DTA
Desperado
- May 3, 2025
- 95
So, this is a story that would be better suited for Halloween than Christmas. I thought of it because I was going through my garage and found a spare garage door spring. Thought it might be fun to share.
This story is true. And it's one of the reasons I believe in a broader universe, if not an afterlife.
When I lived in Texas I had a friend named Dave who was a very serious man and combat veteran. We used to work on survivalist things together.
One morning Dave called me with a tremor in his voice and asked me to come over ASAP. I did as he asked. He seemed scared, which I had never seen.
Dave lived in a trailer on a small piece of land he owned adjacent to his elderly mother's house on land she owned. They basically shared the properties and Dave took care of her. At the back of the properties was a huge dog run where Dave's dogs stayed.
Dave's property was fenced, and the only way in was through a steel ranch gate held shut by a garage door spring almost as thick as my wrist. In front of the gate outside the property was a huge oak tree and big steel dumpster. The gate could theoretically fit a car through it, but because of the tree and dumpster, as well as Dave's truck parked by the tree, there was no way a vehicle could ever reach the gate.
When I arrived the properties had been circled in salt (Dave was an Odinist) to keep away evil spirits. Then he explained what happened the previous night.
His dogs had started barking frantically at something. He thought it might be just a raccoon or coyote until the one dog in his trailer with him started freaking out too. As he was getting ready to investigate he heard the screeching and tearing of metal outside and then a moment later the dogs went silent. He grabbed his rifle and went to investigate, where he found what he showed me the next morning.
He showed me the gate to his property. The heavy steel ranch gate was bent out of shape as if something had tried to force it open. The top bar of the gate was crushed in two places, appearing as if something extremely powerful had crushed the metal while trying to force the gate open. The thick metal spring that held it shut was stretched out and ruined.
But what was really noteworthy was the footprints. The ground was hard dry clay, yet all around the outside of the gate were hoofprints, over six inches in diameter and a quarter inch deep in the ground. For reference, our own footprints barely even registered in the layer of dust atop the clay. I tracked the prints with Dave, who had already looked at them. He wanted my opinion on what it might be. The prints were all around the gate as if something was pacing around it. But then there was a single trail leading away from the gate towards the dog run at the back of the properties. The same huge hoofprints, a quarter inch deep in hard sunbaked earth. What's more, as I followed the prints I realized that whatever made them was bipedal. Two evenly spaced strides, not the staggered strides of a quadruped.
About halfway to the dog run the prints just stopped. Gone. No backtracking. No course change. They just stopped. Like whatever made them just ceased to exist.
I stayed a while and investigated with Dave. There were no incoming prints. Whatever made the mess of prints at the gate had just... appeared there then walked towards the dog run and vanished. There was no way a vehicle could have got near the gate to hit it, and there were no livestock in the region. Even had a bull come along, the damage to the gate came from higher than a bull's head. And the marks on the top bar of the gate... I can only describe them as if two insanely powerful hands had grabbed the gate, crushing the bar as they tried to force it open. You could see the shape of the hands. Whatever made the prints was huge. Huge cloven hooves, bipedal, and EXTREMELY heavy to make such deep prints.
We never found out what it was and it never returned. Basically, it appeared at the gate, paced around it, tried to force it open, then walked off towards the dog run and vanished. I've always wondered, was it something from another plane that temporarily crossed over to ours? It was definitely real, and I don't believe for a moment Dave faked it, nor do I think he could if he wanted to.
As I looked at the spare garage door spring earlier today this story replayed in my mind. What strength would it take to completely ruin a spring like that?
So there's your scaryHalloween Christmas story, my friends. Believe it or don't. But either way, may you all have a merry Christmas!
This story is true. And it's one of the reasons I believe in a broader universe, if not an afterlife.
When I lived in Texas I had a friend named Dave who was a very serious man and combat veteran. We used to work on survivalist things together.
One morning Dave called me with a tremor in his voice and asked me to come over ASAP. I did as he asked. He seemed scared, which I had never seen.
Dave lived in a trailer on a small piece of land he owned adjacent to his elderly mother's house on land she owned. They basically shared the properties and Dave took care of her. At the back of the properties was a huge dog run where Dave's dogs stayed.
Dave's property was fenced, and the only way in was through a steel ranch gate held shut by a garage door spring almost as thick as my wrist. In front of the gate outside the property was a huge oak tree and big steel dumpster. The gate could theoretically fit a car through it, but because of the tree and dumpster, as well as Dave's truck parked by the tree, there was no way a vehicle could ever reach the gate.
When I arrived the properties had been circled in salt (Dave was an Odinist) to keep away evil spirits. Then he explained what happened the previous night.
His dogs had started barking frantically at something. He thought it might be just a raccoon or coyote until the one dog in his trailer with him started freaking out too. As he was getting ready to investigate he heard the screeching and tearing of metal outside and then a moment later the dogs went silent. He grabbed his rifle and went to investigate, where he found what he showed me the next morning.
He showed me the gate to his property. The heavy steel ranch gate was bent out of shape as if something had tried to force it open. The top bar of the gate was crushed in two places, appearing as if something extremely powerful had crushed the metal while trying to force the gate open. The thick metal spring that held it shut was stretched out and ruined.
But what was really noteworthy was the footprints. The ground was hard dry clay, yet all around the outside of the gate were hoofprints, over six inches in diameter and a quarter inch deep in the ground. For reference, our own footprints barely even registered in the layer of dust atop the clay. I tracked the prints with Dave, who had already looked at them. He wanted my opinion on what it might be. The prints were all around the gate as if something was pacing around it. But then there was a single trail leading away from the gate towards the dog run at the back of the properties. The same huge hoofprints, a quarter inch deep in hard sunbaked earth. What's more, as I followed the prints I realized that whatever made them was bipedal. Two evenly spaced strides, not the staggered strides of a quadruped.
About halfway to the dog run the prints just stopped. Gone. No backtracking. No course change. They just stopped. Like whatever made them just ceased to exist.
I stayed a while and investigated with Dave. There were no incoming prints. Whatever made the mess of prints at the gate had just... appeared there then walked towards the dog run and vanished. There was no way a vehicle could have got near the gate to hit it, and there were no livestock in the region. Even had a bull come along, the damage to the gate came from higher than a bull's head. And the marks on the top bar of the gate... I can only describe them as if two insanely powerful hands had grabbed the gate, crushing the bar as they tried to force it open. You could see the shape of the hands. Whatever made the prints was huge. Huge cloven hooves, bipedal, and EXTREMELY heavy to make such deep prints.
We never found out what it was and it never returned. Basically, it appeared at the gate, paced around it, tried to force it open, then walked off towards the dog run and vanished. I've always wondered, was it something from another plane that temporarily crossed over to ours? It was definitely real, and I don't believe for a moment Dave faked it, nor do I think he could if he wanted to.
As I looked at the spare garage door spring earlier today this story replayed in my mind. What strength would it take to completely ruin a spring like that?
So there's your scary
