From: anonymous
Subject: Neighborhood Shadow
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 04 15:47:27
To: The Official Shadow People Archives
I found your site after I recalled what happened to me as a child, which was prompted from a discussion with my mother about our next door neighbor's house. I still vividly remember this incident and have never forgotten it, and never understood it, but I think I'm starting to now.
When I was about 4 years old, in 1980, or so, I was asleep in bed and woke up in the middle of the night. My bed faced a closet, and since it was a Cape Cod style house, the wall area above the closet was slanted out. I looked up and saw a shadow of a very large man on the wall above the closet. It had a head, and torso with large muscular arms. When I noticed it, it began to move its arms, flexing them and twisting and turning its body. I was horrified, but as I tried to call out to my parents, I found I had no voice. The shadow man seemed to laugh, although I couldn't hear it, it made gestures as if it was laughing and pointed at me, like it was mocking me. I continuously put the sheets over my head, but it was still there when I got brave enough to look up again, and it would begin moving all over again. I eventually fell asleep that night, but for a long time after that, I could still feel its presence watching me from over the closet.
I also remember being awakened several times to someone whispering in my ear and touching my hair. Whenever I tried to call out to my parents, I had no voice. This went on for some time, but eventually it stopped when I got older. I don't know why. Now here's the where the house next door comes into the picture. As a small child, an old lady lived next door to us; her parents had built the house and left it to her and her brother when they died. Sometime in the 1960's, her brother went into their detached garage and committed suicide by drinking chlordane. (Is that a weed killer, or some kind of chemical for a lawn?).
I can also recall playing in my backyard as a child and getting feelings of absolute terror for no reason and having to run into my house to escape these feelings. Anyway, the old lady went into a nursing home and several families lived in the house since.
About 2 years ago, another neighbor was coming home very late at night from an emergency plumbing job, and as he drove by my next door neighbor's house, he said he saw the "dead brother" float out of the yard and go up the driveway of another neighbor's house. This neighbor was sure it was the dead brother because he had known him when he was living and he recognized him. Curiously, the driveway "dead brother" went up had been the home of one of his buddies from high school.
Then last year, the couple living next door split up and the man got a girlfriend who spent the night with him in the house. She told him she was psychic and felt a presence of a man named "Charlie" who died on the property. The man had no idea about this, and asked my mom about it, who confirmed the fact that Charlie had committed suicide in the garage.
When my mom related this to me, it immediately clicked. Was the shadow that taunted me and watched me the 'dead brother', Charlie? I don't know, but it seems to make sense, and all I can think of is that it stopped when the lady entered the nursing home and other families with children moved in. Maybe he decided to watch them instead of coming next door to my house.
Thanks! I'm glad to know I'm not the only one with an experience like this!
