I'm from southern Ohio, my particular neck of the woods was hilly and full of the Amish. I lived deep in the countryside with my father, who was stricken with frequent seizures and was unable to work or live alone.

My story takes place early during the autumn of 2014. I was 26 year old college drop out at the time and working a part time job at a gas station. Thanks to this I had a lot of free time on my hands, most of which was spent hiking in the woods surrounding my home. On one of my many solo hikes I saw something that has changed me.

As stated before, the seasons had just changed to autumn and trees were just starting to change into the many brilliant shades that time of year is known for. I had decided after one of my shifts at work to get one last extended hike in before the cold started to set in for the year. I had left the house around 2:30pm and told my dad I'd be back around 7pm for dinner. Warm sun but with a cooling breeze, remarkably low humidity, and not a cloud in the sky; the perfect weather for a hike. I had been walking alongside a creek using a large branch turned makeshift walking stick, my usual route, for around 45 minutes when I realised that the woods were quite, too quite. I stopped to listen and aside from the running water to my right there was not a sound in the forest. After shuddering from a cold chill I attributed to a breeze that had cut through the trees I continued my trek, trying my best to match the silence of the woods with each step. Another 45 to 60 minutes passed and my trail separated from the creek and began to loop back around towards my house. I had always dreaded the part of the hike due to the steep hills that laid before me, and stopped to take a breather. After resuming my hike I had made it nearly 3/4ths of the way through when I felt a strong wind at my back and then a loud crack somewhere in front of me. About 40 yards ahead of me about 15 yards to the right of the trail and young white tailed buck stood alert, but unaware of my presence. After a few seconds of taking in the beauty of the creature I notice the wind was still blowing and thought it was strange the buck hadn't noticed me. I had always heard that being upwind of a deer would ensure you'd be noticed and that the beast would flee. Shrugging it off I began to continue walking, taking care to remain silent as to avoid spooking the buck. After walking about 15 yards a noticed movement in the direction of the deer. Looking I noticed he was no longer alert and began walking slowly through the brush, but I noticed something else as well. The deer was now around 30 yards away from me but in between us close to the ground there was a pitch black mass moving under the cover of the foliage. It was much closer to the buck and approaching him. He had yet to notice it. I froze, waiting to see what the strange creature was, as coyotes are the only common predator around here and this was much too large and much to dark to be one of those. After the distance between the two forest dwellers shrunk to what couldn't have been more than 10 yards the hidden beast stopped, and with it the wind. Time seemed to freeze in that moment. The deer suddenly looked directly at me and flinched as if it were going to sprint away but before it could take so much as a step a large black cat lunged at it and instantly took the deer to the ground. While shocked at the appearance of this foreign predator I remembered that there had been stories and eye witness reports going around for the past couple of years of a large black mountain lion roaming the hills in my county. I could no longer see the animals through the brush, but I didn't need to see to know what it'd look like. Quietly, I continued along my path, wanting to avoid disturbing the feasting feline. As I walked along I realized I was getting a clearer view of the cougar. It was bigger than I expected, having only seen them on television or in books and the color was mesmorizing. A deeper black than anything I'd ever seen, almost as if it was pulling the light towards it, never to escape. I stopped to marvel at the cat and as I did it began eating. I felt bad for the deer, but the circle of life and all. What felt like minutes but couldn't have been more than a few seconds passed and I was hit with a horrid smell I attributed to the deer. Thats when I noticed the the cougar wasn't black all over. It's face and hands were the typical color aside from being covered in blood. Wait, hands?! Why did it have hands where paws should have been? I began to study the creature more, features which just seconds before were that of a large cat were becoming human-like before my eyes. What was once a black cougar or mountain lion is now a large, bulky man with long black hair and covered in black furs for clothing, eating a freshly killed deer raw with only his hands, nails, and teeth. I couldn't help but let out a quiet gasp, but it wasn't quiet enough. The man stopped his meal and didn't move for a few moments. I knew I had to get out of there, but didn't want him to be able to follow me home. He hadn't looked in my direction yet and as he was beginning to stand without thinking I launched the stick I had been using to aid my hike back down the path in the direction I came from. After hearing the crash the man sunk back down and began creeping in that direction, becoming a cat yet again as he moved. Taking my eyes off of him as little as possible, as fast as I could without making noise I continued along the path. Once I felt like I was far enough away I broke into a sprint and didn't stop until I was through my backdoor. I haven't seen the man or the cat since but I quickly convinced my dad to move to a Cincinnati and haven't been back to those woods so who knows if he's still skulking around.

I knew about the wendigo, skinwalkers, etc. before my encounter but the though didn't cross my mind until a few months ago when I was retelling the story to a younger cousin at Halloween to scare them. The problem is that my story doesn't match up to many of the skinwalker stories I've heard. In nearly all others, the skinwalker takes on the form of a dog or related animal and my part of the country isn't exactly known for them. Anyone know what else it could have been if not a skinwalker?

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