Wanna preface this: This is my first time writing a story from an experience in my youth, so I apologize if the story telling isn’t as profound as it could be. If you have any feedback as to how I can write things to make them sound better, I’d greatly appreciate it. Now, onto the story.
This takes place in Southern Texas in the middle of summer 2015 on my grandparents ranch. I come from a hispanic background but my grandfather is actually mainly Native American while my grandmother is 100% Mexican. My parents have been divorced since I was 3 or 4 years old, so every summer since I was old enough to fly alone (around 9) I would go to Texas to visit my mother and the rest of the year I was with my father in Ohio.
My mom didn’t make a lot of money, and her husband didn’t work. With 2 kids of their own and me coming every summer, money was always tight. So to save up for a year or so, they moved back in with my mom’s parents, my grandparents. It wasn’t the most luxurious way of living, but we had a roof over our heads and freshwater; no A/C, though… which sucked.
I was a young teen, about 14 years old at the time of the “incident”. I was glued to my phone being a suburban boy living in Ohio, I was not familiar with this way of living: No wifi, terrible cell service, not able to flush toilet paper etc. I found ways to make it work, however; and I did that by finding the place in my grandparents home that had the best cell service, that happened to be the living room, or as I liked to call it: The Prayer Room. I called it this because my grandparents are extremely religious, and it was fixated with a bunch of crosses, figurines of religious figures, etc.
I was about 1 month into my stay, when the incident occurred. I had developed a system where I would leave my bedroom and go into The Prayer Room and shut the glass doors, turn on the TV (They had satellite cable), and turn on a lamp. I’ve always been afraid of the dark, even now as a young man in my mid 20s I still am. I’d be on my phone, talk to friends, go on social media and eventually I’d fall asleep. Nothing like what happened, had ever happened before and I never expected it to happen, let alone in what I considered one of the most sacred and holiest rooms of this house.
I was watching TV on the couch, on the phone with a friend, and the next thing I know I woke up with a jerk. The lights are off, the TV is off, my phone is nowhere to be found and my glasses are off my face again, nowhere to be found. I didn’t remember falling asleep, and the only lights I had were the numbers from the window AC unit, and from my charging block for my phone as it had a blue light indicating it was receiving power from the outlet. Initial rational thinking was, someone got up for a glass of water, saw me asleep and turned everything off and took off my glasses so I wouldn’t smash them.
With that in mind, I breathed a sigh of relief, eventually finding my phone on the floor, still plugged in charging. I turn it on to see that it’s 3:30 AM. In the dim light, I see the charging cable, in the air spinning. I had one of those retractable charging cables so it could stretch over a distance of a few feet (reference picture provided). but the retractor piece of the cable was spinning.
I could not logically make out what was happening and I immediately began to panic. At that moment, there was what felt like hot oil dripping down my back. It burned for a second, then the pain went away. This happened for about 2-3 minutes. Mistakenly, I look at the ceiling. In the center of the ceiling, there is a big ceiling fan on a wooden beam, there is normally nothing else on the ceiling. There was something on the ceiling.
What met my eyes was far from ordinary; a dark, circular figure materialized to the left of the fan. Struggling to dismiss it as a trick of the light, my dread intensified as the dark silhouette transformed, revealing a sinister yellow dot—an eye fixated on me, unwavering. All of this, while the hot liquid was dripping down my back,
I put a blanket over myself, and did the only thing I thought to do; Pray. I kept reciting the “Jesus loves me this I know” rhyme until I heard something. I took the blanket off, and on the wall behind me, was a 6ft+ shadow. and each time i looked away, it kept inching closer and closer to me. It was trying to get as close to me as possible.
Summoning courage, I counted down and, in a burst of adrenaline, sprinted to the twin glass doors, flinging them open. I ran into my mom’s room hyperventilating, crying, and shaking like a leaf. I tried to spit out what had just happened to me but the more I tried, the more I remembered how vulnerable and helpless I was being in there and I just kept crying.
I did not sleep that night. I tried, but I just couldn’t. Even in the presence of four other souls sharing the room, I did not feel safe. The sun rose and I finally fell asleep, feeling it was safe to do so. Come noon, revelations unfolded—none in the house had tampered with the lights or TV. No one knew I was even in there.
My grandmother asked me to describe in very great detail what happened in that room. I did my best to explain what happened, and as I told her this story, her eyes kept widening. As I finished, she immediately went to work. She grabbed her holy water and blessed the room, and performed a prayer on me. In Mexican culture we have a prayer called “ojo” where you take an egg and do a long, but effective prayer on someone who has cast a bad spirit on them.
It was also learned that I was given a constant reminder of what happened that night. I took off my shirt in front of my mom later that day and she asked me “what is that on your back”. I had what looked to be stretch marks on my back, about 10 or so. They were not there the night before this happened. Even with my dad, when I got back to Ohio, he had never seen them on me before, and wondered if someone had hurt me in any way. He did not believe the story I am telling you all now.
All of this has brought a lot of conversation within my family, was it an angelic presence, or a malevolent spirit? We still do family gatherings at my grandparents ranch, But never do I step foot in that room alone. The truth of that night remains elusive, but one fact remains uncontested: there was something, someone… on that ceiling.