I feel like I have to share this
About 8 months ago, something happened to me that I still think about almost every day.
It was around 10:30 PM and I was driving home from my ex-boyfriend’s place. He lived outside of Columbia, Missouri, in this tiny little town called Harrisburg. He was renting this old house from a relative out in the middle of nowhere. I couldn’t stay the night because I had a job interview early the next morning, so I was driving back to my apartment in Columbia even though I was exhausted.
I was heading south on this isolated back road somewhere between Woodlandville and Hinton. Hardly any cars, no houses, just woods on both sides of the road. Then I noticed this bright light deep in the trees. At first I tried to ignore it, but something about it bothered me enough that I pulled over.
The light looked almost like an old sodium street lamp glowing in the middle of the woods. That alone was weird enough, but then I heard something. At first it sounded faint, almost like the wind. Then I realized it was a person screaming. I rolled my window down to listen better. It sounded far away, but constant. Not angry screaming, terrified screaming. The kind of scream you hear in horror movies right before someone dies.
I remember sitting there trying to convince myself it was probably an animal or maybe someone messing around, but I still got out of the car.
I walked a few feet toward the trees and that’s when I realized the light wasn’t a street lamp at all. It was a flashlight duct taped to a tree. And hanging right underneath it was a radio.
The radio was turned on to 103.5 FM, and through the static it was broadcasting that same screaming sound on a loop. Just nonstop screaming that never changed or stopped. The second I understood what I was looking at, I got this overwhelming feeling that I should not be there. It’s hard to explain, but every instinct in my body started telling me to leave immediately.
I stood there for maybe two seconds longer before running back to my car. I locked the doors and drove away as fast as I could without looking back.
I tried convincing myself afterward that it was probably some kind of Halloween prank since it was late October, but honestly, something about it felt wrong. Too deliberate. Too isolated.
I’ve never told many people about this because it sounds made up, but it genuinely happened, and it still creeps me out thinking about it.