You’re walking home late in the evening, just as the sun is going down, and as the colors of daylight begin to be replaced by dark grays and the absence of light, you’re reminded of how shadows always seem to get the longest—and darkest—just before nightfall. You see all this, and acknowledge the slight, sudden chill in the air as you feel individual hairs prickling under your clothes. As your apprehension grows, you catch yourself smiling, laughing at your own tendency to fall prey to your worst fears, however silly they may seem. You then assure yourself that the movement you see off to the side, just out of your line of sight, is merely an illusion.

Try to assure yourself it’s nothing. After all, shadows are merely outlines of solid objects; opaque, fleeting references to their ultimate source, rather than the objects themselves. So what if the shadow ahead looks like a creature leering at you from the darkness, or a strange freak with a top hat, peeking around a corner? Surely it’s only your eyes playing tricks, right?

Author Jason Offutt would beg to differ with such sound sentimentalities, opting to express instead the absolute fantastic. Though he does so bravely, he assures us that he approaches the subject of actual shadow entities or “shadow people” from a journalistic perspective, “allowing others—experts, victims, willing participants—to tell their stories”. Oh, and what stories they tell.

Offutt’s latest book, Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us, looks at the phenomenon collectively known for the last few decades as “shadow people” with new clarity, and perhaps even gives us the first complete work dedicated solely to the phenomenon. Referencing everything from classical works like those of Guy de Maupassant, to popular modern mediums like the late-night radio program Coast to Coast AM, Offutt illustrates vividly for us that darkness doesn’t just walk; it thrives in the absence of light and in virtually all walks of life, proliferated by entities we neither know well or understand, who seem to watch us with a fascination that mirrors the fear we inevitably show them.

Fortunately, Offutt doesn’t take a traditional “campfire” approach to his work, recounting listlessly report after report, as told to him in unverifiable stories. Instead, Offutt points out unique aspects of people’s encounters with shadow people that include “buzzing sounds” heard by witnesses, which mirror audible phenomenon associated with everything from UFO abductions to the kinds of high-powered psychoactive experiences described in the work of psychedelic researcher Rick Strassman; tying together for us unforeseen amounts of loose ends that seem to comprise the “high strangeness” associated with ghostly phenomenon. Similarly, Offutt devotes an entire chapter to the discussion of Ouija boards, and how this seemingly harmless object (erroneously—and perhaps foolishly—marketed as a child’s toy in recent years) can allow one to invite evil and potential danger into their lives.

One particular encounter that I found close-to-the-heart was what Offutt classifies under his categorization of a “hat man”—that is, a shadow who appears wearing a hat, in a bed and breakfast near Carthage, Missouri. The ghost in this locale appeared to the witnesses wearing a derby; similarly, when my own research into the paranormal was still in its infancy, I once spent all night in a haunted country club searching for a ghost who wore a derby. I would never have thought to liken my own long-sought specter to Offutt’s shadow people, although I must admit that reports detailing the horrific, empty eye sockets of the old country club’s ghost now have me considering otherwise.

Another unique element described in the book has to do with entities that have devilish-looking red eyes. Offutt even makes references to “shadow cats” which bear the same sort of glaring orifices, detailing a variety of reports in which frightening looking entities appear to torment their “victims”. Elsewhere, Offutt details physical abuses suffered by people who have been unfortunate enough to have crossed paths with a malevolent being. In some instances, victims report being choked, while others describe horrific circumstances where such frightening entities paralyze them, only to move in close, stare, and issue intimidating orders at them in deep, demonic voices. Some of the manifestations appear as silhouetted “orbs” that glide through the air, others demon-dogs, and still others appear as mischievous devils who mock their victims.

Needless to say, Darkness Walks makes for more than just an interesting read about a peculiar subject, which, until now, has been given less than ample focus for study. In fact, the book provides an eerie window into the lives of others like us who, under perhaps the most frightening circumstances imaginable, have managed to accept their fears, and even learn from them. Be that as it may, I have taken away from this reading one thing for certain; I may never glance down a darkened alleyway again with my usual careless disregard, having been made aware now of the shadows that could be watching. In fact, for all we know, they may not simply watch from the shadows… they could be lurking all around any of us at any time, even as we sleep. Sweet dreams…

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