Skinwalker Stories from Reddit

Story 26 : I think I encountered a skinwalker

Written by : (A deleted Reddit user)

Year written : 2016

I have no evidence, but I promise you all this story is real. Sorry for the wall of text.

I’ve always been a bit of a sceptic, ever since I was a kid. Scary stories don’t faze me, horror games never frighten me, and whenever I hear something weird at night, I instantly assume it’s something normal: an animal or just the house settling. Despite this, something very unsettling happened to me the other day and I’m really not sure what to make of it. I think it’s the first time in years I’ve been genuinely frightened.

I live in a forested area, in the US. Me and my girlfriend live in a large cabin, and although there are roads nearby, our nearest neighbours are at least a kilometre away. We also have two cats, one of which sleeps in the bedroom with us, whilst the other often goes out at night and does whatever cats do when they’re out of sight. Anyway, I like to stay up late at night and sleep late into the morning, whereas my girlfriend’s an early bird. It was about one in the morning, and I was watching crappy TV in the living room whilst my girlfriend slept in the bedroom. I was beginning to grow tired when I heard something outside, near the catflap. For clarity, our catflap uses an electronic chip so only our cats can use it.

I assumed it was just one of the cats coming into or leaving the house, and I ignored it. Then I heard it again. It sounded like something thudding against the flat. It happened several times at random intervals, until I lost my patience and decided to just go and open the door. Clearly the cat was having trouble getting in. I never thought about it at the time, but this was weird because we feed our cats well, and they’re very lean rather than chubby.

I passed the bedroom, and peered in as I walked past, to see if my girlfriend heard the noises. She was fast asleep, but the cat that sleeps with us was staring at the window. I called her name. Nothing. She kept staring. I shrugged it off, and kept heading towards the kitchen. The back doors are through there, by the way. Anyway, so I reached the backdoor and saw a dark shape through the translucent flap. I sighed, expecting the cat to be out there, and opened the door. It took me a moment to open the door, and I saw the cat tense up as I opened the door.

The door opened fully. I froze. It wasn’t my cat. Whatever it was had started moving before I opened up, and I only caught a glimpse of a distorted figure, kind of like a tailless dog, bolting (and I mean absolutely pelting it). I freaked out and slammed the door shut. What the hell was it? I wasn’t sure. My natural scepticism kicked in, and I assumed it was just my other cat, and I had merely startled it. Perhaps the darkness had made it appear larger. Nevertheless, I was creeped out, and decided to go to sleep. As I slipped into bed, I realised something horrifying: the second cat was asleep on the rug. It took a while to get to sleep that night.

Everything seemed normal until a few hours later. I awoke to a strange feeling of dread. Something wasn’t right. My girlfriend was fast asleep. I held my breath, and heard something creaking by the door. It sounded too loud to be one of the cats. It was as if… a person was walking about. I reached towards my bedside cabinet and flicked on the lamp. The room was illuminated, and I saw something standing just outside the open door. Staring at me. The same twisted figure I had spotted outside earlier. It wasn’t very tall, maybe a little over five feet, but it was its face that scared me the most. I only caught a glimpse of it, but what I saw will stay with me forever. It looked like a dog, but with an elongated face, and almost human-like eyes. You know that weird distorted snarl hounds pull when they’re pissed off? It had that expression. I instantly started yelling profanities as I scrabbled backwards, trying to straighten up. The creature turned and sprinted down the hall. I heard it dash outside and go past the window behind us, just above the headboard. I managed to look out as my girlfriend started to panic as she woke up fully. We both caught a glimpse of… whatever the hell this thing was as it dashed off into the woods near our home… Grabbing my trusty shotgun from beneath the bed, as well as a couple rounds from the ammunition box that sits next to it, I ran out of the room in my underwear and rounded into the kitchen. The door was open. I’d forgotten to lock it when I saw the thing originally.

I haven’t seen it since, and we still live in our cabin, but I’ve bought sturdy locks for all of the main doors and windows in the house, and always check the exit points at night. I also go to bed a bit earlier than I used to, so I’m asleep when the freaks of the night start to wake up. I’ve read a bunch of forums, and the only thing I can compare it to, based on what I saw, is a “Skinwalker”. If you know anything about these things, please let me know.