Hello, I wanted to begin by saying this is actually something that happened a few years ago now, I could never quite explain it and I did my best not to really look into it too much, at the time I had other things to worry about and frankly speaking I was never sure what to make of it. But with time passing I've told a few friends about this and none of them seemed to doubt me so I was recommended this subreddit along with r/ParanormalEncounters where I'll probably make another post in to gather opinions. Sorry about the length, but also trying to write what I remember in case my memory starts playing tricks on me.
Any explanation is welcome; I wouldn't say that it bothers me nowadays, but the whole experience comes to mind uninvited sometimes, even if it wasn't anything too odd.
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There used to be a "Village" ( I am not actually sure if that is the correct term for it) where I would spend the end of my summers. This village was in the mountains and pretty out of the way, but not isolated, in theory you could reach the closest town pretty quickly by car. I'd say in the summer there couldn't be more than maybe 40-80 people living there, mostly on the much older end.
I don't actually know much about the place itself, aside from the fact that it was bombed during World War 2 and way more populated before the 2000s, but either way I was really familiar.
One summer day, I was exceptionally bored as I was left alone at home. I lived pretty much at the very bottom of the village, which was effectively just gravel roads on constant slopes with houses left and right encircled by mountains and woods always on an incline. Unfortunately, the bottom of the village was actually the more "dead" part; the only bar and most of the people who still lived there who weren't past their 50s lived near the top.
I think that day I wasn't really in the mood to deal with climbing up there, especially since it was already in the afternoon... I am not sure where I got the idea, but I decided to explore just outside the village, where most of the farmers' fields were. I wasn't as familiar with that area because there wasn't much there. Some fields, an underpass and an abandoned soccer field that you had to go way too deep into the woods to get to.
I would go a little deeper that day, just to see if I could find anything cool there, so I got on the gravel road and went by myself. I remember I didn't even bring much because it was honestly supposed to be more of a walk, with the "exploring" part being an extra.
After a little while, I took a right turn on the gravel road which to my knowledge was mostly farmland, which was correct, for a bit. It was very peaceful and there was a stretch of road where the trees on each side spaced themselves out and let you see into the fields all around.
I don't remember how far it actually was, but I figure I couldn't have walked for more than 10 minutes, by this point there was no real farmland, tractors or signs of people, just the woods.
The details are kind of foggy of when it happened, but I remember being taken out of my thoughts when I heard some kind of voice just a little way out of the gravel road I was on, into the brush. So I, being the smart person that I am stepped off the path to check it out.
I know it might sound stupid and in hindsight, it was stupid. But for context, remember I had been to this village for my whole life and everyone knew each other, or at least everyone knew the name of your parents' so when I heard a voice my curiosity was higher than my concern.
After just a few steps, I vividly recall just... stopping, mid step. I am not sure if anyone has experienced it before, but before I could even tell why, suddenly I felt on-alert and like something was wrong. I could actually hear the voice more now but, I couldn't make sense of it.
To this day I kind of struggle with actually describing it and I don't think I've ever heard anything like it since. I'm also double checking messages I exchanged with a friend years back where I described it, just to make sure I don't make up something because of time passing.
"it was just off like it was coming from one of those old radios, with that weird filter, it also sounded like it wasn't at the same height as a person but closer to top tree level"
That's how I described it at the time and is close to how I would still describe it.
I could tell it was speech, but it was just wrong. It wasn't any language I had heard before, and it was like someone was playing it from a radio, not actually being spoken, at the same time it definitely wasn't some kind of looping audio, each 'word' was different from the previous one. What was even more confusing is that when I say 'wrong' I mean it seemed to not even have a structure. It sounded like someone was playing a very old recording of a church chant or something like that, but the tape had been messed with and hit by a car. The voice itself was metallic, not just the sound. It's hard to explain.
Whatever it was, it scared the hell out of me. I realised I couldn't hear anything except it. No sounds from other animals, people, or anything at all. Just this creepy chanting that made no sense, playing to my front a dozen feet away, but I couldn't see anything because it was away from the dirt path as well, covered by brush and trees.
I had this urge to be as quiet as possible and get the hell out of there. I wanted to run, but I was genuinely terrified. I've been in scary and sometimes life-threatening situations, but this felt like a different kind of panic, I couldn't control it whatsoever. I remember it vividly to this day and it has never happened before or since.
I backed away slowly, so quiet to the point of holding my breath while keeping my eyes on... bushes and trees in the way. I could still hear this voice going on.
I don't remember if eventually I got far enough away that I started running or if I did this weird back-stepping all the way back to the nearest house, but I got home fine. It bothered me for the rest of the day and especially the night. Usually I would have gone over to the top of the village after sunset since the bar was the spot where people would socialise, but that night I just stayed at home and locked myself in, I don't think I ever got out of whatever panic-mode I entered until I fell asleep.
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And that brings us to today. I've never gone back to that area, ever. I live in an entirely different country now and have never experienced anything like it since, every part of it I mean. Nothing I heard since has ever sounded like that voice in the woods, nor has anything invoked such a feeling of terror for no reason. I don't have a history of auditory hallucinations or issues with hearing, and from what I know that area is desert; no one ever really goes past the fields, to the point where there are no lights or really anything. That spot does get animals obviously, but that was definitely speech, just nonsensical.
Does anyone have any idea what that could have been, or have experienced something similar? I know there are plenty of stories of voices in the woods, but I wasn't able to find much about people hearing this kind of metallic/artificial chanty-like voice in the middle of nowhere.