Girl Scout Story

Jesus, that goat man story reminded me far too much of an experience I had when I was a kid. It’s a bit long, but I have to tell it now that you totally brought it back into my head. (Go to hell for ruining my sleep for the next week – but thanks for the story!) I was trying to share it when the thread 404’d. If you guys want, I can post it here while we await his return.

Here goes...
I was a girl scout (probably 11 or 12 at the time), and we were having one of our annual campouts. It was a small group of about 15 of us, and in each tent, we had 4 beds. Our tent had one bed empty because of the odd number.

We spend the afternoon and evening doing typical camping stuff. In the evening, we spend time telling our typical ghost stories around the fire, and as people get sleepy, they wander back to the tents to go to sleep. Being one of the last to bed, I tried to sneak into the tent quietly, but I had to turn on my little lantern to find my toothbrush. I glance around to see if anyone was awake, but it appeared that everyone was already out. I run to the bathroom to clean up, and on returning to the tent, I use my lantern again to put everything away. I notice that all the beds are full. For the life of me, I cannot remember if that fourth bed was full the first time I used my light. Anyhow, the person on the bed shifted a bit and leaned their head up. I couldn’t see a face because of the shadows and the blanket, but I’m not really freaked out because I assume that someone must have switched tents (girls are catty, someone always ends up switching tents).

I turned out my light and went to bed, but I couldn’t fall asleep. I noticed that the girl in the fourth bed couldn’t get back to sleep since I had woken her up. She tossed and turned until she got up. I could see her moving around in the dark. She walked around the tent for a few minutes before she heads out the front of the tent. I figured she was heading to the bathroom, and I almost followed her because I just couldn’t get to sleep.

Since I didn’t feel like fumbling around for my shoes and all again, I decided to stay in bed. I eventually drifted off, and the next thing I knew, our counselor was waking us up. I got up and started getting my stuff together for a shower, and I remembered that we had a new girl in our tent, and I wondered who it was. When I looked over at the bed, there was nobody there. Like earlier in the day, it was just a bare mattress. I actually felt bad. I thought she might have gone back to her old tent because I had kept her awake.

We go about our day doing normal stuff, and shortly after lunch, we are gathered around the picnic tables working on crafts. Our counselor comes walking over with another girl who is carrying a duffle bag. The counselor tells us that she has just been dropped off by her parents, and would we take her to our cabin because we have an extra bed. I told my counselor that I thought one of the girls had moved into our tent last night, so I wasn’t sure whether we still had a bed available. The counselor hadn’t heard about anyone moving, but she put the girl in the tent next to ours which also had an empty bed.

That night, I went to bed fairly early, and when we got to the tent, I noticed that the bed was still very much empty. I fell asleep pretty quickly, but I woke up somewhere in the night because I was hearing a lot of noises.

I realized it was just the sound of someone tossing and turning, but remembering what happened the night before, I just had to see if anyone was in the fourth bed. Sure enough, there was somebody in that bed. Again, she got out of bed, and I could hear her moving around the tent. It sounded like she was pacing the full length of the floor. I am about to ask her if she is ok when she walks out of the tent.

I turned over at this point and started to drift off again. That’s when I heard this high pitched scream coming from somewhere outside. The other two girls in my tent sat up at the same time I did. I grabbed my lantern and turned it on, and we all kind of stared at each other. None of us moved until we heard the other girls outside talking. We all got up and went out to see what was going on. By this point, most of the girls were leaving their tents, and one of the counselors was over near the bathroom with another girl. It was one of the older girls, and she was crying as she was being walked back to her tent. The other counselor told us to go back to our tents and go to bed. When we asked what happened, the counselor said she figured the girl had seen a snake or something in the bathroom. At this point, the fourth bed was again empty. The other two girls in my tent said they hadn’t seen anyone moving in. I shrugged it off because I still assumed it was someone shuffling around because they didn’t like their tent. After much nervous chatting, we managed to get to sleep.

When we gathered for breakfast the next morning, the older girl who had screamed in the bathroom was sitting in a cluster with her friends, and she was obviously upset. One of the girls from my tent asked her what happened, and one of her friends (another older girl) sniped back at us that they weren’t supposed to tell the babies. Considering that they weren’t that much older than us (14 maybe 15), the girl from my tent argued that they could tell us because we weren’t “the babies”. After some snotty remarks about not telling our counselors, the girl told us that the other one had seen something weird in the bathroom last night.

The girl from the bathroom then told us that she had been in the bathroom washing off her makeup when she heard someone else come in behind her. She saw just a bit of them as they went into one of the stalls. She told us that she was packing up her stuff, and she asked the other girl if she wanted her to wait so they could walk back together. When the girl didn’t answer, she asked again and still nothing. She walked over to the stall where she had seen the girl go, and she peeked through the cracks. She didn’t see anyone in there, and she opened the door. The stall was totally empty, and so were all the others. She says that is when she screamed. She knows that nobody walked out of that bathroom after the girl walked in, as she would have seen them go past her. The girl was totally creeped out by the experience, and she wanted to go home.

By this point, I was feeling a little sick to my stomach. I was wondering if whatever had been in our tent was what she had seen in the bathroom. I told the girls what I had seen in our tent, and I told them that I figured it was just one of the other girls. The two girls who had been in my tent were thoroughly freaking out, and they started asking everyone whether they had slept in our tent. Everyone was denying that they had been in there, and before long, someone told the counselors as well. The counselors talked to me and the other girls in our tent. They chastised us for getting all the other girls upset. The one counselor said that she thought that maybe one of the other girls had been sleep walking. I didn’t really buy it, but it was better than the alternative.

By bedtime that night, everyone was jumpy, and nobody seemed interested in going to bed. The counselors forced us to our tents around midnight, and we were all rather reluctant to be the first one through the flap. We slowly opened the flaps and shined our lantern around the tent. The only thing in there was our stuff, and the fourth bed was empty. That night, we decided to sleep with the lantern on. We finally managed to get to sleep with that reassurance.

At some point in the night, I was woken up again by tossing and turning. I completely froze at the sound. I kept my eyes tightly closed because I didn’t want to see anything creepy. The rustling noises continued and I couldn’t stand it anymore. I slowly opened my eyes just a crack, and that’s when I noticed that the light had gone out. Because the lantern had a fairly new battery, I figured that if it had died, it must be getting close to morning. I opened my eyes a little wider to see if I could spot any early daylight. That’s when I heard someone getting out of bed. I shifted my eyes over to the fourth bed, and that’s when I saw someone standing there.

I was too terrified to move. I tried to stay as still as possible so it wouldn’t know that I was awake, but I desperately wanted to know who was in the cabin. I watched it as it moved across the room to one of the other girl’s beds. I was more careful about examining its silhouette this time, and it seemed to look like a person, not very tall (a bit over 5ft). It looked at the bed for a few seconds, and it then walked towards the other bed. Again, it stopped and looked at the other bed for a few seconds. Fearing what would happen next, I closed my eyes to just slits. It then turned and walked closer to my bed. I couldn’t see much because my eyes were nearly closed, but I could feel it look at my bed. My heart was absolutely pounding, but I lay totally still. It then turned and walked out of our tent.

It took me a long time to move after that, but when I was able, I got up and woke up the other two girls. I told them what I had seen, and we spent the rest of the night huddled on one bed. As soon as dawn broke, we ran to the counselors’ tent to tell them. Again, the counselors told us that it was probably someone sleep walking. It still seemed like a possibility, because whatever was in our tent did seem to be about the size of a girl.

The mood around the camp was pretty sedate the rest of the day. Some parents came and picked their girls up, but others had to stay because their parents wouldn’t or couldn’t come get them. By that evening, we were down to 8 girls and the two counselors. We all sat around the campfire trying to talk about cheerful things. During our chatting, one of the girls got up and headed towards the bathroom. I watched her go because I was amazed at the amount of balls that must have taken. As I watched, she didn’t turn down the path towards the bathroom. Instead, she just walked into the woods. Several girls saw her go, and the counselor got up to go after her. The other counselor (we’ll call her counselor #2 for clarity’s sake) stood up and looked around the circle. She kind of screwed up her face and asked us what who had walked away. We all looked around the circle to figure out who was missing, and that’s when I noticed that all of the remaining girls were still sitting there.

Counselor #1 came stomping back to get her flashlight as she told counselor #2 that the girl just kept walking away from her. Counselor #2 then informed her that we were all there. It was obvious by their faces that they were both shitting bricks. Some of the girls were starting to cry now, so the counselors gathered us up into a tight group and told us that we would all be sharing two tents tonight.

As a group, we gathered our stuff and moved into the two tents. The counselors bunked with us, and we again went to sleep with a lantern on. I absolutely could not sleep, and I am sure that I am not the only one. I heard lots of rustling and moving, but I was pretty certain it was just the other girls. However, when I heard someone standing up, I had to open my eyes and look.

I saw someone standing near the other side of the tent. As I watched, it began to weave its way through the beds. I was staring at it pretty hard because I was hoping it was one of the other girls, and I think it saw me watching. It started moving towards my side of the tent and I clamped my eyes shut. I heard it walk near my bed and stop. I kept my eyes shut waiting for it to walk away, but it stood there much longer than it had before.
After I had enough time to fill my bed full of shit bricks, I heard it moving again. I heard the tent flap rustle and something moving outside. I continued to keep my eyes shut, hoping morning would come quickly. That’s when I heard the moaning outside of our tent start. I couldn’t tell whether the moans were coming from a male or a female. Not like the cat talk that OP mentioned, just moans.

The other girls started to shift about in their beds, and one of the younger girls started to cry. I saw the counselor sit up and start looking around. The moaning started to get louder and more piercing. I could hear something moving just outside of the tent. I continued to listen as the noises and the moaning seemed to move around the side of our tent. Suddenly, the moans stopped. Nobody was talking, just listening. We could hear the steps moving away from our tent now. After a few moments, a number of ear piercing screams erupted from the tent next to us.

The girls in my tent jumped out of their beds and clustered in the middle of the tent. We heard lots of noises and screaming from the other tent, and we heard what sounded like someone running towards us. That’s when we all started screaming. The tent flap was flung open, and the girls from the other tent started pouring in. We all kind of balled up in the center of the tent while the counselors tried to calm us down and make sure everyone was in there.

Even though our tent was noisy with lots of crying girls, we could soon hear that awful moaning outside again. All the girls were clutching at each other as this thing seemed to move around the tent. Just as suddenly as it started, the moaning stopped again. The girls were all quiet listening for any noises, and we were all watching the tent flaps

Here’s kind of the let-down, nothing else happened, but I was pretty happy about it at the time. We all sat in the center of the tent for the rest of the night, and we found out that the other girls had started screaming because someone had walked into their tent after the first round of moaning. In the morning, we all packed up and went home, piling into any available parent’s car.

I quit girl scouts not long after, but I know we never went back to that campground. I am still fucking terrified of shit in the woods. I also wonder whether that thing was back in there with us that night.