Frustrated, I grabbed my ipod and set it to the lowest volume possible, so that the blue bar wasn’t even visible, after all, I didn’t want to wake everyone else in the house up. I connected to youtube, searched ‘relaxing music’, and clicking on the first decent looking thumbnail I saw; I placed the ipod on my pillow, and put my ear over the speaker part of it. It started off nice enough, harps and violins playing softly while a piano made a continuous, slightly repetitive tune. I was actually starting to sink back into a happy slumber once again.

Just then I heard a noise, barely anything, just what sounded like a slight scratch on the wall, any other time I would have taken no notice, but it was right at that moment I felt something. There was an overwhelming sense of evil filling the room, impossible to describe, a sensation of hell and hatred, what you would imagine Satan to be like – if that makes any sense. Although there was nothing to see I could just feel this presence in my room, a presence of pure evil. I was still in a state of semi consciousness, what I can only describe as somewhere between being asleep and awake. I still could not move, it was as if my mind was awake but my body wasn’t – I felt fear like no other time in my life, shear terror and nothing else, engulfing me fully.

Just as I was about to scream, I stopped. There was a hand. A hand coming round the door, followed by heavy, raspy breathing. Everything was dark and I could hardly see, but the hand I saw appeared to be that of a shadow, yet somehow it seemed to be made up of substance. It continued to wrap its fingers around the door frame, and eventually, it started to open the door.

The figure standing before me was hazy in my half opened eyes, in the blackness of the room, but it was definitely solid now, dark grey and draped in a long coat with a hood. I could not see a face, just long, tangled, grey hair, but for whatever reason, I had named it, and knew the gender – it was a hag – The Hag. It sounds ridiculous, almost comical now I write it, but there was something in me which knew this, for some reason it seemed obvious at the time.

Again, I tried to scream but as I did, she proceeded across my room and came towards me, the next few seconds I can’t recall, but soon she was sitting on my chest, with her hand around my neck – I felt like I was being suffocated. All I could hear was her breathing, in my ear, she was whispering something, I couldn’t make out, but I knew it was something evil. I tried so desperately to move, concentrating all my energy, using every bit of my strength to move an ankle, a finger, anything, for I felt that if I were able to do that, I could defeat this demonic being. She was kneeling now, crouched down and hunched, crushing my ribs and compressing my lungs, her hand was tightening its grip on my neck, I couldn’t breathe and I felt ready to die, thought I was dying. I started to have this internal conflict, I could not let myself be consumed by this evil, I didn’t want it, yet there was nothing I could do to escape, but I couldn’t let this happen, I would not be taken by it, but hope and life was being drained out of me, I had to win though, if I could do even the smallest thing then I was certain I was going to survive – yet, I thought – how could I?

Suddenly, I saw a pair of eyes staring at me, glowing, emerging from behind the curtain that concealed my wardrobe, they were bright white, with no pupils, they seemed to belong to some strange, horse like creature, and they protruded from his head like light bulbs. I also felt another presence behind me, something cold and malevolent, it was making the same scratching sound I had heard earlier, louder though, in fact it was as loud as the breathing of the hag on my chest, and I swore I felt scratching on my head, there was pain, but not like normal pain, it felt real, but also not, it was almost as if I could see it rather than feel it.

I could not fight any more, and I gave up and let her suffocate me – but then – it all stopped. I opened my eyes fully and sat bolt upright in bed. I breathed deeper than ever and slowly drew my hands up to feel my neck – nothing. I hastily looked around the room and all I saw was darkness, I was… Alive. It was so strange, a second ago I was about to die and now I was fine, I remembered everything and it was definitely not a dream, it was half and half… I’ve had similar experiences since, though not for many years, but life has never been the same since, I mean every time I close my eyes I picture that same scene. I don’t know whether it was real or not, and I don’t think I’ll ever have any way of knowing, but what I do know is that that sense of evil I felt was the worst thing anyone could ever endure, and I hope to God that it never happens again, though the possibility is always going to be there. It’s an odd thing to be afraid of the past – isn’t it?

Sweet dreams.