Strange Happenings in the Hollywood Hills

 

My first home in Los Angeles in 1980 was across from the Hollywood Bowl and required 100 steps up a hillside to access it. The house had been designed by Hollywood set designers, so there were some interesting aspects to it.

For instance, hidden closets, balconies with sculpted angel heads and wings, an outdoor fountain, and a unique bathtub in the shape of a large four leaf clover.

In two of the rooms were extraordinary mirrors set inside fantastic Egyptian-like frames, giving them the appearance of being transported from the past.

There was an enormous wall-sized mirror in my bedroom, which stimulated playful games.  One such game is where two of us would grasp our hands and arms together, forming a bridge for a third person to sit on.  Then this rider would be swung and like Alice in Wonderland, imagine a trip into the surreal world beyond the ancient glass.

 

A Mysterious Gust of Wind

One day, one of my housemates, eighteen-year-old Annette, and I were both in front of the mirror in the bathroom.  Suddenly, exactly the same as so many movies of the paranormal have shown it, our hair started waving from our faces.  It was as if a gust of wind was blowing at us; even though there was no nearby window or any vent for a source of this gust.  Simultaneously, we both saw a dark figure eeriely looming in the reflective surface.  For mutual affirmation we immediately looked at each other in unison and then made an abrupt exit out of the area.  This shared spooky experience further added credibility to those who had slept in the adjacent guest room and claimed to have spotted a tall, smokey figure roaming about.

 

 

The Long Walk Home

After a party at a friend’s place, I was being dropped off at the corner gas station, not far from my house. As I was walking, I felt the presence of a big guy, who shockingly swatted my butt, as I passed.  Using the street smarts I successfully developed during a few years of living in Manhattan, I quickened my pace, with strong, sure steps.  As I was about to cross the street, an old car slowed down and a stranger poked his head out from the driver’s side window.  He looked directly at me and in a sincere matter-of-fact tone of voice and tells me, “It’s going to be alright!”

I took in his words and without skipping a beat, decided to take a short-cut, up some steps that led past an open field along my street.  Upon reaching the top of those stairs, some dogs up above, from a neighbor’s house, started barking. With it, there was not at all a feeling like they were barking “at” me but clearly, as if they were trying to warn me of some impending danger. Something about their yelps caused me to turn my head and look behind me.

 

A Large Shadowy Figure

From the corner of my eye, I saw a large shadowy figure, speedily coming up–as if from behind and yet to the far side of me. I wasn’t sure.  It felt like he was a hungry animal hell-bent on the hunt and I was zeroed in as his chosen prey.  Thank God I had flats on, which allowed me to run faster than I ever could have.

Everything moved in that classic slow-motion you hear about in times of danger. Looking up was the long 100 steps leading up the hillside to my house. Even though I was climbing upward with the aid of pumping adrenaline, the relentless, single-purposed, pursurer seemed to be getting ever increasingly closer behind me.   I instinctively proceeded to use those four letter words only reserved for such an intense occasion, and shouted them out purposely as loud as I could. Hoping it would help put out a guard of fearless strength and to perhaps alert any neighbors that might hear me.

To this day, I inexplicably have no memory of the face of who was chasing me.  Though he reached a mere step or two away, but I DO remember his voice attempting a soft resonance as he tried to bait me into his trust, the way one would approach a hurt kitten or frightened child by assuaging, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you.”

It played like he was the wolf and I was ‘Little Red Riding Hood.’   As I approached towards the top part of the stairs, I started screaming my brother’s name, who was staying with me at that time.  Instead, my friend and kindred soul, Alan, heard me and responded roaringly.  I didn’t even know he was home. Alan is six feet, five inches tall and was in excellent physical shape with the heart of an angel.  He darted out of the front door, and immediately started chasing the culprit. He returned shortly and I asked him what happened.  He said with an amazed look on his face, incredulously the tall shadowy figure seemed to morph into what can be only described as a bat-like entity and swiftly flew away.  Disappearing into the night!

 

Scram!

The next day, our housemate, Annette, overwhelmed by it all, packed-up and moved out the very same day. It’s been over twenty years since this happened. A few years ago, I visited Alan and asked if he remembered the event and what he thought of it in retrospect.

He nodded with assurance and said that YES, most definitely, he still stands by what he says he saw that night.  We both agree it had to be some sort of creature of the night, whether shapeshifter, vampire or ghoul.

Perhaps these beings exist in another dimension and sometimes break through where one or more of us has contact with them and hence our shared stories.  My recount might not seem so original, but I can vouch it is the truth. It truly did happen to me.

Some, may rationalize perhaps what chased after me was merely human and in the throngs of the fearful unfolding, misinterpreted what we thought we saw. And, what we thought happened. One is entitled to believe what they may, but I stick to my intuition of what transpired and this particular incident relates another example of life is just as strange or stranger than fiction.