This happened 9 years ago. I was fresh out of high school and had moved in with one of my friends parents. My friend Chris, his girlfriend Brittany, and his cousin, Josh all shared a basement together. The basement was pretty spacious, and it wasn’t particularly cramped. We’d divided it into three sections using curtains. My section was in the middle, right next to the staircase my bed was facing towards the staircase, so anytime someone came down I could usually see them as they reached the bottom.
I worked until 8 PM, and usually I’d grab dinner, watch some Netflix, and head to bed for the night. Chris and Brittany were out for the night, and Josh usually worked until midnight, sometimes later. I had drifted to sleep at some point, and was woken up by the sound of the backdoor opening and closing. The backdoor was at the top of the stairs, and that’s usually where people come in. I looked to my clock on my bedside stand, and saw that it was just past 12:30 PM. I heard someone come down the stairs, and as they made their way down I got a glimpse of who it was. Just Josh, as I had suspected. He turned left into his room, which was sort of divided from my area by the staircase, and presumably settled down for the night.
I rolled over, but less than 1 minute later I heard another set of footsteps coming down the stairs. My first thought was Josh had brought a friend home, I knew Chris and Brittany weren’t going to be home tonight. I rolled back over, so I’d be able to see who was coming down the stairs, and I noticed them pause for a minute, right at the bottom. Just off to the side enough to where I couldn’t make out a face. Then, they stepped forward, and instead of turning to go towards Josh’s room, they turned towards my bed, and walked right up to my bed.
I blinked in shock and my eyes adjusted, and what I saw made me gasp. Standing just a few feet from me was a tall elderly man. He wore tattered clothes, that looked like they were badly stained and old. I stared at his face, which was wrinkly and old, he looked to be at least 70 years old. He wore one of the meanest looks I’ve ever seen in my entire life. He wore a strange sadistic smile, yet he was glaring at me with stone cold eyes, his brows were furrowed, and I got the feeling he wasn’t Josh’s friend after all. I stared at him in complete shock, as I felt my body grow cold I shivered and realized I couldn’t even move. He stood there unmoving, smiling sadistically and glaring for I’m not sure how long.
Eventually I closed my eyes tightly and refused to open them for I’m not sure how long. Finally whenever I did, he was gone. I mentioned the incident to Josh the next day, who as I had expected said nobody came home with him last night. He said he hadn’t even heard someone else come in, and looking back… I had only heard the door open and close once, which was whenever Josh had come in.
I don’t know what happened that night, if I had just been dreaming, if I had sleep paralysis, or if I’d actually seen a ghost. I know one thing though, that look he wore has haunted me for almost 10 years, and to this day I still shiver whenever I think about it. Whatever it was, whoever it was, I hope I never see him again.