Hey guys, I’m sharing this story with you, and I really need help. This has been happening to me for some time, and I’m on the verge of despair.
Let’s start from the beginning: You can call me Carl, I’m a philosophy student, and I live (ironically) in the city of St. Augustine, Florida. It’s an extremely quiet and bucolic town, and most people passing through here usually don’t pay much attention. Some of you might have visited the town if you’ve been to Disneyland, as we’re about a 2-hour drive from Orlando. It’s important to mention this to understand that it’s a small town with very little crime or any such incidents, and my nearest neighbor is about a good 15-minute walk away.
A few weeks ago, I began to notice something strange happening around here. One night, as I was getting ready to sleep, drinking my routine glass of water, I choked when I looked at the window: a hidden figure staring at me. I couldn’t see its face or any other details, except that someone was definitely there, standing and looking in my direction. “It could be a neighbor in need of help, a lost traveler seeking directions, or even a stalker,” you might be thinking, but what made it particularly unsettling was that my room was on the second floor.
So, the first night I was convinced it was just my imagination, a trick of the light or something. The figure didn’t do anything other than stand still, and I assumed it was a shadow from a coat or something, like those illusions where piled-up clothes on a chair look like a monster watching you. I took a while to fall asleep but nothing major. When I woke up, the first thing I did was check the window, and to my relief, there was nothing there.
I did my daily chores, took care of the yard, and trimmed any branches that could reach the window, removing anything that could cause that illusion again. At night, I followed my usual route to the university, occasionally joking with some classmates about what had happened. On the way back home, though, I had the impression that as I approached my house, I saw a similar shadow, this time standing in the clearing in front of my garden. Was I taking this too seriously? I think I thought too much about it during the day. I quickly entered the house, locked the door, and closed the curtains, then took a quick shower and rushed to my room, but as I took a few steps, I froze in place. Again, that thing was there. It couldn’t be, not this time. I was really confused and unnerved.
I wanted to close the window, but I was afraid to approach it. I began to move slowly and cautiously around the room. That thing had no visible eyes, but I could feel its gaze following me through the room. I carefully grabbed my blanket and pillow and began to retreat, still facing it. I closed the bedroom door and locked it from the outside, then went to sleep on the couch, waking up with a start at any noise I heard. The nighttime visitor continued to appear, night after night. You may wonder why I didn’t try to call the police, and, well, I did try, but it always disappeared before they arrived. My friends and family think I’m becoming paranoid, and I’m starting to believe they might be right…
A few details about this thing: The nighttime visitor makes no sound, says nothing, and doesn’t move, but its presence is terrifying. Its face is always hidden in the shadows, so I never managed to see its face clearly; I don’t know if it’s a man, a woman, its ethnicity, age, or anything.
I even installed security cameras, but they never manage to capture its image. The videos are just of the scene in question: my garden, empty, with leaves swaying in the wind, as if it knew how to avoid being seen by the lenses. I’m running out of ideas about what to do next. I tried leaving the lights on, closing the curtains, shouting, and even, in the past few days, I had the courage to approach the window and knock on it. My last resort was to buy a gun and point it at it, telling it to go away, but nothing seems to deter this nighttime intruder (and I wouldn’t risk shooting without knowing who or what is out there). Honestly, I’ve even grown accustomed to its presence, and I’m sleeping in my room again because, to be honest, the only thing it does is watch.
But what really prompted me to write this was today’s incident: I was getting ready for my ritual of checking the intruder when, to my surprise, there was nothing at the window. Everything was normal and calm, just the garden. I waited for some more time, half an hour, an hour, but it didn’t appear. A sense of relief washed over me as I prepared for a night of sleep alone. I had fallen asleep when I heard a faint noise. I almost ignored it, but it repeated, removing sleep from my eyes. It sounded like the creaking of the wooden floor, but not like the usual creaks it makes when expanding or contracting with temperature changes; it was rhythmic, as if there was someone inside the house. Fear crawled up my spine when I looked at the window, and the shadow wasn’t there, along with my dreadful realization of who was climbing the stairs.
I quietly locked the bedroom and locked myself in the closet, opening my cellphone and starting to write this. I’ve already called the police, but it seems like it’s going to take a while for them to arrive. That thing out there walked the entire length of the hallway, unhurriedly, and I could feel when it arrived, when it stood waiting in front of the door, anticipating the slightest sound. It’s been 5 minutes since the doorknob turned in vain, and this thing won’t stop knocking on the door. They’re not violent knocks, they’re uncomfortably calm and rhythmic, as if it could enter whenever it wanted and was just testing me.
I guess I should have asked this before, but do any of you know how to ward off this kind of entity?