The Noises And A Shadow

I just wanted to share my story, maybe you guys can help me figure out what I experienced. I'm a bit of a skeptic but at the same time a big part of me believes in the paranormal. I don't know if that even makes sense.

This happened to me back where I grew up. I lived in a 2 bedroom apartment with my parents in Manhattan, NY. Just to give you an idea of the place, this is the lay out of my apartment. We had two doors to the outside, one opened to a small waiting area and the other to the kitchen. We used the door to the kitchen a lot more then the other one. When you come in, there is a hallway to the other side of the kitchen and my room was in the middle to the right of the hallway. Then came the living room and then my parents' room, so basically they had to go through the hallway and pass my room to get to their room.

Anyways, I was 17 at that time and used to stay home alone sometimes on the weekends. My parents used to go to Atlantic City and sometimes they would stay for the whole weekend.

It was a Saturday night and unlike other weekends I went to bed kind of early. Around 2:30 am I heard the door in the kitchen open and close, then I heard some voices but could not understand what they were saying almost as if they were talking low so I wouldn't wake up but I could still hear them. Then I heard very clear footsteps in the hallway right outside my room. The steps were going in the direction to my parents' room. So I figured they came home early. I waited in bed for my mom to come in and check on me like she did every night before she would go to sleep.

When she didn't show up in my room, I decided to see if they were okay. To my surprise my parents' room was empty, so I went looking in all the rooms for them and NOTHING. At this point I'm getting a little scared, I thought that someone broke in and was hiding somewhere in my house.

I was standing in the middle of my kitchen when all of this is going through my head. So I grabbed my mom's rolling pin (I don't know what made me do this, I guess I thought I was so brave back then) and turned every light in my house, opened every door looking in every closet and corner to find this "intruder". NOTHING, I was "completely home alone". By then it was already 3 am (or so) and I was pissed off because I should've been in bed.

I decided to call parents to ask them what time they were coming home and they said they were about an hour away. So I went back to my room and was watching some TV waiting for them to get home so I can tell them my story. When out of no where I see this shadow on the wall in front and away from my bed, it looked as if some one was standing in my doorway (which was to the left of my bed) and making this shadow on the wall.

I closed my door to see if it was something in the hallway doing this, but the shadow was still there. I could only see the shoulders and head but not a body. I got closer to touched it and all I felt was the cold wall but the shadow was still there, at that time I really thought there was something (not paranormal) making this shadow that's why I was crazy enough to touch it. I turned to my phone to call my mom and when I looked to the wall again, the shadow had moved to the other end of the wall, closer to my bed and right at the foot of it.

That's when I grabbed my keys and cell phone and left. I waited for my parents on the steps right outside of my building. When they got home I told them what happened but they didn't know what to make of it. I think they believed me but didn't want to say anything.

Could it had just been my imagination or maybe I had a paranormal experience? This has been my question for years.