The Shadow

After a strange discovery in her home, things changed. Members of her family
were talking about seeing figures around the house. What could they be? Where
did they come from? My name is Edward and he is Stephanie's true scary
story. My story takes place in two thousand and four in Santa Maria,
California. My parents bought their first home. We were all excited to move
in. My dad he decided that he didn't like some bushes that were located
in the front of the house. So one day he just began digging out
the bushes. He suddenly came inside the house, telling my mom and myself
to come out to see what he had found. As he was digging with
the shovel, he hit something hard, so he started digging slowly and he
found a shopping bag like plastic bags. He grabbed whatever was inside that plastic
bag, and he showed my mom and me. As he unwrapped the plastic
bag, he found this little statue of a saint and we were just looking
at each other like, what is this or why had the previous owners buried
this object? I thought, I don't know, it was like maybe witchcraft
or a ritual that the past owners had buried this little statue, but my
parents didn't really think anything of it. They brought it inside the house and
placed it in the living room. After this event happened, my parents did
ask other family members that would go to church a lot because we recognized that
this little statue was of a monk and he had little animals around him.
My parents were asking around trying to find answers, but it took them a
while to find out answers of who this statue was. But during that time,
after my dad found that little statue, my brother, he was maybe
four to five years at the time, he began to tell my parents that
when he looked out the living room window, he would see a reflection of
a woman, and my parents be a woman, can you explain what this
woman looks like? My brother would say that the woman seemed very nice and
that looked more like an angel, that she was peaceful, she wasn't scary,
And it didn't last long that my brother kept seeing this woman in the
window. But also I would hear my dad talking to my mom telling her
that he was experiencing paranormal stuff in the house, and I would ask my
dad, like, what's going on? But he wouldn't want to tell me.
I did overhear one time telling my mom that he saw this lady in
the hallway. But the lady wasn't a peaceful lady or like an angel.
It was more like a he would he said, a witch. And when
I asked my dad, he just said, don't worry about it. When
I passed, my parents actually found out that the little statue that they dug
out from the front yard was of Saint Francis. This saint actually looked out
after animals and nature. We still have this little statue to estate in the
living room. But I think this was the event that led to other things
happening in the house. We jump forward to twenty twelve, twenty thirteen.
That's when I began to have paranormal experiences at my parents' house. So at
this time, I was in high school and I was a little bit stressed,
juggling to school, works, sports, and other senior activities going on.
I began to experience things at night when I was to sleep. It
started with me waking up, but when I would wake up, I wouldn't
open my eyes because I could sense that there was someone in the room that
I wasn't alone. I could sense that there was someone standing at the edge
of my bed, or next to my bed, or even above me,
like looking at me asleep, but I just couldn't open my eyes. Instead,
I would just lay in my bed and put the blankets over my head
and pray to see if I could just fall back asleep. But during these
events, when I would wake up, I could hear my heart racing,
and I just had a lot of fear, but I didn't know of what,
Like, I just had no idea what was standing in my room.
I just knew that I wasn't alone. This kept going for a few nights,
but then it progressed. One night, I woke up to a tapping
noise next to my bed. I had a night stay with the lamp and
a digital clock, so I would set up my alarm till we're six thirty
am so that I could wake up and go to school. Some nights,
I would wake up and again I wouldn't open my eyes, just because I
was scared. But I would hear like a knocking sound, like a tapping
sound, coming from next to my nightstand. At first, I was like,
what is that. I just thought it was a noise coming from outside,
so I just ignored it. But I kept continuing to happen night after
night, and then I realized that the knocking noise was coming from my nightstand.
It seemed if there was like a person who had long nails and was
just tapping like their fingers with their long nails on my nightstand. The noise
would come in knocks of three, But again I didn't have the strength to
open my eyes to see what was making this sound. Instead, I just
got my eyes shut and bury myself in my blankets. And then I realized
that the knocks that were coming in three that was something common like in the
paranormal world. I've heard that on TV shows that people would hear knocks at
their front door and it would always come in sets of three, or people
getting scratches, and I would always come in sets of three. So I
knew that this was something not nice. It was something bad, but I
just kept it to myself and I just tried to ignore it. The next
event that happened made me realize that something was really going on in my room.
Like I mentioned before, I had a digital clock and I would set
my alarm on weekdays for six thirty am so I could get ready for high
school. So one night, my alarm went off and I'm like, ough
already, Like I need a few more hours of sleep. So I woke
up and I looked at my digital clock and it said three am, and
I was like, what the heck? I set up my alarm at six
thirty am, but I was still like not fully awake. So I just
turned it off and I just remember I went back to sleep, but I
was really confused. The next day, the same thing happened again. I
woke up to my alarm going off and it was three am. I didn't
think much of it. I just turned it off and I just went back
to sleep. But then the third night when it happened, I remember waking
up and thinking, WTF, what is going on? This time, I
sat up on my bed, I turned my lamp light on, and I
turned my alarm clock, and I remember that I specifically checked my alarm clock
to see that it was set at six thirty am, and it was so
during this time, I just got a feeling like there was someone in my
room. My room called super cold outside. It wasn't cold that night,
and I just got a weird feeling, you know, I realized that three
am means the witches or double time. So I just got super scared and
I began to realize, Okay, my alarm went off at three am for
three nights, not to set up three again, and I just got super
freaked out. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to wake
up my parents, so I decided to keep my lamp light on and I
just tried to go back to sleep. But I don't even think I slept
good that night. But the next morning, I did tell my parents what
had happened to me, that my alarm went off at three am, but
my mom just told me to just ignore it. My dad said the same
thing. He said, if that happens, just pray and everything will be
fine. But my mom actually went to church and she got holy water to
spray around the house and my room. But I never really understood why this
was happening to me. I never saw someone in my room, but I
did feel like there was someone in my room watching me asleep, watching me
just freaking out. I researched the house to find out if someone had passed
away or if there was like a big secret that happened in the house,
but I didn't find anything. My parents were the third owners to own this
house, and I couldn't find anything saying if someone died in the house.
I asked my parents when they bought the house if they asked if someone had
passed away, and they said that they did ask and they said no.
So I don't know why all of a sudden there was like things going on
around the house. And I always bring it back to my dad unburying that
statue of Saint Francis, So I don't know why it was buried, or
if it was buried for a purpose, and my parents unburying that cost something
to trigger something around the house and for all these things to occur, But
I didn't really get answers of why things were happening. After high school,
I went away and I attended University of California Riverside. I would come back
home during breaks, I would drive back to Santa Maria and spend time here
at the house. And sometimes I still when I would sleep here in my
room, I would have that feeling that there was something in my room,
but I just kind of ignored it. When I was in college, during
my second or third year of college, I began to experience word things.
So I moved into these meal apartments. They were built within less than a
year, and then I moved into those apartment complex and I had three roommates.
While in college, I began to notice that throughout the day I would
get really tired, and that was something not usual for me. It got
to the point where I would have to take three, two four naps during
the day, so I thought something was wrong. I went to the doctor
and the doctor said that there wasn't anything wrong with me. But when I
would take my naps, and this was in broad daylight, I began to
experience a series of sleep paralysis. And I had never in my life experience
sleep paralysis, and it's super scary. I would wake up and I would
have my eyes closed or partially open, but I could see shadows around in
my room movie and I tried so hard to move my arm to stand up,
sit up on my bed, but I just I couldn't. And it's
a moment in that situation, you just feel like you have no power over
your body. If something happens, like you're done because you can't move anything.
The only thing you can move is for me. The only thing that
I was able to move where my eyelids, but that's it. I had
no control of my body. I couldn't even talk during those experiences. But
when I would have the sleep paralysis and I would partially open my eyes,
I could see shadows in my room during broad day light. Moving I had
no can't move any of my muscles. I just felt really stiff, And
in those instances I felt a lot of fear and anxiety because I couldn't do
anything. The fact that I had no control my body was so scary.
After my first sleep paralysis, I did some research to understand is this normal?
Is this something that typical humans to go through? And there's a lot
of articles out there, a lot of information about sleep paralysis. But something
that caught my attention was reading this article where some people who experience sleep paralysis
they actually see these like red eyes, something that I till this day have
not seen those. But I was able to find an article talking about how
some people who go through sleeperalyssis they see shadows. When I talk about these
shadows have a human figured, so they're tall. I can't really depict out
like their hands or their face or their legs, but I could tell it's
the height of a human and it has the same figure. But I know
in the articles that I read, different people saw different types of shadow figures,
but to me, it was more like a human shadow. After experiencing
sleep paralysis, a state where your body becomes completely paralyzed while you sleep,
sometimes said to be accompanied by other worldly entities surrounding the one experiencing everything,
Stephanie still has another problem and it's about to announce itself. Her story continues
right after this stay with us. After my first sleep paralysis, I was
a bit freaked out, but I'm like, Okay, hopefully this is the
last time. But I would still get really tired and I would go back
to my apartment and take naps, and I would still go through this sleep
proalyssis moment and it was just the same thing. I would wake up,
I couldn't move my body, and I would see these shadows. But I
think one day, my sleep proalysses just took a different turn. One day,
I got out of class and I was super tired, so I decided
to go back to my apartment and take a nap before my next class.
So when I got to my apartment. Only one of my roommates was there
and she was hanging out in the living room. So I went to my
room and I took a nap. I remember waking up in my room or
in a room. It was dark. At first, I couldn't realize if
I was in my apartment or where I was, or if I was or
if I was fully awake. So I was just laying in bed and surrounded
by darkness. And I started looking around the room trying to adjust my eyesight,
and then I recognized my room. It was my room back at my
parents' house. So I was in Riverside, and Riverside to Santa Maria is
about a three to four hour drive. I was in my room. I
was just confused. I kept thinking, am I dreaming or what is going
on? I'm pretty sure I'm dreaming in this dream or whatever it was.
I tried to get out of my bed, but I couldn't move any of
my muscles, so I had no control my muscles. So I was like
sleep paralysis again. But it was just weird because I was at my parents'
house. So I began to panic because I was trying to do whatever I
could to get out of my bed, to sit up on my to just
move any of my muscles, but I just couldn't. And then I began
to panic because I couldn't move anything. I had no control of my body.
And then I just had that feeling again that there was someone in my
room with me, that I wasn't alone. So I started to get a
lot of anxiety, and I tried so hard to move my body to get
out of my bed. I even tried to yell, but no words came
out. I could feel my mouth my lips opening, but no sound came
out. When I was a little girl and me and my brother would share
my room, my parents would tell us that night, if you guys are
scared or need anything, and you guys don't want to get up, just
knock on the wall. So are one of the walls. We shared that
wall with my parents' room, so they would tell us, just knock on
the wall and we will will hear that you guys are knocking, and we'll
come and see what's wrong. So I remember that I was still struggling to
like yell or to move my muscles, and for some reason, I was
able to move my body and I was so scared that I just remembering my
parents telling me when I was a little kid that if something was wrong and
I didn't want to get out of bed, to just knock on the wall.
So when I had control of my body, that's what I did.
I began to knock on the wall to see if, like my mom could
come over and check on me. But when I began to knock on the
wall and I was knocking on this wall like if I was punching someone,
like, I thought I was gonna, i don't know, leave a mark
on the wall or make a hole. But when I was knocking on the
wall, there was no sound, and I panic and I began to punch
the wall even harder, thinking that if I punched it harder, like a
sound would like set a I would be able to hear a sound. But
I just kept knocking. I couldn't hear anything those sounds At this moment,
I don't know like what made me get the courage, but I just began
to look around the room and I didn't see anyone. So I was like,
Okay, I can feel that someone is in my room, and I
sense that someone's in my room, but I need to get out of bed
now that I have control in my body, and I need to go and
like out into the hallway and go and knock on my parents' door because something
is wrong. So I got out of bed and I'm walking towards my door.
But next to my door is my closet. So as I begin walking
towards my door, something catches my attention around the area of my closet door.
So I began to look into that direction and I see the shadow.
There's no figure to the shadow, but it was like a big black shadow.
I don't know what got into me. I just began walking towards it,
and as I got closer, I just remember me putting my hand out
to touch the shadow. And why I have no idea why I decided to
do that. But as my hand is getting closer to touching the shadow,
I just remember seeing the shadow start moving, and as the shadows moving,
I saw this woman's face. And until this day I remember the face of
this woman. It was just a white, pale face with dark eyes.
And my hand is still out and I'm still looking at this lady at her
face. The face of this lady to me not look peaceful. Her face
was white, pale white, and her eyes were pitch black. It was
more like it was someone evil. So I'm still reaching out. My hand
is still out trying to reach this or touch the shadow thing. And then
I see the lady's hand reach out to grab me, and she put her
hand on the back of my neck, and then she starts pulling me in
towards her, and I just stood there frozen, and I'm still looking at
this lady's face. And as she's pulling me in slowly, I begin to
see that her mouth is opening. But her mouth was not normal, because
her mouth just kept opening up. It was this wide like circle like her
like. It's hard to explain how big her mouth was, but I always
compare it to a shark's mouth because when her mouth was wide open, I
could see sharp teeth and it wasn't just one row of sharp teeth. It
was like rows and rows of these very sharp teeth just going down all the
way to her throat. And I just remember she's pulling me in. My
attention changed. I'm just looking at her mouth and all these teeth, but
I'm not freaking out. I'm just like, I'm looking at her mouth.
And then I'm looking at her eyes and I'm scared, but I couldn't move,
and so she's pulling me in and as she's pulling me in, I
just see darkness. And then I wake up and I'm back at my apartment
in Riverside, and I just remember like sitting up on my bed and looking
around me, and my heart is pounding. I was sweatying, like I
was having a hard time breathing, and I was freaking out. I was
like, what the heck did just happen. I just sat on my bed.
I'm trying to calm down, and then I feel this like burning sensation
on the back of my neck and I touched the back of my neck and
I just felt something warm, something just very warm. Once I calmed myself
down, I decided to go out into the living room to see my roommate
was still out there, and she was and I just told her, hey,
can you check the back of my neck. It just feels very hot.
I don't know, I don't know, can you just check to see
if it's everything's fine. So she took a look at the back of my
neck and she said, you have some scratch marks. Were you scratching yourself,
and for a few minutes, I just looked at her and I didn't
talk to her, and she's did you scratch herself? And I'm like no,
She's like, well, it's a bit red too. I think you've
been scratching yourself a lot. And I just remember looking at her confused and
not believing what she was saying. Because in my dream where if it was
a dream, this evil lady she put her hand on the back of my
neck, and so I told my roommate, Okay, no, it wasn't
me scratching myself, but this is what happened. So I told her about
my dream. And when I was done telling her about my dream, she
was surprised, but she was also scared because she's like, your room is
right next to my room. Whatever's in your room like comes to my room.
But I'm like, no, I don't think so. I think there's
something attached to me, or there's just something happening to me. I don't
think it's gonna spread around the entire apartment. Maybe there's a possibility, but
it's weird that I had this dream where this lady placed her hand on the
back of my neck. She believed me at that moment, she was a
bit scared too. That day, I didn't even go to my next class
because I was just very scared of what had happened. And I remember later
that day I called to my parents and told them about my experience, and
my dad just again told me, when that happens, just pray, and
that person that you're seeing, or whoever you feel like someone's in the room
with you, they'll go away. They'll leave you alone. But I asked
him, is this sort of like the description of this lady that I'm talking
to you about? Is this the lady that you were seeing in the hallway
at the house. But he it was just silent, and he just told
me, don't worry about it. Just focus about yourself and you'll get through
this. And just remember, if you experienced something of your scared, just
pray and praying will help you. I'm pretty sure my parents were really worried
about my experience, because that weekend, my parents actually came to visit and
they brought holy water and they sprayed the entire appointment with holy water, and
they left a bottle of holy water underneath my bed. But after that experience,
I still had sleep paralysis, and until this day, I still have
sleep paralysis, but they're not experiences as extreme as back in twenty twelve or
when I was in high school or in college. But until this day,
I never really found out who this lady is or why she was in my
dream. But funny thing is that last night, so I'm back at my
parents' house, back in my same room, and last night I woke up
and I heard a tapping sound next to my nightstand, and again I didn't
want to turn around and see what was making that sound. I didn't want
to wake up, and that hasn't happened in a while. I don't think
it's the house. I don't know. My parents are very like believers that
people bring in negative energy into the house. So on their front door,
on the doorway inside the house, on the top wall of the door,
they actually have the like scissors hanging up there and they're open because they think
that's gonna help the bad energy go away. I don't know why. I'm
pretty sure if he's saying worse things than the experiences I've been through, but
he's just not comfortable talking about it. Tap the three Dots, then podcast
and then subscribe or follow to get next week's episodes. Scary Plus members get
ad free episodes and bonus content when available. Find out more on scaryplus dot
com. Up next, be sure to check out Dark Memory to hear about
true creepy mysteries. Thank you very much for listening, See soon