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***

I was then 29 years old and was still working at the Scientific and Practical Center, working with children and adolescents, and, believe me, I thought that I've seen it all.

Andrew called me, a family friend who had a little daughter, a 4-year old, and said that the parents were extremely frightened by an invisible friend of their child.

I didn't think much of the problem, because having an "invisible friend" for children is a very common phenomenon. So I made an appointment with the parents of the girl.

I decided to go to their house, because I did not want the parents to bring the girl to the research center, because being in any medical institution closes a child up. The first impression from my visit - a look of despair on her parents; they told me so many things that I was thinking that they might also need a psychiatrist.

From her mother's words: "We bought this apartment two years ago; the building is new and no one has lived here before us. The first year was wonderful - new friends, neighbors. Nancy used to be a sociable smiling child, but recently she has been talking to some imaginary person and she calls her Anna. At first I did not attach too much importance to this, until Nancy started behaving strangely: she stopped socializing with other kids in the kindergarten, garden. The teacher told us that she plays by herself, always muttering something quietly. A couple of times at night we caught her screaming while standing on the back of the sofa, and she said that Anna was angry. And once, when we were cuddling with her and reading "Donno on the Moon", Nancy sharply raised her head and said that Anna was standing in the corner and was getting angry because she wants to play. Of course there was no one there, but I was horrified. Sometimes I suddenly wake up, it is late at night, and I hear Nancy giggling in her room. I go to her, and she is asleep."

I was sitting at the table, trying to digest the words of Nancy's mother – because her stories were reminiscent of some horror movie. In my head I went through some psychiatrists for the parents, too, but decided to let it go.

Interrupting the mother, I said that I got the gist and wanted meet with Nancy personally.

Nancy was a blond girl that looked like a doll, she was very cautious with me, but started smiling as soon as I said how beautiful she was.

She sat on a playing mat and was playing with tiny clothes for dolls.

During our first meeting I just decided to talk to her about everything: about her lifestyle, about what she likes or dislikes, etc.

She turned out to be a very intelligent child and enthusiastically answered all my questions until I asked if she had a lot of friends. She looked at me sullenly and silently crumpled all doll clothes that she spent so much time folding, casually threw it in the trunk for toys, and went into the kitchen.

At that point I decided to end our first meeting, thinking that I have enough information to think everything through.

We agreed with her parents that I would come three times a week for 3 hours, and I asked them to be gone during those hours so I could become closer to Nancy faster.

The next 2 sessions did not result in much progress in solving the problem. Only during the third session Nancy decided to share with me a secret about some small toy, stolen from kindergarten that Anna liked – the parents did not know about it. After that I realized that the girl started to trust me and I can ask questions that she stubbornly refused to respond to; and I decided to start from my next visit.

Nancy greeted me joyfully, we chatted a little about how she spent her time outside of our sessions, and I asked her to paint. I drew 2 people and said, "Look, this is me and my friend, I'm friends with him. Draw your friend." She drew some girl: given the artistic ability of a 4-year child, it was not a girl, but some "Chupacabra".

- Nancy, why are her eyes closed?

- They are always closed, and she opens them only when she's angry; they are black.

- Nancy, is it Anna?

- Yes! I'm friends with her.

- And can I be friends with her too?

- No, she does not like it when someone else is playing with us, because no one sees her but me.

- And tell me something about her.

- She does not allow me talking about her.

- So, she is not here right now?

- Why? She is always with me.

- Well, show me where she is now.

She looked behind my back and grinned.

And then some action began.

I am a skeptic, but it was still scary: 3 seconds later I felt like silk slipped from my shoulder to the elbow, straight through my shirt. Everything inside me got tight, but I kept my cool the best I could, and Nancy giggled. I do not know how it happened, maybe my facial muscles were strained, but somehow I glared at Nancy and she quickly changed the smile to a sad face. I thought she was going to cry and all my work would be for nothing. I smiled at her as quickly as I could and began to tickle Nancy in order to defuse the situation. I laughed with her until I felt an invisible weight on my back, as if someone put a bag on my back: I had difficulty breathing, and frightened I leaned back from Nancy and sat on the floor.

Nancy got up, looked to the side and seriously said that Anna doesn't like it when I tickle her.

By that time Nancy's the parents came home. I did not jump to any conclusions, said goodbye to Nancy and went home. The whole evening I spent thinking about what happened, trying to find a rational scientific explanation, but still was inclined to think it was some parapsychological activity. In my profession, this option is not excluded. All night I was dreaming about some nonsense, from which I awoke in cold sweat and could not even understand what the dreams were about.

In the morning I called a parapsychologist I knew, he was a lecturer at my university and he also studied and had some experience with paranormal activity. We agreed that in the evening he would come to inspect the apartment of Nancy's parents.

The next day I went back to their house to once again to convince myself that I could not help them with their problem.

Everything was as usual: I spoke to Nancy and purposely asked her many questions about this Anna girl while noticing little things around me – knocks, rustle, even some sound like a growl. After some time, Nancy wanted to eat and we went to the kitchen, I made a couple of sandwiches and some tea for us. We continued our conversation in the kitchen.

At one point from my side of the table a knife flew that I used to cut the bread. Thank God it hit me on the chest with a handle. But still my courage quickly turned into a childish panic. I jumped up, took my things and Nancy and literally ran away from home at a playground. Nancy also got scared, but for some reason she was quieter: at that moment I was shaking like a little mouse.

I sat on a bench at the children's playground looking at how Nancy was playing for almost an hour and a half. Nancy's parents approached us and I briefly told them everything, comforting them with the fact that I found a specialist who can help them. The four of us spent another hour at the playground until the parapsychologist came. (I'm not hiding his name; I just do not remember it.) And they went into the apartment, I did not go, thinking that they didn't need me and I was right.

A week and a half later the professor called me with the story that this Anna was what they call a "leech", who was feeding off the girl's energy. And it could bring Nancy diseases and, in the worst case, even death. As it turned out with the help of spiritual sessions the ghost used to be a male, and it was not difficult to get rid of him.

Still, the girl's psyche was shaken a little, and I had a few more sessions with her but never asked about Anna again.

It's pretty horrible, of course, feels like a horror movie, but my friend is 38 years old - a grown man with a serious profession – and I am inclined to believe him.