Ghosts & Hauntings

'Slender Man' sightings haunt Cannock Chase

By T.K. Randall
January 28, 2015

Image: AI-generated (Bing AI / Dall-E 3) Despite being a fictional character dreamt up by a user on an Internet forum back in 2009, Slender Man seems to have had no problem getting around over the last couple of months.

Now he appears to have taken up residence in the already notoriously haunted Cannock Chase area of Staffordshire where visitors have reported everything from poltergeist activity to sightings of black-eyed children.

"While taking a midnight stroll around Castle Ring last Friday morning, I happened to notice a strange figure in the distance," said one witness. "It appeared to rise out of the trees and hover over the path around 100m in front of me... it had blood red eyes that shone in the night sky."

The mysterious figure was also encountered by a resident of nearby Pye Green."I was awoken just before 2am by an odd scratching noise in my bedroom," they said. "To my astonishment, there was what seemed like a sphere-shaped shadow by the edge of my wardrobe."

"It was at that point I found myself faced with the most disgusting and horrific creature imaginable. It was about eight feet tall and had a white face with razor-sharp fangs."

Several of the reports have centered around a witness seeing the figure in their bedroom at night and finding themselves unable to move or call for help. These particular similarities however could be evidence of something else entirely - the phenomenon known as sleep paralysis.

"There are reports of Slender Men seemingly pinning victims down, as if sitting on their chest," said Lee Brickley who has been investigating the reports. "That could well be down to sleep paralysis."

The sheer number of such sightings occurring around the same time and within the same small area of the country however suggests that the reports cannot be quite so easily dismissed.

Source: Stoke Sentinel

Tags: Slender Man, Cannock Chase