For many American families, tradition is a very important and powerful thing.
Kyle (Name changed for privacy) and his parents live in Sierra Madre, California, and while they don’t have any cultural traditions, there is one tradition they keep up with every single year.
“I’m not sure quite when it started, but for as long as I can remember we go to The Only Place in Town for my birthday,” he said.
A Favored Restaurant in Sierra Madre
Updated 2/11/2020 – “I know it has gone by other names in the past, but that’s what everyone in Sierra Madre calls it.
It’s a fun place, very rustic and charming and located by a ton of little shops in town.
It’s pretty much where everyone in town goes to eat on the weekends,” Kyle shrugged.
“Anyway, it was almost a year ago, and I had just turned twenty-three.
When I’m at the restaurant I always tend to feel a little strange, like everyone is somehow watching me.
But since I tend to only go there once a year, I forget how I felt in the past during that timeframe.
“On this particular birthday I recalled all of those eerie experiences, but I chalked it up to just childhood fancy.
My parents told me I had an over active imagination growing up, plus I probably just had too much sugar before my birthday dinners each year,” he suggested with a small laugh.
“But last year… last year was different,” he murmured.
“I began to feel nauseous the moment we sat down at our table.
I had been feeling completely fine just moments before, so I found that to be very strange.
It got so bad that I thought I might be sick, so I asked my parents to order me a water while I excused myself to go to the bathroom.
“I walked to one of the sinks and began to splash cool water over my face.
As I did so, I heard a stall behind me open and an elderly man approached the sink beside me.
I gave him a weak smile, you know…just being polite.
The Creepy Man in the Bathroom
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“The man smiled back at me but then spoke some incomprehensible gibberish and promptly walked out.
It wasn’t until I was back at the table, halfway through my meal, when I realized that the man had spoken in English—it was just backwards,” he said, frowning.
“I started looking at everyone around me, searching for the elderly man.
“Every time I would concentrate on the next person, it seemed that the person I had just looked at would quickly look at me with glowing red eyes then return to normal.
It kept happening, but it was so quick, I thought that it must have been a trick from the overhead lights.
Things didn’t make sense until much later that night, after I went to bed,” Kyle said quietly.
“I dreamt I was back in the restaurant, feeling those red eyes staring at me all over again.
Terrified, I looked down at the floor and I saw the number 666 burned into the wood over and over again at my feet.
The next morning I asked my parents if we could spend my next birthday at some other restaurant in Sierra Madre.”