Just Creepy: Scary Stories - Scary Stories For a Chilling Sleepless Night | Skinwalker, Park Ranger, Camping, Sleep Paralysis

Episode Date: December 24, 2022

These are 6 Scary Stories For a Chilling Sleepless Night | Skinwalker, Park Ranger, Camping, Sleep Paralysis Linktree: https://linktr.ee/its_just_creepy Story Credits: ►Anonymous ►https://www.reddit.com/user/FreneticCenotaph/ ►https://www.reddit.com/user/Trash_Panda-1/ ►https://www.reddit.com/user/thegeneralg/ ►https://www.reddit.com/user/OldConstruct/ ►https://www.reddit.com/user/ReturnoftheOld/ Business inquiries:  ►[e-mail]

You said this place was steps from the water. We just haven't found the steps yet. How much did we save? Enough. Enough to get lost. Or you could book a stay with Hilton. Welcome to your oceanfront room. Just steps from the water.

The Hilton sale is on now. Book on Hilton.com or the Hilton app and save up to 20% to get the stay you expected. When you want savings, not surprises. It matters where you stay. Hilton for the stay. It was a dark and stormy night when I set out on my hiking trip through the dense and remote woods of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. I had been planning this trip for weeks and despite the ominous weather I was determined to see it through.

As I trudged through the muddy trails, the rain pounding down on my hooded jacket, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched. I tried to reassure myself that it was just my imagination, but the hair on the back of my neck stood on end and a shiver ran down my spine. As I hiked deeper into the woods, the trees seemed to close in around me, blocking out what little light the stormy sky provided. The trail had become nearly unrecognizable, and I found myself relying on my compass and the faint glow of my headlamp to navigate through the dense foliage. It was then that I heard the first howl. It was a deep, guttural sound that sent shivers down my spine. I froze in my tracks, trying to listen for any other signs of movement. The howling grew louder and more frenzied, and I knew I had to keep moving.

I picked up my pace, barely able to see more than a few feet in front of me. My heart was pounding in my chest as I stumbled through the underbrush, trying to put as much distance as possible between myself, and whatever was making that terrifying sound. Suddenly, I heard a rustling in the bushes behind me. I spun around, my headlamp swinging wildly, but all I could see were the trees and the driving rain. I took off running, my feet pounding the muddy ground as I tried to outrun whatever was chasing me.

I couldn't see where I was going, but I knew I had to keep moving. As I stumbled through the darkness, the howling grew louder and more frenzied. It seemed to be coming from all around me, and I knew that whatever was making that sound was getting closer. I was panting and gasping for breath when I finally saw a glimmer of light in the distance. I redoubled my efforts, pushing myself to the limit as I sprinted towards the light. As I burst through the trees and into the clearing, I skidded to a halt, my heart racing. I was face to face with a pack of skin walkers. They were tall and lean, with long, sharp claws and glowing yellow eyes.

Their fur was matted and covered in mud, and their snarling mounds were filled with sharp teeth. I stood there, frozen in fear, as the skin walkers closed in around me. I knew I was no match for their strength and speed, and I braced myself for the attack. But then, just as they were about to strike, a bolt of lightning lit up the sky. The skin walkers howled in pain and scattered, disappearing into the darkness. I stood there, shaking and panting, as the storm raged on around me. I knew I had to get out of there, but I was too terrified to move. It was only when the rain began to ease and the howling stop that I summoned the courage to turn and flee.

I ran as fast as my trembling legs would carry me, not stopping until I reached the safety of my car. As I drove away from the dark and stormy woods, I knew I would never forget the terrifying encounter with the skin walkers. And I vowed never to venture into those woods again. I have a small scar directly above my right eyebrow. It's not noticeable anymore, but when I was younger people always asked me about it. I was inspired to write this when I told the story to my girlfriend, and she pointed out something strange with how I remember it. As a kid, I had a series of dreams and experiences from when I was six to about eight years old. I would get in bed and sometime after midnight I would wake up.

I remember it being strange because I didn't wake up for a specific reason. I was just awake. After a few minutes a bright white light would appear outside. It wasn't like daylight or artificial light. It was a brighter pure white light. It didn't hurt my eyes and I could look right into it. I think this was one of the reasons I always assumed it was a dream. I never moved in these experiences either.

I would just sit under my covers and watch. After the light came a shadow, moving towards my window, it would stand there for a moment completely motionless, casting a strange silhouette on my wall. After this it would push its hands against my window. The glass would seem to vanish as the being slipped into my room. It would always stand in the corner next to my bookshelf. It had a tall, thin body having to crane its neck forward

as it stood in my corner watching me. Its body had no discernible joints making it move and appear like it was made of wire. Its movements were slow and deliberate almost stiff. After a while I would just fall back asleep. I remember I was never really scared of them. They didn't do anything scary and they almost felt familiar. I think as a kid I just assumed this was a normal thing and since I was never hurt or startled in any way,

it came off as mundane or uninteresting. The same as if my dad were to a normal thing. open my door and check on me while I was playing. The last time I was ever visited, everything happened like normal, not that any of this could be considered normal, but I remember feeling scared as the being approached he looked more sinister than usual. Looming over me, the face of this being, they had very large round eyes that almost protruded from their head. The eyes were a pure glowing white dotted with tiny black specks, almost like a cube bow. The rest of the face was all mouth, in lieu of teeth, they had a large forest of baline, appearing as a gaping maw with millions of

hair teeth. The general shape and layout of the face was similar to an owl. I should point out that no noise was ever made during these experiences. It made no sounds as it walked and the room was silent in general. Tonight was different. Have you ever heard that bugle sound that elks make? We see them up here during rut and it's a very interesting sound. Imagine that but slightly smoother, shifting between all different tones in a rhythmic pattern. This was the sound the creature made. But it wasn't loud, it was as if the sound were fake or played from a speaker right next to my head. I couldn't feel the sound if that makes sense, like I imagined it or something.

Without coming closer the being extended a large branch like arm. The arm made it three quarters across the room and the rest of that distance was covered when it unfurled the long fingers of its previously clenched fist. The index finger, the longest of what was. possibly 10 to 12 fingers slowly went closer to my face. On the tip I could see balanced what looked like a small iridescent piece of glass, rainbow light shimmering across its surface. I remember it reminding me of my mother's engagement ring. I couldn't move out of fear as the rest of the fingers gently gripped my face. They felt light in air as if they were barely there. It felt more like a

force than a physical touch. The finger with the glass pressed onto my forehead softly and I remember a burning pain. I can't recall if I had Winston pain at the time, but remembering it now I cringe thinking about it. There was no blight. I remember touching the spot after and it feeling hot and tender like a burn. The bugle still droned on through this process and I began to almost understand it. Suddenly, I could hear the words and the tones, but they didn't make sense. There were hundreds of words and as a small child I couldn't understand any of them. Azoic, suppuration, Icar, irrevocable, derelict, forswear, wevery, are a few I remember.

There was no series just single words, hundreds of them. Then like nothing had happened the being left, my parents didn't believe my story about the small scar. They told me it was a dream and I was hesitant to believe them. It became a fear of mind to see them again. Over time, however, I dismissed it as a dream and mostly forgot about this incident. Until I was about 14 and I learned about sleep paralysis and the strange visions people have. That was it for me.

I had my explanation and it satisfied me for years. I recently told this story to my girlfriend and she pointed out that in these sleep paralysis dreams the figures never usually do anything, they'd usually stay still or hold you down but they don't touch you like that. I found this information alarming and decided to post my story here while I search for answers and related experiences. I grew up in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, surrounded by the rolling hills and dense forests of the Appalachian Mountains. My parents were farmers, and I spent my days working the land and exploring the woods around our farm.

I knew these woods like the back of my hand, and I never felt afraid while wandering among the trees. But on this particular night, something felt different. The air was heavy with a sense of foreboating, and the animals were silent, as if they were hiding from some unseen danger. I had been searching for a missing goat all day, following its tracks through the woods as I called out its name. The goats were invaluable to our small farm, and I knew my parents would be devastated if anything happened to it. As the sun began to set, I reluctantly decided to head back home and continue the search in the morning. The moon was full and high in the sky as I made my way through the dense and quiet woods, its pale light casting shadows among the trees. But as I made my way through the woods, I couldn't shake the feeling that.

I was being watched. I had heard reports of coyotes in the area and their eerie howls echoed through the trees at night. I quickened my pace, my heart racing as I imagined the sharp teeth and glowing eyes of the predators stalking me through the darkness. At first, I told myself it was just my imagination, but then I heard a rustling in the underbrush and I knew I was no longer alone. I turned to face the source of the noise, and that's when I saw it. A creature with the body of a wolf and the face of a demon, its skin stretched tight over bones and sinew. Its eyes glowed with an other-worldly light, and its lips were pulled back in a snarl that revealed sharp, needle-like teeth. I froze in place, my heart racing with fear as the creature stalked closer and closer.

I could smell its putrid breath as it filled my nostrils, and I could smell the rank stench of its wet, hairless flesh. And then, with a primal scream of terror, I turned and ran. I could hear the creature behind me, its claws scratching at the ground of as it closed the distance between us. I could feel its breath behind me, could hear its guttural growls as it drew closer and closer. I don't know where it came from,

or what it wanted with me. All I knew was that I had to get away, had to find safety before it was too late, so I ran, my feet pounding the ground as I fled from the terror that lurked in the shadows. And eventually, I emerged from the woods, my heart racing and my breath going and gasps. Even now, as I sit safely at home

and look out at the peaceful moonlit land, I can't shake the feeling that something is out there waiting for me in the darkness. The memory of that night will stay with me forever, a constant reminder of the dangers that lurk in the shadows. I was out on a routine job patrolling a remote area of the park when I saw it, the small but unmistakable opening of a cave. Since it wasn't on any of the maps and it was my job to check things like that out, I wasted no time in taking out my flashlight and heading towards the smaller but manageable cave that was wide enough for me to step through without having to crouch down.

The cave was situated in a clearing close to a pond. The opening was located right in the middle of a wall of sandstone and was fairly unremarkable looking. No sign that it was dangerous or out of the ordinary. Since the opening was barely wide enough for several people to step through, that meant the cave had never been turned into a mine. There was also no garbage lying around or any other traces of recent human activity, so for all I knew, I was the first human being to set foot in this cave in who knows how long. The feeling came with a sense of exhilaration I'd never felt before.

So I took a deep breath, switched on my extra strength flashlight, and steadily started walking inside. My first few steps in the cave were beyond cautious. Aside from the fact I'd never been here before, the terrain was very steep. You could feel it slowly descending further into the earth. Since I didn't want to lose my footing and go tumbling down, I kept casting the flashlight beam around. Because despite the intense glaring light it provided,

the darkness in the cave was unlike anything I had ever seen before. I'd been in the forest at night many times, but this far exceeded that, this darkness was dense. After enough careful steps, the descent became smoother, and the floor leveled out. The cave floor itself was rough in some spots and smooth in others. You could tell where the elements had weathered away parts of the land and made a smoother path to walk.

The temperature had also dropped significantly down here, and I could now see the many impressive stalactites and stalid mites dotting the cave. The rough descent had been replaced by a fairly even path straight forward, but there wasn't a ton of space to walk around here. A small group of people could squeeze through, but no more than that. My boots occasionally crunched on gravel, but apart from that, the cave floor was empty, almost completely clean. Seeing how untouched the cave was, it can't help but make you feel like it. insignificant speck in the vast scheme of the universe. The cave was not only far older than I was, it would be here long after I was gone, especially because the cave seemed endless.

The more I explored, the more I got the sense that I was making no progress at all. A look at my watch told me I'd been down there for about an hour when the narrow path opened into a massive chamber, and the sight made me gasp. The entire space was filled with water, and the walkway served as a makeshift bridge to the other side. The walls were rough-hewn and jagged virtually everywhere you looked. There had been plenty of impressive stalactites in the cave, but the ones dangling from the ceiling here were massive.

So precise and sharp-looking it seemed impossible that they had occurred naturally. Some of them were practically touching the water that filled the space. I had no idea how deep the water was, but in the thick darkness, it looked unnervingly deep. The walkway that went from one side of the cavern to the other got rougher here, but it still looked as steady and weathered as before. So, being more careful of where I stepped than ever, I slowly began to cross the cavern. I was almost halfway across when I heard the sound of a rock-hitted cavern wall and splash into the water.

The sound in the empty space seemed so incredibly loud, I almost jumped. Once I was sure of my footing, I carefully shined the flashlight around to check. There was nothing. No signs that anything at all had happened. But on this job, you learn that just because everything looks fine doesn't mean nothing is going on. The hair standing up on the back of my neck told me everything I needed to know. I didn't dare take another step forward. If anything, I was slowly adjusting my footing to turn back around.

I was just about to go back the way I came when I heard it. The sound of whispered voices. At first, I had no idea what it was. I hadn't heard a single sound before now, aside from my own footsteps. Ignoring the chill slowly washing over me, I slowly began to walk back across the cavern. I'm not sure if it was just my imagination, but as I did, the whispering got louder. The creepiest part was how the voice seemed faintly familiar. Not enough so I recognized it, but enough that it was unsettling.

The worst part was that I had absolutely no idea where the voice was coming from. The acoustics of the cave made it seem like the voice was both everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I was almost completely across the cavern when I cast my flashlight around and saw it. There, on the left side of the cavern in the middle of the dark water was a shadow. With my heart pounding in my chest and the grip on my flashlight slick from sweat, I carefully turned and aimed the beam directly at it. The water illuminated was a murky gray, but the shape was as dark as it had been without the flashlight. I had no idea what the shape was.

It was completely solid, but it wasn't any sort of animal, and it didn't look remotely human. It just hung there, floating just below the surface. If there had been the slightest suggestion of human activity here, I'd say it was garbage, a blanket, or some clothing that fell in the water. But I knew that wasn't the case. The sight made my stomach clench. But then, with my flashlight still aimed right at it, it disappeared. There was no movement or any disturbance in the water. It just vanished. That was my cue to leave. Once I was safely across the cavern and on solid ground, I ran out of there as fast as I could, due to the numerous rock formation.

I had to maneuver around, it seemed to take an eternity. I periodically checked behind me to make sure there was nothing there, and while there never was, I could never shake the feeling that something was watching me. After what seemed like a painfully long time, I finally arrived back at the cave opening. Then came the difficult task of maneuvering what was essentially an uphill climb. By now I was drenched in sweat and the climb did nothing to help that, but taking care with where I stepped, I eventually was standing at the mouth of the cave with daylight shining through. I gratefully walked out into the sunshine and looked down into the cave.

As I did, I swear I saw a figure walk past on the cave floor below, but when I looked back, it was gone. Once I caught my breath, I radioed the cave discovery into the station and some other rangers came out to check it out. One of them was my supervisor, Jack. I told them I didn't see anything, but one look at me and my demeanor told them something was up. Jack was no stranger to the unusual things park rangers can encounter on the job. So with him and the other two rangers listening, I told them what I saw and experienced down in the cave. When I was done, Jack sat there quietly for a moment.

Doesn't matter if it's 2022 or 1822, things still go bump in the night. He said in his deep, steady voice, I don't disagree. I muttered. I'm sure you don't, wait. I won't pretend I saw what you saw, but I believe you saw what you saw. Nature can be, and often is, a very scary place. No kidding. One of the other rangers agreed.

There's a reason this cave looked so untouched by people. No sign of animals either. None. Jack shook his head at that. That's the sign something is off. Animals don't go near something. That means people shouldn't either. So we'll mark this cave as dangerous.

Go back to base and lob the find. Now let's get out of here. What they did to your family? You're lucky to make it out alive. Streaming on Peacock. These men are going to come after me. Taking them out. It's my only chance.

Put a bullet in her head. From the co-creator of Ozark. Looks like a family was running drugs. Execution style, killing it's rare for the keys. And it leads on who they might have been running for. The cartel killed my family. I'm going to kill them. All of them.

M.I.A. Streaming now. Only on Peacock. I went camping out at Trinity Lakes this October in Idaho. My brother and his mom's family. told me how great it was out there. I figured if we went on a weekday that late into this year, we could be alone, truly be out on a nature experience after doing nothing but stay in the city for the past few years. What I was not told was that the road out there was a two-hour crawl through

dirt roads. The final ten miles of which are practically animals trails on the edge of mountains. It is a very rough trip in a big F-250. Red flag number one in hindsight, but by the time the roads got that bad, we were so far and I was committed. We would do this, and it would be a unique experience for both of us. I eat those words. When we finally made it to the first camp ground area on the smallest lake, we just wanted to get out of the truck and couldn't take much more bone-shaking rock crawling. So we did that, meaning we were in a different spot than were him and that side of the family had camped farther up at the big lake. Everything with the setup was standard, and we had gotten what we wanted. We were completely alone, only the fire-walking.

tower two miles back and over a mountain if anything went wrong. This should have been red flag number two, but we figured we had enough gear and knowledge if a bear or cougar came along. Another important thing was the rules of that area saying no guns. So we didn't bring one, not even as a last resort kind of tool. Red flied number three. Not one hour after setting up camp all the way, I hear a snap off on the other side of the empty campground while me and him are talking. He doesn't notice, but I look back and see two giant antlers. I knew what it was immediately, I rushed him quietly into the truck, and a big bull moose sprints into view behind the truck. We did not know

there were moose out there, and they had not seen any when camped at the main lake grounds earlier in the year. We were not that scared because he ran off immediately after we got some good footage of him by the lake. We just thought it was a rare chance encounter and were kind of in awe at the experience. I knew how crazy dangerous moose are but never bothered researching the details on their behavior or anything like that. Dig mistake not immediately packing everything and getting out while we would still have enough daylight too. We hop out of the truck, make sure he's long gone, and continue our now much cooler nature trip relaxing and taking photos. Almost three hours later, I hear that same kind of cracking but a lot more of it and it's approaching our campsite

quickly. We are not close enough to the truck with how fast it's coming, so I pull my brother into the tent and just stay perfectly still. I didn't even want to breathe as five or more moose with two bulls that seemed to be chasing each other around sprinted past our campsite on both sides. We could only see out the front flap of the tent and determine whereabouts outside of that from the footsteps and what I assume were mating calls. This time, we were not so excited about it, nearly crapping bricks and just praying when we got out of the tent that there wouldn't be a lurking moose that hadn't gone with the rest of them. There wasn't, but now there was not enough light left to pack everything and get out safely. We no longer felt safe and were constantly on edge knowing at any moment.

We may need to get to the truck and have to be aware. The plan was now to pack up as soon as morning broke and we just had to make it till then. When night came, we actually relaxed again, thinking that with a fire up and it being night, surely we were done with any possible moose in the area. We just wanted to eat and smoke our cigars around the campfire. We had our fire going strong, ate our food, and had our cigars ready. However, we needed a bit more firewood to last for our smoke before bed. So we made a small trip.

It was pitch black in that forest even with our eyes adjusted. The second we got away from camp to the area we had been gathering from, me and him were both on edge again. We just got that feeling like something was watching us, just on the edge of the light from my phone. So we hurried up, scurried back to the campsite like you just turned off the stairs light, and breathed a sigh of relief. The fire was safe, nothing was out there, everything, was fine.

Then, the bone-chilling crunch of one of the thick branches we had dropped in our hurry, just on the edge of the firelight, directly behind us. Every single instinct and reactionary fiber in my being activated right then. The only word I plainly and coarsely told me, my brother was. PUR. I had already made two strides to the truck, my brother told me after the fact. The way that word left your mouth took me out of freeze mode. It was the most direct, fear-induced command I've ever received. To both our horror, the truck had auto-locked, the one or two seconds it took for me to fumble the keys out of my tight wrangler pockets

and hit that button felt like hell. We jumped into the truck, and I scrambled over him as he slammed the door to fling the headlights on. Right there, right in front of the fire we had just been standing at, Ebo, staring the truck down, but the part that makes this all so much more messed up, he didn't look like a normal moose. The fur was all patchy, and it looked discolored, like he was rotting on the outside, but still easily taller than the lifted truck. I watched him slowly walk out of the headlights back into the darkness while staring at us. I turned off the lights immediately so our eyes could adjust. and we could see around the truck at least.

We were freaking out and filled with adrenaline still but doing so quietly. Neither him nor I can agree on if these next occurrences were just a shared paranoia or not. For nearly an hour at 10 p.m. in the night, we heard heavy footsteps just slowly moving big circles around the truck. Eventually, we stopped hearing anything at all, and the forest was completely silent. We cracked the windows to make sure. Deffining silence. No bugs, no frogs. no owls, nothing. We sat there in additional 30 minutes listening for anything at all but still

silence. Neither of us wanted to do it, but all our warm gear was in the tent and it was dropping to 28 that night. We would not fare well in just our normal clothes. So slowly we opened the doors and started to sneak to the tent. The moment we did, footsteps on my side of the forest coming towards us. Both of us fly back in the truck, clicking the lock button like maniacs. I couldn't take it anymore. I nearly lost my cool but knew I had to keep it for my brother's sake, too. It was stalking us. Is it even a moose? Moose, don't do this. It's almost midnight what is happening. We kept throwing these statements around to each other, trying to rationalize what we were experiencing and how our nice escape from the city had turned into a horror movie,

with the unnatural look of the moose that we thought had been keeping us trapped in the truck for an hour and a half. We started talking about it being a skin walker even. Some might think this would freak us out more, but starting to make things a supernatural event and joking in our dark sense of humor is what helped us calm down. We were still shaken to our core though, and the fear was stronger than the bite of the cold that was setting in. No way in hell were we leaving that truck again until it was morning, and we could see. He managed to fall asleep at around 1230, but the forest was still dead silent and it put dread in me. It wasn't until nearly two that all of a sudden, crickets and the occasional hoot of an owl.

The normal forest sounds came back and I had stayed up until the temperature reached its bottom for the night. I turned the heater on full blast for a few minutes to stop the unbearable chill so I could sleep, waking up and repeating that every 45 minutes to keep us warm until morning. Then I opened my eyes to light and shook him awake. We packed in 15 minutes and left. I'm not a story writer, so I'm sorry if this is a sloppy read, if anyone reads this long post at all. But nothing has striked such a primal fear in me ever. I've had guns pointed at me, other dangerous encounters with animals.

None of those compared to the terror this incident caused. I fear going into the woods at all or going camping again. The world is filled with tales of strange creatures that share this world with us. Myths, legends, tall tales, and urban legends, stories told around a campfire at night to a disbelieving audience. Despite all the stories, most people seem to dismiss them. Occasionally something turns out to be true, like the giant squids. But in a time of cameras and phones everywhere, it seems hard to believe any of the bazaar could be out there unrecorded. Maybe in the depths of the ocean or the most isolated spots in the Amazon, but not around civilization.

Not in the places humans call home. I used to believe the same. I used to be a skeptic who didn't believe in anything that didn't have a scientific article behind it. I wish that were still true, because ever since I found out about what really exists out there, I haven't had a night of good sleep. Let me explain. I'm not putting my name out there, but you can call me Robin for convenience, and I was born in a small town 22 years ago.

I won't say what it's called or where it is. It's not my place to give away the information of others. Suffice to say it was an ordinary town surrounded by thick forests, endless meadows, and giant farms hosting God knows how many cows. My childhood was dull and uneventful. I got a normal family with my two siblings and a small neighborhood with just enough kids to have play dates with. I didn't have many friends and my relationships with my siblings were strained, but I wasn't lonely much. After high school I went to a big city university, got a degree in something I'll probably never use, and made my parents proud. My parents had messaged me less and less over my four years at college, and the last two years they got me an apartment that I stayed in over the summers as well. Any time we got together those last two years they came to me.

I didn't think much of it. I was never the most observant when it came to people. It was when I decided to go home the summer after my degree that they panicked. They didn't ban me from coming home, but they hinted I should stay away. I came anyway. It hurt that it seemed they didn't want me at home. Now I know they were protecting me. That's when it all started. The first thing I noticed was the emptiness.

My hometown was never the liveliest place, and it had its fair share of poverty, but the people there were happy for the most part. Kids chilled out, adults went to the bar, and people enjoyed their honest work. It was dull to me, but to those who liked the quiet life, it was a lovely place. You could always see people walking around downtown, and the hot spots for getting together usually had people there. None of that was the case now. Everywhere was all but deserted. Employees that used to wave hello stayed inside. The hangouts were empty, and even the bar only had a small handful of drunks. From the moment I crossed the county line to when I

pulled into the driveway, the number of people I saw not working could be counted on one hand, even though it was a weekend afternoon. I found it a bit odd, but I was focused on getting home. As I parked in my driveway, I noticed the second odd thing. Most of the neighborhood had overgrown grass. The once neat lawns were filled with weeds, and some of the dry grass was reaching the height of my knees. That got me suspicious, it being a sacred American tradition

to keep your front lawns as neat and green as possible. I looked past it in my excitement to get home. I knocked on my door. I heard footsteps and then I saw my mother look through the bedroom window next to the entrance hallway, peeking at me. That was the third odd thing. For as long as I've lived at home, my parents have never checked who was at the door before opening it. Around here, only a few paranoid people did.

That did get my nervous attention. Had something happened. A burglary, perhaps. Whatever the reason, she gave a look of what almost seemed like fear before closing the blinds, and walking to the front hallway. The door unlocked and opened. My parents were both standing there, and for a moment I saw sadness on their faces.

Then they both hugged me and my problems were forgotten. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say the next few hours were what you'd expect from a family reunion. Lots of catching up and tearful hugs and a happy dinner when we weren't busy getting my things in order. The whole time my parents seemed somewhat subdued, but when I asked them what was wrong,

they insisted everything was fine. I didn't believe them, but I didn't push it. Nothing interesting happened until after dark when my parents and siblings went to sleep, and I stayed up in my room for a couple of hours reading a book. It started with a light. A bright white speck appeared in my window, casting a glare through that disturbed me while reading with only my nightstand light on. After a couple of minutes of the irritation,

I got up to close the blinds in my room. That's when I saw the light outside the window. It was in the distance just above my backyard, and I couldn't make out what it was. All I could tell was that it was all but blinding when I looked directly at it. I made to close the blinds, but before I fully closed then I saw the light get bigger. No, not bigger. Closer. It must have been in the neighbor's large cattle farm to the back of our neighborhood, and it was slowly approaching.

As it did, the light began to change color, flickering from white to blue to yellow and then back again. and it became to dance the ball twisting from side to side and floating in circles. I should have closed the blinds and been done with it, but I couldn't. I was mesmerized. I lost all thought as I spaced out, seeing double as the light danced differently in each eye. I started to hear a whispered chanting, too soft to make out the words. There were at least two voices, maybe three. Their voices were harsh, growling like the wind.

As the light got bigger, the voices got louder, until their chival. chant was also being screamed in my ears. But they never changed from a whisper, and no matter how close it got I couldn't understand anything they said. The lights blinded my entire field of sight, the chant thundered into my ears. I saw nothing else, heard nothing else. It became everything. Then I blacked out and remembered nothing. The next moment I was conscious, I was alone in a meadow with flowers and grass up to my waist. I felt rather than saw that, because it was near midnight in the middle of nowhere with only the moon and stars to illuminate the earth. I don't know if you've ever been far from civilization at night, but if you have you know it's all but impossible to see anything.

So I had no way to see more than the nearby field and didn't hear anything except for distant crickets. And I was utterly alone, with nothing on me but my clothes. I tried to stay calm. My breath heightened and I felt dizzy, but I forced myself to focus. It wasn't too cold out and I wasn't going to freeze. and in the darkness I'd have no idea where I was going, whether I was getting closer or farther to people. If I stayed where I was until morning, I could use the daylight to navigate back to someplace I knew, or at least a road I could follow. So I sat down and did my best to avoid panicking. Somewhere to the far front of me I heard rustling through the grass. I figured it was the wind, although I felt no breeze.

Then I heard footsteps. Loud, slow footsteps. Each one was a few seconds. apart and as they got louder, closer, the ground began to tremble. I panicked. I got up and ran to my back, not caring where I might arrive but only concerned with escaping whatever was causing those footsteps. I stumbled and tripped in a few places, earning me scratches around my ankles. I didn't care. All I needed was to run, but no matter how fast I ran the footsteps just got louder. They never stepped up their cadence, yet they shrunk the distance to me. I admit, at this point I was

crying. I had only faced situations like this in my nightmares. Suddenly the field brightened, and behind me I saw a white light. It didn't move or change colors, but somehow I could tell it was the same light from my bedroom window. The whispers returned, this time not in tune with each other, but each shrieking. Each scream sent a white bolt of pain through my head. I turned around again and the light was a little closer. I started to yell for help. Oh God, someone helped me, not original, but it was hardly the time for originality. From behind I heard what sounded like laughter, but in a deep, inhuman voice. I looked back and the light couldn't have been more than 30 feet away.

The next time I looked 25. Then 20, I wailed into the night for help. Ahead of me I heard new noises, and I saw a second light from close by. I stopped running for a second before sprinting to my left in the now-head high grass. Almost as soon as I switched I ran right into a third light. It was a flashlight. Behind it was a man I recognized. I'll call him Jim, and he was the owner of a farm inside the county but a few miles outside town.

He leaned down and offered a hand. Run now, he yelled. I got up and followed him. The second light was the flashlight of his wife, who had brought a large cow by a rope around the neck. She threw the rope down and together the three of us ran. I heard a loud crack not even ten feet behind me and I looked back. I wish I hadn't. Some thing more than ten feet tall was standing right behind me.

In front of it was a light attached to a long antenna hanging in front of its face. Its face was made of what looked like meat and bones mashed together. It had no eyes, no nose, no ears. It had only a massive mouth hanging open in a mocking grin. Shattered bones served as teeth, going back into the darkness at the back of its mouth. and its body was the same, like raw meat and crunched bones all mashed together and packed tightly enough to allow for support. With one hand it grabbed the cow and lifted it up. Its head leaned forward and ripped the head right off. The cow gave a loud grunt of fear before its head was shattered

and the only sound was the flesh and bones being ripped apart. With both hands it lifted the cow up above its head and tore it in half. Then it brought the cow parts in its left hand forward and began eating again. Come on, we have to go, Jim shouted. I realized I had been standing there in shock. I stumbled forward, turning slowly away from the thing and began running as fast as I could. After a while the footsteps started up again in the distance, but we had gained ground. Ahead I saw the porch light of what I assumed to be Jim's house. The three of us ran in before his wife slammed the door. I stopped to catch my breath and noticed all of the windows were shut in their house. Not only that, but every light was on and the TV was blaring noise.

I could hear the footsteps no more. Are we safe? I asked. As safe as we can be now, Jim replied, for some reason most of these things don't come in homes. They'll snatch you right up if you look outside, though. How do you get there in the middle of our field anyways? I explained to them everything I could. They seemed unsurprised by any of it, although they did look understandingly as I described my panic. While I did this gym made me a cup of hot coffee, which I thanked him for, after I was done explaining it was their turn. Dark things had begun to haunt the night a few years ago, they said. At first it was all rumors and tall tales few believed. Stories of being stranded in the dark, sleepwalking they thought, or seeing things creep along the farm to steal their cattle,

coyotes or other predators they thought. Then a couple of years ago the first death occurred. Some man named Darren I had only heard of was found ripped into five pieces outside his home along the sidewalk. The concrete was cracked next to him. People thought a serial killer was on the loose, but over the next few weeks' disappearances and corpses appeared all over the county. More people reported seeing things outside in the night, and slowly but surely, people realized the night was haunted. Now nobody went outside when it seemed dark. People rarely went out in the day other than for necessities either, after a couple of children, disappeared in broad daylight. People tried to get the word out, but nothing worked. No cameras or

phones worked near anything odd, and any online mentions were quickly deleted or lost to the depths of the internet. The people of my home county were isolated, scared, and dying. And now I was living with them. That morning, Jin drove me to my parents' house, who had already called the police. Everything got under control, and I calmed down once I reached family in the daytime, but it hasn't stopped the nightmares. Ever since I got back, these past months things have been horrifying. I even tried to move back to my apartment first before finding out my landlord was evicting me. I'm searching for a new home, but who knows when that will work out? In the meantime, I've done odd jobs around town and asked more questions. Whatever was out there,

and I heard a lot of ideas. Terrified me, but it also intrigued me. God forbid I'd be interested in something normal. I think I know what these things are. They are the creatures of legends, of myths and urban legends and spiritual traditions long since lost. The things that make us feel weak and alone. The things that remind us we are not in control. I think they are coming back. Or maybe they never left and were just hiding or living elsewhere. But they were back in my home now and everyone I loved was in danger. I don't know if anything is happening where you live. Maybe we're alone in this, maybe we aren't. But if you're luckier than us, just remember this the next you go somewhere alone in the dark.

We are not alone anymore.