Honey I'm Home

This story is pretty damn lame compared to some of the ones that I have read on this site but anyway, here goes!

I've been with my boyfriend for almost two years now. He lives in a very old house in Streatham, South London and surprisingly I have never found it to be at all creepy. It's a house which was built in the 1800's and I assume at one point it was one house, now it's been divided into three flats and my boyfriend lives on the middle level.

The way the house is and I guess since it's so old I can often hear the baby crying downstairs or the lady walking around her flat upstairs; I guess the walls are really thin. I can also hear if anybody comes into the house, opens any door or uses any of the two flights of stairs which connect the apartments together.

Since my first ghostly experience when I was around 7 or 8 (I'm 23 now) I have been distantly and quietly interested and terrified of the paranormal. I have had a few experiences that can only be described as such and so have members of my family but those are for another time.

What I'd like to talk about is a rather odd but 100% genuine experience that happened last summer (2010).

I live in Clapham but was staying at my boyfriends for days on end at a time whilst bunking school, instead preferring to watch Comedy Central and play The Sims (I can be a bit of a geek/weirdo) as I really prefer my own company. So anyway, one summers day I was laid out on the sofa in the middle of lunchtime watching King of Queens on Comedy Central as I did most days. I was alone in the house as my boyfriend and his flatmate were both at work and weren't due home for at least 4-5 hours. There are two sofas in the house; both face the TV and one has its back to the living room door where the other has a view of the living room door to its right hand side. I was sitting on the one where I had my back to the living room door since the coffee table was closer to that sofa.

As I was sitting there I heard the unmistakable sound of the front door opening and closing downstairs. Then I heard the footsteps of somebody walking up the carpeted stairs to the middle level which is my boyfriend's flat. The door opened and closed but not as loudly as say my boyfriend or his flatmate usually do it so naturally I figured it was boyfriend coming home early to try and surprise me. We have this thing where we try to surprise each other by jumping out of nowhere which is completely childish but impossibly funny when you see the look of shock and terror on somebody's face.

As I sat there I could hear him moving down the hallway towards the living room where I was so I thought instead of spoiling the fun I would let him think he'd succeeded in surprising me. So I just sat there watching the TV and not turning round. After about 10 seconds I felt this enormous presence behind me and the room went a little dark as if this shadow had engulfed me so at this point I turned round quickly still thinking it was him, with a huge grin on my face, I'd just uttered something along the lines of "Gosh, you're so dumb..." when I stopped abruptly, it was as if I'd just been winded. There was not another living soul in that room apart from me. I started to look around, smile slightly faded but still adamant that there was somebody else in the room. I never did find anything but the strange thing is; when I think about it now I'm terrified but at the time I was completely unafraid and calm I just sat back down and continued watching my comedies. I laugh about it now!

Besides that one experience nothing so far has happened to me in that house, I've asked my boyfriend if he's ever experienced anything but he is far from perceptive so he wouldn't really notice unless a ghost actually joined him in the shower, even then I'm not so sure. I find it incredible that a house so old doesn't host more paranormal activity but his house must bear some sort of historical importance because one day in the summer a load of tourists were led down his street and stopped outside to take pictures of the house. I must do some research. Anyway thanks for reading and I hoped you enjoyed my small slice of confusion. Comments welcome.