Sta.sh
I used to live on a street called Emily Way in a large horizontally built house, though I do recall spending my days there as a happy place, at night it became a whole different story. In my room, next to the head of my bed, there was a sliding glass door that led to the backyard. The door in the daytime was just a shortcut to my childhood play place, but at night it was a portal to my worst fears.
Every night when I tried to close my eyes and fall into a good night sleep, I would get the feeling of a dark presence watching me from outside my bedroom walls. Skittishly, I would poke my head around the corner to get a glimpse at the entity that seemed to stare into my soul, and each time I’d always see the same dark figure standing out in plain sight underneath a medium-sized oak tree.
The figure looked to be nothing more than a shadow, yet it stood there as if it were alive. It was a man. A man who wore the same clothes when he came to visit me each and every night. Even though the man was nothing but a shadow I could still make out the clothes he had on. The man wore a long trench coat that covered from the top of his body down to his feet, and a 1930’s fedora on his head, but nothing else was possible to make out with the human eye. The man’s body and apparel always blended in with the shadow of the oak tree he stood in, so if he did wear something more, no one would ever be able to tell. For these reasons I began to refer to this dark entity as “The Shadow Man.”
At first I would always try to ignore the Shadow Man and rest my head despite his presence, but I would always end up stopping myself from closing my eyes for too long. It made me feel helpless when I knew that the Shadow Man was still watching me. Sometimes when I knew that the Shadow Man was watching, I would peek my head around the corner to see if the man was still there and to my displeasure he, always was.
Eventually, the search across the web actually paid off. My friends and I found people out on the web who are asking the same questions that I am. Who is the Shadow man? Why does he watch me from a far? In some cases others have even reported Shadow Man’s attacks on them in their blogs, and even on yahoo answers. I’m not sure if he is a demon, a ghost, or even an entirely different creature all together. I know that it must sound crazy to most people, but to me and some others out there, it is the truth.
At first I would always try to ignore the Shadow Man and rest my head despite his presence, but I would always end up stopping myself from closing my eyes for too long. It made me feel helpless when I knew that the Shadow Man was still watching me. Sometimes when I knew that the Shadow Man was watching, I would peek my head around the corner to see if the man was still there and to my displeasure he, always was.
Please don’t think that this man is just some figment of my overactive imagination, for I wish he were. I once thought that maybe he was just some shadows made by the surrounding area that came together to make the perfect nightmare for a small child such as myself, but in the day time when I went outside to look for anything that could possibly be the culprit to the creation of this demon, I would always find nothing. Even when I told my parents of this problem, they always just told me I was having a bad dream and nothing was outside. The problem with their theory however was not only the fact hat I haven’t yet had my rest, but also because I knew that he was real. The Shadow Man didn't just stand in one fixed position, he would sometimes sway slightly back and forth, or even cock his head to one side as If he were pondering some sort of attack on me. No matter what anyone said to me, I knew he was real.
I never could sleep when the Shadow Man was watching, but at some point his presence seemed to be more and more limited. My nights were once again becoming a time of rest, and not a time of fear. It was starting to make me more happy with the night, but this peace of mind wouldn't last. The man of shadow was only gone for a few years. The entity came back to me once more when I hit my sophomore year of high school, but this time he was no longer the man who watched me from outside closed doors. No, now the Shadow Man was coming inside my room at night to attack me. Luckily there were a few signs to the Shadow Man’s arrival, but not lucky enough to stop him from attacking. This luck that I had was just a chance to brace myself for the inevitable. First the air around me would get cold enough for my breath to be seen indoors, second my body would become paralyzed in which I had no possible way to get up, and finally the Shadow Man would enter from the far side of the room out of the darkest corner to approach me. The Shadow Man would then slowly walk up to me in my paralyzed state, and begin choking me with one hand as he stared at me. Though I may always be paralyzed when entered my room, I would always fight back. I would shake, struggle, and kick until I finally broke free from his grasp, but every time I did he would always disappear right in front of me.
Today he still comes after me, but not all the time. I imagine that the Shadow Man is still observing me in secret as he plots to one day kill me, but I could always be wrong. I fear that I may not be the only one that the Shadow man is after, and I am certainly not the first. After I told the stories of my past to some of my friends, they decided to take it upon themselves to search the internet and find out if anyone else knows of this nightmare come to life. Eventually, the search across the web actually paid off. My friends and I found people out on the web who are asking the same questions that I am. Who is the Shadow man? Why does he watch me from a far? In some cases others have even reported Shadow Man’s attacks on them in their blogs, and even on yahoo answers. I’m not sure if he is a demon, a ghost, or even an entirely different creature all together. I know that it must sound crazy to most people, but to me and some others out there, it is the truth.
