Your True
Tales
May 2003 –
Page 21
Old Hag
Attacks Children Too?
by Annette
Memories of one's childhood are usually filled with bits and parts of an event that has made an impression on you. My memories are no different. I have done some research in the last year about my experience, and I have come to the conclusion that I did not have a sleep disorder , I had Old Hag Syndrome. At age three (I know this only because we moved out of this house before I turned four) I encountered my first hag. I also developed a "feeling" of the unseen. That I still have to this day. Having a four-year-old brother, I was used to my fair share of being pushed down and having hair pulled and all the other things an older sibling does to the younger sister when parents are not present. My older brother and myself shared a bedroom; we had bunk beds, and as always I was on the bottom bunk being the youngest. My brother's favorite thing to do to me, would be to hold me down with my arms pinned near my head, and just sit there until I would stop fighting him and let him have whatever toy I was refusing to hand over. I had a temper and he knew to let me wear myself out. I was not only used to this, I was always on alert for it as well. I was learning to pretend to relax, then "buck" him off of me, then use my legs to reach up and grab his head and pull him off of me that way, then run! This became a survival technique one morning that I remember well.
Our bedroom was directly across the hall from the kitchen. If I laid on my back, I could look down my toes and see my mother doing dishes or whatever, and she could keep an eye on me as well. One morning, I woke up to the wonderful smell of bacon cooking in the kitchen. I sat up onto my elbows to peek at my mom while she was cooking breakfast. As she turned her head to glance at me, she smiled a hello and nodded her head for me to come to the kitchen, she was not talking, just motioning to me. I always woke up before my brother and mom would help me get dressed before she had to battle him, so I knew she was telling me to be quiet by the fact she was just motioning to me. I remember laying my head back down on the pillow for a deep breath before flipping off the blankets when I felt it...
I "felt" something about four feet from my head to my right. I turned my head to look, but nothing was there. Instinctively I drew my knees up to the bucking position. I knew something was there just like I knew when my brother was ready to attack, and this thing was getting closer. I was instantly knocked out of breath and felt "something" sitting on my belly - the exact way my brother did. Only this thing was heavier! My arms were forced to my sides. Then I felt a poke on my upper right chest, then the middle, then the left. My first and only thought was, "This thing is bad." And there is nothing to see! I couldn't breath fully from the weight, but again I was used to this. I could still see my mom in the kitchen, and she didn't know anything was wrong. I got mad, just like if it were my brother. I let my temper take control, and bucked. I actually felt the weight land on me even harder and felt air being knocked out of my chest.
Now really mad, I bucked again and said, "Get off me, you dumb old devil." And it was gone - poof! - like it wasn't even there. As I jerked up, my mother was standing in the doorway looking at me like she seen a ghost. She asked me who I was talking too, and I told her a devil was sitting on me. (In my three-year-old mind, that was what it was, I didn't know what else it could be, as it was so "bad".) She asked me if I was okay, and after I told her what happened she told me she had been watching me and was wondering why I was laying so stiff like that. This was the first out of my four experiences with Old Hag Syndrome.
The other three events took place 24 years later, all within a few weeks of each other. I used the same method of defense then as I did as a small child. I guess some good came out of having a mean older brother. I truly believe that had I been more frightened than angry, the session would have gone on for a few minutes longer. I think "it" was expecting fear not anger.
< Previous story | Next story >
|
Do you
have a paranormal tale to tell? |
