The Smoke

I don't believe in the paranormal. That said, it doesn't really matter, because many people have genuinely experienced strange things, and I don't want to dismiss their stories.

An old Serbian friend of mine told me about something that happened to him one night in the 1990s, in a rural part of Serbia.

He was walking to a nightclub along an old country road in complete darkness when he noticed someone following him. He turned around, but in the thick vegetation behind him, there was nothing unusual to see.

He kept walking until he reached a more open stretch of land. That's when he heard footsteps behind him again. He slowly turned around and froze.

Leaning against a tree was a humanoid figure nearly two meters tall, dressed in dark clothing and wearing a hat, calmly smoking a cigarette.

He said the figure was strangely difficult to see clearly. He couldn't make out its face at all—only the outline of its body and the glowing tip of the cigarette. He called out to it several times, but it never responded. Wanting nothing more than to leave, he picked up his pace.

As he walked faster, he once again heard footsteps behind him.

He spun around and saw the same figure standing perfectly still in the middle of the country road, the cigarette still glowing, presumably in its mouth.

The presence of this silent stalker began to terrify him. He shouted, asking what it wanted, but again received no reply. He later told me the moment felt like a standoff from an old Western movie. Even though the moonlight illuminated the figure, he still couldn't make out its face.

Then, without warning, the figure let out an ear-piercing scream that he insisted sounded nothing like a human.

Terrified, he turned and ran as fast as he could. He described the fear as the kind you would feel when confronted by a demonic entity.

While he was running, the figure somehow caught up to him and struck him with tremendous force, knocking him face-first into the dusty road. He was convinced it wanted a physical confrontation.

He scrambled back to his feet as quickly as he could and looked around in panic.

The figure was gone.

The only thing left behind was the cigarette, still burning on the ground.

He took the shortest route home and spent the rest of the night unable to explain what had happened.