The first occurrence (that I know of) happened when I was 15. I was sleeping on the living room couch and needed to wake up early, so I’d set an alarm on an old digital timer for 5 AM.
The timer went off closer to 3 AM, and failed to wake me up. My mother is a light sleeper and came out to turn off the alarm. As she entered the living room, she saw me bent over the coffee table rummaging around, like I was half asleep looking for the timer. She says she laughed at me and said, “DaughtrofaDemonLover, the timer is right here..” while grabbing it from a side table and turning it off. By then, she was standing right over the couch, and looked down to see me fast asleep. The way she described it, the fear was so intense she literally felt her ears ringing, and couldn’t tell if the rummaging sound continued. But the girl who looked like me above the coffee table was gone.
I thought it was a spooky story, but ultimately brushed it off as my mom being half asleep. Then, over the years, there were other sightings. Mostly minor.. a few examples include a friend asking why I didn’t come inside a party one time, because they’d seen me in the driveway walking in. I was never anywhere near that party. Another time, in a college apartment, I came home from work and my roommate asked me where I’d gone, sounding surprised. I gestured at my work uniform and said I was just getting home. He went a bit pale and told me I had been home earlier, going back and forth from my bedroom to my bathroom, and waved to him in the hallway with a toothbrush in my mouth. That was definitely impossible, but maybe he was just thinking of another night.
A couple other things happened, but I always blamed them on the witness being tired or drunk or simply mistaken. The only thing I never really thought was it could actually be another person around town. Both because this had happened in my home, and without going into detail, I have a pretty distinctive look and physical mannerism that make me recognizable. It would be weird if someone else looked like me and had the same unusual gait.
In my late 20’s, I went through an ugly breakup that ended with me kicking out my ex and having my brother move in with me for a while, for protection and peace of mind. A few weeks after the dust settled, my ex wanted to come by and pick up a few things, so my brother said he would stay home and I could leave the house while the ex grabbed his stuff. I promptly left and didn’t return until I was sure he’d been gone for hours. The next day, the ex called me furious, saying he knew I was home the whole time he was there. I explained that I was not home, and didn’t want to see him anyway, but he was convinced. He said, “I saw you watching from the upstairs window while I loaded my car, laughing at me!” Then he sent a picture. For the first time, I felt convinced, and suddenly afraid. There was a woman in the window upstairs, and she did look like me. Exactly like me.
I have never been able to explain this, and mostly found it fun to share when people start busting out their own paranormal encounters. Until now. Because, twenty years after the first encounter, I finally saw her myself tonight. I don’t know what to do next, but I can’t just keep pretending she isn’t real.