The storm hit Bungay on the morning of August 4, 1577. The congregation was already inside the church when the doors burst open. Witnesses later said a black dog came through with the lightning. It was larger than any hound they knew, black as wet tar, with eyes that burned in the dim. It ran … Read more

The first official report did not sound like a ghost story. It sounded like a man in a costume with an axe. On October 18, 1970, a young couple sat parked near the old railroad overpass in Fairfax County, Virginia. Then someone stepped out of the dark in a white bunny suit. He told them … Read more

The first light came down in a field outside Kelly, Kentucky, on the night of August 21, 1955. Billy Ray Taylor was visiting the Sutton farmhouse when he saw it: a bright object dropping toward the trees beyond the yard. He went out to look. What came back toward the house was not a light. … Read more

The first time anyone on that ridge spoke of them without a joke was at dusk, when the light had gone thin and the Santa Lucia Mountains stood black against the last of the sky. A hiker named Paul Rourke was coming down a trail above Big Sur when he saw a figure on the … Read more

The trestle over Pope Lick Creek does not look like much in daylight. It is a long, narrow railroad bridge on the edge of Louisville, high enough that the ground falls away into brush and dark water. People have been told for decades not to walk it. People walk it anyway. The story says something … Read more

The first clear sighting happened on a Sunday in April 1976, near the old church in Mawnan, Cornwall. Two sisters were walking the path below the churchyard when something large lifted off the tower. At first they thought it was a bird. Then it spread its wings and the size of it made that idea … Read more

The first reports that year came off Fletchertown Road after midnight. A boy named Danny Cole was driving his girlfriend home on a narrow back road in Prince George’s County, Maryland, when something stepped out of the trees. At first he thought it was a man. Then the headlights caught the head. It was a … Read more

The first thing the Bell family heard was not a voice. It was a scratching in the walls. It began in 1817, on their farm outside Adams, Tennessee. John Bell saw a strange animal in the corn one evening — something with the body of a dog and the head of a rabbit that vanished … Read more

The first time anyone on that stretch of the llanos spoke of the whistle with real fear was after a dry night in March. A cattle hand named Tomás Rivas was riding back toward the ranch when he heard it. The sound was thin and musical, a descending scale that did not belong to any … Read more

The first time anyone on that stretch of the canal spoke of her with real fear was after a wet night in late autumn. A boy named Mateo was walking home along the water when he heard a woman crying. The sound was close enough to follow and far enough to feel like a trick. … Read more