I was excited to get to the campsite with my girlfriend as early as possible. The earlier the better that way we got more time to hang around and relax and eat tons of snacks. Pulling into the campsite was beautiful. A small creek in a wooded area covered in cottonwood trees. The sound of the creek was ever present and seemed to bring us some peace. We quickly set up our gear and got to cooking. A couple of hours in and the sunlight started to dim. We were walled off on every side with mountain slopes so the sunlight faded pretty early around 5pm. It started to get cold. We set up our fire and got comfortable next to each other to keep warm. I had a couple of beers as well as my girlfriend. I also sparked up one or two joints as well so I was feeling pretty relaxed but still, the cold was creeping into our bodies no matter how hard we hugged or leaned into the campfire. We decided to call it in after a while as it was now fully dark and painfully cold. Our sleeping bags were made for cold weather so they would keep us comfortable through the night in our tent. We put everything away and secured it in a bear-proof lock outside then we got in and closed the tent off and tucked into our sleeping bags. I was pretty buzzed so I managed to fade away into a nice sleep pretty easily and it seemed like my girlfriend was falling asleep easily as well.
During the night I woke up suddenly to my girlfriend sitting up in her sleeping bag shaking me awake. She was shaking me quite hard almost as if in she had been trying to wake me and I wouldn't wake. It was dark. pitch black dark and cold. So cold my nose felt frozen as it was the only part sticking out from my sleeping bad and covers. I leaned closer to where I felt she was, "whatsup babe?" I pawed around in the dark trying to feel for her.
"Can we go to the bathroom please? I really need to go." She asked and I could sense a little sense of urgency in her voice. I was still kind of in sleep mode so I didn't reply right away as well as I was hesitant to have to face the dark and cold at such a time when I was just sleeping so soundly.
"Yea sure" I replied already dreading getting out of my sleeping bag. She didn't say anything, which I just took as her being sleepy and maybe not feeling so well from the food possibly. We both climbed outside the tent. It was bitter cold and dark all around. No moon shone this night. She didn't say a word. I almost got the feeling like she was upset with me.
"Ok lets go." I led the way in the dark walking through the path using my phone as a light. We weren't far from a campsite bathroom anyways. Maybe a minute walk from it. We got to the bathrooms which was just a men and women's room side by side with a single light at the top of the entrances. She went into the bathroom right away. I guess she had to go really bad. I made my way into the men's room and closed the door. It was actually warmer inside the bathroom than outside. I went number 1 quickly and came outside to wait at outside the door where my girlfriend was. Everything around me was completely dark except for a circle of light that was illuminated by the single bathroom light at the top of the building. You can make out the trees just outside the path we were on and beyond that nothing could be seen. The only sound was the creek bubbling close by. Just then I heard the sound of someone walking on the path towards me. The footsteps sounded slow and unalarming. Immediately I could see two smaller feet enter from out of the darkness into the circle of light. Then the light revealed a small old woman walking on the path. She didn't direct herself towards the bathroom she just continued staring down and walking on the path. She had a worn jacket on and some even more worn looking black pants. Her hands where held up to her mouth as older women tend to do when they see something that concerns them. I could see her hands where very dirty and her nails broken and chipped. Her white hair was very unkept and she looked altogether to be in terrible state. More alarming was the expression on her face. She looked utterly terrified and her bright blue eyes where completely bared. What she did next was more unsettling than her current state; she slowly turned her head to me just as she was walking directly in front of me but facing the path still, and smiled. Her cracked lips peeled back and a sinister smile revealed her large teeth which were mostly rotted. She then turned her face toward the path again and continued on out of the circle of light and into the darkness just as quick as she had entered in.
I felt seriously creeped out and lightly banged on the bathroom door.
"Babe are you almost done?" I asked softly, fearing that if I spoke any louder, maybe the old lady might turn back to speak to me for whatever reason. When you start feeling creeped out, irrational thoughts start to seem allot more likely for some reason.
No reply.
"Babe is everything ok in there? Let's hurry up and get out of here I'm freezing."
Still, no reply. I leaned my head closer in by the handle and whispered,
"Baaaabe what's going on?"
Just then as I was leaning closer to the door, I noticed that the light wasn't on inside the bathroom. Those bathrooms had lights on timer switch dials that you could turn on and off manually. Why was she in there in the dark? Maybe she only turned the dial switch a bit and it turned off on her. Screw it I'm opening the door. I'm feeling scared now and I'm sure she won't mind me seeking refuge with her even if she was using the bathroom. I opened the door into the dark bathroom and whispered again.
"Baaaabe?"
I put my hand on the light switch and turned it on. The bathroom was empty. Shivers went up my spine. I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing. Where the hell was she? I started feeling panic. I backed out of the bathroom and ran towards my tent. I unzipped the tent and looked inside.
There she was laying in her sleeping bag asleep. I stared at her for a minute breathing hard from the run and the panic. I tried to calm myself down and carefully think of what just transpired. Did she come out of the bathroom and I didn't notice? Why wouldn't she have said anything? She wouldn't leave the bathrooms without me. I couldn't make sense of it. I decided I didn't want to wake her up to me saying something completely insane in the middle of the night. I even doubted what really happened. I figured I might as well wait until morning. I laid myself down in my sleeping bag and stared into the ceiling of the tent. My heart was still racing. I kept glancing over at my girlfriend just to see if anything changed with her. She was sound asleep. I just lay there thinking and feeling very alarmed and, honestly, insane. Just then, over the bubbling sound of the creek, I heard another sound. It was faint but as I focused on the sound of it, I immediately recognized it. The sound of small feet walking on the path in the distance. I shrunk further into my sleeping bag. One more glance at my girlfriend. She was the same as before. I clutched the cover of the sleeping bag and pulled it over my face, closed my eyes and held them shut tight.
Morning came and we got up and packed everything up. I made sure to leave as fast as possible. On the drive home I asked my girlfriend how she slept that night. She said she slept fine but just after she had laid down, she woke up for a little bit then fell back asleep. She said she had woken up to the sound of an old woman crying. I felt so uneasy I never told her about it but I will never forget that night.