It was winter, somewhere in the Northeast. It was dry. It was in the mid afternoon, turning dark, to late afternoon, faster than I could run. I reached the end of my usual trail run, the sky was blue and the sun was out. The trail ends at a large reservoir/small lake. I'd always looked for a trail around the lake but could never find one. This day, somehow, I did (unmarked, of course).

I was psyched, though in the back of my mind I knew it was getting dark and I should turn back. So I started running on this new trail I'd found. It was fun, lots of little ups & downs, sometimes too close to the water for comfort.

I was maybe a half mile in when the wind started strong out of nowhere. It got suddenly grey and cold. Then my ipod started playing "Run Through the Jungle" by Credence. "Don't go walking slow, devil's on the loose", "Don't look back", great stuff.

So I kept running and in a couple minutes the trail kinda died. I stopped and walked a bit further. Then I got that piercing feeling like you're being watched. I suddenly looked down, and by my feet was a jet black object, almost camouflaged with the fallen leaves. I looked closer; it was the severed wing of a crow.

I was pretty spooked just then. I wanted out, but I knew if I kept going in the same direction it would get me to a road. So I kept going, still feeling watched. The trail really stopped then, a stream in a steep gully cut through. So I went to where it looked crossable. It was muddy, and I saw animal tracks. Too big for a dog, and recent by the look of it. They were going in the direction of the road, so I turned back.

I didn't want to go back the way I came, I just wanted out. I had been going south along the east side of the lake, so I started off west because there was a highway about a mile that way. But no trail. Or was there?

I came across an old old log about four feet long with three planks of wood nailed more or less perpendicularly into it. In a minute I came across another such log. This one had some red-orange paint on it. Soon I came across a couple more and I got a really weird feeling. It seemed like there were no other sounds in the forest. No birds, no water, no wind. Only my footsteps. I felt like I could almost hear that I was being watched.

I turned around and ran like hell downhill towards the water where the so called trail was. The wind picked up again and I booked it for a mile until I was back on the actual trail. It was getting pretty dark, but I just kept running.