Shadow with Red Eyes

This happened in December of 1999. I have to start with a little background information first. I am Roman Catholic but I had never been much of a churchgoer, although I did celebrate festivals, especially the one for the Virgin Mary on December 8th. Mostly this is because of my culture since that particular celebration is a very huge deal where my family is from.

As I said before, this happened in December 1999, and specifically it was a Sunday either a week before the 8th or the week after, but definitely around that time. My family and I had been working all that day with the festivities and when we finally got home at 6pm I was beat. So I told my parents that I was going to sleep and I did.

The first thing that happened that day was that I had a nightmare and woke up. It was your normal nightmare... The one that you're being chased by something and right when it's about to catch you, you wake up. So I woke up with my heart pounding, but I auto soothed myself just like I always do when I have a nightmare until my heartbeat went down and I feel asleep again.

The next thing I know I'm looking into a totally white room, when suddenly a beautiful, female voice says to me, "You must go through three sorrows before you find love..." As soon as she finished saying these words, three flashes like strobe lights quickly happened. With each flash was a picture, the only one that I remember seeing clearly is the middle one, which was a knife being thrust into my heart, a classic betrayal image. Then I woke up, again, with my heartbeat racing. Again I auto-soothed myself and fell asleep again, or well... I don't know if I was dreaming or not to tell you the truth.

Next thing I know I'm looking towards my closet door and there was a shadow of a person there with red eyes that was staring at me (at this time my bed faced the attic opening and the closet door, also, I had a 3-foot statue of the Virgin Mary on my bureau next to the attic opening which my grandmother gave to me and had nowhere else to put it). I have three windows in my room, so there's always light and you can very clearly see at night because it never gets completely dark, and yet there was the shadow. This shadow thing walks towards me and thrusts his hand into my chest and slowly pulls out a silver-white cord from my body. I was horrified! I thought, "OMG! He's taking my soul!" So I took the cord and tried to wrest it from his hands but to no use. He kept pulling this cord from my body, and each time he pulled a bit more I actually felt myself floating out of my body! All of a sudden I remembered that the Hail Marys are supposed to guard you against all evil, so I started to pray like there was no tomorrow! After only a few Hail Marys, the thing stopped and he let go of my cord and it snapped it into me so fast that I jumped out of bed. It was like the snap of a rubber band that is being stretched and then let go, very hard and very fast. Well, I was still praying and that thing was still there looking down at me... But I heard its thoughts or I don't know, some type of communication happened because I remember him saying to me, "You won this time... But next time, you won't be so lucky!" Then I woke up.

Well let me tell you, my heart was racing as fast as it could possibly go... And I didn't really want to go back to sleep because I thought that something else would try and get me, when suddenly I saw movement! It was the statue! She was walking towards me! As she did, she kept growing bigger and bigger until she was human-sized. Well let me tell you folks, that was truly the last straw. I curled up into a fetal position and rocked back and forth while chanting, "Please don't hurt me. Please don't hurt me..." I probably peeked because I'm curious enough that I had to see what was happening and she was right beside my bed. Next thing I know I feel Her hand on my brow soothing me like a mother would when a child is frightened. As she did this, all my fears just went away and I fell asleep into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning, I remember going to class but with that in my mind. I kept thinking... Was it real? Did it really happen? Or was it just a dream? I told my friends during my lunch break about the strange dreams, since that was what I figured they were, since the alternative was just too fantastic to contemplate. When one of my friends said that at least part of my "dreams" weren't. BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO REMEMBER ANYTHING WHILE INSIDE THE DREAM STATE. Well that got me worried... Because that meant that... I still don't like thinking about it too much, but I'm sure you get the picture.

So that night I came home thinking about it... But still trying to dismiss it in my head as just a series of bad dreams. I fell asleep without any incidents.

The next night however was a different story. While again thinking about what happened on Sunday, I suddenly felt the bed press down as if someone had suddenly just sat down on my bed, except I was completely alone in my room! A litany of Hail Marys just started in my head because I did not want whatever it was near me, the bed went back to normal and I fell asleep.

Unfortunately, this does not end my story. A year passes by without any incident, and December comes rolling back. Once again it was that day and my door refused to remain shut! My room has carpeting and the door is quirky but it's actually fairly difficult to get open and yet I actually saw... With my own eyes... The knob turn and open... But no one was there! This is actually now fairly common for me. It happens all the time now after that first incident... it's still pretty creepy, but I tend to lock the door now, of course it doesn't help that whatever is doing this now likes to rattle the doorknob to make sure it's locked.

A follow up of the above story is that 2 years later, I ended up talking to my aunt about what had happened to me... And she gives me the most mind-boggling news. My cousin who lives in Nicaragua (the country directly north of Costa Rica) had a similar experience with a shadow thing ON THE SAME NIGHT AND, given the time difference, THE SAME HOUR AS WHEN I WAS ATTACKED! Except that she was nearly choked to death by this thing. I'm talking about she had red hand marks on her neck from this thing.

So now my question remains... And will always remain... Was it all just a dream? Or did it really happen?