Terror in the hill country

Author's Note:

This story is a work of fiction, but it was based on second hand stories about Bigfoot in Texas. One
true account was related to me as such:

"I walked around to the back side of the house, when I noticed a very strong odor coming from the
chicken coop. I thought perhaps one of the chickens had died, so I went to investigate. I saw a very
tall person standing behind the coop, and could not make out any of his features, but a sudden growl
froze me in place. I looked down and finally noticed a pair of very hairy legs, and I must have made a
sound, because the thing suddenly threw down its bloody chicken and ran off into the woods. He had
eaten four of my chickens alive."

I have no idea if there's any amount of truth to this story or not, but I have heard tell of similar stories.
I guess it depends on whether or not you believe in the unexplained.

I live in the backwoods of Texarkanna, and if you've ever been, you already know that weird things
happen there!! Just about everybody I know has a spooky story to tell. For the last several months (off
and on) there have been very strange noises coming from my backyard. At first I thought it was a deer
or a wild dog or something, but the noises are just so bizarre!

It started off about 4 months ago. I woke up one night to hear a scratching sound coming from the
backyard. I dismissed it and tried to go back to bed, but the noise continued all night long. The next
day I told my husband about the noise, and he said that it was probably just a deer. So I forgot about
it until about 2 weeks later when the noise woke me up again. This time I decided to investigate. I
pulled on my robe, and headed out the back door. With the porch light on, I still couldn't see what the
animal was, but I knew that the noise was coming from the woods just behind my shed.

I shined my flashlight back there, and the noise stopped. I still couldn't see anything. Then the noise
became very loud, and it sounded like whatever was making it, was running after me! I dropped my
flashlight and ran for my backdoor. As I slammed the door, it felt like something ran right into it. I just
stood there watching the door, just waiting for Big Foot to jump in and tear my head off, but nothing
happened. No sounds, no movement. I must have stood there for an hour before finaly going to bed
with the light on.

It was three months before anything happened again. I think really I was waiting, like I was holding my
breath. I knew that something was really going on out there, and it wouldn't just go away. I had just
put my two kids to bed, my husband was at work, and I was finishing off the dinner dishes. I was drying
the dishes when I heard a thump against the back door. I immediately knew what it was, and my skin
broke out in goose bumps. I turned my head to look at the door and waited. Dust began to blow in from
under the door, and it took me a moment to realize that something was breathing there. Like it was
smelling me or something. The clouds of dust became bigger, and the breathing noises were more
insistant. I was afraid for my kids, and suddenly I just screamed, "Go away!"

The breathing only stopped for a moment, and then the thing started pounding on the door. It was
hitting so violently, that pictures began falling from the walls nearby. I covered my ears, and could no
longer stop the tears from falling down my face. Suddenly I heard a new noise. I turned around and saw
my husband striding towards me. "What is it?" he practically screamed over the pounding. "I don't
know!" I sobbed. Jack wasted no time. I realized what he planned to do, and rushed over to him. "No,
don't go out there!" I pleaded. His face was set, and he hurried out the front door. The growling was so
fierce, and the pounding so hard now, that the dining room mirror cracked down its center. I picked up
the phone to call 911 when all of a sudden the noise stopped.

A loud knock at the back door caused me to jump, and it took me a moment to register that it was my
husband knocking. "Jayne, open the door," he said. For a moment, I almost didn't. Something told me
not to, but then I did. I reached out and slowly turned the lock and opened the door. Jack was
standing there, his face white and eyes wide. "There was nothing there," he said then. "There was
nothing at the door." My mouth fell open, and I stepped outside with him and looked around.
Everything looked normal. There were no animal tracks, and nothing had been disturbed. Still, there
was something in the air, something building, something waiting there in the dark. Something still
waiting for us to get comfortable again, to let go of the paranoia. Waiting to come at us again.