00:00When I got back to camp, I saw her.
00:02A woman was standing by my fire, her back to me.
00:05She was wearing a light-coloured dress, the kind you'd wear to a summer picnic,
00:10completely inappropriate for the cold night.
00:12She was moving slowly, deliberately, picking up my things and examining them in my cooler,
00:17my camp chair, my backpack.
00:18Not rummaging, not searching, just looking.
00:22I ducked behind a tree, my heart pounding so hard I was sure she could hear it.
00:26Who was she?
00:27How did she get here?
00:29Where was her car?
00:30The trail was half a mile from the highway, and I hadn't seen anyone on the road.
00:34She walked around the fire and sat in my chair.
00:37Then she stopped moving, just sat there, facing forward, her hands in her lap, waiting.
00:42I stayed behind that tree for what felt like hours.
00:45The fire slowly died, the flames shrinking to embers, then to ash.
00:50The woman didn't move, she didn't look around, she didn't call out.
00:54She just sat there, patient and still, like she had all the time in the world.
00:59The darkness became absolute.
01:01I couldn't see her anymore.
01:03I couldn't see anything.
01:04Just the faint outline of the trees and the cold light of the stars.
01:08And then she screamed again.
01:10It was right there at my campsite, so close I could feel the sound in my chest.
01:15And then footsteps crunching leaves, snapping twigs coming toward me.
01:19I pressed myself against the tree, barely breathing.
01:22The footsteps grew louder, closer.
01:24I could hear her breathing, soft and steady.
01:26She passed within three feet of me.
01:28I could smell her something floral, like lavender, mixed with the musky scent of the forest.
01:33She kept walking, down the trail toward the highway.
01:36The footsteps faded, and then there was nothing.
01:39I waited ten minutes, twenty, an eternity.
01:42Then I turned on my flashlight and ran.
01:44And I tried to look up, she said, work.
01:44But as a train student.
01:44I couldn't see where it was a thing.
