I live in rural Tennessee and I was raised in a multicultural family with Irish and Native American Cherokee roots.

Growing up, I heard many stories about wild things in the world.

I didn't pay much attention to them until I started having my own experiences.

Once when I was a young child, I was in the cemetery of the church where all my family had been laid to rest, when I saw a young girl playing among the tombstones.

I knew she wasn't alive, but I wasn't scared.

Not long after that, my great uncle told me about a time that he encountered a wild man,

nine feet tall and he was covered in hair. He moved so fast that he could vanish one second

and reappear the next, and possibly far away.

I was playing outside once when I heard a high-pitched scream coming from the tall grass across the road.

I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was big, and I took off running.

My father said it was probably the panther known to live in the area.

Needless to say, I was cautious about being outside alone after that.

Well, life went on and I grew up and now I have kids of my own. It was a fall night, one where

you know you're here coyotes all around.

I didn't worry because we had great dogs that kept us safe, and I was inside with all the windows open.

My children were tucked safely in bed and I was watching my favorite show.

The next thing I knew, something started talking outside my window.

It sounded straight out of National Geographic, like orangutang speaking gibberish back and forth to one another.

I quickly shut and locked all the windows and went to bed that night.

My heart filled with fear, not knowing what was outside my house.

The next day, I visited my sister who told me it was probably just owls mating since it was

that season. That eased my worries for a while until one night I heard what sounded like a horse

...