Ghost story

Have you ever seen a ghost? I thought I'd relate my own experience with the supernatural. It happened to me (really, it did) some years ago. I still remember it quite clearly, but most of this is taken from a previous writeup I still have on my computer.

It was late spring or early summer, and it was my day off, so I was still in bed. The sun was starting to come up, but it was still fairly dim in my bedroom (light enough to see, though). I was awake, but had my eyes closed, just enjoying the fact that I didn't have to get up yet. I'm sure you know how it is, when you're warm and comfortable, feeling lazy and enjoying the fact that you don't have to get out of bed.

Anyway, I live alone, so I was quite surprised when I heard footsteps in the house, heading towards my room. I kept my eyes closed as the steps got closer and closer, until they came right into my bedroom! As luck would have it, I was lying on my side, facing towards the open bedroom door. So, still pretending to be asleep, I cracked my eyes just enough to see through the lashes. Sure enough, some strange man was standing beside the bed!

I could see him quite clearly - in fact, I made a mental note of his appearance, so I could tell the police later, if he escaped. It was certainly no one I knew. He was a tall, slender, brown-haired Caucasian, clean-shaven, and he was whistling under his breath. He had a smirk on his face, as if he was really going to enjoy scaring me, and his whistling got louder. He was clearly trying to wake me, to give me a fright.

Well, I wasn't scared, but I was really, really angry that some stranger would come into my house like that. So I thought I'd try to scare him, instead (and beat the crap out of him, too, if I had the opportunity). So I tensed my muscles, prepared myself, then flung the covers off with my left hand, while simultaneously leaping up and yelling. But,... no one was there.

Now I tell you, I saw the guy, just as plain as day. I saw him well enough to get a good description and, in fact, I could even see the expression on his face! Not to mention that I heard him clearly, too. After that, I could understand how people could be so sure they'd seen a ghost.

However, I've got a skeptical turn of mind, so I sat on the bed and thought about it. I realized I could hear the paperboy outside. He was whistling and he'd been walking on the sidewalk towards the house. While I was lying in bed, I could have sworn the sounds were coming from inside my house, but now, it was pretty obvious why the footsteps and the whistling had started softly and then gotten progressively louder.

At the same time, my long, dark robe was hanging by the hood over the open bedroom door. While I was sitting there on the bed, it didn't look anything like a person, but the shape of it was vaguely similar - head-shaped and head-sized at the hood, narrowing where the hood was sewn at the neck, then flaring out again for the "body". And it was in the right spot to be my intruder.

For the rest,... just shadows and extreme suggestibility. Though awake, I'd certainly been on the edge of sleep, and I've read enough about "waking dreams" at times like that. All those details I'd been so sure about? They'd simply been invented by my mind, filling in the blanks of what I thought I'd been seeing and hearing.

So, no ghost at all, obviously. But it was a very peculiar incident, nonetheless. I'd been so sure there was a person in my room! I can understand why people think they've seen ghosts. However, it's very, very easy to fool ourselves.

I hope you enjoyed the story. As I said, it's absolutely true and really did happen to me, just as I relate it.