The Many Ghosts Of My Life

II wanted to submit all of my stories in chronological order, and I have done so with the last two, but this story leaps across a few years. It is a compilation of the paranormal experiences I've had at my parents' home. I'd first like to describe the setting. I will not provide the name of the city, however, for the sake of security.

These stories take place at my parent's home, which was built in 1927, roughly 21 years after the city was established. The house is a modest colonial styled home, about 2,000 square feet, sitting on a lot of about 7,000 square feet. The house itself has a few crawlspaces, all of which we found rather curious. There's a fairly large cupboard under the stairs, what appears to have been the garage's attic, a small space at the far end of my room near the windows facing the street, and of course, the house's attic. The attic that was very likely part of the garage can only be accessed by a small door in my sisters' room.

When my parents purchased the home, it wasn't in prime condition. It was of sound structure, though for some reason, it wasn't maintained during the period of time that it was on sale. It was vandalized to some extent by the typical rebellious youth; the greatest damage inflicted was a hole in a wall which was promptly repaired upon purchase. There were some seemingly occult symbols and crudely fashioned Ouija boards lying about, but nothing that I recognized as real or a threat. Neither of my parents, including my mother who is a medium sensed any malevolent energy when they first walked in to see the home nor neither did I.

We were able to move into the home in the summer, and within the week we changed all of the carpeting in the home (most of it was upstairs save for the little office on the lower level). Before a year had gone by, we'd remodelled the bathroom upstairs, changed the plumbing, and did some landscaping. It was largely uneventful, though we did experience some paranormal activity here and there, and this is where it gets interesting.

I believe within the first month we were aware of the spirits that resided in our home. The first spirits we noticed were children. Oftentimes we'd be downstairs or outside as there was much to be done, and, on occasion, one or a few of us would hear the sound of children running and playing upstairs, most frequently in my sisters' room, which is directly above the dining room. At times the chandelier in the dining room would swing slightly due to the movement upstairs.

As more time passed, there would be more movement in the home, and we'd be aware of more spirits. On certain nights I could hear footsteps in the attic above my room. Sometimes I'd stay up late doing homework in the office downstairs and I'd hear footsteps coming down the stairs, pausing, and then going back up. Usually I'd ask my father the next day if he came down to check up on me, and the answer was always no. On one particular occasion I stayed up 'til about midnight, and needed to use the restroom, so I used the one near the office. As I was using the restroom, however, I heard someone descending, though the movement stopped at the second stair. Right then and there I felt as though someone was watching me, it was so intense I could feel their gaze boring down on me. I had a feeling it wasn't my father, so I quickly finished up and when I checked, there was no one there, and my parents' door was shut, just as I'd suspected.

We hadn't spent much time in our new home when the previous owner, who'd lived there for 30 years, stopped by (another family lived in the home before us, but they lost it within a year or two). She told my mother that she had to sell the house for personal reasons, but when it was back on the market she had planned on buying it. The woman mentioned that her husband had died in the hospital of liver failure and wanted to return home, but never got the chance. She also revealed some slightly disturbing information. She said that one of her sons lived in the attic. Of course my mother and the woman talked for some time, but this is the most important information.

Now, I'll explain why the news concerning both her husband and son was so disturbing. The spirit which often stood at the top of the stairs gave off a certain sense of possession, as if the house belonged to it, and as I mentioned before, I'd already heard footsteps in the attic at night. In addition to that, my father had gone into the attic some time before to see what was up there and found that it was intolerably hot and that it was mostly pipes and beams of wood. We could only speculate as to whether or not the woman's son had actually lived in the attic, and if he had, why. This of course brought us no peace of mind.

On a separate occasion, I'd gone to bed late, though on a weekend this time. As I was sitting in bed praying as I did then, nothing from the bible, simply speaking to God, the angels, and my departed loved ones, I became aware of the sound of hoarse, laboured breathing coming from my closet. I became silent and stopped breathing just to make sure that it wasn't me. The breathing continued. I was a bit unnerved, but I gathered myself and politely asked the spirit to leave me alone, and it did.

Not long after that incident I watched television late into the night, perhaps about midnight once again, and was lying in bed thinking when I heard footsteps pacing back and forth from my room to my sisters'. When it reached either door, it would pause for a few seconds, and then continue. This went on for a while before I decided that I had to check who was outside my door. When I did, there was no one to be found, yet again.

Toward the end of my junior year in high school, my appendix burst and I spent a couple of weeks in the hospital, about a month in between each stay. During the last stay my appendix was taken out and I only spent about a day and a half at the hospital after that. My mother wanted me to stay home and rest, but I insisted on going back to school. The first day I was back in school I was sitting at my desk, waiting for the teacher to begin instructing. As I was lying back in my chair, I heard a gentle and unfamiliar voice breathe my name into my ear. I waited awhile and received a mental image of a girl in her early teens, blue eyes, red hair, and of seemingly sound disposition. I relayed the story to my sister, who is also sensitive to this sort of thing, but left out the description of the girl. She told me she'd also heard a similar voice speak to her, in the same way. I asked her if she got an image of what the spirit looked like, and she described exactly what I'd seen.

Once again, I was downstairs in the office doing homework. By this time we'd bought a new dog, and she would usually stay with me until I finished up whatever I was doing downstairs. I once again needed to use the bathroom, though this time I didn't sense the spectre at the top of the stairs. Once I had settled back down in my seat the bathroom door nearest to the office began to wiggle, as if someone were having difficulty opening it. Then the door was pushed open and stopped moving altogether. I looked down at my dog make sure that she'd heard it too, and she appeared a bit distressed.

One of the final encounters I had was a little while after I graduated from high school. I was sneaking upstairs so as not to wake anyone, and as I was walking down the hall to my room, I heard someone walking behind me. I checked, but no one was there. I went into my room and shut the door behind me, and just as I'd climbed into bed, I heard footsteps move past my bed to the windows facing the street. My curtains began to move. This time I was more startled than the others and I quickly, and perhaps a bit angrily, told the spirit to stop.

The last encounter I can recall in my parents' home was a few months after the last experience. I was lying down in my bed, just staring at the ceiling and thinking, when I became aware of a drop in the temperature around me. I lay completely still and then felt a small hand press into the palm of mine. I was by no means startled by this last experience, and as a matter of fact, couldn't help but smile. The spirit of a child had placed its hand in mine.

These are all of the encounters I can recall that I experienced myself. I feel that it's worth noting that every time people walked by our home, they'd stare into the windows upstairs. Oftentimes we'd have barbecues in the summer and would sit outside telling stories late into the night, and our other dog would also have the habit of staring into the windows upstairs. Although there were and are spirits in my parents' home, I never felt threatened, nor have I sensed any sort of malevolence there to date.