The first time I saw the Hatman, I was around 12 and I was paralyzed with fear. I hadn’t heard of him before, and although I had been plagued near endlessly by various horrible nightmares, I had never before experienced sleep paralysis. The first time, I had fallen asleep on the ground in front of our family’s sliding glass door while watching the rain in a thunderstorm. When I awoke, it was much darker out and I was terrified and couldn’t move. Worse yet, when I turned my eyes to the glass door there was a tall, shadow in a coat and a hat. I struggled to move until finally, I shot up. He was gone and I was at a loss for words.
After that I had many other sightings, each seemed more nightmarish than the last.