Shadow in the Doorway

From: Timothy Lara [timlara@hotmail.com]
Type: Ghost
Location:
Subject: Shadow in the Doorway

My story begins about seven years ago. I was asleep and I think I had my eyes open, but was still asleep. That is to say, I KNOW I was still asleep, but I was seeing the same scene I did when I 'popped' awake, except that while I was asleep I could see a figure in my doorway.

In my sleep, I assumed that someone was breaking in. I woke up and my girlfriend at the time was trying to calmly wake me up. I saw the same scene as I was seeing in my sleep except the figure was gone. I don't know if I had my eyes open before I woke up, but it stands to reason that my unconscious mind would fit the scene into my 'dream' if they were open. Or perhaps I knew the view well enough in my own home for my mind to create a 'replica' mental image.

The figure was a fat shadow that was 'smiling' at me leeringly, yet had no facial features. He had no face, but had an expression. I can't explain it more than that. He was definitely male, and for some reason was wearing a San Diego Padres hat (yet another reason to attribute the whole thing to my unconscious mind).

If this phenomenon is attributed to stress, (as some have suggested) it would make sense. The girlfriend and I shared a bed, but I was not yet allowed to do more than heavy petting. This was an unusually long 'grace period' with this girl, so at 22 years of age at the time, I could very well have been building up stress over this.

OK. So far I have been describing what I've been calling a dream. Here's the weird thing.

About a year and a half later, I had come home (alone) from watching the Superbowl, and as you might imagine I'd had a few. I tell you this because it's entirely possible I did not close my apartment door all the way (I lived in an efficiency at the time; the door to my apartment was also my bedroom and living room door). I awoke many hours later to find a burglar sliding my VCR out of it's shelf. He had packed up many of my clothes in my suitcases and other things like VCR tapes and my cordless phone. I woke up and he froze in the door way for a split second as I ran him out of my apartment and off the floor. I was in my underwear at that time so I ran back to my place to call the cops, which is when I found my suitcases full of stuff out in the hall. The weird thing was, the figure was the same size and shape of the shadow I saw months earlier, and he was grinning the same way I saw before (...expectantly, seeing if I was going to give chase. He was a pro and wasn't worried about getting caught, it was comical to him). Only he had no hat (I still don't know what to make of the hat... I was born in California, but never knew much about San Diego, and I don't like baseball).

As for the girl, she broke my heart into little pieces and then stomped in them.