- [Narrator] It was a final stride to produce a spark
in the hope that that spark would ignite a dying flame.
But after the accident four years ago,
the tension in the atmosphere between myself and Karen
was simply frozen, I mean our relationship was
beyond on thin ice, it had fully melted
into a river of mindless blame and guilty regret.
And she wanted a divorce.
I mean, I didn't but I guess I knew deep down
that it was inevitable.
In the winter 2014 Karen and I had been together
for six years, we've been married for three
and I have to say, our connection was on another level.
Beyond comprehension, like we were on fire
with electrically charged passion
until our emotions met face to face
with spontaneous combustion.
February frost layered the midnight road
as the full moon reflected glistening flickers of diamond
surrounding the yellow cat eyes guiding our car home.
We were coming back from Karen's brother's birthday party.
We were only like three miles from the house.
It was a Tuesday night, the road was completely void
of any other signs of life, empty, vacant and inanimate.
Until it suddenly lit up.
I was driving, Karen was way too drunk to drive
and I shouldn't have been behind the wheel
of that car either and I knew that but no one else
at the party seemed sober enough to understand that.
So I was admittedly way beyond my limit.
And I take full responsibility for that.
But I felt so pressured!
My wife, her brother, even his wife, they,
they all kept pushing me to drive.
They kept saying thing like,
it's not that far, you'll be the only one
on the road, don't be a wimp.
You know?
It was hard, we should have just walked.
But we didn't.
I got behind the wheel of that car
and within one mile from our house I destroyed everything
that Karen and I ever had.
But the darker side of the story would stain
our entire lives forever, til death do us part.
Karen wanted to hear some music
but she was too drunk to work the car stereo.
She was in full on blacked-out party mode at this stage.
I was trying to find a station for her,
when I noticed that she was taking off her clothes.
She was looking at me licking her lips.
I remember looking into her beautiful blue eyes
and thinking how hot she looked and bam!
We hit a young woman walking home
from her next door neighbor's house.
She died instantly, she was seven months pregnant.
It took the ambulance a full hour to get to our location.
It took the cops two.
When the blues finally arrived
and finished taking our statements,
they breathalyzed me but of course I was no longer
over the legal limit at that stage.
So the accident was attributed to frost.
A frost that chilled both Karen and I down to cracked shells
of our formed selves, worn out insoles of our souls.
If that.
We never forgave ourselves or each other for that matter
and we were never the same again.
Why would we be?
We were the worst kind of murderers.
And we got away with it.
We slept in our own beds that very night
while the dead woman's husband identified the baldy broken
pregnant body of his wife.
Come to think of it, we didn't do much sleeping.
And I sill don't.
Four hard, long years later
Karen served me with divorce papers.
She had nothing left, I knew it.
She told me that she was empty inside
and that the only way we could possibly move on
was to not be together.
I didn't want her to go, pack her stuff and move out
but she was doing the right thing.
So she started putting her stuff into boxes.
Her brother Stephen caught wind of this
and he wasn't happy, apparently Karen told his wife Alison
about the divorce papers and Alison had tried to talk Karen
out of it but Karen told Alison her mind was set.
Stephen came straight over to the house
with Alison and they begged us not to give up hope.
Stephen broke down and told us how responsible he felt
for everything that had happened that night in 2014.
I tried to tell him that he was only prolonging our pain
by trying to convince us to stay together.
Karen agreed, then Alison started crying
and mumbling that it was all her fault.
I told everyone very firmly
that it was my fault and mine alone.
I could have chosen not to drive that night but I did.
And that's that.
When I said that, everyone stopped talking.
There was an awkward silence echoing of the walls
in the room for several moments while everyone realized
the inevitable truth, it was over.
Then a single heartbeat spoke.
It was Stephen, he made us promise to go
on one more camping trip before we part ways for good.
We used to go camping with them five or six times a year.
You know, two couples, open air, beer,
blazing fire, tents, all that kind of stuff.
To be honest, it was something I hadn't realized
that I was going to miss or something
that I was already missing.
I glanced across the room at Karen,
she was already looking at me.
I could see an ever so slight raise in her high cheekbones.
The thought of a final camping trip pleased her.
It was a spark.
Two days later we packed our bags
and headed for the Freetown State Forest.
Stephen drove, I hadn't driven a car since the accident.
I set up front in the passenger's seat
and you know what, the drive over to Massachusets
was unexpectedly alive and energetic.
I mean, it was like magic.
Karen's mood was in a state I hadn't seen it in since,
since I could last remember.
Her and Alison buzzed in the back set
while I controlled the music.
For the first time in four years I could touch a car stereo
without flashbacks from the accident.
And there was this playfulness between Karen and I.
Not quite a fire but a definite hope.
It felt good.
Karen had decided to bring one of our old photo albums
along for the trip, neither of us had looked at pictures
in a long long time, hell we hadn't taken a single picture
together in four years.
The day before we left Karen told me
that if there was a chance for us,
even a single shred of light, she figured we'd find it
in that photo album or in those woods.
We arrived at Freetown State Forest at about 3:30 p.m.
On the way in, just past the forest sign
something ran across the road, inches away from the car,
causing Stephen to swerve and come to full stop
in the middle of the road.
Now, I admittedly didn't get a good look
at whatever it was but I thought I saw an animal.
Like a deer or something, but I don't know,
it was too fast and Karen and Alison didn't see anything.
Stephen swore it wasn't a deer.
He said it had antlers but he swears it was wearing a cloak
and had a skull for a head or something.
I assured him that it was just a deer
and eventually he agreed and shrugged it off.
I mean, it gave us all the shakes for a few minutes
but we all calmed down surprisingly quick considering,
well you know, 2014.
Anyway, we parked the car and walked for about a mile
to set up camp somewhere far away from other campers.
When we got to our site, the ladies made a fire pit
while Stephen and I set up the tents.
And again, the mood was as sunny and bright
as the September weather that surrounded the woods.
For a moment I thought the trip might actually be working.
Three hours later we had music from a wind-up radio.
A campfire blazing and the sun was setting beautifully
under the tops of the trees surrounding our site.
The four of us sat around the fire and conjured up memories
that I had forgotten about.
We laughed through the years of our past
and fought of the tears of a future
that we all silently feared would have
a drastic effect on, well, all of us.
As Stephen recalled a camping trip
from years ago when we all encountered a bear
that was fond of marshmallows, I looked over at Karen
only to find her gaze was already consuming my direction.
She smiled under her brother's voice
and continued to gaze at me through the dancing flame
burning between us, igniting the spark
that I was looking for.
We still had a chance.
After hours of reminiscing, several adult beverages
and a bit of admittedly tone-deaf singing,
Stephen and Alison said goodnight to Karen and I
before disappearing through
the unzipped hatch in their tent.
I winded up the radio to give it another charge
and threw some more logs on the fire
while Karen disappeared into our tent to get something.
Moments later Karen returned and silently sat down
right next to me, in front of the fire,
holding a massive black leather photo album.
I knew this album very well.
It had pictures in it from as far back as the first year
Karen and I started dating, all the way up to our wedding
and honeymoon, I could feel it.
This was our redemption, or at least it was supposed to be.
Karen smiled into my eyes, leaned toward me,
lightly pressed her warm lips against mine
and kissed me for the first time
in four heartbreaking years.
It felt so good.
It felt so.
But it was the last time
that Karen would ever kiss me again.
Karen placed the photo album in our laps
and slowly opened it to the first page of photographs.
So many memories came flooding back to me.
Karen immediately began to tear up.
We held each other for an hour
and talked about every single photo in that album.
One by one until we got to the last photo.
As Karen turned the final page in the album,
there was one last full page photograph of us on the left.
We were in a car, driving somewhere,
like a road trip or something, I don't remember,
but what I do remember is that both of our faces
were completely scratched off the photo.
It took me a minute to realize it was us.
To be honest I, I recognized the car first.
It was that car, our murder weapon.
Then our attention was drawn to the inside
of the back cover of the album.
The right side.
Across from the haunting photo of Karen and I,
there was something written in red, fresh red liquid.
I read it out loud, if you yourself cannot release,
then it will come to take a piece.
I asked Karen if she did this,
if she destroyed the photo and wrote the message
but she swore that she didn't.
I told her that it wasn't very funny
and that I felt very hurt by this
but again, she promised me that she had nothing to do
with what was in that album.
She was about to say something else
when a horrifying sound rang out
through the midnight forest.
(distant wailing)
We dropped the photo album as we sprang up to our feet
like stray cats caught off-guard.
We could hear a ticking sound coming
from somewhere around us, like a clock or something.
Karen shrieked in terror and grabbed onto me tightly.
She was trembling, I quickly shut off the radio sitting
to my left so I could listen.
The ticking had stopped, but it was that first noise
that had me shook up, I never heard
anything like it in real life.
It was monstrous and instantly hair-raising.
Karen and I stood frozen in front of the fire
with our eyes dancing all around the thick darkness
that engulfed the forest.
After a few moments of silence
and no further creepy sounds, I told Karen
that it was more than likely just an animal
and that we probably shouldn't worry
as most animals wouldn't come very close to an open fire.
She was about to reply when we both saw it.
A sight that will haunt me forever.
Standing on the other side of the fire,
sneering at us through the flames was a terror
that we could never have imagined.
The first thing I've noticed was teeth.
The bottom half of the creature's disfigured face
was mostly made up of sharp pointed teeth
that lined the inside of its black rotten corroded gums
or lips, I'm not sure which.
And its face was void of any facial expressions
other than ghastly scars that covered its entire head.
It had no eyes, no nose, no ears, no hair,
just, just old dirty skin with raw open wounds
that appeared to be in bad need of stitches.
And that creepy thing was wearing a gray suit
with a white button up shirt.
It just stood there, silently smiling at us.
We didn't know what to say or do, we were shocked.
We didn't even scream.
I remember that the thing was wearing read cloth
fingerless gloves, at the end of each finger
was a long black claw.
I started to ask what it wanted,
but the second I opened my mouth it started
rounding the fire and walking toward Karen and I.
We bolted towards Stephan and Alison's tent
in full on sprint.
As we got closer, Karen began screaming Stephen's name
and begging him to wake up.
Neither him nor Alison answered.
We got to the tent and Karen fumbled with the zippers
still crying out for her brother to wake up.
I looked behind us, the creature was gone
and the forest was silent.
And then I heard the tent unzip
and Karen scream in sheer anguish.
(dramatic music)
I will never forget how long that scream echoed
in the blackness of that dark forest.
I snapped my head back towards Stephen and Alison's tent
and saw what my wife saw, Stephen and Alison,
or what was left of them.
My brother-in-law and his wife were both missing
one of their legs from the hip down.
It also appeared that the leg bones
that made up the limbs that they were missing
had been used to impale their torsos.
One of Alison's severed feet was crammed
so far down Stephen's throat,
that his jaw had become unhinged.
Alison suffered the same fate with one of Stephen's feet.
They both appeared to have been folded in half
backwards at the waist.
And they were disemboweled.
There was blood everywhere!
Karen was screaming and delirious.
When suddenly that hideous sound rang out
through the woods again, this time
it was much closer than before.
(distant wailing)
Karen and I were still facing Stephen and Alison's tent,
too horrified to turn around.
I looked at Karen, I was about to tell her to run
when two red gloved fingerless black clawed hands
grabbed both sides of her face and dragged her away
into the darkness of the woods so fast
that it was as if she was never there.
(sobbing)
I spun around and shouted her name
but it was met with nothing other
than echoes of my own voice.
I stumbled toward the dying camp fire
and called out for my wife again.
No response.
I was about six feet away from the fire pit
when the beheaded body of Karen fell
from somewhere up above me and landed in the fire.
I instinctively turned around to make a run for it
and ran directly into the creature.
It had been standing behind me, quietly smiling.
I fell on my back, on the ground,
at the feet of the suited monster.
As I shuffled away on the ground,
I accidentally kicked our photo album halfway into the fire.
When I did this, the creature before me hissed
as though it was in pain, it fell to its knees
and then began crawling toward me on all fours,
snapping at my feet as it got closer.
I kicked the photo album further into the camp fire,
enraging the creature into a frenzy of fury.
It jumped up on its bent knees
with its fist on the ground and prepared to pounce
like a cat, it all happened so quick.
But I recall it in haunting slow motion.
I remember the creature's body leaving the ground
and launching toward me with an open mouth intent
on doing damage to my flesh.
I remember thinking, this is my final moment.
Then out of nowhere, accompanied by that dreadful sound
we'd heard earlier something clashed
with the suited creature mid air and took it to the ground.
The two things landed hard on the forest floor
with a heavy thud as they tumbled over each other.
I climbed up to my feet and ran as fast as I could
through the forest and away from the campsite.
I stumbled through the dark forest
for what seemed like hours.
I had no shoes, no water and adrenaline had consumed
most of my energy, there were thorns
and other things all over my body
but I could only feel one thing, exhausted.
I finally found a black top road
and collapsed the second I got on top of it.
Then everything went black.
I woke up in a hospital, handcuffed to my bed.
The police came into my room and questioned me.
And I told them everything, the entire uncut truth.
And they didn't believe me.
I could tell straight away, they asked me to describe
the other thing that saved me
but all I could remember was that it had antlers like a deer
and it made a terrible sound.
I was arrested that night and later on I was convicted
of the first degree murder of my wife, Stephen and Alison.
I was sentenced to death by a jury of my peers.
And now I'm just waiting.
But something tells me that I may not make it that far.
That my time is up.
My time is up.
- [Woman] Help me!
- [Narrator] Watch new scary bits every
Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
(electronic music)