The shadow came to April Navarro one night in 2008 at her parents’ home in the Philippines – and it never left her.
“My sister was on vacation so I decided to sleep in her room,” Navarro said. “I don’t usually do that but for some reason I stayed there.”
She wished she hadn’t.
“I woke up and I saw this dark figure right in front of the cabinet which is just right beside my sister’s bed,” Navarro said. “I closed my eyes and convinced myself that I am just imagining things.”
Fear froze Navarro’s body, so she did all she could – she hoped the black figure had gone. When she again looked, it was still in the room and getting closer.
“I closed my eyes again and prayed until I was able to get free and so I ran towards my parents’ room,” she said. “My parents woke up and wondered why I looked like I was just being chased by someone.”
Navarro didn’t talk about her experience then, or the next day, but she eventually told her family.
“I finally did when it had been bothering me so much,” Navarro said. “I only told my parents about it and not anyone else within the family. I thought I’m still just imagining things.”
Two months later, the black being appeared to Navarro’s sister.
“I wasn’t at home that time, I was at my friend’s house,” Navarro said. “I was only told about it when I got home the next day and finally I was convinced that it wasn’t just my imagination. It must be something.”
Later, Navarro saw the black entity again and knew she was right; this wasn’t her imagination.
“I was sleeping in my parents’ room,” she said. “I liked staying there because they have an air-conditioned room. I woke up and there he was again on the foot of my bed and this time I could see his face.”
The black figure looked human to Navarro; he smiled at her and laughed.
“He said something which I could not recall anymore,” Navarro said. “He was being friendly, but it still felt weird.”
She didn’t think this was the same black figure she’d seen in her sister’s room because it seemed too human and too non-threatening.
The final encounter in her parents’ house – in Navarro’s bedroom – was less friendly.
“I woke up and I saw this thing walking from my door to my bed,” she said. “It looked like my sister, but it couldn’t be my sister. It looked like her but it didn’t feel like it’s her.”
Like her first encounter with a black entity, something froze Navarro to the bed.
“I couldn’t move but I am very aware of my surroundings,” she said. “I prayed so hard but this thing was smudging her face in my body, so I tried to pray harder but it prayed along with me, like it was mocking me, but (it) couldn’t say, ‘amen.’”
Not long after this encounter, Navarro moved away, but the black thing moved with her.
“I moved out from my parent’s house, trying to be independent,” she said. “I was all by myself when I woke up and I saw this black figure again. I immediately felt like this black figure was the same figure I saw at my sister’s room.”
The thing moved closer, and Navarro found she again couldn’t move and she couldn’t scream. But this time she snapped out of the paralysis and attacked the entity.
“I tried kicking him away,” she said. “It felt like my foot went through his body and a strong wind blew on my face. When I kicked him I heard a very strange sound coming from him. I couldn’t explain it, (it was) like that thing had a phlegm or something.”
Navarro lay in bed, certain the entity was going to kill her, but nothing happened.
“At that point when I kicked him, it didn’t even try to do anything to strike back at me,” she said. “Like his intention was just to observe me or something.”
Navarro has since spent her time researching these black entities and, although she discovered others have seen these things, too, she just wants to know what they are.
“I am still trying to understand or explain why I kept seeing those dark shadows,” Navarro said. “It doesn’t seem like they want to hurt me or something. It’s just there and every time he manifests himself to me, I can’t move and scream. I can see the things around me but I just cannot move. Sometimes I think I am going crazy, but there has to be an explanation.”
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 books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.
