Tale of a Shadow...

My approach to the supernatural is neutral. I think it is as absurd to attribute to every mystery a supernatural explanation as it is to discard everything unexplained as a trick of the mind. If you cannot prove it nor disprove it with hard evidence either way best approach, to me, would be to admit our knowledge is still too small to encompass all that there is to know and keep on looking. I won't shut my eyes and declare that it is impossible but I won't go “blindly into the light” either. Give me facts... If there are no facts, except personal experiences... well we are then in the realm of belief and belief cannot be proven nor disproved.

That being said, I had a few strange experiences along my life, and I will tell you about one of them today. I saw what I saw, I'm certain of it but was it an illusion, an hallucination, a trick of light? I don't know. I have no piece of evidence to show for it, and only the fact that another family member saw the same thing in several different occasions can serve to corroborate my story. I'm not trying to convince anyone – this is just my story of an unexplained phenomenon:

My family came to live in this house since it was built twenty-five years ago. At that time I was working in a city nearby and only came to visit once in a while.

I don't remember where I saw it first but it was either in the stairs or the hall, because, you see, I only saw it once in the garage and three times or so in my bedroom and once outside in the garden.

It appeared suddenly, like a cloud of smoke noticeably moving at the corner of my eye. It had a humanoid distorted shape: it looked like it walked with bended knees, crouching.

It seemed to go about its own business oblivious of my presence. It walked into walls and disappeared without a sound. The strangest thing of all was its head - it resembled the head of a dog.

All contours of its shape were vague, it seemed to be made of dark smoke, not fully opaque but not transparent either.

This “apparition” was only briefly seen every time, a few seconds not more, except the day I saw it in the garage.

I went downstairs to do the laundry, and suddenly there it was meters away in front of me, by the door bathed in sunlight.

It was pacing to and fro, giving me the impression it was looking for something by the entrance.
I didn't find it scary nor evil. Never saw it at night, It was strictly a daytime phenomenon.

The last two times I saw it was almost ten years ago, one I was in my bedroom at the computer when my peripheral vision noticed it, walking across the room.

When it went by my I turned my head to it and... it turned its vaguely shaped dog's head towards me...

I found myself looking into two little red dots of smoke and the dots of smoke stared back at me. I was startled and turned my face back into the computer screen and took a deep breath. Through the corner of my eye I saw that it kept walking, through the closed balcony doors and disappeared.

The last time I almost bumped straight into it. I was outside in the garden turning a corner into the backyard and there it was walking along the wall towards me. This time I went inside ignoring it the best I could (I have this theory that anyone ignored for long enough will go away and disappear).

Soon afterwards the two pregnant stray cats we adopted had kittens. After they were born I never saw it again.

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• I came across the term “Shadow Being” for the first time late last year. My “apparition” seemed to vaguely fit the concept. I couldn't find anyone describing one walking with bent knees nor with a dog shaped head. But perhaps I simply didn't look hard enough.

• The thing I saw seems to be atypical: it was always seen during the day, never once at night.

• As fascinating as it is trying to remember the exact details of my experience I must admit these occurrences never once made me lose my sleep over it.

• I never tried to touch it nor interact with it in any way, just ignored it the best I could and it seemed to reciprocate.

• Would I like to be certain of what it was? Sure I would but it is impossible to prove or disprove, in the present day and age there is much yet to be learned.

• In a certain way that is fine with me too because as long as unexplained mysteries survive there is a good reason to embark on quests of learning, wisdom and discovery.

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This is my entry to @onstellar The Paranormal contest