The Cold Presence

Unsettling True Story from the Author’s childhood, 2017

I’ve never had many dreams. Once every couple of months I’ll have a nightmare or a dream I can’t remember, but otherwise it just feels like I fall asleep and wake up, with nothing in between. However, there was one nightmare from when I was young that I remember strangely well.

This was back in my old house, where I lived all my childhood and teenage years. It was very late. I never had any siblings, but I had a bunk bed anyway, because it was fun to have a bed I could climb on. I slept on the top, close to the ceiling. My phone was by my side, as it always is nowadays.

Suddenly I shivered as something passed through me, turning the air cold. I couldn’t see it, but somehow I knew, I could feel it. It was a ghost. I stayed as still as I possibly could, like an animal playing dead. Trying not to let it know that I was awake, or there at all. I didn’t know what it wanted, who it was, what it was doing. The air felt still, and its attention felt focused on me somehow. I took this to mean it was standing next to me, unmoving, just… staring.

We stayed like this for what felt like an hour. Eventually I couldn’t take it anymore, I’ve never been comfortable laying down, I’ve always had a compulsive fidget in bed. I turned onto my side. I noticed my phone had a text message. The message was blank. It was from ‘unknown’. The air returned to normal. The ghost had left the room.

I woke up in a different position. I checked my phone, and the message wasn’t there. Of course it wasn’t, I was awake now. It was still about 1 or 2am, so I rested my eyes again, and within another hour, I was asleep. I felt another chill in the air as the ghost returned. Things felt like they were happening faster, more urgent this time. It was creepy the first time, but it was terrifying now. I got a series of messages from ‘unknown’, one word at a time.

I.

AM.

GOING.

TO.

I woke with a start, and I stayed awake this time.