I, Sarah, had a significant age gap of 15 years with my eldest brother, Michael.
He had a loving girlfriend, Lisa, and together they had two kids.
Growing up, I often stayed with them, enjoying the company of my niece, Emily,
who was around 17 at the time, and my nephew, Ethan, who was 16.
Our adventures would take us through their cozy apartment, which held a mysterious secret.
As you entered the apartment, passing through the kitchen, you would find yourself in the living room.
Continuing straight ahead through the doorway, you would enter my brother and Lisa's room.
Adjacent to their room was a separate space that belonged to Emily and Ethan.
It was a peculiar room with uniquely positioned rectangular windows set high up on the wall.
To open them, you had to sit on the bed and crank them open at a wedge,
allowing only half the window to let in fresh air.
One night, when the house was engulfed in darkness, everyone was sound asleep.
It was around 1:30 a.m.
And I was just about to drift off when I heard a loud bang,
reminiscent of a bowling ball crashing onto the roof of the apartment complex.
The sudden jolt shook the entire house.
Half-asleep, I wondered if it was merely a dream, as I had experienced similar disturbances before.
Since no one else in the house seemed bothered, I settled back down,
hoping to fall asleep again.
The next part of the story is not based on my own account, but was witnessed by my brother, niece, and nephew,
between 2:30 a.m. and 3:00 a.m.
I must have been in a deep slumber by then.
Michael, struggling to sleep, tossed and turned,
his eyes fully adjusted to the darkness.
Lying on his back, he stared up at the ceiling when suddenly,
the darkness intensified beyond normal.
It turned pitch black, and he began to hear an eerie laughter.
To his horror, Michael realized he had lost control of his limbs and was rendered immobile.
He couldn't cry out for help,
his eyes wide open, as the chilling laughter seemed to emanate from right above him.
Meanwhile, in Emily's room, the birds became agitated, flapping their wings in a frenzy.
Although Emily, my niece, was awakened by the commotion,
the fear held her captive in bed.
The laughter continued, seemingly endless,
with an unsettling presence weighing Michael down.
When the laughter finally ceased,
Michael found himself unable to move even still.
After a few agonizing seconds, he felt a force strike his face,
a powerful blow from his hairline down to his chin.
As the darkness lifted, he regained his mobility.
It was at this moment that I woke up, startled by Michael's frantic screams.
Astonishingly, blood trickled down his face.
I urged him to calm down and examine himself in the mirror.
After ensuring that the house was secure, he went to the bathroom and cleaned his wounds.
Three deep cuts adorned his forehead, mirroring another three gashes on his chin,
as if an entity with three claws had swiped at him.
To this day, the scars remain,
a reminder of the profound depths of those cuts.
Needless to say, we were all perplexed and bewildered by the strange events that unfolded.
Later, Ethan, my nephew, confided in me about witnessing a large, black mass floating in his room,
ascending from the bottom of his bed and disappearing through his window at the top of the wall.
We were left pondering the nature of these events.
Could it have been a malevolent entity,
perhaps a demon, that vanished through the window?
The truth eluded us, and the connections between the initial loud noise and subsequent occurrences remained enigmatic. Emily heard the laughter, while my nephew claimed not to have heard it at all.
It was an unsettling and inexplicable chain of events,
leaving us with more questions than answers.
And of course, Any feedback or interpretation of this bizarre encounter
would be greatly appreciated.