Skinwalker Stories from Reddit

Story 9 : There's A Skinwalker in My Neighborhood

Written by : u/jwil053

Year written : 2020

I had heard of skinwalkers before, but always just assumed they were the Native American version of werewolves, so I never gave them much thought. Until last week when one of the coworkers at my new job told me that they were his most feared folklore creatures. He's originally from Utah, so that makes sense. He suggested some Youtube videos to watch on the subject and after work that night I binged about four or five of the videos. I totally understand his stance on them now.

I live in rural South Carolina, so to be completely honest I wasn't too worried about the possibility of running into one. My coworker told me that they're basically a midwestern thing.

"I'd be more worried about wendigos if I were you." He joked the day after I watched the videos. We had a good chat about skinwalkers and wendigos during our shift and just reveled in the creepiness of them. I mentioned how one of the tales said that the more you talk about skinwalkers, the more they're drawn to you and he made sarcastic ghost noises to keep the mood light.

That night I showed the videos to my fiancé. She was way more creeped out than I was. I became kind of obsessed; I love scary things and couldn't help but watch every video I came across. I discussed skinwalkers with my other horror enthusiast friends, looked up skinwalker art, read true skinwalker stories on Reddit, just dove headfirst into all things skinwalker. This went on for a few days until I started feeling a little burned out on the subject.

I live in a fairly nice neighborhood where all the houses are on one side of the street. On the other side is property that used to belong to the local elementary school. The building is on the next street over, so basically it was like the school's back yard or whatever. The school shut down about 30 or 40 years ago and the county just let nature reclaim the. So directly across from my house is an old chain link fence and just overgrown woods.

Two nights ago while I was smoking a cigarette, I heard leaves rustling across the street. I didn't bother looking up from my phone. I live across from woods; it was probably a deer. The rustling stopped, then started again and it sounded like whatever was over there was running back and forth along the fence line, panting like a dog. This caught my attention; there had been a few rabies cases in my town two months back so a strange dog running around in the middle of the night was definitely something I'd want to keep an eye on.

I look up from my phone in the direction of the sounds and they just stop. It was like the thing knew I noticed it. I strained my eyes trying to see what it was, but it was obscured by the overgrowth. I didn't look away, must have stared at the spot for at least a minute. It didn't make another sound, didn't move again, so I knew it was still there. A chill ran down my spine and I began thinking of every skinwalker video I had watched over the last week and I felt sick to my stomach. I quickly put out my cigarette and went inside.

The next morning I took my dog out for a short walk. She's a pug-zu named Honey and is like my child. Me and my fiancé taught her that "peepee poopoo" means it's time to go outside to potty. It's the cutest thing. Anyway, this particular morning I take her out to the front yard to do her business. She pees and then walks around sniffing for about five minutes before walking to the side of the street and sitting down. She's never done this before, so I was a little annoyed. I tugged on her leash lightly and tried to coax her back toward the house.

"Come on, Honey. Gotta poopoo." She didn't budge. This dog could be stubborn sometimes, but this was something else. She tugged back against the leash and just stared across the street, sniffing the air occasionally. It was then that I realized she was staring at the exact spot that I heard the thing the night before. I got goosebumps and I quickly picked her up and began walking back to the house.

As I got closer I noticed something on the ground by my front steps. It was one of the Halloween decorations my fiancé had hung up on our house. Plastic black roses with plastic eyeballs and spiders on them. The stems were wire so they can be wrapped around things to keep them secured. This flower was torn apart. Something had come onto my porch, taken down the flower, and torn it apart, leaving it lying in front of my steps.

I picked up the flower and threw it away. I didn't tell my fiancé; I didn't want her freaking out. The rest of that day went by uneventfully. That night I told my coworker about what happened, and he looked a little concerned but brushed it off. Said what I heard was most likely just a dog and the flower was probably knocked down by the wind. I had my doubts.

As I was walking to my door after getting home from work last night, I heard that same panting as the night before, and the clicking of claws against asphalt. I turn quickly to see a dog that looked like a brown mangy bull terrier hauling ass down my street. The street is probably about 40 feet away from my front porch so I couldn't get a great look at it, but I could tell it was only running on three legs because one looked mangled. It turned quickly and darted into the tree line across the street through a part of the fence that had been pulled back. The fence wasn't like that earlier that day. That's when I noticed that the dog didn't have a tail.

I almost threw up. Skinwalker legends say that when they take the form of an animal, they never have tails. I tried to rationalize it to myself. Maybe it just had a stub tail that I missed because it was running. I immediately went inside. My fiancé was sitting on the couch petting Honey. She could see I was upset and asked me what was wrong. I told her nothing, just almost got clipped by a car before I pulled into the driveway. She got up, hugged me, and cursed the person that almost hit me.

She asked me if I could take Honey out for "peepee poopoo" because she had been creeped out by all the spooky videos we've been watching and didn't feel comfortable going outside at night by herself. Honey perked up. She ran to the door and looked between me and the door, whining excitedly. I stared down at her for a moment before agreeing to it. I'll just keep her close to the porch, I thought.

We walked off the porch and she immediately tried to walk to the street. I tugged on the leash and she tugged back. She eventually moseyed to the edge of the porch and peed. After, she began walking around sniffing. I told her the usual line.

"Come on Honey. Gotta poopoo."

She huffed at me, sniffed around some more, and eventually started pooping. I was on edge the entire time we were outside but being around her helped calm me down a little. Then I heard it from across the street:

*"Come on Honey."*

My voice, in the exact same tone and inflection as I had just said it. It sounded staticky, like an old radio broadcast. But it was definitely my voice. Honey stopped what she was doing and stood alert. She looked over to me and cocked her head.

*"Come on Honey. Gotta poopoo."*

Again my voice called from across the street. Honey began whining, looking from me to the woods across the street. I picked her up and began backing up to the steps, not taking my eyes off the part of the fence that had been pulled back.

*"HONEY. COME."*

The voice sounded firm now, like it was getting aggravated. Honey squirmed in my arms, whining. I didn't know if she was trying to get out to go to the voice or to run inside, but I wasn't taking any chances. I turned and bolted up the steps and to the door. As I walked inside, I turned one last time to look across the street.

There, standing in the part of the fence that was pulled back, was the dog. Its eyes were glowing a dull orange and it had its teeth bared. The face was all wrong, like someone had taken a distortion tool and just dragged around random features.

Once again, I didn't tell my fiancé. Stupid horror movie cliché shit, I know. But I really don't want her losing her shit. I just told her there's a strange dog running around the neighborhood, so to not take Honey out at night.

Later last night after we had gone to bed, I woke up to the sound of footsteps pacing back and forth outside my window. Against my better judgement I rolled over to try and see it. I don't, but the pacing stops.

*"Come on. Honey."*

My voice called out, cutting through the quiet of the night. I prayed my fiancé didn't hear. It called out two more times before I heard it walking away. I didn't sleep a wink the rest of the night.

Today when I get to work, I'm going to ask my coworker what I can do to get rid of this thing. I'm scared. I don't think there's a way. If anyone knows anything, please let me know.