Stories, Myths and Legends

Snapchat

Hi, guys, this is my first post here. I know a lot of the stories here (whether made up or not), are very well written and suspenseful. I am pretty much flipping the fuck out right now because of what has just happened, and I am not the best writer — so those two elements might mean you'll have to bear with me.

OK, so here are the events that have transpired in the past two hours or so, and a little backstory as to why this is freaking me out so much. My fiancé and I have recently moved back into my childhood home with my parents while our own house is being built to save some cash and not have to move instantly from our rental when it's complete.

My parents own three Australian native birds, and earlier tonight, I was updating my Snapchat Story to show my friends, as many of them always ask what the birds names are and what they look like. I took three Snapchat videos one after the other and just put them on my story without worrying about retakes or what I looked like (so please forgive me for the uploads, haha).

Anyways, within about 15 minutes of uploading, I received an SMS message from one of my good, but not great friends that said, "Ahahaha. You bearded beast those birds are mad. BTW the fuck was that in the window behind you in the last one? haha"

I had no idea what he was going on about, so I went and watched my own Snapchat Story a couple of times. On the third or fourth watch, I saw what he was talking about and my stomach sank and I almost started to have a panic attack, and I am still pretty shaken up. I immediately saved my story videos and put them onto my computer to see them larger. In the last Snapchat video I sent, it kind of looks like someone is at the door, looking in, with their hands cupped against the door. It is hard to tell, because Snapchat videos are very poor quality and the door is only in frame for probably one second. Whatever is in the third snapchat video however, is definitely not in the first video when the door is in full view. I was the only person home at the time, and that particular door leads to the backyard, which is only accessible via a single locked gate.

To add some backstory as to why this has me freaking out so much — to do that, I have to quickly talk about my childhood/teenage years up until I moved out with my partner in 2009 (age 18). From about age 8 until age 10, I had episodes of sleep paralysis (one or two times a month) where it felt like a weight was sitting on my chest and I could not breathe for about 40 seconds at a time. This led to insomnia and anxiety about bedtime, as I dreaded feeling helpless. I ended up seeing a child psychologist, and whether that was or was not the reason — the episodes largely went away (only once or twice a year until age 13).

At age 12 or 13, for seemingly no reason at all, I started to get chronic episodes almost every night that lasted minutes to tens of minutes at a time. During these episodes I could breathe but could not move. The worst thing about these episodes however is that I felt like something was in the room with me and meant me harm (common for people who experience sleep paralysis).

At roughly age 14, things really took a turn, and I started to hear and see things during maybe 1 in 10 of my episodes (also pretty common for people who experience sleep paralysis) . The things I heard were never too crazy and over-the-top — and were usually just thuds and creaks. However, when it came to SEEING things — there was always one recurring thing: A faceless "person" looking into my bedroom window with their hands cupped to the glass. For the course of a one- to 10-minute episode, this "person" would just stand there and look at me. Whenever the episode ended, the person would just be gone. Over the course of four years, this occurred quite regularly — but it always really made me feel totally helpless and terrified. I never got used to it.

When I moved out at age 18, I never had another episode where I saw anything. I'm 26 years old now, and I VERY, VERY occasionally (once a year) have small (<30 seconds) episodes, but only those in which I feel heavy-chested.

To cut a very long story short. Whatever is there in my snapchat video looks almost 100 percent like what I used to see as a teenager during my sleep paralysis episodes, and I have been a nervous wreck all night over it. To me, it kind of looks like a face to the glass, and two hands on either side. It has scared the CHRIST OUT OF ME.

OK, I can't take anymore of these. Read more super scary Halloween stories on (and there are tons of awful/wonderful ones on too!) Now I'm off to turn all my lights on even though it's daytime. Help.