The Little Red Imp 2

After the incident at my grandparent's house with the imp, I was very wary of sleeping at night. I've always been a light sleeper and now every tiny little noise I heard would set me on edge and I'd find it hard to get to sleep. About a week had passed but I was still disturbed by what had happened to me. Maybe I was being paranoid but I couldn't help but feel like someone was watching me in my room once darkness fell. I hadn't been back to my grandparent's house all week. I avoided it even though I'd normally walk there every day after school. Instead I caught the bus straight home and always declined when my mother would ask if I was going with her to visit them.

My sister Jess (13 at the time) had picked up on my erratic behaviour and reluctantly I told her what had happened the previous weekend. I scared her enough that she insisted we push our beds together so we'd feel safer sleeping. We shared the master bedroom with an en suite. I like this idea and so we moved our beds. My mother happened to see us and wanted to know what on earth we were doing. I managed to get all teary as I told my mother my story. She immediately wanted to know why I hadn't told her sooner since this was very serious. I had kept quiet because I thought no one would believe me. Thankfully my mother did and she made me promise to tell her if anything else happened.

Every night, the feeling of someone watching me was getting stronger. Without fail, as soon as the lights were out I would feel a strong evil presence beside my bed. Naturally this would keep me awake for hours. Eventually sleep would take hold but never for long. I would wake up with a start and 'it' would be standing next to my bed. As in, RIGHT next to my bed. My room seemed impossibly dark at night, even when the hall light outside my room was on. I took to staying up as late as I could in an effort to avoid being in my room at night. I got very little sleep which started affecting my mood. I was short-tempered and irritable all the time. Everything seemed to rub me the wrong way and I'd snap at my family over the smallest things. I'd nap during the day but it wasn't much of a solution.

It had now been 2 weeks since the imp had shown up. I thought that would be the only happening but it looks like it was just the trigger for more events. I hadn't seen the imp again but a large shadowy figure had taken his place. This entity was more malicious than the first. I couldn't see it as clearly as I had with the imp; he was a tall black shadowy figure. He had no features, only the basic outline of a person. I sensed that he was male and was not human, nor had he ever been. He stood at least 6ft tall, likely taller. Whenever he was in my room the air felt oppressive and heavy. There was a slight chill as well, which was out of place given that it was summer at the time. My sister Jess hadn't noticed any of these changes in our room.

My other younger sister Sierra however had taken to sleeping in my mother's bed. Sierra had just turned 5 and while she was known to climb into bed with Mum during the night sometimes, this was different. She would point blank refuse to sleep in her own bed at all and would cry and carry on until Mum let her into her bed. All Mum could get out of her as far as why she did this was that she didn't feel safe at night by herself. She said it was too scary, but wouldn't elaborate. Of course my littlest sister had not been told of the 'happenings' so my mother took this to mean little sister's fears were connected to what was harassing me.

I tried sleeping with both my en suite light and the hall light on to see if that made me less afraid. That only made the presence make itself known more. After waking up twice in the night to it crushing my chest and strangling me my mother suggested I sleep in her bed as well. For a change I got some good rest in her room. Since it was now the summer holidays I was staying at my friend's house a lot. I didn't get a break away from home though as the shadow man followed me wherever I went. At night he'd do the usual and stand over me while my friends slept beside me, blissfully unaware of my plight.

It was now week 3 of my hellish month. In addition to Mr Shadow there had been more entities pop up in our house. There were many of them. 20-30 I'd estimate. They'd rush up and down the hallway past my room. The newcomers looked far more human than the first two. They were transparent silver and had discernable features. They didn't interact with me; it's as if they couldn't care less I was there. They'd stare at me for a few seconds then fade away or brush past me without a word.

I developed a fear of my en suite, I didn't know why. I hated taking a shower in there. Something felt wrong about that little room. I now kept it shut at night where previously it never bothered me. I also wouldn't use it to go toilet in the night any more.

I was hearing whispering voices coming from either inside my head or very close to my ear. I could never quite catch what they were saying as there would be several voices talking at once. On the rare occasion I did understand them, it was always nasty things about my family, how I didn't need them and should get rid of them. I'd only hear them when I was at home. They seemed most talkative at night when I was trying to get to sleep. They'd get so loud I couldn't block them out and usually cried out of frustration. Then I'd hear them start laughing.

We went away camping for a few days and I got some peaceful nights without being disturbed at all. I still couldn't help but lie awake in the tent expecting something to happen to me though.

The night we got back from camping I was in bed doing my best to fall asleep. My mother and her boyfriend had just finished watching a movie on TV and were pottering around getting ready to go to bed themselves. I was laying on my side slowly getting sleepy when lo and behold, Mr Shadow pops up next to my bed. I ignored him and he drifted to the end of my bed. I was almost asleep when I felt something grab my ankle and yank it really hard. The force of it pulled me off my pillow and a little way down my bed. I could hear a low rumbling growl getting louder. It sounded like an animal about to attack only...demonic. That terrified the life out of me. This hadn't happened before. I leapt out of bed and ran into the kitchen. I just wanted to be out of my room. I got myself a glass of water to calm down but my hand was shaking so badly I could barely drink it. My mother was passing the kitchen and saw this. She asked straight away what had happened and I burst into tears as I told her. I decided to sleep on the couch since my mother's room was off the lounge. She was a light sleeper too and she told me to call out or wake her up if I needed her. I managed somehow to fall asleep there.

About 2 hours later, just after midnight I awoke in a panic. I was dripping with so much sweat I honestly thought I had wet myself. I had a thin sleeping bag on me which was saturated with sweat too. I called out for my mother and immediately she came running out to me. She sat down on the couch and held me. I didn't know what had woken me but I didn't like the corner of the dining room. Something about it was unsettling me. My mother stayed with me until I was calm enough to go back to sleep. After that I didn't wake again until the morning.

It wasn't until later that day my mother told me when I had called out to her and she came out, there was a black mass hovering beside me. She told it to get away (in her mind) and it drifted to the other end of the couch. My mother sat down next to me to put herself between me and the shadow. It moved away from her again and kept doing so (with her telling it leave me alone) slowly until it was in the far corner of the dining room. After a few minutes it vanished and my mother returned to bed once I was asleep. I had seen none of this when it was happening.

My mother also told me she had gotten up several times that night to check on me and my siblings. One particular time after doing her check she was nearing the end of the hall by our kitchen when a large black shadow rushed towards her and knocked her back. It pinned her against the wall and lifted her a few inches off the ground. It had her by the throat and she couldn't move. She said it felt very threatening and really didn't like her. I thought this may be because she was the protector of the house, for lack of a better description. She was the one we ran to when we were scared.

My mother isn't a religious person but she said the first thing that came to her mind was a glowing bible. She said she visualised it pushing the shadow away from her and it released her quickly. It glared at her before vanishing.

My mother's boyfriend had told him the first week it all began he had awoken one night in a panic. He looked over to my sleeping mother in the bed beside him and saw a red imp sitting on her chest. It turned its head to look at him and he jumped out of bed yelling. That woke my mother up but by then the imp had poofed into thin air.

Mum hadn't told him about my ordeal with the imp the weekend before. When she gave him my description of the imp he went deathly pale. He said it was exactly the same as what he'd seen.

I wasn't told of this until weeks later. I thought the imp wasn't in the house but apparently I was wrong. He was tormenting others instead.

This was the final straw for everyone. My mother had been talking to her friends about it all over the month and one had suggested getting our house cleared (or cleansed, whichever you prefer). As it happened, Mum's friend's mother was an established psychic used to dealing with such things. We gave her a call and arranged for a meeting a few days later. All we had to do was hang on until then.