By Jeremy D. Wells
Those familiar with Land Between the Lakes, in western Kentucky, have probably heard some creepy tales from the area. Dogman reports, in particular, are especially prevalent in the park. They’re even the subject of an upcoming film from Small Town Monsters – Dogman Territory: Werewolves in the Land Between the Lakes.
But not everything strange in this national recreation area is a toothy, slavering beast. Some things are much more subtle, and much more terrifying.
Writing in to Lon Strickler, at his Phantoms and Monsters website, one reader recounted a tale that took place 20 years ago, when they were only 17 years old.
The reader had accompanied his father on a bow hunting trip into the park during the early autumn, intent on relaxing, maybe catching up on some reading, and just enjoying the natural beauty of the area. As he walked through the woods that morning, something he had done on many occasions, enjoying the sights and smells of the season, he heard a disturbance that drew his attention, and made him feel scared. Then the noise stopped. Not only the noise of the disturbance, but nearly all noise. It was then that he noticed a figure standing in the distance. Though he couldn’t make it out clearly, he said he had the distinct impression that the figure was female. He also felt like he wanted to follow it. The calm he felt was, he later realized, as unnatural as the lack of sound. But in the moment he only wanted to move towards her. Maybe, he reasoned, she would have heard the sound too. Maybe she would know what it was.
But as he moved toward her, though she moved away at what appeared to be a normal walking pace, she broadened the distance between them as though she was running. It was, he said, as if the visual of the figure moving didn’t match their actual speed. As he continued to move in her direction, he suddenly noticed something. Or, rather, a lack of something. All of the normal woodland smells were gone. Just like the sudden silence that followed the earlier disturbance, all of the normal smells of decaying leaves and forest soil were gone. The light seemed dimmer too, like when a cloud passes over the sun, though there were no clouds in the sky. It was at this time, too, that he looked up to see the woman – normal, indistinct, and unmemorable, save for her smile. A smile that he said he could feel, as much as see, and that made his blood run cold.
He turned and fled, and when he looked back, he could see her there behind him. Though she was just a shape again, indistinct in the distance, he said he could feel her smile.
Later that night, after returning to camp and almost convincing himself it had all been imagined, the female figure returned. This time her eyes glowed red in the darkness and the young man, who had stepped outside the glow of the campfire to relieve himself, noticed that the smells were gone again too. Even the smell of the campfire smoke was gone. His father sat there in a stupor, and as the reader shook him and yelled for him to snap out of it, suddenly the smell of the campfire came back, and his father asked him what he was yelling about. It was then that he told his father the full story and, though skeptical, his dad cut the trip short and returned home.
The reader said he’s been in the woods since then, both at Land Between the Lakes and elsewhere, and never felt that presence again. But, he said, every time the woods get quiet, some of that old fear creeps back in.