This event occurred sometime around 1970-71, when I was about five or six years old. I was living in Fresno, California with my parents and three other siblings. We lived in a modest three-bedroom home in a nice area of town. My family and I had just moved into this home following a death in the family.
There was huge turmoil in the home and our family had been torn apart at the seams by our parents, each pulling the children in different directions trying to gain position in the home as who was more righteous.
Although we lived on a fairly busy street, nights in Fresno at that time were fairly quiet after 8:00 p.m. In contrast, most nights in our home were filled with torment, stemming from my parents fighting at all hours of the night.
However, this particular night was very peaceful, a home without any arguments, which was indeed a night of joy. The entire family was watching television in our family room that evening, which was located at the rear of the home. I recall sitting somewhere on a couch positioned along one side of the family room, with other family members sitting elsewhere, but all were accounted for in the family room, enjoying what I recall was a Sunday evening.
The night was at peace, although very dark with minimal lights left on to keep costs down as my family was very poor. From what I can recall, the time of night must have been somewhere between 7:30 - 11:00 p.m. It was a cold night and everything as I mentioned was at peace. The world had a calm feeling all around me.
As the family watched TV, I left the security of my family in the family room to use the restroom. I walked through the most lit area of the home, which that night was the kitchen. As I sat down to use the toilet, I, being a small child, left the bathroom door partially open to feel more secure.
I immediately was drawn to the pattern laid out in the bathroom linoleum flooring. My eyes were intensely focused on the connecting diamonds that ran from the corner of one tile to the next. I felt as though I was entering a trance without my knowledge of what was waiting to reveal itself to me in just a matter of seconds from behind the door to the unknown world.
As I sat there, I heard a noise. I can't recall if it was a voice or footsteps, but in either case I voiced out, "Mommy, is that you?" No response. "Daddy, is that you?" Once again, no response. At this time my attention was drawn away from the patterns of the flooring as I now heard footsteps approaching in my direction. My heart became filled with a bit of anticipation as I was expecting to see either one of my parents come in and say, "It's just me."
Alone in the dark bathroom, what appeared to me was a black-caped arm that grabbed the corner of the door and pried it open toward me. As I saw this, I was full of fear, knowing what I would see next was not my parents, and wondering what the heck could it be.
The tall, black-cloaked figure entered the bathroom and looked down on me. I became riddled with fear of this unknown creature. My first thought was, What is he going to do to me? It looked at me with a sense of accomplishment and confidence in knowing that it had done what it had set out to accomplish: scare me to death!
I remember looking into its face, but could barely see anything beyond its creepy eyes, and it appeared to have no visible face. I do not recall any hand extended to me nor do I recall any gesture toward me after entering the bathroom, as if its sole agenda was just to expose itself to me. I do know it stood tall and had no apparent features that I could define as human, such as a hand or a face with its features, but simply a personage with dark features and a hooded cape, which was attached to a black-clothed robe having the appearance of being ancient.
I could not open my mouth, not even to make a whisper. It never spoke to me in the slightest. The creepy part about this whole thing to me was how slow he departed, closing the door as he did. It was as though it felt no fear of me at all, knowing that it could flee without effort from my presence. His exit was as brave as his entrance, knowing that I would not follow after him.
I could not believe what had just happened to me. Was it real? If so, who was it? Nevertheless, once the door had closed, I immediately stood up and opened the door, my head peaking out around the corner looking straight, then right, then left. I never heard a word or a sound.
I finally came to my senses and as I struggled to find my voice, I attempted to shout, to no avail. As one might imagine, I ran with all my might to return to the safety of my family, still assembled in the family room, watching television.
Once there I shouted, "Who did that?" Everyone looked at me with puzzled looks, as if I were crazy! Then, one of my family members, I don't recall whom, went to check things perhaps, from what I can only presume now, was a fear that they thought someone had broken into the home. No one was found, nothing ever seen by anyone other than me.
There is no way that someone could have run from one end of my house to the other without making a sound, even if their intent was just to scare me or play a prank on me.
I know there are others who have seen this creature. I did many searches and found that I was not alone in seeing this spirit, creature, man whatever you want to call him. As luck would have it, my lovely wife also saw this creature in her home as a child. The interesting thing about our similar stories is that the time frame in which he appeared to both of us was about the same year if not the same night.
I am still disturbed by this event, but felt the need to share this with you, a story which is very real, true and personal. Here is my blog for easy reference: http://paranormaldeamon.blog.com/
