"The Booga-Man" - Bahamas AI art
©A. Derek Catalano
The Booga-Man of Inagua: A Bahamian Folklore Mystery
Chapter 1: Shadows in the Dark
The island of Inagua, located in the southernmost reaches of the Bahamas, is a place of natural beauty, seclusion, and mystery. Surrounded by pristine waters and dense forests, the island's residents live a simple life, relying on fishing, small-scale farming, and the occasional visitor from Nassau. The settlement is tight-knit, everyone knowing everyone else. But it’s also a place of old legends — and none is more feared than the Booga-Man.
For years, the legend lived only in the whispers of the elderly. No one on Inagua had ever actually seen the Booga-Man, but the mere mention of his name was enough to make even the bravest children behave.
Chapter 2: The Headless Hens
It was on a humid night that Farmer Johnson awoke to a strange noise coming from his chicken coop. At first, it was just the soft clucking of the hens, but soon the sounds grew into a chaotic frenzy. Throwing on his boots and grabbing a lantern, Johnson rushed out to the coop, only to stop dead in his tracks when he saw the carnage before him.
Six of his prized egg-laying hens lay headless on the ground, their blood staining the earth. Feathers were scattered everywhere, carried on the night breeze. The sight chilled Johnson to his core. He had never seen anything like it. His chickens were well-kept and secured behind sturdy fences. No animals, wild or otherwise, had ever managed to get into the coop. Yet here they were, his precious hens, slaughtered in a manner so brutal and so unexplainable that it left him terrified.
With trembling hands, Farmer Johnson knelt beside one of the dead hens, trying to make sense of the scene. His first thought was that someone or something had intentionally done this — but what? His mind wandered to the old stories, the ones his grandmother used to tell him about the Booga-Man. He shook his head, trying to dismiss the thought, but the sense of dread gnawed at him all night.
Chapter 3: Sergeant McKinney Takes the Case
The next morning, a distraught Farmer Johnson made his way to the local police station. Sergeant McKinney, the head officer in the small settlement, was a heavy set, moustached, practical man. He had lived on Inagua his whole life and prided himself on maintaining law and order in his community. When Johnson burst into the station, afraid and shaken, McKinney knew something was amiss.
After hearing the farmer’s story, Sergeant McKinney accompanied him back to the coop to investigate. The sight was gruesome, even for a man like McKinney, who had seen his share of strange incidents. He examined the area carefully, looking for any tracks, signs of forced entry, or anything that could explain what had happened.
"Wild dogs," McKinney muttered after some time, though there was a touch of uncertainty in his voice. But as soon as the words left his lips, he knew in his mind that there were no wild dogs on Inagua. The island had always been free of such creatures. Still, there were no better explanations, and McKinney did not want to fan the flames of superstition. He wrote up a report and told Farmer Johnson to keep a close watch over his remaining chickens.
The matter, McKinney thought, would soon pass. But it didn't.
Chapter 4: Ma Fergie’s Terror
The following day, just as Sergeant McKinney was settling into his paperwork, the door to the police station burst open again. This time it was Ma Fergie, an elderly woman who lived alone on the outskirts of the settlement. Her eyes were wide with fear, and her hands trembled as she clutched the sides of her dress.
McKinney stood up and gently guided her to a chair. "Calm down now, Ma Fergie. What happened?"
Between deep breaths, Ma Fergie recounted her ordeal. She had been hanging clothes on the line behind her house when she heard rustling in the bushes. At first, she thought it might be the wind, but then the rustling grew louder, more deliberate. She turned to see a large, shadowy figure moving just beyond the edge of her backyard. It was huge, too large to be a person, and it made a strange, guttural sound.
Ma Fergie had heard the old stories, too. Without hesitation, she ran inside, locking the door behind her. She was certain the Booga-Man had come for her.
Sergeant McKinney took her story seriously, but when he investigated the bushes behind her house, he found nothing. No footprints, no signs of disturbance, nothing that would suggest a large creature had been lurking there. But McKinney’s unease was growing. He could feel something was wrong, and it wasn't just a figment of the elderly woman's imagination.
Chapter 5: Panic at the School
Another day when the children were in school, a boy seated by the window caught sight of something strange from the corner of his eye. He blinked, then leaned forward in disbelief. His eyes grew wide, his heart thudding in his chest as he took in the sight of a massive, hairy figure sprinting across the school’s playing field. The creature was unmistakable. "The Booga-Man!", he screamed and then everyone looked and saw the horrifying creature and was sure he had come to catch them and take them away. All the children in the island single-classroom school all screamed together.
Panic erupted. Children jumped from their seats, knocking over chairs and desks in their desperate attempt to flee. The doors flew open as the entire class poured out into the street, running as fast as their legs could carry them. Some sobbed uncontrollably, others shouted warnings to the adults they passed. Their only thought was to get home, to the safety of their parents, before the Booga-Man could snatch them away into the bushes.
Inside the now-empty classroom, the principal Miss Gibson, stood frozen in shock for a moment, unsure of what had just happened. But the children's terrified screams pulled her back to reality, and she rushed to the phone, her hands trembling as she dialed Sergeant McKinney. "Sergeant," she said, her voice shaking, "the children saw something... they think it’s the Booga-Man. Please, come quickly!"
Within minutes, Sergeant McKinney arrived at the school. He carefully inspected the school grounds, walking the length of the playing field where the creature had been seen, but once again, there were no signs of anything unusual. No footprints, no broken branches, no indication that something — or someone — had been there at all.
As the sun began to set, McKinney decided to visit a few of the children at their homes, hoping to gather more details. At each house, he found wide-eyed, trembling children who swore they had seen the Booga-Man with their own eyes. "It was running so fast," one girl said, clutching her mother’s hand. "It looked right at us!" another boy added, his voice shaking with fear. Their descriptions were consistent — the tall height, the wild hair, the grotesque face — all matching the folklore they had grown up hearing.
Despite the children's certainty, McKinney was still left puzzled.
Chapter 6: A Howl in the Night
That night, as Sergeant McKinney lay in bed, his thoughts raced. The events of the last few days played over and over in his mind. The slaughtered chickens, Ma Fergie’s terror, and the incident with the panicked shool children — it all seemed too coincidental to ignore. Could it be that the Booga-Man, the creature of nightmares from his childhood, did truly exist?
Suddenly, a piercing howl echoed through the night air. McKinney shot up from his bed, heart pounding. The sound was unlike anything he had ever heard before — a mix between a human scream and the growl of a wild animal.
Without thinking, he grabbed his flashlight and service firearm, threw on his pants and shirt, and rushed outside. The night was eerily quiet, save for the distant rustling of the trees. He scanned the area, his flashlight beam sweeping across the road. Then, far down the street, he saw it.
A massive, hulking figure, running swiftly through the shadows. McKinney’s breath caught in his throat. It was the Booga-Man, just as the stories described — tall, covered in hair, and moving with terrifying speed. He could barely make out the creature’s distorted, maniacal face before it disappeared into the bushes.
Sergeant McKinney stood frozen for several moments, the reality of what he had just witnessed sinking in. He had to act quickly.
Chapter 7: The Trap is Set
The next day, word of the sighting spread like wildfire through the settlement. People were frightened, some even locking themselves in their homes as night fell. McKinney, determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, gathered a group of trusted men from the community. They couldn't sit idly by while the island was gripped in fear.
"We have to catch this thing," McKinney said, his voice firm but cautious. "Whether it’s a wild animal or... something else, we can’t let it terrorize the settlement any longer."
Together, they devised a plan. The men would dig several deep pits around the outskirts of the settlement, covering them with tree limbs and leaves to disguise the traps. They would place bait, food scraps, and meat in and around the pits to lure the creature out of hiding.
It took two days to prepare, but by the end, the men were confident. All they had to do now was wait.
Chapter 8: The Capture of the Booga-Man
On the third day, one of the men came running to Sergeant McKinney’s house just before dawn, excitement in his voice.
“We got it! We caught the Booga-Man!”
McKinney quickly gathered his firearm and rushed to the pit where the creature had been trapped. A crowd had already formed, peering down into the hole. When McKinney arrived, he pushed his way to the front and looked down.
There, clawing desperately at the sides of the pit trying to climb out, was the creature. It was enormous, just as he had seen the night before, and covered in thick, matted hair. But something was off. As McKinney watched the beast struggle, he noticed how it flailed its arms wildly, and the sound it made wasn't a growl but something almost human.
He drew his firearm and aimed at the creature, ready to end the nightmare. But before he could fire, the creature raised its hairy arms and shouted, “Stop! Please don’t shoot me!”
The crowd gasped, and Sergeant McKinney froze, his finger hovering over the trigger. The Booga-Man could talk?
McKinney signaled two of the men to climb down into the pit and apprehend the creature. They hesitated at first but eventually grabbed hold of its arms. One of the men pulled at the Booga-Man's head, and to everyone's astonishment, the "creature's" head came off.
Beneath the mask was not some monster of legend, but a man. And not just any man — it was Jack Bullard, a real estate agent from Nassau who had been visiting Inagua for months, trying to convince the locals to sell their properties.
Chapter 9: The Truth Behind the Legend
Once at the police station, Jack Bullard confessed everything. Desperate to acquire land for a major tourist development project, Bullard had devised a plan to scare the islanders into abandoning their homes. By dressing as the Booga-Man, he hoped to revive the old legends and drive the islanders into a panic, convincing them to sell their properties for cheap.
He had even gone so far as to break into Farmer Johnson's coop and kill the chickens to heighten the terror.
The community was in shock. For weeks, they had been living in fear of a myth, only to discover that the monster was nothing more than a greedy businessman in disguise. Jack Bullard was charged with causing mischief and animal cruelty and was taken back to Nassau to face the consequences of his actions.
Chapter 10: Peace Restored
With Bullard gone and the mystery of the Booga-Man solved, peace slowly returned to the settlement on Inagua. The proposed tourist development was canceled, and life resumed its quiet, steady pace. The elders still told stories of the Booga-Man, but now those stories were tempered with a lesson about the dangers of greed and manipulation.
As for Sergeant McKinney, he remained the community's steadfast protector, knowing that while some legends are born from fear, others are created by the human heart’s darker desires. And sometimes, it is the real people — not the monsters — who pose the greatest threat.
In the end, the Booga-Man was laid to rest once and for all, and the people of Inagua could once again sleep soundly, knowing that their island was their own.
©A. Derek Catalano/ChatGPT
