I have always had this thing happen in the middle of the night where I wake up at 3 or 4 am with a sudden burst of energy. I went to doctors and specialists when I was little because my parents would find me running around the house trying to tire myself out. Rather than have me wander outside as a teenager, they ended up moving my whole bedroom to the basement and putting a treadmill down there. Any neurological tests done on me were inconclusive and sleeping pills never did the trick, so this just became something I’ve lived with.
Now that I’m an adult and live alone, I actually found the best remedy for my restlessness is late-night walks. I’ll walk for a mile, maybe two, and then once I feel myself coming down, I’ll turn around and head back home. It’s been pretty therapeutic, and I’ve started welcoming these walks as a part of my nighttime routine.
I tell you all of this because it’s very important to understand that walking in the middle of the night is not unusual for me. It’s something I do every single day. I don’t hallucinate, feel tired, or groggy, or feel anything that would impede my senses. But what I saw last night is unexplainable.
I was up and out of bed at 3:33 am, and I remember that distinctly because it was so specific. I didn’t think anything of it because I wake up randomly throughout the night from 3-4 am, so this was just a regular time. I put on my sweatsuit and headed out the front door, my nerve-ends already firing and kicking into gear. My body basically craved the walks at this point, and I’m smart enough to not deny it.
I stepped out into my street, caked only in moonlight and the dim buzz of yellowed street lights. I’m no horror movie fan, but I get why they are all set at night. Even my peaceful, suburban block looked terrifying in the stillness of night. I could hear my blood bump that night as I walked up the steep incline toward the forest decorating the top of our block. Sure, I walked outside around this time every night, but that eerie feeling never diminished.
I walked my normal weekday route, which is along a treeline and across a semi-kept-up stretch of sidewalk. The path leads directly to an elementary school, which on any normal night, is locked up and blacked out.
However, as I got closer, I saw that the lights were on. Not just a few lights like a teacher forgot to shut them off, either. Every light inside the two-story cement building was on. More than that, I could see silhouettes in each of the windows. I instinctively thought that this must be some school event, but then I remembered what time it was.
I reached down to check my phone, but felt nothing in my pocket. I must have left it at home. After over a thousand of these night walks with no incidents, I didn’t typically grab it on my way out. The phone would only help keep me awake anyway, which was opposite to the point of these walks. However, I really wish I had it for what I saw next.
I had to get closer, but I had that uneasy feeling creeping up my spine. A chill that ran through me regardless of how warm I was. Standing in the doorway to the school was an impossibly tall individual. I was still well over one hundred feet away so I couldn’t tell if it was a man or woman, but they filled the frame of the archway to the door and then some. The arch in their back indicated they weren’t even standing up straight, which meant they were well-over nine or ten feet tall.
I should have turned back, but my brain knew I wasn’t getting any sleep that night regardless. I took a path off to the left that I knew wrapped around to the woods near the school. If I wanted to tell anyone about what I was seeing, I needed more to go off of than just some creepy tall person hanging outside the school.
So I crept into the woods, watching the figure stand at the entrance as I disappeared into the treeline. I had about twenty feet of covered grounds ahead of me to strategize. I couldn’t take any photos because I was without my phone and if something potentially dangerous was going on, I doubt anyone was close enough to hear me scream, but I decided to proceed anyway.
I emerged from the woods just to the west entrance of the school. I could no longer see the front entrance, which meant I couldn’t see the figure standing there as well. I was unsettled not having sight of them, but I pushed through that. I approached the school cautiously, wanting to get a glimpse inside one of the many lit-up windows.
The bottom floor was occupied by a few homeroom classrooms, my niece actually went to this school about a decade ago, and I’d occasionally pick her up afterward when my sister was busy with work. I crept my way closer, not seeing any other figures outside, and I peered into my niece’s old homeroom first.
I was about ten feet away from the window, but I could see clearly inside that something was different. There were no seats in the classroom, no cubbies, and no sign of it being a classroom at all. Instead, it looked like some sort of lab. There were huge jars with murky liquid, tubes running from the hallway, and massive power cables extending from the walls. Lurking in the corner, there was a cloaked, wide figure. It looked like it was straining against something as it pulsed its arms over and over. I say it because like the figure in the entryway, this was too large to be a person. It was almost comically wide and round, but it moved just like a man.
Right as it spun around, I ducked down. But, I caught a glimpse of what it was holding. It looked like an oversized rat with human eyes and human teeth. Now, this is why I wish I had my phone. The thing I didn’t tell you about my sleeping issues is that I also suffer from night terrors. They aren’t every night, thankfully, but when they happen… they are vivid. This rat, human hybrid creature is something I’ve been seeing sit in the corner of my room since I was a kid. And now I’m seeing it just up the street?
I had convinced myself at that moment this was a dream, but no matter how many times I pinched myself, I couldn’t wake up. I had no choice but to continue looking.
The next classroom over was unfamiliar to me, however. There were several hooded figures this time. Each of them a different size and stature; each of them was just barely not-human. They had some sort of creature strapped to a large gurney. It was horrific. What I imagine a boogeyman would look like if it was real. They were showing it photo after photo of kids, while another hooded figure sliced into its dark, hardened flesh. I couldn’t hear inside, but I could see it snapping and growling at them.
I didn’t stay too long at that one.
I passed by another couple of classrooms, each more confusing and terrifying than the last, before I reached another eerily familiar sight. This time, I gazed into the elementary school gymnasium. Inside, I saw hundreds, if not thousands of shadows. These were not shadow people like you read about online. These were embodied shadows of people you know. It was one my most common night terror sightings. I’d see the shadow of someone I recognize and then it would do something horrible, like stab itself or try and attack me.
This one was too much for me and I decided to head back home. The sights I’d seen were too strange and unusual for anyone to believe me. For all I knew this was a dream, anyway. But as I turned back to the woods, I saw him. I knew certainly that it was a he now as the ten-foot-tall man from the entrance was lurking through the woods. His horrifyingly scarred and pale face sniffed the air at an impossible height. Or at least I thought he was sniffing. Only a hole remained where his nose should be. His eyes were ravaged white by time.
I could tell he was looking for me. For my scent.
I bolted in the direction of my house, adrenaline pumping in my veins. I could hear thumping behind me but I did not dare look back. I’d stumbled across something horrible and beyond understanding, and it clearly didn’t want to be seen. He didn't want me seeing it.
I ran straight back to my house and quickly threw myself back inside. I ran into my bedroom, closed the door, and ducked myself under the covers like a child. I peered at the clock, feeling like hours had passed, but the time remained at 3:33 am.
I desperately didn’t want to fall back asleep that night. Somehow, I knew that wouldn’t end well. My body failed me, despite my attempts to keep myself awake. I wrote most of this in my notes app at that moment in an attempt to keep things fresh, but also to push sleep away. It worked for nearly half an hour, but then I must have fallen victim to slumber.
I don’t remember the dreams I had from 4 am to 7:45 am when I woke up, but I know they were nightmares. I had scratch marks down my arms and my fingernails were chewed down. This extreme of a physical reaction had only happened when I was a little kid and the night terrors were exceedingly bad. My night walks had actually been helping take care of them, but clearly, this one didn't help. Or maybe he made sure this was an exceptionally bad one. After seeing a few of the classrooms, I'm terrified for what he could have sent my way.
And then there was the note. Scrawled in my own handwriting on a slip of paper next to my bed was a note that read:
Don’t come back.
I really don’t know what to make of what happened last night, and I’m frightened of what will happen tonight. It’s almost midnight, and I’m afraid to go to sleep. I know it sounds insane, but I’m sure I wasn’t dreaming. That school was some sort of factory where terrible things get created. Things that I’ve only ever seen in my nightmares, and I wonder if you all have seen some of those things too.
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