Chasing Bad Boys Away

When this experience first happened, I was annoyed and afraid; but now that I look back, I'm wondering if it was really poltergeist activity or a helpful spirit.

Here's what happened: It was about three years ago, when I was around 16-years-old, and I invited my (now) ex-boyfriend Ryan over to my house. We had just started dating and I was in that awkward stage where I wasn't sure how to act (I never dated before, never even had a crush). We ended up sitting in my room on my bed watching a movie - some old episode of Mystery Science Theater 3K, I think.

I sat close to Ryan, but he didn't seem to want anything to do with me. He just stared forward the whole time. Then, he finally spoke up and told me he felt a cold chill. I tried to put my hand on his arm affectionately, but he shuddered and pulled away like I had tried to hurt him or spread some contagious disease.

It was just then that the television went black and wouldn't turn back on when I tried the remote. Upon further inspection, I found that both the TV and the DVD player had been unplugged and, when I plugged them back in, started up only for a few minutes before they both quit again. This happened over and over within the next half hour, even after I had rearranged the wires and checked for possible snags. I plugged the cords in several different outlets, thinking it was a problem with the extension cord, but no matter what I did, the TV still went out every few minutes. The volume started to fluctuate; first silent, then loud white noise, until finally, Ryan got up and left.

When I got home from dropping him off at his house only a few minutes away, I found my bedroom arranged very strangely. There was a box in front of the door, the TV was turned around facing the wall, and the blankets on my bed were all messed. On top of all that, my lamp, alarm clock, radio, and TV were all unplugged.

I never asked my mother if she was in my room, but it would have been unlike her to play a joke on me and not be curious about my reaction. She didn't seem to know a thing about it. So, I fixed the plugs one last time and turned a movie on before bed. I fell asleep in the middle of it, and when I woke up in the middle of the night, the DVD was still playing. No problems at all.

This pattern of activity continued for about 10 months while I was dating Ryan, and during that time I found that he was prone to angry outbursts and often verbally abused me and publicly humiliated me with degrading comments. After almost a year with him, I found out that he had been seeing another girl for the majority of our relationship. He asked me to be his girlfriend out of pity, and stayed with me as a joke between him, his friends, and his alternative girlfriend. Together, they ruined my high school experience.

I'm realizing now that perhaps the paranormal activity surrounding Ryan's visits weren't a pest at all, but some kind of warning. The activity has continued ever since, but this kind of mischievous behavior stopped and hasn't returned.

Almost four years later, and I haven't had a problem with my TV or DVD player since. Ryan, also, hasn't shown his face anywhere around me. I don't know if the spirits in my house were protecting me, or simply protecting their home from dirty scum like him. Regardless, I find the whole situation pretty funny when I look back on it.

It's curious how things turn out sometimes.