Don’t know if this is the right sub, but here we go.
I’ve never been a believer in the supernatural. I did spend time in high school with friends exploring cemeteries at night and abandoned buildings, never saw anything. But I did have an encounter when I was 12 (I’ll get into the details soon) that freaked me out for a couple of months making it difficult to sleep or even be in my house at night, but eventually convinced myself it was an extremely vivid nightmare. I honestly hadn’t thought about in a little over 20 years. Then I had a very real dream last week about that same incident and I’m starting to second guess it.
The dream was odd, almost like an out of body experience where I just kind of stood behind my 12 year old self. But everything played out just like I remember:
It was late at night and I woke up to go to the bathroom, but could hear static coming from my step-dads office. We had just gotten back into town from his dads funeral (who I had really only gotten to know in the last year). We brought back an old radio he owned that we thought had busted speakers. My parents thought it looked cool and wanted to try and fix it. He had put it on his desk and as soon as I rounded the corner to the hallway, I could see all the down into the room. I listened for a while and could hear static and what sounded like radio stations going in and out. What happened next really freaked me out though. It was pitch black but I couldn’t keep from staring into the room. I couldn’t even move. Through the static I started to hear a repetitive voice asking a one worded question, but I can’t remember what or if I even knew what it was saying. Maybe a name? As my eyes adjusted and I could make out the shapes of the desk and the radio, I felt like someone was staring back at me. As soon as I opened my mouth to ask if my parents were in there, a shadow appeared next to the radio. I immediately shut my mouth unable to speak. I knew it wasn’t my mom or stepdad because it was extremely tall and was void of any features or details, just a dark silhouette. I stared and felt like it stared back, and I think this went on for a few minutes. It occasionally paced across the room and any time the voice on the radio came through, the entire shadow shuddered and would stop pacing.
I was frozen in fear and couldn’t move or speak. After what was probably only a few minutes but felt longer, the radio went silent. The shadow leaned over towards the radio and it looked as if arms were trying to adjust the knobs. Then I heard the voice again, but this time it sounded like it came from right beside me. I still don’t know what it said. The shadow stood and turned to face me and leaned towards the door. As soon as it began walking towards me I ran to my room and hid in my sheets. I stared at my open door for a long time until finally screaming for my parents, but never saw it again. They talked me down, and eventually I forgot about it thinking it was a really bad dream. My stepdad got rid of the radio after I told them about it, and he also said it wasn’t worth the money to fix it because he couldn’t ever get it to turn on. I went a few months being terrified of the dark, but never saw anything again. That is until last week when I had the dream reliving every detail of that experience.
I woke up the next day thinking “huh, had almost forgotten about that” and carried on with my life. That night, my wife and I fell asleep in bed with the tv on. Sometime during the night, I woke up and rolled over to turn the tv off. As soon as I did and it got dark and I got that feeling again that someone was staring at me. I focused on the doorway and again felt like I couldn’t look away. Then the shadow was there again, perfectly silhouetted. I couldn’t make out any features other than it being taller than the doorframe, and that it was shifting back and forth and would lower it’s ‘head’ to look through the door. I stared at it for a long time considering waking my wife to check if she could see it too, but didn’t want to freak her out or for her to think I was losing my mind. It was almost like it couldn’t decide whether or not to come into our room. I don’t feel the fear this time though, just that it is ‘here’. I thought “maybe I’m just tired” and rolled over to try to sleep. It was at least 2 hours until I felt like it wasn’t watching me and finally fell asleep.
It’s been a week since the night I had the dream, and every night since, at some point, the shadow is either pacing at the door or standing at the foot of our bed. I told my wife about the dream and seeing it the following night, but haven’t said anything since.
When I first saw it as a kid, I had this sinking feeling and knew whatever I was perceiving was ‘bad’. But as an adult who doesn’t ever think of the paranormal or even believe it, whenever the Shadow is here I feel it is just as tense and aware of me as I am of it. I don’t necessarily feel that it’s good or bad. I can only ever stare and haven’t found the desire to speak to it or interact with it. For now I’m just living with it and even learning to ignore it..
I’m not sure how to go about this or even what to do, but I know my sanity won’t hold if this keeps up.