you driving through the backwoods of Eastern Kentucky in the dead of night is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done anyone who’s ever been in the area knows exactly what I’m talking about all the light from the moon and the stars is blocked by thick vegetation and Hills it’s completely dark there’s history in those hills a lot of history and this energy fills the place with this crazy bad vibe it’s like the very land is mad at you like it wants you dead the roads aren’t well-traveled and you’ll be hard-pressed to see a single car driving down them at night cell service out there at least for me spotty at best non-existent at worst and you pray to whatever you believe in that your car doesn’t break down knowing full well the folks who live smattered across the hills are isolated private people knowing that they wouldn’t be very happy seeing you wandering onto their property in the dead of night none too happy at all it’s what my mom calls bad country she always told me to avoid the area if I could saying that I’d likely be murdered or worse out there and I’ve heard the stories two stories about people getting out of their cars to help a stranded motorist only to be ambushed robbed a kidnapped and or murdered stories about strange lights and ghost killers and vanishing hitchhikers and a crazy inbred hillbilly families there are said to be hundreds of unreported deaths out there people just vanish off the face of the earth never to be seen again I’ve always avoided driving through those hills but one night I found myself driving straight down KY 52 South instead of i-75 south straight into those hills straight into that darkness around midnight I got a message from my mom that my dad had been taken to the hospital and that his condition was serious I immediately jumped out of bed and into my car despite my mom telling me to wait until morning I lived up in Richmond at the time while my parents were down in Hazzard it’s a little under a two-hour drive via i-75 south and a little over – via KY 52 south that night though I 75 was closed due to an overnight bridge reconstruction project so I had to take KY 52 I figured nothing would happen that it’d be a smooth yet anxiety ridden two hours trip but there was this dread I couldn’t shake boiling up in my gut urging me to wait until morning but I didn’t I couldn’t I had to see my dad I got from Richmond to Irving just fine driving the windy road in hilly terrain with ease going faster than the speed limit it was from Irving to Jackson that things took a turn first off it was dark really dark and even with my brights on they still only barely lit up the surrounding area the constantly curving roads didn’t help either I found myself slowing down having to navigate through the dark around the switchbacks and turns inclines and depressions hoping to God that I didn’t run off the road or hit an oncoming vehicle and the dread was at the forefront of everything now sure it could have been exacerbated by worry for my father but there was something about those hills something evil and I’m not ashamed to admit I was really afraid the radio was dipping in and out so I put in a CD to try and drown out my fear with music but after the first song I turned off the stereo completely and drove in silence all of my senses on high alert it felt wrong it felt like I was being watched every so often I would see a light flash in the woods like a campfire but brighter and I swear at one point between crystal and Beattyville there was this hail a hairless large humanoid running after my car next to the road I swear I saw it in the rearview mirror it disappeared into the darkness and trees when I braked and spun around in my seat 30 minutes out of Beattyville I saw a child he was wearing a yellow shirt blue shorts and a red jacket with his hood up colors that reminded me of Superman he wasn’t wearing any shoes that bothered me I turned off my brights and soloed my car to a crawl wondering what the hell this kid who appeared to be under ten years old was doing out in the middle of nowhere I made sure my doors were locked cracked my window and asked him if he was okay as I rolled over to him he didn’t respond I glanced down at my phone no service I asked him again if he was okay and he looked up at me quickly making his hood fall down he was crying I slowed my car to a stop and he immediately ran over sticking dirty fingers into the cracks of my window pounding on the door he was screaming something about how they were hunting him and that they were going to let the monster eat him and they were watching us right now waiting just beyond the darkness at this point I was freaking out and I might have even been screaming – I just can’t really remember I tried to roll my window up while trying to not hurt the child but he wouldn’t release his grip on my window I think he was trying to break it a bright light flashed onto us and the kid screamed even louder he let go of my car and began running down the road back towards bad evil and I’m ashamed to say I took off I was afraid I was going to die and become another statistic of these hills in my rearview mirror I watched as what looked like three men in hooded robes run out onto the road the spotlight one of them was holding was trained on to my car and hit my mirror at an angle that blinded me what it looked like the other two were going after the kid I blinked and looked back towards the road speeding like a bat out of hell I pulled off in Jackson and drove straight to the police station two detectives and an FBI agent who happened to be in the town working with a liaison listen to me with grave faces when I was finished the agent thanked me and then told me that a kid in town had gone missing the day before from a Bible Camp near the Kentucky River he said that’s why he’s in town in the first place apparently the kid and his friends were out playing hide and seek in the woods in broad daylight when he just disappeared he was wearing yellow blue and red like Superman the strange thing is his footsteps just stopped and his shoes were still there it was like he was lifted off the ground by air it was weird half a dozen cop cars with twice as many cops the agent and a search and rescue team were dispatched to the area within minutes of me reporting what I had seen I drove to a local diner and ended up staying at Jackson until morning making the 40-ish minute drive to Hazzard after the Sun rose after hearing why it took me so long to get down there my mom was beside herself with worry but was also glad I was safe my father ended up making a full recovery if you’re wondering if I do feel like a coward if I regret not letting that kid get into my car the answer is a resounding yes I do I am it haunts me to this day but I don’t know what would have happened if I stayed there any longer and I don’t know if either of us would have made it out alive no trace of that kid was ever found again [Music]
