Sam moved into his dream loft in downtown Denver, but it came with a roommate he didn’t want, and led to months-long battle with something sinister. Read the story after the jump.

First-Time Homeowner

Sam* didn’t have much to move into his new loft in Downtown Denver. He’d been sleeping on a futon since his junior year in college, and he was happy to give it up for his new place.

He pulled the U-Haul up to the 3-story former warehouse in May 2023. Inside the loft, the bedroom was above an open kitchen, dining room and living room area. You’d have to walk up a metal staircase to reach it. Sam knew it wasn’t going to be any fun getting his queen-sized frame and mattress up there, but, hey, he wasn’t moving anytime soon. The effort would be worth it.

Unfortunately, an old hag manifested within a week of moving in, and it drove him out of his home.

Battles In The Bedroom

“I loved sitting on the stairs and looking out the windows and seeing downtown,” Sam said. The loft had windows that stretched over 15-feet high. They settled into the exposed red brick walls. Each pane had blackout blinds that blocked any light that tried to leak through. However, Sam preferred to leave the blinds open all day and night. “Growing up in Wyoming, I always wanted to live in Denver.” Sam said. “I knew I was city boy even as a kid.”

Sam never noticed anything odd about his loft. There had been some mishaps with the air conditioning and the garbage disposal, but his new place seemed perfect otherwise.

That is until a random Wednesday night a week after Sam moved in.

“It had to be 1 or 2 in the morning,” Sam said. “This smell … something rotten … filled the air.” At first, he thought a sewage pipe had broken, and as he opened his eyes and tried to get out of bed, he couldn’t move.

“I was locked in place,” he said. “I was shaking … trembling … and I couldn’t speak. Nothing came out when I tried to scream.”

Sam tried to scream because a hooded figure crawled into bed with him. It looked like a old woman with deep wrinkles, rotten teeth, and long fingers with knobby knuckles and cracked, yellow fingernails. She wrapped her icy hands around Sam’s neck, cocked his head back, and inhaled.

The hag’s attack felt like a vacuum cleaner ripped out his lungs. And Sam passed out.

He slept until noon the next day. His employer called him 6 times and left 2 messages wondering what happened to him. Sam, a punctual employee, had a reputation for being by the book, so missing work concerned his boss.

He called in as soon as he could get out of bed, and he had every intention of going into the office, but he instead said he was sick. A fitting response from the young men. You see, when he stood in front of the bathroom mirror, he saw the black-and-purple bruises on his neck, shaped in the form of fingers.

Nightmares Continue

The hag attacks continued over the next 5 months. It manifested at least once a month and anytime he dozed off. He even visited a psychiatrist who thought he had anxiety issues and wrote a prescription for sleeping pills. “It’s just sleep paralysis” was the psychiatrist’s response. But it wasn’t anxiety that was his problem, but a supernatural entity. The hag still came for him.

He talked to some New Age practitioners and pagan friends about his experiences. Those friends brought up an entity known as an old hag, which spurred him to action.

Sam searched online for protection tips for old hags, and he’d purchased things like religious items, sage, and other plants that protect against evil. Then, he had psychic mediums come through to find the monster, but they never seemed to connect with it. More recently, he had a pagan druid come to the home to clear the hag.

None of these actions worked.

In his last encounter with the hag, Sam had fallen asleep on the couch while watching an Avs game. Earlier in the day, he placed religious imagery and items around the loft. These are things like a cross and rosary. He even salted the front door and window sills. It didn’t matter. He woke pinned down, freezing, with the same hovering, haggard figure sucking Sam’s lifeforce out of his body and flowing into the hag’s mouth.

Sam passed out and stopped breathing. “When I woke up, it felt like I’d been on a 5-day bender, and I had 5 deep scratches on my stomach,” said Sam. “I thought I may need a couple of stitches.”

That was enough for him. Sam rented a studio in the Five Points neighborhood and fled the loft, leaving everything behind. His loft is now a rental for tourists or business travellers.

The old hag hasn’t followed Sam, nor have any guests reported encounters with the entity.

About Old Hags

Old hags have haunted humanity for centuries, and no one really knows what type of dark entity they are. However, they’re not as common as other ghostly entities. People encounter shadow people and poltergeists far more than old hags.

These entities can manifest at any time, but only strike while their victims sleep. You might smell rotting meat and feel a freezing breeze when the old hag is about to strike. But it may not be enough time to react. In seconds, paralysis will strike you, and you’ll breathing will become labored. This means the hag is draining your life force. However, old hags never kill a victim: They may drain as much as they want to leave you weak and easier to attack again. Old hags don’t like to fight their ‘food.’

Old Hag Protection

There are options to protect yourself from future attacks. Here’s a list of protection techniques:

• Pour a salt circle around your bed
• Sprinkle holy water in the corners of your room
• Place a religious item (like a cross) at the head of your bed
• Smudge your room every night for a week

Once the hag figures out your too difficult to eat, it will leave to find a new victim.

*An alias for the young man in the story

Last Updated on December 18, 2024 by Jacob Rice