Читать книгу Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside - Brad Steiger - Страница 65

Recently my friend and colleague cryptozoologist Paul Bartholomew of Whitehall, New York, informed me of a terrifying experience that a National Guardsman had undergone in the fall of October 1987. Because of his fear of the laughter barrier, he had waited 20 years to share his nightmarish encounter.

The guardsman had been awakened one night by the sound of his kitchen door being slammed open. He heard furniture being tossed around his living room.

Picking up a baseball bat to defend himself, he decided to go downstairs and rout the intruder (or intruders), the guardsman found that the uninvited visitor had ascended the stairs to confront him in his bedroom.

The guardsman found himself paralyzed, unable to move, as his descent was blocked by a six-foot-five inch, 300-pound entity that had red-glowing eyes and that smelled like rotten eggs.

The guardsman, being a religious man, shouted out a prayer—and the creature vanished.

Overcome by the bizarre and frightening circumstances, the guardsman collapsed back on his bed and awakened in the morning wondering if he had just experienced the worst dream of his life.

When he went downstairs, however, he found the front door wide open and his furniture either broken or thrown about from room to room.

Over twenty years later, the guardsman wondered aloud to Paul Bartholomew if he had encountered an angry Bigfoot or a malicious demon.

In essence, the guardsman had expressed a persistent enigma that often arises when one is monster hunting: Are there times when we encounter an entity that has intruded into our reality from a world unseen?