It Was Just A Movie

02 July 2018 | Your True Encounters

I’ve had a lot of weird, unexplainable things happen to me when I was younger. Some of them I’ve tried to share with my mom, who would brush me off despite her being a believer in the paranormal. Some of them I haven’t shared with anyone. I think she thought like any other kid I was making up stories, and I definitely did. I don’t deny that. I have a huge and sometimes overactive imagination. I think the thing that she never realized is I always stayed away from anything that may have been scary. I was and still kind of am a scaredy cat.

I’m sure I’ll come to share more of my weird happenings, but this one is by far I think the one that stands out to me the most.

So I said I was a scaredy cat, and that’s very true. My parents, however, are not and have always enjoyed watching horror movies. We moved around a lot, and no matter how the house was set up I would always find a way to sneak out of bed and hide near them while they watched their scary movies. I had no interest in watching, and usually it was because I had a bad dream and just wanted to be close to them that I would find myself out there. They were young adults, and like most young people they didn’t want to be in bed by 10 pm. They would stay up late watching movies and talking. So it was an often occurrence that I would crawl or tip toe out of my room and hide on the stairs or behind a couch. I would inevitably end up watching parts of the movie from sheer curiosity, and at other times squeeze my eyes shut and listen while my imagination unfortunately put pictures in my head.

One movie that truly scared my poor 5 year old self was the remake of the Shinning, or more to the point the bathroom scene. The dead women in the movie made me scream, and my parents found me. They pulled me on the couch and tried to calm me. It was just a movie, it was only make up, it’s just a made up story sweetheart.

It was just a movie.

Well, the “woman” from that scene would become haunt of my nightmares, and I swear actually haunt me.

I don’t remember any more what the nightmares were about, but it very quickly became more than that. In the bathroom mirror I would see her form reach out. Not in the reflection of someone with their hand out way, but in the pushing at it and out way. Like the mirror was substance that would, in the shape of her, reach out. Like a bad scene in a 3D movie. It’s very hard to put into words how it looked. The same would happen from my closet door, but in this case she would be the texture of the wood. It was as though what she was reaching from was also a barrier she was trying to break. I became petrified at the thought of getting out of bed at night. I thought if I did, she would be able to actually grab me. It didn’t matter what apartment we lived in, as we had moved many times since the night I first saw her, and it didn’t matter who’s bathroom it was, I would see her. I started to hear a voice whispering my name and the feeling that I was being watched. It sat in the pit of my stomach, this fear. I would rather have an accident and deal with the shame of that then encounter her.

As time passed for me, it seemed to have passed for her. She became very rotted and decayed.

I know this sounds a lot like a child with an overactive imagination, but it wasn’t that she was in my closet or in the mirror. It was that she would reach to me from the thing itself, pushing out from it as though it was a portal or something. She wasn’t some boogey man sitting in the shadows. I don’t care if no one believes me here, this is an experience I’ve never and will never forget.

This was a nightly occurrence for me. The whispers, the feeling of being watched, and if I dared to peek to my closet door the dead woman reaching to me from the door.

I remember tying all the normal kid things. I slept with a ton of stuffed animals, which lined me in an attempt protect me. I would sleep with the blankets over my head, because if she can’t see me she couldn’t possible harm me, right? I started to pray before bed, because Gram said Jesus would protect me.

I did all these things, and every night I still had the whispers, the feeling of being watched, and the woman reaching to me.

Sometimes I would try to hide from her, I would sleep in the living room. There was a large mirror in the room and she would reach for me from that. I would sleep in my baby brothers room, and she would reach for me through his closet. If I slept at Gram’s house, I would see her there as well.

I remember at one point feeling like she was being more insistent. Like she was getting annoyed with me for not coming to her. She was getting angry with me. A feeling of dread began to set in. Nothing I had done was helping and when I told my parents I was dismissed.

As cryptic as it sounds I had a night where as I laid down I knew it would be my last. This feeling washed over me as I got ready for bed. She was going to get me tonight and there was nothing anyone could or would do for me. I was going to die. I knew what death was despite being rather young, I saw it in movies and I had been to a few funerals. At the time my Aunt Bev had passed away maybe a few months before. I understood what it meant at 10 years old.

So I lay in bed, covered in my blanket, surrounded by my stuffed animals. This night I lay on my side, face towards the wall. I didn’t want to see it when she came for me. I was scared enough as it was.

The whispers started, and the feeling of being watched set in. This time I could practically feel it as she moved from the closet, no longer just reaching. I couldn’t hear the footsteps, but I could feel it. All of it. Each slow step. I could feel that she was moving towards me. Feel it as she leaned in towards me. Feel the hand reach down towards me. Feel it as it almost touched me. Feel the end coming. Then it was gone.

I lay there trembling and confused.

I couldn’t feel her.

I couldn’t hear her.

Should I look?

Was she toying with me?

Then I felt something else.

A soft, gentle impression at the end of my bed. It felt like someone had sat down. A calming voice told me not to fear anymore and that I would be safe.

I laid there in silence. I realized I didn’t feel afraid anymore and that I no longer felt like I was being watched. Was that moms voice? She wasn’t home from work yet, this was her night shift night. It couldn’t be her. Who else was in the house? Dad, my little brother, my newborn sister. I had to see who was sitting there. I sat up and no one was there.

I scrambled out of bed and ran down the stairs to find my dad on the couch. He looked up startled, seeing tears down my face. He comforted me and let me fall asleep next to him on the couch.

I never dreamed of her again and have not seen her reaching for me.

I have re-watched the movie as an adult. I realize now the woman I would see was not her, not exactly. I believe what would visit me in the night was something else, taking the face of my fear, worsening it. Some thing or being wanted me, and someone saved me. I have no proof of it, but I think that it may have been my Aunt who had passed not that long before. I think she chased away whatever that thing was and that she watches over me.

I have always been sensitive to these things, and as I said in the beginning I have had many weird, unexplainable things happen to me. I try to avoid places that may have things in them still. I am terrified of the idea of something else latching on to me.

 

Submitted to Weird Darkness and My Haunted Life Too by Kaitlynne G

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    One thought on “It Was Just A Movie

    1. Thank you for sharing these incidents with Mr. Vasey so I could read more stories like yours and those from the other contributors! I am ready for more!

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