This happened a few years ago, but I think it’s important to bring up now and I’ll mention why when I finish the initial story.
When I was in high school, I really struggled with depression. I came from a super religious family and I’m gay so they told me I’d go to Hell for that. A few weeks after I came out, I felt like something was watching me while I was in my room alone.
I know some religious people will say it was God or angels watching over me, but it was that type of feeling you get when a creep is staring at you on the bus. I tried to ignore it as best I could. I would sleep with my head under the blankets so it couldn’t see me.
After a few weeks of this, I got curious. I peeked out from beneath my blankets to look at it. It was perched on my desk chair with its knees up to its chest. Its eyes were hollow and empty. It looked impossibly thin and had long gangly arms. It tilted its head, like dogs do, and continued staring at me.
Reasonably, this freaked me the fuck out. I went back under my blanket and didn’t sleep that night. After that, I tilted the full length mirror in my room so it would face my desk. I can’t explain why, but I thought that looking at it indirectly would help.
I was wrong.
Every night, I could see it in the reflection, just watching me. It never seemed to want to move. It just sat. I refused to sit at my desk for a very long time.
Now here’s an important tidbit, on my desk sat an electric typewriter. My mom had gotten at the thrift store for my when I expressed an interest in becoming an author. Above the desk was a shelf that was screwed into the studs and there were a couple of books on there. No more than about five pounds of weight for a shelf that was supposed to hold at least twenty.
Now on the typewriter, during the height of my depression, I wrote notes. I wrote my goodbye notes to my mom and my siblings and my best friends. I wrote them all on that typewriter. I ended up burning them in the trashcan beside my desk.
Onwards with the story, one night, I was absolutely exhausted from a long day of school, marching band practice, and mandatory church gatherings. I went to bed around seven or eight, a solid four hours before I usually went to sleep.
As soon as I turned off the lights, I saw it on my chair. While I was still freaked out by it, I wasn’t surprised. I rushed to my bed and pulled my covers over my head like I always did.
Then I heard the chair creak.
It was an old wooden chair and it would creak anytime someone sat down or stood up from it. My heart leapt into my throat. I pulled my blankets tighter around me, hoping to just disappear into my bed. I heard footsteps coming towards my bed. I didn’t move. I was absolutely frozen.
Then, very slowly, I felt a finger trace down my spine. It didn’t hurt or burn or anything like that, it was just a definite pressure all the way down my spine. When it reached my tailbone, it stopped and went right back to the top. I was sobbing at this point. I was so scared. After about the third time down my back, I grabbed my phone off my nightstand and turned on the flashlight.
There was nothing in my room. I slept with my light on that night and when my mom questioned me about it, I just told her I forgot to turn it off.
The following day, as I was laying in bed, I saw it, yet again perched on my chair. I tucked myself in and wrapped my blankets super tightly around myself.
Then I heard a strange cracking sound and suddenly, the shelf above my desk fell, taking chunks of drywall and wooden stud with it. It fell directly onto the typewriter, destroying the thing.
The typewriter was broken beyond repair, so we recycled it, hoping the parts would be used for something in need.
After that, I didn’t see the thing anymore.
Until now.
It is now about a decade later. I am married and my husband and I have a small apartment together. In our bedroom, I have a mirror that faces the bed and the desk. It’s a small room, only about 100 square feet.
Well, my husband left on a business trip about a week ago. It’s my first time being alone in our bed since we moved into the apartment.
I was laying in bed with the lights off, trying to sleep. My little dog was sleeping on my husband’s pillow and my cat was sleeping on my head, like cats do. I turned my head to the side and caught a glimpse of something in the mirror. I thought for sure my eyes were playing tricks on me. I moved the cat and stared into the mirror.
It was hard to make out, but there was something sitting, perched, on my chair.