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The 3:20 Walker

 

Minnesota nights can be breathtakingly cold and are normally so dark you can't see ten feet in front of you. But when the moon is able to sneak out from behind the winter clouds, its reflection glistens off the snow covered ground and lights pathways deep into the forest. I grew up along a beautiful lake in a country setting. It was serene and a wonderful place to make childhood memories. However, the house that we lived in had its eccentricities. One particular, late winter night proved that our family was not been living in the house.

After a couple hours of evening television our family retired to our separate bedrooms; my brother to his at the end of the hallway, my parents and baby sister to the master and me, the first room off the dining room. It had been a long school day and I was exhausted. As normal I left my bedroom door open just a crack so that my small dog could enter if he wanted to, undetected, and snuggle up for the night. I turned down the bed spread and jumped into my bed falling asleep immediately.

Oddly, I awakened in the middle of the night. I was not in a daze as if just coming out of a dream, rather I was alert immediately. I glanced at the clock on the dresser which was glowing 3:20AM in its digital red numbers. The moonlight was filtering through the night. Then I heard a noise in the basement, below my bedroom. It was a familiar noise but strange at the same time. The basement was not carpeted but had a full apartment which used to house the previous owners' son. The apartment was separated from the downstairs' laundry by a large, solid wood pocket door which was always kept open while we lived in the house. The pocket door had been installed many years before on a sturdy metal track which had a distinct rolling sound as the door was opened or closed. This is the noise I heard.

I wasn't immediately alarmed by the noise in the basement, my mom had been known to wake up early to do laundry before I was old enough to help. So I listened for a moment, closing my eyes and wanting to go back to sleep. It wasn't until I heard the foot steps on the wooden stairs leading from the basement to the kitchen that I knew this was not my mom. My heart started to race. I listened more intently to the heavy, methodical steps being taken by the intruder as they came closer to the landing in the kitchen at the top of the stairs.

The foot steps did not stop at the top of the stairs. They continued across the kitchen linoleum in the same rhythm. The sound was eerie and is still vivid in my memory today, 30 years later. They didn't get any louder as they crossed the linoleum, as I expected they should if the intruder was coming toward my room. All of a sudden they stopped. OH MY GOSH, the intruder was on the carpet! I yanked my bedding over my head expecting the worst. Barely breathing from the fear that I was to be discovered, I laid there stiffly so that I wouldn't move. There was nothing. My door didn't swing open. No more footsteps. No voices. It seemed like a lifetime, but I gradually dozed off.

At the breakfast table the next morning I nonchalantly asked my mom if she had been up wandering around the previous night. To my amazement, she screamed and started crying. She asked what time... I told her... through her tears she said she had heard the exact same thing for the past four nights at the exact same time.

To this day we have no idea what (who) it was but we didn't hear it again after that conversation. I also never understood why our dog didn't bark.

Oh, some years later after we had moved out of the house we discovered that the son of the previous owners had hung himself in the basement. (This has been our only clue.)

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Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, Hmyers, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments but I won't participate in the discussion.

TinAA (1 stories) (84 posts)
+1
13 years ago (2012-02-09)
Nice story:)
I liked the story...
Well want to read more stories posted by you...
newport3783 (10 posts)
+1
16 years ago (2009-04-07)
the time was probably a mark when he passed on... His spirit is probably re-living the last moments before he comitted suicide and now lurks there cause that's where he died... Very sad... When a person takes their own life they replay that moment everynight for eternity... He propbaly wanted you guys to acknowledge him and then found peace at last... Cause you said it stopped
whitebuffalo (guest)
+1
17 years ago (2007-12-27)
We get to see this shadow of what has helped in forming who you are today, and yet we are not able to sort through facts with questions. Hmmm. Thanks for taking the time to write it.
pscnldy (1 stories) (5 posts)
+1
17 years ago (2007-10-25)
Hi Ohiowatha,
Please hurry up with part two... I'm dying to read it. Its so interesting. You must be lucky to live in such a wonderful place. 😊
Ohiowatha (11 stories) (415 posts)
+1
17 years ago (2007-10-24)
Cool story, too bad he didn't want to participate. O well. I'll take this opportunity to provide some constructive criticism:

The term for killing one's self by slipping a rope around the neck and hanging from it until you die is "hanged" or "hanging," not "hung..." I know, it's strange, but that's the rule.

Thanks! I'll be availble during office hours.
ozone_baby (2 stories) (28 posts)
+1
17 years ago (2007-10-24)
Sound like to me the son who never left home in life, never left after either. I'm sure who ever lives there now has the same experiences as you.
KimSouthO (27 stories) (1960 posts)
+1
17 years ago (2007-10-24)
Don't understand people submitting stories, small sections of their lives and then not participate.

Oh, well. I did have a couple questiins, but as you are not participating, what is the point?

God Bless!
pinkpantherclue (5 stories) (24 posts)
+1
17 years ago (2007-10-24)
Thats scary. I don't have a haunted house, but I'm always alert to anything like that. I know my house isn't haunted, because nothing happens. But I used to wake up at 1:00 AM every night for awhile in my room, and sit there, alert, wondering what woke me.
Shane (13 stories) (1258 posts)
+1
17 years ago (2007-10-23)
Well if nothing else that was a well written story. Not sure why you wouldn't want to join in the discussion, but the choice was yours. Thanks for sharing.

Peace, Love, and Luck be with you.
Abercrombie (2 stories) (45 posts)
+1
17 years ago (2007-10-23)
Wow. I do believe the answers to all your problems were in that very last sentence. If he lived in the basement, his spirit was probably in his room, he opened the door, and went upstairs. The other clue that proves my theory correctly, is that you knew the steps weren't of your mother as they were heavy. Hope I could help!
Hawkgirl (6 stories) (55 posts)
+1
17 years ago (2007-10-23)
Hi Hmyers,
Creepy story. Perhaps the 'walker' was the guy who hung up himself and he only wanted to let you know he was there. Doesn't sound like he had any harmful intentions towards you. I think animals react when they feel threatened and since this was not the case maybe that's why your dog didn't bark.
Well, it's my opinion 😁

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