A woman from Illinois shares her chilling lifelong encounters with a cloaked, Predator-like being—first as a child near Cahokia Mounds and later as an adult outside her apartment. From shimmering, heatwave-like distortions to unsettling clicking sounds, her story echoes other mysterious sightings of invisible humanoids, leaving her to wonder if anyone else has faced these hidden watchers.

"This is 100% true, and it’s tough for me to share because every time I’ve tried to tell someone about it, I get laughed at and accused of just trying to pull their leg. I recently came across an article about a woman who was hunting and saw an invisible or cloaked creature that she described as being almost like the "Predator" from the movie of the same name. I read her story and saw the picture she took of this "Predator." Personally, I think the image is a combination of lens flare from the sun and a close-up of possibly her face or something similar. However, I’m not dismissing her story; in fact, I relate to it because I, too, have had a similar encounter, which is what prompted me to see if anyone else has encountered something like a "predator" in the woods. Now, on to my encounter:

When I was about five years old, I was playing at the edge of the woods behind my grandmother's house. I played there often, and my grandma kept an eye on me from the kitchen or living room, as the house had huge windows that faced the woods. She would come out every once in a while to check on what I was up to. I was obsessed with digging in the dirt and collecting unusual rocks and arrowheads that littered the land where my grandmother lived. I should mention that this is in Midwest Illinois, not too far from Cahokia Mounds, so finding arrowheads was actually quite common.

Anyway, that day I remember picking a spot to dig. I had been out there for quite a while, and I had a pretty decent-sized hole going when something caught my eye up in the tree next to me. It was hard to explain, but it looked almost like a heatwave coming off the branch. I distinctly remember it was fall—I was wearing my pink jacket and thought my mom would be upset because I had dirt on the sleeves from digging. There were also many leaves scattered on the ground.

As I stared at this "heatwave," I realized it had a human shape. At five years old, I was wondering why there was an invisible man in the tree. I felt scared but also unsure of what to do. Then it started moving and making a faint clicking sound. That’s when I decided I shouldn't be seeing this, and I quickly ran back to the house. My grandmother noticed I was shaken, and I remember telling her that I had just seen an angel. In my five-year-old mind, I couldn’t think of anything else it could be. I had never heard of aliens, ghosts, or monsters, so to me, it had to be an angel.

Fast forward to when I was about twelve years old. By this time, the encounter was far from my mind. I loved watching action and sci-fi movies. One day, my dad rented a movie called "Predator." While watching it with him, the first time you see the invisible or cloaked Predator, I was terrified. All the memories from that day of digging in the dirt came flooding back. I even asked my dad if the Predator was real or if he knew of any animal or creature with a cloaking ability that I didn't know about. He told me it was all fake. Back then, it wasn’t like today, where I could just Google it; I had no access to the internet, so I once again pushed it out of my mind.

Fast forward to around the year 2004: I was an adult with three small children. After recently separating from my husband, I moved with my kids to an apartment in the next town over. These apartments were all single-level duplexes, and there were five buildings in total. I lived in the very last apartment of the previous building. Although the flats were considered "in town," they were situated on the outskirts.

Behind the buildings, there was a deep ditch separated from our backyard by a chain-link fence. On our side of the wall, there were about six or seven trees. If you followed the ditch a short distance, you would reach a small forest that eventually led to the countryside, with larger forests and farmland beyond.

I was a smoker, but didn’t smoke in the apartment because of the kids, so I often stepped out to the back porch for a cigarette.

One night, I was up late doing laundry after the kids had gone to bed. I decided to take a smoke break before heading to sleep. While on the porch, I began to hear a faint clicking sound. Since I had seen a groundhog in the ditch a few days earlier, I looked there, thinking it might be out again. An outside light near the playground dimly lit the yard to the right of my porch. I didn’t turn on my porch light; I usually didn’t if I was going out for a quick smoke.

Not seeing any groundhog or movement in the ditch, I continued smoking. The faint clicking noise persisted, and a slight movement drew my attention to the tree to the left of my porch. There it was—the exact invisible figure I had seen when I was five. It was a distortion in a humanoid shape, crouched down on a branch with one arm holding onto the trunk of the tree. I couldn’t believe it. My thoughts raced: "Is this really happening? Is it here to harm me for seeing it all those years ago?”

All I could think about was my kids sleeping in the apartment. I rushed inside, slammed the door, and locked it. I ran to check the kids' rooms, making sure all the windows were closed, and then I turned off the lights in the living room, staring out the blinds at the tree, hoping to catch another glimpse of it. I sat there for a good ten minutes but couldn’t see anything.

Just as I was starting to convince myself that I was just tired and imagining things, my neighbor's dog came running across the yard, barking at the same branch where I had seen the "Predator." This startled me because the dog was not a barker; I had never heard it bark at anything, not even the groundhog that had been hanging around the ditch. The barking continued for a few minutes until I listened to the neighbor call the dog back inside. The dog reluctantly turned to go home, stopping every few feet to look back at the tree branch until it was out of my sight.

I didn’t sleep that night and have never seen anything like it again. I don’t know what to make of it. I am a grown woman with kids and a promising career. I want to know if anyone else has experienced anything similar. I know what I saw, believe it or not. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I’m about two hours from Carbondale." T