The room was dark and dimly lit by the far-off street lights. The window was open but the room was hot and stifled. The sounds of the neighborhood at the beginnings of twilight, distant and hushed, were muffled by the window screen. The ceiling fan slowed to a halt as the door closed behind an uninvited visitor.

My eyes opened to a murky canvas of midnight blue cascaded in velvet black. I rolled over to find my phone in the normal spot near my pillow and charging. I removed the charging wire and rolled onto my back to face the door. An unnatural darkness remained in the corner of the room in the front of the door. My phone’s light turned on. I fumbled the phone in shock of its self-activation. I firmly grasped the phone as I labored my heavy arms in the direction of the invading darkness.

As the light crept along the ground, the darkness fell away to reveal a pale-skinned figure. No shoes. The light continued onward, crawling up the figure like a drunkard with Parkinson’s. The figure was in a bleached, sea foam coloured nightgown. It’s long, wavy. blond hair was parted to the sides to reveal eyes as black as the darkness that encased it. I made eye contact. It was female.

Her jaw stretched with menace. She quickly shifted right to the dark patch of room. Half of her body in the light and half of her menacing composure staring into the pit of my soul. She continued to face me as her body contorted a full 180 degrees toward the wall behind her. My arm began to move the light toward her despite my increasing heart rate and the paralysis of the rest of my body. My eyes fixated on this figure as she avoided the increasingly lethargic light. She began to clamber up the wall still keeping half of her body in the light. She inverted onto the ceiling near the ceiling fan. I closed my eyes and regained the ability to move. I threw the bed sheet over my head like a scared child and held the sheet tucked under my body for my very life.

I could feel her staring at me through the sheets. I could see her in my mind in that menacing composure with her body perverted into that inhuman position. I felt her looming presence for what felt like eons, standing over me like she was ready to reach through my last line of defense and steal my life away.

I woke up in darkness. No ceiling fan. No grotesque figure. No unnatural darkness or light. The cars passed by infrequently as usual for the twilight hours. My heart raced, filled with adrenaline from the psychological experience. It must have been a dream. My room was the same size. I was still in the same bunk bed. The door was closed as it is every night.

I took my sheet and threw it over me as I had in my dream and remained awake wondering why it felt so real and why it was so vivid. I don’t know who to share this with so I’m sharing it anonymously in hopes that someone can help me understand what the hell I just endured. Was it really just all in my head?