Cryptic Wake Up Call

I want to put down as much detail as I can remember. I don't think that I have any particular gift for sensing spirits, but I believe that there's a human spirit haunting my home. Unlike some ghosts, though, he's not a very active spirit at all.

I'm not sure who this ghost is or what he looks like, but I believe that he lives mostly in our backyard and doesn't come inside much. My older sister once claimed to having seen someone walk through the backyard towards our side gate, but she couldn't see him very well since it was dusk. There is no entrance to the yard in the direction that the man came from. When she went to chase after him, there was no one there.

I also have two cats who are very good-natured and quite docile when inside - if they're not nagging for attention, they're napping somewhere. Whenever they go out to the yard alone, however, they act strangely from time to time. They'll get completely spooked and run back and forth across the yard at top speed, with fur raised and backs arched at seemingly nothing. I can't tell if they're chasing something or running away from something.

I don't think that this spirit is hostile or mischievous at all, though. He isn't very attention-seeking, and sometimes he does so little that I think I would forget him if not for the cats. That's why I never expected him to come to me directly.

It was July 12, 2006. The room that I was using then and still use now was my brother's room until about a year beforehand. I originally wanted my sister's room, since both of them were already out of the house, but I ended up in my brother's room instead and I've loved it since.

School had ended a couple weeks before, and I had just started getting used to keeping my alarm clock off. Still, as I woke up early out of habit, I was foggy enough to worry about being late for school when I remembered that it was Wednesday, and I looked at the clock to see that it was just after 8:00 a.m. Recalling my newfound freedom, I decided in my laziness to stay in bed for another couple hours. I knew that I would probably get up earlier than that, since it's hard for me to fall asleep again after waking up, but I just didn't want to move yet.

Some time later, I was lying on my side with my eyes closed, debating to myself whether or not to get out of bed since I was really bored. I always leave my door open a crack so that my cats can come in and out during the night. I heard something very softly push my door open wider, and the distinct sound of the floor creaking, slowly approaching my bed. I assumed that it was my mom; she always comes in to wake me up when I sleep in late, but she comes in so quietly and carefully that the creaking floor is the only way I can tell she's there (I tease her a lot about her bad tactics).

When the creaking came about halfway into my room, it suddenly stopped. I opened my eyes after a moment, expecting to see my mom, but there was no one there. I was surprised, but I chalked it up to the house being old and put it out of my mind. When I closed my eyes again, though, the creaking started back up. I ignored it at first, but it kept coming slowly towards my bed, until it was just a couple feet away. It paused for just a second, and I thought that it had ended, but then two fast creaks convinced me that something had all but leapt towards me.

Before I had any time to react, I felt a hand clamp onto the side of my head - firmly, but not aggressively - and hold me down to the pillow. I was about to open my eyes to see what was happening when a sudden breeze blew, as though someone had put their face inches away from mine and exhaled onto it. After that, I couldn't open my eyes since it still felt like someone's face was right in front of my own.

I was startled, but at the same time I was strangely composed. I remember wondering if I had fallen back asleep and this was a dream, but I constantly tried to sit up and clearly felt something preventing my head from budging even an inch. I'm positive that I wasn't dreaming. I could distinctly feel the large palm and the slender fingers of the hand, but it seemed more like they were made of condensed air, something almost solid and touchable, but still not quite a tangible material. It wasn't entirely cold, but there was no warmth from it, just like there was no warmth in the breath on my face.

I couldn't seem to speak either. I twisted my face uncomfortably from the feeling of soft breath on it, and I wanted to cry out for help a few times, but I couldn't quite get my voice to work or my mouth to open.

That was when I heard someone whisper harshly, "It's time to get up." The voice was very raspy and thin, like someone who was having trouble breathing. What was stranger was that it seemed to echo in my head more than it did in the room. Oddly enough, the voice actually calmed me down. It meant that I wasn't being randomly assaulted, but that there was actually a purpose for this weird treatment. I was suddenly more curious than I was frightened. I wanted to ask 'Why?' but I still couldn't speak.

The voice repeated, "It's time to get up." Again, I thought strongly, 'Why should I?'

This time, the voice bit back, "Why not?"

He sounded very sarcastic, and with good reason. I'm known for getting fleeting urges and randomly doing things like baking cakes at 10 at night for no real reason. Whenever people ask me why I'm doing it, I always come back with "Why not?"

The voice kept on repeating between breaths, "It's time to get up. It's time to get up now." I tried a couple more times to speak to him or to get an explanation, before I realized that it wouldn't work.

So I tried to do what he said and get up (as I'd been doing), but the hand was still keeping me from moving my head at all. I thought frustratingly to him about how I couldn't get up if his hand was holding me down. Instantly, the hand, the face, the breathing, and the raspy voice all dissipated. All the condensed air just dispersed and vanished.

I considered remaining in bed, but it was about then that what had just happened really hit me. I immediately sat up and stiffened unsurely, starting to feel panicked. When I looked at the clock, it said 8:32.

It still felt like I was being watched from somewhere by the windows or by one of the walls. I was afraid that he would come back if I didn't do as he said, but I had no complaints about running out of there like lightning to my mom downstairs. She was cooking, and she didn't notice how freaked out I was at first. I was confident that the ghost wouldn't follow me throughout the house, as long as I was out of my room. I tried to tell my mom what had just happened, but she doesn't really believe in the supernatural and insisted that I must have been dreaming.

I'm sure that I wasn't dreaming. I can never think so lucidly during dreams, they're never so tangible, and even my worst nightmares have never left me so frightened when they woke me up. Besides, I had no sensation of waking up when it all ended, no moment of tired disorientation or transition at all.

I haven't encountered our ghost since then, but I have a strong feeling that if I hadn't left my room when he told me to, something bad would have happened. When I went back to my room about half an hour later, everything was the same and there was no feeling of anyone being inside anymore.

That's everything that I can remember. Does anyone have any thoughts?