I live in the Black Hills area. Anyone who has been there knows it is a beautiful place to be outdoors in. One of my favorite things to do is backpack out there. For those that don't know, backpacking is a mesh of hiking and camping. You take all the supplies you'll need to survive the time you'll be out there. It's tons of fun. So much so that most of my supplies basically never leave my car. I work a Monday-Friday job. At 4:00pm on Friday if the weather is supposed to be nice enough, I drive home, change grab my dog, whatever supplies I need for the weekend, and I am out the door.

The place I was going was relatively new to me. An elderly man had told me about it at a one of the weekly meetups for outdoors enthusiasts. It was his first meeting there. It sounded right up my alley. A nice stream to fish at and hardly any other people. I was so excited, I planned the trip for the upcoming weekend even though it was supposed to snow on Sunday.

The drive was weird. I followed the man's directions to the letter amd this road... I dunno. There were so many bends and curves I felt like I was going in circles for hours. I finally found the trail I was supposed to be on. My dog didn't want to get out of the car. It took some coaxing but she finally came out. It was odd, she loves being outdoors as much as I do.

We set off down the winding trail. I found it growing cold, though the sun was still up.

As I was hiking, I passed a seemingly abandoned two story house. The windows were long gone and the door was hanging by its hinges. I felt... drawn to it. I can't explain the feeling. I walked inside it. Of course, the place was trashed. Bits of trash from other hikers, graffiti on the walls. There was a strange symbol carved into what seemed to be every room of the house. An inverted pentagram with a lightning bolt. In the upstairs room, there was one with some peculiar, runic symbols at each point of the star. As I walked to inspect it closer; transfixed at how in some way, this wasn't just graffiti, it was art. The edges, they were precise. It seemed flawless, ri..... A sudden and very loud "WOOOOF" jarred me from the trance I was in. My dog was looking very nervous. I left the house making a note to come back to it on my way back to the car.

The sun was beginning to set so I set up my camp along the trail. After I ate, I laid down in my tent. I woke up to here shuffling outside, as if someone was pacing back and forth outside my tent. I gripped the handle of my Glock 19, grabbed my flashlight and planned to possibly have to shoot a mountain lion or a coyote. I zipped open the door and clambered out of my tent. I shined my flashlight towards where I had heard the noise. Nothing was there. Just to be safe I did a 360 sweep with my light. Still nothing. I figured I had just imagined the noise. I checked my watch. It was 3:15 am. I had a few hours until I needed to get up. I crawled back in my tent and passed out, putting all thoughts of the strange noise out of my head.

The next day was pretty uneventful, minus the mauled raccoon I found. I found my next camping site about 3 miles from the previous one. Would you believe it? An actual ghost town. I had to stay. I couldn't resist it. It gave me time to explore. I found some of the walls stained an odd color. Most of the furniture rotted. What appeared to have been some kind of bar still had full liquor bottles.

After I caught some fish for dinner, I decided it was time to relax for the evening.

I laid out my sleeping bag in the least damaged house and prepared to get some sleep. It got cold quickly so I threw some wood in the house's fireplace to help keep warm.

I woke up the next morning, absolutely frozen. I looked out the broken window to see snow had fallen. Cursing to myself, I got up and began packing for the hike back.

I did one last sweep around the house for anything I might have left. Turning to leave, I froze when I realized there were footprints in the snow. all over. Human ones. I don't scare easy. But that freaked me the hell out. My dog and I left in a hurry. We left so fast that I didn't even bother stopping at the first houses I'd seen.

The elderly man didn't show up to any other meetings.