Tales of the Unexplained

We all know that mannequins are manufactured objects that are not, and have never been, flesh and blood. They don’t possess souls, hearts or brains and cannot, under any circumstances function on their own. Now that we have that out of the way, the following story involves a series of encounters a young woman allegedly had with unidentified beings that, for all intents and purposes, appeared to be living mannequins.

This account was sent to me a while back via messenger by a woman named Tammy Way. While hesitant to go into detail at first, after being assured that she was among friends, she agreed to share her experiences in their entirety. She did want it known, however, that she has no idea why or how she ended up in the middle of, what was for her, nothing short of a nightmare.

Tammy's introduction to the entities that would soon become a fixture in her life occurred one night as she was sleeping. Normally, her boyfriend James would sleep over at her place, but on this occasion, he had been away for a few days, leaving her on her own. At some point well after midnight, she recalled being awakened by the overpowering feeling that someone else was present in the room. As her eyes focused in the dim light, she saw five figures standing near the foot of the bed.

She describes them as being no bigger than children, perhaps four feet tall most, with shiny bald heads. All were identical to one another. She could see that they had indentations where eyes should have been, but no actual orbs. They each possessed mouths and noses, but no ears as far as she could tell.

The figures were not wearing any clothing. Even so, they had no physical features that revealed their gender. Much like their faces, their bodies were indistinguishable from one another. They had fully formed arms and legs, although the limbs did not appear to be jointed.

Tammy was frightened, but not as much as she should have been. She was half-convinced that she was dreaming, even though she says that she was completely aware of everything going on around her. The five intruders did not move an inch as they hovered near the bed.

Unsure of what to do, Tammy waited for the child-like beings to move so that she could make a run for the door. After several minutes, when it became clear to her that they weren’t going anywhere, she bolted from the bed. Strangely, as soon as her feet hit the floor, the figures disappeared.

Tammy did not see how the figures made their escape. They had simply been there one minute and gone the next. How they got in and out of the room without being seen is something she can’t explain. All of the doors and windows were secured and there were no signs of a break-in. This had come as no surprise to her, since Tammy hadn’t actually believed that they were home invaders, at least not in the traditional sense.

By the time morning rolled around, Tammy was fairly certain that she had imagined the whole thing. It had been so silly that the more she thought about it, the more she realized that it couldn’t possibly have happened. Shaking off the entire ordeal, she got on with her day.

James was due back later that afternoon which also helped to ease her mind. Even though they weren’t living together at the time, he was at her place as often as he was his own. All she knew was that she always felt safer when he was around.

Nothing out of the ordinary occurred in the house for several weeks following the initial sighting. That is, until one evening when Tammy was relaxing in the bathtub. She says that she had been soaking for a while when she began to hear music coming from, what she thought at the time, was her backyard.

The song was easily recognizable as “Happy Birthday.” Tammy could tell that it was being played on a recorder as the song was repeated over and over again. It wasn’t a big deal, but she was slightly annoyed given that the sound was obviously right outside her bathroom window.

When the music continued on with no sign of stopping, Tammy finally got out of the tub and peered out the window. She didn’t see anyone in the yard, but she could still hear the droning of the recorder.

After she settled back into the water, she claims that the music began emanating from inside of the house. Now, it sounded to her as if it was coming from the hallway just outside of the bathroom door. The longer the playing went on, the louder it became. Tammy, alone in the house, knew that she would have to eventually open the door and face whoever was on the other side.

Mustering up her nerve, she dried off and put on her bathrobe. With nothing available to fend off an intruder, she grabbed a can of shower cleaner that she planned to spray into the eyes of whoever awaited her in the hallway.

As she eased towards the door, “Happy Birthday” continued playing on the other side. With no idea what to expect, she threw open the door, prepared to blast chemicals in the faces of all comers.

Tammy says that the music immediately stopped once the door was opened. There was no one in the hall or anywhere else in the house. As she walked around inspecting her things, she found that nothing had been touched.

Bewildered by the bizarre turn of events, Tammy sat down and wondered, in all seriousness, if she was losing her mind. She knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the music she heard was real and that it was being played by someone inside of her house. How they had managed to get in undetected and leave in the split second it had taken her to open the bathroom door was a mystery she couldn’t explain then or now.

Tammy hadn’t told James about the nightmare, but she did tell him of the incident with the disappearing musician. For his part, James loved the story and thought that it was hilarious. When she thought about it after the fact, so did she. After all, who else had ever had someone break into their house just so they could roam around playing “Happy Birthday” on a recorder? By the way, Tammy stresses that it was not her birthday or anywhere close to it at the time this event took place.

In the ensuing weeks, the strange occurrences taking place in Tammy’s home became more and more frequent. She reports being awakened on several occasions by the sounds of children giggling somewhere in her bedroom. There was never anyone there, but the noise could still be heard even after she turned on the light.

Tammy also says that she had the uneasy feeling that she was being watched at all hours of the day and night. She began to feel self-conscious in a way she never had before, as though she were under constant surveillance.

During this time, she was once again awakened by the presence of the five figures in her room. Everything played out exactly as it had the first time. The small, hairless forms stood over her for several minutes, never making any attempt to move. It was only when Tammy stood up that they vanished from sight. Again, she did not know how they made their way passed her without her seeing where they went.

The most frustrating aspect of the ordeal for Tammy was the fact that James was never around to witness the events she claimed were taking place. He was always away on business or staying at his own place when the figures made an appearance. This lent to her ever-growing fear that everything that was happening was only in her mind.

One of the most frightening incidents, again occurred when Tammy was in the bath. This time, the hot water suddenly turned on, full blast, sending the scalding liquid spraying all over her. In a panic, she had attempted to turn off the tap, but the handle would only spin around in her hand.

With the burning water running full-force, Tammy jumped out of the tub. She says that as soon as she was in the clear, the tap suddenly shut itself off. Out of curiosity, she tried the handle which she discovered was now working perfectly.

Other odd, but not particularly distressing occurrences interrupted Tammy’s life nearly every day. One of the most perplexing happened anytime she ran the vacuum cleaner. She recalls that whenever she would start the machine and proceed to move it along the rug she would hear the sound of children making unintelligible noises at the top of their lungs.

Tammy would shut the power off and listen for the sound, but the room would be silent. As soon as she started the vacuum back up, the yelling would resume. This would go on for as long as it took to sweep the house. She began to think that something was using the loud whirring of the appliance to drown out their communications, but she knew that such a notion was ridiculous. Even so, she could think of nothing that would explain the voices she was hearing.

Nearly a year would pass before the beings that had been tormenting Tammy made their presence known to someone other than her. The long-awaited happening took place one evening when James arrived at her place for a dinner date.

He would later tell Tammy that, as he had turned the corner that led to her house, he had seen several children standing in her driveway. By the time he was close enough to get a good look at them, they were gone.

Bewildered, James had parked the car and walked all around in search of the children who had been present only seconds earlier. He could find no sign of them. Although he hadn’t been able to get a good look at the youngsters, he had noticed that they stood side-by-side across the driveway like paper doll cutouts. This made it all the more perplexing to him that they had managed to disappear so abruptly.

The incident wasn’t frightening in and of itself, but something about the children had made the hair on the back of James’ neck stand on end. It could have been that, even though it was nearly dark outside, he could see that all of the youngsters were bald-headed. This observation alone had been enough to convince him that perhaps they were not what they appeared to be.

James’ strange encounter, coupled with all that Tammy had experienced, prompted the couple to make some changes. They had been discussing marriage for ages and finally came to the conclusion that there was no time like the present to make it happen. Within weeks, they had put Tammy’s house up for sale as they began looking for the home they would share as a married couple.

It is not certain if Tammy informed prospective buyers of the goings-on she claimed occurred during her time in the house. She prefers to keep that information private, which is certainly her option. At any rate, the property was eventually sold. Tammy and James moved on with their lives, finding a home that they deemed more suitable for them in every way.

Tammy can’t explain the presence of the bald beings she says were attached to her in her former home. She doesn’t believe that they were actual children, but rather entities that had taken the forms of something they knew would be viewed as non-threatening. What could be more innocent, after all, than a child?

There’s no way of knowing if the figures Tammy claimed to have encountered meant her harm, but it seems unlikely. They had ample opportunity to act out aggressively if that had been their intention. She views them now as having been present more as observers to her everyday life than any sort of threat.

Tammy also thinks, looking back, that the music and giggling were also perpetrated by the five mysterious children. The actions were certainly those of a mischievous child, including the shouting over the vacuum cleaner. She views them now as having been playful. Even the incident with the scalding water she now believes was not done on purpose but was more than likely a prank that got out of control.

Whether the beings she, and to a lesser extent James, encountered were ghosts, aliens or something else entirely is unknown. Tammy does admit that she thinks they may have followed her when she moved out of the old house. She came to this conclusion following several fairly recent instances in which they appeared in her dreams.

Tammy doesn’t know at this point whether she is simply reliving the past while she sleeps or if the beings she came to dread in her previous home have found her once again. Whatever the case, their visits have convinced her, more than ever, that they are definitely non-human entities. She now believes that they are—and always were—by accident or design, some sort of living mannequins.

Source: Tammy Way