Demon Creature

My brother and my father have seen a creature in the counties to the south of Charleston, which is best described as a “demon creature”. I have never seen it, and I was having trouble believing the stories until I saw a story on The Discovery Channel about a “demon creature” that has been spotted many times in Connecticut. The encounters they depicted on this show matched exactly to what my dad and brother had told me about years ago.

My brother and his fiancée were walking up the mountain behind my grandmother’s house in Yawkey, WV in the spring of 1980. Since the peak of the mountain offered a spectacular view, he was wanting to propose to her there. As they were walking up a narrow trail at about 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon, they heard what sounded like a bear coming up towards them from the left side of the trail. The mountain had thick underbrush on both sides of the trail, so they were unable to see exactly what it was until it stepped onto the trail about 20-30 feet in front of them. My brother has hunted all of his life and is familiar with all the indigenous species in these woods, but he says that he has never seen anything like what stood before them that day. It was a large black-furred animal that was larger than a bear, and had a long bushy tail and pointed snout similar to a wolf. When it first stepped on the trail it was walking on all fours. My brother says that it had a foul odor, and the very site of it made his hair stand on end. At first it seemed as if the creature was unaware that they were even there, so they stayed completely quiet as my brother eased his fiancée behind him in a feeble attempt to protect her if this thing attacked. When it stepped on the trail it suddenly came to a stop, stood up on its hind legs like a man, and then turned and stared at them. My brother says its eyes were small, and shone bright neon red. When it stood on its hind legs, he said that it easily stood 7′ tall. His heart sank when it turned and looked at them – he knew for sure that they were dead. But then it walked off the very steep side of the mountain to the right of trail, still standing on its hind legs. He says that it didn’t stand like a bear, but almost as if it was meant to be walking on its hind legs, which were somewhat larger and longer than its front arms or legs.

After recounting this to my father, who had grown-up in West Virginia throughout the 1930’s and 40’s, he said that he knew of this creature from when he was a child. He said that it would come around their home occasionally and kill some of the livestock. The thing that scared him the most about the creature though, was the fact that their dogs were scared of it and would crawl as far under the house as they could get when it would come near. Apparently these dogs weren’t afraid of anything except this creature. He said that when it would walk around the house at night, you could see the top of its back extending well above the window sills, which were already several feet above the ground, and could feel the ground shudder with each step that it took. As it would approach, a foul odor would fill the house. Then, the next morning, they would find where it had killed a horse, or cow, or other such livestock. To this day nobody has ever been able to tell exactly what this thing is, but many have reported having encounters with it.