I was lying in bed one night in the pitch black, facing the wall as I usually did away

from the rest of my bedroom and away from the bedroom door directly behind me. I had no idea what

time it was, but I was sort of in that state between being half asleep and half awake, beginning to

dream, when suddenly I started to hear my bedroom door open and scrape harshly against the carpet.

I didn't really think anything of it in the moment, I thought it was my mom coming to stick her head

in to see if I was awake, which she often did because I had a lot of trouble with insomnia as a teen,

but I didn't hear her voice, so I assumed that she assumed I was fast asleep and left without

saying a word, forgetting to shut the door on her way back. Too tired to get up and close it

myself? I left it. A little while after the door opened, I started to hear small footsteps

entering my bedroom, slowly and sort of dragging and shuffling against the carpet, as if whoever or

whatever it was was wearing slippers and trying their hardest not to trip up or fall over anything

in the darkness. I eventually realized that the feet were small sounding, not at all like my mother

who has always been heavy-footed, sorry mom. I listened as the footsteps grew closer and closer to

my bed, starting to panic a little. The footsteps did eventually stop right at the side of my bed.

I squeezed my eyes shut tight, imagining it was some black-eyed demon or shadow thing

looming over me. All I could do was lay there pretending to be asleep, hoping it would go away or

that I'd wake up and realize it was all but a dream. Unfortunately that didn't happen.

I was wide awake now. At this point, all I could hear was my heartbeat, echoing and thumping

loudly inside my head, and time seemed to stretch and warp as I battled with the feelings of pure

dread and anxiety rising up inside me. As if that wasn't scary enough for one night, to my absolute

horror, I felt the bed compressed behind me, as if someone leaned on it, and I even rolled backward

slightly because of it. Frozen, with my eyes almost popping out of my head, I felt a small,

...