Curious Eyes



So I received this email awhile back then not long after discovered what had really happened and here's the newspaper clipping. Should I go make sure her mom is okay? I didn't know if I should share this or not but I think I should now. I've done a lot of research and have never heard of anything like what she describes. Please let me know if you have.

I've always loved cats but been deathly allergic to them. I used to joke that cats would be the death of me but this isn't quite how I expected it to be. I remember the first time I was around a cat I reacted so badly because I didn't know I was allergic and had it up by my face. My eyes and throat swelled shut and I ran to my mom and scared the hell out of her. Obviously I was rushed to the hospital.

I was 8 and we had just moved into a new house in a new state. It was in the mountains of Tennessee which I liked because I was fascinated with nature and animals. The house was old and beat down and kind of gave me the creeps though. Everything was new and different and my mind turned anything odd into a terrible beast. For instance there was a mannequin in a bathtub in our basement for some reason and it's arm was sticking up. Our washer and dryer were down there and you had to go outside to get in the basement. The first time I saw it was doing my laundry after dark and I screamed and went running upstairs leaving the washer open and running with my clothes all over the floor. My parents found it funny that I thought some mad murderer was in the basement and my dad took me down there to show me it was nothing dangerous, just a dress mannequin.



I also noticed that my bedroom door looked like someone had stabbed a hole in it in some mad rage but chalked it up to some kid making a spy hole and thus used it as such since my parents room was across from mine. At the time, me and my brother were sharing a room because we were still so young.



After that me and my brother who was 10 of course got curious and adventurous. Having exploring hikes in the woods but never actually going far, treasure hunts, the usual kids things. We started getting bored with the outside and curious about the attic outside of our room that the landlord told my parents to stay out of. So, one day when our parents were out chopping wood for the fireplace, yes the house was that old, we decided to get a chair, tie a jump-rope to the handle and open it.



Rickety wooden stairs unfolded noisily and we stared up into the darkness. My brother went and got a flashlight and I made him go up first and followed close behind and to the side peeking around him then he started shining the flashlight around.



Inside were the usual things, old junk, clothes, a broken TV, boxes, skeletons, chests...skeletons? He jerked the flashlight back and we both froze in terror. There were 4 slumped over skeletons in a corner of the attic. I covered my mouth as I gazed at them. One looked to be adult, 2 were about the size of kids me and my brothers size, and a somewhat large cat.



I gasped and took a step back and it heard me. That feline creature of bones heard me and raised it's head at which point my brother gasped too. It stood up and started walk



ing towards us, somehow held together by some invisible force. We both screamed and ran down the stairs, shut the attic door, and ran out to our parents.



My brother frantically started telling them what happened while I just cried trying to catch my breath. Thoughts raced through my head. ''How can something without ears hear me? How could something without eyes see us? How can something with no muscles move? How can something dead be alive? '' I was so confused and scared.



<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">Of course our parents had the usual reaction of thinking it was us having active imaginations then got onto us for getting into the attic when we were told not to. I went back inside with them but pulled a chair in the hall and cut the jump rope from it with my pocket knife. I never wanted to be in there again.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">About 4 years later I saw it again but it was even worse. I hadn't seen it in so long that I had almost forgotten about it. I had my best friend over to spend the night again and we had been having the usual preteen fun since I was 12 and she was 13. Doing stuff like watching movies, staying up talking later than we should, painting each others nails, the usual stuff. By the time we actually went to sleep it was really late and everyone else in the house was already asleep.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">I woke up in the middle of the night in my dim room to her shaking my shoulder. I opened my eyes slightly and asked what was wrong. She asked me why I had a cat even though I was allergic to them. I gave her a really confused look and asked what the hell she was talking about and she pointed. Opposite of my bed was a computer desk in front of the window. My room was a bit of a mess so I didn't see anything at first but when I did I was horrified. Sitting in the leg space of my desk was a freakishly large gray tabby cat. It was tall enough that it's ears, or what was left of them rather, were almost touching the keyboard tray.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">I tried to rationalize it as me dreaming or a window had been left open and it wondered in. As I did so it stared at me with knowing eyes, too wise for such a creature and full of hunger. It opened it's mouth and let out a long yowl and I saw it's teeth were longer than what seemed logical so I sat up to get ready to leave the room. It started slowly walking towards us, like a lion on the prowl. Slow and careful steps. As it did, chunks of fur, skin, and muscle fell off of it. We both screamed and ran for the door and it leaped at us just as the door closed. I heard it thud against the door and I held the handle to the door to keep it closed, crying. Some clawing for awhile then silence. I looked and there was it's eye, watching me through the hole in the door.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">My friend started banging on my parents bedroom door and my brother was already up and running in their from his room. He had his small pocket knife out, ready to defend me, his little sister. I was leaning back to keep the door closed shaking my head with my eyes closed and crying. He saw it's eye as well and jumped in terror then jammed his knife in the hole. We heard the cat yowl out in pain once then silence.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">When he pulled out his knife there was maggots on it and he dropped it to the floor. My parents woke up and saw the scratches covering the inside of my bedroom door but thought we were all playing a joke on them and were angry about being woken up in the middle of the night. Me, my brother, and my friend spent the rest of the night in the living room, too terrified to go near the attic or my room.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">The next night my parents tried to make me sleep in there but I refused to so they let me sleep on the couch once more but said only that one time. So, I “accidentally” broke the window in my room. I knew my parents couldn't afford to replace the window. I was severely punished but it was worth it to have a reason not to be in that room after dark.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">I know it doesn't seem possible for it to somehow get in my room no problem but not be able to get past a 12 year old girl but I didn't dare question it too much, I was just thankful I was alive.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">The beast left me alone for another 4 years until I was 16 and had just moved out of that house into a new one. I was so thankful but had tried to push those memories aside as nothing more than a kid scared of the dark. After I moved I went out with my boyfriend after school one day. We were just randomly driving about when we came to the road that lead up the mountain. I froze and got chills thinking of it and he asked me what was wrong. I told him that was my old house that I'd lived it for more than 7 years. He decided he wanted to see where I grew up no matter how much I protested so up the mountain we went.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">It was the longest drive up that mountain road I could ever recall but I suppose that was just because of the dread I felt approaching that house which I had hoped to never have to see again. He drove up the destroyed driveway which felt like it was jarring me out of my seat with all the ruts in the mud and gravel. We stopped outside the house which was still a good distance from the front door.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">The house was still empty from us moving out which wasn't too surprising. I refused to get out but he started walking up to the door. I told him not to go in even if it was unlocked. He placed his hand on the door and I screamed for him to come back. Begging him not to open it. He finally did and then heard hissing and yowling from inside which made him jump. He didn't look at the window but I already was. Through the window beside the door I saw it again. It was there, still waiting for me. Rotting as I watched it, one eye fell out. The one my brother had stabbed. Then all of it's fur, then the skin then muscle. It continued yowling and I got out and drug him back to the car begging him to leave no matter how many questions he asked.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">What I hadn't noticed is that he had turned the knob. Just enough for the door to be able to open. I guess the cat-thing didn't notice at first either but boy was it pissed. When we got home I tried to tell him about everything that had happened and what that thing was. He called me a psycho bitch and said I needed to get help and left me home alone.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">I thought it was still at the house. It couldn't have followed me because it couldn't get out. Besides, how could it keep up with a car especially without me noticing so I thought I was safe to go out for a walk to weep the loss of my asshole boyfriend.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">I had been walking for a bit in the woods around my new home and it was starting to get dark so I turned to head back. I started walking then heard something else moving around and picked up my pace. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small gray tabby cat walking. I tried to believe it was just a normal stray cat and I really was just crazy, had imagined it all. Then, it started to grow. It was getting bigger but it's skin was just getting tighter. I closed my eyes now almost running but trying not to alarm it so it didn't know I saw it. Maybe it would wait to attack if it thought it was still in hiding. Bones burst through it's fur and flesh and I saw it's organs and guts start falling out.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">I could see my house but so could the cat and it stopped and crouched. I shouldn't say cat at this point because it was the size of a cougar by now and was nothing but bones. I still couldn't help questioning how it was possible for nothing but bones to stay together and move. I couldn't hold back my terror anymore and broke into a run, pushing my legs as fast as I could. I could feel my lungs straining because of my asthma, my mind racing with terrible mental visions of what it might do if I stopped. My heart pounding, the smell of dead animal, the sound of each step or rather leap it took. It's hunger and anger were so strong I could almost feel it. It was hungry and I was it's meal that was getting away.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">Luckily I saw my parents vehicle so I knew someone would be there to help me. I stopped just long enough to open the door but that was long enough for it to catch up and I felt the searing pain as I screamed wrenching the door open and falling inside on the floor in a pile of sobs. I heard the fabric of my jacket and shirt tear. I could feel something running down my back and the pain that wouldn't stop all over my back.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">I was getting light headed but it wasn't there anymore. It didn't follow me in. I was safe for now. My mother screamed at the site of me gored back and started yelling something about 9-1-1 to my father. Everything was getting black and I thought this was the end. My mom started talking to me, telling me to stay awake, asking what happened. I could only get out a few words between the pain and the shortness of breath. I heard my dad on the phone frantically saying something about me and blood everywhere.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Cat. Big. Scary. DEAD.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">Then I passed out. Next thing I knew I was waking up in the hospital. I started to move and felt pain shoot through my back and cried out which woke my mother sleeping by my bed. She asked what happened and for fear of her not believing me, I told her I didn't know. She told me what I said and that everyone is guessing I was attacked by a cougar that ran off when it saw more people. She assumed the dead part was me thinking I was going to die.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">I'm 20 now and it's spring. Same time of year it's been every other time I've seen it. I keep seeing something peering at me on the way home from work in the trees. I see that knowing eye, one eye ruined. That skeletal body with abnormally long teeth. In some ways, it kind of reminds me of pictures I've seen of the skeletons of Sabre tooth tigers but all of it's teeth are long, not just the fangs but the fangs are the longest. It still has it's claws. Every night it seems to be closer and closer to my home. Like it is taunting me with the knowledge that soon it will come for me.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">I'm sitting at the library right now typing this. Last night it was almost there, only a few blocks away. I haven't told anyone about this till now but I'm telling you. I know you might not believe it but you are my best friend. I probably won't be around much longer and someone needs to know what really happened and how those morbid scars really got on my back. If I do die this time, don't try to find it. I don't think it can die.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">I did some research about that house. Apparently some family used to live there. When the mother left, the father eventually went nuts and killed their kids then himself. He killed the kids in the room that was mine, and that must be why that hole was there. Then, he took their bodies up to the attic and killed himself too and the cat got stuck up there with them. When they were found, they realized the cat had started eating the bodies for food and tried to attack the police officers and was shot on sight. Makes me wonder how I saw the skeletons of the family at all. Shouldn't they have been moved and buried and all that?

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">Please make sure that thing can never hurt anyone again. It seemed to have some grudge for me. Even though I guess I'm the one who let it out. I pray it never hurts anyone again.