Do Shadow People Control Casey's Dreams?

Shadow People – blacker-than-night, two-dimensional, human-like figures that seem to appear and disappear at will – have been reported worldwide. The reports, like “From the Shadows” read Casey’s, are never good.

“I've experienced this Shadow figure, the same one, numerous times,” he said.
It was December 2007 when Casey first met the Shadow Man. Right before Casey – a high school student – dreamed of the entity, his girlfriend broke up with him then his brother was in a car accident. As Casey lie in bed one night, the Shadow Man came into his sleep.

“I was in a car in the back as two girls were in the front,” he said. Both girls had brown hair, but Casey couldn’t see who they were. “They were driving and the thing that sat beside me was a Shadow Person.”

The Shadow Man kept motioning Casey to come closer to him, but he didn’t.

“I was feeling a little scared but then the girls are saying to me, ‘we need to get you and your friend away from here now far away as possible,’” he said. “I look at the Shadow thing and all it did was motion faster and faster and it was getting angry at me, signaling at me to come over.”

Then Casey’s vision went white, he heard the car crash, the girls screamed and he woke up confused. But later, Casey realized his dream might mean something.

“My ex-girlfriend that broke up with me dyed her hair brown a few days before I had this dream and so did her mom,” he said. Her car had the same interior from his dream, and there was his brother’s car accident …

“I started to put stuff together like this Shadow Person is running my dreams and he’s using things that hurt me when I'm awake to hurt me in my dreams,” Casey said.

His next Shadow dream was in February.

“This time me and this Shadow were like best friends,” Casey said. “We were laughing walking down the street. Then all of a sudden this little boy ran by with a bloody knife, crying.”

Casey and the Shadow Man caught the boy.

“He told me that his mom stabbed his dad in the chest and he grabbed the knife and now the cops were after him,” Casey said. He recognized the boy – he was a friend with a past Casey never knew.

“The little boy was my friend but grown up,” he said. “His mother stabbed his dad and the cops thought he did it. When I woke up I looked around fast and saw nothing. I thought that something wanted to help me through my old mistakes – but it was torturing my mind.”

A week later, the Shadow dream visited again.

“I was a old man working at a high school as the janitor,” he said. “I was retiring and I was happy and I saw that Shadow Guy just watching me. This time he just stood there and he was shaking like a laughing way. I didn't know why but I looked around and everyone started talking about my brother saying, ‘what if he hit a deer?’ ‘what if he was just too drunk?’”

Casey had heard those rumors and knew the Shadow entity was using them to hurt him.

“I felt confused and inferior to this thing. I woke up screaming that night,” he said. “Right then I knew it was out to get me. I was scared of going to bed and not waking up or waking up somewhere else.”

His last dream encounter was in June.

“I was dreaming of the first day of school,” he said. “I get to first period and these Army troops burst into the school speaking some language I didn't know.”

The soldiers took the students to a large, desolate, fire-damaged building with steel garage doors.

“They only gave us pillows,” Casey said. “I laid there and beside me sat this Shadow guy in a Indian-style sitting (position) staring at me.”

Casey’s best friend was there, along with his ex-girlfriend.

“I flipped out screaming at her saying, ‘what do the hell do you want from me?’” he said. “When I did this a guard came over telling me to get up.”

Casey stood, but his friend jumped up to protect him and was shot in the arm.

“This Shadow guy ran up and got into the soldier’s face yelling at him telling him that he can’t have me that he needed me for something,” Casey said. “The soldier laughed at him and said, ‘why?’ The Shadow got up really close and whispered something to him and all I got out of it was, ‘brother.’”

Casey wonders if the Shadow Man isn’t just torturing him in his dreams – but outside his dreams.

“Right now I’ve been scared and confused,” he said. “I don't know what to do but my doors do open by themselves now and my lights do turn off by themselves and I sense there’s something in my spare room that stands there. I can’t go in there without getting really cold and the chills like something right behind me is breathing on my neck.”

Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, black-eyed children, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.