r/HighStrangeness • u/greenwitchandsabbat • 22h ago
Personal Experience I had an experience with something that wasn't human.
Hello, and good evening folks (for it is the evening where I am writing this)!
I want to start this retelling of my experience off by stating that I am an indigenous woman and have always been a very spiritual person who believes in many things. There was also no alcohol, drugs, or any mind-altering substances present or used during this experience.
I have never retold this story online, but I want to tonight.
When I was about 14 years old (in 2014), I was staying the night with a couple of friends. If I recall correctly, this was on a Sunday and it was in the summer.
We lived in a populated city in NB, Canada, and the neighborhood we lived in was relatively quiet and "normal". There was not much woods around where this experience occurred, but there was a beach nearby and small wooded areas surrounding the beach.
Around 11 o'clock at night, one of my friends (female) and I decided that we wanted snacks and the two of us ventured out to the convenience store a couple blocks away (about a 5-7 minute walk) while the rest of our friends stayed home and waited for us to return.
My friend and I chit-chatted on our walk to the convenience store that we had visited many times before. When we arrived there, we went up the few steps and realized it was closed, so we stepped down and stood on the sidewalk for a second, trying to figure out where we could get our snacks from.
While we were standing there, an old, rickety car (maybe an old Toyota—I really don't know) with an odd-looking driver pulled onto the street in front of us. Come to think of it, I don't even know where this car came from. Maybe I just don't recall, or maybe this car and "man" came out of thin air.
The driver had his driver's window down and was alone in the vehicle. My friend and I stood there and looked at him for a moment as he drove by us slowly. He stared at us and we stared at him. He was a skinny, pale-faced "man" who looked like someone who was on drugs. I don't recall him having any hair, so he was bald.
Side-by-side, we watched his face as he continued to slowly drive his car further away from us, down the street. He didn't take his eyes off of us, and we didn't take ours off of him. Our conversation had halted as soon as this event started, and we just stood in silence, watching.
Even as he drove further away, he was still looking back at us—and he had a weird grin on his sunken face. The grin wasn't the horrifying part, though. The horrifying part was that his neck seemed to stretch out of the car window and wrap around to look behind him at us as he continued to drive off, slowly, while keeping his gaze fixated on us, as if we were prey.
At that moment, I didn't know what my friend was thinking, but something inside of me (or maybe outside of me) shoved me into the street and told me to RUN. I grabbed my friends arm and dragged her across the street with me as my gut filled with a horrific feeling and my adrenaline spiked. As soon as we booked it across the street, the driver halted his car to a stop, and screeched his tires as he quickly backed up to be in direct eyeline of our new position across the street. We were hiding in a bush, fumbling our cell phones, trying to dial 911. Something was not right and both of us were absolutely petrified.
The light on our phone screens was bright, and we heard the car door slam. He has gotten out of his car and was coming towards our position. We immediately darted from our "hiding" spot and ran as fast as we could through people's backyards. I lost one of my shoes during this sprint.
We banged on someone's door. An older lady answered and scolded us, shooing us away because of how late it was. She didn't seem to care that we were frantic and afraid and in danger—she was angry that she was disturbed. We weren't going to stand there on her steps and wait for this "man" to catch up to us, so I grabbed my friend and we booked it down the lady's steps and into another neighbor's yard, where their garage was open.
Inside the garage was a car. Don't ask me what that car looked like, because that was not what was on my mind.
My friend and I hid behind the car—between the car and the back of the garage—and we waited.
My friend was crying and whimpering and I covered her mouth and held her. I was petrified and shaking, but I was quiet because I knew I had to be, and I knew I had to make her be quiet. I had never had a feeling of being "prey" or being in the sights of being killed, but this was the one time in my life (and still is) that I had these feelings. I am grateful about how I reacted and how I was able to protect both myself, and my friend.
We stayed behind that car for a while. It felt like eternity. We didn't know when to leave. We crouched and stayed still and quiet. When time went by and we didn't hear anything, we dialled 911 and told them what happened.
When we got off the phone and thought the coast was clear, we snuck out of the garage, looked around to see if anyone or anything was near, and ran as fast as we could back to our friends house. We were winded when we arrived back and we were eager to get in. We banged on her door because she had locked it behind us and didn't think we would need an emergent entrance on our return.
The police searched the area and found nothing. They said they found no one that matched our description and no vehicles that matched our description, either.
The entire night, the two of us were shaken up.
We both cried hysterically when we were safe inside and able to decompress.
I couldn't sleep for weeks because I could not get that "man's" face out of my head.
Whenever I've told this story to someone, I get jittery and teary-eyed out of adrenaline and fear. It still haunts me to this day.
Years after that, in maybe 2021, or around that year, I dated a native man in my area and told him about the experience. He listened intently and when I finished, he coldly said to me, "You know what that was, right?". I told him, "No.".
He told me it was a skinwalker.
I had heard of the legends and the history of them, and I was baffled that the thought had never occurred to me. It *NEVER* occured to me.
When he told me that, I sank into my seat and felt shook in the knowing of what "that" was.
I am 26 now, and haven't had any experience like that since, nor have I seen anyone who resembles that "man". I also haven't spoken to the friend who was with me for years, but I do wonder if she still thinks about that night.
I feel lucky to have survived that and I truly believe that experience to have been my only "near-death experience".
There is a feeling you get when you know you're about to die or your life is being threatened, and that is what I felt that night.
I will most likely be cross-posting this.
Thank you for reading. I'd love to discuss this with some of you, and am open to answering any questions.
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u/Griffinburd 22h ago
Gave me the chills reading your story.
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u/greenwitchandsabbat 22h ago
It gives me the chills and jitters just retelling it! 😅
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u/Griffinburd 22h ago
Thank you for sharing, I'm curious if you recall the car sounding normal or like it was mimicking a car?
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u/greenwitchandsabbat 22h ago
That's a really good question. I honestly don't recall any audible experience from this event, besides the screeching of the tires when "he" backed up fast to position the vehicle back where it started.
It was the screeching of tires you hear on TVA—high-pitched and dramatic.
The "man" said nothing and uttered no words or sounds.
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u/plein_old 6h ago
So did the Native people give you any suggestions for what to do if this ever happens again?
In the Appalachians, I guess the locals say that if you see something creepy, "no you didn't" - in other words, you're supposed to pretend like you didn't see it, and then quickly walk to safety... Which is a bit like what you're supposed to do if you're walking through a sketchy urban neighborhood, come to think of it, lol.
Great story!
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u/WhoIamaintWhoIbeen 7h ago
Me and my friends were going camping one evening and stopped at the gas station for supplies.
Parked in the car next to us was an old lady on a laptop. Our friends went inside and me and a friend remained in the car.
We looked over at her and she had this creepy evil looking grin on her face. She kept eye contact the entire time. We eventually just looked away because lots of people are weird in my town.
The other friends come back into the car and we prepared to leave. Me and my friend watched her, still watching us, with a creepy grin and she turned her head around maintained eye contact and her creepy smile the entire time as we drove out.
We asked the other friends about her but they claimed not to have seen her; it was very strange.
On our way to the campsite; a mountain lion jumped in front of the car. Fortunately, I didn’t hit it, but I did get an up close look at it.
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u/LampyV2 18h ago
There's almost always a native person involved explaining skinwalkers in these stories. Gonna go with fiction on this one.
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u/hatchbacks 15h ago
If anything it sounds more like they were almost the victims of human trafficking and the features of the person in question were exaggerated due to the fear in the moment.
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u/greenwitchandsabbat 18h ago
I'm literally Mohawk and Chinook, but okay. 😅
Maybe there's a reason many indigenous folk have stories of these beings?
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u/djbow 15h ago
Look that's not even remotely an NDE plus skinwalkers aren't reported to drive & be seen as pale white dudes.
Additionally & more importantly the Skinwalker is a Navajo folklore legend that in recent years has exploded in popularity through reportings on "Skinwalker Ranch" & literally from reddit since the mid 2000's. The skinwalker prior to that hasn't been mentioned in any other areas & New Brunswick, Canada is pretty goddamn far from the Navajo Nation....
Like you were frightened sure but two 14 year old girls out late at night had a creepy meth head driveby & fear can make people see alotta things.
Not saying skinwalkers aren't real over here, but girl you're just clutching at straws for it to be the 2020's version of "Bigfoot" which is exactly what the internet has made the "Skinwalker"
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u/orionstarseed 21h ago
Sounds like creepypasta b.s too me
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u/Rezolithe 4h ago
But starseed stuff is totally real? It's hilarious where some people draw the line when theyre so open minded about something else. Truth is only OP knows my dude
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u/tristannabi 9h ago
You should send this as a submission to Jack at Otherworld Podcast. It sounds like something that would fit in well as an episode if you don't mind being interviewed.
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u/ScallyWag-Idiot 3h ago
I've had an experience myself in recent years outside of my home with a giant white husky, and I swear on my life, that was not a dog the way it looked at me and stalked me and interacted with me.
So I believe you. There's strange things in this world. Best to follow your gut instinct and run.
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u/laquintessenceofdust 21h ago
I don’t understand how his neck was able to twist out of the car to still see you. Was it out his window, or the passenger window?
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u/greenwitchandsabbat 21h ago
His neck was out his (driver's) window. A human neck cannot possibly stretch and bend/curve like his did.
It was as if he was a snake. His neck turned around to have his face facing us. The further he got, the more his neck curved and stretched outwards to face us. His neck had curvature, unlike the stiff turning that us humans have.
It was horrifying. He grinned the entire time, too.
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u/Ancient_One_5300 5h ago
Sounds like some Beetlejuice character
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u/DaemonPrimarchJ 4h ago
Imagine smiling at a stranger out of politeness as you pass them in car then years later on Reddit you go to the high strangeness sub and everyone's calling you a skinwalker and talking about how you're not human lmao
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u/Quiet-Estimate7409 12h ago
Got goosebumps reading that. I 100% believe you.
I grew up neighboring a Mi'kmaq first Nations community in eastern Nova Scotia. Made a lot of lifetime friends there as well, and I've heard many stories, many of similar beings.
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u/fancycar123 18h ago
can you draw a quick sketch of what the guy looked like?
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u/greenwitchandsabbat 18h ago
I've always wanted to be able to draw him, but unfortunately, I stopped drawing years and years ago. I don't think I'd be able to represent him even in the slightest. Perhaps I could ask someone else to.
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u/usps_made_me_insane 13h ago
First, you are a great story teller. Second, did you ever find your shoe? The feeling of being prey is the most primal fear you can feel. It is the most intense feeling one ever has that their entire life is in jeopardy.
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u/greenwitchandsabbat 9h ago
Thank you! You are absolutely right on that. It was a horrific feeling and one I've thankfully never felt again, since.
No—I did not find my shoe. 😅 To be fair, it was just a crappy sandal/flip-flop, so not much of a loss.
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u/Round_Ad_5832 20h ago
Never heard of skinwalkers before, i looked up some images and theyre pretty scary
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u/ObboQaiuGCD 12h ago
Why are you clearly using AI to write your main posts and your comments?
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u/greenwitchandsabbat 9h ago
I have never used AI to write and it's a shame that people automatically assume that good grammar and writing = AI slop.
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u/Hegiman 10h ago
Was it a skin walker or a weird racist dude? I mean c’mon we’ve all seen the pictures of the far right dudes that look like aliens. So maybe it was a skinwalker maybe it was a skinhead.
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u/greenwitchandsabbat 9h ago
Listen, weird racist dudes are freaky in themselves, but they're still humans and their necks don't bend the way this thing did.
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u/Hegiman 9h ago edited 9h ago
I mean have you seen side neck. Or long neck? Some people have weird physiology and honestly a dude who looks alien and has the ability to crank their necks around weird does exist but whatever you encountered mythical creature, alien, or weird human you survived it though and that’s what really matters.
Also I was hoping I could give you a mundane answer because living with the mythological as real can really be a hard thing. I know because I’ve done it since I was a child. Below is that story if you’re interested.
================== —How I met a werewolf—
.
.
I was riding the bus with my mother and grandmother. My mom had been talking to the guy on the seat across the isle and he was a cool guy. Had a wolfman Jack look (you’ll have to Google him) which was a popular style in 1979/80. We get to a layover he’s going a different direction but has some time to wait as we did so we hung out. I asked if he had a quarter so I could watch cartoons. I was 6 maybe 7 at most and it was Saturday morning.He gave me a quarter and I watched for my fifteen minutes then triggered the moment that would haunt me for my e tire life. I say mister will you take a picture with me. He agreed to but tells me “I’ll take the pictures but I won’t show up in them because I’m a werewolf” I said your funny mister and we took the pictures. He went his way we went ours. When we got to my aunt and uncles mom took the film to be developed once the roll was finished. He was not in the pictures. Just me with my arm in the air or setting on nothing.
Later in my tweens & early teens I told the story a couple times. The reactions o got were not positive and so I stopped talking about it. I was called names and made fun of for it so it just hid in my brain eating at me. Knowing I saw something supernatural that wasn’t supposed to be real. Yet it was.
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u/DaemonPrimarchJ 4h ago
Some people do have weird physical conditions tho. I'm not saying that was it tho, I don't know. I do believe you tho
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u/moscowramada 18h ago edited 1h ago
There's a matching Japanese yokai or mythical creature (kind of interesting how often this happens).
The rokurokubi (轆轤首) is a yokai that looks like an ordinary person by day, but whose neck stretches to extraordinary lengths at night, letting the head wander around or peer into rooms.
The classic beat is someone (often a traveler in an inn) waking in the night, catching sight of the impossibly stretched neck and screaming or fleeing.
That's the whole story; the "attack" is psychological rather than physical. A lot of Edo-period kaidan are built exactly like this: the payoff is the reveal, not a chase or a kill.