I have been suffering from sleep paralysis probably since I was 8 or 9 years old. I am in my early 20’s now. When I endure a sleep paralysis episode, I have the usual symptoms of not being able to move or say anything. Of course, I would see the hat man or the silhouette of a man. Those were my typical sleep paralysis episodes. Well, a week ago, I had a sleep paralysis episode that I have never experienced before. I was stressed and not getting enough sleep prior to this episode. I went to sleep at about 2 am, and for a brief moment, I woke up at 6 am to fall back asleep until 9 am. When I woke up, I was laying on my back, I didn’t notice that I was in sleep paralysis. I heard something that sounded like running, not just one person but multiple people, running up and down the hallway and whispering.
I honestly didn’t think anything of it because I was half asleep. I just thought that maybe my brain was messing with me. I tried to move my head to look at the door that is parallel with the cork board hanging up on the wall. I couldn’t move my head, so I started to panic. The only thing I could do was move my eyes. I grazed my eyes over to the cork board, and all I could see was this scraggly shadow of a man coming from behind it. As if the shadow man was living within the walls of my house. I couldn’t look away at this point, my mind had me in a threatening situation with my body not being able to move. I am still hearing the running and the whispers, and they turned into sinister laughs. A family member was home. They had no idea of the 3 minute hell that I was going through that felt like a lifetime. I couldn’t yell, not even the quietest whisper.
The shadow man was thin with long fingers and a wide, petrifying smile with big eyes as if he wanted me to see what he saw. He stared at me, and the longer I looked, my eyes got heavier. When my eyes started to close, he moved closer. I tried to fight it every little bit. I opened my eyes. He was closer and the running and laughter was louder. The closer he got, my eyes got heavier, to the point they finally closed. Moments later, I was able to move like it never happened. I walk to the door and check behind the cork board. I walked down the hallway where the running happened. It was quiet; the only thing I could hear was the fan in the living room, and the occasional chirp of birds outside. That short amount of hell just to walk into peace. The mind and body play tricks on you, or is it something supernatural in a failed attempt to take over? I don’t know, but I don’t want to encounter anything so unsettling like that again.