The floating fights I saw as a child

Hello,

this happened when I was around ten or eleven years old. Sometime in the late 1990s.

There was a large family gathering at my grandparents’ farm in Poland. I don’t remember what exactly was being celebrated, but there were a lot of people there. I always loved those events because many of my cousins and other local children would come, and we would spend the whole day playing around the farm and the nearby fields.

Close to the farm is a small patch of woods that has always had a strange reputation in my family and the local community. My mother, who grew up there, also had some unsettling experiences in those woods. My grandmother hated the place and never entered it, even though she loved picking mushrooms and berries.

That evening, a group of us children were walking back to the farm. The others were about ten meters ahead of me, and I was the last one behind.

As we passed the woods, I looked to my left and noticed several small lights between the trees. They looked almost like candle flames, except they were not on the ground. They seemed to be floating slightly above it.

I stopped and tried to understand what I was seeing. Then I shouted to the others:

“Hey, look! There are lights in the woods!”

Nobody reacted.

I called out again, louder this time, but still no one turned around. They were only a few meters away, yet none of them seemed to hear me.

Today, I tell myself they were probably talking, laughing, or simply didn’t notice. But at that moment, it felt as if something did not want them to hear me.

At first, I was annoyed. Then, all at once, I felt a cold shiver run down my back. I became freezing cold, started shaking, and tears came to my eyes. The fear was sudden and overwhelming. I still remember exactly how horrible that feeling was.

After a few seconds, I ran as fast as I could and caught up with the group. I did not look back. When I got home, I went to the bathroom because I thought I was going to throw up. In the mirror, I saw that I was as pale as a sheet.

I never told anyone about it.

Years later, I learned more about the history of the woods. Winter 1944/1945, a group of German soldiers were allegedly executed there by Soviet troops. As far as I know, no exhumation was ever carried out.

There is still a simple cross hanging from one of the trees. No names, no dates, no memorial plaque. Just a cross placed there by a local priest shortly after the war. I have never seen the cross myself, but my mother insists that it is there.