We specialize in all things frightening . From true stories to fiction , horror movies to creepy art , we 're your one - stop spot when you want to be infested by the creepy - crawlies . Now , turn off the lights . Lock your doors . Try your best to make it through the night . I once saw a man walking a rabbit . He had it on a leash . It was early morning , that time when the wise people of the world were tucked in their beds . At that moment it seemed like the three of us , the man , the rabbit and myself were the only things awake in existence . I was a night owl at that time . Always had been . I felt about the daytime the same way a claustrophobic might feel about elevators . I created my life around the night . My work , my personal life , my hobbies , all were purposefully developed to keep myself inside during the day and out at night . I live in a small town and it does limit what I can do in the small hours of the morning . Nothing stays open past midnight . The normal activities that occupy people 's lives during the day aren 't available to me . I needed something to occupy my time , so I took up walking as a hobby . This is America . Walking isn 't normal . People who live in suburbs or small country towns don 't walk . Those few that do are usually deemed to be weirdos , misfits , or criminals . Really , the negative assumptions are understandable . America isn 't made for walking . It 's made for driving , but I don 't drive . I walk . Most of the time there 's nothing really to see , or at least nothing out of the ordinary to see . There 's plenty to see on my walks , but most of it won 't be interesting to you . For example , do you care about the way the ground lights illuminate the old Presbyterian church during a fog ? Would you care to know about the habits of the raccoon 's in Wilson Park ? There are other things , though . Things that I 've witnessed that you would be interested in . I look in windows - - because of course I do . I don 't stop and stare . I don 't peep . I glance . As I walk past a house I will glace at the windows . Usually I see drawn curtains , hiding dark rooms . That 's to be expected , of course , but sometimes I see people and snapshots of their lives . Often those lives consist of a strong diet of television and late night snacking . The ordinariness of wasting time is a sin . Sometimes , though , I witness things less mundane . The rare occasion when I tell someone about my nighttime walks , they always want to hear the juicy stories . Have you ever seen a murder ? Do you watch people having sex ? What 's the scariest thing you 've seen ? I have answers to each of these . No , I 've never seen a murder , though I 've witnessed other crimes . I have seen people having sex . Then there 's the answer to the scariest thing question . . . The scariest thing used to be the time I saw a man beating his wife in their front yard . I still remember being surprised that there was no dialogue between the two , just the animal noises of physical effort and pain . I was dumbfounded by the brutality . A motion caught my eye and I saw a curtain move aside at a nearby house , a man 's face momentarily pressed against the window . I saw him roll his eyes at the scene . By that point the woman was on the ground , like a lump of dough , and had ceased to fight back . The neighbor closed the curtain . It was as if the neighbor was immune to this act of violence . It was like he was beyond caring , like his chief complaint would have been the noise and the interruption to his sleep . Of course , I didn 't personally intervene , either , though I did call the police . At the time , he and his partner was close by the location of the call , as was a canine unit who got there before they did . The canine unit had this dog called Floyd who was ' famous ' for being completely fearless to the point of madness . So they go up the outside stairs of the flat to the door with Floyd and kick the door down and send Floyd in , but as soon as he stepped over the threshold he stopped dead , hackles raised and started whimpering . He tried to go back downstairs but the dog handler ' threw ' him into the room where he was just terrified and would not move . I did not receive too many paranormal calls in my years as a police officer . However , one day I was called in to day shift when their supervisor was out sick . We always had a unit watch the school zone in the morning and afternoon because it was on a strip of road that people frequently sped through . The weather was nice so I got out and walk along the sidewalk . I enjoyed talking to the kids and giving them the chance to interact in a positive way with the police . One little girl walked up to me and asked me why we were not arresting the " ghosts " in the haunted house . Jokingly I told her that was the Ghostbusters job but since they were all the way over in New York I would see what I could do . By now a small group had gathered around and they all had stories about the same haunted house ( which was along a street adjacent to where we were ) . The complaints were typical , of nothing , but there were enough of them who swore they heard something I decided I would check it out . The house turned out to be owned by a family in Colorado ( at the time I worked in a smaller Oklahoma town ) . The mother had passed away many years ago , and though the family owned the house and paid taxes they did nothing with it . It was a good size two story house , but years of neglect had made it look pretty rough on the outside . It took my front office folks a day or so to find the owners . We called them , explained we had received some noise complaints , and upon inspection had located the rear entrance was unsecured . They gave us permission to enter the residence and asked that we secure it if possible when we left . and meet me down stairs . Did a cursory check of the remaining rooms and went on down . Turns out the house that the grade school kids thought was haunted had become a love / party next for a group of high school kids . knows which group of kids first broke the windows and / or kicked in the back door . They demoed the house and sold the lot about a month later . Posted by She was awoken from her phone vibrating with a text message . She groggily saw it was from her dad and she read it . The text said to get out of the house because there were people in the house . She opened her window and snuck out . Meanwhile , her dad went into the kitchen armed and ready to find out what was going on . So , he goes downstairs to where he thought her heard the noise and finds no one . There was no sign of entry . The doors were locked , and there was not a soul in the house besides my girlfriend 's dad and his wife who was behind the locked door of the bedroom . We hike out to this one area we had found a site a few weeks previously . For some reason the whole area just felt . . . off . So , we get down to business and about 15 mins after being hunched over mapping , there is this WEIRD deafening " WOMP " sound . Like , I could feel pressure in my ears . " WOMP ! " ear pressure and chest pressure like I was just squeezed . Chills all over my body and every hair is standing on end . My boss just looks at me and says , " let 's go ! " . We grab all of our shit and speed hike back to the truck . a few weeks ago we were on a roadtrip from BC to San Diego and we came upon a campsite just outside of crescent city California . We drove through , one side of the campground was relatively empty , I noticed a few scattered tents but nobody close to the location we ended up picking . We had tons of space . We wanted an early night so I started a fire while my girlfriend started cooking . We ate , had a few beers , and climbed up to our rooftop tent ( tepui ) with our dog by 9pm or so . I had a rough time sleeping and woke up a few times but finally fell into a decent sleep . was awoken at 1am by someone whistling outside of our tent the tune of " when the saints come marching in " . After a few minutes of this repetitive whistling I nudged my girlfriend who awoke and was obviously freaked out as well . The whistling then turned to chanting things like " when you sleep here you disrespect me , and when you disrespect me you disrespect the US Marines ! " so we decided we had to make a move . I slowly unzipped the tent while our guard dog was snoring and got my head out if the tent . I took a few seconds to let my eyes adjust and figure out where the person was . I felt more confident once I could somewhat see and hear so I climbed down I was camping in the Florida Keys one winter . I managed to survive the large snakes and even larger alligators as well as the scorpions which would get in my shoes at night but one experience I will never forget . My camp site was next to an old rock quarry which had filled with water and made a good place for swimming and getting water from . There was also an old dump sight close to this quarry with piles of stoves and fridges and other junk . It had been there for a while but nothing new had been added to it for a long time . As soon as it got dark and I was falling asleep my tent became covered with hundreds of rats . I guess they had moved out of the dump because of the fire and we 're just wondering around looking for food . They were everywhere climbing up my ropes and over the top of the tent . I shook as many as I could off and started a fire and stayed up all night hoping they wouldn 't return . Dr . James Cole , an archeologist from the University of Brighton in England , did a little digging ( pun ! ) and discovered the amount of calories one would consume if one consumed a human body - - as , I 'm sure , one does on occasion . The end result of the study showed that if you were to eat an entire human body , you would consumer 125 , 000 calories , which is a lot . Pro tip : cut back on your cannibalism if you 're trying to get ready for swimsuit season . " This is something I stumbled across while hiking in the woods this afternoon . There 's like 25 missing persons posters taped to the trees , along with some ratty old bedding , a shovel , a large tent , and a collapsed handmade wooden cage surrounding a filled - in hole . I tried to get as many of the posters in frame as I could but the video was aborted when I heard voices coming from the direction of the adjacent residence . Recorded on the afternoon of October 3rd 2016 ( " Mean Girls Day " ) in Suffolk County , NY . " The police were called for this incident , but the owners of the property explained it all away as Halloween decorations for a party . Regardless of that being in terrible taste if true , James Rankin had some other problems with the excuse . Again , here are his own words " On October 30th , I returned to the park to film a brief and mostly harmless update video for those who may have been wondering what 's been going on since the events of earlier this month . As my narration attempts to explain , I had previously visited the woods on the preceding Tuesday by myself , and been unsuccessful at taking video , and Wednesday , when I and a couple of friends did make a video , which was dark and hard to see , not to mention kind of long . Longer even than the 12 minute runtime of this one . Recent discoveries include a stash of what appear to be ( but might not be ) weapons at the other fire pit , as well as some logs laid across one of the trails by persons unknown . Most of the logs had been removed by the time I returned to make this video , but can be seen in the long dark one from Wednesday that I haven 't posted ( yet ) . As you recall from earlier in the month , the missing persons posters had been explained away as being " decorations for a Halloween party " which was said to have either taken place back in August , or was set to be held at the end of October . Based on casual observations on the Friday and Saturday night of " Halloween weekend , " no parties were seen to have been held at the location . However , people identifying themselves as party guests have said on facebook that a small gathering with pizza and beer took place at some point this past weekend . I am not here to judge , or to declare conclusively what happened . I 'm just being the eyes and ears of the greater population . Sift through the evidence and decide for yourself . This goes on night after night and my relative is thinking House is just fucking with him . So , he tells House to shut up and go to sleep . House says he can 't sleep . House looks like he hasn 't slept in a month and despite being at least 350 pounds of meat and potatoes , this guy looks like a scared kindergartener . My relative said he heard the noise for a solid 5 minutes , clear as day . He went around , but just couldn 't hear where it was coming from because " it was like it was coming from everywhere . " to death in the empty cell years earlier : Apparently , while being strangled , someone stabbed the inmate in the throat below the rope and he was gurgle - choking - drowning through the throat stab wound . So , they beat him to death instead . Posted by I work on a university as a security guard . One night I received a 3am call of a " haunted dorm room " . We get there and find the girls were in tears . They had googled instructions for a home exorcism , made homebrew holy water , crosses and printed out photos of Jesus and plastered them all over the walls . They said they would hear things like footsteps , a child 's laughter , a whispering voice saying " hey can you hear me ? As we interviewed them , we heard it once , they screamed and burst into tears . Their RA , bless his heart , tried to help by offering the advice that at least the ghost wasn 't threatening or malicious and probably meant us no because aliens were jumping around on her roof . They would send out an officer . The officer who went usually just stood outside in her front yard waving his baton and yelling at the aliens to go away until the old In our opinion , some of the best horror can be found in the realm of science fiction . Think about some the classic sci - fi films that also fall into the horror genre : Alien , Aliens , The Thing , The Fly , etc . etc . We believe science fiction and horror go together like pancakes and syrup . In that spirit , we 'd like to recommend a new science fiction blog - - the terrific A Beach , Somewhere . So when you 've had your fill of frights for the day and just want to get away from it all , go check it out and then come back and thank us for putting it on your radar . Her teacher was a nice lady , though a bit timid and quiet . The first odd thing was that rather than use the perfectly good kitchen table for the tutoring , they used a room in the basement . The gloomy room was full of taxidermied animals ; the tutor 's husband was a champion big game hunter ( crossbow ) . Every few months , the tutor would go on 1 - 2 week vacations by herself . Then , during one of the vacations , my teacher 's mom picked up the paper and saw that the tutor 's husband had been arrested for 15 counts of murder . He had preyed on young homeless or run - away women , locking them in the very room my teacher took her tutoring lessons in for several days without food , then taking them in his plane , releasing them , then hunting them down with his crossbow . more info following her . Her friend lived in the mountains , out of city limits , so the chances of someone following her were pretty good . She pulls in the friend 's driveway and an old man in the pick up truck pulls in behind her , blocking her in . She locks all the doors and refuses to get out of the car . He comes up to the window ( it was cracked about an inch ) and mumbles something about them having similar license plates . At this point , she 's really freaked out and has her phone in her lap calling the guy who 's driveway she 's parked in . The old man lifts his hands and he has a rope in them . He asks her if she knows of a good place to walk his dog . She looks back toward his truck - there 's no dog . At this point , her friend answers the phone and she tells him to get his ass outside . The friend opens his front door with a baseball bat in hands and immediately the old man starts to retreat . The guy chases him back into his car and partially tears the sideview mirror off the old truck . Posted by hike initially began without a hitch ; it was really , really hot so getting deep into the canyons was a welcome respite from the heat . This particular season had been extremely dry . Normally , when you 're trekking through this system of canyons you can expect to go through sections that have water . Some of these flooded section of canyons are so prevalent that they are named features , like the ' Cesspool ' . When we went through , it was bone dry . We didn 't even need to get our water shoes out . water , or for a hiker trying to feebly run away from the wall of death behind them . A morbid reminder is the presence of these giant logs wedged between the canyon walls , dozens of feet above you , indicating the height to which flood levels rise . This also means you can 't set up camp just anywhere . It is vital you find a sand bar elevated above the floor of the canyon in the sparse sections where the canyon widens out , just in case you 're unlucky and a transient flood just so happens to pass through . You can tell it to be safe by the presence of vegetation growing on the tops , unable to be washed away by floods . But as I said , it had been really dry up to that point , so we weren 't really worried about that . When we stopped for lunch about halfway through the trek , I looked up and noticed little cute cumulus clouds floating by . Fuck . The deserts are known for their random thunderstorms . As we continued walking , the sky began becoming less and less blue percentage wise , instead filling up with more and more grey . As it became overcast , there was a true sense of despair rising up within me . Total helplessness . In this sort of situation you have no control ; there is nowhere to go , nowhere to run . I felt this vividly sad sense of acceptance , like as if a judge had sentenced me to death to be carried out that day , with no chance to tie up any loose ends in my life . This whole time my friends were oblivious to the dangers , and were joking , which made me feel worse due to the extreme juxtaposition of the situation , but I didn 't really want to ruin their fun . And then it started drizzling . You know when people jokingly say they were so scared they shit their pants ? As soon as I felt the drops on my cheeks , my bowels were seriously coming loose . That feeling of first - date nervousness x1000 . I actually had to stop walking to regain composure and control of the muscles responsible for that function . At this point I But finally , after a physically exhausting trek of 22 miles in the sand , made mentally exhausting by failed pack winching up rock falls ( resulting in major loss of water ) , and most of all the surreal drizzle scare , we finally reached a section of land that could accommodate all of us ( about 10ish ) . Too happy to put the trials of the day behind us , we wasted no time in getting dinner prepared and getting ready to turn in for the night . Little did we know . This was the start of the most bone - chilling experience I have ever had . To this day just the memory of Sure enough , there was some shrill noise faintly coming from where we had just trekked . We kind of wonder what the noise could be , and we thought maybe someone needed help . Maybe they broke an ankle or were cornered by an animal . I jokingly threw out the possibility that maybe it was the ghosts of the native americans angry at us for disturbing some sacred ground of theirs , and the sounds were of them tracking us through the canyon . Then a friend suggested maybe due to the shrill nature of the noise it was a banshee stalking us . As we were discussing the possibilities I heard something coming from the other end of the canyon . I pointed it out to the other guys and as we fell silent I could immediately tell it wasn 't an echo due to the noise being in a completely different register , yet still very shrill . However , it was still rather faint . But then a third noise popped up , and a fourth ! And all the while the noises were getting louder , and louder , and louder , and louder . As it got louder , it became far more human like , but extremely angry . We were all scared shitless at this point , completely seriously referring to these noises as banshees . These sounds got so loud that eventually we couldn 't hear ourselves talk , and the sound penetrated through our skulls into our thoughts . An endless barrage of extremely high pitched screaming , yet with it all seemingly completely in harmony and slowly undulating , like the breath of the ocean . It took up all sensation and all feeling . The moonlit night flooded this canyon with light , revealing the patterns created by dark streaks on the sandstone walls . After a while the fear subsided , and the noise , with its extremely pervasive quality , along with the scenery , completely freed me from my mind 's stream of conscious thought that was the source of all worry . It was hauntingly beautiful the way I remember it and this otherwordly sound we experienced in nature is what brings back the chills everytime I think of it . As weird as it sounds I am so thankful to have had experienced them . I will remember them as long as I live . If anyone is able to find sources of this sound I will be forever grateful . My friend recorded it but lost his phone a couple months after the trip , and everyone I have asked since can 't identify what may have caused this sound . I want to hear them again and relive that experience . So , there 's this guy , Frank , and he likes to explore abandoned mines , and old caves and such . Well , one of the abandoned mines , Horton Mine in Nevada , provided Frank with a little more excitement than he was expecting . Watch below and then tell what you think is happening in this video . Here are some interesting tales from " Searchandrescuewoods " we recommend reading the stuff below and then following the link at the end to see more from SearchAndRescurWoods . I have a pretty good track record for finding missing people . Most of the time they just wander off the path , or slip down a small cliff , and they can 't find their way back . The majority of them have heard the old ' stay where you are ' thing , and they don 't wander far . But use them as motivation to search even harder on the missing persons cases I get called on . The first was a little boy who was out berry - picking with his parents . He and his sister were together , and both of them went missing around the same time . Their parents lost sight of them for a few seconds , and in that time both the kids apparently wandered off . When their parents couldn 't find them , they called us , and we came out to search the area . We found the daughter pretty quickly , and when we asked where her brother was , she told us that he 'd been taken away by ' the bear man . ' She said he gave her berries and told her to stay quiet , that he wanted to play with her brother for a while . The last she saw of her brother , he was riding on the shoulders of ' the bear man ' and seemed calm . Of course , our first thought was abduction , but we never found a trace of another human being in that area . The little girl was also insistent that he wasn 't a normal man , but that he was tall and covered in hair , ' like a bear ' , and that he had a ' weird face . ' We searched that area for According to the mother , her daughter had climbed up a tree to get a better view of the forest , and she 'd never come back down . They waited at the base of the tree for hours , calling her name , before they called for help . Again , we searched everywhere , and we never found a trace of her . I have no idea where she could possibly have gone , because neither her mother or grandpa saw her come down . they 've tried to lead me straight up cliffs . Not hills , not even rock faces . Straight , sheer cliffs with no possible handholds . It 's always baffling , and in those cases we usually find the person on the other side of the cliff , or miles away from where the canine has led us . I 'm sure there 's an explanation , but it 's sort of strange . One particularly sad case involved the recovery of a body . A nine - year - old girl fell down an embankment and got impaled on a dead tree at the base . It was a complete freak accident , but I 'll never forget the sound her mother made when we told her what had happened . She saw the body bag being loaded into the ambulance , and she let out the most haunting , heart - broken wail I 've ever heard . It was like her whole life was crashing down around her , and a part of her had died with her daughter . I heard from another SAR officer that she killed herself a few I was teamed up with another SAR officer because we 'd received reports of bears in the area . We were looking for a guy who hadn 't come home from a climbing trip when he was supposed to , and we ended up having to do some serious climbing to get to where we figured he 'd be . We found him trapped in a small crevasse with a broken leg . It was not pleasant . He 'd been there for almost two days , and his leg was very obviously infected . We were able to get him into a chopper , and I heard from one of the EMTs that the guy was absolutely inconsolable . He kept talking about how he 'd been doing fine , and when he 'd gotten to the top , was wearing a parka and ski pants . He walked up to the guy , and when the guy turned around , he said he had no face . It was just blank . He freaked out , and ended up trying to get off the mountain too fast , which is why he 'd fallen . He said he could hear the guy all night , climbing down the mountain and letting out these horrible muffled screams . That story bothered the hell out of me . I 'm glad I wasn 't there to hear it . One of the scariest things I 've ever had happen to me involved the search for a young woman who 'd gotten separated from her hiking group . We were out until late at night , because the dogs had picked up her scent . When we found her , she was curled up under a large rotted log . She was missing her shoes and pack , and she was clearly in shock . She didn 't have any injuries , and we were able to get her to walk with us back to base ops . Along the way , she kept looking behind us and asking us why ' that big man with black eyes ' was following us . We couldn 't see anyone , so we just wrote it off as some weird symptom of shock . But the closer we got to base , the more agitated this woman got . She kept asking me to tell him to stop ' making faces ' at her . At one point she stopped and turned around and started yelling into the forest , saying that she wanted him to leave her alone . She wasn 't going to go with him , she said , and she wouldn 't give us to him . We finally got her to keep moving , but we started hearing these weird noises coming from all around us . It was almost like coughing , but more rhythmic and deeper . It was almost insect - like , I don 't really know how else to describe it . When we were within site of base ops , the woman turns to me , and her eyes are about as wide as I can imagine a human could open them . She touches my shoulder and says ' He says to tell you to speed up . I have no idea how this woman saw it . Right after she says it , I hear that weird coughing right in my ear , and I just about jumped out of my skin . I hustled her to ops , trying not to show how freaked out I was , but I have to say I was really happy when we left the area that night . This is the last one I 'll tell , and it 's probably the weirdest story I have . Now , I don 't know if this is true in every SAR unit , but in mine , it 's sort of an unspoken , regular thing we run into . You can try asking about it with other SAR officers , but even if they know what you 're talking about , they probably won 't say anything about it . We 've been told not to talk about it by our superiors , and at this point we 've talking 30 or 40 miles , at some point we 'll find a staircase in the middle of the woods . It 's almost like if you took the stairs in your house , cut them out , and put them in the forest . I asked about it the first time I saw some , and the other officer just told me not to worry about it , that it was normal . Everyone I asked said the same thing . I wanted to go check them out , but I was told , very emphatically , that I should never go near any of them . I just sort of ignore them now when I run into them because it happens so frequently . Even though it is named after a small , unincorporated community in Missouri from which it is most commonly reached , the light is most commonly described as being visible from inside the Oklahoma border looking to the west . The Spooklight is commonly described as a single ball of light or a tight grouping of lights that is said to appear in the area regularly , usually at night . Although the description of the light is similar to that of other visual phenomena witnessed throughout the world , the term " Spooklight " when standing alone generally refers to There is an article currently on the front page about true stories that put horror movies to shame . Go read it now . Then come back and tell us your thoughts . Share Alone at Night with a Friend As we 've posted before Alone at Night has created a Patreon account at which you can toss a dollar our way to support our work . However , we understand that not everyone is in the place where they can support us monetarily , we 've been there . Even if you can 't support us with donations , you can still support Alone at Night by getting the word out . Share your favorite Alone at Night post on Facebook or Twitter , or other social media . Tell your friends . Tell your mom . Tell your dog . to high crime rates and people trying to break in , etc . Anyway , I was at my apartment alone . I have two roommates and it was a Friday night . I had decided to come home early from a party because everyone was getting drunk . It was around 2a . m . The apartment complex I live in is pretty nice . It 's not crime - ridden or run down . I like it . Anyway , I was trying to finish up some weekend homework when I hear a really LOUD knocking from the door . Seeing as I had friends that were out drunk , I didn 't think twice . I called out , " Hold on ! " because I the door and there was no one there . The silence was haunting . I 've never encountered a silence like that before in my entire life . My stomach literally turned to ice water . I immediately shut the door and locked it up . I stayed in the living room ( where the front door was ) so I could make sure no one knocked again . Somewhere between 2 and 3 I dozed off , but I was startled awake by muffled voices . I remember this really low voice that seemed right beside my ear . I jolted awake and I realized no one was in my apartment - - they were standing right outside . I looked over to a large sliding glass door we have ( that leads out into the back quarters of the complex ) and there were two figures that were shadowed in the porch light . It was incredibly frightening . I knew they weren 't my roommates because the voices were so different . Needless to say , When I was about 12 , I was at this kid 's lake house one weekend in the summer . He lived next door to me in the suburbs so I saw him a lot . Back then , I was super friendly and attracted the friendship of a lot of strange , outcast types . This kid was like that . He was also hyper - competitive . We were playing ping - pong on the lake house porch and I let him beat me a couple times . He got cocky and started bragging , telling me I sucked , etc . I got really angry and didn 't let him score a point for about 4 straight games , insulting him the entire time . I really lost my cool , really laid into him . He responded in kind , and then started threatening me . I told him to bring it on . He ran at me . I was a lot bigger than him so I just pushed him over backwards , hard , and laughed in his face . His mom rushed out to break it up , and took me down to the lake house basement . I was at the bottom of the staircase and she was about two steps up , interrogating me and trying to figure out what had happened . And saw this , screamed , snatched the gun out of the kid 's hands and called for the kid 's father . He came and took the gun away . They sent the kid to his room . And then . . . it was like nothing had even happened . The kid stayed in his room . I stayed in the basement . A couple I completely denied its plausibility . And everyone else did too . The kid literally tried to shoot me with a hunting rifle and no one said a fucking thing . I haven 't even thought about it 5 times since it happened , over 15 years ago . Posted by This happened probably in the late 1990 's . I used to go out to this place and park my jeep about 1 . 5 miles SE of the cones . It was a little stand of mesquite trees with a cattle tank and feeding area and an almost purpose built parking space for my old jeep . I would pull in among the mesquite trees and toss a camo tarp and camo net over my jeep and you could walk past my jeep and never see it . I was ( am ) totally paranoid about leaving my vehicle out there - I always wondered whether it would be there when I got back . jeep going NW to Aden Crater . I had spent enormous amounts of my time while in college driving around out here and I had mapped out where all the old jeep trails and cattle trails and cattle tanks and wells were located . ( I was a biology / ecology field worker as a student and I had extensive experience with GPS mapping and orienteering . ) So , I had a number of waypoints along the way where I knew I could filter water . don 't remember exactly what time of year this was but I don 't think it was very hot out but it was the usually bright and clear blue skies . I made my way out and it is fairly rough volcanic terrain . I made it about this experience many times before and it usually passes quickly - that feeling of being in the middle of nowhere and just getting freaked out . The area has deer and tons of coyotes ( the 4 legged kind ) and rabbits and lizards but no predators that would have given me that sense of being watched . While this was within 20 miles of the border , back then I had never seen any illegals or druggies or even many border patrol agents . The main roads were fairly well traveled and many people would go out there but I have never actually seen another person while I was hiking away from the roads . I was in the middle of the lava fields and there were not even any cattle trails within a square kilometer . I stood and was quiet and tried to figure out what was wrong . I heard the usual train going by on the tracks a couple of miles north . I could hear the vague sounds of a helicopter down south near the border . But there wasn 't anything else . I looked toward Aden Crater and it was probably less than 2 miles away . What to do ? Press on and hope the feeling would go away ? I looked back the way I came and I could see the Gardner Cones . That was my safe place - I had spent many , many nights there before . After a few minutes I said the heck with it and shrugged into my pack . I took a quick bearing on the Cones , even though they were prominent enough to clearly see my way , but it always made me feel better to concentrate on my compass work . So , I headed back . I thought I was a long slog back there . I had passed the cones within a couple of hundred meters on the first time out and now I was tired and leaning hard on my trekking poles as I went up the side of the cones and into the middle area . I was tired but I felt good . It was a very sheltered area and I always felt safe in between the 3 cones . I made camp and had my dinner and settled down for the night . I did my customary sitting on top of the one cone to watch the sunset and then went and settled into my sleeping bag . I had picked up the custom of listening to my shortwave safety when camping . I had my Glock 23 that I carried in my pack and I set that out next to my sleeping bag . I had the general rule to always camp away from major terrain features - roads , hills , water tanks , etc … but the cones were my exception because it was my area where I had first camped alone and I had been coming here for years at this point . I was in my trusty Kelty Vortex 2 and I feel asleep . The only problem that night was the sound of the helicopter getting progressively closer and I After sleeping for an undetermined amount of time I was woken up suddenly . I am always a light sleeper while camping and now I was awake and wondering what woke me up . I grabbed the Glock and I was laying there in my sleeping bag , tucked into a fetal position when the night turned bright white and there was an overwhelming amount of noise . Dirt was flying around in the tent , the fly and the inner tent were violently shaking , and the noise and hurricane like winds were buffeting me . I had of me the helo would come . I didn 't think that they could land in the area in between the cones but they got damn close . I froze and thought that if I moved with the gun in my hand I would be dead . I don 't know if looked at my watch and it was something like 2 or 3 AM . I was wide awake and shaking and in disbelief . I thought " to hell with this ! " and started breaking camp as quickly as I could . I set my compass bearing by my GPS and started bushwhacking in the darkness , afraid to put on my headlamp . I managed to do my best ever night compass navigation and managed to hit my Jeep right on without an offset and started the long drive home . I still have the tent and the poles have a bend in them from the force of the Blackhawk 's downdraft . At least I can say that the Kelty can stand up to near hurricane winds ! And I was never bored camping . ( Hello Alone at Night visitors . Our new book is alive ! It 's available on Amazon . I love to ride my bike along the country roads of a . . . This happened to me about 12 years ago when I was 10 . Still to this day it creeps me out . Down the road from my house is a petrol station . I . . . Hello , Alone at Night Scary Stories fans . Big news . You can read more about Alone at Night 's Patreon account here . Alone at Night h . . . Hello , Alone at Night fans . We 're still waiting for our first Patreon contributor . Will it be you ? If you enjoy the content that Alon . . .