Decemystery (2020) 14: The Creature in the Dining Room

 

Top of the morning to you, dear reader, from the United States. Today’s mystery is going to be a unique one as it won’t be something you’ve heard of—unless you’re friends with me. That’s because it’s a personal story; a mystery that has perplexed me for a large portion of my life. I’ve always referred to it as the creature in the dining room. That’s because I saw it in my dining room and it was some sort of creature. I know, top tier naming. Anyways, let’s get right into it.

The Story

This story took place sometime in the early-to-mid 2000s. If I had to hazard a guess, it was probably 2002, but don’t take my word for that as it could’ve easily been 1999.

What I do remember is that, as I was playing on the rug with what I believe were some toys, I looked into the dining room. For visual context: when you enter my house, the dining room is to your right and the living room is to your left. Anyways, when I looked ahead, there was something peeking around the corner at me. It was draconian in a way or akin to an iguana, but it was quite large—about the size of a Great Dane. It was grey and had no pupils; its eyes were jet black.

And that’s… all I remember. Everything after that is blank; I don’t remember what I did, where I went, or if anyone else ever saw it. The memory begins and ends at: creepy looking thing looked at me. I don’t remember panicking, I don’t remember saying anything, and I don’t remember so much as acknowledging the entity’s presence.

For all intents and purposes, the creature may as well have been Ronald McDonald with some diabetes.

So that’s really the story. It was about as nonchalant as can be in spite of how terrifying it should have been in hindsight. So with that miniature story out of the wya, how about we jump into the theories that I have? I mean, hey, not every story is going to be a grandiose 4,000 word write-up. Don’t judge me, this is exhausting to do.

Theories

1. It was an interdimensional creature

The first theory I have is the one that I think /x/ would jump to: it was a creature from another dimension. As silly as it may seem, the idea that terrifying monsters can pop up in our world is one that’s really popular in certain corners of not only the Internet, but the entire world. Exactly how well it’ll stack up in practice though is an entirely different story. WIth no way to prove or disprove it, it ends up in a gridlock of sorts and I think it’s best if we move on before we end up in a logic loop of some sort.

2. It was a hallucination

As a child, I was sick—a lot. I had strep throat numerous times, the flu, sinus infections, colds, and just about everything that a child could realistically get. Nowadays, I still get ill. It sucks; as I write this, I’m quite sick. It really sucks. Did I mention it sucks? Yeah, it sucks.

Anyways, there was a time when I had strep throat and had a fever of 105.3; I ended up hallucinating about a man painting on the ceiling. Earlier that day, I had been reading about Michaelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel. Why a 7-year-old was reading about that, I don’t know. I was a strange kid and I’m now a strange 24-year-old.

There was a movie clip from an advertisement on a VHS tape I had that I vividly recall from when I was younger where a child said “look at what I found!” before a grey draconian creature peeked around from a corner and stared; a woman then screamed and it cut to something else. I always thought that the creature I saw there was what I saw in my dining room and that I hallucinated it when I had a fever.

Alas, I can’t remember the film in question, I don’t own a VHS player, and I cannot for the life of me even remember what VHS tape it was on. All I remember is that it had the Happy Days theme playing and that advertisement is what made me fall in love with that theme song. Still, this remains my favorite theory, but there are others I have.

3. It was a nightmare

I’ve had some really bizarre nightmares in my life—some more bizarre than others. I’ve had dreams about creatures made of muddy water balloons that woke me up, evil dogs, demons, the world ending, and the Yellowstone caldera being under my local mall. At the same time, I’ve had pleasant ones too, but never can I say that I’ve dreamt of something like this. At least, not that I can remember. In spite of that, given how often I was sick as a child, I guess it could’ve been a weird fever dream.

4. It was my Golden Retriever

At the time I saw this creature, my family owned a Golden Retriever named Harley (my father desperately wanted a Harley Davidson Motorcycle and my mom refused to let him get one; the compromise was a dog named Harley). Now, Harley was a really good boy—he was protective of me and even in his final days, he loved everyone that wasn’t a cat he mauled. Might I just say: good boy; I’m not too fond of cats.

My dwindling readerbase aside because of what I just said aside, I’ve always pondered if maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me and what I saw was Harley peeking around to check up on me as he was napping. Alas, I can’t exactly explain why a Golden Retriever would look like an Iguana. Maybe my memory is worse than I thought?

5. It was an alien

I honestly don’t believe this, I just wanted to add this in to tease my close friends. Hi, guys!

6. It’s a false memory

This is a theory that I, once again, don’t believe, but I feel obligated to include it because it’s nevertheless possible. Given how often in stories like this there’s always the possibility that the person is misremembering what really happened or outright never experienced it and is fabricating it because of how imperfect memory is, it stands to reason that the entire thing never happened and it’s just my faulty self being, well, faulty. Wouldn’t be the first time it happened. I’ve sworn up and down that someone once told me something that they never did!

My Take

I’ve never really been able to settle on a theory, but if I were forced to pick one, I’d say it was a hallucination. I’ve had them before when sick and given the period in my life I recall this taking place, I think it’s plausible that I likely had a high fever and thought I saw something scary. At the same time, I can’t disprove the idea that some sort of freak show from another dimension tottled on over to my house to give me a big scare.

Conclusion

My life is, by and large, mundane when it comes to unexplained mysteries. Though this one I thought would be fun to share with you all. Tell me what you thought; it’d mean a lot to know your take on what I saw, dear reader!