This event has stuck with me throughout my life. This happened when I was in middle school and now being 23 years old, I still remember it vividly.
I used to live in this house from 4th grade to my high school graduation. For most of my younger life living there, I had a loft bed in my room. I also was lucky enough to be given a room with the walk-in closet since I had more clothing than my sister. This closet had a light switch on the outside and a lock on the inside of the door, at some point if I remember correctly I even put a lock on the wall so I could lock it from the outside, I’m not sure why now. Either way, I was very strict about sleeping with it closed every night.
One night I was sleeping on the loft bed and had been woken up on my back, I had always been a stomach sleeper so this was already weird. I was compelled to sit up slightly and looked over the side of my bed to where the closet was. The door was wide open with the light on and the inside was empty of any of my belongings. The only sign there was ever clothing in there was a few pieces of clothing left on the ground in a path away from the closet. Like when you’d do laundry and try to carry all your clothes but a piece would fall out on your way.
While staring at my open closet a dark shadow developed on the carpeted floor below the threshold of the closet. From that shadow, a dark mass grew from the ground at a steady but slow pace. As it rose it developed more features, grooves empty eye sockets, teeth, and a resemblance to a face. It rose until it stood just below the top of my closet door height. It was a dark hooded figure with no body shape, its robe simply connected with the ground and melted back into its shadow. Under the hood was a protruding bleach-white deer skull with sharp teeth poking out in perfect symmetry.
I stared at it blankly feeling almost in a trace unable to react or accurately process what was happening. After a few seconds of it existing in my space, it lifted its stare to face mine from on top of my loft bed. We held what eye contact we could with its empty black voids in place of eyes. Against my will, I slowly tilted my head down and nodded slowly to this figure. A second after my acknowledgment it returned the nod and began to descend back into the shadow it had risen from. I watched as it slowly disappeared from existence until eventually, the shadow didn’t even exist anymore. Only then did I feel whatever force compelled me to sit up and move in the first place let go and I fell backward onto my back and instantly was asleep again.
I woke up the next morning to find my room completely normal, closet closed, light off, and full of my usual possessions. Yet I remembered that night’s events and the feeling of it vividly, I still can now.
Since that night I’ve never experienced that same scenario or anything similar to it. Now I’ll admit some things about myself. I have never slept walked in my life, not in my childhood and not in my adulthood. The most that happens is I talk and laugh in my sleep. I dream almost every night and those dreams can be very vivid. I often wake up from them and have to take a second to realize I’m back in reality.
However, I always know the difference between sleeping and being awake, and that night I swear I was awake. I felt myself move. I was sitting up and fell back on my bed. My eyes were open. I was being pulled by something and could feel it move me and release me. I try not to think about it too much.