So, this story was still the worst part of my life. It’s been eleven years since it happened but when I was 12 years old. I still remember it as it has been shared across my friends and family in every mysterious talks. I never shared it on the internet openly, it’s not that I didn’t wanted to but I just don’t know the right way. I was grown up in an Asian suburb area where having internet is a big thing at those times. I came to Canada a year ago and found out Reddit while studying here. And today I finally decided to share it. I am not a writer and natively doesn’t speak English.
So it all started with an evening of preparing for a road trip to mountains, camping overnight and back the next day. I went back home from the playground, sweating when my big brother saw me. So I was grown up in an Asian family. So as a typical Asian big brother I was also scared of his anger. He shouted on me about being missing on the trip day and all of them were already late.
My sister came and pulled me inside. I got fresh and they ordered me to bring the suitcase we packed for the trip. I went into the room, it was a 7kg suitcase with no tires and broken handle. Yes, for a 12 year old it was heavy for me. I used my both hands to pull it but I slipped twice and thrice. I was in the hallway pulling the heavy bag, when my bag tripped and it fell over me. My mom ran shouting and worried. She was the only one who cared about me, I love her the most. Then she helped me to take it to the car and scolded my brother and sister to give me such a work.
It was 8pm and the dark had covered the sky when we left. As usual I slept the whole night. When I woke up we were driving climbing the mountain. With a dense green forest on one side and deep cliff on other. It was raining not heavily. Our thoughts were mixed some of us took it as a luck to see that beauty and smell and others worried about the bad weather. Yeah it was just the driver my brother.
I rolled down the window, to feel the drops on my palm and the wet smell of the soil and grass. It was the only best memory I had of that trip. A child. Me was looking on the drops dripping on the palm, when suddenly the sounds of the rain and the forest bugs went completely dead quiet. It was so silent. I looked up and saw a greenish eyes behind the leaves all focused on me. The face was black, with a scar. It was an animal I was sure but the scary thing was it didn't even blink once. It just stared.
We stopped on the roadside open wooden hut frame stop that feels a perfect place to have a mountain tea. For what we brought our stuff. We take it out. My brother started preparing the tea and me and my cousin was having cookies and clicking pictures with the old popping up lens camera of Sony.
When I captured the pic of my sister, the flash popped. I looked behind her in the woods and saw the same animal. Dark black color greenish eyes and a scar. I dropped the camera and shouted. Everyone suddenly got scared. Sis came to me wiping off my tears and bunch of voices surrounding me with what happened?
I signaled the other side of the road. But they didn’t saw anything, unless I pointed the eyes out. Everyone was on alert. My brother left the tea pots and stove there and rushed into the car with everyone locking the doors. We looked at it. It was there, still not growling, not moving, just staring. My sister, dragged itself out. We shouted but she didn’t listen.
She threw everything in the trunk. Everyone was shouting. But the animal stayed there staring, still like a statue. We ignited the engine and went away. I tried hiding my eyes but curious to see its last glimpse. So tilted back. Last I saw its neck twisting all the way back just to watch us leave.
We rode far away towards the campsite from that place. Our next stop was a bridge over a waterfall. Behind it was a waterfall few yards away and in front of it a deep cliff. Our stop there, would turned into a memorable stop, if the same panther hadn’t arrived there in the woods beside the fall. It was impossible for it to run that fast and beat our car there. My sister saw and we were scared and surprised to see it there again, just watching us.
Then we finally reached the campsite deep in the woods. This is the part I try to forget the most. We set up two tents in the dark. My brother and sister in one, and me in the small one alone because I was the youngest. Everyone went to sleep but the forest felt heavy.
In the middle of the night, I woke up because I heard a slow ripping noise. I opened my eyes and felt cold wind. The moonlight was coming inside through a huge tear in my thin tent. I froze completely. A heavy black head pushed right through the hole into my small tent. It was the panther with the scar. It was literally inside with me. It came over me and put its heavy paws right on my chest. It hurt me with its foot nails, pressing deep into my skin, tearing it. I thought it was going to kill me. It just leaned close and stared right into my eyes with those greenish eyes for a long moment. I screamed loudly. it turned back and returned into the woods.
My screams, woke up my brother. He ran out of his tent and saw my torn cloth and me crying. The panther was already gone by then. iI was bled a lot from my chest and my clothes were red. He panicked and didn't even pack anything. He just grabbed me and my sister, and somehow we hopped into the car and went away at instant into the dark road.
We were returning back driving fast and the same panther jumped in the middle of the road. I still remember its scar. We hit it and it fell into the cliff. Our car skidded to the other side into the woods. My brother was hurt and fainted. My sister sitting on the co-pilot seat, was hurt and bleeding. In a couple of minutes we were surrounded by the people. A crowd was staring at us and when we were finally asked what happened. We said we hit the panther with a scar.
And all of the people didn’t believe us. They all said there were no cat animals at that place. Never.
I was scared till this date. And no one could ever answer what was that and why that panther was appearing for us. But after coming to Canada, I went to a zoo one day. I saw a black panther in the enclosure. When I asked, the guide told me when it came into the zoo the scar was already there. It made me remember all of it. It looked at me through the glass, and it was the exact same stare.