It started with the hallway.
The hallway in my 1920's apartment in Los Angeles was more than just a little unsettling. I would always find myself looking over at it while watching TV in the living room, expecting something to be there. I and everyone else would pass through this long hallway as quickly as possible, when we had parties no one would wait in the hallway to use the restroom, and I used the linen closet in the hallway only to store things I didn't need access to on a regular basis. My dog would look at the hallway and whimper from time to time. It just felt like there was always someone or something there.
Then there were the dreams.
I started having dreams about a tall shadow figure standing in the doorway of my bedroom. They became more frequent. I found myself waking in the middle of the night frightened, heart racing and out of breathe. I never mentioned them to my husband or anyone else.
And then there was "THE DREAM"
There wasn't anything out of the ordinary about this evening. I went to bed at my regular time, my husband in bed with me; he was closest (3 feet) to the bedroom door. I started dreaming, but really it was more like some sort of a dream state, because everything was as it existed in that moment: same bed, same pajamas, same day, same time, same temperature, and same bedroom. The dream began by my "waking up" in the dream, I would prop myself up on my left elbow, look at the alarm clock to see what time it was (it was 1:45 am) then I would look at the doorway for a minute and then lie back down and continue "sleeping". This repeated itself every 15 minutes, 2:00am, 2:15am, 2:30 am etc. The last cycle felt a little different. When I "woke up" I propped myself up on my elbow but I felt more alert, the environment felt more energized, I looked at the clock and it was either 3:31 or 3:13am. When I saw the time I new that what I had been waiting for had come and when I looked in the doorway something was going to be there. Sure enough, when I lifted my eyes to the doorway I saw a very tall, featureless, dense black shadow man.
I was terrified. I woke up, this time for real, and I found myself propped up on my elbow looking at the doorway where the shadow man had been. I woke my husband up and I couldn't get back to sleep. I could still feel its presence.
From then on it made its presence known all the time:
After that dream I felt more afraid than ever. I awoke to something saying my name in a loud whisper from across the room to right next to my ear. I was afraid to use the restroom at night because I was worried something was going to touch me if I put my feet on the ground. I would lie down and feel like I couldn't move because there was a heavy feeling on my body. I would find myself freezing in bed at night in an un-air-conditioned room in the middle of summer.
Then I told someone:
My husband and I were having friends over for dinner and our guests started talking about ghost experiences. It was then that I told the story about the shadow man. My husband couldn't believe what he was hearing because it turns out he was also having dreams about a shadow man standing in our bedroom doorway.
And finally... We moved:
We left the apartment. In our new apartment we had a chair that would move to the same spot over and over again, and our downstairs neighbor would report hearing footsteps above his room in the night, but we never felt any ill will from it... And it could have been the cats.
We have since moved again into our first home and are happy to report that there has been no shadowy scary business yet.
**** Interesting note
I lived in the apartment for 8 years. Since I moved out no one occupies the space for very long. This apartment was exceptionally large, in a great and historic neighborhood, and the rent was affordable.
Loading comments....
