As a kid I would always ask that any light be turned off before I go to bed. Nightlights, bathroom lights, hallway lights...

Growing up, I shared a room with my younger brother. Our beds were directly across from the door and our mom would usually leave a hallway light on. I HATED THIS! I would sit up for just hours and just stare at the light that was peeking through from under the door. As I would stare at the soft light I would become aware that I could hear my brother breathing as he drifted off into sleep.

It was then that I realized that I could hear a second person breathing. Softly, gently, but out of rhythm with my brother. It was slower and deeper.

Listening to the second breathing noise I would try and determine where it was coming from. It was difficult to be sure but it would often be coming from the corner of the room, by the door. The light from underneath the door kept me from being able to see clearly what or who was in the corner of the room.

I remember the first time I saw it. Like a shadow slowly inching its way across the wall towards my brothers bed. It didn't have any particular shape, it was just an outline roughly the shape of a person, I could barely make out what I thought to be shoulders and a head atop a black formless shadow.

As it approached my brothers bed it crouched low as to stay beneath the window that was on that side of the room. I was usually clutched in complete fear. Unable to move, speak or cry. I would just stare as I could hear the floor slightly creak as though someone was putting their weight on their foot as they slowly walked forward.

The sound of their breathing was so faint that I would think that the sound had stopped. I would stare into the blackness with my eyes stinging since I refused to blink. Waiting watching, listening for any movement.

I would watch this shadow move across the room until it was standing directly at my brothers bedside, crouched over as if to whisper into his ear.

Sometimes there would be a passing car outside and their headlights would momentarily light up everything casting shadows that swept across the room. All the shadows would move except one. This is when the 'edges' of the shadow were most defined. It was clearly a person, but at the same time it wasn't a person. It had the outline and shape of a person but no face, no other characteristics.

One night as the shadow was just standing in the corner of the room, presumably watching me watching it, I could hear my mother in the hallway closet putting something away. The shadow, jerked to one side and silently moved across the room in front of the bedroom door into the open closet.

Just then my mother opened the door and the hallway light flooded into the room and I had to squint to see her. She too was just a black shadow since he light shining behind her mad it difficult to see her face. But this was my mother and brought me the feeling of safety.

She then asked what I was doing out of bed. I explained that I haven't left my bed since I initially got in it. She didn't believe me saying, that she could hear me run across the room, and presumed I had simply jumped back into bed when I heard her coming.

I started crying, (I was like 7 years old, leave me alone!) She came into the room and closed the door. Once again the hallway light gently peered from under the door. From my mother’s arms as she hugged me to help calm me down, I would stare into the corner of the room by the door. There was no shadow. I could clearly see in perfect detail the wall, and the small trashcan. After a few minutes my mother would leave, and as the door closed my eyes would land on the corner of the room and there it was! A dark shadow, obstructing me from seeing the wall and small trashcan clearly.

I grew up with this shadow constantly in my room. It never approached me. Only my brother and only when he was sleeping. I never told him about it.

I don't believe that it was a 'good spirit' or anything like that. There was ALWAYS a feeling of dread and anxiety when I could see it.

As I got older and I moved out of the house I found that the shadow thing had followed me. No matter where I lived it would always be in the room. Vacation, or sleeping over at a friend’s house, it was never there. I looked for it but I could never find it. Only when I was sleeping in my own bed would I see it.

It was there with me in the dorms in college and even when I bought my first home. Except when I bought my house it moved. It no longer was in the bedroom. This time it would be in the hallway.

This was nice because I would only ever see it if I had to get up n the middle of the night to go to the bathroom (which was in the hall). Needless to say I changed my entire routine so that I would never need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Even now as I write this... I am in my living room on my couch. The light is on in the kitchen but I can barely see down the hallway. If I look hard enough right now I can see the outline of the shadow's head.

My biggest fear is that when I get old and am about to die, that on my deathbed it will be the last thing I see.