From the Show Paranoia and Rage, a late night show with a mix of organized labor politics (the rage), and UFO’s + cryptids (the Paranoia) with a some sick synthwave beats.
In the shadow‑laden hills of rural Tennessee, a chilling legend stalks the night. Linda, a lifelong mountain resident, recounts a terrifying encounter with a “self‑described black thing” — a pitch‑black, four‑legged beast that drags clumps of fur across the forest floor and lets out a blood‑curdling, human‑like scream. She first spots it while playing near the old highway that cuts through her hometown, hides among blueberry bushes, and watches the creature freeze at the road’s edge, as if the pavement itself repels it. Over the years, the eerie wail becomes a nightly soundtrack for the whole community, with neighbors reporting sightings and the same unearthly howl echoing through the woods. The monster never crosses the concrete highway, retreating instead into the tangled mountain trails, leaving locals to wonder whether it’s a cursed animal, a restless spirit, or something far stranger. The tale blends raw fear with a haunting mystery, inviting listeners to imagine what prowls just beyond the lights of civilization.
“When the night screams, the mountains answer—listen to the legend that refuses to cross the road.”
Transcript of Video
0:00: UnionBell: You're listening to WUSC FM in HD1 Columbia, and I'm here with Linda. And Linda had an encounter with a, a, a self-described black thing. Linda, where are you from and can you tell us the story?
0:15: Linda: I'm from the mountains in Tennessee. And when I was younger, this happened to me whenever I was out playing. It was so far back in the country that the last highway crossed right in front of our house, and beyond that, it was mostly mountains. When I was out playing on the other side of the road. This creature started screaming and coming after me, and it looked like some sort of super mangy. Cougar, but it was pitch black.
0:53: UnionBell: So, the dark like a cougar, was on 4 legs, 2 legs, 6 like, like, what can you describe the creature?
0:59: Linda: It was on 4 legs, but it had fur like falling from it, so it had like this bunch of fur that was just dragging kind of on the ground and it screamed like a lady.
1:18: UnionBell: So, it's a four-legged creature, deep black, shedding fur, dragging clumps of fur behind, and it screamed like a human.
1:27: Linda: It did.
1:28: UnionBell: What happened?
1:30: Linda: Well, I tried to hide behind the blueberry bushes that were on that side of the highway, cause that's where my uncle lived. It was right behind his house. He lived on that side of the road. Well, I ran down to the highway and crossed and tried to get back to our house, but it was the strangest thing. It stopped right there at the edge of the road and just stared. I don't know if maybe it was scared of the highway. Maybe it was an animal that had been hit before. Or what, but it did not sound like an animal.
2:05: UnionBell: It sounded like a lady when it, it would make a lady scream.
2:09: Linda: Yes, it would scream like a lady.
2:12: UnionBell: So, you're hiding in the blueberry bushes.
2:14: Linda: I had run from the blueberry bushes down to down to cross the road before it got too close, and I just stared at it for a little while, but it disappeared back into the woods. But at night, like if you went out around the house, you'd hear it screaming.
2:29: UnionBell: So, you'd hear a woman screaming. From then on.
2:32: Linda: Mhm. It continued for years. You'd hear it randomly screaming, and it'd be up and down like different areas that are on that side of the road, but it would never cross the road. The neighbors reported it. Our neighbors up and down, like it was a bit spacey. It's like miles away were our neighbors, but they would report sights of this creature. Before I had seen it, people in my family had seen it. And other people in the neighborhood had seen it.
2:59: UnionBell: And that was their name for it.
3:00: Linda: That was their name for it. If we have no idea where it came from or where it's headed, it just stays right there in the mountains.
3:08: UnionBell: But it never crosses.
3:11: Linda: Never goes further than the last highway. It'll go like around the dirt roads and the gravel roads, but it will not cross solid concrete roads.
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