Skinwalker Stories from Reddit

Story 7 : I'm a Marine Stationed at Camp Pendleton. I Met a Skinwalker....

Written by : u/Jgrupe

Year written : 2022

Being assigned to Camp Pendleton was a dream come true. Located in Oceanside in Northern San Diego, it's one of the biggest Marine Corps bases in the US. There's a ton of stuff to do nearby, whether it's going to the beach to surf, swim, or go for drinks at the pier. The people around here are mellow, and there's a surfer sort of vibe to the neighborhood I moved into.

Everything was going great for me the first few weeks while I was here. But I noticed that despite the laidback attitude of the surrounding area where I lived, my work-life was rigid and inflexible, my commanding officer gruff and no-nonsense. I began to realize this place was not going to be a cakewalk.

Then, one cool night, I woke up disoriented and far from my bed. Looking around, I saw there was nothing nearby. Not another person for miles. Just flat, dirt ground with hills in the distance, and the black sky full of stars and a full moon above.

I must have been sleepwalking, I thought to myself, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

I had been marching in my dreams while remembering my days of basic training. And I had somehow ended up in the middle of the dirt field. I looked around in every direction and finally saw lights in the distance behind me. At least I had an idea which way to go now.

Turning around, I started to walk back towards the base, my legs wobbly from the long walk while asleep. It felt surreal to be out there in the middle of the night, and I didn't understand how it could have happened. I had been caught sleepwalking once or twice before, but I'd never gone anywhere near to this far. Part of me wondered with a paranoid fear, just how often this happened without me realizing it.

I walked for a few minutes alone, feeling an increasingly strange sensation like a tingling on the back of my neck. After a while, I began to suspect it was that outdated lizard-brain notion that someone was following me. A remnant from some bygone era when humans actually had to worry about being stalked in the night...

Just as I had that thought, someone cleared their throat in the darkness behind me.

A chill ran up my spine and my flesh broke out in goose pimples as he spoke, his voice deep, gruff, and commanding.

"What are you doing all the way out here so late at night?" he asked.

He stepped closer and in the moonlight I could see him more clearly. My voice caught in my throat as I looked at his eyes and saw they were yellow, like a cat or a wolf or a snake maybe.

"Haven't you been told to stay in your hunk at this hour?"

His tone was predatory and overwhelmingly creepy, but his demeanor was otherwise friendly. The part of my brain telling me to run was suddenly being hushed into submission by an unfamiliar voice which told me this was fine, and not to worry about a thing.

Look at his uniform, the voice said. And sure enough I looked down to see he was wearing a Marine Corps uniform, with the insignia indicating he was an officer.

You wouldn't want to disrespect a superior officer, would you? The voice asked.

"Sorry, sir. I must have been sleepwalking. I'm just heading back towards the base. I can make it home from there."

He showed his teeth in a grin and told me he'd walk with me for a stretch.

"We must be distant relatives from somewhere down the line," he said as we walked. "Both of us out here walking in the middle of the night. I wish I could chalk my trip up to somnambulism - but I'm just a run of the mill insomniac. I can never get back to sleep once I'm up. I usually just go out for a long hike - it reminds me of the old days when I was deployed, I guess. Going for long marches that started before sunrise and didn't end until long past noon."