I am writing because I would like to share a very frightening experience I had the other night that I feel may be of interest to coast to coast fans. To give some background, I live in an old 2 story town home near Galveston, Texas. The bedrooms are on the second floor, the doors to each room face each other with a bathroom in between the rooms.

The other night, (Wednesday the 9th) I had put my children to sleep at about 10pm and gone into my bedroom to watch some television. My husband fell asleep around 11:30. My 8 month old daughter awoke around 11:45 so I put her in bed with us. My 3 year old son woke up at about midnight or shortly thereafter. He was crying so I went ahead and brought him to bed with us as well.

I fell asleep not long after that, probably around 1AM. My son woke up again a couple minutes before 4AM asking for a drink of water. I reached over and picked up a cup I keep near the bed and realized it was empty. I sat up, put my glasses on, stretched a bit and began to walk to the bathroom to get water. I was fully awake by the time I reached the doorway and began to turn towards the bathroom, so I know that what happened next was in no way a dream.

I glanced up into my sons room as I turned to go into the bathroom. I keep his mini-blinds open at night so that light from a street lamp can show through. When I glanced into his room I noticed that there was no light shining through the window. I blinked and realized that there was a shadow blocking the light. What I saw was the outline of a man. He was standing in front of the foot of my son's bed. He was very tall as his head was as high as the top of my son's window, a bit over 6 feet tall. The thing that stuck in my mind was that he was wearing a hat. A kind of cowboy hat, but smaller, like something Dick Tracy would wear. Funny, the only thing that I could make out was the hat. His face and body had no features whatsoever. He, his whole body, including the hat, were coal black. The darkest black I have ever seen.

In the split second it took for me to see all of this I became startled. I'm not sure if I was startled at a man being in my house in the middle of the night or at his appearance and darkness. Either way, all I could do was gasp. I inhaled so hard my lungs hurt. All that was going through my head was that I needed to get away because this man was going to hurt me. I felt a fear that I have never felt before and never wish to feel again. I felt if I were to get any closer to this man I would die, or he would kill me.

Then I saw him move. He took a step forward and as he did his body swayed enough for me to see the street light through the window behind him. This prompted me to take a step backward. As I tried to step back with my right leg I felt a sensation on the outer side of my calf. It didn't feel like someone had grabbed my calf, it was more like something slapped it- but I didn't feel the slap, only the tingling that you would feel after a slap. The next thing I knew I had fallen. I was on my bottom on the floor and my husband was asking me what was going on.

I started hyperventilating, my fight or flight response kicked in and I jumped up and ran the short distance to the bed. I told my husband between breaths "There's... a... man... in... there..." At that my husband shot up out of bed and grabbed a golf club on his way out of the room. He turned on the hall light, the bathroom light, the light in the kids' room, looked high and low and came back to tell me that there was no man in the house. All the doors and windows were locked tight. There is no attic entrance in our home, no way that a man could have gotten in, or at least out of the house without us seeing or hearing. My husband searched the entire house once more before coming back to bed and found no one and noted that nothing was out of place in any room.

We got the kids back to sleep and my husband drifted back to sleep. I laid there wide awake staring at the ceiling. I made sure the bathroom and hall lights were left on and I kept glancing into the hallway. About 5 minutes after everyone had gone to sleep I heard 2 footsteps in the hallway, then silence.

It has only been a couple of days but there have been no strange happenings and I haven't seen him since. I hope I never do again.

I believe that what I saw was a shadow person. I will never forget that feeling of fear that I had when I saw him. Words could never express that amount of fear. I will never forget that night. I am including a picture of what he looked like that I made in paint shop pro. Its not that great but will give you some idea of what I saw.

--Sheri