Story Time with a Dark Shadow

Over the years many different stories have been told relating to these shadow creatures. We found some of the more memorable and scary ones! Enjoy the stories told by real people in River Creek!

In My House

When I was younger I woke up in the middle of the night to a loud noise in my kitchen. I thought it was just my little brother sleepwalking again. I went downstairs to check and see what he was doing, but when I got there not only did the noise stop, but I didn't see anyone there. I thought it was strange, so I checked my brother's room to see if he was asleep and there he was passed out in his bed. When I walked back out of his room it started again, and I went back to see who or what was in there, but this time when I got there I saw a figure walking around. I thought someone broke in and was trying to rob us, so I tried confronting them thinking they would get scared and leave, or to turn around and confront me back. When it turned around I saw red glowing eyes staring back at me. It felt like the devil himself was looking me in the eyes. It came towards me so I moved out of the way, but when it passed through the wall it disappeared. I've never seen it since, but I believe even today it's never left. - Anonymous

They Took My Friend

Around twenty years ago my friend and I visited his family in River Creek for Thanksgiving. It was a great day, with great homemade food, football, and the company of people whom I considered my second family. When it started getting late my friend, his dad, his uncle, a couple of cousins, and I went outside to start our fire in the fire pit and had an amazing and long conversation about many different topics that were happening around that time. Later in the conversation, we heard a loud noise that sounded like a hurt animal was nearby. His dad and Uncle left to go look at what made the noise, while the rest of us stayed at the bonfire and continued the conversation. While the conversation continued we were slowly realizing that his dad and uncle hadn't come back yet, so we decided to see if they were ok or if they needed help. While we were walking that way We heard the noise again, so we started to go towards it, but as soon as we went that way my friend was grabbed by his leg and was dragged away by a shadow figure. It all happened right in front of us and were running towards him to try and save him, but we all of a sudden fell and lost him in the darkness. We continued to look for him, but we never found him. I still think about him to this day. How we could've helped him, or what if we stayed at the fire? I just wish I could've saved him. His family hasn't given up on the search, but I moved away years later to the city. I've never told my family about what happened because I'm worried they would think I was just drunk or if I'm crazy. I just hope, somehow, that they find him one day. - Greg

A Walk in The Woods

A couple of years ago a couple of my friends and I thought it would be nice if we took a nice walk to the West River Creek Woods. We went around 4:30 and weren't going to stay for as long as we did, but a couple of beers in and we thought it would be fun to try to stay there for a little longer than we originally planned. We decided before we left that we wanted to go out a little further and explore the rest of the area. While we were walking we heard a noise, but it didn't worry us because we just thought it was a wild animal, but slowly it sounded more like footsteps. We thought it would be smart to walk towards it, thinking it could also be some dumb teens being teens. We got to where we thought we heard the steps, but nothing was in sight other than the trees. One of my friends turned around and got scared at the sight of a shadow person standing behind a tree just watching us. When we saw it we all ran out of their as fast as we possibly could. We eventually got back to my place and we couldn't sleep. Since then, I haven't been back there, and I don' think I ever will. - John Doe

A Night Out with Friends

This happened back in the mid-late 90s I believe. My friends and I were about to graduate a couple of weeks later and that day was one of their birthdays, so we decided to celebrate it with a surprise hangout at the park and later that night the woods. We knew about a shadow legend, but none of us thought it would've been real. So we went there and were just having a ton of fun with everyone, making jokes, talking about what we planned on doing when we eventually left the town to go onto our futures, and so on. When we were talking out of nowhere a loud crack was heard nearby. We thought it was one of us trying to be funny and play a prank on the rest of us, but a few seconds later we heard this scream. We all got up and some of us wanted to leave while the others wanted to see if someone might have needed our help. While this was happening we saw what we knew had to have been the shadow figure! We all ran towards the entrance as fast as we could, but some of us went the other direction, so we had to get them and make sure they were ok. We eventually ran out of there and all went back to one of my friend's house to stay for the night. One of the scariest nights of our lives.- JG

My Best Friend

When I was little I didn't have very many friends. I would often be bullied and made fun of at school which left me lonely for many years. One day when I was at the playground I heard someone from afar call to me, but they didn't sound like anyone I knew. When I walked towards it I felt a poke on my shoulder and when I turned around I saw a shadowy child who looked around my age. He introduced himself to me as Markus. He would talk to me and we'd go and play on the playground. No one was able to see him, but I knew he was there. We would do everything together and even grew up together. We went to the movies, ate at restaurants, and would talk about anything and everything with him. He became my best friend. When I was younger I was upset that no one could see him, but when I got older I got used to it and it didn't bother me anymore. Even though he was my best friend we did argue a lot. He wanted to do things I wasn't comfortable with and he would get upset with me when I denied his requests. It got to the point where the last time we talked he attacked me, but he couldn't hurt me. He eventually left and I've never seen him since. I would later go to a psychiatric ward for schizophrenia and mild bipolar disorder. I've been doing much better now, and now I know that who I thought was my friend ended up being something I never thought was real. - AJ

Close Encounter

One day I was walking home from school 2 years ago and while I was going down the road I tripped and someone I didn't see caught me. I looked up and saw a man in all black and wearing this terrifying mask that shook me to my core. When I tried to get up on my own the guy who caught me wouldn't let go so I told him that I was ok and he could let me go, but he didn't. I told him to get off of me and I tried pushing him off but I just went through his body. At that moment I realized this wasn't a person holding me up, but the legend that everyone talked about. The shadow figure. It wasn't what I thought it'd look like, but it still scared me half to death. I tried running but I couldn't move. Eventually, I felt my body get weaker and I passed out. When I woke up I was in the hospital with a broken arm and a terrible concussion. They told me that I passed out and fell onto the road with a car driving in my direction and mid-fall hit me. My parents asked me what happened before I passed out and when I told them what happened they thought I was hallucinating. I thought for a while of that too, but when I looked at my arms they had a faint hand print from where it held my arms. I've fully recovered since then, but I never walked down that road again. -Tommy Trever

Wasn't who I thought they were

I had this friend growing up who was always the most outgoing and lively person I knew. He was the guy who would laugh the loudest, make the most jokes in class, and just be the life of the party, but one day he missed school. I just assumed that he was sick, but then he never showed back up for the rest of the week. After school Friday I went to his house to check up on him, but his parents were worried about him and weren't sure if I should see him, but I insisted and was able to go in the house. When I went into his room and saw him he didn't look good. He looked sickly and like he hadn't slept in days. I asked him if he was ok, but he didn't talk. Even when he was sick he would still talk, so it worried me hearing him be so silent. I got closer to him he quickly turned his head around; his eyes were pitch black and there was blood around his mouth. I backed up in fear of what I was seeing, but he lunged at me and threw me onto the floor. He opened his mouth and I saw this black shadow or mist slowly go out of his mouth, but I was able to push him off of me. When I got up he jumped out of the window and ran away. Later they put up missing posters and the town went looking for him. They couldn't for a while, months later when he was found barely able to move and near the river on the east side of River Creek. They saved him and he was put in the hospital and would be in a coma for a couple of weeks. When he woke up he was asked where he was or what he was doing and all he could say was he wasn't in control. He and his family would later move towns and never come back. I haven't seen him since that day, but I know in my heart, that wasn't my friend. - Conner Westland

The Past Comes Back

I had this friend, let's call him A, who was working on a movie in college and had me and some others help him. In the beginning, it was a lot of fun and everyone was easy to work with, but as the filming went on the more A got more frustrated. He seemed to get upset at everything that we did wrong. He kept buying more tapes to record on, and he seemed to be recording everything 24/7. Eventually, The film was shut down and ended, but A handed me all of the tapes he had recorded and told me to burn them or destroy them by any means necessary. I never did, and I put them away in my attic. I forgot about them until the other week when I was going through my attic and found the big bag of tapes. I never got to see what was on them, so I decided to get my tape player and watch them. When I started going through the tapes I started to get more curious, so I went and looked for everyone. Some people were okay, but the rest I couldn't find. I'm still going through the tapes as I type this. Some of the stuff A was doing has me worried about everyone. I wonder what is going on and I think I need to get to the bottom of everything. I think this Shadow Figure was involved in controlling A and causing harm to everyone else. I need to figure everything out soon. - J