Calm nights are beautiful. They’re soothing, like closing our eyes and exhaling away our stresses. Add in a nice breeze and an open window to gaze through and you have yourself a good time. But… There’s been this thing, you see—A thing that’s been ruining my nights just recently. Let me tell you about him.
I live in a place that gets quite dark at night, the Poconos, maybe you’ve heard of it. It’s a mountainous area in eastern Pennsylvania. Often nights, in my neck of the woods, you can’t easily see a few feet out of a window. Being from New York City myself, it took some getting used to and was quite honestly, a bit eerie at first.
After a long day at work, I’ll come home and perform the typical rituals. Eat, shower, surf the internet for a bit. On most nights, which may strike some of you as a bit unusual, I’ll sit by my second-story window before bed and gaze out into the forest by my street for a while. Perhaps about 30 minutes a night on average. It’s my way of processing whatever I’ve got going on in life.
There really isn’t much to see. When your eyes adjust, a few trees, maybe a squirrel or a deer frolicking about. When the moon’s feeling bold, you may get a much nicer view of the happenings of the forest at that time. One thing you certainly shouldn’t expect is… well…a man dancing.
See, for the sake of being detail-oriented, or my own sanity perhaps, I’m referring to this entity as a man. That is because it looks like one, although I have my concerns as to what it truly is. Beginning about two weeks ago, I’ll see this “man” begin to walk down the gravel road outside of my home, always beginning at 11:30 PM from the left. He’ll appear up the hill about 300 feet away and walk towards my house at a regular pace, with a casual stride.
Since the first night he appeared, I’ve tried taking note of any relevant descriptive features. Any scars or tattoos, hair color, skin color, clothing choice etc. But as he glides by even my neighbor’s porch light, all remains ambiguous, like a shadow. It reminds me of a video game character that doesn’t have a texture, even darker than the unlit forest.
What he does next is… where things take a turn for the bizarre. I have a gravel driveway; he’ll walk about halfway down it and begin to dance. This may sound entertaining, but I can assure you that it’s anything but. I don’t know my dances very well, however, the first night was definitely some sort of tango, the night after that, a square dance. This continued for a week and with each night, a different dance being performed.
None of his dances were anything new—you know, the stuff you’d see on TikTok, Fortnite, or those music videos that pop up with an iconic dance every now and then. They were… kind of old, and normally, dances you’d see involving two people. On the fifth night, for instance, he did this very simple looking step that was awfully flamboyant. I later, after making a habit of doing my research on the dances I didn’t know, learned that this was called the Suzie Q. For what it’s worth, if I were to ever come close to enjoying one of his performances, it would’ve been that one.
Alright, so at this point you’re likely wondering why I’ve just allowed this to persist. Why not alert the police? What about my neighbors? Perhaps they’ve seen him. The truth is that it hasn’t been that simple…
The thing about this man, is that after about 10 minutes on the dot, he’ll stop dancing and slowly take a bow, all the way down to 90 degrees I’d say. Right after that, he disappears. Now, I don’t mean that he runs away, or goes out in a cloud of smoke. He’s just there one second, and the next…gone. There isn’t a rustling of the leaves, a flash of light, or a breeze that passes. The first time I saw this I freaked out completely. I checked every single room in the house and even slept with the lights on that night. If the pitch-black hue or the bizarre dancing weren’t enough to convince you of… possibly inhuman nature, I swear that this surely would be.
Just last week I asked my neighbors across the street, Elliot and Julie, if they’d stay up past 11:30 and observe the spot he walks up towards. I didn’t give them the entire scoop on what I was dealing with, since I didn’t want to scare them off or have them grow suspicious of me. I simply told them that there was this weird animal that walks up our street around that time of night. They had agreed and even suggested we remain on a phone call during the event.
So, later that night, I got set up as per usual. I dialed their number at 11:29 and waited with them. As sure as day, come 11:30, there he casually strolled up the hill.
Excited, I yelled, “Hey! Elliot, you see that?” For some reason, I had convinced myself the man wouldn’t appear that night while others were looking out.
“Woah! Did I miss something?” Asked Elliot.
“It’s walking down the road right now.” I explained.
After a few moments of silence, Julie chimed in “Hey, Elliot, I think I do see something out there.” At this point, I had braced myself for some amount of panic, or bewilderment to be heard from the other end of the line.
The man was already halfway up our road.
“Would ya look at that…” Elliot mumbled softly.
“So, you see what I’ve been talking about then? How freaky is that?” I asked, barely able to contain my nerves.
“Yeah, I haven’t seen a coyote that sickly-looking all my life. No clue why it’s around these parts, or how it’s even moving.” Said Elliot.
“A… coyote?” I asked.
“It’s what it looks like to me, rather dirty too. Say…you see this the same time every night you said?”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I expected one of two things to happen: Either they tell me they see nothing, and I gratefully conclude that I have some sort of mental illness, or they royally freak out at the sight of this being. But… a coyote? A limping, sickly coyote. I didn’t know what to make of it.
“Hey, ya still there kid?” Asked Julie after what must have been a lengthy pause.
“Yes! Sorry… Yeah, it’s weird… not sure why it keeps showing up like that.” I responded.
“Well, I’ll tell you what. My nephew works for animal control, if it keeps up that weird behavior and you can’t sleep, give us another ring and maybe we can arrange something.” Offered Elliot.
“For sure, thanks you two and goodnight.” I said, admitting defeat.
“G’night kid.”
Yeah, that was my attempt at a cry for help. The next day, I followed up with them about what this “coyote” did after they saw it, surely it didn’t start dancing at any point. They mentioned that it just sat in my yard for a few minutes, looking around, before walking off into the forest. I had hoped they’d at least witness some sort of disappearing act… go figure.
Clearly, this thing can appear as it chooses to different people. Calling anyone else for help seems like it’d be a waste of time. The incident with Elliot and Julie had inspired me to start recording his appearances. Just as they had seen, all that appears on video are animals. The only difference being that the variety of the animal may change. One night, a bear may show up, the next a rabbit…
I’m not quite sure what to do at this point. Do I go out and try talking to him? Maybe I should yell and tell him to leave me alone. Perhaps I should move to another state… I didn’t even sit at the window last night; I just went directly to bed.
The sun had set a few hours ago, it’s nearing the time that I now dread most. The clock doesn’t stop its slow march forward. 11:29…and there he is again. For every step he takes down the road, I curse his existence. I no longer fear whatever this thing is, destined to dance in my yard until it gets what it wants. But what does it want? I feel as though there’s a circle of hell that’s established itself around my quiet mountain home, one of unwelcome theatre. I feel the anger envelop my neck and face as he turns into my driveway.
I can’t let this continue. This time, I’m going to tell him to find someone else’s life to ruin. I unlock and lift the window in front of my desk as he arrives at his usual spot.
“Don’t you fucking start dancing!” I yell spitefully out of the window.
It stood there, hands at its sides, unmoving. Even from the dark pit of its face, I could feel that unholy stare. I felt like prey staring at its hunter, aware of danger, but not what that danger means.
After a long minute I gave it another go:
“What do you want?” I asked, a bit more calmly.
The man reached into what I could only assume would be a left coat pocket and pulled out what looked to be a piece of paper. He gently placed it on the ground and began to walk backwards. Though, not like how you or I might walk backwards, more like walking… in reverse. Back down the road he went, down over the hill and… gone, just like that. That was creepier than any of his dances. The night regained its calm tone.
I saw my neighbors’ living room light flicker on. Elliot’s frame soon enough appeared behind their curtains, peering out into my yard. I must’ve woken them with all that hollering. I turned off my own bedroom light and slipped into my mattress. I didn’t feel much of anything that night. It was all white noise. I certainly didn’t dream.
Today, I went outside before work and grabbed the piece of paper that was left behind—there was no way I was going out there last night. It was folded four times over, and when opened, I found words written in plain black ink. Two words that summoned a sense of unease I can’t seem to shake off. Two words that read “A Partner.”