Series Of Unexplained Incidents

I've been reading accounts on this site for years and I've finally decided to share my story. Before I begin I would like to say that, unlike nearly every other person on this site, I have no 'sensitivity' of any kinds relating to ghosts or other spiritual energies. I do have a keen interest in the paranormal but I possess all the extra sensory perception of a caterpillar! Nor am I a 15 year old girl who has seen Twilight too many times and wants some attention. Everything in this story is, to the best of my knowledge, true.

When I was about 18 I moved into a shared house with a few friends in a small town in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. The property belonged to the dad of one of my housemates and he let us have it for a reasonable rent, so it was ideal for us at that time. The first incident occurred before I moved in, when I stayed there one night to avoid driving home. My girlfriend at the time and I were on an airbed in the living room, and had just started to drift off to sleep when I heard her take a sharp breath as if startled by something. I rolled over and asked her what was wrong, and she simply replied 'There's someone in the corner of the room'. I shot out of bed and flicked on the lights, only to find the room empty save for us. She swore blind she saw a tall figure stood in the shadowy corner of the room, but as I saw nothing and dismissed it as a dream.

So despite this first brush with the paranormal I agreed to take the empty room when the previous tenant decided to move out suddenly. When I moved in, there were 4 housemates including me (3 guys and a girl), plus one girlfriend who never went home. The house was a bit of a social hub for all our friends so we were rarely without a few guests as well, and parties were a regular occurrence. The house was laid out so three bedrooms were upstairs and one was downstairs, in what had previously been a parlour. Also downstairs was the living room, kitchen and shower room/toilet. Claire, the only female housemate, was in the bedroom downstairs that opened up into the hallway and stairwell area. She mentioned on several occasions that she had been woken up in the middle of the night to hear whispering outside of her room, long after everyone had gone to bed. Being a fairly brave person she twice threw open the door and asked who was there, only for the noise to cease completely. Again I cannot confirm this happened but I trust her and know she isn't someone prone to making things up.

My first actual sighting came when I was in the living room one afternoon, watching TV. The rest of the house was out so I was relishing a little peace and quiet. The living room was set up in such a way that the TV was against the same wall as the doorway, with the sofas against the opposite wall. This meant that if you sat in a certain position you could see the TV but were facing the doorway and could see through to the stairs. So I was watching TV and happened to glance up towards the doorway, only to see a pair of legs walking up the stairs and out of sight. I jumped up and went to the bottom of the stairs, to see who had come home, but there was no-one there. I went and checked in each person's room, but there was no-one there. Interestingly, two people came to me after we moved out of the house and mentioned to me that they had seen the same thing on different occasions.

Legs aside, the property was fairly old and occasional knocks and creaks could probably be attributed to architecture as opposed to the supernatural. But one incident that we could not explain, and the one that convinced me that the property was haunted, occurred a couple of weeks later. Jack, whose dad owned the property, and I were in the living room one evening, chatting and having a couple of beers. In the early hours of the morning we decided to call it a night and, after checking all the doors were locked, went to our separate rooms to sleep. But after five minutes I heard what sounded like heavy, deliberate footsteps coming up the stairs. The way the house was laid out meant you had to walk past my room, along the length of the wall where I had my bed, to get to Jack's room at the other end. Sure enough, I heard the footsteps walk past my wall and stop outside Jack's room. There was no other noise, and after a few seconds I summoned up the courage to poke my head out the door. There was no-one there. As I was peeking out Jack's door opened and I saw his worried face emerge, then ask me if I had heard the footsteps. We went through the whole house and checked every door and window, all of which were locked. We even called Tom, our other housemate, who was working nights at a nearby supermarket to see if he had come home on his break. He was still at work, and even put his manager on the phone to confirm it. After double checking every door we went back to bed, but I didn't sleep much that night.

I was only at the house for about eight months before Jack's dad told us he was selling the house and we needed to move out. After clearing out the place Jack and I were taking a few pictures of the property to give to the estate agents. As we took some of the front of the house Jack's face went pale, and I asked him what was wrong. He handed me the camera with the last picture, which showed what looked like a figure stood in the window of his old room. The figure was fairly indistinct and, while it did have a face, the image was too unclear to make out the features. Needless to say we packed up and got out as soon as we could!

A few months later and I was in a local pub when I bumped into Jack's dad. We had a beer and I mentioned the various weird things that had happened. He then explained how the property had originally belonged to his aunt and uncle, who he inherited it from when his aunt died. His uncle had died a few years earlier, after falling down the stairs and breaking his hip at the bottom. The bedroom he slept in with his wife was the same one Jack had while we were living there. Again, I have no way of confirming if this is true or just Jack's dad winding me up, but it would certainly explain why many of the incidents occurred in either the hallway, landing or stairs.

Thank you for listening. I would also like to say that while everything in this story is true I have changed the names of those involved, as it's not my place to involve them against their wishes.