demon in the night

by Beth
(Glenolden PA U.S.A.)

I am the oldest of 5 children. At the time of this experience I was about 11yrs old. My sister 9. When we were children all 5 of us would gather in my parent's bedroom to sleep at night. The reason being,it was summertime and that was the only room that had air conditioning. At 10:00pm we would spread our sleeping bags and pillows around the three perimeters of my mom's bed. Me at the foot,my 9yr old sister on the right and the two smallest up in bed with mom. We would watch t.v. til 11:30 and then it was lights out. All in all it was a safe cozy place to be. Often I was the last to fall asleep. Knowing my father would be coming home from work at midnight,I would sometimes listen for his entry and sneak downstairs to spend a little time with him(he worked 3 jobs to support our large family)and share a late night snack. On this particular night I remember lying in the darkness listening to the soft breathing of my family and the comfortable hum of the air conditioner. Sometimes my sister and I, would whisper our plans for tomorrow in the darkness but we would have to be very quite for fear of waking our mother.As I lay listening for the familiar sound of my father's keys in the back door I noticed my sister had not yet fallen asleep. I could just make out her form sitting up at her usual place by the foot of my sleeping bag. She had been lying still so long I was sure she was asleep.Every once in a while she would sleep walk and talk and that's what i thought she was doing now. I giggled and whispered to her to lay back down before she woke our mom up. She continued to sit unresponsive. Strange, I thought but I was not

scared. As she began to stand and walk toward me, down the length of my body, I noticed she did not walk so much as crouch and stopped when she reached the left side of my head. She began to very quickly wave her hand inches from my face. "What are you doing?" I whispered. The light of the streetlight outside shone through the bedroom window. This was not my sister. This was something else. Something crouched,something black as the shadows in the room. Something with horns I could distinctly see. Never before or after have I experienced such paralyzing fear as i did in that moment. I looked at the foot of my sleeping bag and saw that indeed,my sister still lay there asleep. I closed my eyes and began to pray every prayer I'd ever learned. Even as i lay completely paralyzed with terror I could feel the breeze of air this thing was making in my face. I don't know what it was. This happened 20 odd years ago and I still have no explanation what it was. I was a frightened child back then and even as an adult,as I am now,will surely sleep with the lights on tonight. I don't remember falling asleep that night as I furiously prayed the rosary. Too scared to scream. There was an honest to God presence inches from me and even being surrounded by the people who loved me most,I felt despondent and alone. The next day I told my mom. Had i not been so scared and serious I don't think she would have belived me. But she did. She did not accuse me of having a dream. I was not dreaming. I was as awake as I am right now writing this. When I was older a big part of the reason my mom belived me was because she herself had an experience in that very room.