Danny Phantom

I should point out firstly that this blog has nothing to do with the cartoon Danny Phantom. I used to have such a crush on Danny it wasn't even real and I had a tingle of feelings for Sam too. Cartoons are weird. While this blog doesn't centre around teen heart-throb Mr Phantom, it does centre around ghosts. No, it's not another haunting dream, either. Thankfully, I've not had another dream, or nightmare rather, since that one I posted about earlier in the week.

This is another gem from my abnormal childhood that I'd like to share with you guys. (No, it's not just because I'm stuck on the travel blog and am not satisfied with it and I'm just using filler material...okay, it kind is that, but I also don't want to forget doing this blog.) I should also point out that I don't really believe in ghosts. I think the entire idea is bullshit and illogical, but every now and then I see something and momentarily it makes me re-think my position on ghosts. What can I say? I'm a sceptic. I like proof. (Yet as Jessica would point out, "but Dan, you believe in sea-monsters." Well, 90% of the Earth's oceans haven't been explored so sit on that one. They could be real.) 

I was about 8 years old and we lived in a house that my mother's great aunt used to own; ever since I was a little child, I was told that her husband or her brother (I can't remember which) had died in the house and he haunted it. Child me believed it to an extent and would feel uneasy when things went bump in the night or strange things happened for no reason at all. It also made me completely terrified of the attic. It was damn near impossible for me to get up there. I wholeheartedly believed there was something evil from another dimension hiding in there ready to tear me apart and consume my soul. (I might have been a bit of a high-strung kid.) My bedroom that I shared with one of my sisters was at the top of the stairs and the bathroom was smack above the stairs. You go up the stairs and within 4 steps you were in the bathroom. It was pretty convenient, but I developed this weird habit of looking down the steps every time I'd leave my room and cross the hall to go into the bathroom. Day or night, it didn't matter, I'd look down the goddamn stairs. I don't know what I was looking for or what even possessed me (no pun intended) to start doing this in the first place. 

One night I really had to pee, so in the middle of the night, I crawled down from the top bunk quietly and tiptoed out to the hall. As per usual, I looked down the stairs, but this time I wasn't met with the familiar darkness of the stairs and bottom landing, but a man sitting on the steps. I felt my heart shatter and the shards stab my entire chest cavity. I tried to tell myself it was just bullshit until the shadow man looked up at me. He was wearing a wide-brimmed hat and it looked like American wild-west cowboy boots. I could just see his outline, no real features. He was darker than the area surrounding him. I froze. I was completely unable to move. I was about to scream out but he started coming up the stairs at me. Adrenaline kicked in and I ran to my room. Fuck getting stuck in the toilet and probably murdered. The bed meant safety. Nothing can hurt you when you're in your own bed. (Which I believed as a child and of course now know to be a lie.) I darted up the bunk bed steps and hid under the covers. 

I laid there hidden under the sheet and duvet thinking I was going to die. 5 minutes passed. Then 10. Nothing pulled back the sheet. 15 minutes passed. I gained the courage to take a peek out from under the protection. One curious and terrified eyeball poked out and spun around, looking around the room. Nothing. I poked my head down to see if he'd changed his mind and had taken my sister instead. Nope. Cotton was still there, sound asleep, teddy bear tucked in. I laid back and exhaled quietly. I didn't know if he was sitting in the shadows, waiting for me. I mean, I didn't know if he had some sort of schedule to keep or not.

It wasn't the first time that I saw him either. I saw him on the steps two other times, each time was just as terrifying. The other two times, it just sat there staring holes into me with its faceless, shadow form. Each time I felt a deep sense of impending doom. I finally got the courage to tell my mother about it and she told me not to worry about it, that it was probably just my overactive imagination. "But he had on like cowboy boots, you know like what people in Texas wear!" (I assumed Texas was it's one country and not part of the United States...actually I still kinda think that. I've been to Texas it was fucking weird, so different...anyway!) She turned and looked down at me. "What did you say?" "He had this hat and those boots on." "Your great-great uncle used to have things like that. You probably saw his ghost!" She was so cheery about it and I felt as if I'd been dunked into ice water. I wanted to ask her more about it, but she told me to stop with my nonsense and not to get hung up on things.

Looking back, I think she might have been fucking with me. I've never seen any pictures of him, but what kind of a parent gets gleeful when their child tells them they've been seeing a ghost or shadow person? She fucked with me a lot when I was a kid and I think this might just be another instance of that. Why would she mention the clothing and then say nothing else or offer a photo or any other info if she wasn't fucking with me? I think she made the whole goddamn thing up! Nobody else could ever confirm what she said to me...she didn't believe me, she just wanted to shut me up, knowing what she said would torture me.


And fucking hell. I just had to do this, didn't I? I just looked up shadow ghost/shadow person on Google, looking for an image to put with the blog and I see an image that matches what I saw as a child and it's the Top Hat Demon. Jesus Christ.

"The Hat Man is a shadow person, or demon depending on your source, that has been reported all over the world. The entity is usually described as a tall shadow man dressed in a long black trench coat and wearing a wide-brimmed hat or a fedora. He is distinctively male and witnesses say that he has no face or a shadowy blurred face.  Most shadow entities are usually seen for a moment or two before disappearing, but the Hat Man seems to be different often staying for a prolonged period of time and sometimes he even touches, chokes or assaults his victims.

Another aspect of the Hat Man that is eerie and more sinister than other shadow people is that the Hat Man is often associated with hostile environments, aggression and is sometimes an indicator that something evil will happen. Here is what the Strange Accounts website has to say:

“This seemingly dark presence is known to cause – or be attracted by – hostile environments and aggressive behaviour. Those who see him often witness to domestic disturbances and family breakdown, noting a tangibly negative atmosphere, sense of dread or hopelessness. For this reason, many have labelled the spirit a “demon”. An intelligent haunt, capable of both physical and psychological manipulation, the Hat Man may well be able to “oppress” those it comes in contact with, seeming to lend credence to this theory.”

The Hat Man also seems to take pleasure in the terror he causes and witnesses have reported the feeling that the Hat Man is somehow feeding off of their fear. Other witnesses have reported that the Hat Man sometimes has glowing red eyes or black featureless, solid eyes. Others have said that the Hat Man is a fallen angel or an angel of death and that he comes just before a death."

Original Source: https://www.demonicpedia.com/demonology/top-hat-demon/

Well, there goes my attempt at sleeping for the next few days. Once again, I've cornholed myself. Why do I do this? Why do I never learn? Though, parts of this does make sense. We did have a lot of family turmoil and the environment could get pretty hostile. No, Dan! Don't buy into the madness. Don't get sucked into it just because it makes sense. It's nothing more than a coincidence. It's a theory formed on unreliable data. You know this. 

This reminds me of another spooky incident that went on when I was a child that involves a murder...Well if you all will excuse me, I have some sage to burn and a St Patrick's Day special to get to work on.