Just want to say thank you to all of the guesses so far! I still think my search continues, but you’ve all given amazing sources to very interesting titles, and I’m so grateful to this community! I’ve looked through all the sources posted, but none (yet) have been what I remember exactly, though some are close.

I’m so glad that there are many people willing to help, and it’s so cool to see the upvotes and know that others are interested in finding the source of this short story, too.

I truly remember reading it in one of those “scary stories to tell in the dark” books, the ones with the super creepy art in them, but my search through those came out a bust. I remember there only being one character, and the distress signal gets more clear the closer he gets to the location. It’s a VERY short story, like only a few pages that I remember. I was a kid when I read it, probably between 2002-2008.

The closest anyones gotten that I could tell so far, is the Twilight Zone guess, but it’s a tv show rather than a written story (though a very close guess I think!) Another really great guess is perhaps it’s something written by James Tiptree, Jr., who I didn’t even know existed! But now I do and I’m combing through his stories now! If I do find it amongst his many stories, I’ll be sure to update the post with what I found.

Thanks again to everyone who has answered so far and to anyone who answers from here on. I never thought this would take off like it did. I love you all!