My brother is one of those people who enjoys getting up before dawn and hiking for miles through the woods to find a likely hiding place to wait for the sun to come up so he can shoot ducks.  I find this incomprehensible, but then again, most people wouldn't get up at dusk and hike for miles through the woods to an old cemetery to take photos of ghosts, so I guess I cant complain.  This is my brothers story, one he told me years ago.

When I was attending college the phone woke me one morning at around 5 o'clock.  It was my brother, and he was crying hysterically.  My brother is not the kind of person to freak out, he doesn't even cry at funerals, so I was surprised to say the least.  After a few minutes he calmed down and told me this story.

He had decided to go hunting that morning, so he and his dog left his house a little after 3  to hike to his favorite hunting spot on Bearhead Creek.   At that time he lived in a very rural area with just a few dirt roads and houses north of Starks Louisiana.   The area around the creek is heavily wooded and is very marshy, too wet for people to inhabit.  

He hiked past the creek, through an area we called Black Swamp and past the creek again, it curves back and forth for miles before joining the Sabine River.  It was still very dark, and foggy.  

He had hiked for over an hour and was nearing his favorite hunting  spot, when his dog started to growl.  He looked around with his flashlight, thinking the dog had spotted a raccoon or something.  The dog started growling louder and then my brother spotted two eyes shining in the light from his flashlight.  He said they were  bright green, like a raccoons eyes, and high off the ground.  Then the smell hit him, he said it smelled like road kill, a rank over- powering smell.  He backed up a little, thinking the animal was in a tree.  But the eyes stayed visible.  It wasn't in a tree, it was taller than he was and it was following him.  

He didn't remember how long he backed away from the animal, but when his dog started to run so did he.  He said the animal ran after him, never making a sound except for the snapping of branches and leaves as it followed.  He never saw what kind of animal it was.

He ran all the way home, and called me when he made it in the house.  Now, I know my brother, and he is a lot of things, but he is not the type to scare easily.  He still goes hunting, but not in that part of the woods.    ~Kriss

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