The Shadow Man

Witness: Kristin
Location: Richfield, Minnesota
Date of Encounter: 1980s-1990s

When I was growing up, my mom and I lived in a two bedroom rental duplex. It was a decent place physically, but was incredibly haunted.

I remember several instances of feeling like someone was watching me and going down in the basement was absolutely terrifying. But what was horrible was laying in my bed and feeling someone come into the room, sit down on my bed, and rub my legs. The room would grow frigid and I couldn't move I was so terrified. All the hairs stood up on my body. We weren't allowed any pets, so it wasn't a cat or dog cuddling with me and it certainly wasn't my mom. 

One Sunday morning when I was around 12, we were running late for church and my mom was already in the car (thoroughly annoyed at me). I remember knocking a doll of the shelf on my way out of my room. I made a mental note to pick it up when we got home. When we got home, it was already back on the shelf — and I was the first person back in the house when we got home. That doll always freaked me out because my mom made it for me in the basement and it had the beadiest eyes. For some reason, I thought that doll was possessed and moved it down into the basement after that — I just couldn't sleep with it in the room.

One day when I was in my early teens, I was in the pantry looking for something to make for lunch when I looked over my shoulder to see the dark outline of a man run from my bedroom into my my mom's room. I grabbed my baseball bat and ran into my mom's room, thinking I had seen a burglar and would have to get him out. I ran into her room and no one was there. I threw open her closet, expecting someone cowering in the corner and there was no one. 

One of the scariest events was a dream I had around the same time. In the dream, I went into the bathroom and in the large mirror, there was an old woman's face, rotten and decayed right next to mine and she was laughing demonically. I woke up, sitting straight up in bed, not sure if it had really happened or not.

I was so happy to go off to college and get out of that place. I always wondered what the history of that place was and if anyone else had any experiences there.