Reports from the Void: 'This Dark Object, Void of Light'
The Singular Fortean Society received the following comment from someone who went only by the name Zack, on February 28th, 2019, in response to a previous Reports from the Void article, which dealt with a “black mass” that reportedly “glided across the road and disappeared into a car.”
The account to which he was responding described the object in their report as “black, and when I say black I mean it was the blackest black you can imagine … it wasn't just a shadow, as the headlights of the car would have eliminated a shadow, and [the] headlights didn't reflect off the cars behind it.”
Zack’s comment read:
This past summer, maybe July or even August, I was only hooking up with my now girlfriend. We work together and I would come over to her place at night—late at night, often after 11 pm. I don’t sleep for long periods of time, usually three to five hours. I usually wake up in the middle of the night and go smoke a cigarette.
My girlfriend has a third story condo with a balcony that faces a grass field on a property that is a relatively big equestrian center. Saying that, I can’t say I’m familiar with many equestrian centers, but I’ve seen places that have horse stables and riding areas for courses and jumps, and this place is easily three to four times bigger. Not sure that it really matters, but besides some safety lights on barns and stables it’s pretty dark.
Since I was young, I’ve loved the night sky. Sadly, it’s been a long time since I’ve lived someplace dark enough to really see the stars. So, on extra dark clear nights I always take time to admire what I can see and try to spot stars and constellations that I still remember. And, of course, 3 am is usually around the best time to see the sky.
So, it’s a warm Missouri night, and I wake up and go out to her balcony to smoke a cigarette. I notice the sky looks pretty good, there’s a single tree line about 10 yards from the back of her building that’s even with leaves you can see through to the equestrian centers property. I step to the guard rail to look up to see more of the sky.
Now, I did just wake up and was pretty “tired eyed," but I don’t take my cell phone outside when I wake up, so at no point was I looking at any kind of bright light. You know when you stare at a light and then look up into dark you see that “spot?" Well, anyway, when I stepped back from the balcony guard rail I was still looking at the sky. I noticed in my right periphery an extremely dark spot. Thinking "Damn that part of the sky is dark," I looked right at the spot. Immediately realizing this spot is blocking the tree branches behind and was not the sky, it was right in front of me. Void of light.
It’s dark, 3 am, but I can still see everything. This spot I can best describe as a head that’s peaking over a fence. And when I stared directly at it, realizing it was in front of me, it fluidly moved up out of view alongside the exterior of the building. Like if you were to peak over a fence and then slowly in a peak-a-boo manner crouch out of view. There is nothing but the roof above this unit. It is the top story.
In a “what the [expletive]” manner, I put one hand on the guard rail, pulled myself forward, and looked up the exterior of the building. There was nothing. I told my girlfriend the next morning and probably sounded crazy, but she said she believed me. Through shear randomness of YouTubing, I came across videos of people claiming to have seen dark figures at night. Which stirred up this memory I shook off as my eyes playing tricks on me.
I am a see-it-to-believe-it type, I don’t believe in ghosts and most paranormal activity. I saw what I saw, and I looked right at it this dark object, void of light, that vanished as soon as I looked directly at it. This story is the first I’ve found that describes this dark thing that didn't reflect light. I feel like I needed to add this comment because what I saw was so similar, even though all I saw was for lack of a better description the “head,” which had peaked down to look at me.
There was no usable email left with the comment, and it has been deleted off of the site since moving to a new comment management system. The Singular Fortean Society was unable to contact “Zack,” and has received no further correspondence.
Reports from the Void is a repository to share those stories for which we do not have enough information to make a full report. This is usually because of little or no communication from the witness following their initial submission. The Singular Fortean Society will always provide as much information as possible regarding any correspondence during our attempts to speak with those involved.
This series is meant only to present you with the full breadth of the information sent to us, and makes no judgments towards the veracity of any stories shared within it.
To report your own encounter with the impossible, reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.
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