I’m hoping that maybe someone else has had this experience or something like it, but this has happened to me twice. Oh, and after reading the rules (to make sure I’m allowed to swear here) let me be clear. This is not a story. This actually happened. I’m seriously here hoping someone else has experienced something like this.
First incident:
I was 14 years old, and I was in a kind of boarding school in Montana. Our school was in the middle of the mountains in Thompson Falls. I’m going to describe the place, as it is necessary to understand the unlikeliness of what occured.
It was deep in the mountains, very far from any other houses. The place was called Spring Creek Lodge Academy. You can look it up if you are curious. Anyway, we were living in these little cabins that had 4 bunk beds, and there were I think 8 of these cabins in a line. It was a very open layout in that part of the facility. Just a big empty clearing amongst the woods. Students were NOT allowed to be outside at night, for any reason at all. You’d get in major trouble and extend your miserable stay.
There was one night shift staff at a time in this part, though there were two of them total and they were both old men, incapable I’m sure of getting on the roof. They would come in once per hour to make sure we were all still there and breathing, other than that they hung out outside in their truck.
So I was laying awake one night, and all of my roommates were asleep. My bunkmates radio was on, I was jamming to some Metallica (Enter Sandman, funny enough) when I hear footsteps on the roof. One pair, bipedal. They move from my corner of the roof to the opposite corner. I am a little spooked by this, naturally. I just assume it’s the nightwatchman and move on.
A couple minutes later, it happens again, a little faster this time, and again from my corner to the opposite corner. Now I’m getting nervous. I sit up in bed, now ALERT. Then again, just a moment later, and again from my corner to the opposite. And again and again, each time louder and faster than the last and always from my corner to the opposite corner and NEVER ONCE crossing back the way it came.
It gets to the point where it sounds like a stampede on the roof. I’m fucking terrified at this point, and I jump down off the top bunk and start shaking my roommates awake, but not a single one of them so much as moves. It’s like they’re in comas, no matter how hard I shake them, they do. not. wake. up.
This goes on for about two-thee minutes before abruptly stopping, meanwhile I’m just curled up in the middle of the room at this point, and i stay there until i am just too damn tired to stay awake any longer.
Given the area, I suppose it could have been deer, but that makes no sense either. I looked out the window and saw nothing. Why would deer choose to stampede on top of a high obstacle when there is literally open field around it? I don’t even think they can jump that high. And it doesn’t explain how this happened the second time, in Santa Monica.
The second incident occurred years later, as mentioned above, in Santa Monica, California. There’s no deer there, I can tell you that. Me and my mom were living in my grandparents garage that had been converted into a studio. I should also mention that the roof on this garage was pyramidal, and rather steep.
I’ll save some time and eyeball fatigue and just say it was the same exact pattern as before. Exactly. Crossing from one corner to the opposite without ever crossing back over. Both times, toward the end, it was just a constant stream of stomping, running footsteps. And no matter how loud I screamed, how hard I shook my Mom, she would not rouse at all.
I still have no explanation for this.