Hello, that's how I introduced myself in October. Halloween is nearly here and there was

no way we were leaving you without some spooky stories to tell your kids over the weekend.

Today our places editors, Michelle Cassidy and Jonathan Carey have two stories that will make you want to sleep with the lights on.

The first story is from Michelle who traveled to West Virginia to meet a creature that I hope you never, ever encounter.

It was shaped like a man, but bigger, maybe six and a half or seven feet tall, and it had big wings folded on his back.

But it was those eyes that got us. It had two big red eyes, like automobile reflectors. I wish we'd never seen it. I wish someone else had seen it.

Those are the statements that Roger and Linda Scarbury gave the Mason County Sheriff's Department on November 15, 1966.

Along with another couple, Roger and Linda had driven out to an old TNT facility just outside of Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

The abandoned factory was sort of a lover's lane where couples would go and park their cars. But that night in November, these two couples encountered something much stranger than they ever expected.

When the mysterious figure they saw unfolded its wings and took flight, the couple hit the gas and raced towards town.

Even though they were pushing 100 miles an hour, the creature somehow kept up with their car. By the time they reached the city limits, the creature flew off into the night.

Just a few days earlier, five men working in a nearby cemetery had had a similar encounter.

While they were digging a grave a shadowy, man-like figure flew out of a nearby tree and glided over their heads.

These strange encounters were the first known sightings of a legendary creature that has come to rival the likes of Sasquatch or Nessie. This is Mothman.

A few weeks ago, I went to Point Pleasant and I can personally attest to Mothman's presence there.

I caught my first glimpse of him on my way into town, just a quick flash along the side of the highway.

Walking down Main Street, I saw his distinctive figure outside an ice cream shop and then again in the window of an antique mall.

Now, I'll admit, these were not actual sightings of the actual black red-eyed winged cryptid.

But in the last 50 years since the first reports, Mothman's image has become a part of the local scene in Point Pleasant.

You can get posters and stickers and t-shirts.

In the center of town, there is a huge, shiny statue of Mothman. It stands right next to the Mothman Museum.

It's a small space that is packed with newspaper clippings from the heyday of Mothman and memorabilia from the creature's long-term pop culture legacy.

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