This story was told in the fresh audio podcast Fade to Black with Jimmy Church by an eyewitness named Paul from Orange, Virginia.
“It happened to me in the fall of 2017. I sat on the terrace outside my house and chatted with my friend on the phone. I had drinks and snacks, overall I had a great time.
It was about 10 pm and it was very dark. My house is on the outskirts and right from it there is a steep descent to the lake and everything around is densely overgrown with bushes and trees like in a forest.
Suddenly I heard something definitely large ran nearby, hitting the bushes and making a lot of noise. I instinctively asked myself “What was that?” And my friend asked me on the phone “What happened there?”. I answered “I don’t know, something ran very close to me”.
Judging by the noise it made, it was something really big, the running man would have made less noise. I also thought that if this is some kind of wild animal, then it is more natural for him to run towards the lake, and not to be near a human structure.
“Maybe it's a deer,” I said to my friend on my phone, but I thought that no deer had ever come here before. But I soon forgot about this incident and continued to chat with my friend about other things.
And suddenly I heard a loud noise again, this time coming from the side of the boat dock on the lake. “This is it again,” I thought, and now I decided that it might be teenagers playing around. And then I decided to go check it out. I turned off the phone and walked to the stairs leading down to the lake.
As I mentioned earlier, there is a very steep descent to the lake from the house, so there is a staircase. I was going down it and suddenly I saw something big going up the stairs to meet me. And when I saw him, I was shocked.
Promotional video:
(podcast host Jimmy asks what exactly Paul saw)
It was a man, but his head was like that of a deer!
(MC Jimmy asks if it was a completely human body with an animal head)
Yes exactly! And he ran up with great speed and almost collided with me, and when he saw me, he stared straight with his red eyes. It was crazy!
Later, when I told one of my friends about this incident, he said that I probably saw a demon. However, I don't think there was anything demonic about him. It just very quickly moved in my direction and when it came close, I was in a stupor.
It said something, but I didn't understand what. It was 4-5 words, but it said them so quickly that I couldn't understand anything. And then it continued to run and rushed past me up the stairs to my house.
Then it dawned on me that this creature was standing so close to me that I could touch him, but I was shocked and did not.
(Host Jimmy asked if it could just be a rubber-headed joker with a deer or horse)
Both of my friends, whom I told about this incident, asked me about it. And both times I answered that this creature was moving too fast for an ordinary person in a mask. Supernaturally fast. At that moment, I thought that most likely it came from another dimension.
(Jimmy asks what other thoughts Paul has about this creature)
It looked like a man with a deer head and had horns. But it didn't look like ordinary antlers. They were straight and very gnarled. Most of all they reminded me of the branches of a tree. Also, it was not just a man, but a man, it was evident from his chest. What was below, I did not see, because I did not look there. He was not wearing any clothes.
(Jimmy asks if there was a strange light in this place or something else unusual)
No, I don't remember anything like that. The next night, I again stood at the top of the stairs and peered into the darkness. I was waiting for it to appear again. And I encouraged myself to go downstairs and go to the pier. He said, “Paul, are you a weakling? Do this . But I never came down, and went to sleep.
It was calm for a while. And then something happened at night, at about 2.30. I woke up for some reason and just lay there, listening to the silence.
And then I heard loud deer snorting from the side of the thicket outside. It sounded like the sounds made by a large animal and I lay and urged myself not to get up and not go there."