The ghost story of a lifetime started when I turned five years old. I was sitting in my room, playing with my toys just like every five year-old boy does. I turned to my closet because I heard a faint knocking. I was more like scratching on my door as if someone wanted me to go to it and let them out. Sure, when a little kid hears something coming from their closet like scratching at their door, they normally go running to their mommy. See, that's the thing; I wasn't a normal little kid nor am I normal to this very day. So being the weird little five year-old that I was, I put my toys down and walked over to the closet. I stood at the door for a second just looking to see if there might be any movement coming from inside. Then I heard the scratching again it was a little louder this time, so I decided to open the door.
"Hello?" I spoke into my closet. There was a man standing there. His composure was poor and his face was sunken in. He looked like a man that had been through quite a lot in his time. The man noticed I was now standing there now and met my gaze, he put his finger up to his lips, signaling me to stay quiet. I put my finger up to mine as well, as if to say “ok.” Behind me, my bedroom door had opened and my mother emerged. Though I didn't turn around, I knew it was her. I continued to look at the man. As he stood there looking at me he knelt down to my level, his finger still pressed on his lips. He turned his head as if he heard something. On the back of his neck I noticed there seemed to be a handprint. He turned back to me and whispered one word: “Quiet.” Then he disappeared.
"Jonathan?" my mother called from behind me. I turned around and looked to her.
"What are you looking at baby?" I followed her with my eyes as she walked over to me. She stood there next to me and looked in my closet. Somehow I knew she didn’t see the man as I had.
"Do you want something?" she asked. I saw no benefit in telling my mother that there was a dead man in my closet, so I lied. I just nodded and pointed to my teddy bear on the top shelf.
Later down the road that man came back several times. At the age of 8 I was cleaning up my toys because my cousin was coming over and my mom said I had to clean before she got here. While picking up a jacket from my floor and walking to the closet, I reached for the doorknob and it opened by itself before I had touched it. I looked in my closet that had now been open and there was the man standing in front of me once again, as he had 3 years prior. This time he didn’t lean down to my level; he just stood there. He touched my shoulder and smiled slightly but he seemed to wince in pain when he did this.
I just looked at him and he motioned to me that it was ok to place my jacket in the closet. So I did. After doing so, he spoke the one word he did the first time I had saw him: “Quiet.” And with that he turned and disappeared as before.
This happened for many more years and is still happening now; even at 19. I’ve never told my mother, but for some reason days prior to my 19th birthday something related to the paranormal came up. My mother told me that when I was a baby she had walked into my nursery and saw me laughing and giggling as if someone was tickling me. This made me realize that the first time I saw this man was not when I was 5, but could have been when I was a baby. Age 5 was just the first time I remembered seeing him.
