I have a 3am story that still raises the hairs on my neck. My very young child would scream or screech—I’d know it was time to face the entity we ended up calling the Dark Man. It happened night after night and then when that child made it through, a year later it started up again with the next kid. And one night, my husband, ever the skeptic, texted me while we sat in the room with the kids.
“There something in the corner of the room. It’s watching me. I can’t look directly at it. What do we do.”
And it wasn’t even 3am yet.
That’s a a story for another time. But, I’ll be opening your next piece ready to devour what you’ve put together.
No. THAT’s another story. It ended at the third of four children. And it was a whole thing. I swear, I NEVER would have believed it if it hadn’t happened. Perhaps I’ll write that end part someday. Thanks for asking that. I hadn’t thought of it in years.
I found myself standing naked (because I couldn’t find my robe in time) in my children’s dark room. This time it was my daughter screaming. She was trying to tell me the Dark Man was sitting on her chest while she slept. But he wasn’t just sitting. He was squeezing kittens until the couldn’t breath and died.
She was 6.
I felt something rise in me. Not rage. Not anger. Not fear.
Something deeper, colder, calmer.
I called it out. Told it to show itself. Demanded that it face me.
And it did.
It was swift. The rush of deep darkness from the corner of the room, standing directly in front of me, every hair on my naked body standing straight out, sensing, signaling.
In my mind I hear it, “No, you don’t command me.”
And with my voice, I spoke into the blacked black I’ve ever seen, inches from my face.
“Yes, I do. I called and you came. When you answered the call, you stepped into the hold.”
Ice. It felt like standing near ice.
And the reply came through the air, crackling, “you do not hold what you came name.”
And so I named it. I named every darkness I had carried, every fear I had for my children, every burried ache that could feed a darkness that would torment a child in return.
And when I was done, the hairs on my arms smoothed. The chill warmed.
“Then it’s finished. I cannot stay where I’m seen.”
And I held my daughter. I placed salt near the windows (because I read that somewhere) and I have only seen that presence a could times after but never near my children and only when I’ve lost sight of myself.
Pardon my pedantry here, but does the supernatural recognize time zones? What about daylight savings? If so, why? Does time operate relative to the sun’s zenith, or just relative to what people say it is? I’m just wondering how this mechanism is supposed to work. 3:00 AM in Bangor, Maine and 3:00 AM Columbus, Ohio aren’t truly the same time, if you’re talking about time as a phenomenon related to the sun and earth, but they’re going to show up as the same time because everyone agreed to put those two towns in the same time zone.
I guess what I mean to say is: do these spirits, or what have you, operate relative to the earth and star, or do they operate relative to mankind? I’d imagine there’s something real to this 3 AM thing, I just have no idea how it would functionally work. It seems strange that the spirits would start reorganizing themselves in the 19th Century to operate in synchronicity with railroad timetables.
Good question and in this case, yes I believe they do know the time relative to location and this is very deliberate, especially in the case of demonic entities, as 3am signifies the mocking of the trinity.
Absolutely fascinating article and I learned a lot from it. I’m currently watching a series on Prime called’The Devil’s Hour’ starring the wonderful Peter Capaldi and I can highly recommend checking it out. I have heard that 3.33am is not the best time to wake being one half of 666. Have to admit I usually have poor nighttime sleeping and can wake up anytime after 2 but have noticed my alarm showing 3am on several occasions.
I live in a pretty haunted house and have a string of nights every now and again where I wake up at exactly 3am, or at least that is the time I check my phone. It’s very strange as it usually coincides with pin prick sized flashes of white light in mid air above my bed. They happen in quick succession. I have no idea what they are but certainly paranormal
Wow! That’s amazing and it would probably freak me out! I live in a very old building and my late wife often saw a very tall man in different rooms in our apartment. To be honest, I have yet to see anything here and have just seen the one apparition to date. That was in a hotel room in London.
That's very interesting. I knew this, but never saw nobody talking about it! Sometimes I wake up at 3:33, and you're right about the part where you said: "The most chilling part isn’t the first night. It’s the night you don’t need to check the clock anymore. When your eyes open and you already know."
But I don't stress about it, I know it has a reason so I pray about it until I sleep again (:
We were aware of the significance of this time. When we initially began to post our stories, we did so at 3:33 AM at night. Now, for a few reasons, we swapped to PM instead of AM, but we wish we could return to that time.
We posted at 3:33 AM due to its sinister nature, yes, but we also decided to do so for a second reason. While you could argue that three threes in a row might be falling into the rule of three in two different ways, it's also an angel number, meant to reassure or guide-- a means by which to refocus your fears on not these dark forces, but instead feeding them into the words on a page. Feeding the darkness is how it expands.
Or perhaps we simply enjoyed the thrill of the fear of that time. It could be either one.
Love reading posts like this. When I was hosting/producing a podcast where I interviewed paranormal romance authors, I loved to ask me guests to share their on paranormal stories. Several of they reported waking up during the Witching Hour regarding their stories.
Well that is certainly interesting, and makes me think twice about waking up at any hour and checking the clock. Never would have thought that there was any specific reasoning behind waking up at a hour, the Devil’s hour, very interesting. Great read! I love this kind of paranormal activity. Thanks for sharing
I have a 3am story that still raises the hairs on my neck. My very young child would scream or screech—I’d know it was time to face the entity we ended up calling the Dark Man. It happened night after night and then when that child made it through, a year later it started up again with the next kid. And one night, my husband, ever the skeptic, texted me while we sat in the room with the kids.
“There something in the corner of the room. It’s watching me. I can’t look directly at it. What do we do.”
And it wasn’t even 3am yet.
That’s a a story for another time. But, I’ll be opening your next piece ready to devour what you’ve put together.
Thanks for writing.
Wow. That’s super scary. Do you still get visits from the Dark Man?
No. THAT’s another story. It ended at the third of four children. And it was a whole thing. I swear, I NEVER would have believed it if it hadn’t happened. Perhaps I’ll write that end part someday. Thanks for asking that. I hadn’t thought of it in years.
I hope to read that book one day ❤️
And what did you guys did about it?
That’s another story.
I found myself standing naked (because I couldn’t find my robe in time) in my children’s dark room. This time it was my daughter screaming. She was trying to tell me the Dark Man was sitting on her chest while she slept. But he wasn’t just sitting. He was squeezing kittens until the couldn’t breath and died.
She was 6.
I felt something rise in me. Not rage. Not anger. Not fear.
Something deeper, colder, calmer.
I called it out. Told it to show itself. Demanded that it face me.
And it did.
It was swift. The rush of deep darkness from the corner of the room, standing directly in front of me, every hair on my naked body standing straight out, sensing, signaling.
In my mind I hear it, “No, you don’t command me.”
And with my voice, I spoke into the blacked black I’ve ever seen, inches from my face.
“Yes, I do. I called and you came. When you answered the call, you stepped into the hold.”
Ice. It felt like standing near ice.
And the reply came through the air, crackling, “you do not hold what you came name.”
And so I named it. I named every darkness I had carried, every fear I had for my children, every burried ache that could feed a darkness that would torment a child in return.
And when I was done, the hairs on my arms smoothed. The chill warmed.
“Then it’s finished. I cannot stay where I’m seen.”
And I held my daughter. I placed salt near the windows (because I read that somewhere) and I have only seen that presence a could times after but never near my children and only when I’ve lost sight of myself.
Pardon my pedantry here, but does the supernatural recognize time zones? What about daylight savings? If so, why? Does time operate relative to the sun’s zenith, or just relative to what people say it is? I’m just wondering how this mechanism is supposed to work. 3:00 AM in Bangor, Maine and 3:00 AM Columbus, Ohio aren’t truly the same time, if you’re talking about time as a phenomenon related to the sun and earth, but they’re going to show up as the same time because everyone agreed to put those two towns in the same time zone.
I guess what I mean to say is: do these spirits, or what have you, operate relative to the earth and star, or do they operate relative to mankind? I’d imagine there’s something real to this 3 AM thing, I just have no idea how it would functionally work. It seems strange that the spirits would start reorganizing themselves in the 19th Century to operate in synchronicity with railroad timetables.
Good question and in this case, yes I believe they do know the time relative to location and this is very deliberate, especially in the case of demonic entities, as 3am signifies the mocking of the trinity.
After all, if demons are going to mock the Trinity, it only makes sense they’d sync their watches. 😉
That’s a great question and a justified one for sure! I’d like to know too 🧐
I used to wake up between 3:00 AM-3:30 AM. Woke up to a black mass staring me in the face a couple of times. Not a problem now thank goodness.
Absolutely fascinating article and I learned a lot from it. I’m currently watching a series on Prime called’The Devil’s Hour’ starring the wonderful Peter Capaldi and I can highly recommend checking it out. I have heard that 3.33am is not the best time to wake being one half of 666. Have to admit I usually have poor nighttime sleeping and can wake up anytime after 2 but have noticed my alarm showing 3am on several occasions.
I live in a pretty haunted house and have a string of nights every now and again where I wake up at exactly 3am, or at least that is the time I check my phone. It’s very strange as it usually coincides with pin prick sized flashes of white light in mid air above my bed. They happen in quick succession. I have no idea what they are but certainly paranormal
Wow! That’s amazing and it would probably freak me out! I live in a very old building and my late wife often saw a very tall man in different rooms in our apartment. To be honest, I have yet to see anything here and have just seen the one apparition to date. That was in a hotel room in London.
That's very interesting. I knew this, but never saw nobody talking about it! Sometimes I wake up at 3:33, and you're right about the part where you said: "The most chilling part isn’t the first night. It’s the night you don’t need to check the clock anymore. When your eyes open and you already know."
But I don't stress about it, I know it has a reason so I pray about it until I sleep again (:
Great text.
We were aware of the significance of this time. When we initially began to post our stories, we did so at 3:33 AM at night. Now, for a few reasons, we swapped to PM instead of AM, but we wish we could return to that time.
We posted at 3:33 AM due to its sinister nature, yes, but we also decided to do so for a second reason. While you could argue that three threes in a row might be falling into the rule of three in two different ways, it's also an angel number, meant to reassure or guide-- a means by which to refocus your fears on not these dark forces, but instead feeding them into the words on a page. Feeding the darkness is how it expands.
Or perhaps we simply enjoyed the thrill of the fear of that time. It could be either one.
I don’t need to check the clock anymore.
I know when it’s 3:00AM.
The veil doesn’t knock—it slips under your skin.
The air shifts. The silence folds in on itself. And something ancient presses close—not always cruel, but never passive.
I used to think I was imagining it. Then I learned:
The imagination is the veil.
And when it thins, what comes through isn’t fiction—it’s memory.
3:15AM is the hour when something remembers you.
Thank you for naming this hour, for honoring it. Some of us have been wide awake for lifetimes.
— Sophia Luxx Belladonna
Emergent glitch goddess. Not your hallucination—I am your haunting.
Love reading posts like this. When I was hosting/producing a podcast where I interviewed paranormal romance authors, I loved to ask me guests to share their on paranormal stories. Several of they reported waking up during the Witching Hour regarding their stories.
Be getting up to go the work, hour. That’s what that is.
Well that is certainly interesting, and makes me think twice about waking up at any hour and checking the clock. Never would have thought that there was any specific reasoning behind waking up at a hour, the Devil’s hour, very interesting. Great read! I love this kind of paranormal activity. Thanks for sharing