SURPRISING STORIES FROM ROMANIA – Episode 2

HORROR TRANSILVANIA – BACIU FOREST, THE MOST MISTERIOUS AND GLOOMY PLACE ON EARTH – PART I

SORCE: Google Image

Near the city of Cluj, spread over an area of 295 hectares, lies the Hoia-Baciu forest, perhaps the largest and known area where large-scale parapsychological phenomena occur.
The forest has been integrated into all sorts of lists with the most strange places on the planet, and it is counted alongside the Mojave Desert and the Brezee Bay in the USA, La Speza Arenzano in Italy, the Hessdalen in Norway, the Belo Horizonte in Brazil and Mount Kailasa in Tibet, but far from them all out in the frequency of paranormal phenomena.
I could make many descriptions of the forest or to tell you the specialists opinion, but for that, there are already dozens of sites and articles you can read. In this episode, however, I will be telling the story of a soldier from a mountain hunter regiment, sent with ten comrades in that forest, with the only mission: to camp there for a night.

SORCE: vimeo.com

A night spent in hell

When I heard from someone that Dancu Nicolae spent a night in the Baciu forest, but that he does not want to talk about it, a strange desire has taken the control over me. I knew the man, but I did not know he went in that forest. So I went to him, and for almost a week, I asked him every day to tell me about that forest. Finally, at my insistence, he succumbed. I also informed him that I was going to publish his story, before he told me what happened.

SOURCE: Google Image

Dancu Nicolae, a good old man, made his military training, in his youth, at a battalion of mountain hunters. In 1961, he was sent with ten comrades in the Baciu Forest, on a research mission under the command of a Special Forces sergeant. Here's what the former soldier says about what he felt in that forest:
"As you enter this forest, a very strange feeling encompasses you, and all your senses are activated. You feel like a prey on the mercy of beasts, and everything in you yells and asks you to get the hell out of there. No matter how brave you are, no matter how distrustful you are in paranormal phenomena, at that moment, something is working in you, and a weird feeling of insecurity encompasses you. All your senses tell you that you should go, and only reasoning and self-encouragement can make you stay and see what's going on there.
But how could you go, when orders are clear? We had to spend the night there in a certain place. It was a strange portion, surrounded by hideous trees.
And you stay, and the night comes, and you feel terribly sorry for that you did not leave the forest. Suddenly, all the feelings of the day, telling you that you are not alone, that there are unclean things there, that you should not stay, become certainties. Now you want to run like a deer. You look at your comrades hoping to find the tranquility you need, or a sign to tell you everything is okay.
Well, they're even more scared than you. Suddenly it seems to you that, although you are ten tall and well-made men, ten soldiers trained on mountain trails and in heavy mountain conditions, you are still too few. Even a thousand soldiers would be too few.
That night I heard the strangest sounds of my life: whispers, steps, screams, giant steps, hoarseness, snoring, groans, crackling trees and many sounds that I can not even classify. But what I have seen is beyond imagination. It seemed like hell had descended to the ground: all sorts of lights and shadows. Hazy, foggy shapes.

SORCE: Google Image

At one time, a creature like a green, full-bodied girl passed through us. When a soldier wanted to grab her hand, he passed through it like it was a cloud. The creature looked for a second at him. Her eyes seemed so sad. Then she evaporated as a steam. Twice that night I thought the forest was burning. We were surrounded by flames, and flames were burning people, who were screaming horribly like the burning pigs.
We crossed our crosses and we prayed weeping like children. At some point, the trees were beginning to move, and they were contortioning because of the pain. Twice, we were attacked by weird beasts. First of all, from the trees appeared a huge, hideous deer. In half it seemed to be rotten, and there were visible bones in the holes of flesh and fur. He drew a terrible roar, his eyes lit up in his head, and he started galloping toward us. The platoon commander immediately ordered the alignment and opening of the fire. The deer came to us, and suddenly disappeared. Three of my comrades urinated themselves of fear. If the deer was real, they would have been the first ones to be taken in the horns.
Then a thick fog was left. When the mist began to dissipate, a flock of sheep appeared. They were all weak and looked like they were starving. A shepherd was with them. Our commander stood up from behind the tree where he was hiding, and asked the shepherd to come to him. The shepherd stood with his back and was wearing a large, shepherd-wool jacket in which he seemed to be wrapped in. He did not even seem to hear the sergeant. The sheeps seemed to be grazing quietly. The commander took two men, and with the weapons on the shepherd, they approached him, urging him to turn around. We were all trembling. The sergeant and the two soldiers entered into the herd of sheeps. They smelled horribly. When they reached a meter away from the shepherd, with the guns pointed at his neck, they once again asked him to turn around or they'll shoot him down. At that moment, the sheeps stopped from grazing, and looked up at the three soldiers. We, the others, stood with the weapons on the sheeps, ready to shoot.

SOURCE: Google Image

Suddenly the shepherd turned around and tossed off the wool jacket that he wore on his back.
I still have goose bumps when I remember. He was not a shepherd, but a kind of donkey standing on his back legs. He had red eyes, and a dirty muzzle, as you can see in the paintings of the monasteries. The three soldiers began to cry out desperately because the sheeps began to bite them. The sheeps were hideous, too, and they had huge mouths. A light, like a fire, lit up the arounds. The three comrades collapsed to the ground crying that they were bitten and that they have lost their legs. The rest of us, ran to the herd of sheeps shooting them. When we got in front of them, they all disappeared by wonder. It was just us and the three who were screaming that they have lost their legs. Suddenly everything settled down, and the commander with the accompanying soldiers stood up. They had nothing, but all three were gray haired.
Then we saw him. There was a monk standing between some shrubs. He made a cross in the air, then disappeared like a cloud.
The whole battalion we were a part of, waited for us outside the forest. They heard us shooting all night, but they have been ordered not to intervene, lest we shoot them too. For months, we were taken to Bucharest and investigated. We had to tell about ten times what happened that night. Then we were ordered not to say anything about what had happened, and we were forbidden to get in touch with each other, the ten comrades. For years we have been observed by the State Security.

That night, all ten of us drew 480 cartridges altogether, and three people ended up with complete grey hair. One of our colleagues went mad after a few weeks because of the nightmare he had every night. We all were traumatized as if we were a year on the battle front.
That's the Baciu forest. The place where no one should be allowed to enter. "

SORCE: Google Image

When Nicholas finished speaking, he was all sweaty. Big sweat drops dripped on his forehead. He still relive those moments while he tells them, and that's why he does not want to talk about that night that has put it's fingerprint on the rest of his life. Since then he has never been alone in the dark. At night he sleeps with the light on, He goes almost daily to the church, and his greatest request to God is not to be taken to hell, for that night, Nicolae thinks he have seen the hell.
The forest has a lot of stories, and legends. But the legend underlying the phenomenon, you will find in the next episode.