Ok, so, not really sure how to ask for it, or who to ask, but I need some advice. Like fucking yesterday. Please. Please don’t click off. I need your help. I need some serious help. No, the police can’t do anything. I’m not even sure how to explain it to them let alone have them believe me. I don’t even think they’re coming. Even if they did what could they do? At this point I’m not even sure a priest could help. I’m at my wit’s end.
So it’s just like the title says. For the last four or five days straight, some lady has been screaming her head off outside of my house, on and off. I’m not even sure if that how many days it been. It feels like it’s been going on for weeks. And I’m not even sure I should call it a lady. Whatever “it” is, it’s not a lady. It just sounds like one. For some context, I recently moved to central Oklahoma. I got a new job out here, and luckily housing prices are hell of a lot cheaper than in the rest of the country, so I was able to rent a nice big house for cheap. It’s an hour and a half drive from OKC, but the nature out here is surprisingly gorgeous. I’m not sure what most people think when they hear Oklahoma, but it isn’t all dust bowls and tornadoes and an old lady on the prairie. The house I rent has a huge backyard, and few neighbors. No one to come bother me. Just me, a big backyard, and my dog Checkers. There’s North Canadian River out back in the distance, and miles of fields, red clay, and trees. Sure, there are a few rednecks and shot guns, but they’re a ways down the road. There’s always possums running up and over the goddamn road getting turned into roadkill all the time. And tons of raccoons getting in my trash too. Rabid vicious bastards. But they are the least of my worries right now.
It started last week. It’s awful hot and humid in this state, and I’m not very used to it. Usually, I have my window open when I’m in bed at night. I like to hear the crickets and critters outdoors. The wind rustling in the trees. River flowing out back. It helps me sleep. So I’m laying there, on top of my blankets, sweating my balls off, tossing and turning when I hear this noise. At first I thought it might have been me. Ya know, just something I was hearing. You ever been in total silence and you swear you hear the TV on, only to enter the living room and find out it was just your mind playing tricks on you? Like that. Except of course it got louder.
It started off really quiet. Just a little noise. Then just a little increase, here and there. I couldn’t even really tell what the noise was. I thought it might have just been the critters out in the woods or the river. But every two or three minutes the sound slowly got louder. And much more discernible. It was a long, slow, miserable whine. Was it an ambulance siren? No, it couldn’t be. Sirens don’t last that long before having an interval of silence like that. And usually they have regular rhythms. This was much more erratic. Maybe it was a coyote or wolf howling. Or the wind. I got up and looked out of my window into the backyard. Nothing but some street lamps and the lanterns on my lawn were glowing. The woods left a dark barrier on the horizon out the in the night, and the air echoed the strange sound. And it was still growing louder.
I went back to bed hoping it would go away. I closed my eyes for a bit, laying there. But it got louder. I put my head underneath my pillow, trying to drown it out. That seemed to work for a while. But then my eyes shot wide open. I could hear what the noise was now. Distinctly.
It was a woman. Screaming.
I sprung right up in bed, my blood running cold. I froze in place with my hands gripping the sheets. It was utterly unmistakable. It was a woman, screaming bloody murder. Long wails and sobs. Then a short silence, presumably so she could breathe in, and then a wretched ear-splitting screaming of anguish, like a mother who had just lost their child, or a woman being set on fire. It was absolutely harrowing. I actually took a short video of what I heard. I’m sorry this is the only one I have to show you guys:
https://imgur.com/a/C139ue5
You may need to really crank the volume to hear the screaming and wailing.
So I started shaking, but got up from my bed, and tiptoed towards the window again. I looked out again at the trees near my fence. My eyes searched about in the darkness, all the while her screams continuing. My eyes caught sight of thew trees gently swaying in the gentle breeze of the night. Their branches shifted left and right, making me think something was moving out in the leaves, but as my eyes darted to looks, I saw only their gentle movements.
God, the screaming was just awful. I took a deep breath, and went out my backdoor onto my patio. The screaming was as loud as ever. Obviously I wasn’t about to leave some poor woman in such danger and in pain.
“Who’s there?” I shouted out, “Do you need help?”
There was no response, just more screaming. I huffed. It sounded like someone was dying. Or at the very least in terrible pain. Clearly this woman couldn’t hear me. I rushed back to the house. I got out my cellphone from its charger and called 911. The dispatcher asked me what was wrong’s and I explained the strange screaming. The dispatcher asked me if I was in any immediate danger, and whether I could tell where the woman was at. I told her no, and that I couldn’t seem to figure out where the woman was at. I then gave her my address and even I held up the phone towards the backyard for a moment so the dispatcher could hear what I was hearing. The dispatcher said they couldn’t really hear anything, but that they would send out an officer or two to investigate within 15 minutes. I thanked them and then hung up.
I decided I needed to go talk to my neighbors about this. I got into my car and made my way down the road a few blocks to my closest neighbor’s house. He had a fairly large farm of about 5 acres, chickens, a few cows and whatnot. He was a gruff old man, but he had a strong younger son I had met when I had first gotten out there. Perhaps he could come help me find this woman before the police got out here. Perhaps they had heard the screaming too and could do something about it. I got out of my car in their driveway. The screaming could still be heard, but it was a little quieter. I got up tot heir door, and locked on it. I banged for a second, and waited. No one came to the door. I rang the doorbell and banged not he door again. Still nothing. Great, just great. Either no one was home or these people were dead sleep and deaf.
I got back in my car, and decided to try another neighbor, this time further down the road. Another farm. I got out of the car at this neighbor’s house, but the screaming was a lot quieter here. In fact, you could hardly hear it. I second guessed myself for a moment. May be these neighbors of mine wouldn’t be too happy if a stranger came up to their front porch this late asking for help. I decided to try it anyways. This woman needed help. I banged on their door, and after a few moments, a very tired and angry looking fat older man in overalls and a white t-shirt stained with mud came to the front door.
“The fuck do you want at this time of night?”
I tired to explain he situation but the guy stopped me halfway.
“I don’t give two shits if Jesus Christ himself has come back for the rapture. I worked a twelve hour day. And I gotta do it again tomorrow. It’s 1 o’clock. I don’t know you and I don’t fuckin’ care. Get the hell off my porch before I blow your fuckin’ head off!”
He pulled a huge shotgun out from behind his door. I gasped, held my hands up and slowly backed away towards my car. I got in it and drove off. Clearly my neighbors aren’t the altruistic type. It didn’t matter anyways, I’d been gone for almost twenty minutes and the police might have already arrived at my place. I drove straight back home, parked the car, and as soon as I turned off the engine I could hear the screaming, slowly seeping into my car. She was still going. I got out, and went to my back gate. The police had not arrived yet. The screaming was somehow even louder, the same horrid weeping yowl, interrupted by a gasp for air and then more screaming. I couldn’t take this anymore. I didn’t care if the police arrived and I wasn’t there or if my neighbors were inconsiderate assholes, this lady clearly needed help. I decided to go inside and grab a flashlight, and called my dog to come help men, who was somehow sound asleep. He lazily rolled over, and wouldn’t budge no matter what. I sighed and decided I’d go without him. It was so strange. The screaming could easily be heard in the house, muffled only slightly by the walls.
I went out again into the night air, out of my backyard gate and towards the dark woods. It was a moonless night, so besides the street lights and my back patio light, it was pitch black. I headed into the woods, using my flashlight to guide me forwards not the thick wooded maze of branches and tree limbs. The scream seemed to be coming from the river. I searched and searched. I moved my head around, trying to figure out where it was coming from. I yelled out for the lady. I told her not to worry and that I was coming. I yelled to ask her where she was. But no response. Just more screaming. More gasping. The leaves and twigs scratched my face and arms as I hurried through the woods trying to find a suitable direction to find this lady. But there was no one out there. No where she could be seen. I stopped for a moment panting, trying to get an idea of where I was at. My hands on my knees, I used the other cover my ears for a second. The screaming was deafening, and really getting on my nerves. T I got up again and kept searching. I reached the river. No one. I followed the river. No one. I went up nearly a mile searching in all directions. No one.
I decided I needed to turn back. The screams had not gotten quieter or louder whatever direction I went in those woods. I found my way back home, covered in sweat and my legs and arms aching. I looked around again in my backyard towards the woods. Where was she? Suddenly, I got a call on my phone. It was police department.
I answered, and it was the dispatcher. She asked me if I was alright, and I explained I was and that I had been out in the woods searching for the woman. The dispatcher let me know she had sent two officers my way about an hour ago, but because there had been a police cash in the nearby county, most units had been called to deal with it. She then let me know that they should be on their way to the house very soon. I thanked her, hung up and went back inside. I got a drink, and took a dose of Tylenol. The screaming was beginning to give me a headache. Suddenly, I heard a knock on the door. I went up to it and there were two officers on my front porch. I was overjoyed to see them.
They asked me what on earth was going on. I explained how I had been in bed, and how I had had my window open, and how I had started to hear the screams around 1 am. I told them about how I had gone into he woods but had found nothing, despite searching for almost an hour. They listened and took notes, and sternly asked me if I was pranking them. I balked at the suggestion.
“Son, we don’t hear nothin’ out there” One officer said.
I suddenly realized it was strangely quiet. The scream had stopped.
“I swear,it was woman, she was screaming, she was going on and on.”
The officers looked at each other and then back at me.
“Listen,” one of them said, “We believe you. I heard something going on when we got here, but it’s stopped now. It’s probably a bobcat or a mountain lion. They can get real loud sometimes. They often yowl to claim territory.”
I supposed that made sense.
“I don’t suggest you go out into those woods alone looking for no lady when you hear those noises. It’s real dangerous. Before you know it you could be a meal for a hungry kitty out there. You stay safe now, you hear?”
They turned, walked back to their cop cruise and drove off, leaving me baffled. Was it really just a mountain lion? As if the damn thing was mocking me, as soon as the officers were out of sight, it started up again. Of course. It was the same way too. Slow and low at first, then ear splitting within 15 minutes. I put my head in my hands and decided to try to go to bed. I went back to my room and closed my window. Although the air was oppressively humid and hot, and my shirt stuck to my back, I couldn’t leave it open to make the already loud noise even more insufferable. Goddamn it. It sounded just like a woman. How the fuck was that a bobcat or mountain lion? It was slowly squeezing out words. Long and slow. Mountain Lions can’t do that. I couldn’t make out what they were, but even with them drawn out I could recognize weeped vowels and consonants. She was trying to say something with all her screaming. I flopped over on my stomach, my pillow over my head again.I was thinking to myself how odd it was her voice wasn’t raw by now.
It went on like that. All. Night.
I must have dozed off a few times, because I had dreams about a lady being killed and tortured that night. But then I woke up again in the middle of the night to the same horrible screaming. Before I knew it, my alarm went off. It was still going. The same wretched sighs and loud screams. Six hours. Six hours of nearly non-stop screaming. I was miserable when I got up out of bed. I went up to my back porch in the cool morning air and finally yelled out for the lady to shut up. It was as if she didn’t hear me. It stopped for but a second before starting up again. I couldn’t do this anymore. I just had to get to the office. Fuck it, I’d go without coffee. I just needed to get out of there. I managed somehow to rush out of the house, groggy as I was and make it to work.
Thank God, the screaming faded away as I drove off. The work day was miserable. I got so busy I forgot all about the ordeal I had endured the night before. And frankly I was sleep deprived enough that I didn’t care. Maybe it had all just been. Bad dream. Maybe it was just some dumbass animal and it had finally gone away while I was away at work. But I’m sure you already know that isn’t what happened. I drove home that night listening to one of my favorite podcasts. I was groggy and ready t just eat and hit the hay right away. When I drove into my drive way I heard it again. I’m just gonna start referring to the screaming as “it” now at this point in the story. “It” hadn’t gone away. Not for the entire time I was at work. I sighed exasperated, and called the police department again.
I complained again about the screaming, and the dispatch asked me some similar questions like last time. I told her about how I had gone out searching last night but had found nothing. I then told her about the officer’s suggestions that it was just an animal, and then I told her there was no way. I held up the phone again.
“Don’t you hear that?”
“Yeah, that’s awfully strange.“ she said.
Then, she told me she’d send out two officers again. I waited for almost three hours for them to show up. The whole while I stayed in my living room, just trying to watch some TV and drown it out. It seem to matter how loud I made the TV, “it” was always somehow louder. Finally I heard a sharp bang at the front door. I opened it, and saw it was the police officers. I sighed a breath of relief.
“Please make it stop.”
The officers essentially did the same thing I did. They went out into the woods in the late evening sun, and didn’t get back until sundown. They too, found nothing to there, despite looking everywhere. And with the benefit of daylight, they even looked under rocks and behind thickets. One of the officers, annoyed with the constant screaming finally got real angry at me and accused me of hiding a sound system somewhere and I ended up arguing back with him. Why in the fuck would I put myself in such distress? The officer said he couldn’t take it anymore and went back to the cruiser. The other officer looked over at me and simply stated he had no idea what was going on.
“I’ll call for backup and have them investigate, but I’m not gonna lie to you, our department serves three towns at once around here. We’re swamped with duties, and this is pretty low priority unfortunately. I can’t guarantee anyone out here for a few days at the quickest. And it could be a few weeks if it’s really bad. Until then, although its annoying and distressing, it doesn’t seem to be harming you or your neighbors. It doesn’t seem to be an immediate threat to life or property. I’m afraid you’ll simply have to deal with it on your own for now.”
That was not something I wanted to hear. But I was in no position to argue. They had done what they could, leaving me with a horrible mystery to solve, and another night of “it” to endure. I looked up the road as they drove off. I had so many questions. Hadn’t any of my neighbors heard this going on? I went over to my neighbor’s house again, but as before there was no answer. There was no way in hell I was going back to the other neighbor with the shotgun. And oddly enough, I found the further down the road I went the quieter the screaming got. It seemed it was a me problem.
I reluctantly returned home to it, greeting me with the same cacophony. I went into the house and realized something was off. My dog had never greeted me. I went over to where he normally slept to find him fast asleep. That was definitely odd. I shook him but he wouldn’t get up. And no, he wasn’t dead. He was breathing. Just deep in sleep. Nevertheless the upper wasn’t getting up no matter how much I shook him. It was still going on. My ears were ringing. Maybe I’d get used to it. Maybe it would go away on its own. After all the officers went hey had visited last night proved it could stop, at least for a little while. I sighed and moaned with annoyance. I needed to get my dog to the vet. I lifted his little body and moved it to the car. And luck was clearly on my side, because when I put my keys into the ignition, it didn’t start. Of fucking course. Like something out of a goddamn horror movie.
I lifted my dog into the house again. I didn’t know what to do. The neighbor’s didn’t seem to be home, so I couldn’t ask for a ride. At least not without getting shot. Carrying my buddy 16 miles to the nearest Vet office would be absolutely awful. Not impossible per se, but my dog weighs almost 100 pounds. I’d need a doctor myself by the end of it. Besides, the sun was beginning to go down. It was growing dark fast. Even if I did walk now, it would be pitch black and I could get lost easily. I laid my pupper back down and just stroked him. I listened as the screeching went on and on or for hours. I put on headphones. Tried to listen to music. Watch some videos. It was always in the background. I don’t know how but I fell asleep to an ASMR video.
I woke up the next morning, and my headphones had slid off my ears. It was still going on. I was in tears at this point. For God’s sake, please let it stop. I looked at my phone, noticed it was early in the morning. I was about to call my boss, let him know about my car troubles and call out of work, but I noticed my phone had no bars. I know, I know. Couldn’t be shittier right? Never say that, because it can always get shittier. My area sometimes has service blackouts. We’re out in the boondocks so it isn’t unheard of to have rolling blackouts, power surges, and momentary lapses in cell service. And like just about everyone else in America right now, I don’t have a landline anymore, so I was basically S.O.L. I got up, went to turn on my lights. And nope.
So no way to block out the screaming now. I finally cracked, filled with fury, and I ran out of my house and screamed at the thing.
“SHUT UP. SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU BITCH! SHUT UP!”
I collapsed to my knees crying. After sobbing for a little while, I got up and went back into the house. I checked on my dog, who was still sleeping. I checked my phone too. Nothing. It just didn’t make any sense. How can a woman scream for nearly 72 hours straight? Why couldn’t we find her? What was happening to my dog? And why, why was my basic service failing now of all times? I sat there trying to decide what I should do. Do I walk miles and miles in the hot sun to get help? And even if I did, would they even be able to? What about my dog? I had no idea what was wrong with it, and I had no idea how to help it. I walked up to my neighbor’s house. It was a bit of a walk, but sweaty and determined, I knocked again. Son of bitches didn’t answer yet again. Screw it. I didn’t care if my ass was shot at this point. It’d be preferable to being tortured by this howling. I walked yet again, setting out in the humid morning air. I made it somehow, to my grumpy neighbor’s place. The screaming hadn’t died down. It was as loud as it was at my house.
I knocked on his door, and shouted for help, desperate for him to come out. But no one answered. I rattled his door, kicked it even. Nothing. Everything seemed abandoned. Their cars were still in the driveway, but they weren’t home. I peeked into the window. No one. I sighed. Oh God. No relief. I might as well return home. The screaming wasn’t getting better away from my house anyways.
As I walked back the nearly two mile journey to my house, I was parched and exhausted. It might be early October, but Oklahoma has been dealing with record high temperatures during the daytime. The day slowly turned into afternoon when I got back to my house. I had never been so miserable. My ears were hurting from the screaming. I had a headache. I was exhausted physically and emotionally. I had had very little sleep, so I was sleepy. I was angry, I was hopeless, and I was depressed. My skin was sticky and hot. My hands couldn’t feel just right. I was overstimulated, and I was being driven mad by something I couldn’t even see. That night was worse though.
I had somehow managed to eat. The sun goes down somewhat early this time of year. I looked out my window, hoping I might see what was making the noise. It got so bad I actually tied pillows on my head to try to block it out. It didn’t really work. I’m not sure how, but probably because of sheer exhaustion, I fell asleep again, this time on my couch.
I awoke to a sharp bang on my window. I gasped awake, and looked around. The screaming hadn’t stopped, of course. It was somehow, if it were even possible, louder. It was like the woman was inside my very house. My heart began to beat faster and faster as I looked around. There was a knock at the door. I got up and opened the door. But no one was there. Then the same knock happened on my window again. KNOCK KNOCK. Slowly, I watch as dark shadow fall upon my blinds. It slowly emerged to reveal the silhouette of a woman with long hair. It was all shadow, so I could make out no face features. Just the general outline of some woman with long hair. Her limbs were distorted by the light outside, making her limbs look like spider legs. I watched her slowly slide by the window. Like her screams, she slowly wailed by, dragging her hands along the glass. The dark shadow passing by looked like ink slowly spreading on white paper. I froze in shock. I watched her arms reach out, the shadow of her hand and fingers touching the glass, making a squeegee noise as she passed by. Her nails were sharp and impossibly long. Almost like she had knitting needles for fingernails. I ran put to he window and yanked the blinds up. There was…nothing.
Nothing.
Then I heard a bang! Right on the side of my house. I turned in fright as I heard the noise. It sounded like a giant boulder had hit my house. I shakily walked towards the front door to see what the noise was when suddenly the loudest scream I have ever head in my life blasted right into my right ear.
My scream matched it’s scream as I fell to the ground clasping my hand to my ear. When I removed it, there was blood. The screaming wasn’t stopping. There were more than one voice now. And knocking. Knocking at my front door. Knocking at my windows. I screamed and I’m not afraid to admit, shat my pants, quite literally. What would you have done? After about a few minutes of this utter torture, it stopped.
Guys, it just stopped.
The screaming just stopped. I didn’t know what was more horrible, the non-stop screaming or its sudden absence. Somehow, the silence was even more tortorous. I couldn’t do this anymore. I still had no service or power. I checked on my dog. My baby was dead. I couldn’t stay here anymore. I couldn’t let the screams come back. I don’t know what was causing this but I needed to get away. I didn’t care how long the walk was.
So I left into the pitch black night. There were no street lights. Just my phone and its flashlight. It still had battery left, thank God. It was, at the very least quiet, even it was deeply unsettling. There were no sounds of crickets. No birds. No frogs or toads. No possums jittering, no raccoons. Just sound of my shoes on the pavement. Almost total silence. I kept walking. And walking. Not even sure where I was going. It was so dark. But I had to keep following the road. I kept looking behind my shoulder to make sure no cars were coming. Oklahoma has no goddamn sidewalks in many places, so it can be dangerous to walk near the road like I was. But honestly a car would have been the best thing I could see. But no one came.
And then I heard it again.
Low, and slow, just like the wind. I just tried to ignore it. But it grew louder and louder. And I just kept on walking. I don’t know how long I walked for. I just kept trying to get farther and farther away from it. I was so happy to see something on the horizon. A light in the distance. I was so tired but I got there. I don’t know how but I ran there. It was a roadside gas station. I got there and I was shocked to see the employee working there looking out from the door. The gas attendant was terrified. He said he had heard screaming coming up from he road. He asked me what the fuck it was.
He let me into he store, and was shocked to see me so scared and tired. He heard the screaming too. Thank God I’m not crazy. And at first he cracked a joke about it. But it got louder and louder. I told him there was no use looking for the woman he thinks is in trouble. He’s just like me now. Baffled. And totally shocked. And so, so scared.
At this point, pretty fucking obviously, I know this thing isn’t a woman. I don’t know what the fuck it is, but it scares the shit out of me. The only things I can think of are the stories I’ve heard about La Lllorona. Or Banshees. Or maybe even Sirens. The thing is, I’m not sure its La Llorona. This thing isn’t looking for its children. And if it was a Banshee trying to warn me of an impending doom, wouldn’t something awful have already happened? Wouldn’t it have stopped after my dog had died? And aren’t sirens beautiful and want you t come to them? This thing, it just wants to torture you. To drive you mad into screaming as loudly as it does. To fill your mind with madness and hopelessness until you’re either suicidal or ready for it come kill you, begging it for release.
Yes, we called the police. At this point it seems to be a given that they aren’t coming. We’ve been waiting four hours. Yes, we tried to use his car. No, it won’t start. I don’t know what to do. I don’t have any friends here I can call. I moved here less than a month ago. My family is over thousand miles away. I don’t know anybody. Who would believe my story anyways? I’m not sure I even want them to come. Why should I make them suffer this? I’m not even on a first-name basis with most of coworkers. Do I just walk to the next town, miles away and bring this curse with me to harm more people?
The gas station has free wifi at least. And fresh coffee. I’ve been typing this story on what little battery my phone has left, hoping that maybe someone reading this can give me some advice. Because I’m scared shitless and I don’t know what to do. Where do I go? How do I get rid of this thing? What IS this thing? The lights are flickering. God I hope this posts before the power goes out again. There is a knocking in the vents above us. The air is so fucking humid. I’m so tired and sticky. My head hurts. And the fucking screaming. It’s getting even louder.
Please. Please, nosleep, I’m begging you. Please tell me what to do.
Please tell me why it’s following me.