The Invisible Threat

Greetings, other ships on the sea that is the internet.

I have been reading many stories on this site all weekend. I must admit, a couple have hit close to my own experiences from my own life. Many others have driven into stories from people I know and trust in real life. Spooky stuff, I don't think we have scratched the surface yet.

Anyway, pushing the whole "we are tiny people" to one side, it is important that we each tell our real stories. Well, this is my biggest. It's not difficult to imagine where to begin; I'll naturally start at the beginning.

I'll start by admitting this much. I have always been a "believer" in the supernatural and the afterlife mixing with the current life. However, this story is very much likely an extreme direction into me believing this in the first place.

I will begin with the events through my eyes, then I will continue with the more methodical side of events after. If anything, it will hopefully show how I recall the situations, as well as any negate any possibilities I have considered. Please remember, I was very young at the time of testing said possibilities.

One of my earliest memories in life is in fact this very event. I was only four or five at the time (I'm 27 now). To be honest, I'm glad I can talk so very freely about it.

I remember waking early in the morning, shortly after sunbreak but before anybody else was up. At that time my family consisted of myself, my mother and father (in another room) and my sister in her cot.

Now, imagine from my point of view when looking at the outside world from my room. Looking at the open door there were three main directions. To the immediate right of the door was the bathroom, a single step and there you are, bathroom. To the front of the door (imagine, stepping forward) would be the stairs. With a window at the top half of the wall, they declined left. Finally, the upper hallway (which I have always called the corridor for the top floor) to my parents' room (in planning, parallel to mine) and my sister's room at the far end of the hallway.

Waking up at what I could imagine was the strike of dawn; I heard the loo gurgling with splutters of water and the churning of its pipes. Now on its own, that is nothing scary. In fact, if anyone told me this story on that fact alone, I would dismiss within an instance. None the less, stuff (inserts four letter swearword beginning with S here) happened.

At that point in my life, I slept with my door wide open. I could clearly see the hallway and the stairs. If anyone was to use the bathroom, I would see them enter/exit. I heard the gurgling of water and pipes in the bathroom. The same sounds I had grown accustomed to for the use of the loo (toilet, for the non UK readers) however, even then it seemed like a strange usage of the loo. The gurgles and churns of the handle sounded forced, like someone would throw their entire weight on the handle. When this occurred, I snuck to the foot of my bed sheets and hid like a snail would in her shell, waiting for my father to emerge from bathroom.

However, even as I recall these events, two things stuck strongly in my mind. Firstly, I heard nobody go to the bathroom, nor did I see anybody. Now, this is excusable for one fact. Naturally (not always the case, my current house can flag this one!) a bathroom has a window (this one had two frosted ones) and the sunlight hit those windows at that point in the morning. However, even that young, I learnt when the bathroom door was shut, the light could not get through (sneaky nights of watching adults move in their strange world at that age!). So, how was it that the morning sun was able to shine just outside my door when it came from the bathroom windows?

If this was a one off event, there would be no story. Unfortunately, this happened very frequently. If memory serves, no less than twice a fortnight.

If this was the one and only event, I would blame the plumbing, however, there was more to come. If you expected me to see something, I'm afraid you will leave very disappointed. These shuffles of the bathroom plumbing system would happen often in the early hours. Likely just before or after sunrise. But, that was not the extent of the situation.

When the first set of "bathroom events" happened, I snuggled in my duvet like a small caterpillar waiting for either my mother or father. The first time, I wanted to yell out that I caught them before breakfast.

I waited, my head poking from my cover as I watched my bedroom doorway. I heard footsteps from the bathroom, but only a few. They stopped. However, nothing was there. Instead, I felt an unwarranted feel of dread and fear. I saw nothing, but I felt like a person stopped in his steps and turned to look at me. I felt his yellow (as I imagine them) eyes glare at me and search me. Even once I learnt not to play "BOO!" to my parents, this feeling would come. I closed my doors and again, once the gurgling and spitting sounds of the bathroom were over, the feeling of dread and fear came. Even at such a young age, I knew and felt the invisible look.

To confirm my fears, sometimes I woke up at dark (I cannot state a time, as a child, I had no clock!) and heard whispers. I recall sneaking down the stairs to watch TV halfway from the stairs as a child. There is a major difference between TV sounds and the whispers I heard. TV sounds I could pin point and locate within the house, as with any sound. However, the whispers, I can only describe them as similar to having a song stuck in your head. Especially a song where you do not know the lyrics. The sounds come through, but the words are malformed. These voices never happened during an "event" but would happen a lot either shortly after, or before.

Yes, I expressed my accounts to my parents. My mother, who is Christian, believes in no more than what she has been taught. My father, who holds no particular beliefs, dismissed the whole thing as imagination. Despite their reassurance, I know what I heard, felt and experienced.

Throughout my thinking, I have always tackled things with a methodical sense. I will try one idea, cross it off and move on. Now, this idea is great in the business world, but, in the world of a child, I still lead of possibilities. I even went to the trouble (and yes, I got into trouble many times because of this) to test our loo. Not only the flushing mechanics, but I also lifted the heavy (at the time) block that covered the toilet's mechanics. The only sound that came close came from the wriggling of the large bulb bit in the loo. Flushing did not even come close to the sounds I heard.

However, it seems that I was not the only one to experience this. Not so long ago, my youngest sister (not born at the time of these events!) approached me and asked me, "In your old room, did you ever hear things..." She described word for word my account. Of course I answered yes and confirmed her account to mine.

These were not the only things that occurred in our home. Countless times we would hear footsteps (I say we, because both myself and my youngest sister were aware of them) around the house and in the attic. Whispers could be heard from time to time, but with no apparent owner.

I am much older now and no longer live there, but I personally believe that the door to all the possibilities of the supernatural opened for me on that day. Since then, I seem to have developed a keen (but not always willing) sense for haunting. It's almost like sonar in my head that bounces through the rooms I walk in and picks up feelings of something there. As you can imagine, I don't trot this news out for parties. However, those who I have told have confirmed that I was correct.

Thank you for reading.