The dark black shadow in the doorway

   To start this story off I was born in Pella IA, but raised in Knoxville IA. I grew up most of my life in the country outside of Knoxville. I loved it out there. We had a big yard; there were woods behind the house. If I wasn’t in the house watching TV or in the front you playing you would find me in the woods because I just loved the woods, I loved being in there. I loved the sight and the smell of trees and sound of the dried leaves and twigs. I was defiantly an outdoor person. I wasn’t in the house very much. When I started to write I was always in the house writing. Before I started to write I was always outside playing with the kittens in the cat shed. That’s what I called it. The cat shed. I would sit with Ben beside his dog house and he would come up behind me and flop my arm up so it was land the back of his neck. He was a very sweet and gentle dog to the kids. But he hated men and cats. Other than that, he was lovable.

   I really can't remember when this happened or how old I was, but I when I think about it I think I was probably fourteen or fifteen at the time because I remember my stepdad was still alive and I was living with my mom Diane, my step dad Charlie, my older brother Cody and my older sister Rachel.

   Every day when me and my sister got off the school bus I would always be the first one in the door and I would go straight to my brother's room because I didn't have my own computer at the time. Everybody had to share the computer. The computer we had at the time it was in Cody's room and I didn't know why it was in there, but I remember I would always go in there and write for hours till Cody came home from work. I think he was working at a restaurant at the time.

   A couple years later the computer was removed out of my brother’s room and it was sitting in the sewing. My brother switched rooms with me and my sister so Rachel and I had Cody’s old room.

   On this particular night I remember it was getting really late. On the weekends I would stay up late and watch movies in the living room till I was asleep. I knew I needed to get to bed. My sister was already sound asleep. Her twin bed was by the window and my twin bed was by the door. If you open the door it would touch the end of my bed. I was that close to the door. Our room wasn't very big it was small. It was big enough to fir two bed and two dressers in it. That’s it.

   After I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth I climbed into bed and pulled the covers over my body and laid my head on the pillow. I close my eyes and I’m lying there trying to go to sleep till all of a sudden I feel a deep heavy sickness in the pit of my stomach. I never felt anything like it before. At first I thought I had the flu and I needed to puke, but for some reason I was just too scared to get up out of bed. The bathroom was right next to the bedroom door. So I could have crawled out of bed and walked into the bathroom, but I chose not to. Instead I laid on my side underneath the warm blankets and I didn't move. I was still.

   For some odd reason I knew something or somebody else is in the room with me so I opened my eyes and I glanced over my shoulder and there standing in the doorway was a tall dark black shadow figure.

   I was so scared I couldn't move, my teeth were chattering and I was gripping the covers underneath my chin. I turned my head and closed my eyes shut again. I didn't leave room, I just laid there. I was so scared and terrified I wanted to get up and get my mom, but I couldn't move I was paralyzed in fear.

   When I found the courage to open my eyes I flew out of my bed and bolted across the room and jumped into my sister's bed so hard that it actually woke up instantly. I crawled underneath the covers against the wall and curled up in a ball. Rachel was mad that I woke her up and she wanted me out of her bed, but I was not getting out of her bed. She kept telling me get out of my bed now or I'm going to get mom and I was like just go back to sleep. And she's like what are you doing in my bed, get out of my bed and finally I said I'm fine just go to sleep. So she finally she went back to sleep.

  I squeezed my eyes shut and I said please go away please go away please go away and when I opened my eyes and glanced over my sisters that is peaceful asleep the dark black shadow figure that was in doorway a few seconds ago was gone. My fear level went down and I wasn't so scared anymore, but I stayed in her bed till the next morning.

   When the sun came up I didn’t talk about what I had seen. I didn't even bring it up. I just kept it to myself because I was afraid nobody would believe me and I knew if I tried to tell anybody about it they would just laugh it off and tell me it was nothing you were dreaming.

   For the next few days I wouldn't look at the doorway. I always stayed on my side and I kept my head forward, eyes shut tight and blankets covering every inch of my body.

   And I actually made my sister move her bed over to where my bed was and I move my bed by the window. I felt more comfortable and more saver. I guess in a way I always thought maybe if my sister laid there she would see it and then I knew I was making it up, but she never saw it.

   As I got older I never saw the dark black shadow again and sometimes I would lay in bed and I would always wait to see if it would come back, but it never did.

   As the years went by I would tell people the story and they would say well maybe it was your step dad or your grandpa. And I keep telling them it wasn't my step dad Charlie because he was still alive at the time and if it was my grandpa he wouldn't be scaring me half to death because he wasn't that type of person he was alive.

   From time to time I always still think about the dark black shadow, who was it, what was it, where did it come from, why did it have to show itself to me? Why didn’t it show itself to my brother, my sister or my mom, why me, why did it choose me?

   As I got into my early twenties I was writing ghost stories and in my research it said that some lost spirits will pass through without disturbing the living.

   So maybe it was a spirit passing through and it happened to see me laying in my bed and wanted to know what I was doing or who I was or why I was there?

   When I think about why it showed itself to me, I know this is gonna sound crazy, but maybe it knew I was going to be a paranormal horror writer and it wanted to scare me so I knew what it felt like to be scared. It did scare me so I do what it’s like to be scared.

   Whatever or whoever this dark black shadow was I hope it found its way to its destination or found peace to what it was looking for.