Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal 05/31/2022

A college student, living at home, recounts the strange activity occurring in and around her family's home. Her brother states that he had 2 encounters with a pale humanoid in the yard.

I recently received the following account and update from a reader:

I have no clue what is going on. I live in north central Massachusetts in Middlesex County, in the middle of the woods. We're a few miles out of town. For the past few months, my family and I have become convinced our house is haunted, but I wasn't really bothered by it. Whatever it is isn't too much of a nuisance and hasn't done anything to harm us, so we don't really mind. It has mostly just been apparitions, things turning on on their own, and our pets getting spooked by nothing. That was until the more physical things started to happen, and I'm not sure if they are somehow connected to the peaceful presence in our house.

About a month ago I was up late around 3 AM watching YouTube. It was warm out so I had my window open along with the curtain. Suddenly, I heard what sounded like a grown man angrily scream right in our yard. My heart literally dropped and I was frozen in fear. Like I said before, we're in the middle of the woods and there are only a few houses around us; no one would be screaming in OUR yard at 3 AM. I laid there for a few minutes listening for anything else, and I even renewed the video I was watching to make sure what I heard wasn't just in the video.

Finally, I got the courage to get up. I closed my window and woke up my mom, who I still live with. She went around the house with me, turning on all the outside lights and seeing if there was anyone in our yard. There was nothing. I keep thinking about how if I hadn't laid there paralyzed with fear, I would've been able to see whoever or whatever it was.

The next night I slept with my window open again and I had the most vivid dream I have ever had. In it, I was watching myself sleep, but outside the window staring in at me was the extremely pale face. It looked almost human, but not quite. I ended up jolting awake completely terrified, and slamming my window shut and closing the shade. But I just kept having the dream over and over again for the next few days.

Over the next few weeks, I kept hearing weird noises in the woods in broad daylight as well as late at night. It sounded like something was hitting branches with a stick. Even my dog heard it and was running around the yard barking up a storm in an attempt to defend his house.

Fast forward to yesterday, my brother was home alone around 9 PM. He went to let our dog outside, but when he got out onto our indoor porch he saw something in the yard. The only light in the backyard was coming from the light inside the house. It illuminated a tall humanoid figure (maybe around 7ft?) in the yard, standing about fifteen feet away from the house, right in front of our fire pit. It had no clothes on, was incredibly skinny, and it apparently was so pale that it appeared to glow in the light. Thankfully, he did not let our dog out and went inside locking the doors and shutting the windows, waiting for our mom to get home.

I know that he could just be lying, but when our mom got home he was absolutely terrified, and basically just hid in the living room until she got there. I've known him his whole life and he has never lied about something like this and is in fact a horrible liar. So I'm confident he is telling the truth.

I'm currently sitting out on my indoor porch at around 8 PM typing this, waiting to see if I can spot it or at least hear something. I'm honestly debating on whether or not I should sleep out here.

I did a little reading beforehand on some creatures and came across the mention of crawlers. When my brother described it, he said it was standing completely upright; he didn't see it walk or crawl in any way. Could it still be a crawler? Are we in any danger? And is it possible that it is somehow connected to the paranormal stuff that has been happening in our house?" MB

UPDATE: "About 3 or 4 days after my original email, my brother saw the creature again. I was home, but I was in the middle of a long nap in my room, so it was just my brother and my mom. It was probably around 8 PM and my mom was in the living room on the phone and my brother was just watching TV beside her. Our dog was outside and started barking at something, and keep in mind that he always does this. He'll bark at any living creature he sees on our property or walking in front of the house on the road, so neither of them thought anything about it. My brother got up to let him in and walked onto our indoor porch and looked out to see what our dog was barking at. He saw the creature again, about ten feet from where he saw it originally, staring at the house again. He ran back to the living room to get our mom, who came out to look. By the time they got to the porch, the creature was just gone.

I'm just not convinced something is going on after my brother saw it the second time. He started saying that he's scared; he's just hallucinating and his mind or eyes were just playing tricks on him. Especially since when he got my mom, the creature had disappeared within that fifteen seconds without even the smallest trace. So because he was starting to be convinced it was just a trick his eyes played on him, I stop believing that he actually saw a crawler. I just kind of stopped caring.

My one class for yesterday was canceled, so I spent the whole day just lounging around. I completely forgot about making myself dinner, so it was about 11:45 PM when I remembered. I was just quickly making some chili when my mom got up to let my dog outside. It had been downpouring all day, so my dog had only gone outside twice during the day because he's terrified of rain. My mom went back to bed and left me to let him in when he's done.

I finished making my dinner about ten minutes later and decided to go call him to have him come back inside. Once I called him, I heard something big move in the woods as if it reacted to my voice. Immediately after that, my dog came charging from the other side of the yard and proceeded to freak out over whatever was hidden in the trees. I kept calling him but he would not stop barking and growling no matter what. I even shouted out some of his favorite phrases but he didn't react to any of them at all which was super strange because he always does, no matter how distracted he is. This went on for a few minutes and it got to the point where my mom and my sister came out so we could all try to call him back inside. We didn't want him to wake up the entire neighborhood.

Now, I don't know if I'm brave, or just literally the stupidest person alive, but I decided to just go out into our woodsy backyard (barefoot) in the middle of the night to force him to come inside. It was about 40 degrees F, and I was literally only wearing a sports bra and shorts; I was pissed off and just wanted to eat my food. I went outside and walked down the steps from the indoor porch, and I was about ten feet into the yard when I heard whatever it was move in the woods again in response to me walking into the yard. I literally froze for a few seconds and I heard my sister from above me on the porch go, "what the f*ck was that?" I didn't really care when I heard it move when I was on the porch, but hearing it maybe not even thirty feet from me when there aren't any walls around me, scared the sh*t out of me.

Regardless, I started walking again towards my dog to put his leash on him, but as soon as he saw the leash in my hand, he ran all the way back to the porch, leaving me alone in the dark. Needless to say, I have never ran faster in my life. I got back to the porch, let my dog in, everyone went back to bed, and I finally ate my chili (the only good part of this story).

Now, I know there's no guarantee that it was whatever my brother saw or thinks he saw, after all, I'm still not fully convinced it even exists, but the entire situation was very strange. We live in the middle of the woods; we're used to wildlife being around our house and my dog always barks at any living thing he sees or hears near the house. However, literally every single time he barks at them, we always hear them running away in the woods to get away from him. From tiny bunnies to a grown-ass bear, it's always the same. But whatever was in the woods tonight, obviously did not care about my dog barking and growling and charging around the yard. It just seemed to move around anytime something new happened, like me calling for my dog or me going out into the yard. It seemed like it was just watching.

Also, my dog has a very specific bark. It can be annoying as hell, but it's always the same. Whenever he sees or hears something near or on our property it's almost as if he's yelling, "Hey! Get out of here!" But he doesn't sound angry at all. I've even seen him charge at a full-grown male deer three times his size, and his bark was just the same old "get off my lawn!" But tonight, when he was barking at whatever was in the woods, he sounded so angry and vicious. I don't think I've ever heard him bark or growl like that. I was actually shocked.

Anyways that's basically it. That happened exactly 24 hours ago now. As for the paranormal stuff in my house that I mentioned in the original email, it's been about the same. Just small things have been happening along with knocks on walls. It's not threatening at all, and I'll probably make a post about in the paranormal subreddit eventually because it's actually super interesting.

Also, don't bother asking about trail cams. I know that we should probably get them, but no one in my house wants to pay for them, and as a broke college student, I'd prefer not to spend money right now. Any thoughts?" MB

Please Consider a Donation to 'Phantoms & Monsters'

Your financial support of Phantoms & Monsters and our other pursuits is much appreciated. Despite what many people believe, what I do is not a profitable venture. In fact, most of the financing I receive is used to continue providing you with the results of my efforts. This all depends on you, my readers and followers.

Please use the PayPal donation buttons on the blog site and newsletter. You can also go directly to Phantoms & Monsters donation. Thanks again for your loyalty and continued support. Lon