My cousin has a mild form of epilepsy, but once he had a seizure in my house. When my parents were away. We were playing on the computer, and he was sitting in the chair in front of the monitor, me standing behind. He turned around to look at me, perhaps to ask me a question, and his eyes started tracking an invisible something behind me. Then he let out a series of, well, moans like. He sounded like he was utterly petrified - like he was seeing the thing that was coming to kill him. Or Cthulhu. Or something. Then he started seizing.
I got him off the chair and onto the floor, and checked that the space was clear so that he didn’t hurt himself. Then I checked his clothes to make sure nothing was too tight. Then I just held on and waited, because there was little else I could do. He foamed a little at the mouth.
It was terrifying. It must have only gone on for a couple of minutes, but it felt like hours. When my parents got back home, I told them what had happened, then almost started crying. They’d only gone into town for Subway sandwiches; they were gone for maybe 20 minutes.
He’s fine now, but doesn’t take as good of care of himself as I’d like.
Yeah, the zone between awake and asleep can be pretty weird. I once woke up to a friend of mine saying my name very clearly, except he wasn’t there. If that had been a dead person rather than a still living friend, we’d have a ‘ghost.’
I used to have similar hypnagogic hallucinations. I’d see/hear friends or teachers standing by the side of my bed and talking to me. I once also heard a voice shout “ROSIE!” so loudly that I panicked. I don’t know anyone named Rosie.
I’ve had that happen before. It’s usually my dad (who died many years ago) calling my name.
I have a couple of spooky stories. I think I’ve told at least one of these before, so apologies if you’re getting a repeat.
My dad was a manager at a lumber store when I was a kid, and he was usually the one responsible for closing things up. One evening he came home late and a little spooked. He said that he kept seeing someone out of the corner of his eye, and as he’d turn to look they’d step back behind a display. He double- and triple-checked the store to make sure it was empty before he left. Shortly after dinner he got a call from my grandparents, telling him that his aunt, uncle and cousin had been killed in a car accident that evening. The accident happened about the time he was chasing after shadows in the store.
My cousin Mike lives in South Dakota. For a while he had a job doing mail runs to a few of the small communities out in the middle of nowhere. Since the mail needed to be there for morning deliveries, he’d make the mail run overnight. There was a rest stop where he’d always take a break, so one night, as usual he pulled in there. There was a guy just standing in the parking lot. No other cars around, no sign of cars headed to or from the rest stop in either direction, no houses or other buildings for miles around. And he’s just standing there, in the cold, with the hood of his sweatshirt up, his hands stuffed in his pockets. Mike freaked out, skipped his Coke-and-bathroom stop and hauled ass out of there. He was afraid to look in the rearview mirror the whole time, because he was convinced the guy would be in the back of his truck, hood up, hands in pockets, grinning at him with great. big. teeth.
One more: my grandma died of cancer a few years ago, and my mom wasn’t able to be there with her when it happened. One night my mom had a dream that her grandpa (my grandma’s dad) was standing on the sidewalk in front of her apartment, holding a suitcase and waiting patiently. The next morning she got word that my grandma had died.