Suzan, I personally understand, Suzan. Sometimes, you just can't trust a person, Suzan.

I mean, OP promised not to tell, Suzan. You didn't make any such promise, right Suzan?

He promised that he wouldn't tell a soul, Suzan. But, first thing in the morning, what does he do, Suzan? He emails you, Suzan! A person with a history of...oh, let's say, not being the best Secret Keeper, right Suzan?

This certainly isn't on you, Suzan. Besides, Suzan, what's the big deal? The works getting done, Suzan. What difference does it make if actual humans are doing it, Suzan, or if it's smelly voodoo rag dolls?

Sprinkle flour on the floor in the main hallway and nursery. See if it has any physical...well, footprint.

Also, get some sea salt. Most lore suggests salt can negatively affect ghosts and various other spirits. A layer of salt (sea-salt seems to work best) lining any entrances to, say, the baby's room - door and windows - creates a supernatural barrier!

Plus the old Handful-of-Salt-in-the-Eye, gets 'em every time!

Not to mention, not to mention; Why didn't the Exactor get out and do Its Thang when the last guard was there?

Hmm, so, if you were to watch it through a camera, would that be enough, or is The Exactor just ridiculously shy?

Yeah, "Testing" someone in a way that can cause PTSD or pure insanity is a Bad Thing!

Maybe, but you deserve a raise! And Miss Andrews should totally have stayed the first night. I hope you have a back-up guard (that maybe you trained properly) so you can have time off.

Uhm, well, that's a bit of a detailed story.

The short version; Skinwalkers are humans (generally Native Americans, where the tales originate) who can transform into animals, usually by wearing the preferred animals' pelt and/or magics/salves. They are closely connected to Werewolves. The Navajo in particular have strong beliefs and don't like anyone to use the actual name.

However, on various internet forums; Reddit, 4chan, creepypasta, etc. started passing along (and flat-out making up) stories, and the terminology got confused.

Wendigo, skinwalkers, and certain were-animals are all generally considered human...or perhaps, ex-humans.

Fleshgaits were never human.

I have a theory - I've posted it in conversations here on Reddit before, so I'll try to be brief; As humanity evolved over the past roughly 1 million years, another animal evolved to become our primary predator. I'm not saying Intelligent Design had anything to do with it, but that's an easy way to process the information. In fact I don't think Fleshgaits are particularly Intelligent. Not Sapient anyway. Clever, but not Intelligent in the way humans are.

They evolved to be able to hunt, trick, and kill us. Keep our numbers low - because honestly, humans are terrible for the environment and nature in general. Think along the lines as Nature creating a means of culling humanity.

And they did such a great job that we, as a whole, are still unaware of their existence. Just glimpses of things in the wilderness. Basically, all we had for the vast majority of the past few thousands of years are scary stories told around campfires - werewolves, vampires, zombies - basically any story of humanoid creatures that kill humans may trace its history to this race of super-predators.

However, sometime in the past, oh, say 150-200 years ago - roughly starting somewhere between the Industrial Revolution and WWII, the human population exploded! It's estimated that the world population was under 1 billion in the year 1800. In the year 2000 it was 7 billion. In 2020 we hit 8 billion. We've doubled from 4 billion in 1975.

I believe this extreme population growth stymied Fleshgaits. They are no longer able to hide. And with the internet spreading their stories, people are armed with knowledge. Thus Fleshgaits are dying off. The ones still out there aren't as well trained/skilled in their ability to mimic. Especially shapehifting. Most stories talk about how someone hears a noise - a baby crying or a woman in distress, and it's pretty convincing. Like OP's post here. But when someone talks about seeing one, there's often something 'OFF' about it.

So, the good news is we seem to be winning. The bad news they're still out there, and they may be pretty pissed!

Wendigo are people who have become cannibalistic creatures - usually evil "medicine men" or "witches" of various North American Native Cultures, however some stories suggest eating human flesh in certain locations can curse someone into becoming one. Wendigo are often pictured with antlers and even desiccated elk/deer/moose heads or skulls

Fleshgait are shapeshifters (to varying degrees). As shapeshifters, Fleshgait can, in theory, take on the appearance of a wendigo, if they had any desire or reason to.

In their 'normal' forms, both tend to be tall, emaciated, and pale, with extremely long arms - often depicted as reaching past their knees. For that matter, the internet phenomenons SlenderMan and The Rake also have some physical similarities with Wendigos and Fleshgaits.

Funny, I actually wrote almost this exact thing on my post, but decided to erase it so as to not confuse OP. Obviously you don't care about her poor feelings! 😇

I've read about Fleshgaits working together, but I seem to only recall pairs...maybe OP ran across a mated pair teaching younglings?

Congrats OP, you messed up some monstrous family bonding time! 👹

Unless you've experienced the paranormal, you can't really be prepared for it.

You ran across something waaay out of your normal world-set, but, through advanced preparation via having a gun (and actually using it properly) & a proper tricked-out truck, using quick thinking, cool-headedness, and proper physical conditioning, you were able to survive it.

That ain't Nuthin'! Be proud of yourself for what you survived.

Sounds like Fleshgaits. You were indeed lucky, but you also kept a cool head and were about as prepared as a person can be.

You mentioned him being awake was what was different. His "sister" was acting like she had never seen anyone awake. Like he was the first to break "the covenant".

If it was JUST him being awake, how did a 13 year old kid do something no one else had done in generations?

No one has ever been awake? What did OP do to stay awake?

Do you have any idea what you may have done that stopped you from being a proper vessel?

Cause Seattle is where you want to go to avoid rain. 😇

Yeah, a lot of things can float around in your mind, but to hear it said out loud (or read it) can make it more...Real.

Good luck and stand strong!

Where is Blues?

So, just get on those alt accounts and flesh out their backstories.

There's a scene in Prometheus where they map a cave system that turns out is part of a space ship (as I recall).

It made me think why couldn't we do something like that with modern technology - like drones, IR cameras, echo-location style sensors, etc?

I agree totally!

OP, it is NOT okay for him to grab you. No matter whatever stress he may be under (which is much less than your own). That is assault! He reflexively decided to control you by dent of being physically stronger. That is not okay! And it shows what kind of person he really is - or to allow some leniency regarding his youth, what kind of person he is becoming.

For someone who deals with the supernatural on a regular basis, you worry too much about what normal people think about appearances. If he (or anyone) tries to physically restrain you, if you're in public yelling at that person to not touch you is totally acceptable. Step two, or Step One if you're alone, is to either kick the family jewels or pepper spray the eyes.

It. Is. Okay. To. Protect. Yourself.

I think Counseling could help you. You won't be required to name names, just talk about how people try to take advantage of your good nature and bully you.

You said that you were the one who broke the rule by interrupting the IT lady. But there was no rule.

How anyone survives at Alder Rayne University or Goat Valley Campground is beyond me. I mean, it's great that yall make these rules and help people out, but one would think a whole lot of deaths would be happening if something as mild as talking to a person fixing a computer WHILE IN A COMPUTER LAB or not properly putting away clothes. Or refusing a drink from a stranger carrying a skull.

Sure, deaths or missing persons happen to people out in nature - even famous people like Julian Sands (Warlock) and Dave Legano (Fenrir Greyback from Harry Potter) have died or gone missing while hiking/camping. But when it happens in a college setting, lots of parents wondering where their kids are will make the police take notice.

Makes me wonder if the local police/government is in on what's going on.

Isn't pretty much everyone you know who deals with these sort of things, basically just thrown in the deep end? That's how Katie, you, and...uhh, Turtle (was that her name?) learned.

Daniel needs to deal with things himself. You can explain what he needs to do, coach him on what you can, and offer moral support, but it's HIS problem!

These are some of my Halloween PlayList on YouTube that are pretty creepy.

Come Little Children - Dark Fairy Tales

The Werewolf Song - Adam Knight

Feathery Wings - Voltaire

Almost Human - Voltaire

There's a song called The Michigan Dogman and the last words are,

"Soon enough I guess we'll know, cuz this is the time to fear, for another ten years has come around, the seventh year is here... and somewhere in the north-woods darkness, a creature walks upright. And the best advice you may ever get is never go out….at night.

Know a lot about cooking human meat, do you?

This reminds me of something I've read. I don't remember much detail, but I think it involved the Montauk Experiments on Long Island New York. Maybe a connection with the Philadelphia Experiment?

As I recall, it was something about the experiments opening a portal to 'Somewhere Else' and some Thing coming through - an energy being that could cause severe fire/electrical/radiation damage maybe? Including being able to fuse body parts together.

Wish I could remember more.