Perhaps the most horrible creature of them all was known as Spring-heeled Jack, a monster who terrorized London and its suburbs in the 1800s. The strange monster seemed to be able to change forms at will. Sometimes he was a white bull. Other times he appeared as a bear or an enormous baboon. According to one report, he even wore a strange metallic armor.

Despite which form he chose, Spring-heeled Jack displayed one incredible talent-he could leap to great heights or over great distances. That talent allowed him to spring upon his victims quickly, before they knew what hit them. And, after he had attacked them, it allowed him to escape in seconds.

Most of those who were attacked by Spring-heeled Jack died of their wounds. Those who didn't went crazy afterwards. However, one London woman survived her encounter with the hideous creature. Her story serves as a vivid warning to others who might be fooled by a creature's evil deceptions.

A cold and bitter wind blew in London and Kate Youngs decided to skip the theater that evening. The weather was not the only reason to stay indoors.Ruors raged about a horrible creature, a creature known by the odd name of Spring-heeled Jack. Loose on the streets of London, the creature attacked its victims suddenly, springing upon them from behind, and then scratching and beating them. Then he would disappear just as quickly, leaving them to await help-or death.

Thinking about the tales made Kate shiver. Kate had heard that just two nights ago Macy Luis and her sister had been attacked at the entrance to Bluebird Alley. The newspaper reported that the monster had breathed fire onto Macy's face and had burned her mouth and lips. Both women had been taken to a hospital, where they began to have violent fits. Neither woman was able to tell authorities exactly what had happened. Both could recall only basic details.

Kate tried not to think about the stories as she sat in front of the fire at her parents' home. She knew her sisters, Mary and Sarah, were safe upstairs reading in their rooms. But Kate was older and she liked to stay up late, writing in her journal.

Suddenly, Kate heard a sound that made her jump. It was a loud and boisterous knocking at the front gate. "That's strange," Kate said aloud to herself. "It's an odd time of night for visitors." Then she heard someone call out, "I'm a policeman. I need your help!"

Kate walked to the front door and opened it just a crack. At the gate that blocked the house from the street was a gentleman dressed as a policeman. He wore a long, black cloak with a hood, which was typical of this time period.

"Bring me a light!" the man shouted in an official-sounding voice. "We've got Spring-heeled Jack in the lane. And hurry!" Kate shut the door and went looking for a candle. What a relief, she thought to herself. Spring-heeled Jack has finally been caught. Now it will be safe to go out at night again!

Kate lit the candle, cupped it with her hand to protect it from the wind, and headed out the door to help the policeman. She decided she would hand him the candle and let him go about his business of taking the creature away. Kate knew she didn't want to see the monster.

She got close to to the gate and handed the candle through the grating to the policeman. Immediately, he flung his cloak aside. Kate gasped. He wasn't a policeman at all. Standing directly in front of her on the other side of the gate was a strange-looking creature.

He wore a large helmet-like hat on his head. On his body, he wore a skin-tight suit of a white material. Large bloodshot eyes bulged from the eye holes in his helmet. Before Kate could turn and run, the creature spit blue and white flames at her face. Kate could feel the heat just inches from her skin. Although the flames did not touch her face, she smelled a hideous stench of smoke and flesh.

Her heart pounding, Kate tried to scream, but she couldn't make a sound. Then the thing poked its long, talon-like fingers through the metal grating and began tearing at her dress. Kate was desperate. She tried to run, but the thing had one of its hands grasped tightly around her arm. The other hand raked sharp claws across her face.

Kate swallowed hard and tried once again to scream. This time, a long, bloodcurdling scream came from her constricted throat. The creature grabbed at her more furiously, trying to pull her through the gate. Blood and tears ran down Kate's face. She screamed again, a scream borne of fear and pain.

Suddenly she felt hands pull her from the other direction. Mary and Sarah pulled her away from the creature and toward the house. But the creature was stronger than they were. It pulled her closer and closer against the gate. Kate could feel the heat from its mouth.

Finally, Sarah and Mary yanked her free. They ran with her crumpled body in their arms into the house and shut the door. Inside, they tended to Kate's wounds and hoped that she would not suffer any longer-lasting emotional damage.

But Kate wasn't Spring-heeled Jacks's only victim that night. The next day, the newspaper reported that just down the block the body of another woman had been found. Her face had been scratched repeatedly and her hair was singed by fire. An unnamed source said the woman had responded to a call from someone outside her house-someone who had claimed to be a policeman.

Only he wasn't a policeman. He was Spring-heeled Jack in the same disguise he had used to fool Kate Youngs. For several years after, reports of Spring-heeled Jack's horrible attacks continued to appear in the London papers. Every time Kate read one of them, she realized how lucky she had been to escape with her life.

Then the reports suddenly stopped-as if Spring-heeled Jack had dies or had gone into hiding. Nevertheless, Kate could not rest easy. She couldn't help wondering if the horrible creature was still out there, somewhere, waiting to trick its next victim into a hideous encounter-an encounter that would surely end in death. Any closer and Kate could have been doomed. Just think if her sisters had not been there, poor Kate would have been done for for sure.

Then, one dreary night in London, it happened again. The Spring-heeled Jack had claimed its next victim. She was terribly scratched up and bleeding heavily and she was even burned all up her arms. She would have lived if the Spring-heeled Jack had not "accidentally" (if a creature can actually be sorry for something) scratched her life-giving artery in her neck. As soon as it had realized what it had done and that his victim was quickly dying of blood loss he fled the scene by its most conventional method-springing away.

Kate realized that if her family or anyone else in London was ever attacked or threatened by this monstrosity that she would personally kill the beast. That's a promise, she says to herself. But, the beast already had a victim in mind and that would be Kate's very own sister Sarah. Sarah was attacked by Spring-heeled Jack at night when she came home from a friend's house. When Sarah had recovered from her ordeal, Kate went into the living room of her small house that she shared with her parents.

"That's it!", she announces to everyone in the room. "I'm AM going to kill that hideous creature once and for all." Her parents immediately protested. "Honey, you can't honestly believe that you even stand a chance against the Spring-heeled Jack after what he did to you. It knows your face." Kate quickly responded by saying that it had claimed to many lives and attacked her family one too many times.

Kate threw on her father's hunting gear and totally made herself look like a combat hero only with shotguns and revolvers and belt daggers. She then goes outside and immediately hears the sound of a woman screaming in pain. Kate runs toward the source of the sound and comes face to face with Spring-heeled Jack.

It growls, remembering her in the way that she had survived his attack and wanting revenge. It hadn't even begun to hurt the other person. Kate slashed out with her knives and struck it in the chest and arms until it breathed its molten fire breath that melted her daggers into useless pieces of metal. She then equipped herself with the shot gun and shot it in the chest and face, effectively making it bleed which it had not experienced before and felt kind of humiliated and wanted nothing more than just to kill Kate.

Kate then used her last two bullets to silence the creature once and for all with a shot to the neck and head. As it fell to the floor, it decayed and withered into a husk of dead skin and clothes. Kate then asked if the woman had been hurt in any way possible and then filed a report to the police showing where the creature had been killed. The police had made a report about it to send to the news. There wasn't much to report though, just a would-be victim and an ordinary hero that had also been a victim of the infamous Spring-heeled Jack.