"HE APPEARED TO BE DEAD..."

I thought the worst, and we rushed over to see how he was. He appeared to be dead, and his body even began to emit a repulsive odor. He looked old, around five feet tall and was dressed formally. We speculated that he had been murdered and his body placed here.

It was then that I distinctly felt someone touching the back of my cold head, and a strong gust blew.

The old man suddenly opened its eyes!

They looked orange or red orange, and they seemed to cry blood. He blinked two times and opened his mouth, filling the cold air with an unworldly stench. The back of my head seemed wet, really wet now, but I still did not feel any blood. My friends and I were so startled that we began to run like hell.

Then the tattered clouds decided it was time to rain. The wind made the water so cold that it was painful to our heads and faces as we ran. We were still about two miles from my house, and it was getting dark. We kept running, confused and frightened.

I heard one of my friends shout, "It's coming this way!" His voice was that of a horrified, crying young man. I turned around and saw the blazing red eyes of the little man "floating" at us like headlights. I tripped and fell again, but my friends kept running. I just curled up on the ground, closed my eyes and began grabbing stones, horrified.

Then I felt the strong wind and rain hit my back, and the muddle covering me. I gathered enough courage to look back...

and saw nothing. My friends had stopped about 100 meters ahead, had turned and were shouting at me in panic. I stood up and just as I lifted my head, my eyes met the staring red eyes of the old man. I was paralyzed and just stood there, gazing back at him. His eyes then appeared to look to the side, as if pointing me. The little man pointed to my right, and I began slowly walking in that direction. His eyes... it seemed to me then that they were not evil after all.

I walked after this "man" for some minutes. He stopped and pointed at the lake. He looked back at me, just as the rain was stopping and the wind settled to a breeze. I felt an arm touch my back, then push me so hard that I fell and fainted.

STRANGE BURNS AND MISSING TIME

When I woke up, I was in the hospital with second-degree burns. The pain was intolerable. The doctors could not explain how I was burned. I was told that a hunter found me on the mountain more than eight miles from that lake! I could not believe it, and still I can't. The hunter said he saw a light atop the hill and went to check it out. He claimed to have seen a metal disk in the air, hovering and then disappearing over the horizon. When he found me, I had signs of strange cuts, as if from knives, and I had a wound in my chest, as if I had undergone surgery.

The day I had gone "fishing" was a Saturday, and the hunter found me on a Wednesday. When I was discovered, I did not have a shirt on and only one shoe. My friends claim they ran when they saw those eyes and then a mirror-like reflection of shiny metal on the lakeshore. They told my parents and many other people what had happened, but were ridiculed and blamed for my absence.

They are horrified now, and so am I, wondering what happened that day.

* * *

POSTSCRIPT

Since receiving this story from "José," I have asked him to verify the story and to give his current thoughts about the events of that day. His response:

I have not told anyone about the disk. Only my friends know about that and they did not tell anyone. My burn marks, everyone thinks, is from a lightning bolt. Maybe it was, but my mind plays with me. I am not sure what happened. I am sure I recall seeing a disk, and the man with the fiery eyes was pretty weird. My other three friends also did see those things. One person we've told the story to thinks we were drugged or drunk. I am not sure what to believe, but the mark on my stomach was not caused by a rock or something. It is too precise to be accidental. I am somewhat skeptical about many things. Maybe it was a dream. I cannot know.