A Haunting in the Czech Republic

Author’s note: The following story is from a man to whom English is a second language. Forgive the grammatical errors in the quotes.

Leo, of the Czech Republic, first saw a shadow person when he was five years old.

“I saw a shadow going around the ledges of a room, around me,” Leo said. “I was at this old house and Nazis used to hide there back in World War II and do who knows what.”

The house, Leo said, was a magnet for paranormal activity.

“Ghosts, shadow people and other stuff was on daily there,” he said. “There was also this huge clanging annoying sound at nights in the cellars.”

His mother’s boyfriend, who didn’t believe in the paranormal, once went to the cellar to investigate. He took a gun.

“He thought those were robbers,” Leo said. “But when he went down there and turned lights on, the sound stopped. As soon as he went up, it started again, and the whole cycle
repeated. Anytime he got too near it stopped.”

Although strange things have followed Leo most of his life, in 2008 the paranormal became terrifying.

“It was very early in the morning,” Leo said. “I woke up, but noticed it’s so early so I was just resting in the bed, but I was not asleep. I was fully awake, with opened eyes and all.”

He heard footsteps in the kitchen.

“I thought it was my mother,” he said. “I was not really worried about that, as it
seemed normal except it was maybe too early for her but I was sure it was her. I did not expect anything else, I really can tell you that.”

Leo looked toward the door, expecting to see his mother walk by, but something else appeared. Something wicked.

“I saw something foggy,” he said. “I thought it is something in my eye, so I closed my
eyes and then reopened them afterwards. But what I saw next was pure terror. I saw a fog-like disjointed shadow figure. It had no stable shape. In fact, it didn’t even resemble a human.”

But the thing had a face.

“I next saw its face in front of my face,” he said. “It paralyzed me and I couldn’t
move even an inch. I could not do anything, not even close my eyes.”

Fear engulfed Leo as the entity took charge of his body.

“The fear was overwhelming, it is not natural fear at all,” he said. “I felt it was induced
by the creature. I have never felt that much of fear at once. It was pure fear, pure fear, not stopping. Nothing compared to this.”

Leo stared through his locked-open eyes as the entity attacked.

“I watched in terror as it struck its para-hand – that’s the only description I can think of – through my chest and it started cracking my ribs,” he said. “I could feel the immense pain and the sound was really loud, too.”

As Leo felt this beast break open his chest, he knew he was going to die.

“It literally kept me in sitting position staring at it – it wanted me to. I had almost no energy left,” he said. “I watched it suck all life from me, but because of the exhaustion I managed to close my eyes.”

Even though Leo could no longer see the entity, the attack continued.

“It wasn’t gone,” he said. “It was still sucking me out and I still felt the pain, but at least I wasn’t visually stuck into it. When I closed my eyes I felt the fear and paralyze going away a bit.”

Leo mustered all his energy that remained and rolled out of bed. When he hit the floor, he opened his eyes and saw the creature still there, in his room.

“I started screaming out loud, running and crawling away across through the
kitchen and hall, up to the room where my mom was sleeping,” he said. “She was
sleeping there entire time, but something woke her up and she heard me screaming and heard strange sounds, too.”

When they inspected his chest, it was fine.

When Leo later moved out of the house the paranormal activity that had plagued him throughout his childhood stopped.

“It was pretty intense and I don’t want something like that happen to me ever again,” he said. “That was when I thought I experienced everything. It is something I cannot forget.”

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s newest book on the paranormal, “Paranormal Missouri: Show Me Your Monsters,” is available at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.