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It's not real...totally...not...real.
Location: Flatwoods, West Virginia
Description: Measuring between seven and ten feet tall, the Flatwoods Monster has a dark body with a skirt-like exoskeleton and a diamond-shaped head. Some claim it doesn't have appendages, but others say it has "long stringy arms protruding from the front of its body, with long, claw-like fingers."
Why You'll Lose Sleep: The Flatwoods Monster was discovered by three brothers who said they saw something bright shoot across the sky and then land in the hills. A search party went into the woods, and after smelling a "pungent mist," they saw a creature that allegedly "bounded toward them." Several days after fleeing, members of the group experienced similar symptoms — nose irritation and throat swelling — and one of them experienced vomiting and convulsions.
Location: Philippines
Description: The Manananggal is a "hideous" woman with bat-like wings who is described as being capable of severing and reattaching herself at her upper torso and taking flight.
Why You'll Lose Sleep: The Manananggal is said to use its "elongated proboscis-like tongue to suck the hearts of fetuses, or the blood of someone who is sleeping." It shares characteristics with vampires, such as its vulnerability to garlic.
Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Description: The monster is said to be a human-goat hybrid.
Why You'll Lose Sleep: One rumor says the Pope Lick Monster is a mistreated "circus freak" who escaped after a train derailed on the trestle. He allegedly vowed his revenge and now terrorizes those who venture onto the tracks. He has been rumored to use voice mimicry or hypnosis to lure them onto the trestle to "meet their death before an oncoming train." Other stories claim he either uses a blood-stained ax to attack his victims or jumps down from the trestle to prey on the moving cars underneath.
Location: Bishopville, South Carolina
Description: The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp is a 7-foot-tall biped with lizard-like skin, three fingers on each hand, three toes on each foot, long black nails, and red eyes. It's also said to be extremely strong.
Why You'll Lose Sleep: Christopher Davis was changing his tire on the outskirts of the Scape Ore Swamp at 2 a.m. when he says a monster grabbed the door handle of his car and then jumped onto the roof. When he got home, he saw that his side-view mirror was damaged and that he had scratch marks on the roof of his car. Two weeks after the sighting, police were called to investigate another car vandalism — this time it appeared as if parts of the molding of a car "had actually been chewed, as if an animal had used its teeth to inflict the damage." Later, plaster casts were made of mysterious three-toed tracks, which "neither matched, nor could be mistaken for, the footprints of any recorded animal."
Location: Pine Barrens, New Jersey
Description: The Jersey Devil is described to have the head of a goat, giant bat wings, horns, small arms, hooves, and a forked tail.
Why You'll Lose Sleep: As legend goes, a woman named Mother Leeds became pregnant with her 13th child, who she cursed to be the Devil. In 1735, when she gave birth to the child, it morphed into a hideous creature, killed the midwife, and flew up the chimney, screaming. Since then, there have been many rumored sightings, such as when police "fired on the creature to no effect" after it allegedly terrorized a trolley car.
Location: As far north as Maine and as far south as Chile.
Description: Rumor has it the Chupacabra is around 3 to 4 feet tall and has spines growing down its back from the neck to the tail.
Why You'll Lose Sleep: The first Chupacabra attack allegedly happened in Puerto Rico in 1995, when eight sheep were found dead. They were discovered with "three puncture wounds in the chest area and completely drained of blood." But who needs their blood, amirite?
Location: Gobi Desert, Asia
Description: The Mongolian Death Worm is described as a thick-bodied worm between 2 and 5 feet long.
Why You'll Lose Sleep: The worm is said to live deep underground in the Gobi Desert. It can either spray its victims with metal-corroding venom or disable them with an electric discharge. Some believe "touching any part of the worm will cause almost instant death and tremendous pain." Several expeditions have been made to locate the worm, but none have been successful.
Location: The Florida Everglades
Description: The Skunk Ape is a large gorilla-like biped with long brown hair and the face of an orangutan. Both its appearance and "unpleasant odor" contribute to its name.
Why You'll Lose Sleep: In the 1960s and '70s, reports came forward of a "foul-smelling, hairy, ape-like creature, who ran upright on two legs" prowling neighborhoods of Dade County, Florida. In 2000, two photos were received by the Sarasota County sheriff by an anonymous woman who reported seeing a strange creature come onto her porch on three different nights to steal apples.
Location: Ireland
Description: The Dobhar-chú is a half dog, half otter/fish hybrid.
Why You'll Lose Sleep: A recent reporting of the Dobhar-chú was in 2003, when a fisherman and his wife claimed to have seen a "large dark creature" that "made a haunting screech." However, the most terrifying tale of the creature comes from the 17th century when a woman was washing clothes in the Glendale loch. Her husband rushed to her aid after hearing bloodcurdling screams and found she was dead, "with the Dobhar-chú upon her bloody and mutilated body."
Location: Point Pleasant, West Virginia
Description: The Mothman, as the name suggests, is a large creature with red eyes, wings, and claws.
Why You'll Lose Sleep: In 1966, two different couples in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, claimed they saw a large flying man with 10-foot-long wings and glowing eyes. Then, in 1967, a bridge collapsed and took 46 lives, which led people to connect the Mothman sightings to the incident. Mothman has since become a local legend for the residents of Point Pleasant, where there is a statue and museum in its honor.