CAVALRY RETREAT!

By: randyb3@hotmail.com
 

My life has been relatively free of paranormal occurrences, although one morning at age eight I experienced the much-dreaded "sleep paralysis."  There is, however, one other story worth mentioning.
In 1991 I was a 20 year old Army corporal stationed in Germany.  By this time, I was a graduate of French Commando School and was in charge of my own Cavalry recon squad (a jeep with two other guys).  One chilly winter night, my unit was deployed somewhere in southwestern Germany in the wilderness during field exercises.  We were literally in the middle of nowhere.  Anyway, me and my crew spent half the night slinking through the woods doing the usual Cavalry style reconnaissance patrols.  At around 2 a.m. we were told to stop the jeep and set up a listening post in a clump of trees.  I decided to be the first "watch" of the night while the other two guys got some sleep.  After about thirty minutes of staring into black nothingness, I decided to get up and walk around a bit.   With a weapon in hand and a radio on my back, I began to prowl around the area.  Yes it was unbelievably dark, but at least this was keeping me occupied.  Suddenly, a very average night turned into an encounter I will never forget!
After several minutes of walking, I suddenly realized how quiet the night was.  Not a sound to be heard from animal or insect!  Thinking this was a bit strange, I walked a few more paces before realizing I was right in the middle of a very old deserted village!  I pulled out my night vision goggles and noticed that the "village" consisted of about seven or eight old stone houses.  Only the walls remained, as the old thatched roofs were long gone.  Suddenly I felt this dark, EVIL presence like a weight on my shoulders!  I knew I was being watched by someone or something, and knew that I was NOT welcome in this place.  I slowly turned around and began walking back the way I came, with every footstep in the tall dry grass sounding like a firecracker!  It was very slow and painful walking out of this place...  I consider myself a rational person, but was truly scared as I made the long walk back to the jeep.  Needless to say, I spent the rest of the night INSIDE the jeep!
As you read the stories on this site, it may be hard to appreciate the feelings others have felt as they try to tell their tales.  I promise you, the fear and "sixth sense" we have felt during these tales are the most important part of the story!

By: Irishiz4u@aol.com
 

hi my names brooke.. i work at a assisted living facility in pennsylvania.. i
work the 11-7 shift so of course there are alot of stories about the place
already.. but besides that i was wondering if the experiences i have had ..
as insignificant as they may seem or be.. could be the activities of ghosts..
or just my mind.. of course i am not the only one that claims to have seen
things but who knows...for instance..
I will be just walking around the building and i constantly think that i see
things. like out of the corner of my eye. its not a defiant thing its just a
shape.. its either black or white.. a lady i work with always sees black when
she sees the things out of the corner of her eye.. but i mostly always see
white.. the forms are white that is..is there a reason she sees black and i
see white.. and today for instance i was walking and i was sure there was
someone behind me..and when i semi turned around out of the corner of my eye.
i swore there was a figure there for a split second but it was gone when i
fully turned my head.. it scared me to death actually..that is why i am
writing to you because today that was the closest a form or figure has ever
been.. i guess you could say.. noone has ever died in this facility that i
work in.. but they have died in the hospital.. before all their belongs were
out of there rooms.. the building has only been open for 4 years maybe 5.. i
was just wondering if these could be ghosts or just my eyes playing tricks on
me.. lots of the residents say they see a women in white in there room or
sitting on there bed.. i dont know how to explain or take that either..

By: cheryl3jim@aol.com
 

The house on Campbell Lane is  haunted it dates back to civil war days and
the slaves were kept in the cellar. The house still looks old as most of the
orginal structure and walls are in place, even some old wallpaper.  It really
needs updating. Over the years my relatives have hear various thumps and
footsteps.  One time My aunt said she saw the car drive around the house but
they went outside it never looked like it moved.
The weirdest
; we were talking about my child custody case, and then the talk started
about the ghosts.  Everyone looked up very weird and started going to the
front entrance, we were in the kitchen.  The sound was a baby crying.  The
only baby in the house was my baby and she was sound asleep in my arms at the
table where we were talking.
Weird.  I always wondered what that meant.  The funny thing is we are not
scared of the house.  It is a loved house and is full of happy memories for
us all as we have had many family gatherings for over 25+ years.  I even
lived there every summer.
{PS- I lost the custody case.

By: saturns_edge@hotmail.com

id like to know, if you could, what exactly is in and/or around the farm where my grandparents,  aunts, and my mom lived.
The first little bit is sort of an animal, (we think), my uncle, and my mother saw this,  one night my mom, uncle, and a few other people were there playing cards and a "hairy thing" went across the porch.  mom thought it was their dog, uncle didn't know what it was, so my granma went out to investigate but never saw anything. so that's the first story but this sorta ties into the footprint I saw one day, but the thing is the "thing" was smaller, the footprint was just slightly big, it was only one footprint though and it was like it stepped into a mud puddle but it hadn't rained for quite some time. it was surrounded by grass.
#2  lets see, next would be that a ball would roll across the floor by itself and bounce down the stairs, they never really saw this roll but they could hear it rolling from the lower floor, then their dog would go up to the stairs and wag his tail
#3 okay, this may seem like its fake but truly its not, my oldest aunt(I have two)  was sleeping in her bed and it had a headboard on it, well one night she woke up to see two "witch hands" going out from the headboard and laying down on her pillow, the hands were hairy, and had long fingernails
well another thing goes into this, when my granparents still lived there my oldest cousin was playing with a tablet of paper and it had a drawing in it of a face to go (exactly) with the hands that my aunt saw
#4 this is my middle aunt, one night she was sleeping and rolled over on her side to see a face staring right at her of course she screamed and the rest  I don't know
#5 most of this happened before my mom and some friends had a little fun with a ouija board
one night they were sitting down and working with it and asking some questions, like "is there any1 there?" etc well anyway, at one time they saw red eyes floating around the room, and outlines of figures
#6 my mom didn't have the bad types of things as my aunts did, my mom saw the nicer of the ghosts there, she had seen a lady that reminded her a little of granma when she was in the house and thought she saw granma walking around in her nightgown, when she was still actually in bed.
Well that's in the old farm house, there's probably other stories that I'm forgetting though, the reason for all the bad things that went on in that house is probably because the last inhabitant was a very mean person and by mean, I mean, MEAN.  anyway I think the story of him goes that he was caught in a blizzard at the house couldn't get anywhere and the people to clear the snow couldn't get into him, so he ended up dying because of the cold.
As far as our house not much bad things has happened here, but just a few things
#1 the first one was my mom was getting ready for supper and for a flash my mom turned around and saw a little white haired girl pinafore dress on.
#2this is short but I always see a cat or something streak across the house at times.
#3 one night when I was pretty little, mom was watching the news and I was laying out infront of the TV.  of course as being a little kid I didn't want to watch the news. so I looked over and saw someone(who I thought was mom) go into the kitchen.  well I turned to go and get the remote to change to cartoons and mom was sitting on the couch still there giving me a "what are you think you are you doing?" look.
#4 fourth and final, sorry it took so long, well this was right when I got up one morning, I didn't have my glasses on but I thought I saw a figure with a cap and nightdress on go across one side of my bed then disappear

Compendium Of True Paranormal Stories:
By carlosmeen1@prtc.net

       The subnames of these short stories-which I baptized as such- were the black square, the roof banger, the demolisher; the stinker,and the lost one. The locations for these stories were in/at my house, roads and at work. The time spans for all these stories were daily for a year. The purpose for these ghosts was to terrify me. This contention was supported by my reasoning, which was based on my physical resistance at them. The first ghost would appeared at the grazing land for cattles in front of my house every time I backed up my car from my garage. It simply flew across it and then, banished into the far end. The second made appearances on my roof at night while I computerized on my computer. Its bangs became so lauder that prompted ( bothered me ) me to probe it. I obtained my latter and climbed onto it. Upon climbing it, I had expected to find markings onto the surface of roof, which I  did not. Next into this probe, I asked my landlord about anything on the history of my house I have should known when I moved in. His reply was I was hearing things. The third one, the demolisher, scared me to death with his breaking of glasses and plates at night. It stopped after taking a putdown from me. The fourth followed me around my work area. It stuck like parch old smell. This smell was similar to the one that is found after having opened an storage device. I haven't mentioned it to my coworkers
but I have noticed that either thing had happened when the this ghost was around: People left or people murmured about this odor.
The last one was always walking in the opposite direction I drove toward. Its shape was a black contour of a human being. It would appeared during day times.

THE CLARENDON AVENUE HAUNTING

By: jamfam@magma.ca

The story I'm about to tell you happened to me directly and has forever
changed my view on the supernatural.  I would like to state for the
record that I have always been a skeptical person who never believed in
anything that couldn't be proven.  Before my experience I didn't believe
in ghosts and had never given the topic a second thought.  Since then it
has been on my mind frequently.
This is my story.
The event in question occurred several years ago at my grandparents’
house.  I was 19.  I had been out with my friends and returned home
around 2:00 am.  I retired to my bedroom on the second floor of the
house and got into bed.  I had been lying there for two or three minutes
reflecting on the events of the evening when suddenly I heard the
muffled screaming of a woman coming from the basement.  Almost
immediately the screaming began to slowly ascend the stairs and within a
minute had reached the first floor.  It continued to ascend the stairs
and thirty seconds later had reached the second floor and was right
outside of my room.  The screaming was very loud and was clearly that of
a woman.  My bedroom door was closed and I could therefore see nothing.
The screaming continued outside of my room for approximately one minute
and then slowly began to descend the stairs into the basement just as it
had come.  When it reached the basement the screaming ceased and the
house was silent.  That is the end of my story.
I feel that in order for me to give an objective account of this
occurrence, it is important that I detail my own actions and opinions.
When I first heard the noise I recognized that it was coming from the
basement, and although it sounded like a woman screaming I immediately
disregarded this as being ridiculous.  I started to try and rationalize
what I was hearing however my analysis ended rather abruptly when I
realized that the noise was getting closer.  By the time it reached the
first floor it had become quite loud and being unable to think of any
rational explanation for such a noise, I became convinced that the ghost
of a woman was ascending the stairs of my grandparents house.  I became
completely terrified and quickly sat up in bed, both so that I could
hear better, and so that I could run, if necessary.  When it reached the
second floor and was outside my room every hair on my body was standing
on end and my hands were literally shaking with fear.  I was too scared
to move and for that reason remained stationary until it returned to the
basement and the noise subsided.  I stayed where I was for several
minutes waiting for the noise to return.   When it didn't, I got up,
turned on my light, and sat back down on my bed.  Being wide-awake and
in no mood to sleep, I spent the next couple of hours lying in my bed
listening and thinking about what had happened.  Eventually I fell
asleep and the next morning when I woke up my light was still on and I
was completely convinced that I had heard a ghost.  I spent the entire
day gathering information and trying to figure out what I had heard.
The only other people in the house were my grandparents.  My grandmother
is a sound sleeper and my grandfather is hard of hearing.   They heard
nothing.  They bought the house in 1966 and sold it in 2000.   During
that time they never heard anything that even remotely resembles what I
described.  My mother lived in the house for several years in her late
teens and never heard anything either.  I myself lived in the house on
and off for years and had never heard anything before and have not heard
anything since.
I considered that maybe the pipes or something else in the house made
the noise, although I don't think any pipe on earth could have made the
noise I heard.  I dismissed this theory any ways because if the house
did make odd noises someone would have heard them in the past thirty
years.  I also dismissed the wind because I have spent many windy nights
in the house and heard nothing.   In the end I came to the conclusion
that there was no earthly explanation for what I heard and that what I
experienced must have been supernatural.  It sounds crazy saying that
but I know what I heard, I will never forget it.  I'm sure it was a
ghost.
In conclusion I would just like to state that all of my friends think I
was asleep and that the whole thing was a dream.  I would like to touch
on this briefly.  The first thing I would like to say is that I know I
was not asleep.
Here's my case.
I had only been in bed for two or three minutes (less than five for
sure) and was lying on my back thinking.  I have always had a difficult
time falling asleep, it usually takes me twenty or thirty minutes, and I
have never been able to sleep on my back.  At the time I was making no
attempt to sleep, but was lying there thinking.  Secondly, no matter how
real a dream seems you always wake up afterwards and that's how you know
you were dreaming.  I don't think it's possible to remember a dream
without waking up and realizing you were dreaming.  If it is, it's never
happened to me.  If it had been a dream I would have woke up and said
“wow, that was one weird dream”.   That never happened.  I was awake.
Thirdly I turned the light on after the occurrence and it was still on
when I woke up in the morning.  I know for a fact that I was awake.
That is my story and I swear to you that every word of it is the truth.
I don't know if you will believe me, no one else does, but I swear it's
the truth.

By: anamay9@prodigy.net

Hi-I had this experience when I was 7.  My mom had married after the death of my father and my step dad's wife, Bea. We moved into his house, in which Bea had died of natural causes. I was asleep in my room and I woke from a sound sleep because I heard my name being called. Our dog was asleep on the bed but no one else was there. I sat up and looked out the window into the dark and saw a woman's face. I never told anyone until years later when I knew I'd be taken more seriously. I had seen a picture of Bea after my step dad had died and it was Bea's face I had seen. I'm sure she wasn't happy with my mom and I being moved into her house.

By: dixiechicks84@hotmail.com

I am 17 years old. in the past 7 years i have lived in 3 different houses and every one of them had a ghost. The first one we lived in from '94 - ' 96. The occurance the spooked me there happend in my parents room. a week before anything weird happend a bunch of knickknacks fell off of my mom's headboard. So, she just put it back and pushed it away from the edge. On easter morning of  '95 I was with my brother, sister and dad watching tv in the living room, about 20 feet away from my parents bedroom door. I heard a bang and my mom came running out of her room wanting to know who was pounding. Apparently when I heard the bang all the stuff that had fallen off of her headboard kinda flew off this time. Not only that but this oreo cookie tin can she had looked like it had been stepped on. After that our next door neighbor told us that she had seen the old man that lived there before us in the backyard on the day he died in the hospital. Now the living room looked into a hallway. In the hallway you could see into my brothers room and my parents room was right next door. The living room had a clear view of my parents room. One night my dad fell asleep in the living room. he was sleeping  facing the hallway. He suddenly woke up and looked into his room. He saw this cloud of smoke billowing in the hallway moving towards his room. He jumped up and yelled fire. When he yelled my brother woke up and saw this. The cloud settled in the hallway and disappeared. I know this was not any kind of imagination because my brother and my dad are very logical and analytical people and they both witnessed this. In the next house it was never anything really. The only occurance that happend was the night one of our cats died. The cat house was in the corner of my room and i had a nightlight next to the cat house. I looked up to the top of the cat house and I saw the shadow of our dead cat. The cat loved sleeping on the top every night and this night was no exception. The third house is the house we have lived in for the last 3 years. I believe it all started with the woman. My dad wakes up early in the morning to get ready for work. When this happend my mom would occaisionally fall asleep in the living room. There is a door next to the entryway that leads into the back hallway where all the rooms are. The first room is my brothers, the second is my parents, then you turn and then comes my sisters room and lastly mine. Now on this morning my dad woke up and looked over. He saw the back of the woman and assumed it was my mom. He got up and went out into the living room and saw my mom sleeping on the couch. he went back to his room and no one was there. After that I had an experience with a man. It was about 4 in the morning and I was suddenly woken up by the feeling of a large man tapping my foot. I looked up and no one was there. I have this tigger stuffed animal that i got for my birthday from my sister. At the time of my next story my large dog slept in my room with me. He would sleep up against the door so i couldn't sleepwalk and open it without waking up. I woke up one morning and my tigger was no where so i figured it rolled under the bed. I opened my door and it was laying outside of my door. About a year ago my mom started sleeping out in the living room for health reasons. The wall the our couch leans against is connected to my brothers room. We had a family friend staying in there while my brother was in boot camp. one morning my mom woke up about 7 am. She heard a knocking on the wall between the living room and my brothers room. she thought it was just outr friend when it moved to the wall behind our computer about 10 feet away.This is an inside wall and there is no way there could be knocking. it then moved to the ceiling. she said it sounded like someone knocking. a couple nights later I heard a banging in my parents bathroom. Their bathroom is across the hall from my brothers room. my bathroom is across from my sisters room and the bathtub stalls are back to back. When i heard the banging it sounded like it was coming from the wall where the shower head is and they have alot of shelves over there so it would be impossible to bang as clearly as i heard. a couple hours later i heard shuffling footsteps in the hall coming from the bathroom. On 2 occaisions my dad has seen a streaking white figure that appears to be a cat but we are not positive. We have also seen shadow people walking on the side yard through our shutters. Not long ago, our next door neighbor told us that the houses in our neighborhood was built on Indian burial ground. We are not sure if this has anything to do with all this. The house we live in now appears to be the most haunted so far. next time i will tell you my dads ghost stories.

True Story of the Old Stage Coach Inn

By: Bigbro564@aol.com

hello my name is kevin this story i'm going to tell you really happened to my
brother and i.  my brother rocky lives in va i use to we were going to his
housae one night on the back roads he ask me if i had ever heard of the stage
coach inn i told him no his friend had grew up in that county and had told
him all the tales on it the reason he ask me was we were coming up on it,
it's a two story brick building he pointed it out as we passed he had slowed
down to about 15 miles an hour it sits in the middle of a farmers field the
moon was out and there was a little patch of fog around it like a circle not
very dense there was corn about a foot high growing in the field well as we
passed the building we saw a small light on the front right corner it went
out just as fast as we saw it he ask me if i saw it i told him yeah so he
backed up very slow until we saw it again well there it was he put the car in
park and we watched it, it was very late after midnite i think we stayed
there for about 45 minutes after he put the car in park the light was small
it slowly climbed the building reaching the roof after about 20 minutes once
it reached the roof it started flashing all over the roof the first thing my
brother said theres gotta be some one up there thats what it looked like
someone up stairs but i knew it wasn't i didn't know any of the stories but i
had been by the place plenty of times and slowed down and looked at it it was
nothing but a shell with a roof no floors at all and only one window on the
back side on the top floor i told him there's no way he said it's gotta be
the whole time we are talking the lights are just going everywhere across the
roof then i told him hey the roof still has tin on it light don't shine
through tin i was curious so i got out of the car and walked half way to it
from the edge of the road he sat in the car i stopped and yelled real loud
HEY IS ANYBODY UP THERE when i did that the light stopped it was small again
like a pin light then it slowly moved towards the back part of the roof on
the right side it started slowly getting larger my brother said what do you
see i said it's getting larger , he's still sitting in the car he said just
want to make sure you see what i'm seeing then it was the shape of a old
country farm house window 2 long panes over two long panes with a light on
and a shade pulled and it was on the tin he ask me what do you see now i said
no what do you see we was checking to see if we was seeing the same thing we
both saw a window with a light as i said so i yelled again and the shadow od
a person came to the window and pulled the shade from the side and looked out
my brother said what you see now i said looks like someone looking out he ok
just checking we watched it for a little while longer and the we left i can
truthfully say that it was a ghost or spirit of some kind the old stories of
the place say alot of people used to get killed there by outlaws and indians.

By: LUSHS0502@aol.com
 
I'm 17 years old and I use to live in an old house, made in 1921, in Haverhill, Massachusetts that I know is haunted.
One day when I was 10 I was in my upstairs bedroom with my two sisters coloring, I think that's when it started. We were home alone when we heard the closet that's right at the end of the stairs, slide open then we heard it slide back. The sliding doors of the closet always made a loud rumbling noise when it was opened. When we heard it that day we didn't get scared at first because we thought my Mom had gotten home from work, so we ran downstairs to greet her to find that nobody was home. We looked around and then looked outside to see if the car was in the drive way but we were alone...or so we thought. We ran back upstairs to our room and grabbed shoes and hangers for so-called protection. Then all of a sudden we heard footsteps racing up the stairs, then back down. We never saw anything actually reach the top of the stairs but they ran up and down repeatedly about ten times then it  stopped. We were so scared we just sat there crying waiting to hear more, but nothing else happened.
Then when I was 15, I was taking care of a dog and when I brought it to the foot of the stairs he froze and just stared at the top. I didn't think much about it, so I picked him up and brought him up the stairs to my room and closed the door. The dog then began crying and he seemed to be getting nervous and uneasy and he started scratching at the door. When I opened the door to let him out he ran down the steps so fast that by the time I got out the door he was gone.
After that many more things started to happen. I awoke one morning to hear something or someone dragging themselves on the rug next to my bed I was so frozen with fear that I didn't look to see what it was.
The cabinets in our kitchen would open and slam shut by themselves. I could also hear the silverware jiggling and slamming inside the drawers. The computer keyboard would also type by itself. I have also had my foot slapped and have felt something sit on me while I was laying in my bed.
There are too many noises and weird things to explain. And also creepy dreams. So I'm glad to be out of that house. But I would like to know if that house has some kind of history or if anybody died there.
Last year after we moved out of that house, our cousins were sleeping over and we were talking about our old house. One of my cousins who slept over our house a lot asked why our dad always walked up to our room and why he did it over and over without ever coming in our room. We told her about the day we heard the racing footsteps running up the stairs and she got so freaked out. My other cousin also said she hated sleeping in our room because she always heard those same footsteps, coming up the stairs but never making to the top before it ran back down again.
Now in our present house in Orlando, FL., weird things have suddenly begun to happen. Noises, shadowy figures and also short wide figures have appeared. I always seem to see something with the corner of my eye but when I turn my head to look there is nothing there. And my sister felt somebody whistle and blow in her ear.

By: Nikkib787@cs.com
 
hello, my name is nikki, and im 14 years old. unfortunately, i dont remember the details to my story very well, because it happened when i was about 4 or 5 years old. but anyway, my family lived in a large house that was actually quite old. one night, i was asleep in my bedroom upstairs, and i awoke in the middle of the night. i went straight across the hall to my brother's room and asked him to come downstairs with me because i was scared and wanted to sleep with mom and dad. he asked me why i was scared and i said i didnt know. so he came down with me. we started down the stairs, and i froze at the sight that i saw. there was a little boy at the end of the stairs. now, this could have been my younger brother, but my brother was just a few months old. this little boy had brown hair, and was just sitting at the bottom of the stairs. i wasnt scared, so we kept walking. we got into my parent's room, and i was getting ready to climb in their bed, and all the lights in the house came on at once.  my dad woke up, and checked the circuit breaker, but nothing was wrong, so he went through the house and shut all the lights back off. well, the next night, i saw the same little boy, and the same thing happened again. this activity continued for a few more days, and my parents checked out some information by the guy that lived there before. he said a little boy around the age of 5 died because he was very sick. he died in the middle of the night, in his sleep, and a few hours before he went to sleep, he turned all the ;ights in the house on, because he was afraid of the dark. the night that i started seeing the little boy, was the night that i was afraid of the dark. i have never "seen" anything since, even though i have moved several times.i always somehow sence when there is an unknown presence around, though.    but i will always remember that night. i have since been afraid of the dark. though i hate to admit it, but its not like anyone is gonna criticize me for it.

James Story

By: Ivegot54321@aol.com
 

my roomate went on the walking tour with ghost tours of saint augustine in saint augustine, florida and took this picture. it was taken in the tolomato cemetary. the shadowy little boy is seen in the right hand corner directly on the tree. the tour guide told a story of how a girl scout troop on the tour saw him in the tree (the one in the photo) watching the tour and later on the ground trying to reach out to the tour guide as if to hug him. the girls were crying and very shook up about it. my roomate said she was "talking" in her mind to him, telling him hello, just before she took this picture. the people at ghost tours of saint augustine said that there is a small headstone next to the tree that indicates that "james" was five years old when he died. the cemetary is a catholic sacred area and they are investigating the story of james. we plan to go back to the cemetary soon and take more photos and maybe try to communicate with him. i love your site and visit it all the time. we will send more ghostly pictures as we get them.
 

By: ROBASAND@aol.com
 
My Grandparents used to have a dog called Gemma but she died.My mum said she
was gone forever but that was a lie.One night I was staying at mt
Grandparents house and I was in a bed when I saw a faint image of Gemma and I
felt her warm body but she soon disapered.So do we really die? or is it just
our bodies whatever the reason Gemma still lives in our hearts.

By: warped2001@ameritech.net

One summer night i was reading in my room.i had just moved into it that
day.i had my window open and was lying on my floor.i heard something
almost like talking but coming from outside.i didnt pay much attention
to it & kept reading.a half an hour went by and i heard the talking
again followed my a sharp scream.i jumped up & ran outside.none was
there.i went to go walk back in & i heard whispering behind i turned &
the whispering contuned.no one was around.then the scream happened again
i ran in the area where it came from & i saw a little speckters of light
then all of a  sudden they were gone...like i saw it & it didnt want to
be seen.it was scarey but i later found out that somewhere in the area i
live in a women was murdered in 1903.i think that it was some kind of
reliving of the murder but i will nver be able to forget the glass
shatering scream.

By: tragekids@bignet.net

only a few short years ago, my great-grandmother (the first one) died.
recently, my friend and i decided to have a "spirit-raising" for fun.  so i
took something of my great-grandmother's out of her trunk in my parents
room, and we got a book on doing the "ceremony" we were about to perform.  i
din't believe in ghosts then, but i do now.  my g.grandmother scolded me for
being so naughty as to steal something of hers, even though i knew it was
very special to her.  then she insisted that i give it back.  she took me by
the ear, led me to my mother's room, opened her trunk, forced the thing out
of my hand, and stuck it in her trunk.  then she simply disappeared, except
a loving look was now on her face, as though she were glad she got to see me
and put a little bit of the world to justice.

  La Llorona

By: shoohali2000@yahoo.com

Some of you may have heard the story or legend of "La
Llorona" or the wailing woman that haunts bodies of
water because she drowned her children afer being
spurned by her lover. The legend is that she was a
Mestizo or Indian woman who fell in love with a
Spaniard who was royalty. They had children throughout
thier affair, which was kept secret because she was a
poor Indian and he was Spanish royalty. He then
decided to marry a Spanish woman and spurned the
Indian woman. The Indian woman, distraut, drowned her
children at the local river. She may have been
executed for her crime. This was supposed to have
happened somewhere in the American Southwest or Mexico
before the turn of the century. Throughout the years
reports of a baby crying followed by a splash of water
or a wailing woman could be heard by bodies of water,
such as lakes and rivers. In the Hispanic culture many
children who don't behave are told that La Llorona is
going to pay them a visit if they don't act right.
Except for some slight inconsistencies, that's how the
legend goes.
Now my story...I live in San Antonio, TX. My mother is
a firm believer in ghosts and recently told my sister
and I that she heard who she believes was La Llorona
in front of our house! She stated that on two
occassions she was awake around 1 or 2 am as she could
not sleep. The first time she was in the living room
of our house which faces the main street in our area.
She stated she heard some dogs barking in the distance
and it seemed that they were barking at something that
was coming down the street, as the dogs nearby also
joined in on the ruckus. My mom said that she then
heard a woman wailing and it sounded as if the wailing
was coming from the street. She said that the wailing
sounded as if a woman was in deep sorrow, but loud
wailing. She said the wailing then trailed off into
the distance, as did the barking from the neighborhood
dogs, as if someone or something walked down the
street. My mom said she got goosebumps and returned to
her bedroom. My mom said that this same thing happend
on another occassion. She told my sister and I and we
laughed it off. We are now in our 30's and I don't
live at home anymore. Well, recently my sister heard
the wailing from the back bedroom one night. She said
that it came from the street and sounded as if it was
going down the street, dogs barking and all. My sister
said it sounded loud and the wailing sounded very sad,
as if a woman wailing for someone that died. I am not
sure if this was La Llorona, but what else could it
have been? If anyone has any similiar stories to
share, feel free to e-mail me. Thanks!
 

By: LPaszkiewicz@moheck.com
 

I will start by saying that I am 22 and live in the Kansas City MO area.  My
family and my husband's family have had many unusual experiences that they
have shared with me.  Also, about a year & 1/2 ago I had my own experience
which made me become less of a skeptic.  Sorry, this is so long but I feel
the need to share this collection of experiences.
 The first story I recall happened to my mom's sister.  She and her
husband were asleep in their bedroom and were the only ones there.  Their 2
sons had moved out several years before.  My aunt was woken up at about 1 or
2 am when she heard footsteps on the stairs leading up to their bedroom.
She thought maybe it was one of the boys stopping by for something so she
called out their names.  No response.  She continued to hear the creaking of
the steps & breathing like someone was there.  She called their names again,
but still no answer.  She became very freightened at the thought that maybe
it was an intruder that had broken in so she woke her husband up to check it
out.  As she did this she heard the footsteps go back down the stairs.  They
were both wide awake by then and got up to check the house out.  They turned
all the lights on and checked every room, door and window, but found nothing
and haven't been able to find an explanation for the footsteps and breathing
heard on the hallway stairs.
 The second story was one I overheard my mom telling my aunt and
grandma.  At the time my mom & I were living in the house next to my
grandma.  I was about 9 or 10 yrs old when this happened.  My mom had told
them that the night before, something really strange had happened to her
while she was in bed, just before falling asleep.  She was lying there in
bed when she heard a dog growling so she rolled over and looked down beside
her bed (thinking maybe it was one of our dogs) but only to see a dog/demon
creature standing beside her bed growling at her with large bared teeth and
red eyes.  She immediately started praying for it to leave but it didn't
leave, it just stopped growling and layed down next to her bed & went to
sleep.  At this point she no longer felt threatened and went to sleep
herself.  It was gone when she woke in the morning.
 Then, while we were still living in that house, on another
particular night my mom remembers waking up (whether she was dreaming or not
she can't recall, but it seemed very real to her so she's not sure) and
looking out her bedroom door into the hallway.  She said I was standing
there in the hallway looking at her and standing next to me was an angelic
ghostly mirror image of myself.  She thinks that it was God showing her my
guardian angel.
 And, then came the story my grandma had to tell that occured not
long after my aunt's and my mom's experiences.  She was in bed sleeping one
night when she heard something moving & woke up.  She listened carefully and
heard the panting and footsteps of a dog with it's nails tapping on the
hardwood floors.  It was pacing from her room to the guest bedroom and up
and down the hall.  She sat up in bed to see where her dog was, thinking
maybe he had heard a noise & got up to check it out but when she looked he
was next to her bed, ears perked, also intentely listening.  My grandma
continued to hear the noise for about 15 minutes after that & then her dog
left the bedroom as if he were following the sound to investigate and that
is when it stopped.  Noone knows what it was for sure but it could have
possibly been a former dog that had died a few years before.
 Several years later I met my husband.  His parents' house is a whole
other continuing saga of sightings, voices and noises.  There are more
stories than I can tell about here so I will summarize.  The house was
originally built about 50 yrs ago by a man who intended for his family when
it was done.  However, as the house was about 3/4 finished it was severely
vandalized one night and for some reason he abandoned his project and sold
the house.  That is when it came into my husband's family and has stayed in
the family since.  My husband's grandparents bought the house and the
grandfather died in the master bathroom of a heart attack while taking a
shower.  The grandmother died in the master bedroom.  After their deaths
another daughter and her husband lived there with their children.  They
eventually moved and sold it to my husbands parents.  My husband is one of
10 children and his mother also had 5 miscarriages.  He is the 8th child and
they moved there when he was 11 mos old.  Everyone that has lived there or
even just visited the house can tell of strange things happening or seeing
things.  Most have several stories.  One of my husband's youngest sisters
saw grandma every morning while she was getting ready for school.  She would
be drying her hair or doing her makeup and she would see something out of
the corner of her eye and she would see her grandmother (who died before she
was born) peering around the doorway watching her, then she would walk off
down the hall or vanish shortly upon being noticed.  This happened every
morning and was never threatening, however it was pretty creepy.  Then, this
same sister also would see shadows frequently in the bathroom while she was
taking her shower, walking back & forth past the shower door.  Possibly her
grandfather who died there.  But, there are other strange things that can't
be explained and as far as the family knows, nobody else had died there.
There, was once a voice of a young girl coming from the end of the hall near
the bedrooms, calling, "Mom...mom, come here."  My parents-in-law and
brother-in-law & his wife were in the kitchen playing cards when they heard
this.  My brother-in-law said, "Mom, one of the girls (younger sisters) is
calling you."  And she said, "The girls aren't here, they're out with
friends.  It's just us here."  Who could the voice of the girl belong to?
They don't know.  Also, in one of the kids' bedrooms, whichever kid stayed
in there over the years reported of terrible recuring nightmares and then
waking up under the bed or hanging onto the bedroom doorknob.  This happened
to my husband and one of his older sisters when it was her room.
 And, until 2 years ago I had been skeptical but never the less still
creeped out whenever I was alone in the house.  Then, one evening I was
coming from the kitchen and starting down the long hall to the bedroom at
the end where my husband was watching tv.  As I turned the corner into the
hallway I saw a shadowy figure in the hall watching into my husband's room
and it turned and looked at me and immediately darted into another bedroom.
At first I thought it must have been his mother because it was about the
same height so I walked past the door where it had gone into & continued
down the hall, noticing that the door was closed and that the figure had
simply went into the room without opening or closing the door.  I asked my
husband (then, fiancee) if his mom had just been in the hall & he said that
she hadn't.  About 15 minutes later she came up from the basement and said
she had been down there for about 45 minutes doing laundry.  So I asked if
it was him and he said he had been in the bedroom watching tv the whole
time.  So I thought maybe it was his dad but then I found him on the other
side of the house in the family room.  It was just us 4 there in the house
that evening and whatever it was I saw standing in the hall didn't want to
be seen.  Whether the fact that he was a dark figure has anything to do with
who he is, I don't know.  But upon re-telling what I had seen to several
other family members, one of my husband's brothers remarked that he had also
seen the same shadowy figure once before when he was younger & still living
there.  There are always sounds of footsteps and things falling and crashing
and the house seems to be filled with many spirits but only 2 can be
identified.  There is also another story of a younger man seen sitting in
one of the chairs in the living room late at night rocking back & forth &
then vanishing when approached.
 My husband & I are approaching our first anniversary and will be
going to the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, AR.  We are staying in room
220, next to the room Michael inhabits.  There are many other spirits in the
hotel as it has a long history and many have passed away there.  We'll see
if I end up with any new stories. : }  Please feel free to e-mail me and
share any comments or thoughts on my story.  This is a wonderful site!
Thanks!

By: jenniferk19@hotmail.com

I live in a house that is haunted by four ghosts.  We moved here when I was
about eight yrs old so its been about twelve years since we moved in.  The
house is small, it is one story, three bedromms two baths, a kitchen, living
room, and a backroom that was originally a garage.  I remeber my very first
experiance, it was not too long after we moved in.  I was eight and my
brother was nine.  We stayed home alone in the afternoons after school until
my mother came home from work.  My brother and I were watching Disney
Afternoon like we did everyday and I had just finished maiking mashed
potatoes in the microwave, being forgetful as I am I forgot to put the
butter away.  I had left the butter on the counter with the butter knife
sticking in it.  While in the living room watching tv, my brother and I
heard a sound like something hitting the microwave and falling to the floor
so we went to check it out to see if something had fallen.  When we got to
the kitchen the only thing on the floor was the butter knife.  It could not
have fallen and landed in front of the microwave as it is on the other side
of the room, so it is much too far to fall.  So we just laughed it off and
jokingly said it was a ghost.  Later things were happening more frequently
to where we no longer joked about it being a ghost.  The lights would turn
on or off in rooms, like someone was entering or leaving it.  The tv would
turn up and down, change channels or turn off and on, an dmy radio would
turn up every night to the point where even to this day I won't sleep with
my radio on.  One of the scariest events took place when I was about 12.  My
door has a habit of opening on its own all the time.  It was happening
almost every morning.  I thought it was my brother trying to be annoying
because it would happen in the morning when I was getting ready for school.
Well one morning it happend and instead of just getting up and closing it as
I did any other time, I yelled at who I thought was my brother to close my
door.  Well to my surprise the door did close, but I didn't see anybody
close it.  So I got up to catch whoever it was in the hall, but noone was
out there.  So I went into my brothers room to see if he shut my door and he
was asleep.  So Who shut my door?  Soon after my brother had seen the ghost
of a child in his room when he was about 14.  He was scared so badly that he
ran to my parents room crying and would not go back to sleep in there for a
while.  It was very unusual for him to cry at this age, he was a tough kid,
so I believed him when he told me what happened because you could still see
the fear on his face.  I am the only one lucky enough to not have seen them
yet.  I do know when they are around though.  I get a feeling that is sort
of like knowing someone is in the room with you, but you can't see them.  I
know that the girl who I call Katherine stays in my room alot and George the
Male ghost stays in the backroom and the hall way.  This is getting to long
so I will tell my stories another time about the rest.  Much more has
happened.

My Haunted House

By: dpmns@dundee.net

My wife and I purchased a house in Ypsilanti, Mi back in 1983. It was an old home and after doing a lot of research we found out that it was part of the underground railroad. Many strange things happened in that house, but only to me for the most part. There was an apartment in the rear main floor and the rest of the house we lived in. I worked midnights at my job and came home one morning to go to sleep. I was in our kitchen in the front of the house and then went upstairs to the back of the house. Realizing I left something downstairs, I went back down and went by the kitchen, and the water was running. No one else was home!  It was really weird but it didn't bother me until I went back upstairs and went into the bathroom and the water was on in there also! I hadn't even been in the bathroom upstairs. I was freaked. Anyway, one time I was walking up the front stairway, and very clearly I heard a woman's voice say "hello...Hello" I ran back downstairs and out the front door and looked all around the house and I saw no one!  During the time we owned the house, we had to excavate the sewer drain to the street to repair it. The company we hired started digging in the wrong direction and discovered an underground room in the yard! it looked like a brick igloo and someone explained it off as a septic tank, but the mortar on the inside of the "room" was bright white and I felt that it would have been stained if it were a septic. Anyway, we talked to the local historian, and he said that it was probably a holding room for slaves!  We also found a footmarker from a grave in the backyard that had the initials "C.A.H."  on it. We tried to find out if anyone lived in the house with those initials but we couldn't find anyone. Most of our friends and family later told us (after we moved out), that they really felt uncomfortable in the house like someone was watching them!  The last really big thing that happened one night at about 2;30 in the morning.  Everyone in the house was awakened by a very loud explosion that rattled the whole house. Our tenant in the apt. called us on the phone to find out if we heard it and we were really scared, thinking that something in the basement had blew up. I got some clothes on and went to the basement, and found................................absolutely nothing wrong! I went outside , looked around , checked the whole house over and couldn't find anything or any explanation for the noise. The next day, I went up and down the street knocking on neighbors doors and asking if anyone heard the explosion.  No one heard a thing and to this day we have no explanation as to the origin of the sound! I even called the National weather Service office at the local airport to see if there were any storms during the night but they said no. Anyway, that's my haunted house story, so enjoy!
 

By: VTR1A@webtv.net
 

Hello.
I have been in this house since 1983.
Actually its a townhouse^_^;;
I have a few ghosts in my house.
All of them don't do any harm.
For that part,I am grateful.
They are playful and do not cause trouble.
One ghost used to shake my bed,but when I called the name of Jesus,it
stopped right away and has not happened ever since.
Let me tell you about the ghost I know for sure.#1-the whistler-gender
unknown.
I have heard this ghost a couple of times.
Seems to want my attention.That ghost has my attention alright.
The best way to explain this whistle would
be similar to the one heard in first Galaxy Express movie by the main
character Tetsuo/Joey. I hear this whistle occasionally like after
7pm~3am.
#2-whispy voice female-only heard in my mom's room.One day I went to
wake my mom up like 5:20am. I hear this whispy
"hi" I thought it was my mom,but it was not her voice.
#3-unknown-probably male-I was asleep
then awoke suddenly to hear someone say the 4 letter "f" word.It was the
only time I ever heard this voice.
#4-male-only heard once.My sister was staying over our pad.Again,I had
to wake my mom at 5:20am.I knock on the bedroom door and I hear this
friendly-handsome voice saying"hi".
I really wonder if this ghost likes to travel with my sis?!?
***********************************************
Aside from the one that I have listed,I have one story I want to share
and you could tell me what the heck it is.
Some years ago,I had a different bedroom.My bedroom was on the 2nd
floor.I know the house creeks so I always
had my light on.I was in a deep sleep then
for no reason,I woke up right away.
It was about 3am.There was no ap'arition.
I heard this cold male voice sounding cartoonishly evil trying to
pronounce my name. I was shocked and speechless.
I did not go back to sleep.This was the only time I ever heard that
voice.

Now a Believer

By: STibbetts@broadband.att.com

I have a story that turned my ex husband into a believer of the spiritual
realm.  Last June we had a pretty heated argument, the next night we had
some strange things happening.  It was 1:48 am and my youngest son who was
21 months old had woke us you crying.  I laid in bed listening hiding under
the covers because I could feel the presence of something there.  My husband
had gotten up and was very disoriented.  He had found my 21 month old going
down the stairs in the pitch black.  He had tried to run from his father.
Brandon had pick him up, put him in his crib and came back to bed.  I was
under the covers, eyes wide open, not saying a word.  I knew there was more.
Then at 2:00 am we had heard my son again, this time, his cry was muffled
and so Brandon had gotten up again, this time turning the light on, when the
light was on, it was as if he was in a cave and there was only a lantern to
light up our hallway.   He had found our son downstairs in the kitchen
screaming for him as if he had been forced down there.  His father picked
him up put him in his crib again, but this time putting the gate up.  At
2:10am we had heard the gate moving, this time, my son was in his crib
asleep, but the gate was shaking, so instead of investigating even more, my
husband laid back down and tried to fall asleep, we had our fan going since
it was hot in our bedroom.  The fan was blowing on us all night at 2:12am
the air stopped blowing on us, then started again, as if someone was
standing in the way and then moving side to side.  My husband then felt a
hand grab his foot, at the moment in time, he curled into a fetal position
and did not move all night.  When we had woken up the next morning at 630,
he had asked me if I had tried to move the gate, I told him no why?  I
walked out to see what he was talking about, and the gate was pulled up from
the floor almost 8 inches from where he had set it that night.  When we had
discussed it later that day he had said that when he woken up to go
downstairs to get our son, he had to practically crawl through a cave to get
to him, he said that he was in a dark pit and the walls were dirt.  A few
more times things like this have happened but nothing to that extent.  There
have been many other times that I have seen things.  I have had many strange
things happen to me since I was a little toddler mumbling things in a
foreign language.  I have such a fear of the dark because I can see things
out of the corners of my eyes that I am ready to cry.  I will not even bring
my trash out at night.  I have gone to a friend who does hypnosis and it has
helped out some, but now I have more beings around to help me feel as though
I am never alone.  I even leave the closet doors open so I can see inside at
all times.

By: SummerDreams5637@aol.com
 
My daughter, who was 17 at the time, had gone on a trip to the mountains with the church. She was going to where you can canoe under the mountain inside a cave. They camped inside the cave.
My 2 boys and I were sitting on my bed one night getting ready for bed and just talking. My daughter wasn't due back for another day. We heard the door open and close and the dog took off running and barking and my daughter said like always "Mom I am home, Shut up Pierre" My oldest boy said "Sheena is home early." I said "Yeah I wonder why." So we all got up and went into the living room. Our dog was still barking. When we walked into the room no one was there. The doors had the chains on them and still locked. I would have thought it was just me but all of us heard her and the dog did too.
She come home the next night and we told her about our encounter. She said nothing out of the ordinary had happened to her. A few minutes later I got a call. It was my Mom telling me that one of my cousins on my Dad's side that I haven't seen since I was 6 killed himself. I don't know if that had anything to do with our encounter but the voice was clearly my daughters, not a mans voice.

By: ladyreading@earthlink.net
 

My name is Jan and I have a story from my childhood but I remember it like yesterday. I am now 55 years old and when I was visited by my ghost I was probably about 10 years old. I was sound asleep in my bedroom and for some reason I woke up and sat up in bed wide awake. I looked to the left of my bed toward the headboard. Standing there was an old man with his arms hanging at his sides. He didn't move or make a sound. I don't have any idea why I knew he was there. Needless to say I screamed as loud as I could and both of my parents came running! As soon as I could talk again I told them about the ghost at the head of my bed. When mom and dad had come into my room they had turned the light on and they told me to look, that there wasn't anything there. It was true I couldn't see anything or anyone but I insisted he was still there. So of course we looked under my bed and in my closet and then they had me walk to the kitchen and get a drink of water. We all walked back to my bedroom where I was given a kiss and tucked into bed. I was told I must have had a nightmare then my parents turned out my light and went back to their room. Slowly I turned my head to look back where I had seen the old man and sure enough there he was still standing in that same pose and looking down at me! I pulled the covers over my head and never fell back to sleep that night. It was about 15 years ago that I received a picture of my great grand-father who I had never met. There was a picture of my ghost! Yes, my great grand-father died when I was around 10 years old!! This is a true story.
 

By: thulehandley@lineone.net

When I was a baby my mum used to put me at the bottom of the stairs and I stared at the top of the stairs laughing so naturally my mum got worried so she asked the previous owners of the house if they knew if anyone had died there but the answer was no.  A few weeks later she was sat having a conversation witha bloke who was studying the supernatural because he had, had an experience of that kind and he aksed her if she knew a woman who was wearing a long brown skirt and a white shirt who had died recently and that was a perfict discription of my mums aunti Joan who had recently died!  now I'm 12 and every night when i'm just getting settled down to go to sleep I have a strange feeling that she's in my room looking out for me.  I sleep better knowing that she's there!

Haunted Warehouse

By: mullert90@hotmail.com

I used to work at a records storage warehouse in Chesterton, IN....First I
heard that my boss and friend saw a guy in a blue shirt walking down the
hall, past the doorway, but he vanished when they looked for him.  Other
workers were always talking about hearing footsteps, and even I a few times
would see something blue from the corner of my eye.  Very, weird.  Two guys,
my friend Matt and his friend Jeremy one night, on the opposite side of the
building in another department, both heard a voice say Matt's name.  My good
buddy Dave even says "Something passed through me," when he felt a chill...
But here's the topper:  Ok, there's the big main warehouse right next to a
smaller warehouse area, followed by the "camera department" (they put
records onto microfilm, etc.).  the camera department is surrounded by a
cluster of smaller rooms....Well, keep in mind that I'm about 25 at the
time....One saturday I was working all alone with Kathy, and I mean
ALONE....just us and this place was actually pretty creepy.  So for no good
reason I decide it would be fun to wander the camera department, by myself,
with a flashlight.  As I was going through one of the smaller rooms, I heard
a female voice call my Name!!!  So, I just thought Kathy was looking for me
so I hightailed it back to my department...Of course she would never yell at
me anyway, but when I got back to her it was business as usual so after a
few minutes I asked if she called me and naturally, her answer was "No."
Wow.  Others have reported female voices too...Creepy place.

I Have a Story

By:tadams@mo-net.com
                          I would  like to take time out and share my experiance with you!
November  23rd,1988,2;00 of the morning.I had a spiritual visitor.This visitor came into my bed room where I was just starting to relax and go to sleep.I felt a presents,like someone was watching over me,at the end of my bed.The spirit actually spoke to me.
It told me not to be affraid.That I have to tell you that I am getting ready to take your mother home to higher ground.The spirit was full of  wormth and the feeling of love.But,that spirit to take my own mother away from me was totally out of the question!
That scared me even more!
My mom had been very sick.The doctors could not find what has been wrong with her for several months.I  was very close to her.She was my goal that I wanted to be in this life.
The spirit left my sight.But the warmth from the spirit actually stayed with after all of these years.
Well,I  went to my mothers home to tell the news abouthe spiritual visitor that I had.Well,there was like a force like not to tell anyone about it.No matter how hard I tried to tell some one the words couldn't be spoken about that  early of that morning.So, after the family had left the house,It was just my mom and I there.I told my mom what had happend and what the spirit had told me.
She said yes honey ,I am dieing.She layed her head on my shoulders and we were both crying.She too had a dream that night of my spiritual visitor as well.She said that she had seen a man in black standing in the hall way.She was fighting him and telling him to leave.Was that devil that everyone must face before leaving this world or was it just a dream?3 months later ,I had my 2nd child. She was born with a deformitiy.My mother progress with her health was falling very rapidly.Still now one knew what was wrong with her.
She was a very proud grandma no matter what was wrong with the baby.And no matter what was wrong with her either!
My little girl went through her surgery the same day that my mother went through hers.Both , the child and the mother's dignoses were not too good.I was running back and forth.Confused and so scared.
No sleep in days.So,It finelly ended on March 7th my child was clinically dead and my mother had past on,from cancer in the pancrease.I had given up.My life was all torn appart.The nurse came to me and told me that my child was going to live once I had that lost fealing like I never had before in my life.
The lost of my mother always sadden me.But,I know that she's in a better place.And my little girl today is healthy and so pretty.The ironic thing of it,that my little girl has all of the traits of my mom and all of her looks!
Thank you for letting to share my storie with you!

By: Donald Richards

In 1996 I started working at a Haunted House in
Orlando Florida. The House was called Terror On Church
Street. There were many experiences in this house that
were unexplained. There were sounds that we didn't
understand like a baby crying in a distance, teen aged
girl screaming right next to your face, falling
objects when no one was in room, baby impression on
the exorcist's bed, and images in a distance. My
personal experience involved but not limited to one
experience. I was working on the exorcist bed that
night waiting to scare the next group of guest. Well
like usual I started to doze off while waiting. Next
thing I know I feel some one firmly grabbed my left
leg almost like telling me to get up. I looked up and
at first I thought I saw another actor who was wearing
a clown outfit that night be just a the actor looked
at me I felt their hand let go and the person
disappeared. I first tried to play it off as a dream
but my eyes didn't blink till I hit the exit door. I
freaked out and asked every actor if they went by my
set. They didn't only because the group that was
supposes to come in chickened out and no one made it
to set but me. From that point on I started looking at
haunted stories in a different light. I kept working
there for many years after but I always kept that one
experience in the back of my mind.

By: devilanddivaequalsdevine@yahoo.com

   Hello, my name is jenna and i'm 16 yrs old. i am a
strong believer of ghosts because all my experiences
started when i was 5 yrs old and i am now of course
sixteen, the experiences when i was five were with my
friend erin, it was her nana. little things happened
to me which wasn't a big deal because i loved her nana
and she loved me and she would never hurt me. that was
the little things, the big things came when i turned
sixteen.
      One night me and my cousin Sebastian were
sitting in my room listening to our music when we
heard music in my attic, which was up above my room.
so we turned our music and sat close together like
babies and waited for it to stop but it didn't. now i
have always heard noises in the attic and that never
bothered me but i never heard music because there were
no plugs up there. so we sat for awhile listening but
it didn't stop.
     so we both got the courage to get up and go up to
the attic, we went up very slowly and i mean slow like
turtles holdin onto eachother. we fianlly got to the
top when we realized the song " i only have eyes for
you" the scary thing is about that is because i hate
that song because my grandfather always used to listen
to it but he passed on. anyways we got to the top of
the stairs and opened the door.
     in the middle of the floor there was an old radio
that looked like it was made in the 1900's and it was
never there before, because up there was where my
friends would sleep so nothing was up there except a
bed and a mirror and a dresser and drapes. girlie
stuff. so we walked over to the radio and we stared at
it. then i leaned over and turned it off and shut the
lid. the scariest thing was it was still playing but
there were weird sounds of a man screaming while the
song was playing it was a mixture of both of them. so
i screamed at the top of my lungs. and then Sebastian
said to the radio "shut up, and leave us alone" then
he was flown back on my bed by something. i looked at
him frightened. then i went over to him and got him
off the bed and we walked to the door, i opened it and
then sebastian fell and i was pushed by something hard
and as i was falling the same thing that pushed me
grabbed me and threw me on the floor. now i am not a
brave person so i was crying my head off. then as i
was sitting there a little girl came from the corner
and she had a black long dress on her hair down in
ringlets and it was red and she said " you must leave
here now, my daddy is really angry, go get out please"
so me and Sebastian got up real quick and ran
downstairs to my room and we got some clothes together
and we left and went to my sisters and stayed there
for two weeks because my parents were gone away.
     when we got back i went up in the attic and to me
and Sebastians surprise there was no radio or anything
scary up there, just my normal room.
     after that nothing ever happened, little things
hear and there but i know that it's just the little
girl playing and i always tell her "go away now
please" and nothing happens until the next day.
 thank you for reading my story. i have plenty more to
tell you but i think i should leave that up to my friend.

   #222

By: sandymay62@hotmail.com #222

The following is a true depiction of our adventures living in a haunted house. Although I have been called “crazy” by more than a few people with regards to this story, I assure you the events described herein are true and actually did happen. I share them now with you, as best I can recollect.
#222
In 1994, my husband and I moved our family (4 kids - aged 3, 6, 10 and 14) to a small seaside town on the east central coast of Florida. We’d found our dream home -- 4/2, in-ground pool, 2600sf, priced 20,000 under market value, less than 3 miles from the beach -- Perfect! It was a little run down, but we figured what we saved on the purchase price we could put into fixing it up. I was a good thing we were in that mindset. Almost immediately, our nightmare began.
On our 3rd night in the house, there was a horrendous thunderstorm, one of those tropical blasters we often get down here in FL. The next morning I awoke to discover that we had lost a couple of trees to the storm. The first was a 40 foot cottonwood tree that stood off the side of the front porch. It was close to the house and had branches that hung well over the roof. It fell in an eastward direction across the front yard (the house faces due south) leaving a 5 foot crater in the yard. There was only one place this tree could have fallen and not hit anything and that is where it fell. The branches did not even scrape the roof or gutters going down. It was weird. It gets weirder.
The other was a lemon tree growing in the backyard. It was a much smaller tree, about 8 feet tall with a 5 inch trunk base. It had fallen in a westward direction, exactly opposite the tree in the front yard. It had also been uprooted. Since it was a mature tree and bore fruit, I decided to try and save it. I dug out the hole and re-planted it. Three days later, I found the tree uprooted, lying on the ground in the same westward direction. I chalked it up to the kids, and re-planted it, again. This time I tied it to stakes to help hold it up and let it take root. Six days later, I found it again, uprooted, lying westward. The stakes and wire I had tied it up with were gone -- not lying on the ground with or near the tree -- just gone. I questioned the kids. They claimed to know nothing. I tried a couple more times to save this tree only to find it again and again uprooted and lying westward. I finally gave up on it.
Another interesting tidbit about the trees: there were 3 citrus trees in the backyard, an orange, a tangerine and a lemon. We lost the lemon tree to the storm, but -- here’s the strange part -- the orange and tangerine trees never bore one piece of edible fruit the entire time we lived there. The trees were full of fruit that looked good on the outside, but every piece was rotten and foul-smelling on the inside. Yuck!
In the meantime, things were going weird inside the house as well. We immediately started having trouble with all things electrical. It was really strange. We would get what I call ‘dead zones’ throughout the house. Nothing electrical would work within that zone -- all the light switches and electrical outlets would be dead. It was completely random and would last for several days or even weeks. First it would be the foyer and living room, then it would move to the hall or the back porch or to one of the bedrooms. There were times when we’ve had to use extension cords to keep the refrigerator plugged in! We replaced fuses. We replaced breakers. We replaced wiring. Hell, we replaced the entire fuse box! Nothing worked. It continued, off and on, until the day we moved out.
Next came the appliances. Every appliance in the house died a sudden and systematic death. It started with the garbage disposal. I was cleaning up after dinner and was about to turn on the disposer. As I leaned over to turn the faucet on, I caught this rancid smell coming up from the drain. I have never smelled anything like it before or since. I flipped the switch for the disposer. It immediately started making God-awful noises. I backed up. Good thing, too. A large metal thing came whizzing past my head (I actually felt the breeze) and knocked a chunk out of the cabinet on the opposite wall behind me. It turned out to be one of the blades. From there it went downhill. Next came the dishwasher, then the stove, the refrigerator, the washing machine....you get the picture. I lived in this house for 5 years and went through 2 garbage disposals, 2 dishwashers, 1 stove, 2 refrigerators, 3 washing machines and 1 dryer. Did I forget to mention and endless tirade of alarm clocks, toasters, telephones, and every other small appliance you can think of?
But wait! It gets even better! One afternoon, I was coming back from picking the kids up from school. I hit the garage door opener and the door went up. No problem. As I started to pull in, the entire door suddenly came crashing down from the ceiling. It missed the car by mere inches. I called the garage door company. They put up a brand new door. New hardware and rails, too. Three weeks later, it came crashing down again. They put it up again. It came down again and so on. No one could explain why it kept falling. We ended up in a lawsuit with the garage door company because they refused, after a while, to come back and work on it anymore. We eventually stopped using the garage for anything other than storage.
As if all this weren’t enough, we started getting a lot of interference on the phones, the televisions and on the computer. In addition to turning on and off by itself, the TV would cut in and out -- usually just static or else the screen would blank. Same thing on the computer. Files would also go missing on the computer and, every now and then, it would just freak out completely. Restarting it did no good. I went through 3 hard drives, 2 modems and 2 motherboards in 5 years. Add to that 2 printers. Starting to see a pattern here?
The phones were what was really creepy. Nearly every time you used the phone, at least once (sometimes more), a loud burst of static would cut in. Sometimes all you heard was the static. Other times you could hear voices through the static. They were always garbled and you could never quite make out what they were saying. Sometimes. Once -- and this one still sends chills down my spine -- I heard a male voice say hello to me and call me by name. Then, laughter. I hung up on who I was talking to. The static and the voices could be heard on both ends of the line. People would often ask me “what the hell was that?” or “did you hear that?” while on the phone with me. Creeeepy!!!!!!!!!!
The phones were also often victims of the ‘dead zones’. The phone company replaced -- not repaired -- replaced the phone jacks and wiring in this house 8 times over a 5 year period. Thank God for that inside wire maintenance plan! It got so I knew most of the BellSouth repairmen by name. They could never fix it, though. The phone problem also continued, unabated, until the day we moved out.
Now, keep in mind that all of these things happened within the first year or so of our living here. We were convinced that we had bought the house from hell! Well, it was around this time that I began to take notice of what (or should I say whom) was causing all the trouble. My children noticed much sooner than I did, but were afraid to tell me about it. They have since shared many of their experiences with me. I won’t get into their tales, right now. I’ll just concentrate on my own experiences.
It all started (for me) with a shower. What is it about bathrooms, anyway? I was in the master bath and just rinsing the soap out of my hair when I heard a loud knock on the shower door. It spooked me. I turned to look. Nothing there. I opened the shower door. Again, nothing there. Now, being a mom with 4 kids, I have learned never to take a shower without locking the bathroom door. I assure you, I was alone. I just didn’t feel alone. I dismissed it, however, and continued with my shower at a somewhat quicker pace. Sure enough, another knock came, same as before. Since I have had experiences similar to this in the past, I figured the best thing to do was to confront the spirit and tell it to leave me alone. Most of the time this works. I defiantly faced the shower door and said, “Okay, knock it off!” No sooner had the words left my lips than the lights went out. BAM!
So here I am, naked, wet, water running, standing in the dark ready to jump out of my skin! If anything had actually touched me at that moment, someone would have had to summon the little men in the white coats! I eventually gathered enough courage to turn off the water and slowly feel my way down the wall to the door. When I got to the door and opened it, I discovered that the lights were off in the master bedroom as well. It stayed that way for 2 days. ‘Dead zone’ in the master bed and bath!
It was like we were living in the middle of a virtual cornucopia of paranormal activity here. We had apparitions. We had poltergeist activity. We heard voices both inside and outside the house, not to mention through the phones and radios. Lights and TV’s and stereos would turn off and on by themselves -- you know the drill. But, let’s slow down a minute. I don’t want to give the impression that this was going on 24-7-365. It sort of came in waves. A kind of ebb and flow, if you will. I also believe that there was more than one spirit residing in this house. In fact, I believe there to be several. This is where the story gets a little complicated, so I’ll try and explain as best I can. Stay with me!
The majority of poltergeist activity (things moving around, pounding, knocking on shower doors - you know, the scary stuff) were more prominent during the holiday months, from about October until January. Even then, they weren’t occurring every day, just every now and then. This spirit liked to scare you. It also liked the element of surprise. Things would be quiet for awhile and then -- BOO! Usually when you were alone (naturally). This one liked to keep you on your toes! Every once in a while, though, it would cause you to pack up and go spend the afternoon at the mall or the movies.
The telephone and electrical problems not withstanding, the mainstays were a large shadowy figure that would pass in front of the picture window in the front of the house. It would always pass from left to right, and then a few minutes later, would pass back from right to left. I saw it everyday, sometimes as many as 5 or 6 times. At least it was outside.
From about late spring through the end of summer, you would often hear the voices of two men arguing in the backyard on the far side of the pool (under the citrus trees), usually around dusk. They would really go at it -- screaming, cursing, scuffling. As soon as you looked out a window or stepped onto the back porch it would stop and there would, of course, be nothing. The first time we heard it, my daughter and I thought that the neighbors were fighting. We were literally out in the backyard peering over fences! Again, at least they were outside.
We also had a Peeping Tom that would stand outside my oldest daughter’s bedroom window. Just stand there and smile. He was a solid apparition, none of this mist or transparency nonsense. This guy looked real. He was a thirtyish man dressed in dark slacks, a white button-down shirt and tie (office attire), and had dark hair, bushy eyebrows and a moustache. The first time I saw him I actually started to walk up to him and ask him what the hell he thought he was doing peeping in windows. He looked right at me and smiled, then promptly disappeared. I’ve seen him exactly twice. My daughter says she would see him a couple of times a week or more beginning from the first night we slept in the house.
There were also spirits residing inside the house with us. The most prominent was male, I don’t know his age or even how I know he was male -- I just got the distinct feeling this spirit was male. He’s the door knocking, light switching guy I met in the shower. This one seemed to have an affinity for me, much like the Peeping Tom had an affinity for my daughter. Go figure.
In addition to flipping light switches and knocking on doors, one of this spirit’s favorite tricks was to sit down next to you on the sofa while you were watching TV. I had a leather sofa and loveseat, so it was obvious whenever he would sit down. You could hear the leather creak and could see the depression in the sofa cushions. If you would move to another seat, he would follow and sit next to you again. Every once in a while he would actually reach out and touch you. I have felt him, at different times, rub the back of my neck, squeeze my knee and put his hand over mine -- all while he was sitting next to me. I had a problem with this. Each time I would jump up screaming “Don‘t touch me!” -- I‘m sorry, this really freaked me out. I cannot abide the touching. Eventually, it stopped (the touching part, anyway). He did have a dislike for my husband, however. He used to lock him out of the bedroom quite often, even locked him out of the house on several occasions.
The guy who showed up around the holidays was a pretty malevolent spirit. Like I said, this guy liked to scare you. His spirit was strong but of relatively short duration. Thank God! I also think that this was the voice we all heard on the phone, but I can‘t be sure (maybe it was the one who liked to squeeze my knee). Who can tell?
Now, at this point I’m sure that most of you are dying to ask why we stayed in this house, with all this ‘interesting’ stuff going on, for 3 years. Actually, it was 5 (more like 4 and a half). Next question: Why didn’t we pack up our belongings and get the hell out of dodge? Good question.
It was more a matter of having to stay rather than wanting to stay. At this point we were up to our eyeballs in the house. We had to take out a second, and then a third mortgage to pay for the electrical repairs along with some plumbing and pool repairs (which I will get to in a minute). This, after having only lived in the house for about 3 years. Add to that the everyday expense of feeding, clothing, educating and sheltering a family of 6. Enough said. Sometimes that prize behind door number 3 is just a turd in a box.
We were learning to live with it as a family. What other choice did we have? After a while, it became sort of routine. It’s hard to explain. After a while, you come to know that someone’s going to knock on the door when you get a shower, you expect it. When you hear fighting in the backyard, you don’t even go to the window anymore. All the electrical and telephone nuisances became a standing joke after a while. Most of the spirits seemed harmless enough -- I mean, they never tried to do anything other than annoy or scare us. They never tried to do us any real harm. The spirits usually only messed with you when you were alone. One advantage (at least in this instance) of living amongst a large family is that there is no such thing as privacy. Alone time is often scarce. Of course, every once in a while, I would step on one of my kids getting out of bed because they’re lying on the floor beside me or because we’ve spent the night 5 in a bed. We do what we gotta do.
So now we’re up to summer 1997. This is when things really started to pick up. My oldest daughter (then 16) was having a sleepover with some friends -- 3 to be exact. I had to drive one of the girls home at 2:30 in the morning because she was hysterical and refused to stay the rest of the night at our house. She saw the Peeping Tom in the window. What I didn’t know then, but later discovered, is that the girls had been playing with a Quiga Board. Not a good idea. Especially in this house. More especially if you are a group of kids and have no idea what you are doing.
Things got gradually worse over the next 18 months or so. Two more tragic financial events occurred back to back near the end of that summer. Suddenly, one afternoon, for no apparent reason, the pool filter exploded. It was something to see. It blew the top of the filter housing about 50-60 ft straight up in the air! It landed on the roof. So, okay -- $560 for a new pool filter. The following week the pump motor froze up. Okay -- another $380 for a new pool pump. Let’s not forget to tack on installation. I certainly don’t know how to install a pool filter, do you? Don’t forget, we also have to fix the roof.    O joy!
Now, for benefit of those of you who don’t own a pool, let me fill you in on what a pain in the ass it is to have your pool equipment down and not working. It doesn’t take long for the water to go funky. It starts to grow algae. In the heat of summer in Florida it can start to look like a catfish pond in about a week. So in addition to repairing the equipment, you now get to spend the next week or so riding a brush attached to a long pole and pouring about $80-$100 worth of chemicals in twice a day on a daily basis until you can begin to see the bottom of the pool again! Oh, sorry. I’m digressing.
Within 2 months of the pool equipment disaster, the plumbing started acting up. First, the toilets. When you flushed, raw sewage would back up into the toilets, sinks, tubs and showers. Time to call Roto-Rooter! That worked for awhile. A couple months later, same thing. Time to call Roto-Rooter again!
Three days after the Roto-Rooter man left, the plumbing exploded in the master bathroom. Three weeks after that, and while the master bath was still under repair, the plumbing exploded in the other bathroom. It was awful. It happened in the middle of the night. We woke up to find 3 inches of water covering about 2/3 of the house. There was a river of water running out the back door onto the covered porch. It got everything -- carpets, walls, furniture, clothes, 2 TV’s, 3 stereos and the computer.
This was also a financial disaster. The insurance paid us roughly $12,000 for about $35,000 worth of repairs. Ever since Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida, insurance coverage in this state is a nightmare. It is horrendously expensive and the coverage is squat. The insurance company said something about pipes not being covered because they were considered a maintenance item. A maintenance item? Please. I ask you, when was the last time you opened up your walls and checked your pipes? Sorry, digressing again.
The bad news about the plumbing was that the house sat on a concrete slab. All of the pipes and plumbing were poured into the slab, naturally. So now we have 2 choices: dig up the floors and the underlying concrete slab to find the breaks and repair the pipes, or cut off the old plumbing system and re-route all new pipes through the attic. Option number 2 was cheaper. Now we embark on a six month long construction project. Water on, water off. Electricity on, electricity off. Old carpet out. New carpet in. You get the picture.
The spirits, naturally, couldn't resist messing with the hired help. Over the next 6 months, we had 3 different plumbing contractors. The first guy left for lunch and didn’t come back. He called me 4 days later (after I had left about a half dozen messages on his voice mail) and told me I needed to look for a new contractor. He would never say why. He gave me back my deposit, too. We also had 3 different drywall crews and 2 different flooring crews. These guys just didn‘t like working in my house for some reason!
Once the plumbing was in and the drywall put up, I started on the painting/papering stage of our little renovation project. One morning, as I was hanging paper in the dining room, the doorbell rang. I opened the door to see a tall, gaunt, black man standing outside the security gate. [The front porch was entirely enclosed by wrought iron security bars and a gate. The kids referred to it as “the cage”. On this particular day I was glad that it was a locking gate.]
This man proceeded to tell me that he was a Jehovah’s Witness and would like to come inside and talk to me about his faith. Hallelujah! Naturally, I began making polite excuses. This guy wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. He kept insisting that I let him inside. The more I would decline, the more insistent he would become. This began to annoy me. I rather gruffly told the man that I was not interested and would not let him come inside my house. I turned to go back inside. As I reached the front door (about 6 ft from the gate), the man suddenly said, “Open the gate.” It did not sound like a request. I turned to confront him and there was no one there. I walked to the gate. He was gone -- not on the sidewalk, not in the driveway, not on the street -- gone. All I can say is if this guy wanted in, he wasn’t getting an invitation from me.
By fall, we were back to some semblance of order. The construction phase had come and gone and things were being put back in their usual places instead of being piled up out in the garage. Then out of the blue, in September, my oldest daughter (just newly turned 17) was in a serious car accident. She survived, but was pretty banged up. When she came home from the hospital, I set her up in the living room so I could better take care of her -- she could barely walk for about a week. The entire time she stayed in the living room (about 10 days) things were rockin’ and rollin’ in her room. Her stereo would go on and off almost constantly, even when it was unplugged. Some days it sounded like someone was moving furniture in there. When you would open the door, though, everything would look normal and in it’s place.
One afternoon in particular, she and I were in the kitchen eating lunch. The stereo had come on a couple of times already and we had each taken turns at going in and shutting if off. Auuugh! Here we go again! It was my turn, so I ventured in and turned it off. I also pulled the plug from the wall and draped it across the front of the unit (not the first time I had done that today). By now, I had taken to confronting the spirits when they would play their pranks, so I hollered, “Enough with the stereos. Knock it off!”. I then closed the door and went back to the kitchen. Like I said before, most times this works. A loud pounding started in my daughter’s room. It traveled down the hall, down the wall through the den and ended just outside the kitchen door. It was really loud, I mean, it rattled the walls. We both decided it was time to go catch a matinee.
Now, here’s where the Quiga Board comes back into play. Wait a minute! Don’t panic! I didn’t do something as stupid as try to use it to contact the spirits that haunt my home or anything. I simply found it. It was underneath my daughter’s bed. I found it when we were moving her back into her room from the living room. I asked about it. This is when I discovered that the girls had been playing with the Quiga Board at their sleepover some months earlier. This would explain why, as of late, things were becoming more and more frequent. Especially the poltergeist activity. I vehemently explained to my daughter the inherent dangers of “playing with” a Quiga Board in a house where spirits already exist. Not only did they succeed in making the existing ones stronger, they likely invited others to join in the fray, so to speak (this may explain the over insistent, black, bible thumper that rang my bell). Oh, no. The Quiga Board had to go.
Simpleton that I was, I put it out with the trash. Ha! Ha! Ha! My daughter brought it to me 3 days later. She found it under her bed. This was not a good sign. This time we destroyed it, the both of us. I mean, we literally mutilated it. We took out all of the fear and frustration we had been subjected to thus far on this poor little cardboard and plastic game from Milton Bradley. I put it in a dumpster behind a Winn Dixie nearly 20 miles away from where we lived. I haven’t seen it since.
Getting rid of the Quiga Board didn’t calm things down at the house much. The kids and I took off and spent 3 weeks up in Georgia with my mom and dad over the holidays. The hubby was spending less and less time at home, anyway. It was getting to be too much. When we returned home after the holidays, things were actually very quiet. A welcome change.
Then one afternoon, my daughter showed me something very strange. In the ceiling, over her bed, holes were appearing. They were very small and were appearing in a random pattern -- first there were 5 or 6, then there were 15-17, then there were 25-30 and so on. They looked almost as if someone had taken a knitting needle and poked a series of holes in the ceiling. After about 2 weeks or so they began to show the shape of a face. This creeped my daughter out to no end. I got a can of spackling compound and filled the holes in. We moved her bed to the other side of the room. A week later, I found her pet Love Bird (one she had gotten for her birthday the summer before) lying behind the bedroom door in the corner with it’s neck broken. The holes then began re-appearing in the ceiling over her bed (even though it had been moved). We repeated (several times) the same routine with filling in the holes and moving the bed. The holes eventually stopped appearing in late January/early February of 98.
Shortly after this occurred, I had my own encounter. Before I begin, I need to give you a little layout information first. The house was “L” shaped, single story, split-plan. The master bed was on the east end of the house. The kitchen, dining room, living room and foyer mainly covered the center portion of the house. Coming out of the kitchen, on the west end (in the crook of the “L“), was a den that connected on the other end to a short hall that led to the remaining bedrooms and bath. The east wall of the den had an impressive 10 ft wide glass door that overlooked an enclosed Florida Room running the entire length of the back of the house. Off the back of the Florida Room is where the pool was situated. I hope I’m not confusing anyone. It was actually a pretty cool setup. From either the kitchen (big window in the kitchen) or the den you could see the entire backyard pool area. I had the den set up as an office so I could work and still keep an eye on the kids in the backyard.
Now back to the story. I was working late at the computer one night (about 12:30 am) when something hit the glass doors hard enough to rattle them in the frame. I swung around in my chair. There was nothing. Now, remember, I can see the entire back porch, the pool and a major portion of the backyard from where I’m sitting. The glass doors had no curtains, no blinds, anything of that nature, and I was sitting a mere 6-7 feet from it. Believe me, there was nothing. I dismissed it (as I so often do) and turned back to the computer. About 15 minutes later, something hit the door again -- hard. This time, when I swung around, the door began violently shaking. It was about to rattle itself out of the frame. I was truly afraid that it was going to fall in. Now, ironically enough, my only thought at this point was how expensive it was going to be to replace this door. So I got up, crossed over to the door and tried to hold it up, hoping I could prevent it from falling in. Do we see a mental degradation pattern going on here? The moment I put my hands on the glass, the shaking stopped. Then I heard -- and I will never forget this -- laughter. I let go of the door as though it were hot and backed away. I promptly turned off the computer and went to bed. I said I went to bed, I never said I got any sleep.
Things were really starting to get weird, now. We were all starting to be plagued by nightmares. The poltergeist activity, which usually ended after the holidays, didn’t. The sleeping 5 to a bed stuff was becoming more and more frequent.
Then, in the spring, I began to notice bruises on my oldest daughter. She would often have bruises in the shape of fingers on her upper arms, wrists and on her ankles. Once she had a horrific looking bruise about 8 inches long across her buttock and upper thigh. It looked like someone had hit her with a stick or a belt -- something long and thin. I questioned her. Her response was that she didn’t know how she got them, she just woke up with them. These were some nasty bruises. I’m sorry, but you don’t get bruises like that and not remember where they came from. I figured she was covering for someone, most likely her then boyfriend. Needless to say, I had a little chat with the then boyfriend. I embarrassed myself. It turned out not to be him. Guess who it was? My daughter soon stopped sleeping in her room. When she did, the bruises quit appearing. She didn’t sleep in her room for our last 6 months in the house. Can’t say I blame her.
You’ll remember that I said before something to the effect of the spirits being harmless for the most part, and not trying to do harm? Here’s where my thinking begins to change on that subject. There was one final incident that helped make up my mind for me.
I forgot to fill you in on the pool, other than the pool equipment disaster, that is. Every so often, while swimming, you would hear a splash at the other end of the pool (it was always behind you). As you turn around, you see no one. You do, however, see ripples on the surface, as if someone had just jumped in. It was just enough to scare you out of the pool and it would only happen when you were alone. At least, you only noticed it when you were alone.
One evening around dusk, I was in the pool with 2 of the kids. The kids had gotten out and gone to hit the showers. I straggled behind, floating on my back in the deep end. There was no warning. I hadn’t heard any noises nor mystery splashes whatsoever. Suddenly, something grabbed my left ankle and pulled me underwater, straight to the bottom (we‘re talking 13 feet of water, here). I struggled, but I couldn‘t get free. I was running out of air. I started to panic. Then, just as suddenly as it had grabbed me, it let me go. I immediately went for the side and climbed out. I lay there on the pool deck, gasping, for I don’t know how long. I was literally scared shitless! It, whatever it was, had just tried to drown me! This happened in early May. We moved in June, one week after my daughter’s high school graduation. I later learned that both my son and one of my daughters had also had near-drowning experiences. That’s it. We’re out of here.
We initially put the house up for sale. I was a little conscious ridden about the disclosure thing, but then, nobody told us about it, right? It turned out not to be a problem. We moved all the furniture to our new house, a rental 50 miles away. We returned 2 days later to clean and gather up the remaining junk we had in the garage. I couldn’t believe what I saw when we returned. Water was cascading down the driveway, a literal river. Someone had turned on every faucet in the house and plugged the drains with rags. We assume the water had been running for 2 days. The entire house was flooded.
In addition, every window in the house had been smashed. There were huge holes knocked into the walls and ceilings. The new toilets we had put in were shattered. The mirrors were smashed, the light fixtures and fans ripped down from the ceilings, etc. It was catastrophic. There was no way in hell we could afford to pay to fix all of this. Forget selling it. We did the only thing we could, under the circumstances. We filed a police report for the vandalism. We then did a deed in lieu of foreclosure and gave the house back to the bank. It was sold at auction. And here, our nightmare ends.
An interesting footnote to this story comes from my oldest daughter. About a year after we had moved away, my daughter returned to visit some friends. While she was in town, she decided to take a run by the old house and see what had become of it. As she pulled up and stopped in front of the house, a young girl (about 7 or 8) walked up to the car and asked my daughter if she used to live there. They had never laid eyes on each other before, but somehow this girl knew. The girl invited my daughter to come inside the house. At first, she was reluctant, but her curiosity got the better of her.
She ended up staying for about an hour, chatting with the new owners. They had a lot of questions. She discovered, from their chat, that the new owners were still having problems with the phone, the wiring and the plumbing. They also replaced the garage door, again. In addition, they had found both of their pet birds (a macaw and a cockatiel) dead. One’s neck had been broken. The other had been decapitated. The girl my daughter had met in the driveway had just recently been taken for psychiatric evaluation by her parents because she was plagued with nightmares and claimed to be “seeing things” in her room (she occupied the Peeping Tom room). She also didn’t like to go swimming...