Fear Files

The Little Red Imp

This was to be the first of a month's worth of unsettling events. A month may seem like a short time, but I swear it was the longest, most terrifying month of my entire life. Not surprisingly I remember the date: December 14 2003.

I was 14 at the time. I was staying with my grandparents as I often did in the weekends. Usually my younger sister Jess (18 months younger than me) would stay as well in our shared room there. This particular time she had opted to stay at home.

It was just after 5am in the morning that I awoke for no reason. I found myself very alert and nervous though I didn't know why. I took comfort in the fact that the sun was starting to come up and light was slowly filling my room. I lay awake for a few minutes watching the clock on the wall while I calmed myself down. I told myself I was being silly and should go back to sleep. I was lying on my back and I went to roll over. As soon as the thought crossed my mind I felt my entire body freeze up and refuse to move. At once this immense pressure was pushing on my chest and making it hard for me to breath. I was bewildered and frightened; I didn't know what was happening. I lay there struggling to move until suddenly it vanished as fast as it had come. It had lasted only a mere few seconds but it left me quite shaken.

I started to question whether or not it had happened, whether it was my mind playing tricks on me or I had imagined it. Once again I felt the pressure on my chest. This confirmed to me that I had NOT imagined it, unfortunately. I was looking at the space over my chest and I couldn't see anything. As far as I could tell, I was alone in the room. I felt the pressure on me increase, so much so that I was being pushed down into the bed and could hear the springs creaking. It was becoming unbearable and at one point I thought my ribs were going to crack. I wanted desperately to call out but I couldn't make a sound.

Then to my horror, a small red impish creature materialised. He was crouching on my chest with an insane grin on his face. It was laughing at me. I felt him trying to push his way inside me as if he was trying to gain control of me sort of like he was sinking into my chest. Immediately I began to get the most horrible feeling of anger and hatred. I cannot adequately describe it. If Hell was an emotion, it would have been what the imp was radiating. It was an evil feeling, pure evil. I engaged in an internal struggle with it, as I was still unable to move. I mentally pushed back at it and it didn't like it one bit. It became more vicious and now my chest was racked with pain as it fought with me. It appeared to be gaining the upper hand and I felt myself flooded with emotions that weren't my own. I felt furious and I had the urge to get out of bed and just KILL. Anything, anyone, it didn't matter. Rage was boiling up inside me but I knew this wasn't me, it was the imp.

This spurred me into drawing every last bit of energy I had to fight the thing off. I could talk to it telepathically and so I told it in no uncertain terms that it wasn't going to win and I would not back down. Now I was willing myself to sit up. It was ridiculously hard and left me breathless but I pushed it back until I was sitting completely upright. It let out an awful scream and simply vanished into thin air. Instantly I felt free and could move again.

I was far too freaked out to go back to sleep in case it made another appearance so I got up and watched TV in the lounge. Half an hour later my grandparents got up and were utterly amazed to see me up and dressed so early (I'm not a morning person in the slightest). They were even more surprised when I went to the Saturday morning market with them. I didn't want to be left alone in the house that day and that's why I tagged along with them. I was tired and drained but I was too scared to take the risk of sleeping again at least not at their house.

Little did I know that was only the beginning of a nasty haunting.

***

After the incident at my grandparent's house with the imp, I was very wary of sleeping at night. I've always been a light sleeper and now every tiny little noise I heard would set me on edge and I'd find it hard to get to sleep. About a week had passed but I was still disturbed by what had happened to me. Maybe I was being paranoid but I couldn't help but feel like someone was watching me in my room once darkness fell. I hadn't been back to my grandparent's house all week. I avoided it even though I'd normally walk there every day after school. Instead I caught the bus straight home and always declined when my mother would ask if I was going with her to visit them.