A Night of Fear

When I was about five or six years old, I spent a night in a state of paralyzed fear. Not heart-pounding, shivering terror, but more like slow breathing "don't move" fear.
My sister and I had bunk beds in the same room with our parents. I had the bottom bed. To the right was a wall, at the foot of the bed a hall went to the right, and the wall went to the left. At the end of that wall was a bathroom door.
I woke up in the middle of the night. It was dark, but there was just enough moonlight to see the wall by the bathroom door. Just to the right of the door, about halfway up the wall, I could see a dark, roundish object on the wall. I say "object" because I could see that it had a fullness to it and it was not a flat shadow. It was a little smaller than a football, kind of oblong and rounded. As I stared at it, it seemed to be moving. Slightly up and back down, a little side to side. My dad hunted racoons, so that was what I compared it to. But I didn't know what kind of animal could climb a wall and cling to it.
Phoenix, you remember when you were working on your essay "The Appeal of Horror Movies", how we learned about the physical effect of fear. We learned about the
"fight or flight" adrenaline response to danger, but I don't remember addressing paralysing fear. It too is a survival response. For instance, if an animal has a pursuit response to fleeing prey, the survival technique is "Don't move. Don't even breathe." That's why I said my reaction was very slow, shallow breathing.
I kept my eye on the "thing" all night, watching its movement and wondering what its next move was.
I was still wide awake when the first light came into the room. Then I could see what had terrified me all night.
My dad had put a nail in the wall and hung his hunting cap on it.

That is both terrifying and a bit funny at the same to be scared of a hat hanging on the wall. Although, I have been in the same situation before. Several times I thought there was something or somebody in my closet even though it turns out to be just my clothes hanging there. And may I mention that my closet has no door. It is a walk-in closet. I have had days like that where I see something as something terrifying but then it turns out to be just an everyday object. Which is funny but scary at the same time. At least the hat wasn't really a creature or animal.

Haha. Yeah, the really scary thing was how it looked like it was moving around. But the worst part was that  I woke up because I had to go to the bathroom. (Not really
That's really scary about you thinking someone was in your closet. At least it wasn't a big fur coat.

I don't think I have a big fur coat. If I do then it would be in a closet in the living room. It used to scare me a while ago when I looked in my closet and thought that someone was staring at me. And then almost every night when I turn my lights out I think that somebody is watching me. It could have been me being paranoid or something, but also, I have been known to sense spirits (thus what I said about me being at a funeral home a while ago(I posted that story on here)). A few times I thought my door moved on it's own. But that could just be me being paranoid, again. But then again, I also have three inside cats. So, that is another explanation.

At least now you know what it was and that it isn't an animal or something. And the wind from a fan or something could have been making it move. If you have a window open or a fan going or air conditioner going, then that is probably why you thought something was moving on the wall. Otherwise, your house is haunted.