The Boogeyman?

I have been a regular visitor to this, I feel comfortable now to share my story with you, this will be the first story I submit.

The story I'm about to tell you happened a few years ago, I was 13 at the time, I am 26 now and this still haunts me to this day. I stayed with my parents in a quiet suburb in South Africa. I grew up in that house and my parents still stay there to this day.

I remember waking up in the early morning hours, feeling panicked and scared, it felt like someone was watching me, like I wasn't alone. I didn't move, but scanned the room with my eyes. I didn't see anything. I closed my eyes and prayed. Soon after I fell asleep again and didn't think much of it. A few days passed and nothing happened.

I then woke up again, with the same fear and panic, I looked around my room again and that's when I saw it. It was sitting on my desk in front of my bed. It was small, like a garden gnome, it had yellow eyes, sharp little teeth and pointed fingers. It just stared at me. I never felt so scared in my life. I screamed and my dad came to my room. As soon as he put the light on the creature was gone. My dad didn't believe me when I told him what I have seen, he thought it was just a bad dream. It felt so real, I know I was awake and I know I saw it and it saw me. I slept in my parents room for the rest of the night.

I was now scared to go to bed, to be alone in my room at night. I could always feel it watching me. It also started to scratch the underside of my bed at nights. I once again woke up and saw the creature sitting on my desk, he stared at me and smiled; the most evil smile I have ever seen. I was frozen with fear. This went on for years, my parents thought I had an over active imagination and watched too many scary movies and didn't take it seriously.

Whenever I saw the creature I just covered my face with my duvet. Prayed and hoped I will fall asleep quickly. It seemed like it didn't like that I ignored it and things got worse. I saw him sitting on my desk again, I just closed my eyes and covered my face, I knew he was still there, I could feel him watching me. I then felt him jump onto my bed. I didn't dare move, I have never been this scared in my life. I didn't dare look, I just laid there. I could feel him scratching my arm and I screamed. My dad came and put the light on and the creature was gone. I slept in my parents room again. The next morning I saw the four scratches on my arm, but my parents said I must have done it in my sleep.

I told a friend what was happening and luckily he believed me. He told me this thing thrives on fear and that I should sleep with a bible under my pillow and tell it to go away. I did just that, I could still feel him sometimes watching me, but never saw him again. I was 16 at the time.

This is when it got even creeper, I was doing much better, 2 years had passed without any incident, I was 18 at the time. I stayed over at a friends house, we all slept in front of the TV. Her boyfriend screamed in the early hours, I woke up and I could feel the creature looking at us, I knew it was there. "The boogeyman is here" her boyfriend screamed over and over again. I ran to put the lights on and that's when her boyfriend told me about the creature, the same creature I saw when I was younger. I saw the small scratch marks on his arm and that just freaked me out. I was trying to convince myself for so long that it wasn't real.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? What is it?

I'm 26 now and I haven't seen or felt it again after that night.