A couple’s horrifying and yet unique camping experience.
Reading time: 5 minutes.

A Unique Camping Experience

My girlfriend and I wanted to spend the weekend together, so we went to this beautiful camping site in the forest. We had set up our camp nicely by the sunset on an enchanting Friday evening. We also met other groups who had come there for the same experience. We lit a nice cosy bonfire, and I cooked our food on it that we had packed. We had switched off our phones, so we didn't have quite an idea of the time. We were just gazing at the stars in a beautiful, moonless night sky. We stayed outside the tent for hours, but then it got dreadfully quiet, so we went in. It was definitely past midnight because there were literally no sounds of the other campers. They must’ve gone to sleep by then. All we could hear were night bugs and slow winds. We were cuddling, trying to go to sleep when we heard it.

“HELP!”

We both sat upright, alerted, and listening; it was a blood-curdling scream. Some man was in danger. He was calling for help. For a few seconds, we just stayed there because we weren't sure what to do. Then we heard it again.

"HELP! OH, GOD! SOMEBODY, PLEASE HELP!"

The screams were so loud that this man couldn't have been too far from our tent. We couldn't stay in the tent listening to this man screaming for his life, who was probably being mauled to his death by wolves or a grizzly bear. So being equally stupid and brave, we stepped out to find this man.

We had only walked for about a minute when it occurred to us that we had forgotten our phones in the tent. We wanted to go back, but we didn't know if this man would be alive by then. We walked for another minute when we arrived at this stream. We saw this man sitting against a tree on the opposite side of the stream. He had folded into himself, and he was crying. I took a step forward, asking if he was okay. My girlfriend told me to be careful as she stayed back. I had only taken a few steps towards him when this poor man stood up straight. I kid you not, he was at least ten feet tall, and he didn’t look injured at all. My girlfriend screamed and asked me to run, but I was frozen in my spot out of fear. The creature leapt across the stream in a hop and landed right in front of me. That’s when I saw his face. It wasn’t a man.

My feet were stuck due to the fear. This terrifying creature growled, and I think I peed in my pants. My fate was sealed, but I screamed and told my girlfriend to run and save herself. I couldn't know if she did because this creature lunged at me, and I closed my eyes, put my hands up in defence. It wasn't going to do much, though. I had accepted my death, but I was saved.

I felt something heavy approach us and heard a roar, so I opened my eyes. It was a grizzly bear. I saw them both in a death grapple. It seemed to me that this bear had come to save me. The creature saw its prey getting away, so it decided to run. I was still standing there fear-struck, but then the bear roared at me. That's when the world came back to me, or I came back to reality. I turned around and started to run in the opposite direction. My girlfriend was still standing in her spot. She looked terrible, even more than me. The poor girl had started crying and calling for help. I grabbed her hand, and we were just about to run as far as we could, but we heard another voice.

“No, no, wait! It’s alright!”

We turned around and saw a man running towards us. We thought that he was calling us, but he wasn't. He was talking to the bear. We stopped and watched him as he tried to calm down the bear. Soon, it looked like a puppy. The man then turned to us and explained that the creature was, in fact, a man-eater. He explained it all to us.

A man-eater is born as a human and grows up just like them. There is no distinguishing a man-eater from a human until the man-eater becomes an adult. That’s when it starts to crave human flesh. The cravings only increase with time. No other animals, no other food, no matter how much, satiates its hunger. It grows violent until it eats human flesh, and when he does, he transforms into the horrifying creature we had just seen. After becoming a man-eater, it doesn't remember much from its past. It only craves human flesh and usually hunts at night. Mostly, campers and hikers are its prey.

After listening to all of this, we shuddered to our very core. We thanked this man and asked him how he knew all of that. More importantly, we asked him how he made friends with a grizzly bear. He revealed that he could talk to all animals, not just the bear. He could understand them and converse with them. We did not believe him at first, but he demonstrated his abilities. He called a whole lot of animals and, sort of, introduced us to them. The bear actually shook both our hands. After this bewildering experience, our fear came down a little. That's when it happened; out of nowhere, a pack of wolves came running at us. The man got alerted, and after conversing with them using his abilities, he told us that the man-eater was circling another prey. He asked us to come with because a man-eater has a habit of coming back to hunt after a failed attempt. We didn't want to be all by ourselves anyway, so we tagged along with him. The wolves led the way, and we followed them. Other animals, however, including the bear, had returned.

We got there just on time; this group of five students was following the same sound. They also thought someone was hurt. When they saw a pack of wolves coming at them, they just lost it and started running away. We hollered at them and explained everything. They were just as baffled as us. The man-eater might have been very hungry because he didn't run away this time but kept growling from afar. We were all terrified, and that’s when a direful thing happened, more than everything that had happened till then.

The man who saved us and the man-eater attacked each other. The wolves joined in to help too. The man shouted at the creature and begged it to stop. He was trying to converse with it too. What shocked us was that this man called the man-eater his father. We heard him distinctly saying, "Father, please, stop! I beg of you!”

The fight did not stop, and the creature did not listen to his son. It defeated all the wolves single-handed and severely injured the man. Then it grabbed his own son in his mouth and dragged him away as we all watched in horror.

We all first travelled back to our tent and packed it. Then we spent the rest of the night with the other group in their tents. We figured it would be safe to stay together. We left the forest first thing in the morning.

We are happily married now with a kid, and we have never been camping after that night. It was enough for a lifetime. I still get nightmares about that night. Maybe writing about it will help me forget it. But, whatever anyone might say, it was a unique camping experience.