I know we’ve all heard of the “Shadow People” before, vaguely human shaped figures that appear in the periphery and seem to mirror the emotional state of those who witness them, there was even a shitty movie about them made in 2012, safe to say the subject has hollowed itself out a cozy niche in horror subcultures, but I feel as though people don’t really understand what they are, i mean how could you? They’re obviously some kind of seemingly benign group entities that mirror the human subconscious, they’re said to appear like someone cut a human, and sometime animal shape hole out of reality, like a black void in human form, but that’s all that’s concrete and agreed on across most platforms and forums, sometimes they’re referred to as demons, sometimes referred to as spirits.
I bring up this seemingly dry wrung topic because certain recent events have resurfaced some deep buried memories, and Im gonna relay them here, not with hopes to be believed or as a warning, but simply a way to conserve them, put them out into the ether and give people a decent story at the same time, following below will be a recounting of my experience with the shadow people, over the course of several post in chronological order, enjoy.
I’ve always been a very anxious person, and it has affected different aspects of my life, the first aspect of my existence to fall victim was sleep. At a young age, I would have vivid nightmares that would wake me from sleep in tears and sweats, around the age of 9 I decided that if I just didn’t sleep, I couldn’t have nightmares, so i did everything in my power to not sleep, most of the time failing around midnight and waking up some hours later panting and crying. One time though, i managed to stay awake for 3 days straight.
It was the summer and my parents both worked multiple job, so they weren’t as attentive as they could’ve been and didn’t notice the obvious signs of sleep deprivation on my weary small body, and it was on the 3rd night i saw my first shadow person.
i was sitting on my bed reading Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief and i noticed something moving in corner of my eye, I looked up quickly to see what it was and saw my small room empty, figuring it was just a shadow from the window, I resumed my book. Then i saw it again, like a black spot flashing across my vision, I looked up and once again saw my room empty, i shook my head and rubbed my eyes and when I opened them, there it was, a void in the space of my room, roughly about 6ft tall with broad shoulders and motionless, my body filled with anxiety, like I was feeling the full scope of what i’ve felt over the years in a single moment, I wanted to scream but i couldn’t open my mouth, It got closer without moving, i don’t know how to explain it, but i was getting closer to the foot of my bed, but showed no signs of movement, I could hear it trying to speak, like the the sound of someone blowing over the mouth of a glass bottle, but it was all noise and no words, I blinked and it was gone, and with it so was my anxiety about sleep.
The next night i attempted to stay awake again, more out of habit than fear, I finished my book, closed it and dug through my backpack for The Rangers Apprentice, looking up I saw the figure again, this time no more that 2 feet away from my face, and I heard the windy whistle that was it’s voice. I looked up at what should be its face and only saw ever expanding darkness, the noise of its voice now entering the realm of what could be considered words, but nothing I could understand, as they entered my ears, I felt a heaviness fall upon my brain and exhaustion finally won against me as my eye fluttered close and I drifted into sleep.
this would happen a handful of times more, where my anxiety would bubble back and I would try to fight against, and they would appear, whisper into my ear and I would eventually fall asleep.
My parents eventually found out about my battle against sleep and took me to a doctor where I was diagnosed and prescribed a mild sedative to take before sleep, and I didn’t see them for a while after that.