You are here: Real Ghost Stories :: Old Hags / Night Attacks / Sleep Paralysis :: The Night Hag

Real Ghost Stories

The Night Hag

 

Of my many experiences, one of the most puzzling has been from my early childhood. I was six years old, and we had been living in a house that was built for us about seven months prior to the incident.

From the first few weeks that we lived in the house various oddities started happening around the house. Windows that were closed tightly would suddenly be found open, locked cupboards would be found unlocked and wide open, their contents at times in disarray, and the stereo system in the living room would at times switch on in the middle of the night at full volume, giving everyone in the house a tremendous fright.

My brother, who was fifteen at the time, and myself usually got the blame for these events, even though we were usually fast asleep in our room when these things happened.

On several occasions I would wake up at night for no apparent reason and not be able to fall asleep for hours afterward. As a rather impressionable child of six, I usually hid under my sheets during these nights, imagining a multitude of ghouls, ghosts and monsters stalking around the room, and the strange events of the previous months did not help the situation very much at all.

It was on one of these nights that I had woken up in the early morning hours. Feeling a bit braver than usual, I decided not to hide under my sheets that night, and simply tried to get back to sleep. It was a few minutes later that I heard a strange ticking sound from the other side of my bed. Along with it came a very oppressive feeling which made it hard for me to breathe. Feeling thoroughly frightened, I turned around slowly to come face to face with a skeletal form of an old woman with sparse wisps of hair clinging to her head.

I felt completely paralyzed as she brought her face closer to mine. I couldn't breathe, not to mention scream a protest! When I finally found my breath again, I let loose with a very shrill scream, and the old woman suddenly compressed into a luminous sphere which hovered for a while, then zipped straight up through the ceiling.

My brother and parents all rushed to my side in an instant, but I was quite hysterical, and couldn't coherently explain to them exactly what happened. They chalked it up to a nightmare, and nothing was said of it for a very long time. She never reappeared, but strange little things kept happening throughout our stay in the house.

Fast-forward many years ahead.

My brother and I got together a few months ago, and decided to chat about strange experiences we've had over the years. My eyes started watering and chills ran down my spine as he related to me a tale of an old skeletal woman he'd seen next to his bed when he was six years old. I finished his story for him before he could, mentioning that she compressed into a luminous ball before disappearing. We were both stunned. Both of us had had the same experience when we were six years old, respectively.

We decided to ask my father if he had ever experienced anything like that, but he assured us that he would have remembered something like that. He did tell us, however, that my great grandfather used to tell him of an old woman who would scare the children in the night on the old farm they used to live on, though neither my father or my grandfather ever saw her.

And that is my tale of what seems to be a family ghost who sometimes skips a few generations.

Other hauntings by Hexotericka

Hauntings with similar titles

Find ghost hunters and paranormal investigators from South Africa

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, Hexotericka, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

Hexotericka (6 stories) (45 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-07-28)
Sorry for the double post, folks, but I just felt I should add a bit more detail to what I remember of the experience. I've read several accounts of the old hags on this site so far, and I can say that the descriptions of these women are quite different to the one my family has experienced.
The old woman seemed completely solid and quite alive, though terribly emaciated, as if from some wasting disease. She was not transparent in any way, and had all the coloring of a live human.
She wore something that looked like a simple single-piece brown dress made from some unremarkable, but rough-looking material. (All these details were clearly visible, since our room was never completely dark. My brother always had a dim lava lamp on at night as we slept.)
As for the ticking sound that drew my attention to the old woman the first time, it sounded like the ticking of a very old grandfather clock. How that fits into it all is beyond me.
The fact that she compressed into a luminous, colorless ball after my scream and left via the ceiling also has me asking the question, what exactly does that? I've so far not read or heard of any other accounts where any other apparition has done this. Usually the apparition just disappears in the blink of an eye, and does not turn into something else for a better mode of transport.
Well, I suppose that is all I can think of adding. As things stand, I do not believe I will ever be able to find out who the old woman was, since she only appeared to me once, and her connection to my family seems to go way back into several generations past.
Thank you for reading, friends.
Hexotericka (6 stories) (45 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-07-27)
Thank you all for reading about my experience and leaving your comments. Personally, I do not believe that this was a case of sleep paralysis, since I was wide awake and pretty mobile up until the moment I saw the hag, then I was frozen in fear. The fact that my brother saw her as well when he was at that age, and also my great grandfather's account makes me believe she might be connected to our family in some way. That a scream made her disappear was also pretty interesting...
willbur (5 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-07-19)
I experienced the hag many times when I was a child. It was a truly frightening experience and was very real. I was able to hear the hag laughing, more of a typical witches cackeling really. I also could hear the hag approaching my bedroom. It was the sound of running and laughing at the same time and I could always tell how close it was in relation to my bedroom. After that it seemed there was always an undetermined amout of time that passed where I was not sure what was going on. Then, all of the sudden I was in my bed on my back with the hag sitting on my chest sort of tickling me but not tickling me because it hurt my ribs. While doing this she would laugh at me. I would scream for it to stop. She would laugh and tell me to say I was sorry. I did not know what she was talking about so I would say no. It would keep going until I gave in and said I was sorry. Sorry for what? I don't know. Afterwards my ribs alway hurt from the experience. This happened once or twice a month from the age age of 4 to about 12 or 13. I finally got old enough to confront this thing on my own. I decided it was time to deal with it instead of being afraid. One night I dared it to come, knowing it would if I told it to. This time was different. I resisted with everything I had. I fought back and was swinging punches at it. It tried to fight back but I kept at it swinging wildly. Then poof it was gone and I found myself sitting upright in my bed knowing my demon was defeated and would never visit me again. The only thing I can possibly determine from this is this thing fed on fear. I no longer feared it so it had no reason to bother me anymore. Who knows really. I don't pretend to know what exactly was happening. Sleep paralysis? I don't know, don't think so though. I was always able to move and was genuinely horrified every time it happened. I honestly felt it was something evil. I don't know if what I did is the right thing for everybody. I do know confronting one's fears is usually a good thing.
Chloeneolea (4 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-07-19)
Sometimes you get a thing called Sleep Paralysis where you wake up and can't move and find it hard to breathe. Some people see the hag but not all the time.
sher2164 (3 stories) (31 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-07-19)
thanks for sharing your story. I think it's a family ghost.

Also, as for sinisterrotica it's better not to experience then experience it. It is pretty terrifying. Sometimes you just may not be the person who sees these things or attract these things. Only certain people can see ghosts. I've never seen a ghost, I've sensed it a couple times, but my boyfriend can see ghosts, but not always it comes and go like that.

Hopefully, that answers your question. If you don't see it, it's best not too.
sinisterrotica (5 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-07-19)
This is scary how come so many people have experienced these something called ghosts but I haven't until date?

To publish a comment or vote, you need to be logged in (use the login form at the top of the page). If you don't have an account, sign up, it's free!

Search this site: