| abstract | - Originally reported in dense forests and locations of thick brush. Sightings of the lanturn have been reported from the mid-west and northern part of the United States. First mentioned as a campfire story and bedtime story for children, many people argue otherwise. In the early 1980's reports of large bursts of bright light coming from the central part of thick woods and forests had increased to a large amount. Sounding like a once old campfire story, although other people disagree and say it's the Lanturn consuming its prey. Most of the sightings and stories have been reported in areas by Minnesota , Wisconsin, and furthest reports down to the central part of Missouri. No full description has ever been reported of the creature, but most victims that lived to tell the story say that the lanturn looks most like a thin muscular creature with "slouch" or "hunch" and thin long hair. With small glowing and bright beads at the tips of the hair, it hangs from atop of the center of the creatures head. It has a snout that looks much like a dogs, bearing a large mouth wide enough to fit a small pumpkin. The skin coloration of the lanturn varies from a pale brown to light yellow. The most unique trait of the lanturn is that when it finds the prey that wanders into its domain, it open its mouth and emits a deep, low and long howl noise, a burst of bright light flashes out of the creatures mouth and paralyzes any victim that looks into it. It'd been three years since our family had been dealing with the economic depression, my mother wanted to stay at our home in Stratton Missouri, where as my dad was insisting we move to Northern Minnesota and take up a job in a new location. After a lot of fighting and pain my parents wouldn't agree and came to a divorce, my mother took my twin sister, Lauren, and my dad got me. A month later after we packed up and tied together some loose ends, then, we moved to Twin Rocks Minnesota. We had found a decently large house to buy, in a neighborhood called Short Bush. I'll never forget the first time me and my dad had pulled into the driveway, it was pouring rain, covering the car windows, we sat in the car a while and looked at our new house where we would be living for a while. I notice, its the last house in its row, and there's an empty lot next to it with a large forest behind it. Its thundering and pouring rain out, and I look into the woods and I see this bright yellow light insanely lighting up the rest of the woods. My dad gets out of the car and starts unpacking and I'm sitting in the car still observing the woods, thinking about how my life will change. Noticing I see a man sprinting out of the woods at full speed, I get out of the car, slam it and yell for the man. He continues to our house, being the closest one. My dad goes and asks him whats wrong, and the man is bleeding severely from his head and side. He keeps murmuring about some bright flashes blinding him and how he awaken to cuts and blood and some animal gnawing at his side. He explained he managed to get away, but the man was in terrible condition, he was dieing of blood loss. I witnesses this man collapse before me on the ground and the rain washing away his blood, the life just gone from him. Police arrive to our house and we are questioned for about four hours. Turns out the man was a guy by the name Seth Mcmahill. He was a widow, his wife had mysteriously disappeared 5 years ago and no one had heard of her again and no one had figured out what happened. Apparently Seth had gone insane but had never consulted any doctors and lived alone for several years. Later that night on the news there was a report on this guy named Seth, apparently he had been obsessed with this being called The Lanturn and had written and drawn several pictures and notes on his wall about lights and beasts. Trying not to think about it, I turn off the news and go and finish unpacking. It'd been about a week and I finally got enrolled in school, at Arsisty High. All the kids and teachers never paid to much attention to me, I felt like I wasn't there. Then at lunch I had seen this kid sitting alone, he looked distressed, he had short brown hair, his hood had been up, and he'd had this scar going down his cheek. So I decided, this kid needed someone to talk to, I sit down at this table and hes not very talkative. So this kid named Brandon asks me about what had happened the other night. I sat there wondering, this stranger knows about the death of that crazy guy? After asking, apparently my name and house was in the news report and that's why everyone had been avoiding me, everyone thought I had something to do with him, and everyone knew his mental condition. So i decided to ask this strange kid about this old guy named seth,after several stories and tales, this guy had been talking and keeping track of this creature called "The Lanturn" and no one would listen to him. I got confused and asked about this creature called the lanturn, it made no sense to me, a lanturn? Brandon tells me all about this creature, it'd been sighted in Twin Rocks in the past few months and it releases burst of bright yellow light in forests, it paralyzes its prey and eats it soul. This kid kept rambling on about this thing. I found it strange he knew so much, So I had asked him if he wanted to come over and hang out sometime and explain to me about these myths and rumors, I was new and didn't really know anyone, and id get a good kick out of it. Brandon only lived down the street, and we were going to hang out the next day. My dad has gone off to a interview for his new job. So I decided I'll have Brandon come over and explain to me about this thing. After he arrives he pulls down his hood and puts down his bag. We go up to my room and he goes right to the window, its facing the woods, and he stares intently at it. I asked him why he was so fascinated with the woods and he told me its home to the lanturn, at this point I'm kind of freaked out. "So, what is this lanturn myth you keep bringing up?" I asked him, he explains to me its this tall, skinny, muscular creature that has the power to emit bright flashes of light and paralyze its victims. He says its real, so i jokingly ask him, hey lets go find it. Brandon stares at me and tells me no one can understand what The lanturn is capable of. He opens up his bag and pulls out a .44 magnum. I'm staring at him scared, thinking, "I let this crazy psycho into my house alone, and he has a gun.." Not saying anything he grabs me and brings me to the woods, I'm scared at this point, i asked him where were going and he says, were visiting a friend. The woods didn't feel right, it was calm, nothing was moving besides me, This kid with a gun, and my heart racing. we come up to a large hole in this mound in the ground. Brandon is shouting and yelling for this man named Colin. Out comes this tall man, scraggly man with a long bear and eye patch, he looks at me and Brandon, as if he knows what were thinking. Brandon tells me to go into Collin's home. were sitting around this fire in a pit in the middle of this trashy house dug into the ground. Colin says as plain as anything, "You know it knows your here" Brandon pipes up and says, "I know, that's the idea" I'm now sitting here excluding myself from these 2. Colin encourages us to go outside and go and leave him, before we left, Brandon and Colin had a conversation. I couldn't understand, I didn't hear anything they said. Colin goes back and resides in his hole, Brandon brings me into the thicker part of the woods, everything id dead here, its eerie and calm. no noises are made what so ever. Still holding the gun, Brandon throws down these glowing beads, I look at him confused, and he turns to me with this look on his face. He tells me the lanturn had taken his brother from him, and had killed his parents, he'd been living alone for two years now and is destined to get revenge on this evil thing. These beads he has, they're from the lanterns hair, they hang from the tips of the creatures thin hair, and every location where a person had died by the blinding light, behind a glowing bead was left, these beads were all that was left of his parents. The beads on the ground start to vibrate and then silence. Nothing is moving, and suddenly this amazing yellow light fills up the background of the woods, all I remember seeing is this light consume Brandon's body and this tall, thin pale brown looking creature with eyes black as night approach him, putting his hand on Brandon, his flesh burns a hole where hes being touched. Blood flows out of him, the lanturn tears a hole into the side of Brandon's face and side, still paralyzed by the blinding light, hes alien to the world, no more. Panicking I reach for the gun he had dropped, and then the creature stares at me, eyes black as night it starts to open its mouth. I turn and run, a low pitched long howl echoes through the woods, and then the whole forest fills with this flowing light. I cant move anything, my body empty, and then this tearing feeling rips into my back and leg. I awake to a hospital bed and nurse peering down on me, I don't know how I got there, or what happened to the lanturn, the doctor comes up to me. Tells me hes stitched me up, but found glowing beads in my deep gashes. he hands them to me, and I look at these things. All that's left of my encounter with the lanturn. I don't know how I got to that hospital or how I escaped. But no one ever heard of Brandon again, and the man in the woods no longer lived there. No longer going into those woods, although I still see a flash of bright light every now and then and think of what victim fall prey to The Lanturn.
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