Rate this encounter: Christie, Martinez, California, July 2003

I've had a couple of experiences but this one is the easiest to explain in writing. I'll give a brief set up of the evening first. Back in 2003, my husband and I lived in a house that was built at the turn of the century. It was small and some upgrades had been done before we moved in, but one thing it lacked at the time was central heat and air. This particular night, the temperature was well over 90F late into the evening. Our bedroom was easily ten degrees hotter than any other room in the house, so I decided to go sleep on the couch in the living room with multiple fans and a squirt bottle nearby. My husband was working in San Francisco at the time and didn't get home from his swing shift each evening until about 1AM, so he was not yet home at the time this occurred and usually when he gets home I wake up (very easily) to say hello and visit for a few minutes. Lastly, off our kitchen was a side 4x5 foot "mudroom" that we called the "catch all." It had a door to the side yard and the door to the kitchen and was used as a storage room which was crammed to the top with a desk, filing cabinet, and loads of boxes making it absolutely impossible to open the kitchen door more than about 7-8 inches, much less get in or out of the room to the side yard. So on this night, as I was sleeping on the couch, I heard the door open and immediately woke up as usual thinking it was my husband. But instead of coming in through the front door, the kitchen "mudroom" door verrrrry slowly started to open. I couldn't see J---- at the time, and it took me a second to wake up enough to realize that it was that door and not the front door that he was coming through. I was completely confused because there was no way for him to come through that door. I couldn't see him yet, but instead saw a shadow of a dark hand opening the door. Out of confusion and still somehow thinking it was J----, I wanted him to know I was on the couch so I called, "J----, I'm over here." Nothing happened and he didn't say anything. So I said again, "J----, I'm over here on the couch." Very slowly the door opened up about ten inches and a dark, solid full figure shadow of a medium-built man lightly came around the crack of the open door. It was looking slightly down/off to the side like it had no idea that I was calling him. I laid frozen on the couch trying to make sense of what I was seeing and asking myself if I was awake or not (somehow I never felt the sense that it was a burglar or anything for anybody wondering). I shook my head a bit and spoke out loud, "Hello," just to be able to hear my voice and make sure I wasn't dreaming. Then without the door really ever stopping from when it first opened up, the figure pulled back around the backside of the door and the door shut again (but not all the way). No sound was made from the figure at all and it probably only took place for about 20 seconds total. I sat frozen on the couch for probably 30 minutes before I had the courage to move. I got up and looked at the clock and grabbed the phone. It was 12:30 and I quickly called my husband to tell him what happened and to please hurry home because I was pretty shaken. We lived in that house until just recently and while a couple of odd things happened over the years--nothing ever came close to what I experienced that night.