Scariest Thing That’s Ever Happened To Me

Listening through some back episodes of a paranormal podcast and they suggested a website for those that have seen the hatman to tell their story.

In 2000 I was living in Killeen, Texas, right outside of the Fort Hood military base. Back then I was married to an active duty soldier. We were both practicing Wiccans, and members of the Ft. Hood open circle. It was group that would have rituals for the sabbats, classes to learn wiccan and pagan practices, or camping nights.

I could discuss so much about my time with the Circle, but I don’t want to go off on the tangent. I’ll fast forward to the events that led to the experience.

It was around 11 pm.  My ex-husband, myself, and our roommates were just lazing at home. Suddenly we got a very energetic knock on the door, followed by two of our friends just letting themselves in. This was back before most people had cell phones, so you had to actually call or go to the people you need to talk to. Both of them looked frazzled and out of breath. They quickly started to explain about something they found out near the Blora Damn, in nearby Belton, Tx. It was a wild story about an evil spirit of a man that has been collecting the souls of children, torturing them and not allowing them to move on. And how they found out where he was and what we can do to help the souls of these deceased children. He was supposedly in this section of woods, next to Blora Lake. They said that the close proximity to water gives him strength to do this. They just seemed to have such precise details that it didn’t seem real. We just saw them a few hours before their arrival, and that didn’t seem like enough time to have all this happen.

I know I said that was a practicing witch at the time, and it could go without saying that I was very open minded then. That being said, my ex-husband and I weren’t buying this story. These two friends wanted us to go along with them to do some sort of cleansing ritual for the woods, and release the kids poor souls. All we heard was “walk around the woods at night,” and we were sold.

We packed out two cars and made our way over to the dam. Our group consisted of the two friends with the story, my ex and myself, and our two roommates. We had to make our way down a rock-covered embankment that ended at this wall of trees. As we made it to the woods our friend explained that they would lead us to this grouping of three trees that was apparently the only safe place in the woods from the sinister spirit. I’ll give it to them that they did easily lead us to this pyramid shaped grouping of trees in the dark.

The two friends started to set up candles and a makeshift alter and going into how we were going to do this ritual. I think I was sort of tuning them out, just scanning the trees, letting my eyes adjust to the dark, when I first saw him. At first it just seem like a normal shadow that caught my attention naturally, but it seemed change as I was looking at it. This may seem silly, but the only way I could describe the shadow was that it looked like those black, cutout silhouettes of a cowboy leaning against a tree. It was just there, unmoving. I decided in that moment that it was just an odd shadow that took a few seconds for me to clearly see it in the dark. There was a clear sky and bright moon that night, and that was giving a good contrast between the light and darkness.

I went back to scanning around, while the two friends continued to give us the details, and when I looked back towards the shadow I saw just a second ago, it wasn’t there anymore. I stared in that direction for around 10 full seconds, and he was definitely not there. I’m  not feeling any fear out there at this point, but that did give me a tiny tingling up my back. Again I went back to just observing the woods. I turn my head to the left to see out in that direction, and there he was again. There was clearly a shadow there that wasn’t part of the trees. It was infact darker than the trees. I could see it clearer this time. There a definite hat and black duster style jacket I was seeing.

This time the sighting concerned me enough to turn back towards the group to ask them if they had been seeing it. Then I started to look back to the left, to point out the location where I was seeing him. That was when I instantly realized I could no longer see the trees, the light coming through the trees, or the shadow. That was because there was a dense shadow right up against my body and face. He was right there. I remember lifting my arm up in a blocking motion and felt him. I remember a scream, that was probably my own. I don’t remember running out. The next thing I remember was sitting on the ground crying, and my ex trying to drag me to my feet.

I came out of it and ran with everyone else to the cars and we all drove back to my house in silence. It took us a bit to feel calm enough to discuss what the hell happened out there.

I’m no longer wiccan. I’m far more skeptical, and an atheist now. However, there still are things, like this story, that I have experienced, and science can’t fully explain them. It was witnessed by several people that night. It’s hard for me to deny that.

I don’t want to include everyone’s name, but mine is Lisa. This shit is the scariest thing that’s has ever happened to me. I’ve only recently discovered the stories about “Hatman.” It always felt like a funny detail, that he looked like those garden cutouts, with the cowboy “hat.” Knowing people all over the world have seen him sort of cemented the events of that night as being a genuine paranormal experience.