3 Disturbing Desert Stories That Should’ve Stayed Buried

The narrator's friend, Sally, became heavily involved with Salvia, a legal psychoactive substance. Over time, her behavior changed, and she began to experience vivid hallucinations, believing she was receiving divine messages. These delusions culminated in her conviction that she needed to journey into the Sonoran Desert to meet a "goddess Sonora" who would bestow "truth" through suffering. She left a note and departed alone, later found dead from exposure, having neatly folded her clothes before succumbing.

Sally had somehow through months of slow salvia induced psychosis become convinced that gods were communicating with her. Later we even found journals in which she claimed Sonora was the goddess of the desert who bestowed power through suffering, thirst, and hunger.

While driving through the Utah Salt Flats, a group of college friends offered a ride to Cliff, whose car was smoking. Cliff's behavior was odd, his stories inconsistent, and he made Kay, one of the passengers, uncomfortable. He then abruptly confessed to having murdered his ex-wife and leaving her body in his car's trunk. The group, fearing for their lives, orchestrated his removal from their vehicle and sped away.

No, I left her in the trunk, he said, or something along those lines. Andy, suddenly paying attention, asked the important question. Uh, was she alive? According to Cliff, she was not. Her decomposing body was in the trunk of his Ford and had been so for some days. I did it, he added.

As a young child, the narrator was kidnapped by their father, who had lost custody. The father drove them to Death Valley, a place the child had always wanted to visit. Once in a remote clearing, the father attached a hose to the car's exhaust and fed it into the car, intending a murder-suicide. Fortunately, the mother had reported the kidnapping, and police arrived, saving the child.

I'm sure you can imagine what would have come next given that hose pipe. Thankfully, mom had noticed I was gone and called the cops. They put out some APB and on dad's car, and the rest is history.

While on an expedition in northern Greenland, two guides, the narrator and Arie, found an unmapped cave. Inside, they discovered strange murals depicting giant figures and Lovecraftian beasts, along with a skeleton of a polar bear with walrus tusks. Their excitement turned to terror when a drunk Norwegian man, Lars, emerged, claiming the cave as his home and the art as his own. He brandished a Walther pistol and threatened them, proposing Arie stay with him. They narrowly escaped after Lars gave them ten seconds to run.

Maybe one of you will stay here, he said very clearly, looking at Arie. According to the Norwegian artist, it got very lonely out in the caves making his art. Maybe my friend Arie would be a perfect companion for him. Someone to warm his bed at night and warm his body, too.

The narrator, on a solo trip in the Australian outback, got lost and encountered Donigan, a survivalist living in a cave. Donigan offered him a meal of steak, but then began to psychologically torment him, asking if he enjoyed his "last meal" and hinting that the meat was human. He also alluded to being the infamous "backpacker killer" and demonstrated an unnatural control over wild dingoes. The terrified narrator escaped, only to later find out Donigan was a wanted armed robber.

And then he asked me if I'd enjoyed the human meat I'd just consumed.