Those of you who have already read my other entry, John Brady Drive, know that I am fairly unflappable when it comes to the paranormal. Living in an undeniably haunted house doesn't phase me. But, there has been one particular entity that has caused me absolute terror, more than once.

I do not know exactly what it is. The first time I saw it, I was 16. We lived in this old farm house in the middle of nowhere, just my parents and me, and an entire farm's worth of animals. Mom and I had just pulled into the driveway and I was climbing out of the passenger side of the car.

Movement in my peripheral vision caught my eye. It was that time of the day, just before dark, when you can still see, but the shadows start to grow. There, racing away from us across the cow pasture, was what I first thought was a really big dog. Still halfway in the car, I froze when I realized that no dog ran that fast.

Our farm was well over 100 acres, most of that fenced in and kept clear by the various livestock. So I had an unobstructed view of whatever it was, as this thing ran. I remember being uneasy, and I don't know why I didn't say anything to my mom. Instead I kept quiet.

It was the size of a Great Dane. All black, and with a body shape a lot like a dog, it would have been easy to just say that we had spooked some stray when we came home. But there was something decidedly wrong about how it moved, besides being just plain too fast for any dog.

I blinked, and it was gone, out of sight over the top of the hill. Frankly, I was baffled. By then I was well used to things that defy simple explanation, but this experience was something totally new for me. And I was still uneasy feeling. It was almost as if some sort of negativity was lingering in the air around me, and I was picking up on it.

By then, mom had gone inside, and being outside by myself was less than appealing. I hurried inside. I didn't say anything about what I had just saw, I don't know why.

It was a while later, I'm not sure how much time passed. I started to feel like something was watching me from the darkness.

Taking care of the animals was my job, and I had to get up at 4am to get the work done and make it to school on time. I've never been very fond of the dark. I would always turn every light on in the barn, and was glad for the gang of barn dogs that followed my every step, during those morning hours. So, the first time it happened, I brushed it off as my imagination. But it happened nearly every morning after that first time.

There is a patch of woods off the far end of our barn. Something was in there. Something that didn't move, or make a sound, but I knew it was there. I knew it because it stood the hair up along the back of my neck. I nearly had a panic attack, standing there in the circle of light cast by the barn lights, the dogs circling around my feet on high alert. They were behaving in the same protective manner they did if a bear or coyote tried to come to close.

There was a predator nearby.

I blamed the incident on imagination, or maybe one of the previously mentioned wild animals, but it was back the next morning. And the one after that. And then I started to notice it in the evenings too.

I spent a lot of time alone on that farm. My parents both worked long hours. In the winter, it would be dark by 4pm. My bus dropped me off around 3:30, and then I had a mile walk through the woods to get home. The walk had never bothered me much, but it became a daily trial as the feeling of being watched by something sinister persisted.

A year or more after that first sighting, I saw it again.

Like the first time, it was just before dark. The farmhouse had a wraparound porch, and I walked around it to the back yard. I stopped dead in my tracks. It was there, up on the porch, looking in the back door. I was just feet away.

The creature startled and turned to look at me, before bolting away. This time I got a really good look at it.

The same height as a really tall dog, it was emaciated looking. Every bone in it's body clearly showed underneath it's black coat. The shoulders and neck were oddly muscular for a creature that looked like it was starving to death, and led to a head that is almost indescribable. Dog like, except not really, it had abnormally large jaws. And the eyes, they were red. Not glow in the dark red, but definitely red.

That sickening dread, a sense of impending doom, was back. This time I ran inside and told my mom what I had just saw. She believed me, of course, but had no explanation.

It was only a short while later, maybe a couple of weeks, when I saw it for the last time. It was later at night. Mom was in the kitchen, and I was walking through the house, headed her way. As I was about to cross from the office into the kitchen, I suddenly froze.

Instant terror. That's the only way I can describe what I felt. I had no reason for it, but I just knew that I did not want to take that next step, which would put me directly in front of the back door.

I was so scared, I couldn't make a sound. Ten feet away, Mom noticed my strange behavior. When she asked me what was wrong, I barely managed to indicate the door.

"Something's looking at me," I had to force the words out. They didn't want to come.

Rushing to the door, Mom flipped on the outside light.

We both saw it, nose inches from the glass, red eyes watching us. The creature blinked and then jumped off of the porch, disappearing into the darkness.

As soon as it was no longer staring at me, I was able to move again. But I started shivering so violently my teeth chattered.

I do not know what that creature is. I don't even know if it's something that should be feared. After all, it had ample opportunity to do harm, but it never did. I've since grown up and moved out. I have not seen it again, though I sometimes do still feel like it watches from the shadows, when I visit my parents. No one else has seen it again either, with one exception.

My friends have always liked to hang out at my house. About 10 years ago, one of these friends had a 3 year old daughter. A bunch of us had gathered after work and were planning the night.

This 3 year old had spent enough time at my house to make herself at home, and she wandered away from where we all were talking in the office.

The night progressed with none of us any wiser to what had happened, until my friend was driving home. From the back seat, her daughter was talking a mile a minute about the fun she had at the farm. Then she said something that caught my friend's attention. She told her mother that the big doggie looking in the door had scared her at first, but it turns out that he's a nice doggie and he wouldn't hurt anyone.

Friend or foe? You'll have to decide that one for yourself.