Growing up, my older sister lived with me and my family and she loved to watch scary movies and to scare me too. To this day, I love to scare myself to the point where I will have trouble sleeping. The only problem is, sometimes it's not just me who does this.
When I was younger, I had a nightmare or perhaps it was real I never could tell... It only happened once or twice. I would wake up in the middle of the night and I looked at the end of my bed. There was a man there, very tall almost reaching the ceiling (from what I could tell) and he was looking at a strange angle towards the ground. He wore a suit, and a hat that covered most of his face. I looked as hard as I could and I could not see any features. I should have been able to see a mouth at the angle his hat was but I could not. When I would wake up my mom would be there. She would say, "What's wrong? You said, 'He's there!' Who is there?" I never could answer her question. She is only aware of the first time it happened.
The next time he was standing near the window looking out. Again, where his mouth should have been, there was none. He just looked out the window. I laid there, trying to "wake up" although I wasn't sure whether I was actually awake or not. I was so scared that I couldn't speak and I guess I just fell asleep. These were the only two occurrances that I remember as a child.
I sort of forgot about it as the years went on, as many other nightmares came and went. But recently, I had the worse nightmare I could have ever imagined.
A few months back, my friends introduced me to "Slender". If you don't know what that is, Slenderman started as a creepypasta and it has become more famous as more people elaborate about the stories, facts and "eviednce" of his existence (ex. Marble Hornets a popular YouTube channel).
Slender is a game based on Slenderman where you play a little girl who walks through the forest, collects pages and in the end (*SPOILER ALERT*) Slender ends up catching up with you and killing you. My first playthrough, I was terrified not knowing what to expect I got six pages but lost terribly. After playing this game I've seen a few YouTube channels who have featured this game and recent Betas of the game (Pewdiepie, Tobuscus, Markiplier, Yamimash etc.). I became interested in learning about Slender because it has a lot of interesting theories on him. I know he isn't real but then again I can't say 100% he does not exist because of my previous experiences and the one I'm about to tell you of now.
After learning more about Slender a friend from home introduced to me to the horrors of Creepy Pastas. The very first one I discovered being Squidwards Suicide and expanding to many other popular pastas. There were a couple nights where I couldn't even go to my own dorm because I was too terrified to be in a small room alone.
On a day I had been reading Creepy Pastas frequently I was a little scared and a little paranoid... But I decided I wanted to sleep in my own room because I had an early class the next day anyway. So I threw my blanket over my face and fell asleep in a matter of minutes.
I woke up a few hours later because I was having strange dreams and it was so hot. At that point in the year, I had a Beatles poster next to the wall where my bed is. So here I am in the midst if waking up (or perhaps being in a dream), and I immediately look at my poster because it became a habbit of mine. (This is a real poster) It is a picture of the Beatles that is black and white with the logo at the top left of the poster John Lennon is looking away on the very left, Ringo is next and is also looking away, Paul McCartney is third and is making eye contact with the camera smiling or laughing with a paper in his right hand and George Harrison is also making eye contact with the camera on the very right. But when I remove the blanket from my face I don't see this poster.
I rememeber checking my phone and seeing it was 4am and realizing how uncomfortable I was. While I brought my head out of my blanket I remember looking right at the poster, I saw John Lennon and George Harrison (who are on each end of the group) with no faces. Keep in mind, George and John are both dead. Now, if you've seen Slenderman's face, their faces looked just like that. And I felt like I was awake and hallucinating because of how hot it was in my room. Then I though perhaps I was half awake, half dreaming. But that's all I saw. I tried so hard to fully focus and wake up but the more I focussed on the picture, the longer their faces stayed that way. I blinked, I went under my covers and came back up, I tried to fall asleep again but nothing worked. I could not focus on the picture and make their faces sort of "come back".
At about 4:20 am once I was sure that I was fully awake, I got up and brought my blanket, and my phone to the common lounge so I could sleep. I slept there until 9, and I went back to my room to get ready. I let my friends know that day what happened and my friends suggested I take the poster down. It made me uneasy so I said 'No way! That would be an insult to the Beatles!" My friends said "But if it scared you, you should take it down...".
Eventually, I just moved the poster away from my bed and more towards the end, opposite to my computer. So basically it is behind me right now. But I feel more at ease anyway. Since then, I haven't had such vivid nightmares and I can sleep easier even on those nights where I've been brave enough to scare myself (a little). I don't know what happened that night, but I now have a different respect for the Beatles.