Scary Tales from The Rural - Happy Halloween

True Tales from the Rural by Stephanie Dayle - Noises at Night

This happened the first year we owned our house out rural Eastern Washington. Hubby was on a swing shift and was coming home around midnight or one in the morning - he usually never wakes me up and that's not surprising considering it has been proven that I can sleep through gun shots.

I was sound asleep and was awakened by what sounded like him making a run around the house locking all the doors and windows, then I heard a bullet being chambered in his pistol and then I heard another slide into the chamber of his rifle (yes, they make very different noises you can tell them apart when you've been raised around guns) he opened the bedroom door and ask, "Are you alright?" I said "Yeah, what's going on?" shoving my head under the covers hiding from the light. "Can't you hear that?" he asked. "Hear what?" I answered, now annoyed thinking he was going after the coyotes again. "I don't know it's coming from everywhere" In his voice I detected something...something I very very rarely hear...it was stress, nervousness maybe even fear.

Now my hubby is a man's man - you don't get much more macho than that one right there, doesn't cry, gun in his truck, doesn't drink wine, doesn't carry a purse (ever) for the wife, and is never scared. So it kind of woke me up a bit. He was quiet for a moment and that's when I heard it - plain as day even though the house was locked up like Fort Knox. It was a screaming howling noise...it was one of those things that instantly scares you so bad that your eyes water - ever had that happen? 

Maybe its just me - anyways my skin crawled...and I jumped out of bed. "Bring Taz in the house!" I shouted running for my shoes. The noise sounded again this time longer - and it was coming from everywhere, it didn't sound like a mountain lion because I know what those sound like - this was deeper, louder and had almost a mournful quality to it and it sounded like it was coming from our dang back yard. "She's hiding in her doghouse...stay inside!" He said in a firm hushed voice. He killed all the lights in the house and the motion lights outside since those were all lit up, grabbed our spot light, his rifle and slowly opened the sliding door out to our back deck.

We heard it again this time being so loud with the door open that I actually cowered and covered my ears. I was so damn scared I thought my heart would beat right out of my chest. When he stepped out on to the deck he kicked on the spot light - 2 million candle power double halogen bulbs lit-up our back yard, the field beyond, and woods beyond it like daylight. Expecting to see a beast from hell I plugged my ears ready for shots to ring out....

But we saw nothing. Not even a pair little eyes from the woods starring back at us reflecting the light, just nothing. He panned the light sweeping the bright beam from left to right, nothing. It was perfectly quiet outside as if whatever had made that noise had silenced every living creature within ear shot of our house. He stepped back inside reached to the table behind him and switched his rifle for a shotgun - I covered my ears again as he let four consecutive shots off spraying the tree line on our property with bird shot, it was quiet again. With my ears ringing before he could stop me I zipped out the back door and true to his word Taz our aging rotty dog was hiding shaking like a leaf in her house. I called her and she jumped up and ran for the door - just barely beating me back inside.

"What the hell was that!!" I whisper shouted (if you don't know what a whisper shout is then you're not a girl). "I don't know," he said locking the door behind me. "Could be a Mountain Lion..." he suggested. "That was no mountain lion..." I retorted. "I don't know..." he kept saying. "Should we call the sheriff?" I asked. "And tell them what?" he asked "We heard a loud noise and are scared? I'm sure they will be right out here." I knew he was right. The sheriff's department didn't come out our way unless someone was dying.

The dog had taken shelter on her bedroom pillow and was still shaking. I was still shaking, it took an hour to stop shaking. We heard the sound only once more and is sounded far in the distance, we could barely make it out. Hubby and I went to bed after a while when the horizon finally started to turn grey, locked up tight in our house in the bedroom with the dog at the foot of the bed - I noticed she never went back to sleep either just laid there quietly like us - until sunrise.

Neither of us have spoken of the event until now...we just don't bring it up. My theory is that it was Bigfoot (I have since heard Bigfoot recordings on the web and on TV that sound exactly like what we heard that night) but Hubby doesn't believe in such things so I guess it's like maybe it won't happen again if we don't talk about it? Go figure. Haven't heard it since in 10 years...

Happy Halloween - sleep tight everyone.