This is my first attempt at recollecting the things that I've experienced throughout my life into written form. As I look back on them now and take into consideration the kinds of things I've been reading about on this site, I realize they are benign and maybe a little boring in nature. However, they all happened to me regardless and although I have not experienced much lately, I find myself hoping to.
The first strange occurrence that I can recall happened soon after my grandpa passed away in '99. I was nine years old. My grandpa had fought in WWII and was a quiet and somber man, albeit friendly and even humorous at times with his dry sense of humor. I was pretty fond of him growing up. Sometime after his death, my family unearthed an old Army bomber jacket that had belonged to him. It smelled earthy and I loved to put it on - despite there being a large, somewhat obvious dark red stain across the front. We never really questioned it.
When I was about 14 years old, I had moved into a small apartment with my mother in another city. I loved my grandpa's jacket and respected him so much that I folded it up into a nice suitcase and kept it on a shelf in my closet, still pausing to admire it every now and then. A while after we began living there - I'd say a few months or so - I began hearing strange things during the day when my mother was at work. I'd be home alone just hanging around my bedroom drawing or something and I'd start to hear very, very faint music. There were no radios or televisions on and I could tell that the sound was coming from downstairs as if someone were playing music on a low volume. Once I'd walk out of my room (which was at the top of the stairs) - I wouldn't hear it anymore. Another day I might be playing on our computer in the office across the hall and I'd hear it again! Same type of music (although I could never really hear it well enough to decipher what was being sung or how, etc.) It was just faint, beautiful, instrumental music.
One afternoon my mom had left late for work and, momentarily forgetting she was gone, I ran out of my bedroom to ask her a question. My bedroom was upstairs and the stairs leading to the first floor were flanked by a railing - if you were standing in the middle of the staircase facing down, the kitchen and dining room were *behind* the stairs - so you couldn't see over there unless you came all the way down and turned around to face them. Anyway, I was at the top of the staircase looking through the railing and said, "M-o-o-m!" to get her attention. Immediately thereafter I heard a little girl shout, "Hi!" from the dining room behind the stairs. It struck me then that my mom had left several hours ago and I had been home alone all this time. I froze, turned and dashed up the stairs to my room and locked the door. I know for a fact that I was home alone. All our doors were locked as they always were so there's no way anyone could have gotten in. The girl sounded small, as in under the age of 10. Just a loud, "HI!" Needless to say, it freaked me the **** out.
After that, things really kicked into gear. Once again, I'd be home alone doing something upstairs and pause - I could hear cereal boxes in the kitchen being picked up and shaken! Literally as if someone was just holding them and shaking them to hear the noise. I'd be in mid-walk and then freeze when I heard it - and just stand there until I could muster up the courage to dash to my bedroom and close the door. That happened several times throughout our stay there. One night while in bed I was just frozen in fear for no tangible reason. I liked to sleep with my door open because my mom's room was directly across the hall and she slept with her door open, too so I guess I felt closer to her that way. I'd open my eyes every now and then to check out my surroundings and I began to see what I can only describe as short, dark, human-like forms peeking out from the hallway into the door frame. I couldn't tell if it was just one or if there were more, but that didn't matter at the time. Wtf WAS that?! I shouted for my mom who just mumbled from beneath her covers, "Go back to sleep." I shouted back that I was seeing things. She slowly got out of bed, grabbed a Rosary from somewhere, placed it around my neck and told me to go back to sleep. Yeah, well, easier said than done!
Another night I was lying on my back, awake with my eyes closed just trying to get to sleep. Suddenly, I felt what I can only describe as a large ball slowly rolling its way up my thigh. I froze. A moment later I flipped out in an attempt to get it off and tossed my blankets a few times before curling up and laying there with my eyes squeezed shut until I finally fell asleep. After that I constantly had nightmares of waking up in the middle of the night with a limp person draped over my legs, making it impossible for me to get out of bed. It was terrifying.
One day while doing something in the kitchen, I glanced up at the microwave (it rested in a little cubby up on a shelf) and caught the face of a man looking down at me. Not through the reflective surface of the microwave like you might look at someone sharing a reflection with you in a mirror - but down as in if I were to look at him beside me, our eyes would meet. It was only for a split second - I had looked away and then right back only to see nothing, but I had definitely seen it. Strange thing was, I didn't recognize his face. First inclination might be to assume it was my grandpa, or even him in his younger years, but it wasn't from the details I had gathered. Someone totally unfamiliar. But the thing is he was looking at me with a gentle expression on his face - just sort of gazing at me from a height of maybe two feet taller than I. It didn't really scare me at the time - just more of a "Huh..." moment. I can still see him, though, clear as a bell in my mind.
Eventually, my mom and I moved to another city and I switched schools once again. This time we moved into a nice, newly built condo in a suburb of Wichita. (Preston Estates, if anyone is curious.) I kept my Grandpa's Army jacket in the suitcase and settled it into my new closet, still very much in admiration of the thing. (He was like a war-hero in my eyes!) Every night in that room felt very uneasy. Almost like a cold, unwelcome and uninviting space. But, I slept there anyway.
I kept a small lamp plugged in all night that sat atop my chest-of-drawers on the other side of my room. Some nights I'd just lay awake watching it go dim, then be at full brightness - dim, bright... Dim, bright... Dim, bright. After watching it for a while and getting more and more creeped out, I'd get out of bed and walk down the hall to sleep with my mom. (Don't judge me.:P) I just felt really uncomfortable in that bedroom overall, especially at night. One night after this had happened and shortly after I had climbed into bed with my mom, a tall floor lamp in her bedroom flicked on. We were both in bed at the time and all the lights had been out. I whispered, "Mom... The light just turned on..." She grumbled something about the switch probably being broken and told me to go turn it off. I refused until she made me -- I was so scared!
I slowly walked toward the lamp - looked around - turned it off and dashed back to bed. I was lying there still thoroughly creeped out when I opened my eyes. Floating directly above me and leaned over was the head and shoulders of a human shaped shadow. It was totally black and just hovering there maybe a foot from the ceiling, just staring down at me. In a panic, I pulled the covers over my head and laid there - totally petrified - until I could peek out again... Gone. I had been too shocked and too frightened to even utter a sound, all the while my mom laying right beside me! She was snoozing peacefully, of course. There was no waking her and the next morning she only brushed me off.
There was at this time a boy living with us whose bedroom was beside mine and on the opposite end of the hall as my mother's. The next day he told me something that really took the cake. He had woken up in the middle of the night and looked out his bedroom door to see "white, see-through people" walking through my closed bedroom door and into my room "all night long" (or until I can only assume he fell asleep). It wasn't until he had told me this that I had clued him in on the lamp situation.
Safe to say we were both pretty shaken up.
I've since moved back home and I haven't experienced much in the way of the paranormal in a few years. Somewhere in all the moving, we misplaced my grandpa's jacket. Or at least I haven't seen it since we lived in that condo. Maybe it was all a case of his spirit 'hanging on' to this object he left behind? Growing up, I've always had strange, little things happen to me that I nor anyone else can explain. Even as recent as last year, but they're never like anything that happened those few years while I was moving around with my mom so much.
In my old house that I lived in throughout high school, I'd be napping in my bedroom and wake up due to several loud taps on my closed door. Once I walked over and, attempting to re-create the noise, tapped my knuckle on the door frame. That was it. That's what I heard. But I was always home alone.
Once I had just turned out the light and rolled over to go to sleep when I heard a loud woman's voice say my name. It had come from within my bedroom, door closed, maybe 6 or so feet from my bed. Distinct. I flipped over, switched on my lamp, and yelled into the empty space, "WHAT WAS THAT?!" I think more out of frustration than anything. No one likes to hear their name called by seemingly no one just as they're beginning to relax. Frankly, it p*ssed me off. I remember shouting something like, "I am TRYING to go to sleep, WHAT do you want?" Haha! I was so mad. Had to sleep with my little TV on every night for a month after that one.
Ohhh man, but there are so many more. Little things happen every now and then that aren't really story-material, but they happen. So, I believe. Even more so now that the new tenants of that house tracked me down on Facebook and sent me a message claiming it's haunted. Long story. Maybe another time. Thanks for reading, though (if you still are) and apologies if it wasn't goosebump-inducing. Any suggestions or theories as to whom those shadow figures might've been or why I seem to experience these things would be great. I'm sure this won't be my only story submitted, but for now - my fingers are tired!
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