The kid with the pitch-black eyes in the Gangwon mountains (scary story)

Okay I wasn't going to post this but it's been months and I still hear the sound sometimes so here we go.

I moved out to a small mountain village in Jeongseon, Gangwon province a while back. Late fall to early winter the fog there is INSANE. Like you can't see three feet in front of you. The village elders kept telling me the same thing over and over: if you get lost in the forest, don't follow anyone. And NEVER go into the forest at night. Never.

They wouldn't explain why. But the way they said it. Their eyes had this actual fear in them, like they'd seen something.

I'm into wildflower photography so I'm in that forest a lot. One day I lost track of time taking photos deep in the woods and the sun just. dropped. Darkness hit instantly and suddenly the forest was full of these weird shapes everywhere. My phone was dead so no flashlight. Cool. Great. Awesome.

I started booking it toward the village. Nothing but the sound of leaves under my feet. Dead silent otherwise.

Then I felt it. Someone behind me.

I stopped. Listened. Nothing. I told myself I was just freaking out and kept walking.

That's when something small shot out from behind a huge oak tree next to the path.

My heart almost stopped but when I looked closer it was just a kid. Little girl, maybe 5 or 6, wearing a black puffer jacket, just standing there staring at me. In the middle of the mountains. At night. Make it make sense.

But she wasn't moving so I thought maybe she was lost too. I went closer. "Sweetie, are you alone? Are you lost?"

She didn't answer. Just tilted her head and reached her hand out toward me.

I went to take her hand. And then something felt OFF.

Her wrist was too thin. Like. bone and skin thin. Not normal kid thin.

Then I actually looked at her face. The hood of her jacket had been covering it but in the faint moonlight I saw it.

Her eyes were completely black. No pupils. No whites. Just. black. All the way through. Like someone poured ink into where her eyes should be.

My blood went cold. This wasn't a child. This couldn't be a child.

Then she opened her mouth and this raspy voice came out. "Come with me…"

It sounded dead. Empty. Like something a corpse would say.

I tried to scream. Nothing came out. My whole body locked up. She started taking one step toward me. Then another.

And that's when it hit me. The elders. The warnings. There's a local legend about a "child with black eyes" in this forest. If you follow her you never come back. She whispers "I'll show you the way" to lost people and leads them to the deepest part of the forest where the fog never lifts and you're trapped there forever.

I was about to pass out. I literally couldn't move.

Then from somewhere far in the forest I heard it. Singing. A lullaby. Someone humming a lullaby to a child.

The second that sound reached us the girl started SHAKING. Like something was hunting HER now. She snapped her head around and vanished into the black fog so fast I barely saw her go.

My legs gave out. I just collapsed right there.

When I finally got it together and stood up, there was an old woman standing in front of me. Cane in one hand, an old wind chime¹ in the other. She asked if I was okay. Said "good thing you didn't follow her."

She told me the girl I met is called the forest's "path guide." Follow her and you're trapped in the forest forever.

Then she told me the story.

Long time ago a little girl got lost in this forest. Wandered for days. Eventually starved to death. Her mother went out every single night looking for the body and eventually lost her mind out there. The old woman said she comes into the forest every night now to sing lullabies to comfort the girl's spirit. The wind chime on her cane was swaying and making this clear ringing sound. THAT was the sound I'd heard.

She walked me back to the village. And on the way she said something that's been stuck in my head ever since.

"The child didn't turn black-eyed on her own. She's not trying to take lost people away. She's asking them to stay with her. She thinks if someone stays with her she'll be able to find her way."

I felt sick when she said it. Because like. doesn't that mean she wants to keep turning lost people into what she is? So she has company?

I have never gone into that forest alone since.

But sometimes. late at night. when the village is completely quiet. I swear I hear a clear wind chime on the breeze. And way far away, a kid laughing.

Maybe she's still out there looking for a "friend."