Looks like I’m going to the Lon Strickler well again this week. Can you blame me when he get such darn interesting mail?

He recently received a note from a woman who claims to have had a run in with a Shadowperson/Shadowman, or what she referred to as a a “big black shadow”.

This was one of those stories (true or not) that gets the hair standing up on your neck and since we love to track shadow encounters here at GT, I though it an appropriate story to start the week.

So, here it is, as told to Lon of Phantoms & Monsters:

The Creeping Shadow

Hi, Lon – just wanted to tell you what I saw one recent night. I was out in my backyard, sitting a little bit off my back porch. It was warm, but there was a really nice breeze that night. I had shut off our outside security light, and I was just sitting in a lawn chair, enjoying the breeze. It was around 11:30 at night. Our next door neighbors are on vacation, and I’ve been watching their house for them. They live on the corner, and there is a street light at the edge of their property that lights up their yard really well. The only part that is mostly dark is the side of their detached garage. The streetlight is so bright that even with my security light off, it lights up half of our property. (We have a double lot.)

I was looking at the sky, when I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye. I saw what I thought was a person squatting down, then getting up and moving around my neighbors trash cans that are on the dark side of the garage, towards my home. I watched for a few minutes as what I thought was a person kept moving around. I had my cell phone, and I pulled up the number of the local police department so I could call them if this person looked like they were out to rob my neighbors. The shadow began moving, and it went past the garage into the light I realized with horror that there was no person attached to the shadow, it was just a big black shadow. It was much larger than a real man would be, around 7-8 feet tall. (Our neighbor is 6’6, and I see how tall he is up against his garage, and whatever this was was at least a foot taller than him, maybe a bit bigger.)

I gasped out loud, and it turned towards me. I was so scared that I couldn’t even move. The shadow suddenly started lurching through the neighbor’s yard, like it was coming for me. I jumped up off the chair, got tangled in it and fell. I glanced over at this thing as I tried to get up. It seemed as if the noise stopped it for a second.  I jumped up and ran right into the house. Our door has a window, and as I was shutting the door, this shadow thing appeared in the yard right next to the overturned chair. It stood there for a few moments, and I swear it was actually looking at me, even though it had no facial features. Then it suddenly took off, and vanished from the part of the yard I could see. My husband died 4 years ago, and I live with my 14 and 19 year old daughters. They were watching TV, so I snuck past them upstairs and looked out all the windows. I didn’t see this thing anywhere in the yard. I stayed upstairs for a while because I knew by looking in the mirror that I looked like a crazy woman and I didn’t want to scare my daughters. I didn’t tell them what I saw, because I didn’t want them to be scared too. I didn’t sleep much that night or last night either! I don’t know what this was, but it scared the heck out of me! – Name withheld

The first thing that came to mind was the neighbor and if this thing hung around that house on a regular basis. Imagine coming home from your trip and…..

House Sitter: Hey Earl! How was the trip?
Neighbor: Very good June! Extremely relaxing. Then again, I am glad to be home where I can sleep in my own bed.
House Sitter: Uhhh yea, own bed…..Sure, I know what you….
Neighbor: June? Iss something wrong? The house is OK, right?
House Sitter: Huh? The house? Ermmm, yeaaa…The house iis just fine, justt fin…
Neighbor: So, why all the mysteriosoness? You are acting very strange. Did someone try to break in or something?
House Sitter: Well Earl, not exactly.
Neighbor: What do you mean, not exactly?
House Sitter: Welll, there was this giant horrifying shadowperson thing that…..
Neighbor: Wait! Giant shadowsomething what?
House Sitter: Person, giant shadowperson. Well, it was more of a black horror than person…yes, definitely horror….yea, horror would be the way to go on this one.
Neighbor: Annnd?
House Sitter: I saw this giant black shadow from the depths of hell in your yard. It saw me and came after me. Long story short, I ran in the house and when I looked out again, it was gone.
Neighbor (after a lengthy Q&A session with June): Soo, anything else?
House Sitter: Hmmm, got mail, picked up paper, giant black shadowguy tried to get me, cut your grass, nope! That about covers it!
Neighbor: I see you have a for sale sign in your yard. You moving?
House Sitter: Yeaa, thought it was time for a change! You know how it is!
Neighbor: It wouldn’t have anything to do with that black sh….
House Sitter: Nuuuu! Uh, well, maybe a litt…the tinest little…Ccccould be. So, you going to the big soccer thing at the high school?
Neighbor: Huh?

That’s it! You can take the story any way you like. It often seems that whenever we post these stories, people come out of the woodwork to tell their story. So, it can’t all be fiction, can it?

Thanks once again to Lon at Phantoms & Monsters for this Shadowperson encounter.

Associated Content:

GT: Submitted Story: Shadow Man Outside My House
GT: Submitted Story: Shadow Person Encounter
GT: More “Shadow People” stories from Jason Offutt’s blog