It Followed Us

I will start with some of the incidents that have been most memorable to me. My mom and dad have been divorced since I was 3, so it was just my mom, sister and I who lived together.

I must have been about 12 when we moved into a rented ground floor flat (apartment). At first everything was great, then about maybe a year or more later we would hear banging, scratching and footsteps on the floor above us. The banging would start as soon as it got dark throughout the night until about dawn. Eventually my mom decided she needed to speak to the landlord about the noise as the flat above us was supposed to have been empty.

The landlord explained to my mom and us that no one is up there unless he went there which is only during the day to do renovations. He told us if we heard any noises again to call him no matter what time it was. (He and his family also lived on the property.) That same night, the banging and footsteps started again but much later around 11 pm.

My mom decided she will bang at the ceiling above so that whoever it was, would be aware that they were disturbing us (even though the landlord said there was no one living there). The noise stopped for a moment, then a loud thud, as if something fell over and someone or something scurried across above us. Everything was quiet and we went back to bed. A bit later it started again. Finally my mom decided to take a walk over to the landlord and explain what was going on. He came out and decided to go check; however, by then the noise stopped. He checked to see what was going on, just to come back and say no one was there.

This happened over and over again for the next months. We would keep complaining to the landlord and as time went by, he made it seem like we were making it up.

Eventually one weekend the landlord and his family went away and my mom was at work. My sister and I decided to do some investigating so off we went upstairs. Like the landlord said, no one lived there and he was doing major renovations. The floors were scraped up, the flat had no doors, no paint on the walls and some tools laying around on the floor. Guess the guy was telling us the truth. Also it could not have been anyone like a homeless person who could be seeking shelter at night as the property was secure and only tenants who were only us at the time could get in and out.

Well my sis and I looked around, found nothing of interest and left. That night it was just the 3 of us on the property. There were banging on our walls, knocking on the windows. Then we heard a loud bang at our door, like when someone bangs against a door. All three of us woke up to find the kitchen door slightly ajar (even though it was locked before we went to bed. In South Africa most houses, flats etc come with burglar guards on doors and windows). The burglar gate, however, was still locked. If someone had broken in, they would be very hard to miss. We locked things up, my mom lit some incense and we all prayed (we were very freaked out by now).

After that incident, strange things started happening, some of which us "kids" would get blamed for. Example, taps would be left running, cupboards would be open after we left them closed. Sounds like someone was walking around at night. Sometimes it would get a bit more strange, where it would seem like it was windy indoors.

Just a little background about us, we are Hindus (South African Indians) so we were religious. Each day we pray using our japa beads (Rosary). In time we started hearing someone who sounded like they were mimicking something similar to our prayer. It would go on for a hours at night. Eventually my sister and I would leave the radio on at night to block out the other noises while we slept.

My mom by then had found a boyfriend so they would hole up in her bedroom. My sis and I, on the other hand, would either sleep in our room or the lounge (note: by now 2 years have past since moving in). We had started to get used to the strange happenings.

One night I decided I was going to study in the dining room (we had a sleeper couch in there), so after studying I decided to just sleep there. I fell asleep just to be woken up by a voice which sounded like my sister calling my name... I woke to find a child who looked like my sister but much younger, but almost sinister in its demeanor saying my name. I was frozen with fear. All I could think was pray. I started praying and as I did that, its voice started to change to an old woman's voice. It then leaned in to my face, turned around and disappeared. Needless to say, I screamed, got my mom up, explained what happened. We all were terrified by then, because it seems that my sister had some experiences where something would stand next to her bed and kept saying her name. She used to hide under the blanket.

We eventually went to see a Hindu priestess, who told us that an evil entity was sent to us by someone who disliked us. We had to do a prayer and cut whatever ties that linked us to this thing. She never told us who would do such a thing to us, since what could a young single mother with two young daughters ever do to them? We did our prayer and decided it was time to move.

We moved to a house, life was getting better until one day we heard the talking sounds start all over again... Until next time! Thanks for taking the time to read my story. All comments welcome...