Sent in anonymously…
I can’t remember when this happened exactly, I was in my early teens so perhaps 30 years ago 1986-ish. I was woken not long after going to sleep, it was late but my folks were still awake so it was probably 11-11:30 or thereabouts.
There was a knock at the door, a loud rapid knock, my dad answered, it was all very worrying at that time of night we lived in the quiet Lake District in the UK, and no one ever called round that late. So, I was woken up when my dad went down to the door. I peered through the railings at the top of the stairs, the door opened and my brother was stood there. He had to knock because he was shaking and couldn’t get it together enough to use his key. He was very upset and pale, he pushed past my dad and ran to the toilet where he threw up, dad noticed his girlfriend in the car in tears. Dad brought his girlfriend in and once everyone had settled down my brother relayed his account of what had happened.
Apparently on the Brigsteer road, a heavily wooded area with no houses they had rounded a bend and proceeded into a dip in the road, his girlfriend was looking in the parcel shelf for a tape. My brother slammed on the brakes… and the car slid to a halt and he said, did you see that? But she had not.
What he described still chills me to this day. Something in the road, which he thought was a large black dog was picking at roadkill, as his headlights hit it it looked at him, it had very bright eye shine, an amber colour. It stood up to its full height, about 6-7 feet and unfolded giant black wings, it shot straight up at speed and disappeared into the darkness. This creature was bat-like, not the feathered variety sometimes reported. Leathery, no fur.
My brother put his foot down as he was worried it was above the car. He drove very fast home, and his girlfriend was terrified to tears. We went back in the day light a few days later, and there was the trace of a rabbit roadkill on the road but it had almost disappeared. We could find no other traces. It certainly scared him and me to be honest, for a good many years. We lost my dad a few years ago, but my mum and brother remember it well.