Okay, I have a story about a Skinwalker, a Sin-Eater, and a
story about both together at the same time. I’ll start with the Skinwalker and maybe
do the other two later on.
It was 1995, I had just graduated High School, an old friend
who I haven’t talked to in 7 years now and I were hanging out and I said, “Let’s
go to New Orleans.” And we did. We had $140 between us and back then that was
more than enough. We made it New Orleans, almost died from culture shock, and
turned around and headed to Magnolia, MS to get some sleep. We stayed at
Magnolia Inn, it was a shit hole, but it was nice and cool. It was May or June,
in south MS; cool was the only adjective that mattered. We stayed up that night
playing poker, drinking Gordon’s vodka, and talking about who knows what.
Probably girls, college, and college girls. At some point I said, “Ever been to
Texas?” “Nope.” “Pack your bag and let’s roll.” We had a road atlas; Marshall,
TX was right across the border from Shreveport.
We arrived in Shreveport, made a phone call to another
friend, who we were actually supposed to be staying with. Both of our mothers
had called looking for us. The only person that knew where we were was the
buddy on the phone. It was no big deal; we would be home in a day or two.
I’m being short on details because if I don’t this will turn
into a novel length story about chasing armadillos and being chased by the
boogeyman.
Before we left that rest area in Shreveport where we made
the call we saw an armadillo. Let me tell you something about armadillos, those
bastards will hiss, jump, and turn into Tasmanian Devils if you corner them.
They also carry leprosy. We were 18; we chased that armadillo around for an
hour. Now let me tell you about Shreveport. I don’t know how it is now but in
the summer of 1995 it looked and smelled like a place where oil and metal went
to die. It was dirty. It was a shit hole. We crossed a bridge and saw people
fishing a 100 yards from where a drainage pipe from a factory was spewing forth
waste upriver from the fisherman. The locals reminded me of the locals in
Adamsville, bald headed women and cross eyed men. A lot of bald headed, cross
eyed kids. I’m sorry but it was a Rob Zombie movie come to life. I felt like I
was going to be raped because I had a full head of hair and could see straight.
The best part of Shreveport was an
armadillo that might possibly have leprosy. Marshall, TX was 40 miles away. We
rolled on.
Marshall was a decent little town. Home of the Fire Ant
Festival. We stopped at a little bar-b-q joint and had a coke, a smile, and
some pulled pork. It was getting late, and the sun was setting, we looked at
the map and decided to back track a bit and head up rural route 43, through
Karnack, and past Caddo Lake. We would eventually run into Hwy 59, head to Texarkana
and then head back home. When we left the bar-b-q joint and headed towards 43
it was dusk. Hwy 43 wasn’t well lit, it was almost as dark as Natchez Trace
Parkway (I’ve got a good story about using a pair of pantyhose as a fan belt
for an old diesel Mercedes. Do not EVER get stuck on the Trace after dark.
Ever.) My friend was driving and we were doing about 45 mph, any faster would
have been reckless even for a couple 18 year old dumbasses.
This road was kind of like Christmasville Rd. (The locals
reading this will know what I mean. The non-locals just have to use your
imagination) It was dark, winding, full of hills that ended in curves; there were
beady and glowing eyes on both sides of the road. You could hear the crickets
and the bullfrogs over the sound of the wind rushing by that old Sentra. It was
peaceful and creepy at the same time. The humidity was a real thing, tangible.
The air was thick. It smelled like pastures, hay, and swamp. We drove for what
seemed like hours, it was after midnight, and I saw a sign that informed me
that Bivins was the next town of any size. I was hypnotized by the yellow lines
on the road; we hadn’t seen another car in at least an hour, sleepy. I rolled
the window down and lit a cigarette. There was music coming from the radio, the
tape player, it was either Tupac or Bob Seger. I smoked my cigarette, absent
mindedly flicking ashes out of the window. I took one last puff and flicked the still burning Camel Short off into the woods. Then I saw it.
I never looked to my right; I didn’t even kinda peek to the
right. Maybe I did a little when I flicked the cigarette away. I don’t know.
What I do know is that in my periphery there was something running alongside
the car. It was just behind my window, behind where the edge of the door ends
and before where the back window begins. I looked over at the speedometer, 40 mph.
I looked at my friend, he was looking straight ahead, I looked straight ahead.
I could still see it. I could see one huge arm, matted hair, reddish brown,
sticky looking, primal. I eased my right hand over and rolled up my window. My
friend was still looking straight ahead, his jaw was clenched, and he put both
hands on the wheel, he sped up.
No words were said. I looked straight ahead and still out of
my periphery I could see that arm moving, muscles and tendons visibly rippling
beneath that matted hair. As the car gained a little speed the thing running alongside
us lost pace, slightly, I then saw the hand on the end of that nightmarish arm.
The hand was clenched into fist the size of a cantaloupe, a big cantaloupe. It
was covered in the same hair but slightly darker around the fingers, like it
was stained with something. Suddenly the hand unclenched and then I saw the
claws, black as this damned after midnight Texas night. Those claws were at
least two inches long, sharp, like an animals. This wasn’t a hand so much as it
was the killing paw and claws of some beast whose only purpose was to kill and
eat.
I looked back at my friend; I looked at the speedometer, 50
mph. I looked straight ahead, it was still there. I lit another cigarette, didn’t
roll the window down, and simply said, “Shit.” The music had stopped. I finally
broke the silence and said, “Hey, do you...” and before I could finish my buddy
said, “I see it, I’ve been seeing it. I can’t even see you but I can see whatever
the hell that shit is.” “How much do you see?” “More than I want to.” “Speed
up, John, just speed up. It can’t keep up forever.” I looked over, 55 mph,
whatever was chasing us, silently, was starting to lag behind. I finally looked
to my right, just a bit, imagine the scary part of the movie where you put your
hands in front of your face but still peek through. In 37 years I have two
regrets, one is picking up that first cigarette and the other is me looking to
my right that night. This beast was huge, its chest was above the top of the
car, and all I could see was that matted reddish brown hair. Then it bent
forward as it ran, I saw the face of this thing, all reality stopped. We were
no longer driving down some country road in Texas. We were now trying to escape
from the depths of a monster inhabited hell.
This things face is beyond my powers to describe. It was
evil. The eyes were black and the pupils were red. It flashed its teeth at me
in a snarl, yellow and huge. Saliva dripped from its mouth. It opened its eyes
wide and it looked hungry and pissed off. Then it opened its mouth, the skin
pulled back until all you could see were black gums and yellow teeth. Immediately
I could feel the car accelerate. “Fucking hell, John, just go!” I prayed. I
cussed. I lit a cigarette. Then like sunshine breaking through the clouds the
road straightened out. “Don’t you slow down.”
We drove through Bivins, and we drove to Texarkana. Then we
drove home. We never said a word. It was years later, 11 to be exact, before we
ever even talked about it again and we didn’t talk about it much. He said he’d
never told anyone and I hadn’t either. I told the story a few years back for
the first time while I was parked out on a gravel road, doing the things you do
when you’re parked out on a gravel road with a good looking woman. I told it a
year or so ago to a couple of kids who wanted to hear a scary story while they
sat around a camp fire. They didn’t sleep for a day or two but they asked me a
dozen more times to tell them the story. I never told anyone until now that I
saw its face.
I’ve been scared for my life exactly two times. Once was on
that road and once was looking at a grizzly bear in front of me with a terminal
velocity inducing drop to the side of me. Call it what you will, call it
bullshit if you want, but look me in the eyes and let me tell you this story
and you’ll know. Never doubt that there are things in this world that defy
explanation and logic. The boogeyman is real. Some 16 or 17 years after this
happened I ran across a story and a movie called The Legend of Boggy Creek.
Fouke, Arkansas (Where the aforementioned story and movie takes place) isn’t
that far from Bivins, TX, as the crow flies. Invite me over, buy me a beer, sit
on the porch with me and I’ll tell you the story, over a pack of Marlboros and
a few of those beers.
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