Personal Narrative: I Believe In The Paranormal

Do you believe in the paranormal? That question is important here, as some parts in this story get a tad bit dark and explore a world that a lot of people dismiss as mere superstition. I aim to tell some brief stories and describe some of the things that happened when we were in the woods and when we were out of them. I saw and heard a lot of things I can’t quite understand and I’ve always wanted to put this stuff out there somehow, I figured this may be one of my best chances. Before I can get into it though, I feel like some backstory is due.
Younger Years
When I was kid, I had an imaginary friend named Dirk, my parents though this was just a young mind doing what young minds naturally do. I told my parents that Dirk lived in my closet, I treated him like a friend, always bringing him up in decisions I made. My parent
It was one of the first days we lived there, and the sound of a dog whining wailed from the woods. The woods were in full bloom, a lush green canopy loomed over the dense forest. The whining from the woods got louder, and finally my dad decided that it was time to find out what was going on. He ventured off into the dark green foliage of the woods, fifteen or twenty minutes would go before he finally emerged. He told us that he had found the dog, a small beagle cowering in a small patch of bushes. The whining dog noticed him, and despite its small size, quickly went from timid and scared to oddly aggressive. The dog bared its teeth and began growling intensely, my dad said he thought this was odd and decided it was best just to leave. The whining stopped and we never heard from, or saw the dog again. I didn’t think much of the incident at the time, as I was focused on making friends with the neighborhood kids. I ended up making friends with Gavin, Spencer, and Cameron, a few of the neighborhood kids who would experience a lot of odd things with me, things much stranger than the