HaveYouMetTheTrail

There’s a trail out in small town, Washington. There isn’t much mystery surrounding it, yet strange things seem to happen. 

One of these oddities is a man who prowls around the area. Some refer to him as The Tilted Grandpa. This was because he was old and walked sideways, as if he were in a cartoon. Sightings of this man were rare, thankfully. You don’t want to see him. If you do, that could be the last thing you ever see. Legend says he lurks near the end of the first part of the trail and will wander into the second leg from time to time. As far as we know, no one has ever ventured after him, but if you do see him whilst he walks onto the second leg, he’ll just stand there. Still and ominous, as if he's daring you to follow, but whatever you do, do not follow him. Try to limit your time looking at him, for every minute you look at him, the more danger you are in. 

One sighting in particular took place a few months back. It was a sunny day, and two guys were out walking the trail. When they came around the corner, they were met with Tilted Grandpa exiting the first part of the trail. After he walked away towards where they had just come from, Matt and Bryan looked at each other.

“Yo dude... what just happened?” Bryan said, trying not to laugh.

“Idk man, just some old dude going for a walk,” Matt said unfazed, before briefly pausing, then saying,

“Well..That was kinda strange. Why was he all like… Tilted?” 

“Did you see the way he looked at us? He threw up his arms and, like, growled or whatever that was.” 

“Wait, what?? I didn’t see that; I was totally spaced out,” Matt admitted, trying to recall the short interaction that took place.

“Dawg, I'm so serious, it was kinda weird,” Bryan said, then immediately tried to recreate what had happened to show Matt. 

“I don’t know man, at least he went the opposite way from us.” 

“Ooh True,” Bryan agreed, then, trying to lighten the mood, added:

“Whose tilted lookin' grandpa is walking around?” 

Matt just laughs. They both know from previous experience that the longer they talk about the weird things on the trail, the eerier it feels. 

About 10 minutes later, Matt and Bryan are still at the end of trail leg one, just sitting on the concrete block. Then all of a sudden, there he is- Tilted, Grandpa. He's back? Now he's on the other side of the road, heading towards the entrance of leg two. But what's in his hand? A tissue?? Where could that possibly have come from, and why on earth does he have a random tissue in the middle of the woods? Matt and Bryan look at each other, shocked, then turn back to watch Tilted Grandpa. Despite the silence, they are both wondering the same things. Where, why, how, and most importantly, what’s going on with this dude? 

Tilted Grandpa walks his tilted walk towards the entrance of leg two and starts walking down it. Matt and Bryan stayed sitting there, now back to talking about whatever. They both look over at Tilted Grandpa every couple of seconds while he slowly, but surely, makes his way down the trail. The weird thing is that he kept turning around, looking back at them, as if he was making sure they were still there and interested. He must have done this 3 or 4 times.

He looks at them again. However, this time it’s different. He stops dead in his tracks. Slowly, he turns and looks back. At this point, he is far enough away that they can’t make out details, but they can still relatively see him and his movements. They both notice his abrupt stop and quickly look at each other. With a mix of concern and confusion in his voice, Matt tries to confirm the obvious by saying,

“You're seeing this, right?” 

“Yeah… Why has he stopped and just stared back here? Do you think he's looking at us?” Bryan quietly responds, unsure of how to feel.

“I don't know, but I’m outta here,” Matt said, suddenly feeling very uneasy with the situation.

“Yeah, let's go,” Bryan quickly responded.

“You wanna keep hanging out?” Matt asked.

“Yeah, dude, I'm not going home after that.” 

“So… my place?” 

“Yep”

They started their walk back to Matt’s place. Bryan kept looking over his shoulder, paranoid. 

“What if he’s following us?” Bryan said out of the blue about halfway back to Matt's.

“Nah, I doubt it,” Matt said confidently, but in his mind, he wondered– ‘what if?’ 

The weather that night was a drastic change compared to what the days had been. It rained for hours, and every time you thought the wind was done, it would just blow harder. As Bryan slept on Matt’s sofa, he couldn’t help but see Tilted Grandpa in every shadow and hear him in every gust of wind. The branches from the tree outside pounded on the window, just as Bryan was drifting off, scaring him awake again.

“What’re you doing in my room?” Matt asked, still half asleep.

“I can’t sleep, dawg.. I have this weird feeling... like he's here or something I… I don't know, man. It's just a weird vibe, you know?” 

They walked into the kitchen and sat at Matt’s dining room table. Bryan’s hands were shakily cupping a glass of water. 

“Do you think he’s out there lurking?” Asked Bryan

“I doubt it. He went the opposite way from us.”

But Matt was secretly getting worried too. He couldn’t let Bryan see that he wasn’t in control of the situation; after all, he’s the adult. Barely. He's only 19, two years older than Bryan. They stayed up and just talked until they ended up falling asleep, still at the table. 

Their worries seemed to fade with the rising sun and with being kicked into autopilot by the same old start to their long fall days. Bryan goes to work, and Matt does his typical who-knows-what. Days pass; they get busy. Between senior year and work, Bryan has no time to think about the weird woods encounter, and Matt just has a bad memory. However, one person was still thinking about it. Tilted Grandpa. He was there for a reason that day. His ‘old man goes for a nature walk’ persona was riddled with malicious intent. Everything was going just as planned. He was cold and calculated. He doesn’t care who you are or how old you are; no one is safe. Tilted Grandpa is waiting patiently for his chance to see them again, and trust me, time was no issue for him. He WILL wreak havoc on these poor, unaware souls one way or another. Matt and Bryan have been going on the Farm Trail for 3 years now, and Tilted Grandpa has been watching them for 2 of those years. He imposes on their lives in subtle ways here and there; however, he can. Making that introduction the other day was no more than his next necessary step towards the ultimate goal.

Later on in the month, as the cold continues to set in, Matt and Bryan decide to give the farm trail another chance. After all, it was probably nothing. This time, they have another friend, Tim. Tim and Matt became friends in 11th grade. Bryan met Tim at their graduation, and they instantly became friends. Even though Matt and Bryan typically hang out together, it's not rare to see Tim with them. 

Matt and Bryan met up with Tim and started down the trail. A couple of minutes later, Bryan jokingly turned to Matt and said, “Dude, remember that time we saw that creepy old guy here?” 

“Wait, what? What creepy old guy?” Asked Tim

“Oh, right. You weren’t with us that day. So basically, Matt and I were walking down this path, and there was this really weird-looking old guy there. Must’ve been at least like 65 or something.” Bryan replied. 

Matt chimed in, “Yeah, he was all crooked. It was kinda creepy. Thanks for reminding me about that. Jerk.” He punched Bryan in the arm.

They continued down the trail, as they had done dozens of times before. Nothing felt out of the ordinary. The birds were chirping, the air smelled sweet, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Matt and Tim were wrestling in the grass when something caught Bryan’s eye. A shadow of a man. However, this was no ordinary guy; he looked all tilted. Wait. It was him. Neither Matt nor Tim had seen him, but to be fair, Tim currently had Matt in a headlock on the ground; But if it was Tilted Grandpa, then he sure as hell saw them, and he now knew they were here. Bryan turned around to face Matt and Tim. They were in an open field of grass, the last place you’d expect to see him. Bryan had been debating whether to say anything. He decided to stay quiet, as he could’ve very well just been paranoid. Eventually, Matt and Tim got up, and all three of them started on their way again.

 It had been a couple of minutes since Bryan had seen Tilted grandpa, and he decided that maybe he really was just paranoid; I mean, come on, there's no way he's here. As a matter of fact, there is no ‘tilted grandpa’; it was just some old guy walking on the trail that day. He probably even lives nearby. Just minding his own business. The other guys didn’t need to know and probably wouldn’t care anyway. Why should he even bring it up? And besides that, the day felt normal. They were just telling stories and cracking jokes. 

They were about halfway down the trail now. Then all of a sudden, as if Mother Nature had been reading Bryan's thoughts, the sun went behind a cloud, and the wind started to pick up. It had become colder and grey.

 Out of the blue, Bryan spoke up. 

“I don't know, guys; I’m not getting a good feeling about this trail anymore…” 

“Oh, c’mon, don’t be like that, Bryan; there’s nothing to fear. It’s not like the Slenderman is gonna get us or something.” Tim said with the most sarcastic tone possible. 

Then he basically dragged Bryan to the entrance of the second part of the trail. Matt was just a sheep following them; he zoned out, thinking. He didn’t want to believe that he could be here, so he told himself it was probably nothing. They walked down the path for a while. It felt much longer than the first leg. There was a sudden loud noise. Everyone jumped. 

“Uh, maybe Bryan was right about the vibe,” Matt groaned, not wanting to be stuck further into this trail with the potential monster that lurks.

“What? Do you guys wanna turn back or something?” Tim suggested, still speaking in that sarcastic tone. 

He didn’t believe how weird their encounter was. But to be fair, he wasn’t there. After a couple more minutes and some subtle persuasion, directed towards Tim, they decide to turn back and head home for the night. It was getting late and dark. The more they walked, the more uneasy they felt. 

They walked for what felt like forever, and the trail back seemed to go on for much longer than they had initially walked. Bryan continuously looked over his shoulder. However, maybe he shouldn’t have been, because all of a sudden, he saw him. Bryan was glancing back, quickly, as he had been doing the whole time, and it took a moment for it to register. Then Bryan does a double-take and grabs Matt's shirt. 

“Matt! Oh my god, it's him,” Bryan gasps.

 It all happened in the blink of an eye. Matt looks back. Tim looks back. Words were spoken, but they were indecipherable. However, they all had the same idea- “Run!”

It was a silent couple of minutes until Matt spoke up.

“Is he following us?” was all he could muster. Bryan worked up the courage to look behind him, and thankfully, they lost him. The panic died down, and everyone started to relax. Matt stopped to tie his shoe, and Bryan said something to Tim. However, because of the situation at hand, when Brian checked for Tilted Grandpa, he failed to notice that Tim had disappeared. He wasn’t behind them anymore. After having no response from Tim, he turned around to look. 

“Tim?” He paused and panicly scanned the area. “Yo, Tim, where did you go?” 

 “Dude, what are you talking about?” Matt said, still looking down at his shoe.

“Tim’s gone. Seriously, man, he's not behind us anymore.”

Matt finally looked up and turned to face the long trail that lay out in front of them. By now, they were almost back to the entrance of the second leg.

 “Tim? Tim, where'd you go, man?” Matt said, now realizing Bryan wasn't kidding.

“Hey, this isn’t funny. I know you think tilted grandpa is a joke, but come on, quit fooling around; we gotta go, it's getting late.” 

They turned around back towards the entrance, only to be met with a man hanging from a tree at the entrance of the second leg, roughly 20 yards ahead.

“Oh my god, I think there’s someone hanging right there!” Matt said with genuine fear in his voice.

“What the hell is going on… Is that.. Is that Tim?!”

“What. No. No way. It can’t be…” Matt paused for a second to think. “There's no way it is. I mean, sure, we can't find him right now, but there's no way he could have gotten in front of us; we would have seen.” 

Then Bryan says, “Plus, he didn't have a rope or anything; he couldn’t have hung himself, and there was no way to get into that tree, it's too high. Someone had to have-” Bryan stopped mid-sentence, realizing what he was about to say. 

“Someone had to have uh… Had to have helped him, Matt. Or rather, I guess did it… For him. Matt stopped to think. Who would have killed Tim, and how could they have not noticed someone else on the trail? Then the thought hit him like a train. There was only one other in this forest today. It must have been him... No. It can’t be. Could it? Had Tilted Grandpa really just done that to their best friend?

“Oh, my god… It was him, Bryan. It was him.”

Matt didn’t have to say his name because Bryan knew who he was referring to. Still, Bryan couldn’t believe it; he was too stunned to speak. Tilted grandpa was just some old man; there's no way he was capable of this. Matt's legs became very shaky, so he decided to sit down. He just kept looking back at Tim, then to Bryan again. The sun was setting, and they knew the dark was soon to follow. 5 minutes passed, and Bryan realized they probably shouldn’t stay here any longer. He helped Matt to his feet, and they took off running. The entrance of the trail was relatively nearby, thankfully, but now they had to walk this walk of shame past their dead friend. Both wishing it were different and feeling massive amounts of guilt. They kept running for a couple of minutes until they were a safe distance away, now almost to the gas station at the end of the road. They arrived at the gas station and stood outside in silence for a couple of minutes. No one wanted to say anything. No one knew what to say anyway. Finally, the silence was broken.

“Should we get you home, man?” Matt asked Bryan in a stark, dry voice.

“Could I maybe stay with you tonight? My parents are away on some trip, and I just really don’t wanna be home alone again especially not after that.” 

Matt nodded. They continued to walk in complete silence. Both of them were lost in thought. Matt couldn’t get the image out of his head, and well… Who knows what Bryan was thinking about? He just kept looking over his shoulder, afraid of Tilted Grandpa claiming any more victims tonight. Finally, when they both arrived, Matt went straight to his room. Bryan was left alone in the cold, empty house. He could hear Matt’s weeping from the living room. Bryan fixed himself a bowl of cereal. However, he could only pick at it. Later in the night, Matt emerged from his bedroom with a tear-stained face.

“Hey, you hungry? Sorry, I didn’t make a real dinner for ya.”

“I’m fine, not hungry.” Bryan got up to empty his bowl.

“Okay. Well, I'm just going to go back to my room then... uhh, goodnight, I guess.”

“G’night” Bryan couldn’t sleep. He was having trouble getting comfortable on the couch, so he just got up and left. He didn’t care that it was early in the morning. He didn't want to annoy Matt. It seemed like he just needed his space, which was understandable. Plus, Bryan had school in a couple of hours. Of course, he could have stayed home, but school gives him something to do during the day when he's not working. And something to keep his mind busy. Matt didn’t sleep very well either. The only sleep he got was in between breaks of crying. Matt has encountered death before, but not like this. His good friend was just right in front of him. Lifeless. How could he ever unsee that? Would he even be able to? He was a mess for days after this. Soon, however, he came to realize that it was no longer just sadness that consumed him. It was anger. He was mad at whoever was responsible for this. Could it really have been Tilted, Grandpa? Matt doesn't want to believe it was him, because after all, this was just some old guy in the woods. Right? 

Around a week after the incident, Matt went to Bryan's house in a fit of rage. He and Bryan weren’t really talking because of this. Matt needed his time to process, and Bryan, quite frankly, was over it. Of course, he cared, but after all, he didn’t really know the guy, and it just didn’t seem to affect Bryan as much. So when Matt showed up unexpectedly, it caught him by surprise. Mostly because he started throwing things before he even got in the door and instantly started yelling, not at Bryan, just yelling. Matt was so mad about what had happened and had no one to tell except the other person who was present. Bryan couldn’t quite figure out through the gibberish that Matt spilled about why he was there in the first place until he calmed down. Then, out of nowhere, Matt decided to throw an impulsive idea out there.

“Let's go to the farm trail and get that tilted bastard”

“Whoa, man, I don't know if that's a good idea. I think hanging someone sends the sign that we should definitely not go back there.”

“Bryan, we need to get justice for Tim. I know it was Tilted Grandpa, and now he needs to pay for this. How could he do this to our friend? He can't just get away with murder.”

“Okay, we’ll go back. But uh, what exactly is your plan here? Huh, tough guy, you gonna just go jump some old man in the woods with no plan at all?”

“Okay, fair. I'll think of something”

“Like cmon what do you even plan to accomplish here? Scare him? Hurt him?”

Matt instantly responds, “Kill him.”

“Matt! You're not going to kill an old man in the woods. We don’t even know for sure it's him. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem going to the farm trail; I'm not scared. I do, however, have a problem with you killing a random old man. We have no proof it was him. If you want to know he's guilty, for sure, then go to the police, and they’ll figure it out.”

“We can’t go to the police. You idiot, if we go to the police now, they will know we were there, and for one, we didn’t report it, and it makes us look super guilty. Neither of us killed Tim, we know that, but that's not how the police will see it.”

“Okay, well, *sigh* you’ve got a good point, but that brings us back to the question: what are you going to do?” Then in a whisper, Bryan adds, 

“You can't kill him.”

Matt storms off, still visibly angry. He tries to come up with a plan, but he’s stumped. The only option is to kill him. Fighting him would do nothing, plus who knows what he's capable of. He decides that he has to make up a lie to please Bryan, then, when he's not looking, he’ll shoot tilted grandpa, and they will live happily ever after, and they won't have to worry about him ever again. 

The next day, he calls Bryan, and they arrange to go to the farm trail on Friday, two days from then. Matt makes up something about how he's just going to confront him and maybe fight him if he has to, but nothing lethal. Bryan makes Matt swear on his life that he's not going to kill the guy unless necessary, and he does. 

Friday comes fast, and they meet up as soon as Bryan gets out of school. They wanted to hang out before they went, so they went to a couple of stores and stuff before finally making their way towards the trail. They step foot into the gate, and both stop in their tracks.

“Are you sure about this, Matt”

“It's the only thing we can do”

“We could just let it go. I know you're angry, but anything could happen in these woods today. We could get in trouble, hurt, or maybe nothing. But is that a risk you're willing to take? Are you sure you want to do this?”

“I'm positive. I don’t think anything is going to happen, and anyway, we might not even see him. This is for Tim. Tim was a good man, and he didn’t deserve-” Matt had to stop for a second; his voice started to crack. He didn’t want to start crying, especially not in front of Bryan, and not to mention in public. He took a breath and continued, 

“He didn’t deserve what happened. It was my fault, plus I'm the oldest. I have to do something, Bryan. I have to make it right.” 

“Matt, it's not your fault, okay. He wanted to hang out that day and-” Bryan stopped talking, this wasn’t what he needed to say. Not now, not in this moment. He put a hand on Matt's shoulder and, while still looking forward, said,

“For Tim.”

Matt quietly follows up with a “for Tim.” 

Now they’re off, down the trail, ready for whatever is in store for them. They walk and talk, trying to keep the mood light and quickly get to the end of trail leg 1. This is where it all started. This is where it gets serious. They start down leg 2, trying to stay calm; they’ve only been on the second leg 3 times. The trail is surprisingly calm today, the birds are loud, and the air is crisp and cool. It's honestly a beautiful fall afternoon. Despite this, Bryan is constantly looking over his shoulder, afraid of what is to come; he didn’t want to be here in the first place. Matt starts picking up the pace to the point that Bryan notices. Maybe it's nerves, or maybe he just wants to get out of there. Who knows, but whatever it is helps them get to the end of leg 2 faster. 

Now they are standing at the entrance of leg 3. They stop. They’ve never actually been down it before. They look at each other, then back at the trial.

“It's now or never, Matt.”

“I know. I just-. I don’t know”

Bryan quickly responds, “Either we go and maybe see him, or we leave. Right now. We can back out; there is still time.” 

“No. We didn’t come this far just to leave. We’re doing this”

“Okay, then we'd better get this over with.”

Nothing noteworthy happens. They talk, Bryan looks over his shoulder, nothing new. The only difference is that this leg is surprisingly short; after what felt like a few minutes, they could see the half gate at the end. Right before they get to the end, Bryan says

“You know I’m starting to think he's not here, I mean, we’re at the end of the trail, and we never saw him. It's not like he's standing here like some final boss waiting for us.” He takes a brief pause before adding, “I don’t think there is a tilted grandpa. I think it was some random old dude. Now I don’t know what happened to Tim, but I don’t think it was tilted, Grandpa.”

“Bryan, I get what you mean, but what else could have happened to Tim”

“I don’t know.”

At this point, they are at the gate just standing there, unsure of what to do, so Matt spoke up,

“Sooo, should we walk back down the trail towards the entrance”

“Yeah, sure. There really isn’t anything else to do, and maybe we'll see him on the way back. Ooh, actually, after, can we hit up Chevron then, like your house or something?”

“Sure, might as well. Wanna spend the night?”

“Yeah, I’m down”

“Okay, just let me tie my shoe real quick”

As Matt gets down to tie his shoe, a gun falls out of his waistband. Bryan quickly notices this and immediately says,

“Dude, why do you have a gun. You promised you weren't going to kill him.” Matt quickly gets up.

“No, no, it's not how it looks, I just- I wanted it for protection, just in case you know. We don't know what he's capable of.” Matt says this frantically. He was caught in a lie but managed to save himself somehow.

“Wait, lowkey, okay, that's a good point. I didn’t think of that. I mean, I have my knife on me, but it was already in my pants pocket”

“Yeah, dude, I wasn't going to show up empty-handed.” 

Matt gets back down to tie his shoe, then they can leave. He picks up the gun,

“Can you hold this real quick so I can tie my shoe”

“Yeah, of course”

Matt hands Bryan the gun. As Matt was finishing tying his show, there was a loud noise coming from the trail. He jumps up. 

“What the hell was that”

“I don’t know, but I think it came from that way”

He points towards the trail.

“Should we go investigate? I mean, we’re going that way anyway”

“I guess. I’m kind of scared, what if it had to do with tilted grandpa”

“Ehh, I doubt it. It could have been an animal. Or like a tree falling”

“Good point, we should get going’

They start walking, but only get a few steps, just enough to pass the gate, when out of nowhere, Bryan from behind, lifts his arm and point-blank shoots Matt in the head. He falls on his face. Bryan, as if he were in a trance, visibly snaps out of it and, in total shock and disbelief, stumbles backwards and drops the gun behind him. 

“Oh, my god. What… What just happened? I-”

He takes a step towards Matt.

“Matt”