This happened in August of 1996. Late August, because the nights were already getting cold up there. My husband and I had driven up to Crane Prairie Reservoir for the weekend. Just the two of us. Our kids were staying with my sister, which was a whole thing because she'd just gotten a new puppy and I was worried it would be too much chaos, but anyway. David loves fishing that reservoir. Trout and kokanee salmon, he says the fishing's best right before sunset. We'd gotten there around four in the afternoon, set up our camp chairs near the water. The place was pretty empty that day. Maybe two other groups way down the shoreline, far enough we couldn't really see them clearly. I wasn't planning to fish. I'd brought a book and figured I'd just relax while he did his thing. David walked down the shore maybe 200 yards to this spot he likes, where the drop-off is steeper. Said the fish run deeper there. I could barely make him out from where I was sitting. Too far to hear anything if he called out. Just a shape against the water.
It was warm for late August. Sun was still high, probably around 6:30 or so. I'd been reading for maybe half an hour when I started feeling drowsy. You know that heavy feeling you get in the sun? Everything just slows down. The book got harder to focus on. I could hear David way down the shore, the clicking sound of his reel when he'd cast out. The sound carried over the water. I remember setting the book down on the cooler beside me and thinking I'd just close my eyes for a minute. The sound of the water was right there, little waves lapping against the rocks. Some birds calling from across the lake. David was way down the shore doing his thing, and that's what gets me - I felt completely safe. Completely alone in a good way. I drifted off sitting in that chair. Don't know how long I was out. Could've been ten minutes, could've been an hour. The sun was different when I started to wake up. Lower. That golden light you get right before sunset, everything going orange and dim. I couldn't see much, everything was kind of blurry and dark. But I knew something was wrong before I even opened my eyes all the way. You know that feeling? When you sense someone's there?
I opened my eyes and they were standing right there. Right in front of me. Two of them. The one on the left was closer. Maybe three feet from my face. And it was reaching toward me. I couldn't move. I wanted to scream but nothing came out. It's like my whole body was frozen except for my eyes. The thing's hand - if you can call it a hand - came up to my face. Four fingers, long and thin, gray like the rest of it. No fingernails. Just smooth at the ends. And it touched my chin. Ran one finger down from my lower lip to my chin, slow. Deliberate. The skin was cold. Dry but not rough. Almost waxy. That's what gets me the most when I think about it. That touch. How cold it was. How wrong it felt. The other one was just standing there watching. They were both watching me with those eyes. I could see them perfectly even in the dim light - huge black eyes, no white at all, taking up half their faces. The heads were too big for the bodies, that bulb shape everyone talks about. Smooth gray skin, almost blue-gray in that light. No nose, just two small holes. A slit for a mouth, not moving.
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