#creeptastic

I do actually! I had a cool creepy thing happen just the other day, in Dunwich of all places. (and here's the tag!)

for those of you who might not know, Dunwich is a drowned town in East Anglia, an area of England known for its extreme coastal erosion. back in its heyday in the 13th century, Dunwich was a major port city with a population of 4000 people -- quite substantial for the time; about the size of 14th century London. unfortunately, a storm surge took its toll in 1286, destroying the harbour, and two large storms swallowed massive chunks of the town overnight in February and December 1287. now there's nothing left of the medieval town aside from the occasional bone that emerges from the still collapsing cliffs, the only remnants of the town's many churchyards.

the only substantial structure left is Greyfriars, an old priory built on the edge of town. the town once stretched two kilometres east of the priory, but now it sits just off the clifftop path, looking onto open ocean. Greyfriars is now a ruin, with one single grave surviving -- the rest have collapsed into the sea. my spouse and I walked up there to take a look, later in the evening during golden hour. we spent half an hour or so looking around and taking photos, before heading back along the cliff path to the beach.

no sooner had we left the priory, I felt someone walking very close behind me, about as close as I was walking to my spouse. I mentioned this, and my spouse joked that it was one of the brothers seeing us off. I mentioned that after all, hospitality was an important role for priories back in the day, and joked that I hoped we hadn't stayed too late. I said "Sorry, Brother!", and as soon as I did, the presence stopped following. I could still feel someone standing there, but they remained in place until my spouse and I had gone further down the path and out of sight.

The Mothman from American urban legends.

The details of his face and his feet have never been adequately described. One witness who saw the face clearly, could only say that the details were horrible and monstrous. She had terrible nightmares and nearly suffered a nervous breakdown. Anyone who gets a close look at the Mothman seems to suffer from extreme fear and psychological distress, sometimes lasting for months or years afterwards. In particular, people say that a sense of pure evil overcomes them when they see Mothman’s eyes.

He can fold his wings and walk with a weird shuffle that many witnesses compare to a penguin. When he flies, he unfolds his wings and shoots straight up with great speed, then levels out to go wherever he wants to go. He is rarely observed flapping his wings except for on take off. Witnesses often described his flight pattern as “Straight up, like a helicopter”. He can fly much faster than any bird should be able to fly, as measured by those victims who suffered from what seems to be Mothman’s favorite activity: chasing cars. He’ll fly in front of them and even sometimes hit at the roof.

⚠️ - GORE WARNING - ⚠️

Here are some omens I’ve observed on this the night before Friday the 13th (which is supposed to have a full moon). 

1. This morning I woke up to the world covered in dense fog. It was not an early morning mist, but a fog that lasted well into the noon, the sky shrouded by fog and mist and the world disappearing at the edges as if it were never there. 

2. My phone has frequently been pinged with Tornado Warnings throughout the day, but when I go to check the warnings are gone and the skies remain calm with white, fluffy clouds. Thunderstorm watches follow. The sky remained calm and blue for all of the day. 

3. When driving to dinner with my sister the lights at one of the intersections were were at flickered on and off in perfect unison. They flickered roughly 7-10 times before staying on. 

4. When coming out of dinner we saw a full moon against a night sky filled with clouds, some of which drifted across the moon in the perfect heralding omen of fall. The full moon was a harvest moon, bright with orange light. Lightning flashed across the sky beside it and more clouds rolled in. 

5. On the way to and from dinner my sister took different roads than she usually would. After she did so, she said that she had an instinctive feeling to not go that way. She didn’t say the results would have been bad, but the unspoken words were loud enough. 

6. When crossing a creek near our house I immediately rolled my window up with frantic haste, heart pounding as I was overcome with an intense feeling of DANGER. I didn’t feel fear, but my body did. 

7. After crossing, we were both overcome with weird feelings. To my sister, the feeling was tread lightly. To me, there was someone in the backseat watching me. 

8. When going up the stairs into our house there was a spider in our path. This spider was the size of one’s palm or, perhaps more appropriately, the size of a small bird. 

My sister asked me what I thought all these little omens meant since I’m a generational empath. She asked and I laughed before I could stop myself, a feeling of hushed excitement taking me over. 

I said that I had a good feeling about tomorrow. I said I had a good, chaotic feeling about tomorrow. 

Maybe it’s the hype of a full moon on Friday the 13th and the clashing of omens and signs that humanity have followed for centuries, but, well...