02 October 2020 | Doppelgangers, Your Stories, Your True Encounters
I have always believed in the paranormal and supernatural, and I used to wish I was sensitive and could have experienced more odd occurrences of the sort. I don’t wish that anymore. I’ve had a few occurrences through life that I would describe as paranormal, the scariest of which involved a doppelgänger of my father.
I’d always felt uncomfortable, when living at my parents house, with coming downstairs by myself at night. From childhood to adulthood, it always made me feel as though I was being watched. Most times, if I had to come down after everyone else had gone up, it was to get a bottle of water from the pantry. The kitchen was set to the left of the staircase, and I had to walk down the length of the wall to reach the pantry, and then turn my back on the scariest part of the room: the back door. It didn’t appear scary, it was just a door that was mostly a window, with a large glass pane set into the majority of the center of the wood. Oddly enough, the huge bay windows next to the door didn’t scare me like that door did. I was always afraid I’d see something or someone looking at me through that glass door. And one night, it happened.
I was getting a bottle of water, and usually, when I had to do that, I wouldn’t let myself look at the back door until I was back to the stairs and ascending them. Tonight was no exception. I got my water, returned to the stairs, and reached to turn the kitchen light off while raising my eyes to the door. Standing with his face inches away from the glass pane was the image of my father. He looked wrong: his eyes were wide, but not as though he was scared. It was as though he had been wanting me to see, and now that I had he was excited. The only thing is, I had just said good night to my dad 2 minutes ago and watched him go in his room with my mom and lock the door. There was no opportunity for him to have come back downstairs without him having to pass me.
All this went through my head in a split second as I met the thing’s wide, hungry gaze and I bolted up the stairs. I left the lights on as I ran, not knowing if he could slip through the darkness easy. I saw on my way to my room that my parents’ door was still shut, and I ran into my room and locked the door. I left the lights on and curled up on my bed, secretly hoping that my dad had somehow pranked me and was gonna come and say he was sorry for scaring me, like he always does after a prank. He’ll laugh about it, but if he sees it actually shook us, he’ll always hug us and apologize. I waited several minutes for the knock on my door, but it never came. After 20 or so minutes, my heart finally slowing pace, I went to my parents’ door and knocked, being sure to keep an eye out behind me. Dad groaned for me to come in, and I walked to his side, whispering, “Dad, were you just outside? Like, 20 minutes ago?” Dad gave me a weird look, and told me he hadn’t been outside since he’d been cleaning the pool early this evening. At least 4 hours prior to me seeing him at the back door. I kept the rest of the story to myself until the following morning, asking him again if there was any chance he had gone outside and just forgot, but he said there wasn’t a chance. He assumed I’d been dreaming, and tried to comfort me, but I know it was real. Something that looked like my father wanted me to see it that night.
I no longer live at my parents’ house, but whenever I visit and have to come down in the night for a water, I look dead at the door every time. I don’t want it to know how afraid of it I really am if it ever reappears. As of yet, it hasn’t shown itself to me again. But I’m waiting for the day that it does. I don’t know what I’ll do when that day comes, but I feel sure that it will.
Submitted by Danielle Lorentz to Weird Darkness and My Haunted Life Too
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