Let me preface this story by telling you that my childhood home was and is a really cool house- but creepy things do happen there from time to time. Nothing too crazy but closet doors would pop open on their own, the stairs would creak in a way that sounded like someone was walking up them in the middle of the night, things would disappear and reappear in strange places … and sometimes I would get the feeling like there were unfriendly eyes watching me from the darkness. Friends that slept over verified that they felt, saw, and heard the same things too so I know it wasn’t just me losing my mind. But of all the things that happened, this night stands out the most clearly in my mind and haunts my dreams all these years later.
When I was about 9-10 years old, my parents would leave me home alone every so often when they’d go out to dinner or something. I was a fairly responsible kid and we lived in a pretty safe, quiet town (this was also early 2000’s) so my parents felt safe enough leaving me on my own for an hour or so and not having to pay for a babysitter.
This story takes place on probably the second or third time they ever left me alone. They did their usual thing of telling me to lock the doors and call them if I needed anything, cool, cool, cool. I went upstairs to my bedroom to play uninterrupted by parent stuff.
Now just to help set the scene, this story takes place in winter so it would be completely dark by 6pm. The house has huge windows all along the back so there wasn’t much reason to turn lights on until after it got dark, and I want to say my parents had left just before sunset.
I was having a nice time playing until about half an hour after they left when I suddenly hear my dad scream, “LIL!” at the top of his lungs from the bottom of the stairs. He sounded really, really angry and he usually only called me Lil when I was in big trouble.
Acting on almost complete instinct, I ran down the stairs to see what was going on, “What’s wrong, Dad??” I called out as I ran. Suddenly, I was standing in the near pitch black downstairs of the house… alone. “…Dad?” I called out weakly already feeling an overwhelming amount of fear pulsing through my body. Something wasn’t right.
I crept slowly through the house trying to keep my back up against walls or furniture feeling like I was being watched from every angle. It felt like the darkness was encroaching on me, waiting for the right time to snatch me up. As I made my way up to the front door and looked out, my stomach dropped. My parents’ car wasn’t there. They weren’t home… my dad wasn’t the one who had called my name.
I don’t remember much of exactly what happened next because, well, I was young and my body was exploding with adrenaline and fear but to this day, I have never felt fear like I did seeing that I was alone, in the dark. Waves of panic and dread swarmed my tiny body. Something had lured me down from the safety of my well-lit bedroom… something that had to have known I would rush down into the darkness without thinking at hearing my dad angrily calling for me.
I turned on every single light in the house and hid under the couch holding this little fencing sword my dad used to let me use sometimes (in retrospect, a fencing sword would not have helped me, but it made me feel safe). I called my parents while crying and told them what happened. Naturally, they did not believe me and told me they’d be home in a little while and that I’d be okay.
I don’t know exactly how long it was before they got home, but I stayed under the couch shaking like a leaf the entire time. Every creak of the house settling sent shudders through my body, but eventually, they did get home. I told them again what happened but I was a kid who liked to exaggerate so I think they took everything I said with a grain of salt and assumed I just scared myself with my own imagination.
I still think about that night often. I have never before or since had an auditory hallucination so I’m not sure if that’s what happened… or if… something else was there that night. Something that used my dad’s voice to lure me down into the darkness. Even writing this now as a 30-year-old my hands are shaking. Whenever I stand in the darkness alone, I always have the fear in the back of my mind that whatever called my name all those years ago… will call on me again.