Hey. I've told this story a hundred times, and it still gives me chills. Here's what happened. I live in Enfield. It's a little town in southern Illinois, about 750 people back in 1973. Quiet place. Nothing ever happened here, you know? Until that night in April. It was April 25th, 1973. Wednesday night. I remember because I'd just gotten back from a church meeting, must have been around 10 o'clock or so. I pulled up to my house, got out of the car, and I was heading toward the front door when I heard this scratching sound. Scritch, scritch, scritch. Like something with claws was trying to get in. My first thought was it's a bear. We don't get bears much around here, but it happens sometimes. Big old thing trying to get at the trash or something. So I opened the door real careful, just a crack, and I looked out.
And what I saw, I'll never forget it as long as I live. It was standing right there between my two rosebushes, maybe 12 feet from where I was standing. The wind was blowing hard that night, and in the porch light I could see this thing clear as day. It stood about four and a half feet tall, grayish colored, with a short body. Two little short arms coming out of its chest area. But here's the thing that really got me. It had three legs. Three legs. Not like it was standing on three legs, I mean it had three actual legs. And the eyes. Oh God, the eyes. Two pink eyes as big as flashlights, just staring right at me. It wasn't moving, just standing there looking at me, and I could tell it was trying to get into the house. I slammed that door so fast.[ Ran to my bedroom, grabbed my pistol and a flashlight. My hands were shaking but I wasn't about to let some creature get in my house. When I came back and opened the door again, it was still there. Still just standing there in my yard.
I aimed that pistol and I fired. Four shots.[ Boom, boom, boom, boom. I know I hit it with the first shot, I'm certain of that. I was only 12 feet away, there's no way I missed. And when that first bullet hit it, the thing made this sound. This hissing sound, just like a wildcat. High pitched and angry. Then it moved. And I mean it moved. That creature covered 50 feet in three jumps. Three jumps. Bounded right over to the railroad embankment behind my house, into the brush along the tracks. It moved so fast I could barely follow it with my eyes. Then it was gone. I stood there for a minute, just breathing hard, trying to make sense of what I'd just seen. Then I went inside and called the police. The Illinois State Police showed up, an officer named Jackson. He searched around my property with me, and we found tracks. They were dog like tracks, except they had six toe pads. Six toes. toed tracks dont match any known animal - Rachel' And there were three sets of prints. Two of them were about four inches across, and the third one was slightly smaller. Officer Jackson said I seemed rational and sober, which I appreciated because I know how this sounds. We also found scratches on my door screen, fresh ones. Something had definitely been there.
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