The Admirer (Part One)

(Part One)

I found this subreddit through youtube and figured it'd be a good place to get an experience off my chest. I didn't think I'd ever talk about this openly, but something happened recently that brought the whole thing back to my attention. This is a bit of a long post, as I have to give context, and I apologize in advance for any mistakes or rambling. I have split it into two parts, and there is a TL;DR at the bottom.

So hello and welcome, strap in!

I would like to preface my story by saying that yes, I am a believer and I am open to debunking things, but I have been unable to do so for any personal experiences. Hence, believer.

Let me set the scene:

The land that my grandma owns is incredibly haunted. Not just her house, but all of the houses on this section of the road that she owns. My grandparents had bought the land, and the subsequent farmhouse that rested upon it, and that's where my ma and uncle grew up. The farmhouse was built in 1826, and was already 150yrs old when they moved into it in 1976. My parents had built our house across the field/forest, essentially on the other side of the "block" (though, this is in the country) across from the old house. There's a long field with faded trails between the backyards, far enough that you can't see the houses from one end or the other, with forest and swampy areas on either side behind the rows of lots.

We had to sell the house when I was younger, so we live elsewhere now. My grandma and ma now live in a newer built house right next door to the farmhouse, whereas my papa and I live in a nearby town, and my uncle and his family have lived in the farmhouse since my grandma moved out.

We don't know too much about the history of the land except that Native Americans used to live on it, however long ago that was. In one of the forested areas behind my grandma's newer house, dubbed the “Shadow Woods,” there's remnants of old teepees and arrowheads and stuff. My grandpa kept a junk pile for old tires and things back where they were found, but never moved anything, and a lot of it is hidden by the brush, trash, or rotted away by now. It's the only spot on the whole property that we've found these things.

The reason I mention this is because I feel it might have a part to play in my experience, especially so since the Shadow Woods are right behind my grandma's newer house and her back patio glass door faces it directly.

There's SO MANY stories I have to tell about this place, but I'll save them for next time.

My own personal experience deals with an entity that... I don't even know. It's odd to explain it after so long. I've told bits and pieces of what's happened to some friends and family before, but not all of it. No, not all.

My family likes to take day trips to the beach in the summer only a couple of hours away over the border, and have been doing so since my mother was young, and since I and my cousins were young. The area around this beach is actually where my parents met, so this place is very important to my family. Half of the beach and large portions of the surrounding land are also owned by the Native Americans.

On one beach trip around when I was in middle school, about 11yrs old, we had a fun time as always. I was with my ma, aunt, younger cousin, and a close friend, and we were there from 10am until about 10pm. When I was little I used to be confused as to why we were never allowed on the other half of the beach, even though it was empty on a hot, busy day, but my ma thoroughly explained to me about all of the property dealings and disputes over it. I never tried to go over to the other side, until this instance.

It was the first, and last time, I have ever stepped foot on the other side of that beach.

I did so while explaining to my friend, let's call her Chai, the reasons why we couldn't go to the other side since she inevitably had the same questions as I once did. Being kids, however, we got to teasing the invisible line that we weren't supposed to cross to see how far we could get. My cousin, let's call her Honey, didn't really participate, and just stayed around the wooden posts near where cars bring their boats down to the water. Chai didn't get more than five feet in before turning around, and I didn't get more than ten before I saw it.

It was a figure, dark and tall, standing in the treeline behind the beach. The sight made me stop in my tracks for a full minute, and all I could see was the half of the figure that wasn't hidden by a tree. I was unable to make out any details, just a silhouette. I couldn't move, and it's kind of hard to explain, but I was entranced. Like, I didn't hear anything, even though the others were talking to me, and I felt stuck, the world almost going fuzzy except for that figure.

Then I just snapped out of it, and I was suddenly back on the correct side of the posts. Honey and Chai noticed I had spaced out, because I didn't laugh at any of the jokes they were making (which is unlike me, I love jokes), but when I looked at them I guess I must have seemed too weird. Chai hurried me and my cousin across the sand, and I didn't really recover for at least a good hour after that.

I mentioned the figure, though neither of them had seen it and my mom said it was probably just a NA wandering and making sure that no one was going over there. Though, I remember that she was a bit spooked when I first spoke of it, and kept a watchful eye across the beach the rest of the day. We both knew that no one ever wandered over there, NA or locals, and there were no settlements near the beachfront on that side that someone could live in for many miles.

The rest of the day went fine and fun, all of us forgetting about the odd encounter, and we were on our way back home well after the sun had went down. I sat by one of the windows in the back, on the driver's side, with Chai in the middle, and Honey next to the other window. That's when I saw it.

Outside of the window, moving alongside the car in the grass, was a shadow.

Now, I know what you're thinking, “It's just the car's shadow!” There was no sun, street lights, or other traffic that would have cast a shadow like that, and it was darker than black. Almost like a void. It was just us driving along a deserted stretch of road for over an hour before we hit thicker towns the closer we got to the border.

“It's just your eyes playing tricks on you in the dark!” Maybe, but this shadowy thing wasn't there before for the first part of the drive, and nothing in the landscape changed.

It wasn't as big as the car, but it was big, maybe door sized. It was bounding next to the car in a gait that was mixed between a man's, something like a dog, and just floating around the grass and stalks of corn. Sometimes it would dash under the car, sometimes on top, sometimes it would climb over and under the few passing cars or disappear completely for a few moments before reappearing.

There was something like the ghosting of eyes (hardy-har), but they were a dark red. Sometimes glowing brightly and staring at me as it bounded along with us, sometimes dim and hollow, nearly gone.

I got that trance-like feeling again, and I couldn't take my eyes off of it for the whole ride.

It lasted nearly the entire drive home.

Even when we crossed the bridge and got into towns. Sometimes it would disappear for a few minutes, but then it would just crawl back out from under our car or a passing one and continue moving beside us, glancing my way. At one point, I remember asking Chai if she had seen the thing following us (very quietly so I wouldn't wake my cousin or alert the adults), and she said, “What? That shadow thing?” I'd never felt more relieved and scared in the same moment, to know that I wasn't alone.

That peculiar feeling never faded, either. Not even when we drove through much larger cities and the shadow vanished for a time. It was always there, lurking, like a chill up my spine.

Once we reached a bigger city, my aunt needed to visit her sister so we stopped at her place. My mom didn't really want to stop for long, because this city is notoriously shady, so she told us they'd only be a few minutes as her and my aunt went inside the house and left us girls in the car.

By that time I hadn't seen the shadow for a good ten minutes, and the feeling of dread/apathy had faded so I thought the thing had finally left me alone. I was very, very wrong.

I had just began telling Chai more about the shadow, how it seemed like it had followed us all the way from the beach, and was filling in my newly awoken cousin when it happened. Through the window on Honey's side I saw a figure standing down the street at the corner, all black underneath a streetlamp, and completely still. It was shaped like a man and really tall, like half the height of the lamp post at the least.

I remember thinking, “How is that man so dark underneath the light?” right before it hit me.

I was transfixed. Couldn't move, couldn't speak, I was so scared. Chai and Honey soon turned to look out the window, as well, once they saw my stricken state and they both froze. It was silent for a few tense seconds before I asked, “You guys can see it, too, right?” Chai agreed.

Honey turned to us like, “This isn't funny guys, you're just trying to scare me.”

Now how would we have been able to do that? Conjure a shadow man out of nothing just to pull a prank? I don't think so. The figure soon started to move towards us – not taking steps, just lurching. Like it would dip forward a few steps, then straighten up and stand there, staring. It would do this from one side of the street to the next and back again, from car to car, sidewalk to sidewalk. Just slowly inching it's way down the street.

Lurch, stop, lurch, stop, lurch. Getting ever closer.

It was slow. Honey started freaking out and unbuckling her seat belt, climbing into the floor space where my legs were supposed to be. Chai completely leaned into me, holding my arm. The others started to scream to try and get the adults' attention in the house, even though there was absolutely no way they would hear us. I was quiet, petrified, and unable to do anything but watch.

Honey had just wiggled around the front seat to slam on the car horn when the figure reached the corner of the neighbor's fence. The fence was casting a shadow on the sidewalk where it had stopped, and the shadow was completely hidden, except for its red eyes. Then those were gone and the feeling left.

The other two were still yelling when my ma and aunt finally came out, surely giving them a fright when we started going on about how there was a man stalking us on the street. Both had looked over at the fence, but saw nothing. The city is infamously dangerous, especially at night, so real man or not my ma was very eager for us to leave at that point. Chai and I shared a knowing look, because that definitely wasn't a man. It wasn't even human.

We'd arrived back at my grandma's house, after dropping off my cousin and aunt next door, and were going to spend the night and take Chai home the next day. I didn't want to get out of the car at that point since the anxiously familiar feeling had plagued me the rest of the ride back, and both my friend and I had spotted red eyes peering into the car from the side of the road along the way.

Settling in for the night, I looked outside through my grandma's back patio door. I don't know why I looked, it was pitch black outside except for her yard light, which just illuminates the lower deck and bird feeders, nothing beyond. And, as my luck that day would have it, there the shadow was.

The thing stood right in the middle of the lower deck, in full light, yet with no discernible features. It wasn't quite humanoid-shaped anymore, just a sort of thick, black cloud with red eyes. I was entranced yet again, though this time I wasn't afraid. This time I paid closer attention to it, curious as to what it wanted.

I don't really know how to explain this without sounded like a weirdo, but I'm already this deep into the story so I might as well.

I was absolutely positive that the shadow didn't want to hurt me. I don't know why I felt this, or if it was even me that was making me feel this way, but it's the truth. For some reason, I was sure that it didn't want to harm me, didn't want to scare me, it just wanted to be noticed.

After a few minutes, which felt like hours, the shadow turned around and began moving out across the yard. It kept glancing back like it was looking over its shoulder at me, almost as if it was making sure I was still there. Once I saw it reach the grass line at the edge of the yard underneath the moonlight, the shadow still blacker than the black night, it turned and looked at me fully. I placed my hand on the glass. It turned around and knelt down into the grass, and bounded away out of sight.

The trance was gone, and I only felt wistfulness as it left. Almost like I missed the damn thing.

I wouldn't have to wait long before seeing it again.

I split this up into two parts, simply because this is already so long and it was only the first encounter with this shadow thing! Though, it was probably the most important. I'd like to hear any thoughts you guys may have, what you think this thing is, etc, because I have some ideas but am still unsure to this day.

Next part coming soon!

TL;DR: When I was 11yrs old, a shadow creature followed me home from the beach and took up residence behind my grandma's house, and it hasn't moved since.