The Ghost In Chicago

In the summer of 2009, I was visiting Chicago for a work trip and stayed at the historic Hilton Chicago across from Grant Park. My sister also lives in Chicago and my trip coincided with her bachelorette party. After work on a Friday evening, I had dinner with my sister and two of her friends. I distinctly remember only having one glass of wine at dinner, since the next night would likely include more drinking at the bachelorette party.

After dinner, I went back to the hotel and fell asleep. While sleeping I started having a vivid dream. I was stuck in an elevator. The elevator stopped working. I tried using the intercom to call the operator. The operator started screaming at me through the intercom. It sounded like a cacophony of multiple voices screaming. Suddenly, I woke up; my heart was racing. And that's when I realized being stuck in the elevator was a dream and the voices that were screaming at me were actually coming from the hallway. A group of people walking through the hallway were being ridiculously loud.

Reality hit me that I had been woken up and I remember feeling very annoyed and thinking I probably won't be able to fall back asleep. I was curled up in a fetal position on my right side. I flipped over to my left side so I could see the time on the digital clock. It was 4 a.m. CT. I sighed, feeling anxious about whether or not I'd be able to fall back asleep. I then rolled from the fetal position onto my back. And that's when I saw it.

Standing at the foot of the bed, directly in front of me was a man. This man was not completely solid but more solid than an apparition. I could make out every single detail on this man's face but there was definitely a low-key glow radiating through him. To this day I could spot this man in a lineup. His hair was reddish and thinning, high cheekbones, faint mustache, pointy nose. He was wearing a cut-off Celtics jersey. He was staring at me and smiling slightly. Creepy in a "I'm standing in your hotel room staring at you" creepy way, but not overly creepy. I did not sense this person to be evil, but I was still scared. We stared at each other for what felt like 5 minutes but was probably 10-20 seconds. My thought process during this time went something like this: "Did one of those people in the hallway break into my room? No, this doesn't feel like a real person. This feels like a ghost. Maybe it's my guardian angel? Shouldn't my guardian angel be wearing something nicer than a cut-off jersey? Am I having one of those sleep paralysis moments? Can I move? If it's a ghost wouldn't he have left by now? He's still staring at me. It must be a real person. Oh my god, there's a real person in here!"

At that moment I decided this person was real. I sat up in bed and screamed while staring directly at this guy. And all of the sudden, right before my eyes - he just faded away. Almost like pixels dissolving into the air. I'm still sitting in the same spot breathing heavily. While sitting I started looking around the room because I was still confused about what had just happened. The door to the bathroom was slightly ajar. And as I looked into the dark doorway I saw his face again, staring right back at me. We locked eyes. And then once again, he just faded away like pixels.

I have never been so scared in my life. I felt incapable of moving or doing anything I was so scared. I curled up under the bed covers completely awake for the next hour. Eventually, I grabbed my cell phone off the nightstand and call my boyfriend (now husband). It was 6 a.m. In New York at that point. He didn't answer. Eventually, I got up and went to yoga in the park with my boss that morning and told her the entire story. Then I asked two different hotel employees if they ever heard any stories and they said no. I can't imagine that is true given the historic nature of the hotel. Later that morning I talked to my boyfriend/husband and he said it was probably a remote viewer who was just "having some fun, going into different hotel rooms." I don't know what it was but I know it happened.