You never know where they are

Sometimes Shadows lurk in the darkness, waiting … maybe for you to fall to sleep. And sometimes Shadows leap into your life.

Although I’ve heard hundreds of stories of Shadow People – two-dimensional, blacker-than-night human figures that stalk our waking nightmares – new reports continue to amaze, and terrify. Here are three:



The hand

Murphy’s dog scratched at the door – he wanted in. As Murphy walked to the door and pulled it open, the dog rushed into the kitchen as if chased.

Murphy stood there, looking into the night, and he felt something was wrong.

“I had the door open for a few minutes looking out into the darkness,” he said. “Then I heard a scream. A loud scream.”

A scream that didn’t sound human or animal.

“But it wasn’t the scream that scared me,” Murphy said. “It was the object that ran up towards me.”

Something black broke free of the surrounding darkness of Murphy’s yard and bolted to the open door.

“I didn’t get a good look at this figure, but the air was warm just before it came near me,” he said.

Murphy pushed the door shut but the thing was already there.

“You know when an animal runs towards you quickly and stops just before it hits you?” he said. “Yeah. That’s what it did.”

As Murphy slammed the door home a dark hand reached in to catch it, trying to stop it from closing. But the door banged shut, and Murphy turned the deadbolt.

“I’m glad (the hand) didn’t work,” he said. “But I was scared out of my mind.”



A shadow man

and his dog

Pate was eight when he saw the shadow man.

“I was going to go to bed in my bunk bed in my parents house,” Pate, now 18, said. “I was laying down, and then I saw something appear on the wall by the door.”

It was the shadow of a man with a dog on a leash.

“Mom, Dad, is that you? Mom, Dad, is that you?” Pate asked into the night. But his parents didn’t answer.

“I stood up then the dog came off the wall and bit me in the arm,” Pate said. “I didn’t feel anything, but it scared me to death.”

Pate ran out of the room, screaming for his parents.

“I told my parents,” he said. “They told me I was just dreaming, but I wasn’t because the dog bit me while I was standing up, and I ran out of the room. It makes me cry to even tell the story sometimes.”



The shadow had eyes

Like Pate, Kevin saw a shadow man when he was 8 years old … and it saw him.

“I was taking out the trash for my mom, and it was a very dark night with no moon,” he said. “I was passing through my dad’s boats, and between them was something that had to be at least six feet tall.”

Kevin didn’t see a human silhouette with this shadow entity, just a dark blob – but he knew it was intelligent, and evil.

“It just stared at me scanning me and I was frozen completely,” Kevin said. “I was unable to even think as I just stared into its red, glowing, human-shaped eyes, straight into the cat-like pupils.”

Kevin stood motionless, not realizing the trash bags he carried had slid from his hands. After about three minutes, movement found its way back into his legs.

“I was able to run to the house wishing I had talked to it,” Kevin said. “I ran back outside five minutes later, and the trash bags were there intact, but no sign of the thing. I had told my friend and Mom about it, and they laughed. I’m scared to this day that the thing will come back and collect me.”



Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”