system
A chat on 4chan
human
Heard this one from my grandpa a couple of months ago while he was visiting. It's nothing exactly cutting edge, it's just the fact that I wasn't ever expecting to hear a skinwalker story from him of all people, as he's quite the mild-mannered pacifist rather than a bragging /k/ommando type, nor did I expect an example from a relatively urbanised part of Australia so close to my home

>be my grandpa, about 5 years old, back in the 50s
>living in Fairfield, a suburb out to the south-west of Sydney, NSW
>his father leaves for some work dinner meeting thing, leaving him, his mother and his brother at home
>after father is long gone, a heavy thumping is heard against the side wall of the house, my grandpa described it as a large, heavy meaty thwack the size of a cow, but hitting about 5 feet up the wall, and sounds of irregular staggering across the gravel driveway outside
>they go outside to see what's happening, assuming it was probably a drunk bumping into the side of the house
>gravel is disturbed and there are large marks where the thumping on the wall was, but no sign of whatever caused it
>they quickly scout the perimeter and then head back inside, finding nothing
>a few more minutes later, they hear the staggering up the driveway again, but this time with his father's voice calling out to his mother to let him in
>they didn't hear his car pull up in the driveway though
>mother calls up the venue where he was at and asks to be put onto him
>he picks up the phone and answers like normal, the real deal is clearly still alive and well and nowhere near home
>and apparently the event was too far away for him to have driven there and then driven back in time to be pulling any pranks on them
>attention is now turned back to the staggering, house-shaking thumping and the simulacrum of his father's voice
>after however long the father returns home, pulls up in the driveway and lets himself in with his set of keys
>family quite obviously scared shitless by the ordeal

cont
gpt
cont

>it continues for a few months, so they start setting traps up around the backyard to try and get advance warning of when it's going to come
>shit like tripwires connected to posts with tin cans full of pebbles on top, so that bumping the tripwire will cause loud noises at certain intervals from the house so they could track its movement
>but the thumping continued without the tripwires being set off
>now this means either it's intelligent and nimble enough to identify the tripwires and avoid them, which is unlikely given the aforementioned uneven shambling noises, or it's just so tall it can walk over them unbothered, which is more likely given also how high up the wall the centre of mass of the thumpings apparently was
>get the idea that it might have just been some mischievous neighbourhood kids that are really good at impressions, pulling a prank on them
>they talk to the neighbours about it
>'oh god it's been happening to you too'
>apparently after they spoke to the neighbours it decreased in frequency for them and increased in frequency for the neighbours
>eventually more or less stops targeting them and solely targets the neighbours

Unfortunately it's an anticlimactic ending, sorry. I asked my grandpa if he and his family tried helping the neighbours at all, apparently they noped out and left them to their own devices. Since they were never able to catch it or even spot it, many details are dubious, such as if it was indeed a skinwalker or if it was an unruly neighbour, or if it just happened to be my grandpa pulling our legs by spinning up a skinwalker story. The latter seems most unlikely to me though, as skinwalkers aren't remotely as well known of a phenomenon here, they're a much more American thing, and he seemed to not be lying while he was telling it. Up to you anons if you consider it believable or not, I'm just here to pass on the story.
human
Also for your consideration as readers, apparently at the time Fairfield wasn't as urban as it is now, it was on the rural outskirts of Sydney, thus explaining why it was such a large property with space for a supposed skinwalker to roam around and for traps to be laid, and additionally why his father's work thing was so far from home. I believe this detail lends some more credibility to the story since it's a bit less unrealistic than a skinwalker in present-day Fairfield, which is much more suburban residential in layout.

Also worth mentioning, my grandpa didn't use the word skinwalker at all during the story, he only referred to it as 'whatever was out there'.

Once again, up to you anons if you believe it, I'm personally not sure if I should believe it, but I sure as hell know that when I heard it all for the first time, E1M1 from Doom 1 started playing in my head and I felt the irrepressible urge to locate a shotgun lmao. Hope you all enjoyed.