Following Ghost?

My next story is quite long as it spans over a year of events. Again, I do not call myself a full blown "believer", but the occurrences I have witnessed have led me to this site for some insight.

It begins about a year and a half ago, when myself, my partner, and her eight year old daughter were renting a large home. The home was beautiful and newly renovated with an addition that the owners had recently built. We fell in love with the home, and couldn't believe our luck when we were chosen to rent it. Even at the nearly $2000 per month rental fee, it was worth it.

To fully understand my story, I have to describe the layout of the upstairs addition. You would walk up the stairs to a loft area the size of a large bedroom. The loft had double doors leading to the enormous master bedroom, walk in closet, and master bathroom (complete with double shower and jacuzzi tub)

The downstairs held the living room, kitchen, dinning room, daughters room, spare room, pool room, theater room, laundry room, and sun room.

One morning, I awoke to the sound of what I can only describe as a child running around in the loft area in front of our bedroom. I got up, ready to lay it on my step daughter. When I opened the double doors, I was shocked to see that no one was there. I went downstairs, thinking my step daughter must have simply ran downstairs to her room. She was fast asleep in her bed. We were the only ones in the home.

A few weeks later, I was hanging clothes in our closet. I was startled to hear a child like sneeze. It came from the loft area in front of our bedroom. I was frightened immediately because I was the only one in the home at the time. My partner was gone to work, and her daughter was at school.

During the winter, I had a particularly trying evening. My partner was working a night shift at the hospital, and her step daughter was being treated for her illness in another town. I was alone in the home. I was reading in bed when it started. I heard a loud BANG against the wall in my room. And then, the banging increased. One bang from one side of the room, another bang from above my bed, another at the other side of my room. BANG BANG BANG from all directions. I called my mother panicking. In the half hour it took for her to come over, the banging stopped. I was traumatized. It not only frightened me, but gave me a sense that something was trying to scare me. Something was doing this.

My mother tried to explain to me that it was a winter night, and the house was just settling. I have heard a house settling before. It was nothing like this, and it never happened like this again. There would be the odd bang, but nothing as loud and as frequent as the "assault" from that night. Luckily, it turns out that the in floor heating did not work in that home, and we ended up moving out two months later.

A few months ago, my sister took a picture with her blackberry in our new rental home. The picture clearly shows a girl in the window. Not the regular "shadow" ghost photos you see online, but a vivid image of a girl, looking at me through the window. I still have this picture, and can show it to those who are interested. I just don't want it floating around on the internet. To explain the picture, the figure is in the window that is about eleven feet from the ground. This picture literally brought me to tears.

A few weeks after that, I decided to fool around with my blackberry and take pictures to see if anything would appear. I wish I hadn't. I found a figure in a mirror above my dinning room table. I still have this picture as well.

Yesterday, my friend and I were at my home studying for an exam, and I went outside to have a cigarette. We don't smoke in the home. While outside, I heard someone say my name. I assumed it was my friend inside and opened the patio doors and said "What?". She replied "What? I didn't say anything." The sound of my name came from the same area as the window where the girl had been.

My partner has said comments about hearing things outdoors, and hearing things walking indoors when no one is there. She doesn't believe in anything at all, but I am starting to get concerned. I would rather be preventative. Does anyone have any ideas on how to rid this thing that I think has followed me? I do not want to see an apparition. I would not be able to handle it.