TRUE STORY -Top Hat Man
When I was around 10 years old, I lived in an apartment house. We lived on the bottom half and my cousins lived in the upstairs unit.
We had a shared basement where we used to go play because it was spooky, and we were inquisitive kids. There was a pentagram and some other things spray painted on the walls in the back part which we figured were done by some stupid teenagers, but we still stayed away from that area. We had a radio cassette player that we would record ourselves singing to our favorite songs and set up a little hangout spot for us to play. (Yes, this was in the 80s)
One day we were down in the basement and were recording ourselves singing as usual. When we played it back to listen, we heard ourselves singing and then the tape went silent for a second. A weird voice started talking. It said, “You sound like Rosie”. We looked at each other and kind of tried to laugh it off both trying to act like we weren’t scared. We played it again and again trying to see if maybe there was something wrong with the player. We even tried it on a different player and the voice remained.
Still, we continued to play in our little area in the basement. Small things would happen like our decorations would go missing and we both would blame each other for it. Then it would show up the next day in a different place. Sometimes the lights would go out on us and we’d run up the stairs scared to death. My cousin said she felt someone push her as we ran. We told our parents just for them to tell us we were being silly.
Other things happened to me in our apartment also. Like the door would open when I was home alone. My mother and father worked long hours, so I was alone a lot. I just figured it was the wind. This was back in the days when you could sleep with your windows open and not worry that an intruder would come in and murder you.
One night I was up pretty late listening to music in my room with the lights off because I was supposed to be asleep. I heard my older sister outside my window calling to me and telling me to come outside. I sit up and look out the window which was next to my bed. I call to her and ask, “Where are you? I can’t see you.” She continues to call to me and tell me to come outside. I look out again and I see a black puppy out there. Mind you, my black lab puppy had just died from parvovirus. I ask, “whose dog is that?” She doesn’t answer and just keeps telling me to come outside. I am scared at this point. I yell at her, “If you don’t show yourself, I’m gonna telling mom!” Then everything goes quiet again. No dog, no sister, just the crickets in the night. I was angry but scared at the same time, like why would she do that to me?
The next morning my sister comes over. She lived around the corner from us. I was telling my mom what she had done to me the previous night and how she was teasing me with a dog knowing mine had just died. My mom starts yelling at her and she just starts laughing. She then says, “Why would I come over here in the middle of the night and tell you to come outside when I have a key to come inside?” So, she and mother are looking at me like I’m crazy. My mom says “You were probably just having a bad dream. I know you miss your dog.” I was again angry they didn’t believe me and scared at the thought of something that wasn’t my sister was trying to get me outside.
My cousin starts telling me about hearing voices from her closet. She tells me she saw someone in the bathtub and the door slammed shut. We only had each other because nobody else believed us.
I started having night terrors. A tall, thin black form of a man with a top hat would stand in the corner of my room and tell me, “you’re mine.” Over and over. (I’m shivering just remembering all this) I was helpless! All my mom would say is, “you’re not reading the Bible enough and you need to pray.”
I did as I was told, but it only got worse. One night I was having a nightmare about one of my stuffed animals spinning around with police lights flashing around it and then, WHAM! I see a bright light and stars from someone punching me in the face. I jump out of bed with a bloody nose and run into the kitchen which is right outside my bedroom to tell my mom. It was early morning, and she was preparing all of our lunches for the day. I’m crying and ask her why she hit me. She just looks at me confused and grabs a towel for my nose. “I did not hit you! Why would I hit you? You must have just eaten too late last night.” At that point I’m at a loss for words. I just stare at her like, what kind of logic is that?! I ate too late. I continue crying and tell her someone punched me in the face and that I’m not lying.
My mother began to think I was just acting out and making up lies. She calls my oldest brother to come “straighten me out.” He comes over and yells and me and threatens to whoop me if I keep doing all this. I just gave up at that point.
That was the only time I was physically injured by this spirit or whatever it was. The doors slamming and seeing the top hat man continued.
Then one day it finally happened to my mom. She was taking a nap, and something tried to pull her by her foot off the couch. She thought it was my dad playing a trick on her, so she gets mad and starts yelling for him to cut it out. I come out of my room and tell her dads not home. She tells me what happened, and I begin to cry saying, “You see? I wasn’t lying!”
After that day, she began looking for somewhere else for us to live and told my cousins to look for somewhere else too.
Sorry, this is so long! A lot of things happened in that apartment.
