It was November of 2006. I was a 16 year old kid living in the town of Altoona, Iowa.
I went to bed early one night because I had to work the early shift in McDonald's.
As I slept, I had a dream that I was running through downtown Des Moines, but I wasn't on a jog... I was running from something.
As I ran around the corner of a building, I came face to face with my pursuer.
A tall man wearing a trench coat and a top hat stood in front of me.
The only thing visible of his face was his eyes.
They were abnormally large with black pupils, and it looked at me as if it wanted something
After what felt like hours, he reached out his bony hand as if he wanted me to go with him.
I woke up violently from my dream, and after catching my breath, I peered around my room to see if I was safe.
As I stood up from my bed, I noticed that I could see my breath.
Feeling confused, I checked my window... It was latched shut.
I then walked over and checked my vent. I could still feel warm air coming from it.
As I sat back down on my bed, I tried to figure out what exactly was going on.
That's when the figure from my dream appeared at the foot of my bed.
I scrambled back to my headboard.
"What do you want?" I asked, trying to hide the shakiness in my voice.
With the same bony finger, it pointed at me.
Growing up in a religious home, I believed what I was looking at was a demon. I told the creature to leave.
It just waved its finger at me and with a low voice, it spoke to me.
"Never leave, always here."
The creature then screamed loudly and disappeared.
A feeling of nausea came over me and I vomited on my floor.
The last thing I remember was cleaning myself up and waking up to my alarm.
It's been about a month since I had seen the top hat wearing man in my bedroom
The Christmas season was in full effect.
My parents weren't home because they got invited to some kind of event. So it was only me and my three sisters at home.
I had to wake up early in the morning for work, so I decided to go to sleep.
I rested my head on my pillow and closed my eyes.
Not even 30 seconds passed until my sisters burst into my room and started singing obnoxious songs.
This, of course, made me very angry; but I thought if I ignored them that they would leave me alone.
This was not the case.
As I pulled the blankets over my head, I started to feel the same cold feeling that I had November.
As the obnoxious singing subsided, I lowered the blanket below my eyes and saw the man standing in the corner of my room.
In one swift motion, he charged towards me, and I blacked out.
When I finally came to, I found that my sisters had locked themselves inside the bathroom.
As I knocked on the door, they told me to go away.
I asked them what happened and all they could say was mom and dad were on their way home.
I looked down and saw that my hand was slightly bloody.
Holes were in the bathroom door and a broom was sticking out of the wall.
I then walked into the living room and found that there were knives stuck into the wall as well.
The same wave of nausea passed over me, just like in November, and I threw up again.
As I was cleaning up, my parents walked through the door.
My father immediately walked over to me and gave me a good beating, then he sent me to my room.
I went to bed crying. Not from the beating, I was crying because of the confusion. I had no idea what was going on.
The next morning, my sisters reluctantly sat next to me and told me what had happened.
They said I got angry and chased them down and tried to hurt them.
They said my eyes were red to the point where they thought I was bleeding from them.
They said I sounded like a different person.
In 2011, that was the last time I saw the top hat wearing man.
I just moved into a new apartment and after a long stressful day of unpacking, I took a shower and got ready for bed.
As I started to drift off, I could feel that cold feeling again.
I lifted my head and saw the man standing in front of me.
The man's eyes were red now.
With a low voice, just like on that November night, it looked at me and said:
"Never leave, always hear."