Your True Tales
August 2004 – Page 13

The "Old Hag's" Breath
by Joe James

A few nights ago I had my first "Old Hag" experience. I didn't know at the time what it was or that it was so common. I told a co-worker about my story and he told me about Old Hag Syndrome, so naturally being my curious self I started researching the phenomenom and stumbled onto this website. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Everything in other people's stories was almost identical to what happened to me.

I was in bed asleep dreaming about being at work, when all of a sudden I was awakened by someone or something grabbing both of my ankles and pulling my legs – hard. At first I thought it was one of my roommates messing with me, but when I attempted to turn around and see what was there (I was sleeping on my stomach with my face on its side facing the wall), I discovered that I couldn't move at all. I was totally paralyzed. It was the scariest feeling that I have ever felt.

Then I felt my body being pushed down into the mattress with a lot of force. I couldn't breathe or talk. I tried to yell for my roommate for help, but I could only manage a muffled, barely audible pathetic attempt at a scream. It came out like a half whine/half moan. Nobody could hear it, my face was pushed so far down into my bed that I could only see out of one eye, the other half of my face was literally inside my mattress.

Then I felt something like a hot breath on my neck and heard a wheezy sort of breath, like someone who smokes three packs a day. Thankfully, I could not smell anything (because my nose was down in my bed)... it would have probably been awful. I decided then that if I wanted to live I would have to get out of there. I fought with all my strength against whatever it was that was paralyzing me. I was finally able to move my foot about an inch or so, and when I did that, whatever was there disappeared and let me go. When I was finally able to move, I jumped up and saw that I was alone in my bedroom. Nothing has happened since then, although I would like it to happen again so I can learn more about it.

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