Haunted Grounds

Last night, four of my friends and I decided to go camping at the Devil's Tramping Grounds in Siler City, NC (Chatham County).

The story goes something like this...there's a barren circle in the woods with "no scientific explanation" as to why nothing grows on it. There's a fire pit in the middle where people like to build fires, and the folklore explains the blank circle by claiming that the devil and evil spirits walk around in circles on that spot plotting evil.

So, naturally, we were not spooked at all until we had a few spooky experiences. First of all, a local man and his son randomly pulled up and came to talk to us, at first refusing to tell us the "real story" about the site (it used to be a tribal ceremonial site) and then telling us to watch out for copperheads...and any tricks that the place might play on us. Later, some people pulled up nearby who sounded like they were drinking, and then later we heard some voices in the forest. Regardless, we weren't freaked out enough to leave, but we stayed and split into two separate tents.

I can't deny that I was spooked anyway, since after all, I am open to the possibility of paranormal and/or spiritual happenings. So I had a freaky dream.

It was one of those dreams where you feel like it's real, because you "wake up" in your dream to find yourself in the exact same place where you are sleeping and it feels like you've actually woken up. But when I "woke up", I felt like I had sleep paralysis, and couldn't move. My eyes were open, however, and I was staring at the sky and the stars, which we could see from our tent because we had screens at the top.Then I began to hear sounds, as if there were a lot of what sounded like teenagers walking and rustling about in the forest. Then I heard whispers, like they were talking about their plan of action. All of a sudden, the most vivid part of my dream occurred. I heard them begin to circle around our tents and none of my friends were making any noise. I assumed that like me, they were trying to stay as quiet as possible, but in my case I wouldn't have even been able to make noise if I wanted to. Which was probably a good thing because the next thing I felt was the presence of a person feeling their hand around the outside of the tent, as if looking for bodies inside. I felt their fingers as they felt my back through the thin layer of tent, and at that moment I essentially "passed out" from the fear of the moment.

The next thing that happened is that I woke up - and this time, it was for real, and the night was still. The stars looked brighter, and I tried to calm myself to sleep.