The events are centered around the woods that surround my friend Matt's house, which is in Rocks State Park in Harford County, Maryland.

Harford County, at least the northern part, is still fairly rural and Rocks is pretty heavily forested. The area use to be the home to a few Indian tribes as well and some of the rock formations in the park may or may not have been holy ground, but that's more or less irrelevant because this story doesn't involve Indians, it's just exposition, Harford County is a weird area. It's also been the home of the Booth family. John Wilkes and his less famous brother (more famous at the time though, he was an actor) Edwin grew up there. But I digress, onto Matt's woods.

The woods at Matt's house have always been a little strange. None of my friends has ever felt comfortable in them really. When we were younger they used to camp out in the woods at night, and apparently they all felt strange in different ways but passed it off as over-active imagination or something. Anyway this continued from grade school up until high school graduation in 1996 that is where I enter the story. After graduation we had a party in the woods down at the old campsite.

我朋友马特住在马里兰哈佛特郡的岩石州立公园附近，故事就发生在环绕他家的那片森林。

哈佛特郡，至少它的北部地区还很原始，岩石公园植被茂盛。该地区以前是一些印第安部落的居住地，公园里的一些巨石以前没准还是他们的圣地呢。但这无关紧要，因为这个故事不会涉及到印第安人，我只是做个说明而已。哈佛特郡是个神秘的地方，它还是布斯家族的所在地。约翰.威尔克斯和他不怎么出名的弟弟埃德文(当年他很出名，因为他曾是个演员)就是在那长大。我离题了，我们还是说说马特的森林吧。

马特家周围的森林一直就有点奇怪。朋友们进入森林总会感到不舒服。我们小时候，他们经常在里边露营过夜，大家总会有这样那样不舒服的感觉，但都把那当成是过于活跃的想象而抛诸脑后，没太在意。直到1996年我们中学毕业，也就是故事开始的时候。毕业后我们在森林里露营办了个聚会。