Hello /x/,
This is actually my first time posting on this board, I'm not generally into the supernatural. My policy is to not fuck with things I don't understand, and that pretty much extends to anything that doesn't seem to obey the laws of physics.
Unfortunately, memories recently came to me as often happens to people, and these seem to not want to leave me alone. I told this story to my wife, who doesn't really believe me. Probably because I make a habit of being a bit skeptic. I don't presume to know anything about what happened to me, but maybe you guys will. Or maybe you won't believe me. Either way, maybe I can stop thinking about just by telling the story.
So, without further ado, this is the story of my first and only experience with the paranormal.
[Spoiler]Also, just because I used an AYAOTD image doesn't mean I'm making this up. I don't presume to understand the events that happened fully, all I can do is recount them to you to the best of my ability. All I have are the facts and what I was told, I'm assuming you good people can decide for yourselves the rest.[/spoiler]
>>16953202
Now, the story begins, as they often do, in the middle of nowhere. I was at a vocational school in a city in Texas no one has ever heard of. The kind of school where you go when you're either too lazy or dumb for college. Personally, I was too scared of college. Too many friends went to college only to drop out or graduate with a nothing degree and be with no employment opportunities dealing with thousands of dollars of student debt. So I found myself at this vocational school in the middle of nowhere, excited with the prospect of gaining a trade skill and guaranteed employment for the simple cost of my soul (No, not really. I just had to sign an employment contract for a few years).
One night, because everything spooky apparently has to happen at night, I had a nightmare. Now, this fact was particularly jarring, because I do not dream, normally. I usually don't remember them, but even the ones that I do are nonsensical. I tried keeping a dream journal once, and all I managed to write down in my post-sleep groggy state was “Underwater soda commercial.” All I remember was green and yellow light, bubbles, and some metal pipes. Like the world's best or worst mellow yellow ad.
>>16953207
Now, as a quick aside about my dreams, even my bad dreams are usually met with some nonsensical whimsy in the background. My worst nightmare as a kid involved my scrotum being infested with ticks, but I seemed to only treat this as a minor nuisance, and I'd have to stop from time to time to squeeze my sack like a stress ball and pop the ticks off. Nobody batted an eye at this, and even my reaction when I squeezed too hard and my nuts exploded like a balloon filled with blood, I laughed and said at least I don't have to worry about the ticks anymore. Even as a kid, I brushed off this dream with, “Well, that was weird. Huh.” My dreams, while some of them could be horrific in retrospect, never scared me. They were just that, dreams. Crazy nonsensicalities born of indigestion or whatever.
This particular nightmare, on this particular night, was not like the others.
>>16953215
I started off between two doorways on either side of a water fountain. Bathroom doors, one was the girls, the other was the boys. There weren't doors, just the little corridor that blocks line of sight into the actual bathrooms. I walked into the boys bathroom, since that was the one that applied. The entire room was white tile lit yellow by fluorescence, and immaculately clean. There was no noise except for my footsteps. There were no stalls, either, just a row of about eight urinals without dividers down the left wall. Down the right wall, was four sinks, and four mirrors. I remember this dream more lucidly than any other dream. It was one of those dreams where you could not tell if you were awake or not. Its why I remember so many details. I walked down the center of the room, seeing myself pass in the mirrors. Until I got to the last one. In the last mirror, I turned and looked into it. As I looked, I saw myself rot and wither with an agonizing look on my face. I keep staring into the mirror, unable to move or look away. Once I am little more than grey skin over a skeleton, the image distorts until I am looking into a grey face. Not gaunt, not skeletal, but a face that wasn't anywhere near human. If I had to describe it's features, I'd imagine the red demon from Insidious only grey and black instead of red, with cracked teeth and black eyes. It was the most terrifying thing I'd ever seen in my life.
I woke up in a cold sweat, screaming.
>>16953220
The night passed then like any other, I got a drink, calmed my nerves, went back to bed. I had to be up early in the morning, so sleep wasn't something I could forfeit over some random dream. Now, over the next few days, the guy who lived in the room next to me would start acting really weird.
Me and, well, let's call him T for reasons that will be clear further on in the story. Me and T were basically friends. I don't make them well, so it's hard for me to discern where acquaintance becomes friend. We ate meals together, talked of home, and then went to our separate dorms to play video games in relative solitude. Then we'd meet at the lunch table the next day to discuss video games, and repeat the cycle. Now, T started acting really weird as I said. Nothing outright, just looking at me concerned, and acting vaguely guilty. So, master of tact that I am, I asked him why he was acting fucking weird.
Pic unrelated. T was the most un Mr T like person ever. Scrawny white kid.
>>16953232
Now, T was into a lot of shit I wasn't into. This became clear when he told me he heard me scream that night, and asked why. I explained to him, and he went white in the face. He informed me that he had been astral projecting that night. He then streamed apologies at me, because he said he got spooked and high tailed it back to his body and then drew some wards in his room. I had no idea what to say to this, so I settled for an “It's all right?” He said it was his fault I had that nightmare, because whatever spooked him must have followed him back, and then with no recourse to get at him, settled its attentions on my sleeping form.
Later that day, T brought another friend, who we'll call C for similar reasons, to my door. Now, C was... off. I'd seen him around, and he was more in with the instructors, but technically a student for some reason or other. But he was a little off when it came to the social aspect of things. He was a nice enough guy, I didn't get any creepy vibes off of him, but that's mostly because he talked like a hippy from the 70s. I could have sworn he was high, and most of the things he said went over my head.
>>16953238
Now, apparently, T referred to himself as a Traveler, and C referred to himself as a Consular. I informed them like it sounded more like fucking rpg classes than real things, and they laughed. They said it was merely labels to explain their spiritual affinity, and that different people could use different things. It wasn't anything concrete, just the words they had chosen to best comprehend it.
T and C instructed me that the best course of action was to meditate that night before bed, and get back to them with what came to me in the morning. They said they would cast wards over me to help prevent more nightmares, but they were curious what I would see in my minds eye.
To this day, I can't explain why I fucking did it instead of playing Dead Space before passing out like I wanted to. But I turned off my electronics, made sure my room was quiet, and I sat down. Just cross legged, I supposed that was the best way to do it. I briefly wondered if I should make circles with my fingers and go “Ohm.” but I figured that was silly.
>>16953245
So I sat there, in my room, in total quiet, trying to think of nothing. I lost track of time, I think, just that quiet nothingness. The clock would later tell me 40 minutes had passed, but I couldn't tell. All I noticed was that out of the nothing, came a cloud. A dark cloud, stormy. Of course it was a stormy cloud, why the hell wouldn't it be? Fucking cliché if I ever saw it, but there it was. Then again, the cloud wasn't really important, what was important, was in the cloud. My mind's eye zoomed in apparently, and in the cloud I could see a symbol. I couldn't describe the color exactly, but its textured looked like stone. To put words to the color, it was something like blue and dark magenta at the same time, speckled with black. The symbol looked like the one pictured. The blue parts are what I saw at first. As I watched, lightning seemed to flash behind it, and I saw the symbol change. The black part in the picture emerged from the crest of the V part, and for some reason, I had a really foreboding feeling. Probably because of the clouds.
>>16953255
So, the next day I explain what I saw to T and C. They asked me if I had any more nightmares, which I didn't. They were really curious as to what this mark was, and couldn't or wouldn't tell me. I mean, they said they didn't know what it was, and seemed believable enough. So I accepted it. T and C said they would consult with further friends of theirs, and others. Turns out, there were at least two more people I knew at the school into this stuff, and I got all sorts of excited theories as I became this new anomaly for everyone to theorize and meditate over. People were telling me I was in danger due to it being some sort of mark of the hydra, and I should absolutely not fuck with it or let anyone else. Others were telling me it was a symbol of a tree which meant things in my life would flourish.
After a few days, I heard back from T and C. Apparently they had contacted some witches they knew, and were in the process of fixing the issue. I asked them if that meant more wards or what, and they sort of laughed. They informed me that my spirit has proven pretty resistant to outside influence, and it was likely due to my nature. The named me Guardian, saying that I had one of the most resilient spirits they'd ever seen, and that minor wards and charms really weren't have any effect as far as they could tell, so they just stopped without telling me. Well nice of them to clue me in. The fuckers.
>>16953257
They basically explained to me that souls that are still relatively young in the reincarnation cycle are born with innate defenses to prevent them from being... I dunno, eaten or something by whatever it is that prey on humans. That they couldn't tell how many times I'd been reincarnated, but it was likely somewhere below one hundred, even below fifty. C said that he wouldn't be surprised if he learned I'd been reincarnated less than ten times, such was the apparent bubble of my soul.
So that was it, they said. I was a spiritual noob. I prefer to think of it that I just don't fuck with shit I don't understand. I rather thing shit doesn't fuck with me because I don't fuck with it. I mean, if something spooky happens, I'm the motherfucker going “I'm sure there's a logical explanation for this.” and then instead of going to find out, I ignore it. T and C said that my behavior was a reflection of my soul, not the other way around. They said skepticism was one of the defense mechanisms, because being afraid of something only makes it stronger. So if you ignore it, it goes away. It can't gain a hold, because you refuse to acknowledge it could be possible.
T and C theorized that whatever followed T home that night was a minor entity, saying something that he didn't find it that many vibrations up in the astral. It was too weak to penetrate his wards, and it was too weak to do much more through my bubble than me than fuck with my dreams, which is apparently when and where I am the most vulnerable. They said the symbol was probably its way of marking me, since it took some meditation to just find it. Apparently in lieu of actually marking me, it just stuck the mark on the outside of the bubble it couldn't penetrate. They also said that the extended part of the symbol could be the mark trying to “dig” its way past my defenses. Like a drill. They told me to get an early rest that night, and everything would be taken care of in the morning.
>>16953263
The next day, T informed me that the problem had been, indeed, rectified. T said he had spoken with a coven that had been a friend to him a few states over, and they had astral projected to me and he joined them. They apparently shattered the symbol with some minor effort, easy with three of them adding energy. It was just the leavings of a minor entity after all, and I slept soundly, and dreamless.
And that's where the story ends, it seems. T, C, and me became friends. We formed a D&D group, and we played games until we were finished at the vocational school and we went on with our lives. I haven't spoke to them since, and honestly, I hadn't even ever really thought about that time before it randomly hit me the past few days.
Maybe you guys won't believe me, maybe I am a stupid fuck for ever listening to any of this nonsense. I still can't say what I believe, all I know is what happened. Was it paranormal? Was it mundane bullshit? I dunno, and I don't want to know. It was what it was, and that's that.
I don't fuck with shit. Seems to be the best policy.
And that's the story of the craziest thing that's ever happened to me.
Thanks anon, bump cause oc
>>16953271
Thanks OP. Astral projection isn't really my thing so I can't criticize there. In case you choose to revise the story, I'd advise you to cut back on the casual swearing as it doesn't add anything. I've noticed it's a common trap that a lot of writers fall into on this board. Everything is fuck, fuck, fuck, fucking fuck. It loses its impact very quickly.
>>16953202
Alright, this is an excellent example to take after. I can't feel any noxious social engineering from OP. This is what I want. More like this.
Tl:Dr
Sum up or die pleb
Thanks Op.
