At approximately 00:50, I was outside smoking. It was chilly enough for a winter jacket. I also wore a watch cap. As I mused on nothing I can remember, I became aware of a sound. Noise, more accurately put.

I have never heard anything like it. I should have tried to get the strange noise on video. Too dark to see much.

Because I not only never heard it before, I hadn’t heard anything like it in horror movies or nature shows.

It was at most 300 meters away and downhill from me. I figured that it was in the treeline along a sidewalk that runs parallel to the length of the tennis courts. Yet — didn’t it sound too loud for that close? Okay, 250 meters.

My logical side tried to figure out what the bloody hell it was, because I knew what it was not.

It wasn’t a fox, feral cat, possum, rabbit or any other creature of the night in these parts.

There would be several “scrapes”, then a chitter, then some type of impact, but that I can’t describe. Two or three of them in succession. Not a human doing something. Not a man made object being struck, and yet part of it was almost metallic. Well. It had that quality, anyway.

I decided that I needed to find out if anything in the area was a threat to people or pets. I went inside and got my flashlight, then approached the overlook at the end of the parking lot. I was quiet for a few moments because my footsteps in dry leaves had made it aware of me. I waited.

The other night I heard howling. Not from any dog, foxes don’t do that and even coyotes sound very differently. I have no clue what it was.

I have heard sounds most here couldn’t possibly hear. Sounds I can’t identify. It’s not new, not to me. Tonight this sound was new, loud, and not human.

Then it started again and that’s it, now I have to go down there.

Flashlight in one hand with my cane hanging by the wrist strap, I had a 13-inch stiletto in the other, edge outward, against my forearm for stability. You don’t look for something that you can’t identify without some means of defending yourself. I figured it would be riled by my close proximity as I neared it, and that it was something large and agile. The blade would be like using nail clippers to cut someone’s lawn. But here’s the real problem with that: I wasn’t scared. Not even close, and that’s not right. I’ve lost all fear and respect for the power of nature. Men who do that have died for it.

I never figured out what this thing was but when I was down there, I did hear a loud snarl. I was right; it was pissed. But it never came out in the open.

If you live in Columbia MD and you’ve heard anything weird lately, you’re not alone. But I can’t report this with no more detail than what I have provided here. I’m telling everyone, everywhere, to be careful at night, keep alert if you’re outdoors, and that nature seems to be taking our desecration of the planet hard. Habitat scraped and burned away in the next state over can and will result in wildlife you’re not familiar with coming soon to your neighborhood.

Keep in mind: I have seen a cryptid in Maryland before, in late summer, 2003. A hairless white thing like a squirrel, except it ran upright on two legs. Not a squirrel, not a rat, definitely too large for a mouse. And it was fast. I saw no wings, no feathers, no fur and squirrel-like ears. It ran the length of half a block on two legs but climbed a utility pole with all four legs. Or two legs and two hands. The tail was a wiry thing like a rat’s. Just thinner. Don’t ask me what it was. I felt deep down that what I was seeing was all wrong and my blood ran cold. And it was silent.

For a while I wondered if it really was a squirrel that had been burned in such a way as to singe off its fur. And if it had escaped from the witch couple who maybe wanted to sacrifice it. Because these…were not your average witches.

As to what I heard tonight, I have this feeling that even if I had seen it, I’d wish I had not. But checking out things is not optional for me; I have to do it. That’s my job as a neighbor. I wish more people were looking out for each other. Nobody would have anything to fear.