But no one was there. Brushing it off as being paranoid, I try to fall back asleep. Not thirty seconds after I close my eyes, I hear them again, but they’re lighter this time, and they start from the middle of the hallway. They stop in the same place as last time. I look up again and still, there is nothing there. Uneasy, I look around. Then I hear tiny, running footsteps, like a child’s, go through the kitchen. By this point, my skin is crawling from fear. Trying to stay calm, I decide to get up and see what it was. As I’m getting up, I hear the footsteps recede down the hall again. I walk over quietly and peer down the hall, but again see nothing. I start thinking of other possibilities, what else might it be? I refuse to believe that my house is haunted, even though everything points it to be so. Maybe, I think, my sister got up to get a drink of water and went back to bed? I knew that that wasn’t the answer, but pretended it was so. To assure myself, I walked down the hallway to my sister

my sister’s bedroom and opened the door to see if she was, in fact, awake. As I crack open the door, I see my sister’s body slowly rising and falling. She’s asleep, with the blanket hanging limply over the side of the bed. There is no way, I think to myself, that she was awake. I start to close the door, wanting to ease the feeling of being trapped. As the door shuts, I look out of the corner of my eye, down the last few feet of the deserted, darkened hallway. Right there, beside me, is a figure only describable as a shadow. Not quite human, but not entirely darkness. It’s eyes, or what I presume are its eyes, are white specks, staring right at me. I look away, hoping that it's simply my imagination mixing with my fear: simple delusional paranoia. But as I look away, I feel a cold hand place itself on my shoulder. My heart starts racing, and my feet feel like lead. Eager to get away, to be anywhere else but there, I pick up my feet, darting back to the couch. I wish I could tell you that the se

uneasiness left me once I was away from the hall. But all I could think about is that if I were to close my eyes, would it still be there in the hall? Or would it come closer, as it did before? I didn’t sleep that night, didn’t dare close my eyes. The next night, the feeling still didn’t leave. I haven’t seen the figure since. But to say that I haven’t seen other ones would be a lie. But of course, that’s a story for another time. The End

(By the way, this is completely true. This actually happened to me)