Chased through the woods and nearly killed for my weed.

It's just another usual night, it's about 1:30AM and I'm in my room smoking on some Strawberry Cough, fairly baked on about 3G in between bong rips and joints. I decide that I still have energy and I'm bored so I was going to go for a little stroll around the woods near my house for an hour. I got ready and rolled up a few spliffs to take with me. I live in the UK where it gets fairly cold so I was in a lot of clothes, hoodie and coat etc.

I leave my house for the woods, it's usually only a five minute walk but the way I take to get there is blocked off by Police cars and ambulances, I presume something has happened and it's not worth walking past the cops with weed on me, so I take the longer route which leads into the back-entrance of the woods, with my intent to be: Slowly stroll through the woods, stop, smoke, carry on walking, until I reach an exit on the east side of the woods.

The first thing I notice as soon as I enter is a single female shoe, pretty scuffed up and wrecked near one of the muddy tracks that lead to a very dark and isolated section of the woods, I debated following the path and seeing what I could find but fear got the best of me and I carried on along the main path which is semi-lighted by little lamps attached to wooden posts every 20-25 meters or so. I stop at the first bench I come across, sit down and light up my spliff.

Halfway through my smoke I decide to put in some headphones which in hindsight was a bad idea. I was just getting up to the good part of my song when I feel something distinctly hard hit me in my back, not with enough force to hurt me, but enough to panic me into immediately standing up and scouring into the treeline behind me. I couldn't see nothing in the tree's after a good minute of looking, all the while, tension was building throughout me and I'd began to get an adrenaline rush which I could feel in my legs. I changed my focus off who hit me, onto what exactly had hit me.

After a good look around the bench I finally spot it. It's a shoe. A female's shoe. I don't remember in the moment making the link to the other shoe I saw when I first entered, but something in my brain made a connection, because as soon as I realised what I was looking at, I remember feeling so cold and alone. I just set off running down the path, not from the way I came, but further along down the path. I ran for what I can only assume was about five minutes. I stopped when I came to an embankment where I would presume a river used to be. I sat on the embankment and had a good long think about what had happened, before I'd decided what had actually took place, that's when I heard it.

"He ran that way, I'm telling you man. That shit smells potent. Let's go". I hear a male talking to another male about 50 meters or so into the woods infront of me, I was alert and functioning enough in the moment to realise that whoever it was, hadn't saw me. I crept over the embankment and hid behind it listening. I could actually hear the people walk up onto the main path and walk right past where I was hiding, I held my breath for so long I actually felt my legs getting wobbly.

As soon as I figured they'd moved on, I scattered back up the embankment and set off as fast as I could towards the way I originally came from. At some point through all the running, another sweeping sense of dread ran through me again, strong enough to make me stop running and go straight into fight mode. I don't know how I'd sensed her, but I look directly to the left of me, and hiding behind a bush I see a small woman, maybe 5'1. She see's me spot her and starts to emerge out of the brush, hushing me. I step back as she finally makes it onto the path and I finally get a good look at her. She looks, absolutely fucking awful. Her face was gaunt, hair was tattered, she may have been 30 and looked about 50, which I would now presume to be from heavy drug use.

The first actual thing she says to me. "Hey! Can you help me? My boyfriend and brother ran off down the path about five minutes ago looking for my son, do you mind coming with me to see if I can find them?". I literally straight up said to her "Bitch I ain't crazy" and start running off again, she lets out a scream, not fear or sadness, just pure anger. I look back while running and she's now sprinting after me, quite fast I should add, with all the adrenaline I had, I thought I'd covered a lot of distance so I really did start to freak out when I realised she's only a few steps behind me. I keep running but evidently not fast enough, she grabs my shoulder, I turn around and she scratches me right across my face, I front-kick her to her stomach, she falls down and I set back off running. I pass the bench I originally smoked at. I knew it was only about 10 minutes to the entrance but for some reason I decide it'd be much better to not go through it as they'd expect it.

I make my choice and take a beeline through the forest straight towards the direction of my house, my ultimate intention being to climb over the gate to the woods near where I originally tried to enter before I saw the police. I know it's a good 15-20 minute sprint at least which has me worried the whole time, let alone the pain, running through a pretty dense brush with no visibilty is never smart. I can feel about every 5-6 paces my skin is ripping across vines and thorns. Eventually at one point I remember I'm running like a lunatic, and all of a sudden I'm on my back and my chest is in agony. It takes a minute to gather my senses and feel about until I realise I ran straight into a vine that's completely ripped through my hoodie & coat and I can feel the slow droplets of blood leaking down me. I take a minute to compose myself and then this time start to carefully walk through the woods using my hands as a guide.

I finally hit the main path again near the entrance I want to leave through, just as I see the gate I see that fucking hag again. She's running right for me, except this time I notice the two guys are running slightly behind her.too. I'm too hurt to carry on running, completely fatigued and all my adrenaline is gone. I chose to just start screaming and adopt a fighting stance. I'm fairly skilled in Taekwondo and Karate, hence why my immediate reaction was to front-kick that bitch earlier, though I didn't fancy my chances at all in a pitch black forest against three people, while I'm already bleeding badly. They slow down as they get near me but don't stop. They fan out, I presume to attack me from all different angles. Suddenly I see flashlights, then I heard a sound which made me drop to my knees in relief.

"POLICE! PUT THE KNIFE DOWN RIGHT NOW" . The fuckin' cops I was worried might arrest me, have heard my scream and are literally saving my life. The dude on the left of me had a knife in his hands that I couldn't even see in the dark, also while the flashlights were on, I notice that the girl is really scuffed up too, she's bleeding and her clothes are cut, she must've seen me slip into the woods and followed suit but lost me at some point. The police can tell in this situation that I'm about to be a victim so one officer literally grabs me and starts pulling me out of the woodland.

That night I had to explain this story four times to the officer while paramedics stitched up my chest. I think they originally presumed we had something to do with the original response call to the location. I eventually left the hospital, went home and it took a long time to lose the anxiety and fear based on the darkness and the woods caused by that night. It was probably the worst experience I've ever had, but it definitely made me a stronger person for it.

Crazy hag bitch and her fiending companions, I hope you got what you deserved.

 

When I was running towards the exit/entrance where I'd previously saw the police, my sole intention was getting help from them, I figured they'd be more focused on what I'd been through rather than what I was doing, you're absolutely right and I would recommend anyone ever in a similar situation do the exact same and call for help. I had my phone on me the whole time and didn't even call the police, I think part of the reason why is just genuine fear, getting TF out of dodge was my main priority. Thankyou all for reading my story, I hope everyone that reads this takes some knowledge from it!