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Shadow Late At Night

 

I'm new to this site and have never been what people call sensitive or psychic and haven't seen or heard much of what would be considered experiences of a paranormal nature. However the subject greatly interests me, and though I know some stories are fabricated I've talked to enough friends and seen enough on the internet to know it can't all be made up. Plus I've had at least one experience in my life the truly frightened the living daylights out of me.

I've seen lots of people who have posted stories about shadow people and what happened to me fits into that category better than anything else. It's probably not the most scary post compared to what I've read, especially for those having to deal with continued activity, but I was so completely terrified by this one experience that I'm grateful it hasn't been anything I've had to deal with over and over.

This all took place in 1974, when I was 14. My family and I lived in a typical ranch home common in the Phoenix area in the 60's and 70's, and my parents had bought it as a new track home several years earlier. My dad was in the Air Force and stationed in Thailand at the time, so it was just my mom, my brother and me.

My mom had a habit of leaving the kitchen light on at night; I guess for some reason it made her feel more secure, even though I thought we lived in a pretty safe area of town. I liked to keep my door open at night because I felt too claustrophobic when it was closed. My room was at the end if the hallway, my brother's room was next to mine, and my mom and dad's room straight across the hall from my door.

On this particular night I woke up suddenly and the first thing I remember was looking at my alarm clock next to my bed, which said 1:20am. The next thing I remember is looking towards my doorway and into the dimly lit hallway beyond. There was a shadow on the hallway wall in the form of a human figure, and I know I was not dreaming. This thing actually moved. Not only could I see it move, I could hear the footsteps on the carpet as it slowly walked towards my door. I was petrified and literally could not move. I was too afraid to scream or make any kind of noise.

It was at that precise moment that I learned what it meant when one's blood ran cold. I just knew someone had broken into the house and had no idea what to do, so I just laid there terrified as I watched this shadow cast onto the wall by some unknown intruder waiting for him to finally appear in front of my door.

Well I waited. And waited. The shadow stopped advancing and kind of faded or just blended in with the other shadows. I mean nothing else happened. I was still scared to death but after about 15 minutes I got the courage to jump out of my bed and run across the hall into my mom's room and woke her up to tell her what I saw. In her half asleep state she brushed it off as me having a nightmare and let me sleep with her the rest of the night. I finally fell into an exhausted sleep until morning, and when I investigated found all the doors and windows secure. I never talked about it much, and thought maybe it really was my imagination, but to this day remember it in detail like it happened yesterday.

That is not the complete end of the story. Some months later my dad had returned from his overseas trip and used to stay up really late on his days off because he worked swing shifts. Often he would fall asleep on the couch in front of the TV. This was the time before cable and we had all of 5 stations to watch, and none of them stayed on all night, so after Sign Off there would be nothing but static on the TV.

So again late one night maybe a year or so later I woke up and could hear someone walking around and saw a person's shadow moving about. I wasn't scared this time because I knew it was probably my dad getting up from the couch to go to bed, but after a few minutes didn't see him walk by the door to go into the bedroom. Curiosity got the better of me so I got up. There was my dad snoring away on the couch with the TV displaying its late-night static interface. My dad was laying there as if he had not moved for hours, let alone 5 minutes ago.

That's when it hit me that maybe it had not been my dad I had seen an heard moving around in the family room. I starting getting that same terrified feeling again, but all I could do was go back to bed and try to tell myself there was some logical explanation for what I had seen and heard.

I don't know if there is a logical explanation or not, but we moved to a new home shortly after. I've not had that kind of experience since. I've had a couple other weird experiences which I will talk about later, but this was definitely the most frighting for me.

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Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, Desertmoon, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

Desertmoon (4 stories) (23 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-12-26)
brettscharff Thanks for your input, I hadn't realized there was such a high incidence of these kind of reports in the Phoenix area, I have heard EMFs can be linked to this so maybe a possibility. Especially since this was pretty much an isolated event and I don't seem to be psychic or sensitive in any other way.
Desertmoon (4 stories) (23 posts)
 
7 years ago (2016-12-26)
Manofon, my dad was in the military but the home was pretty well constructed and in a suburban neighborhood, well away from any military bases - it was actually some 20 miles away. It was probably one of the first neighborhoods with underground wiring so do know if that made a difference. I was never uncomfortable being alone in the house during the day (I was a latch-key kid) and my mom at least was always there every night with us. It never felt 'haunted'
Desertmoon (4 stories) (23 posts)
 
7 years ago (2016-12-26)
Micasa and Justjess, I didn't know about shadow people in 1974, and I guess most don't make sounds of footsteps, apparently. So as a 14 year old hearing and seeing this I just knew it was an actual, flesh and blood intruder- much scarier than a ghost, believe me, because anyone breaking in doesn't have any good intentions in mind for the occupants. So when it turned out to not be that, I suppose I was relieved, but the term 'ghost' or 'shadow person' didn't even enter my mind. Not until decades later.
Desertmoon (4 stories) (23 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-12-26)
RedWolf, I like the idea that maybe what I saw, if it was indeed something paranormal had meant no harm, especially since I wasn't having this encounter over and over, and obviously didn't suffer any more harm than just being scared out of my wit's, but that would happen to anyone seeing something out of the ordinary and not understanding the intent behind it, begign or not.
Desertmoon (4 stories) (23 posts)
 
7 years ago (2016-12-26)
Skeptic, the hall wasn't exposed to any exterior windows, so the only kind of movements to be seen in that kind of lighting would be from someone moving about, either in the kitchen or in the hallway itself
TheSkeptic (21 posts)
 
7 years ago (2016-10-17)
Were the drapes/curtains closed at the time? With the kitchen light on its possible a car/person was passing by and that's the shadow you saw. The sound could have just been your imagination.
RedWolf (31 stories) (1292 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-10-12)
Desertmoon

Although I have never had an encounter with shadow people others on this site have. Most of the time the shadow person is either playful or mischievous.

Regards
Red
micasa (17 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-10-10)
Desertmoon,
The fact that you heard footsteps is what scares me about your encounter. My youngest had a similar experience at a friends house a while back and she hasn't gone there since.
I'm not sure if geography makes a difference but I do live in the general area you speak of and I have seen/heard weird things that I haven't any rational explanation for either.
Thank you for sharing.

Micasa 😊
shelbyloree (5 stories) (285 posts)
+1
7 years ago (2016-10-04)
The experience sounds pretty creepy - but also tied to that specific location. It didn't follow you, and it wasn't in any of your things (say a souvenir from dad's travels) so hurrah!

Vivid imagery, I wouldn't be happy seeing that!
brettscharff (11 posts)
+2
7 years ago (2016-10-03)
Hi Desertmoon, I think that Manafon has a good point here. Electro-Magnetic frequencies could have played a role here in helping these figures manifest themselves to you. The TV being on static for hours on end like that is quite a conducive environment for such things. Especially those old TV's from the 1960's. Also, living in the Phoenix area, you have to think about all of the other types of Phenomena that you have there, unique to the geographic area. Your area has some of the highest reported sightings of shadow people, due to the high extraterrestrial activity as well. So, who knows, maybe what you experienced was actually not paranormal, but other worldly.
Justjess (2 stories) (7 posts)
+2
7 years ago (2016-09-30)
Hi Desertmoon, I believe that you saw a genuine shadow person. The only thing that I find odd about your story is that you could actually hear it walking around. I have had a few encounter's myself but have never heard one make noise before. I guess they manifest themselves differently to different individuals. I am sorry it scared you so. My 5 year old son just saw one the other night by our bathroom in the hall and was completely freaked out too. I wish I knew what these creepy things are and why they like to be around us.
Manafon1 (6 stories) (712 posts)
+2
7 years ago (2016-09-26)
Hi Desertmoon--I enjoyed reading your account. What you experienced may indeed have been paranormal but there is another possibility. You write that the home in which you encountered the shadowy figure was a new construction "track house". I have read of other homes that have exceptionally high electromagnetic fields that can cause (especially over a long period) hallucinations, paranoia and a sense of general unease.

Many houses built for military families were constructed quickly and it seems quite possible that prolonged exposure to high levels of EMF may have caused you to "see" this figure. It could also explain the sound of someone walking and the shadow you saw the second time. Were you often uncomfortable in the house? If so your experiences could be tied to high levels of EMF in a house with minimal insulation. Either way your account was interesting. Thanks for sharing and welcome to YGS!

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