The Beast with the Glowing Red Eyes

I've decided to share a sequence of events that occurred over the course of childhood to teenage years.

In retrospect, these things unnerve me to no end and I feel uncomfortable digging up these memories. However, there is a catharsis to be had in this.

Your insight is welcomed and valued, /x/.

==Episode 1 (The Noise: Part 1)== The first incident I can clearly remember was when I was 4 or 5. After speaking to some of the residents in the area, I learned that the events I experienced were far from the only things to have happened in the area, but I digress - I'll get to the experiences others told me after I've relayed my own, if there's sufficient interest.

It was a typical summer night and I was winding down to watch some SNICK. Kudos to those of you who know what I'm talking about. My dad was doing some work outside and my mom was inside the kitchen cleaning when my dad came in looking pale as a sheet. My mom asked him what was wrong and he replied, "I heard something outside, get me my gun."

My mother, of course, complied.

With the gun securely in hand, my dad went back outside and my mother, my brother and I watched from the doorway. Then we heard it, too. It sounded like a woman screaming or something. I know that a lot of animals sound that way, but I've lived in the country my whole life and I've never heard anything like this. The closest I've come is some videos of big cats, but that raises the question as to why a big cat would be doing all the way out in Indiana.

Episode 1 (The Nose: Part 2)
My father paused for a moment when we heard it again. But, not wanting to look like a pussy in front of his wife and kids, he ventured further, pistol in hand. Now, it's important to note that when I lived there, there was no house in the field next to ours.

My dad vanished into the gloom of where the sound seemed to originate from, and for a few breathless seconds, we heard nothing. Then my dad screamed, "OH FUCK!!" and we heard the sound of gunfire. At this point my mom shoved me and my brother inside and closed the door. I heard my dad yell, "Are the kids inside?!" The panic was evident in his voice.

Once my mom assured him that we were safe, they both came back inside, drew the blinds and locked the doors. They refused to speak about it. Later that night, I was eavesdropping on my parents through the vent in my room and heard my dad say to my mom, "I don't know what it was, but I never want to see it again. If the kids ask, it was just somebody playing a trick on us."

I never asked when I was younger, but when I was older I asked him on a few occasions. He refuses to talk about it. After that night, he began drinking heavily (he's thankfully given it up now).

Episode 2 (The Buildup: Part 1)
Some strange things happened after that, but nothing as major as the noise. But, in retrospect, they all seemed to be building up to some sort of crescendo.

My mother walked into the kitchen one night and saw an Indian (feather) lady standing at our back window, crying. She was alone in the house at the time. I did some asking around and apparently the land we lived on used to be a trading ground of some sort before the settlers came. I don't know anymore than that, or even if it's true.

One winter, my mother saw someone watching her through the bathroom window. It's important to note that our bathroom window was a good 9 feet off the ground. She got my dad to look outside. Despite the heavy snowfall there were no footprints leading away or to the house. But there were a set of footprints in a circle right under the bathroom window, again, with no footprints leading from or to the house.

Episode 2: The Buildup (Part 2)
During this time, my dads drinking was increasing exponentially. This seems to be common in those who have experienced something in those woods, as it happened to my fathers friend as well (I'll tell those stories if anyone's interested).

We would often hear heavy metal coming from inside the walls. This happened until we moved out 15 years later. No one who lived near us listened to metal.

My brother, two years my junior, began talking about how he would see our dead great-grandfather in our house all the time. I wouldn't give any credence to this, due to his age, except for the fact that he describe the suit my great-grandfather was buried in in detail. He wasn't at the wake or the funeral.

My fathers drinking culminated in abuse to my mother and they divorced when I was 10 or 11. That's the last you'll hear of my family problems, though I do feel that I've shared what's relevant to the story. My father was the nicest man in the world before that night. I have to wonder what it was he saw that night that drove him to that point.

Episode 3 (The Dog)
After the divorce, my mom bought my brother a dog. It was the sweetest dog in the world. We kept him chained up outside. Every now and then, he'd break loose, but he wouldn't be gone for more than 2-3 hours.

One day, he broke free and never came back. My brother was, understandably, heartbroken. My mom promised him a new dog if this one didn't come back within a week.

After a week, we found out what happened to the dog. Well, sort of.

My brothers screams woke me up the next morning. My mom and I walked outside to see what was wrong. Well, it was pretty obvious what was wrong. The skin from the top of the dogs head was laying on our back porch. Just the skin, just from the top of it's head. It looked as if someone had ripped it off - the cut wasn't clean at all.

We never did find the body, we buried the skin in our backyard.

Episode 4 (The Beast: Part 1)
Once I entered middle school, I made a friend in the grade above me. He lived about half a mile down the road, so that was very convenient for me. One night I was over at his house and he began to tell me stories that his brother told him. Stories about a beast with red eyes that lived in the woods and would get you if you weren't careful.

He told me he'd seen it a few times. Once watching him from the top of a mulberry tree that grew across the road from his house. Once while walking back from another friend of his' house, watching him from the treeline across the cornfield. Again, at the same friends house, watching him on the top of his garage. The fourth time he saw it, was right outside the backdoor of his grandpas house. He said it crouched on all fours, like some kind of animal. The other times had been too far away to make out it's shape; apparently, it was humanoid, but compressed entirely of darkness and shadow, except for it's red eyes.

I, of course, didn't believe him. But, I still looked over my shoulder on the way back home.

Episode 4 (The Beast: Part 2)
When I got home, I was greeted by my brothers sobbing. I told him to calm down and tell me what happened. He told me that he and a friend of his were walking back from another friend's house. It should be noted that this is the same house that my friend said he saw the thing on top of the garage. My brother said they'd gone down the trail we'd took on a daily basis on our way home, but it sounded like something was following them and keeping pace. He turned and saw two glowing red eyes set close to the ground, then rose up to about nine feet and started coming toward them.

My brother ran all the way home, presumably being chased. It should be noted that he ran all the way in the dark.

My experience with the beast was to come later.

Episode 5 (The Fear: Part 1)
After hearing my brother's experience, I asked my friend to tell me everything he knew about the thing in the woods. He told me the story of his father, who had also seen it. I believe it drove his father crazy, and I also believe that my father saw it too, given the parallels in the stories. The only difference is that my mother and father divorced and my father moved away. His father ended up being shot by his mother because of the abuse from his drinking.

Being young (15-16) and fearless at the time, I though it would be a good idea to fuck with the thing, whatever it was, to see what it was made of.

This proved to be a mistake.

I went into the woods with a dagger, which I though would protect me I guess. I don't know what I was thinking. I sat in a clearing until it was dark, when I started to taunt the thing. You know, general stuff a teenager would say like, "You're a fucking pussy and I don't believe in you," and "Looks like everyone's scared of nothing because the only ghost here is a gigantic faggot." I know, I was cool. You don't have to tell me.

The only problem for me is what I was doing worked. The woods went quiet. Quieter than I'd ever heard them. Then, in the distance, I heard the "snap....snap....snap" of something heavy taking slow, methodical steps toward me, breaking branches under it's feet. "Snap....snap....snap" I was still brave. I stood my ground.

Episode 5 (The Fear: Part 2)
When the sound got to about 30 feet away from me, I heard a tree fall to the ground, followed by the same "snap....snap....snap". I started to get nervous at this point. If it could push a tree over, it could seriously fuck me up. The walking started to get faster. "snapsnapsnapsnapsnapsnap". A sense of dread came over me at that point, which I experienced later with my face to face encounter.

I pissed myself, dropped the dagger and ran home.

Did I mention that I was home alone that night?

I got inside, slammed the door, locked it, deadbolted it, got a clean change of clothes and hopped in the shower. While I was showering, the noises started. It was something with large claws and was scratching at the side of the house. Sometimes it would hit the house hard enough to knock pictures off the wall.

I put my headphones on and huddled in my room until my mom got home, which is when the noises stopped. I didn't tell my mom anything.

The next morning, I looked outside and there were no scratches on the side of the house, nor were there dents that you'd expect from something hitting the house that hard.

I walked out to the clearing I was in and found my dagger lying on a tree stump, bent in a perfect 90 degree angle. I took it, but it's since been lost to me.

I never went into the woods alone at night again.

Episode 6 (The Encounter: Part 1)
Things were as calm as they ever were after that, though the heavy metal from our walls was as loud as ever. By this point, I had begun listening to metal, so it didn't bother me as much as it did the rest of the family.

But, I digress. I want to get to the meat of this story right away.

We were at my grandpas house the Christmas Eve after my encounter in the woods. We left and were driving through a wooded section when my mom caught something in the headlights.

Time seemed to slow down when we saw it. It was walking across the road, from one wooded area to the next. The whole encounter couldn't have lasted more than 15 seconds, but it seemed like 15 minutes. It stood around 9 feet tall. It's body was a humanoid in shape, but it was made up entirely of darkness. Tendrils of darkness drifted off it's body when the headlights struck it. I'm unsure if it was the headlights that caused it or if it was some strange aspect of the beast. It's arms noticeably moved, though in a manor that's hard for me to demonstrate accurately. It's entire range of motion seemed unnatural and alien like to me.

Episode 6 (The Encounter: Part 2)
I was filled with dread. It turned and looked at me, it's eyes two glowing coals floating in the physical darkness that was it's body. The head turned, but not in the way yours or mine would. It was more as if the eyes had shifted...it's very hard to describe. I made eye contact with it for what seemed like eternity. Then it looked forward and walked back to the woods on the other side of the road. Time slowed down and the sense of dread left me.

We all looked at each other with a "did you just see that?" look. We didn't speak a word about it until we got home.

These days, when I bring it up to my mom, she says it was a raccoon. But the look in her eyes tells me that she remembers, and that's all I want, to know that I'm not crazy.

I haven't seen it since.

Episode 7 (The Followup)
We moved a year after that. I went off to college but kept in touch with my friend who lived in the area.

He became obsessed with the thing in the woods during that period. He would go out to the woods often at night with nothing but a tape recorder and some candles. I don't know if he picked up anything on the tape recorder, but to be honest, I wouldn't wanna hear it if he did.

The last words he ever said to me were "I went out in the woods last night and promised it my soul if it would give me (insert name of girl he liked)."

He got her, but she ruined him.

He's now a broken down junkie who lives day by day eating out of trashcans and stealing for a hit of whatever drug he can get his hands on. He was the smartest person I knew.

I've since moved back to an area that's 10 minutes away from where these events took place. I'm interested in going back sometime, but not without some backup. If I go, I'll post the results here.

These events took place in Toto, Indiana if you're curious.