The Present

A young man shuffled with a camera as he tried to keep it from falling over.

"Alright..." he coughed a few times, looked around as he shifted in his seat.

"Hello everyone, as I said I would, I am going to investigate Bell Forest, I am very close to it right now, the so-called home of the 'Stalker', like most people, I was skeptic about all this stuff but that was before I really looked into it" he said, comfortable in front of the camera.

"By all means, except if everyone I talked to are working together and perfect actors, the Stalker truly exists, now, I don't believe he is a wendigo or alternate human species like some like to theorise, he certainly seems to be a peak athlete, considering that he is said to be able to pursue anyone through the forest and climb trees as if it was nothing" the young man was repeating things he had said in previous video.

However, he felt like this one would attract more people that didn't know his view on the subject, he wouldn't be the first to go to Bell Forest and try to see if the stalker would show up but most were humorous at best or straight up attempts at deception.

"Honestly" he sighed heavily "I really hope I don't bump into him, most believe that he is just an extreme prankster that wouldn't go as far as murder someone but there are a lot of disappearances and strange deaths in Bell Forest, which doesn't make me very comfortable" he admitted to no one, as it wasn't livestream, if his instinct was correct and he ran into the Stalker, he could end fattening a statistic.

"But let's be hopeful, surely, one man can't cause so many things, Bell Forest is large and dangerous without a maniac" he picked up the camera and open his car door, stepping out.

In front of him, a small town stood right on the edge of an entrance to Bell Forest, it was summer, so there were quite a few hikers to be seen amongst the townspeople, even with this place's reputation, many people were still willing to come, after all, not everyone was deeply interested in the disappearances and Stalker, most people would only have heard of those as unfortunate accidents and a hoax, rather than mysterious disappearances and a man with many screws loose.

The young man hadn't taken the time to present himself to the camera but his name was Aaron, owner of the You-tube channel called, 'Aaron's Basement'.

A moderately famous channel that dealt with anything relating to mysteries and such.

As he always did when going to areas with legends or strange occurences, Aaron would first attempt to question some locals and see what they thought about all of this.

His first few attempts didn't amount to anything, they had no clue and really didn't seem to care, it wasn't like it had ever impacted them in any way, no one living around here had ever gone missing or encountered the Stalker, which was bizarre.

"It would appear that the Stalker only targets people coming from somewhere else, the locals aren't up on his target list" he remarked to the camera as he approached a man loading some brand new tools into his worn-out van.

Aaron asked the same questions as everyone else but this man, which was actually fairly young, or so he appeared, didn't have nearly the same answers as them.

He was wearing a denim overall and grey shirt, his boots seemed tainted with mud and his cap seemed as equally old as the van.

Aaron could see his own expression in the reflection of his sunglasses as the man started explaining what definitely sounded like nonsense.

"So you're here to try and catch a glimpse of this guy? Then, you should totally head over this portion of the forest" he vaguely pointed at the portion in question, using both of his arms to help Aaron imagine the way he would have to take.

"Keep this between you and me, but I know things no one else does! The people here, they never saw him but I did and I can tell you, he isn't like you and me and most importantly, he isn't alone!" spoke the man before starting to chuckle mysteriously.

Refusing to elaborate further, he got into his van and drove away.

"I think I just met that guy who knows more than everyone else in horror movies, you know, the old guy that owns a gas station? That guy" remarked Aaron, not certain if he should follow that strangers advice but upon seeing that the way he had shown was actually a hiking trail, he figured it couldn't hurt to check it out.

For the rest of the day, nothing of note happened, Aaron didn't see any reflection of light in the tree line nor did he find anyone following him, not that he would be able to spot the Stalker so easily, he was reputed for his almost inhumane stealth.

Aaron set up camp, half hoping to hear something and half hoping for the opposite.

Nothing happened that night, Aaron wasn't woken up by anything but something was still off.

Looking from the inside of his tent, he would be expecting to see the light of day but it was still as dark as if it was the middle of the night.

Aaron reached for his phone, he didn't have any signal but what shocked him was the date, he had slept through the whole day, essentially skipping from one night to the other.

'Hold on... How did-' he opened up his tent and despite the night being dark, the moonlight was strong enough for him to definitely notice that he wasn't in the spot he was before.

All of his stuff was left untouched and in the same positions but he wasn't anywhere near a trail, he was deep inside of the forest.

He was about to turn back to at least catch all of this on camera when he noticed the figure leaning against a tree right behind his tent.