The Smourk

Day 13: Friday

4am: After sleeping for just a few hours the three of us are packing up camp before sunrise to start looking for Harland again. At this point, he's been missing for 3 days now and I'm starting to think the worst. We still haven't been able to get any cell service or any response on our walkie-talkie from anybody to tell them our situation. We're going to keep trying but with all this walking around out here even I'm starting to get a bit lost.

9am: Zach and Haylee are fighting again about whose fault it was that Harland went missing. At this point, I've learned to just leave them be. If anybody is at fault then it's all of us. We should have all been keeping an eye on him...

12pm: Zach and Haylee stopped fighting and we've stopped walking to sit and have lunch. For some reason, I'm getting a really eerie vibe where we are... Maybe it's just because of the situation we're in.

5pm: We made it back to where we last saw Harland, right before he went onto a side trail to take a piss. Zach noticed hoof prints on the ground going down the path that Harland went down. You'd never believe it... they're arguing about what kind of animal track it is. To me though, it looks like goat tracks. I didn't know there were goats out here but they definitely look like goat tracks...

9pm: Zach and Haylee are in their tent sleeping now. I'm in mine as well, writing here. I swear I keep hearing rustling in the leaves but every time I move to try to look it stops. Even with a flashlight, it's still so dark out here with the trees blocking any starlight. We've got a good way down the side path that Harland went down. Still no signs, but the hoof prints are still going. It almost feels like they're leading us to him... I don't know, maybe I'm just going crazy.

Day 14: Saturday

8am: I woke up this morning to hear Zach and Haylee tearing down they're tent. I quickly got up and packed mine away as well. We overslept a bit but after how much walking we did yesterday I'm not too surprised. I guess today we'll keep walking down this trail, following the hoof prints...

10am: we've found a set of footprints in the mud and it looks like Harlands... they're oddly deep in the mud and pretty spaced out like he'd been running? Still feeling the heebie jeebies out here.

3pm: We're stopped right now to take a break but we've been walking for 2 hours or so since we had lunch and came to a clearing in the forest where the path continued to cut through some tall grass. On the side of the path though was a smaller path, not cut down but instead... trampled over. We're going to explore that next.

4pm: We've found Harland's bag... with all his belongings torn apart and spread out throughout the tall grass. But no Harland... not even a trace of him. Zach and Haylee are working on putting everything back into his bag while I write this...

6pm: After walking back out of the beaten path through the tall grass we decided to keep going down the path with the hoof prints... maybe it would lead us to him. I don't know if it's just me but ever since we found Harland's bag I've had this feeling of being watched. Who knows, maybe I'm just scared...

10pm: We finally settled down for the night back in the forest. We're still going down the path with hoofs though... At this point, I want to just leave. I don't feel safe at all out here, Zach and Haylee are already asleep but I swear I keep hearing branches break and leaves rustling in the woods. Again though, every time I get up to look it stops. Even when I do look outside I don't see anything.

Day 14: Sunday

7:30am: I am so tired, Zach and Haylee are already ready to go and waiting for me, but I do not want to get out of my sleeping bag. I hardly got any sleep last night because of the rustling, and I could have sworn I heard something breathing outside my tent... multiple times.

9am: I swear I keep seeing something out of the corner of my eye. It's just a big black figure lurking in the trees. Anytime I face it though it disappears. At this point, we aren't following hoofs anymore. They stopped a while ago and cut into the woods. I keep trying to convince Zach and Haylee that we should turn around and go but they won't listen, they just keep saying we need to find Harland.

12pm: I stopped following the path. I don't feel safe out here and I want to leave. Zach and Haylee kept going but I'm going to turn around and work on getting out of here. I'm still seeing this thing in the corner of my eye. There was one time when I was able to get a good look at it... it had the legs of some sort of animal but the stance of a man, its legs and arms were hairy but its chest looked like a man too... and its face was blank and featureless... Maybe my imagination is just playing tricks on me.

5pm: Whatever it is that I'm seeing is getting closer to me, when I see it now it looks like it's only a couple yards away... I think I can smell it... it smells like something rotting and like shit... Could this be what Harland was saying he smelt? I think I briefly remember him saying he was seeing something in the woods and smelling rot. We all thought he was joking...

9pm: I set up camp and I'm lying down in my tent. It sounds like something keeps brushing up against my tent and the smell is so bad it's making me nauseous. I think I'm going to get up and look around outside... see if I can get a good look at this creature. When tomorrow comes though, I'm leaving my stuff here with a letter to let Zach and Haylee know I'm safe and I am sprinting out of this place.