He Won't Leave Me Alone...

First time posting a story up here and before I start there's a few things I would like you to know. I'm a very religious person. A Christian, denomination shouldn't matter here. So when I talk about my experiences, know that I already believe spirits, demons, and angels exist. I talk to God all the time, so it doesn't really freak me out when ghostly things happen. Which is probable a blessing considering the story I'm about to share. On top of that I'm a very laid back person, the farthest from a drama queen you'll ever meet, and I have a tendency to make understatements. Please keep that in mind when you read this.

This isn't a story about a room being haunted or a house being haunted. I sort of wish it was, but no. I'm the one who's being haunted. He follows me everywhere, and he's possessive of me. Like I'm his territory or something. Frankly, I don't get it, I'm not very attractive, and I'm not the most spiritually aware, well... Compared to my best friend who's seen him more than once, I'm not.

I know he's male because he's called my name a few times before and his voice is defiantly male. I'll be home alone and all of a sudden, very clearly, it's not a whisper or anything, and I'll hear a male's voice call my name. It's not scary or anything, sure it surprised me the first time, but it's not said in a threatening way. So I don't really worry about it, he just wants attention.

Usually he behaves himself, lays his hand on my shoulder, messes with my hair, and touches my cheek. It doesn't feel like skin, the best way I can describe it is that the air gets thick and cold in the areas that he touches me at, it's air that's so thick it's almost water like in density. I think he does it just to let me know he's in the room, so I'll talk to him. It's a totally one sided conversation, I feel sorry for him. I wouldn't want to be stuck in this world with no one to talk to; I try my best to be nice to him and patient with him.

However, sometimes he misbehaves, and it's always when I ignore him, or try to push him away. I'm trying to get to sleep or I'm working on something and I'm tired of having my face touched, he's cold, I don't enjoy being cold for the most part. I'll snap at him, "Will you just leave me alone for awhile?" He's like a child in a way, does not like to be told no not at all. He's scratched my back, punched me in the face once, but normally he puts a lot of pressure on my chest and chokes me, makes it hard to breath. He seems to try hard when he's choking me, to make sure it's enough to make me uncomfortable, but not enough to actually hurt me, though he did hurt me once, left me gasping on my bed for breath and with a sore neck the next morning.

The amazing part about it is after all that, I'm not scared of him. He's never really hurt me badly, it's more like a giant child lashing out in anger and then withdrawing quickly. I've only seen him once, and that was during school. I was walking up the stairs to my locker, when I heard someone walking up the steps behind me. I turned around to look, and there he was, this tall, skinny man who seemed surround by blackness. It was like cloth, but not cloth. I didn't see his face; it was obscured by a hood of some sort.

At first, I thought he was a student, though looking back I'm not sure why, he doesn't look like any student I've ever seen. I only glimpsed him for a second or two before looking back up at my friend, and then whipping my head back to do a double take. Which of course he was gone by that time, what followed was me, making a fool out of myself. "Hey where did that kid go?" "What Kid?" "The really tall one dressed in all black who was standing in behind us a second ago."

That earned some looks, lucky for me though, my best friend who has her own ghost issues, smiled sympathetically at me and promised we'd talk about it over lunch. When I say I'm haunted and not my house, I mean it. I've been bothered by him when I'm camping, when I'm staying the night at a friend's house, at my grandparents, he's even bothered me during school.

I've found that it's best to give him attention. He gets angry when I don't pay attention to him. For the most part I don't mind him either. Sometimes it can be a comfort having him around, I'm upset about something, and suddenly it feels like I'm being hugged. I don't think he's an evil being, but I don't think he's solely good either, like you and me; he has the ability to be both mean, and nice, free will. He seems to regret it when he scares me, or hurts me.

I know the last thing he wants is for me to be scared of him. I was trying out that knocking trick that you sometimes see on the ghost shows, I was sitting up in my bed asking him question after question, didn't get many answers, but one was pretty reveling, I think. "Okay, um... Knock twice if you're angry at me." No knocks, "Are you angry?" a tentative two knocks. "Are you angry because you frightened me?" Two loud knocks right next to my ear. After that he seemed to get bored with the knocking game, and didn't respond much.

My best friend is under the impression that he's a demon and a nasty one at that. She's probable closer to the truth then I am. If there's one thing about my personality that you should know, if you haven't figured it out yet, is that I'm an extreme optimist. I see the bright side of everything, and I always try to see the best in others. I'm a push over by nature, and have quite the submissive nature, I'm not a leader.

If one thing is clear it's that she doesn't like him, and he in turn doesn't like her. Can't really blame him, I wouldn't like her very much if she talked about getting me exorcised all the time. She's seen him more than once, and a lot clearer than me. One time she was over at my house to spend the night and she froze mid-sentence and just stared at my staircase, and turned very pale. "He's so tall Sara, and he's all dressed in all black and... Oh he doesn't like me at all." Here she shivered, "That thing is evil, and I'm scared for you." She's said that more than once, "I'm scared for you." Love that girl to death, but she can be on the dramatic side. Of course I laughed it off, and assured her gently that he's never hurt me before, and not to worry, I'm fine. She gave me a look and said, "He's choked you before." To which I responded that, "It didn't really hurt that much."

He followed us to Prom this year too; my best friend was the one who saw him. She got really upset about it, she told me he made her feel hallow and all alone. I've never seen her look more shaken, or cry like that in a public place. I don't think I've been angrier at him then that day, he caused such a scene, I ended up holding my sobbing friend in my arms for about half an hour just comforting her. I don't care what he does to me, but hurting my friends and family is where I draw the line.

I don't want him to be evil, or a demon. I can't see him as being that. I've grown up with him. He's been around sense I was probably eleven or so. I'm used to him; I have a working relationship with him. He misbehaves only when I ignore him, or when someone else is getting more attention than him when he wants it (my best friend for example).

The difference between my best friend and I is that, she sees all the bad in him, when I try to see only the good. She tends to see ghosts as black and white beings, either good, or bad. I see them as a mix of both, like most people, they're good for the most part. My relationship with him is like all relationships, it's a bumpy road, and it helps to have a second opinion. But more than a second opinion would be great. There are still things I want to know about him, a name for example would be great to know. But, I guess I'll just take this one day at a time.

I'm also curious to know if anyone's had an experience similar to mine, he seems to be getting more and more attached to me as time goes on. I can't go more than a few days without experiencing something 'unnatural'. It's getting to the point where I don't even take notice of it anymore. Strange has become my normal.