# "I Took a Job as a Park Ranger, I Was Given a Strange List Of Duties" Creepypasta

An episode of [CreepsMcPasta Creepypasta Radio](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1492008134), 2 Jan 2025, 32 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/63516231/i_took_a_job_as_a_park_ranger_i_was_given_a_strange_list_of_duties_creepypasta.mp3

CREEPYPASTA STORY►by Frequent-Cat: / i_took_a_job_as_a_park_ranger_i_was_given_a Creepypastas are the campfire tales of the internet. Horror stories spread through Reddit r/nosleep, forums and blogs, rather than word of mouth. Whether you believe these scary stories to be true or not is left to your own discretion and imagination. LISTEN TO CREEPYPASTAS ON THE GO- SPOTIFY► https://open.spotify.com/show/7l0iRPd... iTUNES► https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast... SUGGESTED CREEPYPASTA PLAYLISTS- ►"Good Places to Start"- • "I wasn't careful enough on the deep ... ►"Personal Favourites"- • "I sold my soul for a used dishwasher... ►"Written by me"- • "I've been Blind my Whole Life" Creep... ►"Long Stories"- • Long Stories FOLLOW ME ON- ►Twitter: / creeps_mcpasta ►Instagram: / creepsmcpasta ►Twitch: / creepsmcpasta ►Facebook: / creepsmcpasta CREEPYPASTA MUSIC/ SFX- ►http://bit.ly/Audionic ♪ ►http://bit.ly/Myuusic ♪ ►http://bit.ly/incompt ♪ ►http://bit.ly/EpidemicM ♪ This creepypasta is for entertainment purposes only

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Working as a park ranger was a big deal for me.
[0:05] Speaker 1: I've always loved the outdoors, and getting paid to patrol
[0:08] Speaker 1: hiking trails and check on campsites felt like a dream.
[0:13] Speaker 1: It was only a seasonal job, but I was still
[0:16] Speaker 1: content with the allocated time I was given. I'd been
[0:20] Speaker 1: assigned to a remote national park, miles from anything resembling civilization.
[0:26] Speaker 1: My station was a tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere,
[0:29] Speaker 1: surrounded by dense forest. There was an even sell service
[0:33] Speaker 1: most of the time. First day in the job was
[0:37] Speaker 1: pretty standard. I met ed my supervisor. He's this older guy,
[0:44] Speaker 1: maybe in his fifties, with a kind of weathered face
[0:47] Speaker 1: that says he's been out here way too long. Nice enough,
[0:51] Speaker 1: but kind of distant. He handed me a basic book
[0:55] Speaker 1: full of protocols, how to check the trail damage, what
[0:59] Speaker 1: to do if you you encounter a bear, how to
[1:01] Speaker 1: handle lost hikers, stir of fe you'd expect. But then
[1:07] Speaker 1: tucked in between the normal sections there was this page
[1:11] Speaker 1: titled Special Procedures. The front looked older, like it hadn't
[1:17] Speaker 1: been updated in years, and it stood out immediately. The
[1:22] Speaker 1: rules on the page, well, they were different. Ignore the
[1:29] Speaker 1: screaming after midnight. Never acknowledge the lake when it reflects
[1:34] Speaker 1: the moon. If you hear footsteps behind you, do not
[1:37] Speaker 1: turn around. I actually laughed when I first read them.
[1:44] Speaker 1: I thought it was some kind of joke the older
[1:46] Speaker 1: rangers played on the newbies. But when I asked ed
[1:49] Speaker 1: about it, he didn't laugh, he didn't even smirk. He
[1:55] Speaker 1: just said, follow them and you'll be fine. That's it.
[2:02] Speaker 1: No explanation, no elaboration. I even tried pushing him a little,
[2:08] Speaker 1: asking why these rules are in there, and if this
[2:10] Speaker 1: was some kind of hazing thing, but he just shrugged
[2:13] Speaker 1: and said, you'll see. So I put the book down
[2:18] Speaker 1: and figured maybe it was just some weird tradition or
[2:21] Speaker 1: superstition the Parksteff kept alive for fun, maybe a way
[2:25] Speaker 1: to freak out new hires. Whatever, right, But my first
[2:32] Speaker 1: few nights of the cabin started to change my mind.
[2:37] Speaker 1: You ever stay somewhere so quiet that it almost feels
[2:40] Speaker 1: a loud. That's how it was out there at night.
[2:45] Speaker 1: It was like the forest itself was holding its breath.
[2:49] Speaker 1: Sometimes the only sound was the wind pushing through the trees.
[2:53] Speaker 1: Other times there wasn't even that. The stillness made me
[2:58] Speaker 1: jump at every creak of the cabin, every rustle in
[3:01] Speaker 1: the bushes outside, and then there was this feeling like
[3:07] Speaker 1: I wasn't really alone, even when I knew I was.
[3:14] Speaker 1: It was my third day in when I first heard
[3:17] Speaker 1: the scream. I was sitting at the tiny table in
[3:21] Speaker 1: the cabin, half way through a lukewarm cup of instant coffee.
[3:26] Speaker 1: My eyes were glued to the book of Rules again,
[3:29] Speaker 1: trying to make sense of it all. It was late
[3:32] Speaker 1: past midnight, but I wasn't tired. Something about the cabin
[3:38] Speaker 1: made it hard to relax. Maybe it was how the
[3:41] Speaker 1: floor creaked randomly, even when I wasn't moving all the way.
[3:45] Speaker 1: The wind outside never quite sounded like just wind. I
[3:50] Speaker 1: was flipping through the rules when it started. At first
[3:58] Speaker 1: it was faint, I thought it was the wind again,
[4:02] Speaker 1: But then it got louder, a sharp, piercing scream that
[4:06] Speaker 1: cut through the stillness like a knife. It sounded human,
[4:12] Speaker 1: a woman maybe, or a kid. My stomach dropped, my froze,
[4:19] Speaker 1: my hand gripping the edge of the table so hard
[4:22] Speaker 1: my knuckles turned white. My eyes darted back to the Rules,
[4:27] Speaker 1: to that stupid yellowed page. Ignore the screaming after midnight.
[4:35] Speaker 1: Ignore it easy to write harder to do when it
[4:39] Speaker 1: sounds like someone's out there begging for help. I sat
[4:44] Speaker 1: there for what felt like forever, just listening. The scream
[4:48] Speaker 1: would rise, hold for a few seconds, and then fade.
[4:53] Speaker 1: Then it would start again. My heart was raising, and
[4:58] Speaker 1: before I knew it, I was standing by the cabin door,
[5:01] Speaker 1: my hand on the knob. I told myself it had
[5:05] Speaker 1: to be something explainable, a hiker in trouble maybe, or
[5:09] Speaker 1: an animal that just sounded like a person. I mean,
[5:13] Speaker 1: I'm a park ranger, It's literally my job to check
[5:17] Speaker 1: these things out, right. I stepped outside. The cold hit
[5:24] Speaker 1: me first. It wasn't a normal cold. It was biting,
[5:30] Speaker 1: the kind that sinks into your bones. The forest was
[5:34] Speaker 1: pitch black except for the faint cone of light from
[5:37] Speaker 1: my flashlight. The scream came again, louder now, and I
[5:42] Speaker 1: swung the beam in its direction, trying to see through
[5:45] Speaker 1: the trees. My throat was dry, and every step I
[5:49] Speaker 1: took felt heavier than the last. Then it stopped, not
[5:59] Speaker 1: just the scream, everything, the wind, the rustling of leaves,
[6:05] Speaker 1: the distant sound of nocturnal animals, it all just cut out,
[6:11] Speaker 1: like someone hit the mute button in the world The
[6:14] Speaker 1: silence was so thick I could hear my own breathing,
[6:18] Speaker 1: quick and shallow. I don't know how long I stood there,
[6:23] Speaker 1: frozen in place, but eventually I turned back toward the cabin.
[6:31] Speaker 1: Whatever I thought I was going to find out there
[6:34] Speaker 1: it wasn't worth it. My skin crawled the entire way back,
[6:39] Speaker 1: like something was watching me, just beyond the edge of
[6:42] Speaker 1: the flashlight's reach. When I got inside, I locked the
[6:46] Speaker 1: door twice. The next morning, I asked Lisa about it.
[6:54] Speaker 1: She's another ranger works the main station closer to the
[6:57] Speaker 1: visitor center, the kind of person who always seems upbeat,
[7:02] Speaker 1: like nothing rattles her. But when I brought up the scream,
[7:07] Speaker 1: her face changed immediately. She went pale, and her eyes
[7:12] Speaker 1: darted around the room, like she was checking to see
[7:15] Speaker 1: if anyone else was listening. You didn't follow it, did you,
[7:20] Speaker 1: she asked, her voice low. I hesitated, not sure how
[7:26] Speaker 1: much to admit. I stepped outside, I said, finally, didn't
[7:33] Speaker 1: go far. Lisa's expression darkened. She looked at me like
[7:40] Speaker 1: I just signed my own death warrant. That's how it starts,
[7:45] Speaker 1: she muttered. Then she stood up and walked out of
[7:48] Speaker 1: the room, like I wasn't even there. Later that day,
[7:53] Speaker 1: I went out to patrol one of the popular trails
[7:56] Speaker 1: near the cabin. It was my first time on that route,
[8:00] Speaker 1: and for the most part it seemed normal, just trees, dirt,
[8:05] Speaker 1: and the occasional squirrel. But about half way through I
[8:11] Speaker 1: noticed something hard. The ground had these scuff marks, like
[8:16] Speaker 1: someone had been running off the trail. The branches and
[8:20] Speaker 1: the bushes nearby were broken, and the dirt was churned up.
[8:24] Speaker 1: I gave me in a struggle. I followed the marks
[8:27] Speaker 1: for maybe twenty feet before I found it. A single boot,
[8:34] Speaker 1: muddy torn, just sitting there in the middle of the forest.
[8:40] Speaker 1: There was no sign of its owner. My stomach twisted
[8:45] Speaker 1: as I stared at it. It wasn't just the boot itself.
[8:50] Speaker 1: It was the way it was sitting there, like it
[8:52] Speaker 1: had been dropped deliberately. It didn't feel like something someone
[8:57] Speaker 1: had just forgotten. It felt wrong. When I got back
[9:02] Speaker 1: to the station, I told Ed about it. He barely
[9:07] Speaker 1: looked up from his paperwork. The forest takes what it wants,
[9:12] Speaker 1: he said, shrugging. Then he went back to his coffee
[9:19] Speaker 1: like that was the end of it. The first time
[9:24] Speaker 1: I broke a rule, I told myself. It didn't really count.
[9:30] Speaker 1: It was maybe a week in and I'd almost started
[9:33] Speaker 1: to feel like I heard a routine down. Sure, the
[9:36] Speaker 1: rules are weird, and yeah, the nights were unnervingly quiet,
[9:41] Speaker 1: but I'd convinced myself that things weren't as bad as
[9:44] Speaker 1: I'd made them out to be. Then the footsteps started.
[9:52] Speaker 1: It was late, probably around one am, and I was
[9:56] Speaker 1: lying in bed trying to fall asleep. First I thought
[10:01] Speaker 1: it was just the sound of branches tapping against the cabin,
[10:05] Speaker 1: but then I realized it was rhythmic, slow, deliberate. Someone
[10:11] Speaker 1: was walking around the cabin. My froze, my heart was pounding,
[10:18] Speaker 1: but I kept telling myself to stay calm. I remembered
[10:22] Speaker 1: the rule if you hear footsteps behind you, do not
[10:26] Speaker 1: turn around. Okay, fine, the footsteps weren't exactly behind me,
[10:32] Speaker 1: but the logic seemed the same. Just don't engage. Right.
[10:38] Speaker 1: The pacing continued. It'd circle the cabin, slow and steady,
[10:44] Speaker 1: and I swear whoever or whatever it was would stop
[10:48] Speaker 1: right by my window. I could feel it lingering there,
[10:53] Speaker 1: just out of sight. The sound went on for hours.
[10:58] Speaker 1: I tried covering my ears, but it didn't help. I
[11:02] Speaker 1: couldn't shake the feeling that something was waiting for me
[11:05] Speaker 1: to look. I held out as long as I could,
[11:09] Speaker 1: but by three a m My nerves were shot. I figured,
[11:14] Speaker 1: if someone was actually outside, I needed to know. What
[11:18] Speaker 1: if it was a hiker I got lost? What if
[11:20] Speaker 1: I was in danger? I pulled back the curtain, just
[11:24] Speaker 1: a crack. Nothing. There was nothing out there, just the trees,
[11:31] Speaker 1: the dirt path, and the faint glow of the moon.
[11:36] Speaker 1: But the second I looked, the footsteps stopped, like they'd
[11:40] Speaker 1: been waiting for me to break. The silence that followed
[11:45] Speaker 1: was even worse. It was thick, pressing down on me,
[11:49] Speaker 1: like gravity was being turned up on a dial. I
[11:53] Speaker 1: didn't sleep that night. The next morning I noticed something
[11:59] Speaker 1: was off. My boots weren't by the door where I
[12:02] Speaker 1: had left them. They were in the middle of the room.
[12:06] Speaker 1: My radio, which I left off, was on, hissing with
[12:09] Speaker 1: faint static, and when I glanced at the window, I
[12:13] Speaker 1: swear my reflection didn't move in time with me. It
[12:18] Speaker 1: lagged just a split second, but enough to make my
[12:21] Speaker 1: stomach drop. I told myself it was nothing, just my
[12:27] Speaker 1: mind playing tricks. But then I patrolled the lake a
[12:37] Speaker 1: few days later, I was out patrolling the trails near
[12:40] Speaker 1: the lake at dusk. The sky was this brilliant orange
[12:44] Speaker 1: and the moon was just starting to rise. When I
[12:48] Speaker 1: got to the water's edge, I noticed the moon's reflection.
[12:53] Speaker 1: It was too much, too bright, too vivid, almost like
[13:00] Speaker 1: it wasn't just reflecting the moon but amplifying it. I
[13:04] Speaker 1: stood there for a second, hypnotized, before the rule clicked
[13:09] Speaker 1: in my head. Never acknowledge the lake when it reflects
[13:14] Speaker 1: the moon. I snapped out of it and took a
[13:18] Speaker 1: step back. But as I turned to leave, I saw
[13:22] Speaker 1: a ripple in the water. There wasn't any wind, no
[13:27] Speaker 1: fish jumping, just that ripple spreading out from the center,
[13:33] Speaker 1: and for a split second, I swear I saw a hand,
[13:38] Speaker 1: pale and thin, reach up toward the surface. I didn't
[13:44] Speaker 1: stick around to see what came next. I stumbled back
[13:47] Speaker 1: to the trail and didn't stop until I was half
[13:50] Speaker 1: way to the cabin. That night, I had a dream.
[13:56] Speaker 1: I was back at the lake, standing at the edge,
[14:00] Speaker 1: but the Moon's reflection was shattered like broken glass. I
[14:06] Speaker 1: could hear something crawling out of the water, slow and deliberate,
[14:11] Speaker 1: dragging itself towards me. I couldn't move, couldn't even scream.
[14:18] Speaker 1: I woke up drenched in sweat, my heart raising. But
[14:23] Speaker 1: it wasn't just the dream. When I swung my legs
[14:27] Speaker 1: out of the bed, I felt cold, wet fabric, My
[14:32] Speaker 1: boots were soaked, caaked with mud, and there were footprints, muddy, unmistakable,
[14:40] Speaker 1: leading from the door to my bed. Looking back, I
[14:50] Speaker 1: think the first real warning sign wasn't the footsteps or
[14:53] Speaker 1: the lake. It was Lisa. She'd been one of the
[14:59] Speaker 1: first people I met on the job, and while she
[15:01] Speaker 1: wasn't exactly friendly, she was present. She cracked a joke
[15:07] Speaker 1: now and then talk about the hikes she liked to take.
[15:11] Speaker 1: But after the footsteps and the lake, she changed. She
[15:16] Speaker 1: was still around technically, but she wasn't Lisa anymore. Her
[15:23] Speaker 1: skin looked pale, like she'd been sick for weeks, and
[15:27] Speaker 1: her eyes I don't even know how to describe it.
[15:31] Speaker 1: They just didn't seem to focus, like she was looking
[15:35] Speaker 1: through me, not at me. She barely spoke unless it
[15:39] Speaker 1: was necessary, and even then her voice was flat, almost mechanical.
[15:46] Speaker 1: One morning I asked her if she was okay. She
[15:50] Speaker 1: just shrugged and said, I'm fine, just tired. But she
[15:57] Speaker 1: wasn't fine in the world. Ed didn't seem surprised, if anything,
[16:06] Speaker 1: he avoided her. When I brought it up to Ed later,
[16:11] Speaker 1: he snapped at me, Ed the guy who'd spent most
[16:15] Speaker 1: of my first week cracking dad jokes and calling me nuby.
[16:20] Speaker 1: The rules are there for a reason, Nick, he said,
[16:23] Speaker 1: glaring at me, like I just insulted his entire family.
[16:27] Speaker 1: You don't follow them, and you deal with the fallout.
[16:30] Speaker 1: That's it, no exceptions. What kind of fallout are we
[16:35] Speaker 1: talking about? I pressed, what's actually happening here? You don't
[16:41] Speaker 1: want to know, he muttered, turning back to his coffee,
[16:45] Speaker 1: like we hadn't just had the most unsettling conversation of
[16:48] Speaker 1: my life. Later that day, I went out to patrol,
[16:55] Speaker 1: trying to shake the weird tension between us. It was
[16:59] Speaker 1: supposed to be in normal route when I'd done twice before,
[17:04] Speaker 1: but something was different. The trail I was on didn't
[17:08] Speaker 1: feel right. The trees seemed taller, like they were leaning
[17:12] Speaker 1: in towards me, and the air was colder than it
[17:15] Speaker 1: should have been for midday. Still I pushed forward. I
[17:21] Speaker 1: don't know why. Maybe I was hoping to find something
[17:26] Speaker 1: proof that I was still in control. Then I saw them,
[17:33] Speaker 1: carvings in the trees. Faces they were walked and stretched,
[17:39] Speaker 1: their mouths open in silent screams, their eyes too big,
[17:43] Speaker 1: too round. They weren't there the last time I'd walked
[17:47] Speaker 1: this trail. I swear my life, they weren't. As I
[17:53] Speaker 1: stood there, staring, I heard something. It started as a
[17:59] Speaker 1: faint whisper, like wind through the branches, but it grew
[18:03] Speaker 1: louder words. I couldn't make out voices, dozens of them,
[18:09] Speaker 1: maybe more, all overlapping. My chest tightened and I turned
[18:15] Speaker 1: back the way. I came, practically running until I was
[18:18] Speaker 1: back of the cabin. That night, the scream came back, louder, closer.
[18:27] Speaker 1: It didn't just echo through the forest this time. It
[18:30] Speaker 1: felt like it was inside my head, rattling around my skull,
[18:34] Speaker 1: clawing at my thoughts. And then I swear to you,
[18:41] Speaker 1: I heard my name. It was woven into the scream,
[18:45] Speaker 1: whispered at first, then louder, my name, over and over,
[18:51] Speaker 1: like it was begging me, calling me. I grabbed my
[18:56] Speaker 1: flashlight and stood by the door, my hand on the handle.
[19:01] Speaker 1: I almost opened it. I don't know what stopped me.
[19:06] Speaker 1: Maybe it was instinct. Maybe it was the rule. Either way,
[19:11] Speaker 1: I let go of the handle and stepped back, my
[19:14] Speaker 1: whole body shaking. I didn't sleep that night. I wish
[19:24] Speaker 1: I could tell you this is where it stopped. That
[19:27] Speaker 1: after ignoring the scream and the whispers and whatever the
[19:30] Speaker 1: hell happened with the lake, I just rode up my
[19:33] Speaker 1: time and left the park like a normal person. But
[19:38] Speaker 1: that's not how it works here. It was the manual
[19:42] Speaker 1: that tipped me off. One morning, I woke up to
[19:46] Speaker 1: find it sitting on my kitchen table. I swear I
[19:50] Speaker 1: had left it in the drawer, but there it was,
[19:53] Speaker 1: right next to my untouched breakfast. I thought someone had
[19:57] Speaker 1: just left it out, But then I saw the writing.
[20:03] Speaker 1: The rules had changed. The old ones were still there,
[20:08] Speaker 1: ignored the screaming, don't look at the lake, but new
[20:12] Speaker 1: ones had appeared, scribbled in handwriting. I didn't recognize. One
[20:17] Speaker 1: read the cabin lights must stay on after dark. Another,
[20:23] Speaker 1: if you hear knocking from inside the walls, don't investigate.
[20:29] Speaker 1: But the one that made my stomach drop was at
[20:32] Speaker 1: the bottom of the page. You are part of the cycle.
[20:38] Speaker 1: You must stay. I stared at it for a long time,
[20:45] Speaker 1: hoping I misread it or losing my mind. Part of
[20:49] Speaker 1: me wanted to crumple the page, toss it in the trash,
[20:52] Speaker 1: and pretend I hadn't seen it, But I couldn't. Something
[20:58] Speaker 1: about it felt final. It wasn't instructions. I could just
[21:04] Speaker 1: ignore That afternoon, I went to find Ed. He was
[21:10] Speaker 1: sitting on the porch of his cabin, sipping coffee, like
[21:13] Speaker 1: everything was fine, Like none of this was happening. Ed,
[21:19] Speaker 1: I said, holding up the manual, What the hell is this?
[21:25] Speaker 1: He barely glanced at it. It's the rules. Don't give
[21:30] Speaker 1: me that the rules are changing. Look. I flipped to
[21:35] Speaker 1: the new entry, shoving it toward him. What does this mean?
[21:39] Speaker 1: What the hell is the cycle? Why does it say
[21:41] Speaker 1: I have to stay? Ed didn't say anything At first,
[21:48] Speaker 1: He just stared at the horizon, his face unreadable. Finally
[21:54] Speaker 1: he sighed and put down his mug. I told you
[21:59] Speaker 1: follow the rules, that's all you had to do. What
[22:04] Speaker 1: does that mean? My voice cracked, but I didn't care.
[22:08] Speaker 1: You knew this was going to happen, didn't you. You knew,
[22:11] Speaker 1: and you didn't say anything. His eyes met mine, and
[22:17] Speaker 1: for the first time I saw cracks in his calm demeanor.
[22:22] Speaker 1: He looked tired, defeated. The rules aren't just there to
[22:29] Speaker 1: keep you safe, he said quietly. They're part of the agreement.
[22:35] Speaker 1: What agreement with the forest, he said, his voice barely
[22:41] Speaker 1: above a whisper. It takes what it wants. The rules
[22:46] Speaker 1: are how we keep it at bay. But once you
[22:48] Speaker 1: start breaking them, he trowled off, shaking his head. You
[22:54] Speaker 1: can't undo it, Nick, It's already claimed you. That night,
[23:00] Speaker 1: I didn't bother trying to sleep. I sat at the table,
[23:04] Speaker 1: the manual open in front of me, The words you
[23:08] Speaker 1: must stay burned into my brain. The footsteps started around midnight.
[23:16] Speaker 1: At first they were faint, just a soft shuffle outside
[23:20] Speaker 1: the cabin. Then they grew louder, circling the walls, passing
[23:25] Speaker 1: by the windows. I kept my eyes on the manual,
[23:29] Speaker 1: my foot shaking nervously, trying to focus. Then came the knocking.
[23:36] Speaker 1: It was slow at first, deliberate, like someone tapping their
[23:40] Speaker 1: knuckles against the wood. But it didn't come from the door.
[23:45] Speaker 1: It was inside the walls. I tried to block it out,
[23:51] Speaker 1: repeating the rules in my head like a prayer. But
[23:55] Speaker 1: then I made the mistake of looking up my reflection
[24:00] Speaker 1: in the window. Staring back at me, except it wasn't me.
[24:06] Speaker 1: It looked like me, same face, same clothes, but his
[24:11] Speaker 1: expression was wrong. Its mouth curved into a grin. I
[24:16] Speaker 1: wasn't making its eyes darker than they should have been.
[24:21] Speaker 1: He raised a hand, pointing behind me. I turned around.
[24:27] Speaker 1: Nothing was there, but the footsteps inside the cabin didn't stop.
[24:35] Speaker 1: Ed came to my cabin the next morning. He didn't
[24:39] Speaker 1: knock or asked permission to come in, just opened the door,
[24:42] Speaker 1: stepped inside, and stood there like he belonged. You're taking
[24:47] Speaker 1: the North patrol today, he said. His voice was flat,
[24:52] Speaker 1: like we hadn't had that whole conversation about the cycle,
[24:56] Speaker 1: like I hadn't spent the entire night hearing footsteps inside
[24:59] Speaker 1: my cab. I didn't argue. What would have been the
[25:04] Speaker 1: point if I refused. He'd just give me some cryptic warning,
[25:09] Speaker 1: maybe shove the manual at me. I nodded and grabbed
[25:13] Speaker 1: my gear. The manual stayed on the table. I didn't
[25:17] Speaker 1: want it near me. The patrol route was one of
[25:21] Speaker 1: the longer ones, winding past the lake and cutting through
[25:25] Speaker 1: a part of the forest I'd avoided since I started
[25:28] Speaker 1: the job. It was in a hard trail, but something
[25:32] Speaker 1: about it felt heavy, like the air itself was thicker,
[25:37] Speaker 1: harder to breathe. I passed the lake first. The surface
[25:43] Speaker 1: was glassy, perfectly still, reflecting the sky like a giant mirror.
[25:48] Speaker 1: I kept my head down, refusing to look too closely,
[25:53] Speaker 1: but out of the corner of my eye, I swear
[25:56] Speaker 1: I saw something someone just beneath the surface. Lisa, her
[26:03] Speaker 1: pale face, her eyes wide, staring up at me. I
[26:09] Speaker 1: don't know if it was real or if my mind
[26:11] Speaker 1: was playing tricks, but I hurried past, not daring to stop.
[26:17] Speaker 1: Further down the trail, I found a flashlight that belonged
[26:20] Speaker 1: to Harris, another ranger, lying in the dirt. It was
[26:24] Speaker 1: caked with mud, the lens cracked. I picked it up
[26:28] Speaker 1: without thinking, then immediately dropped it. The metal was ice cold,
[26:35] Speaker 1: like it had been sitting in a freezer, not out
[26:37] Speaker 1: in the open sun. That's when I started to notice
[26:42] Speaker 1: the forest wasn't quiet anymore. There were faint whispers coming
[26:46] Speaker 1: from the trees, layered and overlapping, like a hundred voices
[26:51] Speaker 1: murmuring just out of earshot. I couldn't make out the words,
[26:56] Speaker 1: but I didn't need to. I knew they were for me.
[27:03] Speaker 1: By the time I reached the park boundary, my legs
[27:06] Speaker 1: felt like lead. The air had a strange pull to it,
[27:10] Speaker 1: like the forest itself was holding me back. I stopped
[27:15] Speaker 1: at the edge of the tree line, staring out at
[27:18] Speaker 1: the empty road beyond, and an intrusive thought hit me.
[27:25] Speaker 1: I could leave right then, right there. I could drop
[27:31] Speaker 1: my gear, walk out of the forest and never look back.
[27:36] Speaker 1: I'd lose the job, sure, but I'd keep my life,
[27:40] Speaker 1: my real life, the one I'd had before all of this.
[27:46] Speaker 1: But then I thought about the manual, the rules head's warnings.
[27:51] Speaker 1: The forest takes what it wants, he'd said. What if
[27:55] Speaker 1: leaving wasn't an escape. What if I took something with me,
[28:00] Speaker 1: whatever this was, and it followed me home, Or worse,
[28:04] Speaker 1: what if leaving through everything off balance, broke the agreement
[28:08] Speaker 1: and dragged someone else into this nightmare. I stood there
[28:12] Speaker 1: for what felt like ours, staring at the road. My
[28:17] Speaker 1: mind was screaming at me to run, but my legs
[28:21] Speaker 1: wouldn't move. The whispers grew louder, circling around me, wrapping
[28:27] Speaker 1: me in their invisible grip, and then just like that,
[28:34] Speaker 1: they stopped. The forest went silent, completely utterly silent. I
[28:43] Speaker 1: turned back, my heart pounding. The trees seemed taller, darker,
[28:49] Speaker 1: and the trail I had come down looked like it
[28:51] Speaker 1: had never been there at all. I don't remember much
[28:55] Speaker 1: about walking back to the cabin. It felt like the
[28:59] Speaker 1: forest that saw followed me whole and when I stepped
[29:02] Speaker 1: through the door, I couldn't tell if I'd escaped or
[29:05] Speaker 1: walked deeper into something far worse. The air inside was
[29:10] Speaker 1: stale and cold. My body ate like I'd run a marathon.
[29:15] Speaker 1: But the exhaustion wasn't just physical. It was in my bones,
[29:20] Speaker 1: my mind. I locked the door, bolted it twice, and
[29:25] Speaker 1: sat down at the table. The manual was still there, waiting.
[29:32] Speaker 1: I opened it, slowly, flipping through the pages. The rules
[29:37] Speaker 1: were the same, or at least I thought they were.
[29:42] Speaker 1: I read each one carefully, over and over, like I
[29:46] Speaker 1: was memorizing scripture. I understood now. The rules weren't suggestions,
[29:54] Speaker 1: they weren't folklore. They were survival. As long as I
[29:59] Speaker 1: followed them, I could stay. I wouldn't disappear like Lisa,
[30:05] Speaker 1: wouldn't dissolve into whispers like Harris. The forest might have
[30:10] Speaker 1: claimed me, but it wouldn't take me all at once.
[30:16] Speaker 1: I fell into a routine after that, patrol during the day,
[30:20] Speaker 1: locked the door at night. I didn't ask questions anymore.
[30:24] Speaker 1: I didn't peek through the curtains when the footsteps started.
[30:28] Speaker 1: I didn't let myself think about leaving, because I knew
[30:32] Speaker 1: there wasn't anywhere to go. Sometimes I still heard the scream.
[30:39] Speaker 1: It's always distant, now muffled, like it's coming from miles away.
[30:45] Speaker 1: Maybe that's what happens. You fade into the forest, slowly,
[30:50] Speaker 1: until you're just another sound in the dark. I don't
[30:56] Speaker 1: know how long it's been. Time gets slippery out here.
[31:01] Speaker 1: The days blurred together, and the nights feel endless. I've
[31:05] Speaker 1: stopped counting the seasons, stopped looking at the calendar. The
[31:10] Speaker 1: forest doesn't care about dates, so why should I. But
[31:17] Speaker 1: something new has changed things. Last week I saw headlights
[31:22] Speaker 1: through the trees, a new ranger pulling into the station.
[31:28] Speaker 1: I watched from a distance as ed handed in the manual.
[31:32] Speaker 1: The kid looks so young, so confident. I wanted to
[31:37] Speaker 1: warn him, wanted to scream at him to leave now
[31:40] Speaker 1: while he still could. But I didn't because the forest
[31:49] Speaker 1: was watching, and the rules are clear. He has unknowingly
[31:56] Speaker 1: became a player in this game, and I just pray
[32:02] Speaker 1: he doesn't lose

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