"I Found a PIT in Pine Ridge National Park. Now My Friends Are GONE." | CLANCYPASTA

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, I know I'm probably going to sound crazy posting this, but I don't know what else to do. I need to get this out before I lose my nerve. You see, I went camping in Pine Ridge National Park with two friends, Mark and Aaron. It was supposed to be a fun weekend trip, just three friends getting away from everything for a couple of days. We made camp on a Friday evening, set up near a secluded hiking trail. The first day was perfect.

[00:00:30] We were laughing, roasting marshmallows, just relaxing. It was all easy going and fun. By the time we crawled into our tents, we were already planning the next day's hike. Tomorrow, we're finding that secret lake, Mark said already with the map out. He always had this thing for tracking down hidden spots. He swore my dad had mentioned it once when we were younger, and yeah I'd known them for that long. Well, Mark at least.

[00:00:59] Right, Aaron said, pulling her hood over her head. And if we get lost, you're totally on your own. I'm not going to listen to your directions when we end up on some random cliff. We all laughed and I felt that perfect sense of escape you get when you're surrounded by nothing but nature and good company. Pure, complete peace.

[00:01:20] The next morning, after a breakfast of instant oatmeal and coffee, we set off with high spirits. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and everything felt perfect. That was the only way to describe it. We were talking, joking, making fun of Mark's awful sense of direction. But as we ventured deeper into the woods, the trail became harder to follow. The map didn't match up with what we were seeing on the ground.

[00:01:47] Maybe we should head back, I suggested, the growing unease in my stomach making me second-guess everything. None of this looks familiar. Nah, we're close, Mark insisted. It's just up ahead. I've never seen this place before, Mark. You only think that because the memory is so old and funky. Plus, it's got kid warp. Kid warp? You know, when you remember something completely different just because you were a kid when it happened.

[00:02:16] I was positive that's not what was going on, but we followed him anyway. And then we stumbled upon it. It happened around midday. We came across a clearing in the woods where the trees grew unnaturally far apart, like they'd been deliberately spaced. It was a perfect circle. Almost too perfect. Does that make sense? The amount of work someone would have had to put into making them that evenly spaced would have been insane.

[00:02:46] Whoa. I was still looking at the trees. Whoa is right. Mark, however, was not. In the middle of the circle, there was a black pit, maybe four or five feet wide. But the thing that got to me wasn't how big it was. It was how wrong it looked. The earth around it was slick and damp. The pit itself oozed a thick black sludge.

[00:03:12] It looked like tar, but it carried with it an almost coppery smell. This sharp penny tang that made my mouth water unpleasantly. What the hell? Mark said, walking up to it without hesitation. That's freaky. I don't like this. I said, my voice shaking as I stared at it. The pit was a perfect circle too, just like the trees.

[00:03:38] Thick globules of black tar dripped molasses slow, deeper into its cavernous maw. Small bubbles formed and burst at the edges. The grass directly around it was crisp, yellowed, dead. Come on, Chelsea. Don't be such a buzzkill. Erin said, already pulling out her phone to take pictures. She crouched down, snapping shot after shot. This is amazing. It's like something out of a horror movie. Exactly.

[00:04:08] I threw my arm to the side. This is straight out a horror movie, which is why we should go. Right now. We have the lake to look for anyway, right? Mark, aren't you dying to go find the lake? My voice took on a pleading tone near the end, but Mark, of course, didn't listen. I'll just take a look, he said, grinning like a kid who'd just found the best secret. It'll take five minutes, Top. The place doesn't even look that deep.

[00:04:37] No, Mark, please. I started, but he was already climbing into the pit. Erin followed him, laughing. I'll be right behind you. She called out her voice light. I stood at the edge, watching them disappear into the darkness of the pit. My heart was pounding, and my stomach twisted into a knot. I shouted at them to come back, but they didn't answer.

[00:05:03] Slowly, I stepped over to the pit, peeking inside, expecting to at least see them making their way down the tunnel. Nothing. Just that viscous black dripping steadily into the shadows. A sense of unease settled over me. My body was screaming at me. To run? To get the hell out of there? But I couldn't leave. Not yet. I told myself they were just having some fun.

[00:05:31] They'd come out any second, laughing about how stupid it was. The only reason I couldn't see them was because it was so dark. Minutes turned into hours. I sat down. I stared at the pit. I waited. The sun started to set. Mark? Aaron? I called, my voice cracking. It was the first time I had spoken in hours. Nothing.

[00:06:01] The forest was quiet. Too quiet. When was the last time I heard a bird? I couldn't remember. When I got up, my body protested, joints stiff from sitting so long. I walked closer to the pit, peering down into the darkness once again, trying to see any sign of them. But it was empty. There was no movement. I called out. No answer. It was going to be dark soon.

[00:06:31] Unease turned into panic and I decided to call them and make them come back up. Don't ask me why I waited so long. I don't know. I just did. Maybe it was because I was afraid to admit they were gone. Maybe because I knew, deep in my heart, it wouldn't matter. Either way, I fumbled for my phone, but the signal was dead. The screen showed nothing. I tried again, tapping frantically, but there was nothing.

[00:07:00] Not even a single bar. Mark? Aaron? I shouted, my voice growing hoarse. I waited a few more minutes, but nothing. No sound. No movement. I backed away slowly, my feet moving on their own, retreating from the pit. A chill crawled up my spine. It felt like the pit itself was watching me. The scent of copper became almost overwhelming.

[00:07:27] Several larger bubbles formed in a cluster and popped softly, letting out the unmistakable scent of bile. I couldn't stay there any longer. I turned and ran back to camp, hoping maybe they would show up there overnight. No. I wasn't hoping. I was praying that would happen. The camp was exactly how we left it. It was almost fully night now.

[00:07:56] I flung myself into the tent, then burrowed into my sleeping bag, pulling it tight around me. Sleep came surprisingly quickly, and in the morning there was still no sign of them. I grabbed my backpack. My legs felt like jelly, but I forced myself to move. I needed help. I needed answers.

[00:08:21] I practically ran all the way back to the ranger station, my breath coming out in sharp gasps. The ranger, Paul, was sitting behind the counter, flipping through some paperwork. His eyes flicked up when he saw me. Something's happened, I gasped, nearly collapsing in front of him. Mark and Aaron, they're gone. They disappeared. I quickly told him about the pit, the terror returning just at the mention of it.

[00:08:48] They must have fallen in and, I don't know, hurt themselves, gotten stuck, something. Paul just stared at me for a long moment. He didn't seem surprised. He didn't look concerned. He looked sad, like he had seen this before. Alright, he said quietly. I'll put in a call. He went to the phone dialing something.

[00:09:14] I'll send someone out to look, but you should know right now, it won't do any good. They're gone. I didn't know what he meant, but his tone made it clear he wasn't just talking about my friends. It was like he already knew. He didn't need to search. He knew exactly what happened. Search and rescue came that afternoon. They looked for hours, combing the woods, scanning the area.

[00:09:44] They looked for the pit. They looked for my friends. They found nothing. No footprint. No signs of struggle. No trace of Mark or Aaron. Nothing. After two days, it was announced that they were gone. That was it. There was no pit. No strange sludge. It was as if none of it had ever happened. The park closed the case, and the local authorities chalked it up to a missing persons report.

[00:10:13] Just another number in the hundreds of disappearances that happen in national parks every year. They called it a 411 case. That's it. I was the only one who wasn't content with that answer. I started looking, and I found stories the type people don't talk about. Of hikers who just vanish in Pine Ridge.

[00:10:38] Of places that don't exist, even though they're right in front of you. There are a lot of 411 cases in the world. There are a lot of them at Pine Ridge. But I know the truth. I know what I saw. I've been back to Pine Ridge a few times, looking for that pit. I don't even know why. I guess I keep hoping it'll be there. But it's gone. There's no sign of it.

[00:11:07] There's no sign of Mark or Aaron, either. Sometimes, late at night, when the wind picks up and I'm safe inside of my tent, I swear I can hear their voices calling to me from the woods. It's like they're trying to tell me something. But the words always fade before I can make them out. And every time I think I've found that trail again, it slips away.

[00:11:35] I don't think anyone will ever find them. But as I'm typing this, safe in my tent, late at night, once more in Pine Ridge, all I can smell is that coppery tang. I might not find my friends. But tomorrow, I think I'll be able to find the pit. And I think I'm going to go in.

[00:11:59] I grew up in a small, shitty Texas town. Around my sophomore year, a couple of my friends and I decided to start a pop punk band, as kids of the MySpace generation often did. I played guitar. My friend Barrett was a decent singer. And Aaron played bass.

[00:12:29] We would meet up at Barrett's house after school and on weekends to write songs acoustically, cover Blink-182 songs, and just be dumb teenagers. Smoke weed, make edgy videos, watch horror movies. After a few months, we had written a good five or six songs, and we all agreed we wanted to get serious about our music. We came up with the name Newport and began looking for a drummer, since we couldn't play shows or record, quote,

[00:12:57] the greatest EP of all time, unquote, without one. One day at school, a friend of ours who'd heard we were looking for a drummer told us about her new boyfriend, Kayden. He was homeschooled and was, according to her, an amazing drummer who loved the used. With little opportunity to find a capable punk drummer at the school in our little hick town, we figured Kayden was our best bet. She told him we wanted to have him audition,

[00:13:24] and it turned out his dad played in a local country band, so he had a whole shed built specifically for his own band's practice. We ended up driving to his house that weekend and used his dad's equipment for his audition. Super professional, I know. Well, turns out he was better at drums than all of our talent with our instruments combined. Of course, he got the job. We took to being friends immediately, and his house became our new hangout.

[00:13:50] He lived a ways out of town on about five acres of land off the highway, with no other houses close by in any direction, so it was perfect for us to play as loud as we wanted without bothering anyone. After our first gig at a local bar, we had to go in, play, and get out as we were all underage, but the owner knew Kayden's dad. We were on top of the world. In our minds, we may as well have opened up for Blink themselves with how hyped we were.

[00:14:20] Anyways, we took our excitement back to Kayden's house, and celebrated by stealing liquor from his dad's stash, and smoking the overpriced schwag Barrett bought from one of the three people who watched our show before we left the bar. We hung out in the band shed for a while, and were all just reenacting our favorite parts of our time in the limelight together, when Kayden told us about a trail in the woods behind his house. He said he was so used to it being there, he never thought to tell us about it,

[00:14:49] but the thought of smoking out in nature reminded him, and he thought it would be a great idea. We were pumped for anything back then. So, we all hopped up and headed for the door. As we entered the trail, a forest closely lining either side of us in the dark, Kayden told us how it was one giant horseshoe-shaped path that went around behind his house and came out on the other side. We started our journey through, smoking, picking up walking sticks, and talking shit,

[00:15:18] when Aaron suddenly tripped over something. This was before smartphones were all that common, so we didn't have phone lights to see what it was. But our eyes had adjusted enough to the dark by this point, that we were able to see a ball-shaped object lying on the ground near Aaron's leg. He sat up and grabbed it. Dude, it's a fucking magic eight ball! It was too dark to see it completely, but Aaron could tell from holding it up close what it was. Kayden told us he never owned one,

[00:15:48] and had no idea where it could have come from as we were on their isolated private property. We didn't really care where it came from though. We were high and just wanted to go back in to play with the new toy. When we got back inside the shed, we could finally see the eight ball in all its dusty glory. Aaron wiped it off with his shirt, and when he did, I noticed there was a name scratched into it. It was deep, like it was done with something sharp. The crudely carved name read, Lucy.

[00:16:18] Kayden chalked it up to some kids, possibly sneaking onto the property somehow and leaving it behind. We weren't all too concerned with its origins. I wish we would have been. We just wanted to see what it had to say. Aaron asked if we should smoke more weed. It is decidedly so. Our stoned teenage minds couldn't handle the hilarity of this answer. We laughed for hours on end, asking it immature questions.

[00:16:47] Did Barrett make out with Sarah? Should I eat another one of Kayden's dad's Popeye's biscuits from the fridge? Will our EP be a hit? And losing it when it would answer the way we had hoped. After a while, the novelty wore off, and exhaustion from being up till four in the morning started to creep on. We turned out the lights and went to sleep on the pallets we laid out. We had planned to wake up the next day, and run through a couple of our songs again,

[00:17:15] before heading home to get ready for school the next day. But when I woke up, Barrett and Aaron were looking kind of annoyed. I thought I had slept in too late or something, so I tried to ease the tension. What's up, guys? Sorry if I slept in a little too late. We should have went to bed earlier. That eight ball shit was hilarious, though. They didn't seem amused. I can stay later so we can get our full practice in if we need to. My mom's not going to care, I added.

[00:17:45] That's the problem. Kayden doesn't want to practice today. Barrett hissed. He's still playing with that fucking thing. I gave Aaron a questioning look, thinking Barrett was just in a bad mood. I think he's starting to lose it or something, man. Oh well, I'm riding with Barrett and we're going to head out. We'll see you at school tomorrow. We can figure out our next band practice then. Let us know if you get anything out of Kayden. I said bye and wanted to see the crazed Kayden for myself,

[00:18:15] so I meandered up to the front door of his house and walked in. I said his name loud enough for anyone in the house to hear it, but he didn't reply. I went to his room and the door was wide open, and he was sitting on the edge of his bed, holding the magic eight ball, staring at it. He was maybe six feet from me, but he seemed so far away. Yo, what's going on? I thought we were practicing today? I asked him cautiously.

[00:18:43] He didn't answer. Kayden? Hello? He didn't look up, but replied, We can't. I already asked Lucy if we should practice today, and he said, My reply is no. I chuckled. Clearly he was playing around. In the month we'd known each other, we had become fast friends. We all loved to joke around about everything and never took anything seriously.

[00:19:11] In my mind, he was trying to play the long game. Make us think he was losing it, then he would look up slyly, and we'd all burst out laughing. All right, bro. Well, I'll text you tomorrow with the plans for next practice. You gonna hop on RuneScape tonight? He never looked up, just kept staring at the dye floating in the dark blue inside the eight ball. I'll ask and see later, Kayden replied blankly.

[00:19:40] I left without another word, starting to question if it really was a joke. Maybe he is starting to lose it. Would he miss practice over a laugh? Honestly, with how immature we were, I wouldn't have put it past one of us. I texted him to see if he was going to game with me, but his only text back was just, Don't count on it. The next day, when I saw Barrett and Aaron in the school cafeteria, Barrett told me how he got a text from Kayden

[00:20:10] saying that he could practice that weekend. But what should have been good news came in the form of a text that only said, Signs point to yes. Though we were weirded out, we went to Kayden's after school that Friday and had an awkward band practice where Kayden didn't say a word. He just played along. He played as amazing as ever, but he wasn't himself. He didn't joke around with us. He didn't help us when we tried to think of lyrics for a song we were working on.

[00:20:39] He just sat on his drum throne and played our songs. And that was it. When practice was over, Aaron and Barrett were so over the whole eight ball situation, it just left without saying a thing to Kayden. It didn't look like he noticed either. I decided to stay and see if I could find out how much longer he was going to act like a psycho. Hey, man. You mind if I hang out for a little tonight? I asked him. He looked over at the ball,

[00:21:09] which it seems had been sealed in a wrapped towel on the floor, all practice, with the die facing him. He reached down, picked it up, and shook it. Don't count on it, he said, standing up and walking past me without taking his eyes off of the ball. As he reached for the handle on the door to the shed, I grabbed his shoulder to try to turn him toward me, but something felt strange when I touched him. He stopped moving,

[00:21:38] and I felt a creepy feeling of overwhelming hatred arc up my arm and into my head like a bolt of electricity. I yanked my hand away and stared in horror as he stayed facing away from me, not moving, but the reflection in the door showed more than just me and Caden. A suited man stood behind me. He had to have been about seven or eight feet tall. He was smiling like a kid with a new toy.

[00:22:09] C-C-Caden, you have to get rid of that thing now. This isn't a fucking joke, okay? I wanted to grab the eight ball, but every cell in my body screamed out to me to get out of that room and as far away from that thing as possible. I don't know if there was anywhere in the world far enough. Caden opened the door to the shed without a word and went into his house. I stood frozen, waiting for the man behind me

[00:22:38] to break my neck or something worse, but as the shed door closed and I could see my reflection in the light, I was alone. I slammed through the door. I ran to my car and tore out of the driveway, watching his house shrink in the rearview mirror the whole way as if expecting it to grow legs and teeth and chase me down the highway. When I made it home, I couldn't relax. I still felt that evil,

[00:23:07] haunting entity. Everything seemed so much darker. I slept with my lights on that night. I dreamed that the magic eight ball had made its way into my car somehow. The man was creeping through my house and up the stairs to my room. When I woke up to my mom telling me that she needed to talk to me downstairs, I wasn't used to her waking me up on a Saturday, even if it was

[00:23:36] almost 1pm. I bumbled my way down the steps to the kitchen where my mom was sitting at the table. She asked me when I had left Cadence the day before. I told her around 6.15 because I had made it home at 6.40ish. She looked grave. I asked her if everything was okay. The police came by this morning, baby. You may want to sit down. I don't even remember sitting, but I must have

[00:24:06] because I remember being in a seat when the cops came back to question me later. According to the investigator, Caden had killed his dad within 15 minutes of me leaving that shed. I wouldn't find out until way later that his dad had been found with his eyes removed and his tongue split three ways. Caden had turned the weapon on himself afterward and had chopped off all of his own fingers on his left hand before using

[00:24:35] a guitar string to cut his throat. When the cops questioned me that day, none of them mentioned the magic 8-ball. When they asked me if he had been acting different or strange, I mentioned the ball and how he had been only doing things that the ball would tell him to do. They didn't seem amused and because I dressed like an emo kid, they thought I wasn't taking the whole thing seriously. I pleaded with them

[00:25:05] to believe me. I even begged them to let me see if the 8-ball was at the scene but they told me there was no such magic 8-ball as they had searched the whole place for evidence and found nothing. I often think of what our band could have been, the life Caden could have lit. Would he have gotten married? Would his dad still be playing in the local country band? Would we all still be friends? His house was demolished soon after the incident.

[00:25:35] I have no idea what happened to that dark entity, Lucy, or the magic 8-ball it came in. I pray every day that it was somehow destroyed with their home, but something deep down inside tells me don't count on it.