It Came Out As “Mggbouwerlfth”

I too saw the Hat Man, but I never knew that others saw him too. I was in my early 20’s and living in a 2-bedroom apartment with a friend. He was into strange things (mostly involving illegal activity that I didn’t want to know about), and had warned me never to go into his room. So I didn’t.

One nice, I was groggily awoken to the feeling of my left foot being tugged on. It felt like I was in that half-way state between waking and sleeping, but I saw a large dark figure with a ‘zoot suit’ (pointy shoulders) and a tilted wide-brimmed hat at the foot of my bed, tugging on my foot.

I tried to tell him to leave me alone, and to say, “No!” but it came out as, “Mggbouwerlfth”. I guess I managed to rouse myself enough to get out a clear, “NO!” and then he was gone.

But my foot tingled, as if someone had really gripped it, hard. It took me a long time to get back to sleep after that.

I’ve never seen him/it again, and that was over 20 years ago.

— Harmony