From: sal4479@aol.com
To: The Official Shadow People Archives
Sent: Friday, December 25, 2009 1:49:02 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Childhood Shadow Experience
Hello, this is a memory that I have kept to myself for 25 years. I always told myself that this scary memory must be a product of a 5 year old's overactive imagination. However, after continuously hearing Shadow People stories over the years, I am ready to admit that this was a very real experience.
One night when I was 5, I awoke in the night feeling horribly afraid. My room was pitch black and the only light came from under the door-my dad was awake in the living room down the hall watching tv. My eyes were drawn to my closet, which was wide open. There, crazy as it sounds, was a very tall, very black figure watching me. I do not recall any clothing or facial features. I want to say it was wearing a hat, but I'm not sure if I haven't added the hat to my recollection after learning about these beings later on in life.
I noticed the light under the door and began screaming for my dad. He came immediately, terrified that I was hurt. He turned the lights on as he ran in. I babbled incoherently about a man in my closet, and kept pointing at the closet. He turned to look where I was pointing, and, naturally there was nothing there. He calmed me down for awhile and made a sweep of my room, checking the closet, under the bed, and making sure the windows were shut. He then hugged me and tucked me in, assuring me that I was safe, and left again. Once he had turned off my light and shut the door, I tried to go to sleep. I buried myself in the covers and tried to not think about what I had seen.
Pretty soon, I was all of the sudden overcome with a feeling of dread and felt frozen. I could not resist taking a peek at the closet-and sure enough, the thing was there again, and this time I felt it was watching me more intently and it felt more menacing. Again, I do not remember any facial features or other characteristics-only a very dark human like shape and a very negative energy emanating from this shape. I tried to yell for my dad again, but my breathing had seemingly stopped and I could not manage to make my voice work. I summoned up all of my courage and jumped out of bed and ran to the light switch. Once I turned on the lights, the "thing" was gone again.
My parents watched me closely the next day, and asked if I had had any more "bad dreams". I felt like they would never believe me, and that I would be in trouble somehow if I told them what had happened. I have buried this experience ever since, because it IS crazy. I am neither a skeptic or a true believer, I only know that this absolutely happened to me. You may publish this using my name and email address, thank you for creating this space where I could finally tell this story.
-Sara
