My name is Elena. I’m thirty years old, and I’ve never been married.
For the past five years, doctors have tried to convince me that what I experience isn’t real. I was diagnosed with a personality disorder and prescribed several medications. Some made me sleep for hours. Others made me feel numb and disconnected from everything around me.
But none of them stopped what happens every Wednesday night.
It always begins at exactly 10:00 PM.
No matter where I am or what I’m doing, an overwhelming exhaustion suddenly comes over me. It isn’t normal tiredness. Within minutes, keeping my eyes open becomes almost impossible.
And as soon as I lie down, my body becomes completely still.
I can’t move my arms or legs. I can’t turn my head. I try to call for help, but no sound comes out.
Then I see him.
A tall, dark figure standing somewhere in the room.
I have never been able to see his face clearly. Sometimes it looks almost human. Other times, his features seem to shift whenever I try to focus on them.
Then he comes closer.
I feel an unbearable pressure against my chest, as though something incredibly heavy is sitting on top of me.
That alone would be terrifying enough.
But then he starts whispering.
He tells me things about my childhood.
Names I don’t recognize.
Places I don’t remember visiting.
Events I have absolutely no memory of.
Sometimes he even accuses me of things he says I did when I was a child.
For a long time, I convinced myself there had to be a reasonable explanation. I had read about sleep paralysis, and the symptoms seemed to fit: being awake but unable to move, seeing frightening figures, feeling pressure on the chest.
So I tried to believe that was all it was.
Until one Wednesday morning, I woke up in pain.
My chest felt sore, almost as though I had been struck or pressed against something for hours. When I looked in the mirror, I noticed something else.
There was a strange mark on my skin.
It was jagged and unfamiliar, almost like a symbol. I had never seen anything like it before, and I had no idea how it had gotten there.
I showed it to my mother.
She became frightened, but insisted there had to be a medical explanation. She begged me to see another doctor.
I did.
Nothing changed.
The following Wednesday, the figure returned.
That night felt different.
The pressure was stronger, the whispers were louder, and for the first time, I genuinely felt that whatever I was seeing knew I was afraid of it.
When I woke the next morning, there were dark bruises around my neck.
And on my right thigh was the same strange mark.
That was when I stopped telling myself it was only a dream.
This has been happening for five years.
Five years of doctors.
Five years of medication.
Five years of waking up every Thursday morning wondering whether the night before actually happened.
Tonight is Tuesday.
Tomorrow, at exactly 10:00 PM, I know the exhaustion will begin again.
And for the first time, I’m afraid that whatever comes into my room every Wednesday isn’t simply trying to frighten me.
I think it wants something.
I just don’t know what.
Has anyone ever experienced anything similar?
And if you have…
Did you ever find a way to make it stop?
If you enjoy unsettling encounters and dark mysteries, you may also want to explore these stories from Elwej. Read Don’t Look Up, a disturbing story about a mysterious presence that no one should ever look toward, or discover Don’t Return To The Abandoned House, a terrifying encounter involving an abandoned house, a strange doll, and a curse that refuses to stay behind.
