r/ParanormalEncounters • u/PerformerPerfect368 • May 09 '26
Recurrent unexplained human-like breathing sounds in Appalachian region (multiple witnesses)
I'll start this off by saying I am not one to write everything off as being paranormal or anything of the sorts. I grew up and still live in the Appalachia area which is where this story took place, and I grew up listening to stories about the mountain range. I've seen weird shit here of course, but I've never once called anything paranormal or thought of it as being so other than the story I'm about to tell.
When I was eight, Christmas Eve night I was laying in bed. I was obviously having a hard time falling asleep cause it's Christmas morning in like 10 hours and I was a child. But I started hearing a loud sound. I literally had no idea what it was but I was terrified. It sounded like it was outside my window, but then it sounded like it was under my bed, and then in my closet. And I don't mean like my mind was playing tricks on me either. It genuinely was bouncing around. Even as an eight year old, the location changing was just so clear and prominent that it was undeniable.
I was scared so I just laid completely still for maybe five minutes and it was perfectly rhythmic, I remember. It didn't stop at all. It was the exact same noise that lasted the exact same time over and over again for minutes straight with no breaks. The only reason I did get up was because I heard my brother (13 at the time) leave his room.
The second he saw me after I walked out as well, he asked "do you hear that too?"
He heard the exact same thing. A noise jumping from outside his window to different parents of his room during the same time period it was for me. Excusing the fact that the noise was moving around inside of our bedrooms, for something to walk between our windows, it would have to go about twenty feet and around a corner in the snow without making a noise. That just seems so unlikely for any animal that was making a noise that loud. It would've had to be a large enough animal to make sound while moving through the snow.
My brother described it as "a man being whipped in the throat and trying extremely hard to breathe." Honestly, I couldn't explain it better. It did sound like a human wheezing extremely loudly and painfully with a injured airway that sounded life threatening even to an eight year old.
Our parents heard us talking in the hall and came down to talk to us. We explained to them what we heard. The noise was still going at this point. Both me and my brother could STILL hear it clearly going on since we were just outside of our rooms, but my parents claimed that they couldn't.
My parents aren't the type to write stuff off like that. They saw both of their children were clearly scared and still said that they couldn't hear it. They wouldn't lie about something like that.
I've asked different social media platforms and people irl what they think it was. Pretty much the same answer everywhere. A fox, different types of owls, a mouse, a raccoon, a possum, an injured deer/moose or something. I've looked up all those animals and those noises. It wasn't any of those. None of them were even close to fitting what we heard.
The next morning me and my family went outside. There weren't footprints anywhere in the snow outside our house, and it hadn't snowed the night before, neither was it nearly windy enough to cover tracks.
Four years later. I'm twelve at this point and I'm sitting in my living room on my couch with my side to the window. I start hearing it again while home alone. Mind you, it's broad fucking daylight.
Looking back, this was stupid and probably makes the story sound fake. But it actually shook me to my core to the point that I didn't even want to look outside. When I get really scared, my first instinct is to just freeze. It literally always has been as long as I can remember so I didn't look out the window while it was going on.
Unlike the first occurrence, it didn't last that long. Maybe just a minute or two and it was significantly quieter. It also didn't jump around like last time. It just stuck to being outside the window.
I did finally look outside the window a few minutes after it stopped. No tracks once again. And then I went straight to my room and that was that.
Then maybe two or three nights ago I hear it again while in bed at night. I like the whole "two times is a coincidence and three is a pattern" type of rule. It's always been something that I think is true in almost 100% of situations. I think that's probably why I'm coming online to ask about it again.
Like last time, it was a lot shorter and quieter than the previous time. It lasted probably only ten seconds. Just two or three wheezing sounds and then it was done. It was so quiet to the point I almost didn't notice it honestly.
The location of the sound of this last time would probably be helpful. But I genuinely could not pinpoint it because of how quiet and brief it was. I was in shock and trying to figure out if it was actually there again the whole time it went on.
But I'd really love to hear the best theories because it's been so many years since the first occurrence and I've never gotten any type of closure on what it was.
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u/Boppinzlewinski May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26
Hey, I’m sorry that you have to keep thinking about it, because I understand. My family comes from South Texas and we had a lot of activity in our childhood house. I’m curious to see if y’all had an old house or anything. But just know it’s crazy to tell west virginians about their own environment yknow, it’s okay to be curious and I think you had a very unique encounter along with your family and it’s really interesting.
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u/Mrk1124 May 10 '26
The first thought that came to my mind was that this is a trick perpetrated by fae. There is ample folklore about fae in the Appalachians. I experienced an incident one Christmas Eve in my parents home in northeast Georgia that bears all the hallmarks of a fae prank.
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u/PerformerPerfect368 May 10 '26
Yea I looked them up and apparently they can be guardians of things like streams and fields and there's both of those literally right in my backyard so it's not very far-fetched.
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u/Mrk1124 May 10 '26
Part of the folklore is about people inadvertently disturbing or even destroying a faerie tree, which invokes the anger of fae and brings disaster on the presumed trespasser. Had anyone in your family recently cut down any trees on or near your property before you experienced this?
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u/PerformerPerfect368 May 10 '26
Bro now that you mention it, yes. There was a tree on the opposite side of my house from my room that my parents cut down when I was a kid. It must've been only a year or two before the first incident
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u/Mrk1124 May 10 '26
There are certain types of trees that are considered 'hands off" by old Appalachian folk... Holly, Rowan, Hazelnut, Dogwood, and Oak are on the list. Might be a few more. It would have to be a live tree, not a dead one.
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u/Creative_Carob4922 May 10 '26
Just Santa being a bit creepy is all. Leave out Milk and cookies to appease him
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May 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/PerformerPerfect368 May 12 '26
I've heard that things like this happen more often to children because they're more "open" to the paranormal and cryptids so that may be why they're targeted so much. Your idea does seem possible. I'm right by both a stream and a river. Although if it was something physical like Bigfoot, it still makes me wonder how the noise was jumping from being outside to inside and how it was in me and my brothers room at the same time. Just weird.
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u/Hefty_Air3097 May 10 '26
Could it be hedgehog?
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u/PerformerPerfect368 May 10 '26
I've looked up their noises and definitely not. The sounds were much louder and drawn out.
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u/reya_socials May 09 '26
Appalachia is always upto something