These are my experiences. They were originally in BTS, but at the time, I didn't know the difference between BTS and ATS. I'll try to keep it
limited to the useful or interesting bits.
They first visited me when I was only a few years old. I don�t remember, exactly, and my parents refuse to recall it ever happening. I was laying in
bed, in the middle of the night, when I woke up to find a strange man inside my bedroom. I screamed for my mom and dad, and the man stepped forward,
knocking over a small lamp that served as a dim nightlight at the base. Then the whole room went dark. Mom and Dad came sleepily into the room,
opening my door, and turned on the room-light. There was no one in the room but us. Only a broken lamp gave any indication of the intruder. The Shadow
Person had not exited through the window, unless he also managed to close the blinds behind him and re-lock the burglar bars. I had a habit of
sneaking out of my room at night. and as such, my parents put a lock on the outside of my door. And before you ask, he wasn�t hiding anywhere in the
room, either, or the closet, or under the bed. As to where he went, I don�t know. My parents said it was just a nightmare I had, and the lamp just
fell over in my sleep. In fact, they said, it probably caused the nightmare in the first place. This could be, and for the longest time, I believed
it, until it happened again...
The second time was back when I was in college school. Some friends and I were sharing a joint out in the woods near our apartments one weekend night,
and it appeared in the trees off in the distance. There we were, having a few laughs, passing it around, when something rustles the branches in the
trees. Everyone gets real quiet, because we thought it might be a cop. We�re staring at the trees, and there�s a figure there, just watching us.
Everyone starts getting real nervous, and now we�re wondering if it�s actually a person there, or not because it�s not moving, and the shadows do
funny things to the eyes sometimes. Then it just sort of melts away and the rustling comes closer. The grass was fairly tall, maybe waist-height, and
something was moving towards us through it.
�Is that a dog?� One of my friends, Tara, asked, worried. No one was moving. If it was just a dog, that left us without the worry of it being
arrested, only mauled. Someone else, Keane, suggested it might be a wolf. Then it stood up, and I nearly shat myself, because it was the same creature
that visited me in my bedroom over a decade previously. I�m not sure which of us ran fastest, because none of us saw much of anything but a blur till
we got back to Tara�s apartment.
Everyone was saying things like �Oh my god, what the hell was that?� Elizabeth, another friend, threw up. Everybody was pale as a sheet. Even Keane,
mister I-want-to-be-H.R.-Geiger-himself was shaking he was scared so bad. We all were. Just to be sure we wouldn�t influence each other, we wrote down
what we saw, and read it aloud. All of us saw the same thing: a figure, with smooth, black, slightly iridescent skin, with no facial features. Some of
us saw a little more, but as I'm trying to take a fairly scientific approach to this, I'll avoid the metaphysics.
The third time occurred a couple of years later, when I had a room in a student co-op that was so small, there was barely even room to change my mind.
Seriously, though, there was room for a mattress, a chest of drawers, and one chair, but at least one leg of the chair had to rest on the mattress.
God, I hated that room. I hated the whole house. There was a flea problem, but because it was a hippy commune, they refused to use anything serious to
get rid of the fleas. They would try things like herbs to try and get them out of the den. To a degree, it worked, except my room was right next to
the den� Sorry, I�m rambling. Anyway, I awoke one night to find one by the door. I was exhausted, and scared. I tried to scream, but I couldn�t. My
eyes were so heavy, and I was so tired. I started to fall back asleep. As I drifted towards unconsciousness my eyes fluttered open and I saw then that
it was now on the foot of my bed, leaning over my legs, with one hand on the wall, and the other reaching towards me. Then my throat managed to wake
up enough to let out what my friends described later as a primal yell, and I made the lights come on. I don't mean I flipped a switch, or did a
"clap-on-clap-off-the-clapper" thing, I mean that suddenly every light in the house turned on, as I was howling. I was still in bed, the nearest
electrical outlet was by the door to my glorified closet, but as I live and breath, every light in that house turned on to the brightest setting, and
the creature disappeared. I managed to get the rest of my muscles working, and ran out of the room. Gabe, who had also been there that night in the
woods, was staying in the same co-op, met me in the den. He was always kinda odd, fit in perfectly with the hippy crowd, but a very good friend. Kind
of spacey, actually. I�ve always accepted the metaphysical with a sort of resigned attitude, but he dwells in it. Sometimes I wonder if it�s just so
much BS, but he believes whereas I accept. You know what I mean? Anyway, Gabe comes with me to the room, as I�m telling him the story, and I�m pacing
back and forth. �You say he had one hand on the wall?� Gabe said, as I took Murgatroyd, my pet python, out of her cage. �Yeah,� I said. �I don�t know
if the other hand was reaching towards me or what.� Then he turns around and says �I think he was reaching for you.� And I ask �why do you say that?�
and he says, airily, that there�s a bloody handprint on the wall. I take a look, and sure enough, it�s right there, where the creature's hand was.
The fingers were too long. I don't recall there being a thumb. At one point I had a photo, but the ravages of the last decade worth of moving
constantly lost it along the way.
The fourth incident was probably the most disturbing. I was dating a woman with three kids. I honestly don�t remember their names now, but at the
time, I was like their father. Their old man had been very physically abusive to them and their mom, and the lot of them didn�t even realize it wasn�t
their fault. Had he not driven off the road one night, he might be beating them to this day. I didn�t piece all this together till much later, but
while I was dating her, I noticed they all pretty much took suggestions from me like they were orders.
Her kids were wild and violent, but also very obedient to me. Their mother, Starla, couldn�t manage to keep them under control without screaming, but
all I had to do was open my mouth, and it was a completely different transformation. It was, slightly disconcerting as I was raised in a family of
independent thinkers. We all respected our father, and obeyed both parents, so it was something I would naturally expect of a child to a parent. But I
wasn�t his parent. I wasn�t even married to his mother. I was just the boyfriend she had. I�m sure she wanted it to be more, but as you�ll soon
understand, it didn�t work out. One of her kids, though, was really weird. He drew lots of monsters, things like rabbits with bloody fangs and bat
wings. He said they lived in the trees outside their apartment. I think his name was Adam.
Anyway, Adam rarely spoke, except to tell me about the monsters. He never told anyone else about them. I guess it�s because when he spoke, I listened,
instead of assuring him that they were just in his imagination. I�d ask his questions about them. It�s a totally different story when you have your
own monsters to deal with.
Well, the boys had a thing about sneaking in to try and watch Starla and I try to get intimate. It struck me as sick, and wrong, but she just took it
with the good-natured disposition of someone resigned to kids being kids. One night when I was staying over, I heard one of the boys begin to scream.
I was out the door in a heartbeat, and saw Adam curled into a little ball by the door to the boys� bedroom. He was pitching a fit, and pointing at me.
I assumed right away he�d seen his mother and I, so I sat down to try and explain it to him, but he just kept crying.
�It�s okay,� I said. �I wasn�t hurting her. I�d never hurt any of you. When a man and a woman love� when they are grown up� ummm�� I was trying to
think of a way to explain the birds and the bees to him when he cries out �I don�t care that you and momma were sexin�, he shouts, �just make the
Black Men leave!� It felt like he�d struck me, and I realized he was pointing behind me, not at me. I turned around, expecting an attack from the
burglar, and flicked the hall-light on. It was empty. I turned back towards Adam and asked �What black man? Where?� and he shakes his head. �Not a
black man,� he said, between sniffles, �The Black Men. They started showing up when you did.
Memories came back, and I thought I was going to throw up. Starla asked if everything was okay, and I told her it was fine, that Adam was just having
a nightmare, and I was going to make him some chocolate milk. Instead, I got him his crayons and some paper. �Draw them for me, please,� I asked. Adam
was a remarkably talented artist at his age. Given another few years, and some formal training, he could have been a comic-book artist. When he
finished drawing the Black Men, I did throw up, right there in the sink. I'd never before said a single word regarding the Shadow People, yet he'd
drawn them with perfect accuracy.
The following is a list of what traits I've found to be common among them:
- Affects Solid Objects - I've personally witnessed them affect solid objects (in one case a lamp, in another, tall grass). This implies a
physical, as opposed to an incorporeal body.
- Can Block Light - When seen against a dimly lit background, (such as a window, at night) they appear as a silhouette. Others have reported
seeing them as only a literal shadow, on the wall, with no apparent source. Either way, this implies that light does not pass through them, nor does
it bend around them.
- Appears and Disappears Silently and Quickly - Infocomm is to be credited with "The Speed of Dark" in reference to grues. In that, grues
can move as fast as darkness can retreat from the light. Whether or not the Shadow People are fast, or otherwise able to simply make themselves
unseeable, this sort of behavior is typical of predators in nature.
- Generally appear to be attached to a particular place or person - Though I didn't actually know this to be true, overall, of Shadow People
sightings, it makes sense from Adam's words to me in my fourth encounter.
- Usually solitary, rarely seen in groups - when they are seen in groups, it's generally large groups. One person related seeing a line of
hundreds of them. From Adam's recount, it appeared that there were at least eight or so...
- Most of the time, act as silent observers - Not much comment on this. In two of my encounters, the shadow person was advancing towards me.
In the other two, they were merely observing.
- Seem to vanish entirely in average or bright light. - They also, presumably, disappear in total darkness, but then again, that could just be
because it's hard to see -anything- in total darkness. Regardless, once the light gets turned on, they're gone.
- Unlimited, Geographically - My own encounters happened in Houston, Austin, and Seattle. Other people from around the world are beginning to
share their stories. Unlike the leprechauns of Ireland, or other more localized folklore, these appear to happen worldwide.
- Generally visible only to people who claim to be "sensative to (paranorma/preternatural/supernatural/etc) phenomena" - Whether or not they
can only be seen by the "energy sensitive" among us, or if some people are just paying more attention to the shadows, I'm not sure. It could just
be that someone who thinks they can cast a spell is more prone to believe their eyes than someone who thinks nothing "special" exists.
- Never armed - I didn't really think about this till now, but I've never seen one armed, and I've never even heard of one being armed. In
fact, I've never even heard of one carrying anything. In fact, most people (myself included) have never even seen them wear clothes.
Now, considering these 10 things, one can reasonably conclude a few things.
First, it would appear that the "skin" (or bodysuits) of Shadow People would is some sort of high-speed, very effective camouflage. This would allow
for a physical body, would appear as a silhouette against an illuminated background, and would cast a shadow while not appearing to come from
anywhere. It would also allow for a quick disappearance, and would explain why they are usually only visible in shadow, and even then, not very well
(odd lighting can render good camo ineffective at close range due to the angle of the light and shadows). This would also explain why most people
cannot see them, as camo is made to fool the casual observer, but will sometimes fail to conceal under close scrutiny (or lighting conditions).
I re-iterate, this is merely conjecture--an idea that can reasonably and logically tie the evidence together. So, if the cammo idea is assumed valid,
then it would seem that the Shadow People we see are probably some sort of reconnaisance or scout unit. This would explain why they seem attracted to
particular people or places, why they are usually solitary, and why they generally act as silent observers. It would also explain why they are hidden
the majority of the time, and always opt to "disappear" before too much detail can be discerned.
So... I guess...they are a scout that wears extremely effective cammo?
That's the best guess I can infer, based off current knowledge. Hence my desire to know other's details in this matter.