The Shadow.

I have pretty much convinced myself that it's a dream.  Just a recurring dream that scares the hell out of me every once in a while.   I just can't figure out why it's been happening more and more lately.

Since I was a teenager I have awakened during the night to a figure of some type next to my bed.  The first few times it was a child and then as time passed it became an adult.  Usually what I assume is a male adult, but hard to tell since it's just a dark shadow standing right beside my side of the bed.

  This was not something that happened nightly, or even monthly or yearly.  Just when I would forget about ever seeing it, it would happen again.  I would open my eyes and see it standing there, looking down at me.  I would instantly thrust myself away from the side of the bed and close my eyes.  Then when I reopened them it would be gone.

That's how I decided it was a dream.  I mean if it was a ghost or some other presence, why would it be gone when I reopened my eyes?  It would still be there haunting me.  This thought made me feel better, even though I would still startle when it happened because who wouldn't?

No one else in my house ever had anything like this happen to them, as far as I knew.  Another reason to think it was a dream.  A very real feeling, scary dream.

It had been well over a year, since the last time this happened, perhaps even two, when I opened my eyes and not only was the shadow there it seemed to bend down closer to my face.  This time I lunged back in my bed with a gasp, towards my sleeping husband, opened my eyes again and it was gone.  Phew!  The next night it happened again and the next.  I was starting to think I was going crazy.

I was afraid to go to bed because I knew that this was going to happen and I didn't know how much more I could take.  The shadow man, wouldn't say a word. " If it was a dream wouldn't they say something?" my subconscious asked me.  I didn't want to think about that.

After about a week of this I was driving home, after picking up my son from a friend's house.  It was fast growing dark and as I stopped at a stop sign I saw a dark shadow, out of the corner of my eye.  It was standing on the corner.  My head whipped that direction and nothing was there.  I glanced over at my son but he was too busy messing with his handheld video game to have noticed anything, IF there was anything there.

Okay, I'm definitely losing it.  I took a deep breath and continued towards home.  After a couple minutes we approached another intersection and stop sign and I saw it again.  I could feel my heart pounding as I turned to look, only to see empty space once more.

Finally, we had almost reached home, when we came to the last stop light.  I breathed a sigh of relief as I didn't see any shadowy figures.  As the light turned green and I prepared to accelerate there it was.  Directly in front of the car.  I sat there motionless.  The car behind me honked, but I couldn't bring myself to hit the gas and go.  I really wanted to speed forward and run over this shadow that haunted me, even though I knew it wasn't really there.

Suddenly from my right a semi truck came barreling through the intersection.  The shadow was gone now but I was left with the shock of knowing if it hadn't been there I would've been in the middle of that intersection, when the truck came through.  My son and I would have probably been killed.

Shaken, I slowly pulled forward and drove in a fog the last couple blocks to our home.  I pulled into the driveway and turned off the car.  My son reached over and touched my arm and said "Mom, if that man hadn't been in front of our car, we would've been killed!"  I looked at him in shock and said "You saw him?"
He nodded slowly and said "Yes, I've seen him a lot lately."  Then as only a child can, he gathered his gear and climbed out of the car and headed into the house, as though nothing had even happened.

It's been a while now, since the incident and I haven't seen the shadow.  I'm still not quite sure what it is.  The words Guardian Angel have come to mind.  I'm not sure if I'm still scared, or not.  I guess I'll see how I react next time, IF there is a next time.