Incident on the Road to Sydney

From Stephen Wagner,Your Guide to Paranormal Phenomena.

Where time and reality distorted into a scene of terror

There are two ways you can get from the Australian Capital Territory to Sydney in New South Wales: the fast way and the highway. The highway is bent around farmland that the government could not buy, so they built small roads around it instead, and the highway detours a minimum of three miles away from each farm. The fast way is a series of narrow roads that pass through beautiful countryside that is heavily forested - so forested that you can't see around bends.

I took the fast way, of course.

I was traveling along these roads at about 7-9 p.m. (I didn't check much). The terrain alternates between forest and plains every 10 to 20 minutes. So I passed through forest, then plain, then forest, then plain, then forest.... A journey through the fast track takes about two or three hours, depending on speed. Needless to say, I didn't mind the speed limits. Although I didn't keep track of time, I could have sworn I was traveling for far over two hours.

I stopped for a rest. It was a beautiful night. The moon shone rather brightly, light dancing upon the trees, illuminating dust particles and highlighting a nearby pond. The gum trees around there are bone-white and stood out starkly in the moonlight. If a bush or rock was in front of one, it was quite evident and made the tree look like it was floating on air.

Unusual lights

The moon seemed to get increasingly bright, which was very strange as it was also very low. I decided to step away from my car and venture through the forest to find a clearing so I could get a better view of the moon. I walked through the dense forest and finally came to a field of crops. They must have been planted recently because the dirt had sharp depressions all over it of varying shapes and sizes. I suddenly remembered what I was there for and looked up, only to be shocked at the fact that the bright moon I sought was actually a spotlight. Half blinded, I looked down and raised my hand instinctively to shade my eyes.

A moment later, my heart almost stopped. The spotlight switched off... and another was switched on, facing the opposite direction. I looked up, and as my eyes adjusted, I saw in the distance a scarecrow. It was, as far as I could tell, facing to my right. Then I swore I saw it move. Not violently; it just wobbled. In the wind, I said to myself. And there was a bit of wind.

Just as I was about to turn and walk back to my car, I sneezed. It echoed across the field. I looked back up to see the scarecrow still standing there - to my relief. So I started off back toward my car.

 The man in the field

What happened next is rather hard to explain because it makes little logical sense, but I'll try.

I took one last look toward the spotlight, which I could barely see through the trees before. I froze. There was no blinding spotlight, only the lit field - illuminated as if the spotlight were pointed straight at the ground. Most puzzling is that the dense thicket of trees I had walked though was gone. I could see only the field.

At this point, I'm not even certain I was still in my car. I could not think of anything else. I was completely frozen, only able to take in the psychedelic vision that presented itself before me.

The illuminated area started to grow smaller, then stopped. At the dead center of the field was a man. He had a gun by his side. I remember feeling my hands, but every time I moved them, the man moved the gun closer to his head, as if preparing to shoot himself. So I froze again, not daring to see what would happen.

Then I could feel my legs. They started to hurt. I didn't dare move them ether. Soon I could feel my whole body, but again, I dared not move. I was not aware of the dimension of time at this point. I sat still, drawn into the view. I grew tired. My hands fluttered and the man's arm raised more, now pointing the gun straight at his head.

He started crying. He was looking at me now. His other hand raised and pointed to his left. I was now aware of some cuts on his body, even though he was so far away. They seemed not to be old wounds, yet they did not bleed.

"THEEEEERE!" He screamed. It was like he was right next to me, his voice piercing like an air siren. I thought my heart would fail and felt like my chest was being sliced up from the inside.

The gun fired and I raised my arms to my ears in a pathetic attempt to block the noise. The noise stopped and I looked up. I was in my car... and my car was in the field. In a daze, I got out and saw tire tracks leading from the road to my car.

Had I had fallen asleep? For some reason, I was not at all frightened then. In fact, I didn't fully remember what happened until I was in Sydney hours later.

Return to the field

Some days later, I returned to that field in the daytime and looked around for the spot I would have been standing in during this dream-like incident. When I found what I vaguely remembered resembled the view of the field, I looked in the direction the man had been pointing.

In the distance I saw a house. Now I swear, when I looked at that house, I saw a man in the window. He wasn't the same man, but that didn't matter. He was upside-down.

That was all I needed to go speeding home at a million miles an hour. I never took that road again. In fact, I never drove at night again.