Stranger Than Fiction

Journal Entry on 3/23/26

Within the past few weeks, I’ve had two experiences that I feel are worthy of journaling. The first one happened on the evening of March 1st, around 8:00pm to 9:00pm.
Ava, Corey, and I had been in the living room watching a movie — Minions: The Rise of Gru, in case you were wondering where my headspace was on that particular evening… the following events were the furthest thing from my mind.
While we were watching the movie, at one point, Ava spoke up and said, “Hey Mom, I see a light outside,” referring to the backyard. I didn’t think much of it and we continued to watch the movie. At another point during the movie, a strange noise came from underneath my seat on the couch. It sounded like something was bumping into the metal parts that extend the footrest. At the same time that my husband and I heard the noise (and that I physically felt it) my dog jumped up from her seat beside me and ran into the bedroom. We sort of shared a “what the heck?” glance with each other, but we ultimately turned our attention back to the television.
Then, before the movie had ended, Ava decided it was time for bed. She and Corey went into the master bathroom to brush their teeth while I stepped to the kitchen to peer out of the window (the same one that she claimed to have seen a light through earlier).
When I looked down into the yard, my gaze was met by two immediate things. My neighbors to the south had a fire burning in their backyard, and I could make out its orange glow through the row of cypress trees that line the property line… and just below that, standing inside of our dog’s fence, was a pair of red glowing eyes.
I was sort of in shock, I think, because I couldn’t look away, yet I can hardly recall much more detail about the “face” or even the eyes than I am about to express. It almost felt as though whatever it was, it had the ability to keep me from truly seeing it. While it’s hard to explain, I’ll try my best!
The eyes were so bright and vivid that I could compare them to brake lights. At first, the thing seemed to be peeking around the fence post. I could see a light-colored, presumably hairless body moving on either side of the pole! Then, it’s as though it suddenly made itself visible THROUGH the pole, because the post seemed to disappear. And then just as silently and as quickly, it seemed to dissolve back into the pole, behind the pole, then was gone.
At that moment, I became aware of my dog, River! He came running from the corner of his pen (from behind where this thing was) and started barking like crazy while looking out the front of his gate toward our driveway.
I remember saying, “What the fuck was that!”
I didn’t want to freak out Ava, so I quietly pulled Corey to the side once they came out of the bathroom. That makes me wonder now how long this thing and I actually stared at each other. It would have taken them a few minutes, at least, to brush their teeth and return to the living room, yet it only felt like seconds. I tried to explain what I had seen to Corey. Saying it out loud almost felt ridiculous. Before I could make sense of it all, for some reason, I wanted to go outside and sit on the back steps — alone.
The yard was brightly lit by moonlight and I felt eerily calm. Somehow I knew that if whatever it was had wanted to scare me or harm me, it could have. I felt more awe and excitement than anything! My mind reeled, but I ultimately went back inside within what I guess to be a few minutes.
Within just a few moments of being back inside, our dogs went crazy barking. I looked out of the same window, and this time, there were no red eyes shining in River’s pen… but one of my other dogs, in a pen that I have the best view of from that vantage point, seemed to be standing S T R A I G H T up on his hind legs, snout toward the sky, in a position that felt so unnatural to look at that for the first time that night, I felt uneasy.
I’m pretty used to my dogs’ antics and behavior. After all, we own eight dogs now, and I’ve had a dog for most of my life. I’m familiar with the way they trot with their nose up, sniffing when an animal or stray is nearby… but this wasn’t that. Something about this looked W  E  I  R  D.
Odin had looked too tall for a moment, too straight upward. Not leaning against the fence but standing straight up on hind legs. Then suddenly, he was down on all four legs and barking like crazy again, running his fenceline and barking a very “alerting” bark.
I turned back to the living room and tried to downplay the emotions I felt so as not to frighten Ava, who was now in the living room waiting for me to help her finish getting ready for bed. I went to our front door to lock up for the night — just in time to see and hear a very large dog running down the road! I could hear its feet “clop, clop, clop”ing, heading north and toward the main road.
Once the excitement wore off, I got Ava into bed and I admit, had a very unrestful night’s sleep.

The next event occurred on Friday, March 20th.
I had one of the most realistic and frightening dreams of my life.
I dreamed that I was standing in my master bathroom doorway with the lights out. I’m not exactly sure of why or how, but somehow in my dream, I began to float or levitate, as if being pulled out of the bathroom by some unseen force. I reached desperately for the short bench that we use in the bathroom to sit on while doing our hair or brushing Ava’s teeth and doubles as what holds the bathroom door in the open position. In my dream, the bench was in front of the sink, as though Ava had left it there after getting ready for bed that night. Yet I was being pulled backward out of the bathroom… so what was holding the door open? What was doing this?
I tried to scream. I remember choking as I tried to call Corey’s name. I knew I was dreaming yet couldn’t scream! The next thing I knew, I was sitting on the couch in the living room having a panic attack and trying to breathe. Within a few moments, I realized I was still dreaming. Then suddenly, I was in my bed (in the position that I would wake up in, mind you!) and something was shaking my foot rather violently, toying with me. I couldn’t open my eyes or wake up, yet I could feel.
Then suddenly, from the right side of my bed and what felt like over my right shoulder came one loud roar of a word. “OUT!!!”
And boom, I was awake. Ava was beside me snoozing away. I could see around the room and see that things were undisturbed. It was still dark outside; there was a crack in the curtains that allowed me to see out of the window and know it was still night time. I was completely drenched in sweat. I checked my phone. It was 11:15 pm.
And for some reason, I could smell burnt hair. It took me a while to get myself calmed down after waking. The smell was so horrible that I actually thought about going into the bathroom and checking to see if I had unplugged the curling iron, etc, but I couldn’t bring myself to go into the bathroom. When I had gone to bed, I remember being on my right side. But when I woke up, I was on my back and my hair was twisted into a sort of bun on top of my head, so I had obviously moved at least a little in my sleep… I couldn’t seem to calm down and bring myself back to the here and now until I heard River bark outside.
I went to the kitchen window and peeked out. A nearby neighbor was out in their fields with a flashlight bobbing around. Since they have goats, I wondered if something had disturbed them or if they were having trouble with them. Somehow, seeing them out there sent a wave of calm over me, maybe just knowing others were awake and well and aware at that time. I was able to go back to bed without waking Corey.
The next morning, I started to tell him about what happened overnight (we sleep in different rooms, and he had slept on the couch that night), and before I could even tell him about what had happened in my nightmare, he said, “I dreamed too!!”
I let him tell me about his first, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He said that he dreamed he woke up in the night, and someone or something was standing above him. The silhouette was dark and stood nearly as tall as the ceiling fan, and he exclaimed, “Who the fuck are you?!” and that’s all he remembers. He says he can’t remember any other details.
So what are the odds? We both dreamed of something being inside the house on the same night. And what had presumably disturbed the neighbors’ goats?





Journal entry on 3/30/26

I had an odd dream again last night. Or, at least I think it was a dream. It had to be. Right?
Before bed, I read a story about nocturnal animals to Ava, and at the end of her story time, she fell right to sleep. However, I wasn’t sleepy just yet, so I stayed up for a while reading. I think I put down my book around 10:00 pm, and it seems like I found sleep pretty easily.
Sometime during the night, a noise woke me. It sounded like the floor squeaking or making a creaking sound, only different than it normally sounds when we walk through the bedroom. It wasn’t a steady rhythm of footfall, but rather, like a continuous pressure was being placed on the floor in one spot. I opened my eyes and vaguely remember scanning the room and seeing nothing out of the ordinary. I went back to sleep.
But at some point, something woke me again. I’m not sure what disturbed me, but abruptly, I was awake. Right beside our bathroom door, we have a very large gun cabinet. It is made of heavy wood and is almost as tall as the ceiling. Between it and the bathroom door, there was a shadow.
I don’t think I could really process what I was seeing. Not until the next morning.
There should have been no shadow in that spot in the room.
My daughter has been sleeping with me and uses a nightlight. The nightlight illuminates that spot, reflecting on the shiny surface of the gun cabinet.
There should have been no shadow there.
There were no eyes or face. Only an enormous shadow that seemed to reach above the top of the cabinet in a sort of point and extend to the floor, widening greatly near the bottom.
It seems I couldn’t wake myself up fully, yet I couldn’t find peaceful sleep that night either. As embarrassing as it sounds, I couldn’t turn my back to that side of the room for the rest of the night.
I’ve seen a lot of shit.
Heard a lot of shit.
And for the first time, things have me genuinely spooked.