
wanted to keep going toward the peak where Jacob was heading. When he vanished,
nobody spoke very much. Her voices were nearly gone from yelling out Jacob's
name as we walked. The toughest part of the hike would be the following
day, and not because of the difficulty of the climb. We would avoid
it altogether, like we suspected Jacob had done to save Timber from climbing on
sharp rack. But that would also mean that we would have to be off
map like Matt had called it, for a few hours. He would be
away from the market trail, something Jacob would do quite often on his own,
but it would be through the dark side of the hill, the one
rarely walked through by newcomers because of the long distance it would take to get
to Marcus Peak. The locals would avoid it because of the stories that surrounded
it. The fire was dying out at around nine at night. We had
already set up our tents, with Matt being the first to say good night.
Enrica and I stayed up for a bit looking at the glowing red and
orange in the fire pit, and Timber was sitting next to us, staring
into the dark. It was a kind of quiet that was loud enough to
bring out your fears and still enough to calm you down in a bizarre balancing
act, one that involved hoping that all of it had been a dream.
The fire had died out about fifteen minutes after that, and I was about
to go into my tent when I heard Timber huff and puff toward the trail
we were going to take the next day. And then he got in a
protective stance and started growling deeply, and then he started backing away. What's
wrong, Timber, Rodrika asked, looking out into the woods. Two red,
glowing embers could be seen from the shadows between the trees. We looked
at each other, acknowledging that we could both see it at about two meters
off the ground. The two lights rose even higher as Timber burst into a
full on, defensive bark, backing away toward us. Drica and I stood
up and faced the thing that was in the dark. I then reached into
my pocket to grab the flashlight, and when I aimed at Timber's barks became
yelps, and Rique screamed, and I stood there frozen as this thing stared
us down, A tall and abnormally thin human like figure with pale skin that
looked like it had just come out of the trees. Its eyes were no
longer glowing red against the light, they were deep and dark gashes. It
stood maybe twenty feet away from us, completely still. Timber had stopped barking
as he backed away from it, and then my light turned off. Matt
laid out a scream from inside his tent as I shook the flashlight to try
to get it to work, but all he did was flash on and off,
on and off. And Rique was moving in the dark and I could
hear him yell. I suspected he had tripped over the unburned logs on the
fire pit. While running toward Matt's tent. We both yelled out for Matt,
but his screams only got louder. Onto we heard the sounds of ripping
fabric. His screams moved toward the dark woods. As the strobe of my
flashlight shined on the trees, his screams turned to echoes in the distance,
and soon they were gone. Didrika turned on his flashlight and aimed it at
Matt's tent. It had been torn open, and we called for him.
But Andika said to grab Timber's leash and head back to the car right then
and there in the dark. With any luck, we would be there after
sunrise. But still we grabbed our backpacks and left everything else where. It
was afraid of that thing we had just witnessed. We ran for the first
half hour, and then once we reached the clearing, we stopped to catch
our breaths. Didn't know what to say to each other. Matt was the
one with the satellite phone, and he always had it strapped onto his body,
but neither of us wanted to go after him. Even our most logical
idea seemed completely crazy at that time, But I know we had decided the
right thing. We weren't about to go chase after that thing that was out
in the woods, especially in the dark, and so we half ran,
half walked the whole way back, with Timber leading the way, occasionally stopping
to look back at us and behind us. The sun had just come up.
When we made it back to the car. The security guard spotted us
and left us booth to run up to us. We explained what had happened,
something that visibly shocked him. We had just seen a creature out there
that took Matt and we needed help immediately. And I don't know how I
remember this at that moment, but Matt had given me a code for his
GPS tracker that could be looked up online, and so I asked a guard
about the internet connection, which he responded that was only available at the main
office a couple of miles north where the parking lot was, but to get
on the truck and head over there with him. We got there and I
entered the information and my heart dropped when I saw the tracker still moving at
an abnormally high speed around the hills of the mountain. The guard was calling
emergency services while we were watching it unfold and Ndrika was recording the screen with
his phone. We traced it as it moved around the hills and then either
climbed or went into the mountain for the tracker lost connection. It was helpful
to the police, though, although in their final statement they said that the
disappearance had been due to an animal attack and they had come to the conclusion
once they had found parts of Matt and Jacob's body on the trees the entrance
of the remote caves on the east side of the mountain just a day after
Matt's disappearance, and thanks to the GPS coordinates, and Ricka and I don't
walk in the woods anymore, and sometimes when we talk about it, we
try to convince each other that we saw something normal, an animal of some
sort, but deep down we know it wasn't anything like it. They started
believing in things that, as Matt said, we're non existent beings. Scary
Story podcast has written and produced by me Edwin Kovarobyez. Remember to drop your
questions in the Q and A section on Spotify or send them over to my
Instagram or TikTok. It'll be some of the first stuff I post, so
it'll be cool. My user name is Edwin Cove. That's ed w I
n coov. But next, check out my other podcast called horror Story.
It's about true dark events like our last episode with the tragic story of a
cult that believed in aliens and they ended up dying thirty nine members that were
left all at once. It's not recommended for young audiences because the material is
real and it includes actual recordings of the members. If you can find it
by searching for Horror Story on your podcast app. Don't forget to give Scary
Plus a try. If you're on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, there should be
a button for Scary Plus on there to try it for free. That way
you get the episodes without ads. Don't forget to drop some stars and tap
follow to get the next story. Anyway, thank you very much for listening.
Let's see you sooner.